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Bruiser snorted. “I’ll hang off your back end, yeah.”

The mage rolled his eyes and swung his leg over the broom, sitting his tight ass on its cushioned seat. He kicked off and hovered at Bruiser’s eye level; with both hands, Bruiser grasped the bit of broom just behind Uriel’s seat, and the broom jerked upward.

“Ugh, you’re heavy,” Uriel said.

“Can’t help being all muscle, sorry.”

“If you were all muscle, you would’ve flopped over because there are no bones in your body.”

“I have a bone. A big one.”

They were soaring into the sky now; Uriel looked back at Bruiser in disbelief. “Are you trying to flirt with me? Because it’s not working.”

“Good,” Bruiser said, his stomach squirming in that strange way again.

“One bone,” Uriel said, shaking his head. “It’s actually the stick up your ass.”

“Hey!”

“Hush, I’m flying.”

“You don’t need your ears to fly.”

“I’ll drop you,” Uriel growled.

He wouldn’t, if only because they were both serious about the mission. Maybe he would drop Bruiser once things were properly wrapped up. Whatever.

“So how do you plan on doing this?” Bruiser asked, since it was Uriel’s spells at play.

The mage shrugged. “Some recon to locate the hostiles, take them out, and call the cops. They’ll handle the victims like we’d all agreed to yesterday.”

They spent the next few minutes discussing the plan. On this, at least, they could be professional with each other.

When they were nearing the facility, Bruiser chewed his lip and finally blurted the question that had been weighing on him.

“Is she going to be okay?”

Uriel eyed him. “Who?”

“You’re just trying to make this hard for me,” Bruiser muttered.

“You make everything hard,” Uriel retorted.

Bruiser smirked. “That’s what he said.”

“Fuck off.”

“Now your potty mouth’s coming back out.”

“I’ll show you ‘potty mouth’,” Uriel growled.

Bruiser sighed and released one of the hands gripping Uriel’s broom, punching the mage lightly on his calf. “C’mon. Is the kid going to be okay all by herself?”

Uriel eyed him. “You actually care about her?”

“Considering that I’m taking time off my vacation to rescue people...” Bruiser rolled his eyes. “Yes, okay? I don’t want to go back to that cabin and find out that she’s hurt somehow.”

Uriel scowled. “She’ll be fine.”