Emory scarcely remembered hearing those words on New Year's Eve. He hadn’t remembered them long enough to look them up, but he assumed it was a species of octopus.
“I’m a, uhm…coconut octopus,” Cameron said.
A memory of an adorable octopus hiding inside a coconut shell immediately came to mind. The image looked strange, though. It wasn’t like looking through glass at an aquarium, which was how Emory usually saw octopuses. Instead, it was like he remembered peering at it through goggles.
“That’s the kind that likes to live in coconut shells, right? They—I mean,you—like to form dens with them and… Aren’t you one of the smartest octopus species? You can use tools and camouflage yourself, and you build cities with?—”
“Pretty things and coconut shells, yeah,” Cameron said, his blush intensifying.
Emory grinned widely at him. “Is that why you like pretty clothes?”
Cameron rolled his eyes. “I don’t know. I don’t tend to think our inner animal determinesthatmuch about us but…it definitely is why I like to—” He gestured at the pile of clothes he had been hiding in. “It’s also why I’m sort of obsessed with coconut shells. My parents had to stop keeping them in the house because I spent half my childhood running around naked, wearing them on my head, or shifting and hiding in them. I once hid for almost a full day. Scared the shit out of them,” Cameron said with a soft laugh.
“Why don’t you keep them around now?” Emory asked, grabbing for the shell. Cameron clung to it for a moment but then released it, his hands flopping down into his lap.
Emory examined the shell before placing it on Cameron’s head. Cameron let out a startled huff and reached up to adjust it.
“When I left home, I was dead set on having coconut shells in my dorm room, no matter what my parents thought was best, but my octopus would make me strip naked and hang out in my dorm with just the coconut shell on my head, and my roommates got tired of it real fast.”
A loud, surprised laugh exploded out of Emory’s chest, reverberating around the closet. He was thankful this wasn’t yet another thing Thomas had ruined for his mate. Cameron smiled softly, tipping his head down, causing the shell to flop over his eyes.
“You are quite possibly the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Oh, honey, I love you so much. You’re perfect,” Emory said, emotions overflowing in his chest and leaking out of his eyes as more obnoxious tears.
Cameron peered up at him from under the edge of the shell. “Why are you crying again?”
Emory shook his head and pulled Cameron back into a hug. “I’m just overwhelmed, honey. That’s all.”
Cameron’s fingers tangled in Emory’s jacket. “Overwhelmed…by me?”
Emory wrapped his arms tightly around Cameron, crushing him to his chest.
“I could never be overwhelmed by you. Just by my love for you–and this rather awful week if I’m being honest.”
Cameron squirmed, and for just a moment, Emory considered never letting go. He just wanted to hold his beautiful mate in his arms for the rest of their lives and never have to leave the safety of the dim closet.
When Cameron squirmed again, he finally let go, and Cameron pulled the coconut shell off his head, setting it aside. He hesitated, his fingers skimming over Emory’s letterman jacket and then over his discarded underwear.
Emory’s back gave a very insistent twinge, and he accepted that they’d probably had more than enough floor time for the day. He grabbed the jacket, Cameron’s clothes, and the coconut shells and led Cameron out to the bedroom.
He placed the items and his sweet omega on the bed and decided to ignore his back for a few more minutes. His lionchuffed happily as Emory kneeled down in front of Cameron and slowly dragged his panties up his slim legs. Cameron eyed him, a swirl of emotions clouding his crystal blue eyes.
Before Emory could reach for the rest of his clothes, Cameron grabbed the letterman jacket and pulled it around his shoulders. Emory brought the coconut shells over to his suitcase to delicately pack them inside. When he turned around, he found Cameron in tears again.
“Oh, honey…”
“They were so mean to me,” Cameron sobbed, and Emory let his alpha instincts kick in. He sat down next to Cameron and swept him up in his arms, pulling him firmly onto his lap.
“I know.”
“I-I tried to be nice. I even tried to be c-confident, like your m-mom said. But… they were just so mean,” Cameron sobbed, and Emory’s lion cried right along with him.
Emory had never seen Cameron cry like this before. Through some of their toughest conversations about Thomas, Cameron had only shed a few angry tears, and he never shed a single tear over his biological parents. This week, he’d seen Cameron cry more than in the entirety of their relationship.
“I know, my love, I know. I’m so unbelievably sorry I didn’t protect you.”
Cameron clutched Emory’s letterman jacket around himself, his arms shaking with the force of his grip. “I thought if I could get through it, they’d say what they wanted to say but vote yes, and we could go home. But…then Ronan and I walked in, and I heard what Leslie was saying about my gender, my family, and my fertility, and… I’m sorry. I really tried to hold it together for you and your mom, but?—”
“Shh, it’s okay, love,” Emory said, not even trying to temper his use of the new endearment. He was madly in love with Cameron, and he was going to say it as much as he damn wellpleased. “You have absolutely nothing to apologize for. It was on us to protect you, and we didn’t, and I’m so,sosorry. We will find out how she overheard that conversation with my mother in the first place, and something will be done about it, I promise.”
