Eddie chuckles, catching Jackson’s wandering gaze in the reflection of the mirror. “It was a gift from your mother for my last birthday. I’ll be sure to thank her again if our paths cross tonight.”
He turns and takes Jackson’s hands in his own. “I don’t suppose this is the part of the story where you change your mind last minute, put on your best suit, and grab that mask you tried to hide yesterday?” Eddie presses a gentle kiss to the back of Jackson’s knuckles. His touch is warm and gentle, Jackson’s breath catches in his throat.
Jackson wants to say yes, anxiety be damned. There is just that last little bit of doubt he truly can’t shake, no way to guarantee his magic would behave. Instead of closing the distance between them, to take that final step towards what he had been denying himself, Jackson offers a rakish smirk. “If it was, I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise by either confirming or denying.”
They share a laugh as Hakeem joins them from his room, all dressed for the ball. Jackson admires how he looks beside Eddie, silver against the warm tan of Hakeem’s skin versus the ocean blue lining Eddie’s suit against white skin.
They huddle together as Jackson takes a photo on his phone. “Well, don’t you both look handsome this evening.” He whistles and winks at his boys. “Alright, Sarah should be here soon and Wendy just texted me she arrived. You two have all you need before you go?”
They did, and as Wendy knocks on the apartment door, Sarah shoots a message to Eddie that she was pulling up in front of the building. Jackson goes to let Wendy in as Eddie offers Hakeem his hand, “Shall we?”
Hakeem beams behind his glasses, taking the extended hand. “We shall.”
Wendy strolls in wearing a trench coat and seems to have a full face of makeup on. “Well, you look suspiciously fancy for a night of take out and romantic comedies.” Says Jackson with a raised brow.
Wendy flips her hair nonchalantly. “If the delivery guy is cute I want to look my best, nothing more. Not all of us have two adorable roommates waiting for us after a hard day’s work.” She says, gesturing to Hakeem and Eddie holding hands.
“Well, this time I will be the one waiting for them to come home,” Jackson rolls his eyes as he looks at the two men holding on to each other. He truly is lucky, even with all his mess, that those two stood by his side. They deserve a night out without having to worry about him. “You two have fun, I’ll see you when you get home.”
The guys give him light nods and small smiles as they head out for the evening. No point in keeping Sarah waiting. “We’ll see you later, Jackson,” Hakeem calls back as Eddie leads him by the hand to the elevator.
* * *
Jackson collapses into the couch besides Wendy, burying his hands into his hair in a huff. “Why is it so hard tonotgo to a society event? I’ve missed plenty. I’ll start going when I turn a hundred.”
“So you say,” remarks Wendy as she browses through delivery options on her phone.
Jackson tilts his head to glare at her. “And what isthatmeant to imply?”
Wendy doesn’t look up from her phone. “Everything else a non-elven adult in society does, you partake in. You avoid these events because you never saw the point when the people you cared for most either weren’t going; namely Mrs. Lee, or, you saw them on a regular basis; namely your parents and grandmother. You saw no point in traveling to far off realms when it forced you to don a mask in front of the entirety of fey royal courts. You said yourself the winter solstice was one you couldn’t avoid as the bare minimum as your duty as the Nocturne heir. Don’t go spouting that hundred years bullshit to me.” She bites out the last part.
“Then enlighten me, why is avoiding the spring solstice so hard this year?” Jackson rolls his eyes, voice thick with a sarcastic tone.
Wendy gives him a withering side eye. “Because, Jackson, you are denyingyourself happiness by not going under the thinly veiled disguise of granting the men who care about you reprieve from your company. News flash, my dear, if they didn’t want you there they wouldn’t look like sad puppies at the idea of you not going.”
This again. Jackson doesn’t want to hear it. Wendy hadn’t forced the topic since he said he wouldn’t go last week, so why is she seemingly mad at him now? “What did I do to deserve this scrutiny?”
Wendy abruptly stands, her face scrunched in anger. “Because, Mr. Nocturne.”
Uh oh, he’s in trouble.
“That was before you casually mentioned buying custom masks for tonight. If it was just for Hakeem and Eddie I could call you sweet and considerate. But you just so happened to mention that you had ordered one for yourself too, and THEN decided not to go.”
“I tell you far too much these days.”
“Don’t you change the subject. You want to go. You wanted to go so badly you got masks in each of your eye colors.”
Shit, he did.
“You are standing in your own way.” Wendy is now pointing an accusatory, well manicured, finger in Jackson’s face, forcing him deeper into the couch.
“I’m sorry, but I cannot stand by quietly when the happiness that has escaped you for years is so close, but the fear of losing it causes you to push them away without you realizing. You call yourself a broken man, but a broken man doesn’t have the hope in his eyes I see in yours.” Wendy’s voice begins to crack. “Do not give yourself hope, then be the one to take it away from you.”
Jackson sighs in defeat, he hates that she’s right. “I’m sorry, Wendy. I may have been wallowing too much on the matter.”
As Jackson gets up to offer his friend comfort, his mind snaps back to something she had said. “Wendy?”
She sniffles, “What?”
