“Oh, gods,” Iyana gasped, covering her mouth with her hand.She looked over at Emmeric.Then she lowered her hand and giggled.Once she started, it seemed she couldn’t stop.Emmeric frowned down at her as she doubled over, her giggles turning into full-blown laughter.Tears rolled down her face.
“It’s not funny,” Emmeric said to her.
“Itis, though,” she said in between peals of laughter.“You have to tell them.If you don’t, I will.”But they’d have to wait, because Iyana started giggling again.Emmeric crossed his arms and frowned.
“Damn,” Kaz said.“This really isn’t fair-this mind link thing you two have going on.I wanna know!”
“Ditto!”Talon exclaimed.“Tell us, Smalls!”
“Fine!”Emmeric yelled.“Fine.”The man was fully pouting.Even Zane cracked a smile.
Emmeric opened his mouth, closed it again.Sighed.“When I was a kid, I had a habit of leaving my window open no matter what the weather was.I always ran hot, and I enjoyed the breeze that would come through.Anyway, one night, I woke up because it felt like I was being tickled.Sometimes my mom would wake me up like this in the mornings for school, but when I opened my eyes, it was still dark.I was confused, so I lit the candle by bed and then I—”
Iyana was trying extremely hard to be serious, but another giggle escaped from her lips.Emmeric glared at her.
“I looked down, and my bed was full of dark green toads.They were all moving and hopping over me.I screamed, and my parents came running in.But they only laughed at me while I cried and the toads crawled all over me.They finally cleared them out, then two days later they painted a giant mural of a toad on my wall as a joke.They painted over it again immediately after I started sobbing and refused to sleep in my room.I think they just didn’t want me in their bed.”
“That’s it?”Talon asked.“That’swhy you hate the color green?”
Emmeric nodded, and Talon burst into laughter, clutching at his stomach as he doubled over.
“This is why I never told you, you asshole.”
“Is this also why you always made me close the window at night?”he managed to wheeze.
When he didn’t answer, Kaz, Zane, and Iyana all joined Talon in their laughter.Emmeric sat there watching them with his arms crossed, a deep frown on his face.This was the most any of them had laughed in quite a while, and Zane relished the levity of the conversation.
When they had calmed down, Kaz wiped a tear from her eye and looked at Talon.“I know you followed our favorite grumpy pants into the military, so if it weren’t for him, what would you have done with your life?”
Talon sighed wistfully.“I had great ambitions of being a dancer in the Great Athusan Ballet.I almost made it, too.There were try-outs, and my instructor was going to put in a good word for me, but then Em enlisted and I couldn’t let him do that alone.”
Zane had no idea that Talon had once been so passionate about dancing.He didn’t think he’d ever seen the man dance once, but, then again, soldiers didn’t have many opportunities to go to balls.
“Stop lying, you jerk, and tell them the truth,” Emmeric said.“Iyana is over here thinking about eviscerating me because I stole your dream or some shit.”
“I really wish you weren’t in my head,” Iyana said.
Emmeric finally smirked at her.“Then stop thinking such interesting things.”
Iyana stuck her tongue out at him.
“So, what were you actually going to do?”Zane asked Talon.
Tal waved his hand.“Nothing exciting, just getting into the family business.”
“Which was?”
“My parents are chandlers.Honestly, this was for the best.I hated having wax in my hair all the time, and the strong scents for some of the candles would trigger an allergic reaction.”
“Sometimes he’d have to come stay at my house for a few days, otherwise his lips would swell up like he’d been stung by a wasp.”
Talon grinned.“Good times.”Godsdamn, it really was amazing to see Talon with a genuine smile on his face.
“What about you?”Tal asked Kaz.“What would you have done if you weren’t a princess?”
“Oh, that’s easy.I’d join the circus.”
“Wait, are you serious?”Iyana asked, grinning.
