Nine
Zamir
The view from thecliff's edge was mesmerizing. It wasn't quite as expansive as the view from Nolan's back, but it was no less beautiful. City lights twinkled in the distance, but the valley beneath the cliff was dark, though I'd seen a few animals amble past. Two deer, a bear, and even a big cat of some kind.
The night was the right side of chill, with a cool breeze blowing past every once in a while, carrying with it the scent of pine, grass, and various furry critters.
Nolan pulled out a bottle of red wine and two wine glasses, catching my attention, and I took the glasses as he poured ample wine into both.
"I made it, so it has a bit of a kick to it," he said, and I smiled as I took a sip.
"Oh, it's delicious."
"Thank you."
"How exactly do you make them? The drinks I had that night were strong," I said, making him chuckle.
"Mostly, I add my fire to the drinks. I discovered it by accident once when someone requested a flaming cocktail, and I used my dragon fire because we were swarmed, and the guy asking was a supe. This was back when I was working at a bar in New York, years before I moved here. The supe came back a few minutes later asking for another drink, and I gave him a normal one and he practically spat it back. After arguing for five minutes about whether or not the drink was exactly the same, I realized my fire had done something to it. So I made another drink with my fire, and, well, he loved it."
I shook my head, chuckling as I imagined the scene. I could very well see an annoyed Nolan insisting it was the same drink, only to be proven wrong.
"I'm glad you figured it out. It's nice to be able to get drunk sometimes," I said as I thought about how I'd gotten hammered that night. I'd been moping about my lack of a mate, and ironically, it'd led me straight to him.
"It is," Nolan agreed as he sipped his wine, and Dots meowed in agreement. "You can let him out now."
"What if he runs off into the woods?" I asked, wary about the thick trees at our back. He could get lost in there, or some bigger animal could grab him.
"He won't. And if he does, I'll find him," Nolan assured me, and I sighed. With great hesitation, I unstrapped Dots and placed him on my lap.
He stood there for a moment, his eyes steady as his nose moved, sniffing this way and that. Once he'd scented everything he possibly could without moving an inch, he curled up in my lap, rested his chin on my thigh, and went to sleep.
"See?" Nolan said with a soft chuckle, and I shook my head.
"Fucking adorable," I mumbled, and Nolan smiled as he pulled out an insulated container. The scent of cheese and herbs filled the air as he opened it, revealing creamy pasta that made my mouth water.
Next, he removed two ceramic plates and steel forks from the basket, and split the pasta between both before handing one to me.
"Did you make this? It smells delicious," I said as I gathered some up on my fork, and Nolan nodded.
The taste of herbs burst onto my tongue, the cheese softening some of their sharpness, and I resisted the urge to moan. Jacinta would kill me if I said this in front of them, but Nolan might have been the best cook I'd ever met.
Jacinta prided themselves over their culinary skills, and more often than not, they cooked the food we ate at the Sanctuary, their eight tentacles moving in sync with their two human-esque hands as they did the work of four people all on their own. They could be snarky sometimes, and it'd taken them a while to accept the recent human additions, but all in all, they were a wonderful person and chef.
As we ate, I asked Nolan about history. Where had he been when the first modern Olympic tournament had been held in Greece? Did he ever meet Einstein? What about Hitler? Which was his favorite historical event to witness?
He answered all my questions with aplomb, his lips curved with amusement, his answers varied and fascinating: He'd been in the audience; No, but he did meet Einstein's wife, who was much smarter, in his opinion; Yes, and he almost ripped that mustache off his face before a friend reminded him he couldn't meddle in human affairs. He still would've if the man wasn't so closely watched; Gutenberg's invention and modification of the printing press that led to books and knowledge becoming more widely available than ever before.
I found his answers fascinating, not because of the content, but because of what it said about him. It hadn't taken me long to figure out Nolan was a good man, and this was more proof of that.
I was nowhere near done with my questions, though, and as we finished our pasta and switched to the slices of chocolate cake that he'd also made, I asked a more personal question.
"What do you like doing for fun?"
Nolan's eyes flicked to Dots, who still dozed in my lap, and he smiled. "Playing with my fur children." Why did it make me smile every time he called his pets his 'fur children?' "I also read, crochet, knit. I tried woodworking and pottery, but those weren't for me. I like my hobbies to be stationary, I suppose."
"Old man," I teased, making him laugh.
"What about you?"
