When Vince pulls out the crate I make grabby hands, practically foaming at the mouth to get my reward for surviving the worst lunch in history. He hesitates before he passes it over to me, looking at me expectantly. After he doesn’t say anything, I prompt him to spit it out so I can leave.
“Was there something else?”
He smirks, and honestly, after seeing it so much over the last hour I want to smack it off his face. “No kiss?”
Soren’s hand tightens on my shoulder, but when I step forward he reluctantly peels his fingers off of me. I walk right up to Vince who’s full on grinning, adjusting his grip on the crate to hold it as his hip.
“Nope.”
I snatch the crate from his now loose grip and skip back to Soren who is openly laughing. He falls into step behind me and opens the door to the backseat of my SUV so I can slide the crate onto the seat. I buckle my beautiful babies in and pat the lid before climbing into the driver’s seat.
“I stand by my decision that we should have just done that from the beginning. And you shouldn’t have paid for me,” Soren growls as he climbs into the passenger seat.
I snort. “It was the least I could do after subjecting you to that horror. Really, it was awkward as hell. Is dating always that terrible? If so, we need to come up with some sort of signal or codeword for when it’s time to sneak out the bathroom window.”
He huffs out a laugh as I pull out onto the street, heading towards home. The only money I get is from running the gauntlets, so the rest of my time is spent taking care of Elias and the house, running errands, or training. I’m sure Soren will get bored soon enough, but at least his job will be easy.
“I wouldn’t know,” he replies smoothly, “but I think it’s more a matter of the company than the date itself.” I hum my agreement.
We unload the car and I have a brief moment of anxiety. I need to put away my new weapons, but a dragon is protective of their hoard. Him seeing my Legos didn’t set off the same reaction and I’m not sure if it’s because my brothers were home and I was more relaxed, or if it’s because I don’t want to divulge my hiding spots. It was clear he didn’t have an interest in those, but weapons? Those he might want for himself.
As if he can sense my sudden nerves, he politely excuses himself to the bathroom, giving me time to put things away in private. I know I’m being ridiculous, but to be fair, I don’t really know him. I feel at ease around him, but for all I know he could be a serial killer.
That’s not sexy, shut up vagina.
Or he could be faking the whole gentleman persona to get close to me. I dismiss that thought as soon as I think it though, because it doesn’t feel right in the slightest. I’ve spent the last decade listening to my gut and it hasn’t led me astray yet.
Soren finds me as I’m starting the laundry and he grabs a basket to help despite my protests. “I’m already underpaying you to be my shadow, you don’t need to help me with the chores too. I’d feel bad. You can go watch TV or whatever and if someone breaks into the house, go ninja on their ass or something.”
He ignores me, taking a basket down to the basement anyway. I throw the first load in and swap out what’s in the dryer because with five people, the laundry never ends. It’s a perpetual thorn in my side that will haunt me until the day I die. Laundry and dishes; the banes of my existence.
We settle into the living room as I start sorting out and folding clothes. He tries to help, but doesn’t have the faintest idea what belongs to which triplet since they’re all the same size and gives up quickly.
“So, why Hadeon? Of all the places you could have moved to when you came to this country, what drew you here?”
He starts straightening up instead, uncomfortable just sitting there while I work. I try not to find it charming watching this giant straightening the pillows on the couch, but it’s an effort in futility.
“Started asking around when we got to the coast about popular cities and where’s had the most unrest. Cross referenced against a map and was able to find a trend of high crime areas, then scratched off the popular cities as well. It left several pockets and we went to the closest, got a feel for the town, and then moved onto the next when we didn’t like it. This is the fifteenth town we’ve tried settling in since we arrived,” he explains.
I can’t even imagine moving around half that much. “What was wrong with the towns you left if they had low crime rates? Not enough women for your liking?”
He turns to face me, his grey eyes radiating sadness. “Nothing like that, little dragon. The world is a cruel place and we’ve been hunting for a place that feels like home for a long time. People here are kind, peaceful. In a few of the towns, men are much more openly hostile to newbloods, preferring to close their borders to outsiders. Some, we just didn’t mesh well with the belief systems of most of the residents and preferred to move on. But primarily, the towns just didn’t feel like a place we could settle in long term and be happy.”
He grabs a stack of now folded clothes and follows me as we start putting things away in the triplets’ rooms. We return to the basement to switch loads again and repeat, this time with mine and Elias’ clothes on the coffee table.
“Hadeon may be boring, but it sounds like I’ve taken that for granted. Other cities are really that bad?”
My clothes are much more distinguishable, so he sits down to help me this time. “Not all of them, but you don’t need to worry about those things, little dragon. Tell me,” he chirps happier, clearly changing the subject, “you said you’ll be training with your brothers tomorrow. Does that mean you won’t need me?”
I try to hide my disappointment. “I suppose you’re right, I’ll just be hanging out in the back yard with them for most of the day. I’m sure you have plenty of things you need to do, I can’t expect you to just stop having your own life to follow me around.”
He’s quiet for so long I turn to look at him, only to find him smirking. Unlike Vince, the look is a good one on Soren; not smug, just devilishly amused.
“I have an errand to run, but after that perhaps I’ll stop by and see just what sort of training they put you through? As you pointed out,someoneneeds to show me the ropes if I want any hope of beating you in the next race,” he teases.
I try to hide my excitement, but I’m pretty sure he already saw my eyes light up at the prospect. “It’s a date.”
