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"It's okay. It's not like this is the first time we're doing this," I said as he closed the distance between us. Back in the demon realm, we'd spent quite a few nights curled up together. It'd never been romantic in nature—or, rather, we'd never spoken about it in those terms—but the nights I'd spent with Ryk curled around me were the nights I'd slept the best.
"True. But it is the first time since we officially started dating," Ryk murmured, and I glanced down at him. His red hair still shone softly in the dark, and as my eyes roamed over his face, I wondered when exactly I'd fallen for him.
Even though we'd only just discovered our mate bond, I didn't think my feelings for him were recent. They'd been brewing for a long time, simmering softly just outside my conscious thought until the discovery of the mate bond sent them spilling over.
I wondered if my feelings for Nico and Dakota would grow to be just as strong, or if I'd love them all in different ways. Other than Nico, I'd never dated anyone, and even in that relationship we'd quickly realized we didn't work. Not without Ryk, and now Dakota. Weirdly enough, I didn't feel like that with Ryk, though. Did that mean I loved Ryk more? Or just that my feelings for Ryk were more developed? I did spend the majority of my time with him, after all.
"What are you thinking about?" Ryk murmured as he wrapped his arm around my torso, and I exhaled softly before pulling him close, much to Moon's dismay. The cat stood up, stretched, and crawled over to my pillow before curling up again, making Ryk chuckle.
"Nothing. Let's get some sleep," I said, and he hummed softly before snuggling close.
I fell asleep soon after, and slept soundlessly until something woke me up.
It took me a few moments to realize it was the lack of warmth beside me that'd woken me up, and I wondered where Ryk was. Had he decided to paint again? He did have a habit of painting at the weirdest of times after all.
The sound of a conversation on the floor below caught my ear, and I focused on it, curious who else was up at this hour.
"You really enjoy painting at night, don't you?" Dakota asked, and I blinked, surprised. Why was he awake at this hour?
"Yeah, I do."
"Any particular reason why?"
"It just makes it more fun, I guess. I can't tell what half of these colors are in the dark, but I'm using them anyway. I'll only discover what the painting looks like in the morning, and that makes it more exciting," Ryk explained with his usual enthusiasm, and I couldn't help smiling.
"That actually sounds really fun. Can I see what it looks like then?" Dakota asked, and I could almost hear the smile in his voice. He found Ryk just as adorable as I did, didn't he?
Listening to those two chat filled my chest with warmth, and I closed my eyes as I kept eavesdropping with zero hesitation—Ryk knew full well Nico and I would be able to hear them if we were awake, so the only person truly in the dark was Dakota, and this was the least damaging of the things we were hiding from him.
I didn't know when exactly I fell asleep, but sometime after I did, Ryk must've returned to bed, because when I woke up the next morning, the bed was empty, but the sheets were stained with paint.
Shaking my head, I used a little bit of magic to get rid of the paint so Nico wouldn't scold Ryk. Even though he could clean it just as easily, for some reason Nico enjoyed doing chores the human way, and neither I nor Ryk were brave enough to challenge him.
"Star! Breakfast's ready!" Dakota called from downstairs, and I was glad I hadn't focused my hearing on them or he would've given me a headache with how loud he was. If I were human, I wouldn't have heard him otherwise, so I didn't blame him. I couldn't wait for the day we told him the truth, though. I didn't like hiding such an important part of myself—and Ryk and Nico—from him.
Fifteen
Nico
We spent Sunday at home, and I talked more than I probably had in the last decade.
When Dakota discovered that none of us were familiar with the board games he loved so much, he brought out a whole bunch of them and spent the rest of the day teaching us how to play them.
Ryk and I caught on a bit more quickly than Star, but by the time evening rolled around, we'd all turned into semi-decent players. Playing the games had also shown me new sides of my partners that I'd never seen before.
Dakota, I'd discovered, had an infinite amount of patience. He'd explained the rules no less than three times when Star couldn't figure them out, and he had done it all with a smile on his face and not an ounce of annoyance.
I'd known Ryk could get competitive sometimes, but I hadn't realized how bad he could get until we started playing. It was fun to compete with him, though, because as much as he wanted to win, he didn't cheat.
Star, on the other hand, had tried to use magic to win a couple of times, but I'd stopped him before he could. I could tell he was a little flustered about not getting the rules, though, so I'd let him win anyway to boost him up a little. The tiny grin on his face when he'd won had been totally worth it.
Now it was Monday, though, and Dakota had left for work a couple of hours ago.
"Candy, Moon, it's food time!" I called as I placed their food bowls on opposite sides of the room since Candy had a habit of trying to steal Moon's food.
While Candy hadn't warmed up to the others yet, she'd started allowing me to pet her sometimes, probably because I was the one who gave her food every day.
"I want to be friends with her too! How do I win her over?" Ryk asked, startling me. I hadn't even noticed him come into the kitchen.
