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Lily blinks. “Oh. I’ve also got a distant cousin. On my eighth birthday, Gramma, who was visiting, told Momma that he went to the juvenile correctional facility for a felony. She told me I shouldn’t be like him and sneak cocaine to snort in the teacher’s break room after school. Not even if they have nice sofas or around-the-clock air conditioning systems.”

Now it’s Every’s turn to blink at his girl’s information dump, told to him ’cause she’s so different from the other girls and doesn’t understand what should be said and what should be forgotten.

Not like them at all, nope.

“That’s the leader of their company. They literally are a company, sugar, selling freshly chopped wood.” He tells Lily as he regains all his five senses and points his middle finger at the leader of the small group. This time, he introduces them all in person.

Axel. Stone. Steel. Wheel, Steel’s brother. Cement (pronounced Semen). Rock. This, that. Someone, someone, then another someone with something’s name. And that is it.

Wheel and Steel both hold up their shiny iron axes for all to see, and Lily the fairy queen gives them both a thumbs up. Rock fingers a piece of paper, before scissoring it into bits. Yeah, now you traumatized readers aren't gonna be thinking of that game in the same way again.

Then, just like the mafia gang before them, they walk back to the throne hall to meet with Queeny and Gilly. And stay cooped up in there for the rest of the evening. Right after, Every’s previously advertised group of gym bros arrive, all in matching pink muscle shirts with prints of muscular cats squatting barbells.

Quite creative, honestly.

Not at all what Lily expected.

These broad-shouldered men all give Every shoulder pats, and Lily studies them. They might have extra tans, extra veiny arms, and door-width shoulders, but none of the group has shoulders as wide as her man’s refrigerator-wide ones, she decides.

Because Every truly is the king of broad-shouldered CEOs.

The one with shoulders to end all shoulders.

And he sure needs those shoulders of his, large and strong enough to carry her sleeping form on whenever she decides to conveniently faint. Or simply when the scene is getting a little bit dull, and activity is sorely needed.

In fact, he is probably the most muscular, buff, but also cut and lean man of them all, not that these descriptions have to make any sense. They don’t.

“Do I have something on my teeth?” A certain gym bro’s question pulls Lily’s wandering mind out of her ass. Always comparing and contrasting things.

“Yeah, braces,” Every answers him. “I left for just a few weeks and look what happened.”

Lily squints, and lo and behold, that grown man does in fact have braces. Bright pink and green rubber greet her eyes, and it reminds her of Bradley, her ex, and his electric blue ones. And that just grates on her nerves.

“Dude, you’d never guess it, but last Monday, I accidentally dropped a barbell on my face, and it hit right onto my teeth. The smack was so loud that Kimberly dropped her dumbbell onto her toes. Anyway, man, the barbell knocked my front teeth all the way back. They didn’t fall—just swerved inwards like a car on a highway on a rainy day, if you know what I mean. The dentist said I’d be me again in just a couple of weeks. But I still shed some tears, though. I just had to tell you, dude, ’cause I didn’t post it on my story. Didn’t want society to see my fall from grace.”

Oh, shit, this man sure has rambling skills that rival Lily’s.

“That’s possible?” Every asks him. He isn’t even astonished at the whole rambling anymore, having heard just enough of it living with his girl for the past few weeks of turmoil that it is now a usual part of his day.

“Only in fiction, yes.”



The rest of the alliances end up in Fairyland later the next day, having been caught up with horrid internet connections which caused hair-wrenching lags and misread social media notifications. That, for the most part, and disagreement, for Evera’s part of the team.

From what Lily understands, her warriors had wanted her to join them, but she decided to stay home at the last minute, distracted by a new reality show series airing on television. And her other advisors are still on vacation with Queeny’s people.

The summary of the story is that there ended up being no sole leader to guide the army of ten thousand handpicked alien swordsmen and swordswomen—yes, they are still living in fairly ancient days, wielding sticks and slinging stones—so they fought for it.

How barbaric of these barbarians.

The winner of the mumbo-jumbo catastrophe of a jiujitsu fight ended up being a certain blue-skinned, feather-haired warlord. Who won solely from his two hundred and eighty-five pounds of body mass crushing anyone in his way. Though it is also important to note that two close finalists were a lean huntress, named Leanna from just how lean and lithe she was, and Lianno, her brother, equally lithe and lean.

Upon meeting her, the alien warlord—who nearly got stuck in the green tunnel slide on his way down—gives Lily a supposedly friendly fist punch. “Stay cool, brother,” she voices out to him, swaying from the impact of his greeting.

Literally.

Good thing her man picks her up just in time, right before she topples over and hits the floor. He even winks down at her, her camouflage hoodie—a magenta one this time in contrast to yesterday’s classic green—pulled up in one big hand.