As the dining room continued to fill up, Aspen’s hope began to dwindle. They were finally asked by a server if there was anything else they needed, and they gave up their seat to a grinning couple who looked overjoyed to be sharing a Belgian waffle together.
Right outside of the dining area was a modestly sized seating area. No one was there, probably all still asleep or eating breakfast, so Aspen and Charlie posted up on a love seat facing the entrance. Aspen genuinely tried not to fidget, but they couldn’t have lasted more than five minutes before they began tapping their feet back and forth. Charlie gently took their hand, opening up their fingers so he could place his worry stone in the palm of their hand.
“Oh, I… You don’t have to?—”
Charlie closed his hand around Aspen’s and the stone and ran his thumb over one side of the stone while encouraging Aspen to do the same.
They sat there like that, with no sense of time, until finally Charlie stiffened beside them. Aspen glanced around and spotted Noah walking towards the dining hall, his shoulders slumped and his head down. Aspen hadn’t seen him looking that dejected since he’d come home from his parents’ house the previous summer. He hadn’t even looked that bad at Christmas, maybe because he was coming back to Aspen—or that’s what they liked to think, at least.
Aspen jumped up made a beeline for him, Charlie right on their heels.
“Sorry, excuse m—” Noah tried to say, going to step around Aspen, but they reached out and grabbed his shoulders.
He glanced up in frustration, which clearly turned to surprise, and then, faster than Aspen had ever seen, he burst into tears.
“Oh, babe. Come here,” Aspen said, gathering him up in their arms. Charlie wrapped a strong arm around them both and led them back over to the couches. Aspen tried to sit down, but they sort of collapsed, bringing Noah down with them, and he ended up sitting in Aspen’s lap.
While this was far from their norm, Aspen found they didn’t mind it at all, and when Noah made no move to adjust, Charlie sat down heavily next to them.
“Hi, peanut,” Charlie said, wiping a tear off Noah's cheek. Noah quickly scrubbed his hands down his face, and Aspen kissed away the remaining tear still clinging to his jaw.
“What are y–you doing here?” he hiccupped. “Did you…get my messages?”
“Of course we did, babe, how else would we have known that you came out early? And that your mother so rudely uninvited me.”
Aspen had been aiming for light and teasing, but by the end, their voice just sounded tired.
A few fresh tears rolled down Noah’s cheeks. “I’m so sorry, Asp. I regretted as soon as I agreed, and every second since. I should have just said we’re in a romantic relationship and fought harder to have you here. I just…froze and keep freezing. Last night I was trying to find the words to argue with her over dinner. I kept wanting to call you my partner, but I didn’t know if that’s what you wanted, and god knows the second I give my mom an inch she’s going to take a mile.”
Charlie rubbed the back of Noah’s neck, and Aspen nuzzled their face against his shoulder. “I don’t really care about titles, but if you need to have one to feel more certain about us, and to fight for us? We can go with partner.”
Noah grimaced and leaned his head back into Charlie’s touch. “I just…feel like I’m lying somehow? To…to myself and to everyone else if I keep acting like our relationship is this standard thing. It doesn’t feel standard to me—which is amazing, and how I know that I’ve finally found what I’ve always wanted, and needed.”
“What does it feel like?” Charlie asked. “Tell us what you want from us, and we can do the same. Once we’re all in agreement, then we can figure out titles for the outside world, but that’s sort of the least important part of all this.”
Noah’s smile was watery as he gazed at first Charlie, and then Aspen. “Being with both of you feels like…winning the lottery, and getting a new home out of it. Like I am the luckiest person in the world for getting to spend my–my life with both of you.”
Charlie nodded. “Say more about what home looks like for you.”
Noah’s face scrunched up. “Well…it’s with the two of you, I hope? Although I know you like being out at the shelter, and Aspen really likes being in the city, so…maybe it’s…two homes?” At Charlie’s nod, Noah continued. “Maybe Aspen and I live together in the city, and we come out to visit you multiple times a week, and you come into the city whenever you’re comfortable with it to hang out with our friends and maybe go to some of the quieter events at the Rainbow Bean?”
“Oh!” Aspen exclaimed, wiggling excitedly under Noah. “I read about this in one of Blair’s polyamorous books! It’s called being a…oh shit, now I can’t remember the exact name. I think it’s a bird partner?”
Hm, was that right? At the expression both Noah and Charlie were making, they weren’t entirely sure.
“Do you mean…a nesting partner?” Noah asked.
Aspen squinted, trying to conjure up the page in the book they’d read all those months ago. “That does sound bird-like, but I really want to say it might be a bird partner.”
Noah nuzzled his nose into Aspen’s hair. “Leaving the actual name aside for a minute, what does it mean?”
“It’s the partner you live with and sort of build your life with, which comes with a lot of the more of the standard relationship things, like figuring out finances, chores, grocery shopping, cooking etcetera, but it’s not standard in that it doesn’t necessarily mean that the bird partner is more important than your other partners, it's sort of a practical thing?”
“So…it’s the partner you build a nest with,” Noah said, a slow grin spreading across his lips.
“Yeah, like birds build nests. I thought we’d already covered that.”
“Oh, pumpkin,” Charlie said, placing a sweet kiss on their cheek. “Please never change.”
