Page 16 of Flight of the Omega

“I’ll only get hurt in the end.” JP’s tone was defensive; Jack could see Cerulean’s wary look, the way the bird had pulled away from him, and it hurt more to know that he hadn’t been wrong. Cerulean was an abused bird—JP’s caretakers had done a piss-poor job taking care of him, clearly.

“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”

Those golden eyes flicked up to meet his. “Is that supposed to change something?” the surly omega asked. “Oh, you didn’tmeanit, so it magically doesn’t hurt anymore? You think they set out tohurtme?” JP’s upper lip curled in a sneer. “That assumes they cared at all about how I felt.”

Jack shook his head. “That isn’t—it doesn’t …” He paused, scrunching his nose in distaste. “No, it doesn’t change a thing. Doesn’t matter whether I meant to or not, I still hurt your feelings.”

JP was silent, like he was waiting for him to continue.

Jack sighed. “I’m sorry?”

“Are you?” JP’s voice had gone cold. “I thought you didn’t like me much—so what do you care? Not like I matter to you.”

Jack clucked his tongue. How the hell was he supposed to explain that he didn’t likeJPmuch, but Cerulean was a different story? And the two were one in the same—so maybe he liked JP more than he thought he did.

Heck, he’d never been good with words. So he said just that: “I spoke the truth—I don’t think I like you much. But I didn’t know you were Cerulean, and that bird drives me mad, but I like him.”

JP’s expression was totally unreadable; he was hiding from Jack, just like he’d been hiding this entire time.

Hesitantly, Jack reached out; JP didn’t flinch, but he did close his eyes when Jack brushed his cheek. “I know that doesn’t make much sense,” he said. “I’m not good at this kind of stuff. It’s easy to understand Cerulean—birds are easy. They don’t try to hide anything.”

JP’s brows tented, and he turned away from Jack’s touch. Jack fumbled for the words to fill the space; he stretched his mouth around a couple of them, finding them all wrong, before finally blurting, “I knew Cerulean was hurt, that some people hurt that bird bad. Mind you, I didn’t think that bad. But you—maybe I’m just no good at reading humans. Maybe you’re just too good at hiding like this. When you’re in feathers, you can’t hide.”

JP glared at the blanket; he looked like he had a retort on his lips. It withered there, though; the omega said nothing, glancing up at Jack. There was fear in his eyes now.

Jack felt more confident then; he could read JP. And he could guess at how to handle this now. He put a knee on the mattress. “I knew my pretty blue bird was hurt,” he said, straddling JP. He cradled the omega’s face gently; JP allowed it, but his pupils expanded—he was terrified, ready to bolt. “Made me more determined to be his friend. Show him that there are good people—that he doesn’t need to go around thinking everyone’s out to get him.”

JP still didn’t look away, still didn’t speak. Jack smiled gently; he had to admit, JP was kind of cute when he was wide-eyed like this, when he dropped the mask. Open and vulnerable and raw.

“So,” Jack said, his voice going thick on him, “if that invite’s still there—if you’ll have me, that is, I’d, uh—”

“Yes,” JP said. There was no hesitation, no fear now.

Jack laughed nervously. “Uh. Well. All right then. Uh.” He gave JP a blank look. “Honestly, I expected you to take a little more convincing on that. You seem like the kind of guy who’d like to make someone grovel.”

“No.” The omega’s inhalation was sharp. “No, that’s not …”

Jack tilted his head. JP glanced away; he’d gone rosy with embarrassment, which was also cute.

Jack scratched the back of his head, then un-straddled the omega, sitting down beside him heavily. “Uh. So. I had this big speech about how you should let me prove to you that I’m trustworthy, even though I mucked it up.”

“I don’t care,” JP said, and that surly tone was back, making Jack bristle.

“What do you mean by that?”

JP shook his head slowly. He looked down at his hands in his lap, twiddled his thumbs. He glanced up at Jack again, then finally broke. “My father sent me down here to see if I could win a plate. Do something useful for him, because I’m useless as a brood dam.”

“Oh,” Jack said, blinking.

“So it doesn’t matter,” JP murmured, “if I think you’re trustworthy or not, if there are good people in the world or not. I … I’m gonna miss the Rose Plate, so he’ll likely decide I’m not much of a race bird either.”

Jack waited a beat. “What happens then?”

JP shrugged. “Not sure,” he mumbled. He lifted his head and looked at the ceiling. “So I—I don’t care. You don’t need to prove anything to me or convince me or … whatever. I’m doing this because I want to, because …”

He stopped, his throat working, lingering over syllables that didn’t quite materialize. He looked at Jack finally. “Because I want to choose, at least once,” he said.

Jack nodded slowly. “All right,” he said. “I understand.”

“Good,” JP replied. He nodded. “Glad … we’re on the same page.”

Jack got the feeling theyweren’t, actually. Or that they were on a different page than the one they were pretending to be reading from. Or something. He’d never been much for reading or books.

But if JP wanted to pretend—if that made him feel better about this—then Jack would pretend with him.