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"Uh, I don't think I did..." Dakota mumbled, and I could see a blush on his cheeks. If he had truly said it, he was braver than me. I'd realized a while ago I loved them, but I hadn't been able to put my feelings into words.
"You did! You said," Ryk started, then cleared his throat and pressed his fingers to his throat. "As much as I love you all, I think I'd get tired of doing nothing at some point," he repeated, using his magic to do a perfect imitation of Dakota's voice.
Dakota blinked, looking stumped. "Oh. I guess I did," he murmured, then stuffed a whole piece of toast into his mouth, making Ryk laugh.
"Don't worry. I won't ask you to repeat it. But since the topic came up, I love all three of you so very much!" Ryk said with a wide, cheesy grin in his usual easygoing way. He was sincere in his words though, and I treasured them deeply. "Oh! But this doesn't mean you guys have to say it back, okay?"
"That's true," Dakota said as he cleared his throat. "We said it because we were ready to, so you should also do the same," he said with a smile, and I dipped my head gratefully.
"Thanks for that," Star said out loud, his eyes on his breakfast plate. "I do care about all three of you a lot, though."
"Me too," I said with a smile, and for a moment we all just grinned at each other like fools before Star cleared his throat and turned his attention back to his food, prompting the rest of us to do the same.
We ate in silence for a few minutes before Dakota placed his fork on his empty plate and sat back in his chair. "There's something I've been wondering about."
I gave him an encouraging look, and he smiled slightly before turning his gaze on his hands. "You guys don't age, right? So what happens in twenty or thirty years, when you start looking more like my kids or grandkids than my boyfriends?"
"That won't happen," Star assured him, and he glanced up, a furrow between his brows. He'd put his hair in a messy bun this morning, and it'd started to come loose. This was my favorite of all his hairstyles, though technically it wasn't a style at all. But I loved it when strands of his hair came free of the bun and framed his face like that.
"Why?"
"Look!" Ryk said, jumping in, then snapped his fingers. Instantly, he looked double his age, with wrinkles, laugh lines, and strands of gray in his red curls. He snapped his fingers again and his look reverted to his younger self.
"Oh! That's a nifty trick," Dakota said with a grin, but I could tell there was something else he wanted to ask.
"What is it?" I asked, and he exhaled deeply.
"What happens...when I die?"
When supes mated with a human, the bond they had allowed them to share their life-force with their human mate, thus allowing the human to live as long as the supe. That didn't happen for us demons, though, because we'd died a long time ago. Our life-force had already burned out, and since Dakota hadn't summoned us, we couldn't use our magic to extend his lifespan either—if a human were to manage to summon a demon, he could then make a contract for hundred years, and he'd live for a hundred years until the contract was fulfilled.
"When you die," Star started, meeting Dakota's eyes head-on, "which won't be for at least another eighty years if I can do anything about it, we'll be there with you until the last second, and then we'll meet you in Otherworld, where you can decide if you want to stay or move on to Afterworld. Whichever path you choose, we'll be right by your side."
Star had put it perfectly, better than me or Ryk could've, and I could see it'd resolved the worries that had been plaguing Dakota's mind. I was glad he felt more at ease now, and I was even more glad I'd get to spend the next few decades with him, Star, and Ryk in the human realm. I didn't think Reece and the others would ask us to go back to the demon realm once the issue with Mammon was resolved, not now that we'd found our mate. The King of Otherworld knew only too well what it was like to have a human mate. He had two, after all, though they weren't completely mortal now.
Ryk
Since Dakota had taken the day off, and breakfast had turned a little heavy at the end, I decided we would spend the rest of our day doing a TV marathon. It was the best way to get in lots of cuddle-time, not that I wasn't looking forward to watching the show either.
It was a show where supes were the bad guys—though not always, I'd heard—and two brothers hunted them down and saved humans in the process. It had fifteen seasons, and I wanted to see how many we could watch in a day.
Using some magic, I cleared enough space on the living room floor for the four of us, then magicked up a large mattress and tons of pillows. "Come on, guys! It's cudd—I mean, it's marathon time!"
"You're not fooling anyone, kiddo," Star said as he stood up from the couch. He hadn't moved even when I'd pushed it to the back of the room, but I'd let him be because I'd known he would join up once everything was ready.
"What do you mean?" I asked, deciding to play dumb, and he rolled his eyes as he wrapped his arms around me. Then, in a move too fast for me to realize—how the fuck did he have so much energy?—he picked me up and threw me onto the mattress. I bounced once before settling, and he joined me as Dakota and Nico stepped into the living room.
"Oh, looks like you're all set up," Nico said, and I craned my neck to look at him.
"Why are you upside down? Come join us quickly!" I said, and Star chuckled beside me. What was it now? I seemed to always be amusing him, though I didn't mind hearing his laugh.
Nico and Dakota joined us on either side, with Nico on Star's other side and Dakota on mine. Was this what Afterworld felt like? I was pretty sure it was.
"Are you gonna turn it on?" Star asked, and I blushed.
"Oops! Sorry," I mumbled as I started the first episode, and then enjoyed being sandwiched between my sexy, hot—literally, too—boyfriends. Things could easily turn sexual with all of us this close, but sometimes, I just enjoyed being close to them without sex being a factor. Being held, getting the random forehead kisses, feeling so warm and secure...it was a feeling unlike anything, and if I had to choose between this and sex...well, it wasn't a choice I'd be able to make, but it would be a really close draw. That was how much I loved it.
"If supes were really like that, I'd want to hunt them too," I said when the second episode ended, and Dakota chuckled.
