“Always size,” Josh sighed dramatically.
“And I’m Miss Piggy?”Julia asked archly.
“Are you an ass-kicking beauty with impeccable taste and amazing shoes?”Chuck drawled, and Julia’s genuine laughter was also her concession.Miss Piggy she was.
“Does that make me the Count?”Leon asked, obviously hoping to play.
“One, two, three giant yachts!”Danny teased in the Count von Count’s Transylvanian accent, and Leon’s brilliant smile tugged at Josh’s heart.He’d worked so hard to become one of them.Josh was suddenly so very glad he hadn’t driven the man away when he’d been sick and defensive and feeling small.He wondered if he should tell Leon that, though.They had never really cleared the air.
“So who’s Gonzo?”Hunter asked, interrupting his thoughts and surprising them all.
“Doyouwant to be Gonzo?”Josh asked, because he’d sounded genuinely concerned.
“No,” Hunter said.“I just… you know.Need to know there’s a Gonzo in the universe.”
“I’m Bunsen Honeydew,” Stirling said proudly.
“And I am Beaker,” Tienne said.
“Scientists.”Stirling’s quiet beam was almost as proud as Grace’snotso quiet one.
“And already a couple in canon,” Tienne said, bussing Stirling on the cheek.That quickly, they were in their own little test tube, and the conversation flowed around them.
“I’d say I’m Gonzo,” Tor said, chewing thoughtfully, “But the thought of Marco being Camilla the chicken—”
“Camilla was a beard,” Marco said, walking in from the kitchen with a tray on his shoulder and a tray rack under his arm.“We all know Gonzo’s soulmate was Rizzo the Rat.”
“Since you refused to sit down with us,” Tor said acidly, “I’m not sure you get a say in the table talk.”
“Don’t be ornery, Gonzo,” Marco retorted.“I just didn’t want to hear Grace profane my food again with whatever the hell it was the last time I sat down.”
“Don’trepeat it,” Julia barked, and they all turned to Grace, who shoved another bite of ranch-flavored mayonnaise in his mouth like he hadn’t been about to refresh everybody’s memory.
“What about Carl and Michael?”Marco asked, busing the finished salad bowls from most of the table.Josh watched as Grace worked to finish the rest of the ranch dressing.
“If you drink it straight from the trencher, I’m never eating with you again,” Josh murmured under the voices of the rest of the table.
“There’s a reason I’m not supposed to know it’s in the house,” Grace whispered back, sounding genuinely baffled.“It’s like a weird sickness.”
“Hunter, take his bowl,” Josh said, and while Grace glared at him, Hunter took the bowlandthe trencher and handed them to Marco.
“Nice lift,” Liam said in admiration.
“You sit at a table with thieves,” Hunter muttered.
Over their byplay, Michael said, “Carl’s Rolph the dog and I’m Shrimp Louis!Get it?’Cause I’m small, and Carl’s trustworthy, kind, and funny”
And once again, the entire table was struck silent.
Lucius said, “That could be the most adorable thing I’ve heard said at this dinner table.This conversation is almost too wholesome for us.”
That pronouncement was followed by raucous laughter and much throwing of dinner rolls, which normally Josh would have participated in.
But as he looked around for reactions, he noticed that Julia and Leon were holding hands and gazing into each other’s eyes, nodding, before Julia reached out and took Felix’s hand as well.
There was something very… intimate, about the four of them, Danny included on Felix’s other side.It was like they had a secret that nobody else would understand.
“You saw that?”Liam asked around Grace’s back.
