“Like six months.” It was closer to four, but why did he care?
“And you think it’s wise to start something so soon?” he pressed, then sighed. “Florian, you know I wouldn’t say anything if I didn’t think it was important. I’m worried about you.”
“Why? I’m fine,” he said, shifting uncomfortably.
“Because your dad just died,” August answered, and Florian winced. “Because Kade is loyal to the fae kingdom, maybe to a fault. I don’t want either of you to get hurt, and I don’t want the relationship between the fae and the wolf shifters to be damaged, either. I may have lived on Earth for a long time, but I remember what the court politics can be like.”
“This has nothing to do with any of that,” he protested, heat burning in his face. August had never interrogated him like this before, catching him entirely off-guard—the implication of what he was saying wasn’t exactly reassuring, either. “This happened before—before what happened with my dad. Alright? And it’s not, like, a rebound or whatever. Am I not allowed to date now because I had one shitty boyfriend?”
“You know it’s not that,” August sighed as he turned away from Florian, shaking his head. “I just worry about you, Florian. This is a lot of change in your life all at once.”
“Well, don’t,” he grumbled, and pushed past him toward the closet, where he knew the extra bedding was. “Now are you going to get the pillows or what?”
Kade was sitting on the edge of the sofa when they emerged a moment later, his back straight and discomfort obvious on his face.
“Come on,” Florian said, gesturing for him to follow with his free hand. Kade picked up his bag and followed Florian into his room, pointedly keeping his eyes on the ground to avoid meeting August’s gaze.
“Sorry,” he muttered, when they were safely in Florian’s room. “I didn’t mean to... make things difficult for you.”
“Don’t be sorry,” Florian sighed, tossing the extra pillow and blanket onto his bed. “He’s not usually like this. I don’t know why he thinks I can’t make decisions about my own life all of a sudden.”
Kade was silent, watching him with uncertainty, and Florian groaned before throwing himself down, on top of the pillows.
“He even said I’m not a kid anymore, then still treats me like one,” he muttered. “God, and I still have to talk to Nadia. Fuck. Today sucks.”
“We could wait until tomorrow,” Kade offered quietly, but Florian shook his head.
“No, it might be good to get out of the apartment. Let Uncle August cool off a bit, I guess,” he sighed. He couldn’t remember ever having thought that before—he couldn’t think of a time August was ever really mad at him, easygoing as he was. Hell, he could count on one hand the number of times that he could remember being grounded.
“He didn’t seem mad,” Kade said. “Just worried.”
“You sound just like him,” Florian replied, rolling his eyes; but he pushed himself back up onto his feet all the same. “Come on. We should buy some snacks and stuff anyway while we’re here.”
The snacks were just a ruse. Once they were out of the apartment and walking down the street to the corner store, Florian nudged Kade and muttered,
“We should probably, uh, get some condoms too.”
He felt Kade stifle a laugh next to him. “Yeah?”
“Well, yeah,” he stammered, feeling suddenly embarrassed. “It’s different here. I can’t just, you know, not have those parts whenever now.”
“Not arguing,” Kade said, holding up one hand. A fond smile played at his lips when Florian glanced nervously up at him. “Whatever makes you most comfortable. It’s fine.”
Florian nodded quickly, looking away as he felt his face still warm and flushed. Everything still felt so new and strange—he was glad for the distraction, of course, but...
“Isn’t this it?” Kade asked, stopping and grabbing Florian by the wrist, before he could get too far ahead.
“Oh, uh, yes,” he said, all the more embarrassed, and hurried inside ahead of Kade.
Hedidwant to get snacks, so they walked up and down the aisles of chips and candy first, Florian grabbing his favorites and pointing out what he thought Kade might like. From what he could tell, the other man had a bit of a sweet tooth (much to his amusement), so he pulled a few candies and chocolates from the shelves and put them in Kade’s hands. He grinned up at Kade just to elicit the faintly amused smile Florian was starting to recognize more and more.
Then they were in the medicine aisle—the corner store didn’t exactly have a huge variety to choose from, but still Florian hesitated, looking over each of the little boxes with some concern. He had never really been tasked with buying condoms before.
“What’s up, Florian?”
His heart plummeted to the very bottom of his stomach at the all-too-familiar voice, and he looked up to see Cameron peering at him from over the aisle, a stupidly amused smirk on his face as his eyes flickered between him and Kade.
“Oh,” he said, trying to sound as disinterested as possible, despite his suddenly pounding heart. “Hi, Cameron.”
