AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Rolling his eyes, Wren didn’t bother to correct him. People wouldn’t understand if he did. Most of the world wanted to label things, to fit relationships into boxes because it was the only way they were comfortable. And Wren could live with that because it meant nothing to him.
And nothing to Percy.
He glanced over at his beloved, feeling his heart do a staccato beat in his chest at his smile. It wasn’t just happy. It was content. He wanted to pin him to the desk and kiss him until they were both breathless, but they had plans.
Ellis eventually dropped Mila into Luke’s arms, and for all his protests, Luke cooed happily and bounced her until she was giggling again. Wren had a sudden vision of the future, of Luke as a father and Ananda as a mother. Of chubby-cheeked, giggling toddlers running around the shop, growing up with their massive family and, regardless of being hearing or Deaf, so fucking loved.
Loved in ways Wren would never fully understand.
He jolted when an arm slung around his neck and dragged him into a hug, and he closed his eyes against the force of his feelings because Ellis’s hugs were always just…so much. In the best way, even when it sometimes felt like the worst.
“Your boyfriend,” Ellis signed again, grinning at Percy, who had his shoulders hunched all sheepish, and he was smiling so shyly Wren wanted to kiss the grin until it regained the confidence he deserved.
“I like looking at him,” Wren answered.
Ellis laughed and rolled his eyes. “Yes, but have you seen his progress? Hearing, only here a few months.”
“I’m not great,” Percy attempted to argue.
“You are champ,” Ellis signed almost furiously. “His speed, amazing. Fluency, amazing. I told him he fits right in with my family.”
Percy made a choking noise because Wren knew he was trying to picture himself ever welcome into Luke’s home, considering the way he’d been handled by Luke at first. Someday soon, Wren would have to explain that Luke was just…a lot. Everything for Luke was a passion, including pride in his community, and sometimes it just went a bit far.
Ellis was different.
His generation was different.
And he was the kind of man who saw suffering in people where no one else bothered to look deep enough. He knew what that would feel like to Percy—the fatherly tenderness that was so wanted but so hard to take when his edges were still so jagged and raw.
Ellis huffed and shook his head, then let Wren go. “Mm, mm,” he vocalized loudly, beckoning Percy close with big gestures.
Percy rolled his eyes, but clearly, he’d been subjected to this before because he didn’t put up too much of a fight when he was wrapped up in a hug. Ellis was shorter than them both by at least three inches, but somehow, the man always managed to make Wren feel so small and so encompassed in his embrace.
He sighed, loving that Percy was being gifted this—that he was allowed. Accepted. Wanted, and not just by him.
The hug ended when Luke stomped his foot hard, and Ellis groaned as he looked over. His face melted at the sight of Mila, who was now dozing against Luke’s shoulder.
“I want—" Ellis began.
Luke turned away to cut him off, and Ellis rolled his eyes as he turned back to Wren, who was now pulling Percy close to be a little greedy and a little selfish.
Ellis’s face softened. “What are you two doing tonight?”
“We,” Percy started, looking torn. Wren had maybe been a little…too firm, maybe, on the fact that it wasn’t a date, and now Percy was confused about what to call it. “Together,” he tried, looking at Wren helplessly.
“A date,” Wren supplied. It was just easier that way, and he’d explain that to Percy later.
Percy’s eyes went wide with surprise, but he nodded along. “Date.”
“Where?” Ellis asked, waggling his eyebrows.
Wren scoffed and gave him a little shove. “None of your business. And Percy doesn’t know. It’s a surprise.”
Percy hunched his shoulders again and grinned. “I like surprises.”
That didn’t used to be true. Before Wren had come along, he knew that Percy’s surprises had mostly been cruel, set up to hurt him in unique, terrible ways because his ex seemed to feed on making sure Percy never had a moment of actual happiness.
But it had been damn near a year now, and Wren had been thoughtful, deliberate, and careful. Now, Percy loved his surprises, and not just because most of them had him writhing and gasping and coming so hard he couldn’t see straight.
