In a way, he supposed he had.
“Okay Ollie,” Nolan said. “It’s time for you to go home. Try not get caught in any more fishing nets. But don’t worry if you do, because I’ll come rescue you again, okay? We’re friends for life now.”
He opened the cage up, giving Ollie space to get away.
Ollie took a moment to sniff the air, shuffling forward a few paces cautiously, and then finally stepping out of the cage.
The moment he saw the river, he ran for it, jumping in with a splash.
Nolan laughed, watching him go for long moments. He didn’t start packing up the cage until Ollie had swum well and truly out of sight, around the bend in the river, going back to his little otter life as though the last few weeks had just been a weird vacation.
“Bittersweet, huh?” Finn said. “You wanna see ‘em happy, but you get attached.”
“Yeah,” Nolan said, shifting just a little closer to Finn’s side. “I guess it’s always like this, huh?”
“It is with the sweet ones. Sometimes you’ll get an aggressive one, and it’s not so bad to know it’ll never bite you again. But yeah, it’s mostly… like this. Nice to have company doing it. Takes the sting out.”
“Even if company still needs to work on earning forgiveness?” Nolan asked.
“Consider yourself forgiven,” Finn said, knowing it was true. All he’d wanted was an apology.
It was slowly occurring to him that Nolan had picked him. Over Gavin, over his safe job and his safe life.
The risk he’d taken seemed big to Finn, so it must have been huge to Nolan.
And he’d taken it anyway.
Finn would have had to be an idiot to throw someone like Nolan away over one fight. One fight someoneelsecaused.
“Just like that?” Nolan asked, echoing Finn’s surprise from earlier.
“Just like that,” Finn agreed, closing the remaining distance between them with one stride. “I don’t wanna lose you. Not when I just found you.”
Nolan looked up at him, pretty pink tongue darting out to wet his lips, and Finn couldn’t help himself.
He reached out, tilting Nolan’s chin up with one knuckle, just barely holding him in place. As he leaned in to kiss him, a smile spread over Finn’s face. Joy bloomed in his chest, warm and soft.
The tiny, needy sound Nolan made when their lips touched went straight to the pit of Finn’s stomach, making him step closer so there was barely an inch between them, the heat of Nolan’s body seeping into his skin even through their clothes.
“I meant what I said,” he murmured against Nolan’s lips, pecking him on the nose before claiming his mouth again, just barely brushing the seam with his tongue. Half tease, half promise.
“I love you,” he added, because it was true, and Nolan didn’t need to be ready to say it yet. Not if he didn’t want to. Finn could love him enough for the both of them.
“I love you too,” Nolan responded almost before Finn had finished that thought. “I kinda yelled it at Gavin, so… I guess you should know as well.”
Finn laughed softly, happiness welling up in his chest and making his lungs feel tight. Who needed to breathe when he could be loved?
Loved by someone whogothim. Who’d been impossibly brave for him. Who’d been willing to change his entirelifefor him.
He’d always known Nolan was a good choice. From the moment he met him, he’d known there was more to him than a shy, awkward nerd who looked uncomfortable in a suit.
Now he had all the proof he could ever want.
“Does this mean we’re going crappy apartment hunting someday?” Nolan asked, soft and breathless.
Finn snorted, remembering what he’d said about how he’d imagined their future.
He still imagined it like that. The thought that he might actually get tohaveit was enough to make his head hurt with excitement.
