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I realised the room had gone a little quieter, and when I glanced over, I saw all the wrestlers watching us with abject interest. Dan, Vince and Crossbody already knew me, of course, but Brian—and Nat—had already warned me that the Goliaths were a nosy bunch.

I didn’t mind nosy. I was more than happy to show off about the fact that Brian was mine.

“Hi!” I beamed and gave them all a little wave. “I’m Klaus. Brian’s boyfriend.”

“Holy fuck, you’re Brian’s boyfriend now?” The Night Light, a mothperson, bounded over and openly stared at me in fascination. “Like, officially? He mentioned you were dating before, but he never tells us anything. Like, anything.”

Vince snorted. “Kit, what fucking planet are you on? Brian talks about Klaus all the damn time.”

I flushed with pleasure and clutched Brian’s hand tighter. I knew I was grinning like a fool, but I couldn’t help it. It just did something to me when I was reminded of how proud Brian was to be my boyfriend. I’d never had that before, and yeah, okay, maybe it went to my head a little.

“Okay, but, like, in general he’s a straight-up enigma.” Kit waved a dismissive hand then went back to staring at me. “So this is kinda like… I mean, it’s like meeting the enigma’s boyfriend, I guess. Oh, I know! It’s like finding out Brian’s secretly been moonlighting as a world-leading scientist and now he’s just casually brought in his Nobel Prize.”

Brian huffed. His wolfy ears twitched, which I knew meant he was feeling self-conscious. “I’m not that bad.”

He wasn’t when it came to me, at least. He told me everything. But with everyone else… yeah, he kinda was that bad. He was like a booby-trapped casket that hadn’t been opened for centuries—there was no way you were getting those secrets.

“He’s also my best friend,” Nat said proudly, slinging his arm over my shoulders. “So everyone be extra nice to him.”

“We’d be extra nice to him anyway because he’s Brian’s boyfriend,” Kit pointed out.

“I think the correct answer is actually that we’re always nice to all our fans,” Lady Victoria Venom, a steampunk gorgon with stunning snake hair, piped up in a mildly admonishing tone. “Not just the ones who are dating our co-workers.”

Kit made a face. “I mean, I guess, but I’m obviously going to be nicer to people who are dating my friends? Duh?” They gave me a look and playfully rolled their eyes, as if we were in silent agreement over this despite having just met. “So what do you do, Klaus? I’m Kit, by the way. The Night Light. But just Kit is fine.”

“I work at the Elfknot Motel just outside of town.”

“Where Vince and Crossbody would go to bang in secret,” Dan immediately piped up from the couch, shooting his friend a smirk. Vince stared back at him with a flat, unimpressed expression as Crossbody flushed and tried to hide it by scoffing and tossing his hair back.

“That’s the one!” I said brightly.

A tall, lanky fae with stunning pink hair and periwinkle skin leaped up from the couch and approached with a grin that managed to be both devastatingly gorgeous and kind of goofy at the same time. “Yo! Hey, I’m Larkin. Me and Nat work in the same office a lot of the time.”

“Oh, you’re Larkin!” I beamed back at him. “Nat talks about you a lot. He’s always saying how funny you are.”

Larkin flushed with pleasure. “I’m, like, average amounts of funny. I guess. I don’t know.”

“Don’t listen to him,” said the stoic, dark-haired guy doing a crossword on the couch, his voice as calm and measured as his expression. I was good at identifying werewolves in their human skins now, so I could instantly tell he was one. “He’s hilarious.”

Larkin blushed deeper and rolled his eyes at me. “I mean, he has to say that ’cause he’s my boyfriend. That’s Seb. Not gonna lie, broseph, I used to be pretty jealous over the thought of Seb liking Brian instead of me.”

“What?” Seb’s head snapped back up. “You did?”

“Uh-huh.” Larkin didn’t seem to realise he’d just stunned his boyfriend to the point that Seb was staring at the back of his head in bewilderment. He gestured between me and Brian. “So this is kinda, like, healing something in me, I guess? It’s nice to see. Congrats, you two.”

“Um…” I shared a brief look with Brian, who didn’t seem to really know what Larkin was talking about. “Thank you.”

“We are obviously talking about this tomorrow, Larkin,” Nat said. “I can’t believe I don’t already know the entire history of how you and Seb got together.”

“Oh.” Larkin’s cheeks turned dark blue again, a much deeper colour this time. “Um… sure. Okay. Maybe, yeah.”

“They had a super romantic, intimate moment in the arena,” Dan said. “While we were all watching from the windows.”

“Oh my gosh, yes, it was so sweet,” added The Silent Scream, the pretty banshee wrestler, who looked a lot less intimidating without that spiked leather mask covering the lower half of her face. “You will not believe how much Asmo swooned when I got home and told him about it, you two.”

“Swooned about what?” came a loud, crisp voice from over by the doors. I looked over to see an enormous orc in skintight pink leggings and nothing else striding into the room. His long black hair was tied back into a neat fishtail braid, and there was a tiny dog trotting along beside him.

I knew this was Corey, who Nat worked for. I hadn’t met him yet, but I was already in awe. It was kind of impossible to see this giant, glamorous orc and not be in awe. He was magnificent.