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Ziggy snorted and let Ghost cut in line.
I made a face. I was never going to get used to that. Every kid knows their parents fucked. That’s how babies are made, right? But you try not to think about it. Honor and Ziggy had to make it weird with their kinky pet play stuff. I wasn’t one to kink shame, but I did not want to think about those two fucking. At all.
The ravenous beasts fed, I shooed them out of the kitchen. Ziggy and Ghost seemed to have forgotten about their earlier pancake-related argument, and the two of them were chatting excitedly about going fishing. Well, mostly Ziggy was. Ghost bounced around like an excited puppy at the idea, especiallywhen Ziggy offered to demonstrate his people’s special fishing technique.
I sat at the table across from Honor with a plate full of silver dollar pancakes and a steaming cup of coffee. Honor lowered his paper. I could feel his frown on me as I dumped spoonful after spoonful of protein powder into the coffee. He was giving me his disapproving dad look, the one that said, “Son, you’ve got to eat more than sugar and protein powder.”
I glared back at him with a look that said, “The only things I have to do in life are die and pay taxes, and the last one is technically optional.”
With a long-suffering sigh, Honor shook his head and snapped open the paper, hiding behind it. His way of saying, “I did my best.”
“Anything interesting?” I asked, indicating the paper.
“Oh, not much, considering this paper is six months old. I’m just reading the comics.”
I rolled my eyes. Typical.
He chuckled and murmured, “Ah, that Garfield. What a character.”
I shoveled a pancake into my mouth and realized this wasn’t half bad. Not just the pancakes, but the whole morning routine. My back was a little sore from sleeping under the table with Ghost, and my ass was a little raw, but in a good way. As far as mornings went, this was pretty okay.
Actually, it was better than okay. It was…nice. Almost like we were a family again.
I cleared my throat and downed a swallow of coffee. “So, where are you and Ziggy thinking of putting down roots after all this?”
Honor folded the paper and set it aside. “Was thinking of Eden.”
I nodded. That was out near where Hotdog and Hopper lived, a quiet little off the grid town where humans and monsters lived together in peace. ESCU knew about it, but some sort of agreement had been reached where they didn’t bother the residents, and the residents didn’t cause trouble for them.
“You got a house out there?” I shoved a whole pancake in my mouth.
Honor shrugged. “Nah. Probably buy a trailer or something. I’m handy enough to run water and electric lines. Sure somebody out there can help me put in the septic.”
“And you really just think they’ll let you go, huh? We deal with these agents and you ride off into the sunset and everybody gets a happily ever after.” I don’t know why I was suddenly feeling bitter about the whole thing, but I was. He made it sound so damn easy.
He sighed. “Listen, kid. I know it ain’t gonna be that cut and dry. We’ll all probably be looking over our shoulder for a while, least until the right people are in place in the government.”
“And then what?” I scoffed. “There are elections every four years, Pop. That means every four years, we’ll be sitting around chewing our nails off, worrying about whether or not we’re safe.” I lowered my fork when I realized he was staring at me, all weird and watery-eyed. “What? What’d I say now?”
“You haven’t called me Pop since you were knee high.”
My face heated. “Yeah, well…” I shoved another pancake in my mouth so I didn’t have to say anything else.
Honor let it go with a chuckle, picking up his coffee. I had to give him that much. At least he didn’t draw out the awkward moments. He took them in stride and we moved on. I appreciated that much.
“How do you know so much about irqed?” I asked him.
“I told you. I had to hunt them occasionally. Not all of them are as docile and friendly as your boyfriend.”
“You know much about their mating habits?” I gulped down some more coffee and tongued at some pancake that had stuck to my back teeth.
Honor gave me an amused look. “You mean you haven’t…?” He left the question hanging.
I arched an eyebrow, leaving my hand to rest around the mug. “You remember when I was fourteen, and you showed me how to put a condom on a cucumber?”
“A cucumber? I could’ve sworn it was a banana.”
“No, I distinctly remember it being a wrinkly green cucumber, the least sexy thing you could find. I also distinctly remember telling you I didn’t need sex ed because I went to public school and took health class.”
