“We’re trying to make up for the cultural deprivation of our youth,” Kayleigh said with a straight face. “Tonight, it’sDespicable Me, one and two, although I understand there are more with those cute little yellow things in them.”
“Minions,” Scout supplied. “Muahahahahaha!”
That earned him another one of those sort of gooey looks from Lucky, and Scout figured he had an in.
“Uh, sure. I wasn’t doing nothing but a book anyhow.” Lucky took a deep breath and gave a fair attempt at grace. “I guess this is what I missed by being an ass hat when you first got here, right?”
“Yeah,” Kayleigh said, absolutely unmerciful. “Try not to be a dick next time”
“Understood.”
Scout and Kayleigh ran to their room to get some of their favorite purchases: big fluffy blankets meant exclusively for snuggling under when they were on the couch. When they came back, they turned on the television that Marcus claimed had come with the apartment but that Kayleigh insisted he’d had installed the day they’d moved in, and hit the remote.
“You’ve got a streaming service?” Lucky asked as Kayleigh made herself comfortable on one corner of the couch and Scout took the opposite side. The furniture was all wicker based with woven cotton pillows done in blue or green, and while it might not have been as sturdy as the oak stuff at the compound, Scout was so much more comfortable on it.
This furniture didn’t judge him if he forgot to take off his shoes or if he was wearing the wrong outfit with dinner.
“We’ve got a couple,” Kayleigh said, surprised. “Marcus has them at the cottage, and I guess we’re certified users.” She managed to look a little embarrassed. “I sort of get the feeling that he felt responsible for giving us a crash course in modern life when we got here. We were damned near Amish, except not as sweet and not as….” She waved her hands around under her fluffy pink throw.
“As useful,” Scout supplied dryly. “At least the Amish can milk a cow or churn butter or build barns or something. We couldn’t do any of that,andwe were damned near unemployable.” He gave Lucky a hopeful smile as he stood in front of the couch and scanned the furniture in the room. There wasn’t much—the couch, a chair that was part of the set, and a giant beanbag chair that was on top of a plush area rug. “You can sit with me,” he said, batting his eyelashes. “The throw’s pretty big.”
He held the throw off his lap and gestured next to him, gratified when Lucky sank down on the cushion.
“Are we snuggling now?” Lucky asked suspiciously. “I’m not sure if I know how to snuggle.”
“I think you just need to lean back against me under the same cover,” Scout said, wrapping his arm around Lucky’s chest, “and then put up with all our stupid questions about the movie and remember that we’re almost Amish.”
Lucky snorted. “You do know the Amish would probably burn you witches at the stake, right?”
Scout gave a delighted cackle. “Well, we’re more mages, but yeah. Anyway, just….” And he hated the vulnerability in his voice, but, well, things you couldn’t change. “Don’t laugh at us, okay? There’s lots of things we don’t know.”
Lucky wriggled back against him and said, “Yeah, well, one of the things you don’t know is that these are two of my favorite movies. So no laughing at you guys, but push Play. I want to hear you laugh.”
“Why?” Kayleigh asked suspiciously.
“Because he laughs like Santa Claus, and it’s really weird coming out of a skinny dancer guy. I could listen to him laugh forever.”
Kayleigh blinked her amazing brown eyes at him, and her face softened for the first time since she’d nearly caught the two of them kissing. “Okay. You might not suck. Go ahead and sprawl a little. You can have both our blankets. It gets chilly in here.”
Scout gave her his happiest smile over Lucky’s head. She rolled her eyes and pressed Play.
Lucky was awonderfulperson to watch a movie with. Scout had never thought about that as a good quality in a potential companion, but it turned out to be key. He could explain all sorts of things: the James Bond trope, the supervillain, even Girl Scout cookies, which were parodied in the film. By the time they’d finished the movie, Kayleigh wanted to watch it again, because she was pretty sure it would be even funnier the second time, now that they knew more.
Scout agreed, thinking the same thing, but he forgot that Lucky had the morning shift at the coffee shop. Not that Lucky complained, but about a quarter of the way through the second viewing, Scout realized that Lucky’s sturdy, vital weight against his shoulder had become limp and heavy, and that the man had fallen asleep on him.
I’ll wake him when the movie’s done, he thought, and that was the last thingheremembered before he fell asleep.
A few hours later he woke up lying flat on the sofa with Lucky tucked against him, still sleeping in his arms. They were covered with both the couch throws, and the only light was the ambient light through the sliding glass window to the patio. For a moment, that’s what dominated his thoughts, the feeling of that warm, trusting body in his arms and the way his own body wanted to touch it more.
Naked.
Mmm…. He stretched, pushing himself even closer, gratified when Lucky wriggled back against him. Nice. So nice.
Hoping Kayleigh had gone to bed, he started to glance around the room to see what had woken him up. Something… something tickled on the edge of his brain. There had been a whisper. His name.
The moon was full with only a few scudding clouds for company, illuminating their living room almost brighter than it had been when the television had been on. For a moment, Scout allowed his eyes to drift closed again, with the vague thought of setting an alarm for Lucky when he had to get up to pee, as he often did in the middle of the night.
Then he saw it—a faint cloud of light particles, coalescing in the center of the room.
