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Oh.
Right.
Pollux had heard the nickname used before at Thanksgiving. Kassandra Role. Shortened. Endearingly.
“Yes. I love Kassandra.”
“You’ll take care of her?”
Pollux straightened himself. “I will take care of her with every fiber of my being, sparing nothing that would see to her joy.”
Aaron nodded and turned his attention to his daughter. “You’re sure about this? Your mother’s right. Whatever your current intentions are, things can change once you’re in closer quarters. If you change your mind or things don’t work out the way you expect, you’ll always have a place here, but emotionally there will be an impact.”
Kassandra’s gaze flicked to Pollux and dragged away. “You and Mom have shown me what love looks like, how it grows through the choices and decisions we make. I’m sure about this. I’m sure I won’t regret whatever happens, even if it happens on a different timeline than I expect. I’m sure that Pollux is the kind of man who cares deeply about those he’s let in. He’s the kind of man who wants to do right by the ones he cares for without letting shame stop him from admitting when he doesn’t understand. He is the kind of man I want in a partner.”
Pollux’s chest contorted as his wife’s words sank into his flesh and heated him from the inside out.
He loved her.
So much.
He had waited so long to be wanted like this, as someone’s partner.
In horrible contrast, the way he wanted her was beginning to make it hard to breathe in front of her parents, and anything could happen was beginning to sound like a cruel promise.
Aaron flipped the folder closed and tucked it under his arm as he approached his daughter. “Am I allowed to thank you for gaining the courage to tell us all of this, or are you too fae for that, Kasserole?”
More tears filled Kassandra’s eyes as she set her yarn behind her in the chair and rose to meet her father in a hug. “I don’t know. I don’t think I can steal souls yet. I wouldn’t take yours even if I could, though.”
Aaron chuckled as he squeezed her. “Don’t be silly. You robbed me of that old thing the moment I first held you.” He kissed her hair. “I’m proud of you.”
“For what?” her voice cracked.
“For trusting us with a place in your life even as you enter an entirely new world.”
Pollux’s heart twisted, and he turned back to his empty cutting board. He stared down at the bare wood—lost.
Kassandra’s mother set an onion down in front of him and smiled when he accidentally met her eye. “Many fae have nothing to resemble a parent; was that the case for you as well?”
He swallowed emotions he was not ready to place at this time. “Yes.”
“Well,” she touched his back, “I suppose it’s a little late, but feel free to call me Mom.”
Pollux’s tears weren’t as pretty as Kassandra’s, but his mom held him through them all the same.
?
“Phew,” I blow out a breath as I step outside into the cold with two cups of hot chocolate—and the entire bag of mini vegan marshmallows. My parents’ bare fenced-in backyard is wholly uninteresting, but the sky…the sky with Pollux beneath it makes it the most beautiful scene in the entire world. “We survived dinner,” I say as I sit on the cold slab of concrete patio beside him and offer him his mug.
Taking it, he watches me situate the bag of marshmallows in my lap. Silent.
“Want one?” I ask.
His head shakes.
“Is everything okay?”
His gaze falls to the steam pouring out of his mug, and he frees a breath. “Yes.”
