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He takes several hitching breaths. “I—okay.”
I rub my forehead against his. “I kept Time-Walking into this one point in the future. I couldn’t understand, of all the places and Times, why then? What kept drawing me there? It was you. You and Gabe. You needed me to bring you back together. And I did. I kept my promise, even though I hadn’t even given it yet. I will always keep my promises to you. Swear to me you’ll keep yours.”
He kisses me, wet and sad, hungry and true. “I will. I won’t let myself fade. I’ll stay with you.”
I hold him, pressing our foreheads together again, tipping in for kisses, until his tremors subside and he’s warm and still in my arms. Finally, I tell him what I told future-him, what seemed so obvious then but has become so very complicated.
“Stay. Stay with us tonight.”
“Sleep here?” he asks.
“Sleep here tonight. Sleep here tomorrow. Sleep with us always. Be part of us.”
His hand slips down my arm. His fingers find my ring and circle it. “Be part of this?”
I should probably ask Gabe and Charlie before I answer him, but I don’t. Not because I don’t value their opinions, but because my certainty in the four of us is rock solid. “Yes. We’ll forge a ring for you. The four of us, together.”
With a deep sigh, he laces his fingers through mine. “I can’t tell you how much I want that. Seeing you three wearing these rings, knowing in my bones you should be wearing my ring, it’s been driving me mad.”
“Can’t have that, although the Mad Prince has a ring to it.”
He chuckles weakly. “I already have several in my family. I don’t think we need any more.”
“My family’s full of nutters, too. Nothing to be ashamed of. Your family doesn’t define you.”
He curls our hands together and presses them over his heart. “My family absolutely defines me, Teddy.”
I dip my head and kiss his knuckles. “Then you need a different family. I know I did.”
“Is that what you, Charlie, and Gabe are?”
I nod. “Abso-fucking-lutely, mate. I know I told you it was too late to be part of us, but I was wrong. We need you. Our family’s not complete without you.”
His eyes brighten as a slow, wide smile dawns across his face. “You want me to be part of your family?”
I smack the back of his head with my free hand. “What have I been saying for the last ten minutes?”
“I dunnow,” he says. “There was some half-assed apology—”
I smack the back of his head again.
He pulls me into that nice chest, tight and warm. “There she is, my feisty teddy bear.”
“No,” I warn him.
“Oh, yes. If I don’t get the extended grovel package, then I get to call you whatever soppy pet name I want.”
“No. And there is no extended grovel package. You get what you get.”
“I feel cheated. Which means you have to be my teddy bear. And I’m going to fill up this whole place with your namesakes. One of every kind I can buy. Until there’s no more space and you have to come live with me.”
“You don’t need to fill this place with toys for that. Your place is fucking swish. But not tonight, yeah? Stay here with us tonight?”
His smile is almost as soft as Gabe’s. “As long as I get a spot next to my teddy bear.”
“Seriously, mate, no.”
He catches my lips in a nipping kiss. “Penance is a bitch.”
