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One of the downsides of getting home is definitely going to be finally having the mental capacity to deal with everything that we’ve been through. The physical exhaustion is really shielding us from everything at the moment and I am not looking forward to it ending. But that, and all those conversations we’ve been putting off, are conveniently Future Tor’s problems. One blessing though is that, despite running out of offerings for the sprites, they are still coming out to greet us, buzzing like overly large, wispy fireflies, so I guess we can assume the Woods are happy with us.
We decide to walk through lunch, eating the last of the packaged food, after Roan promises we are close, really close, to getting back to the Black Stump.
“So, Theo, looking forward to getting home and back to your books with that big brain of yours?” Seff asks, cutting into my thoughts as he comes up the path behind us. He wraps his arm around Theo’s thin shoulders, scooping him up to walk in front of Caelan and me, ruffling his big hand through Theo’s hair affectionately. The question makes Theo stumble, his feet tripping over a rock sticking out of the mud. I lurch forward to catch him, but Seff already has him re-steadied, without missing a beat or drawing attention to the pink blush I know is flooding Theo’s cheeks under his freckles.
“Uh, yeah, probably. I don’t know.” There is a thread of distress in Theo’s voice. The question is far more loaded than Seff has realised. I can see the profileof Seff’s frown as he looks down at Theo, who is intently watching the path in front of him, his head bowed so he misses the befuddled look on his new friend’s face. I watch several more emotions play across Seff’s face, before he settles on his usual kind smile, tightening his arm around my brother in a comforting side hug.
“Yeah, mate, you’ve been through a lot. Wouldn’t be a bad thing to take some time to chill around here for a bit. Maybe you can stay with Caelan and Tor?”
This time it is Caelan righting me as I trip over nothing, too focused on Seff blundering his way into all of Future Tor’s problems. Just when I was getting to like him, too, the bastard. At the head of our group, I can see Edith not even pretending that she isn’t listening intently. Roan’s wide back is clenched tight under his white shirt and that ridiculously sexy leather harness of his, giving him away as another sneaky little eavesdropper. I canfeelCaelan’s eye roll beside me as he huffs.
“Stop interrogating him, Seff, he’s been through enough. And of course he is staying with Tor and me at the farm.”
An old version of me would have been embarrassed by the giant cheesy smile that splits my face at Caelan’s easy declaration ofTor and me, like it is a given, but it just makes me feel sogood.
My chest does that silly flip-flop thing, and I know he feels it through our bond because he pulls me in for a quick kiss to the side of my head. Theo turns under the weight of Seff’s heavy arm, peeking over where it is slung between them, to shoot a look at Caelan and me. For once I can’t easily read my brother’s shuttered expression. But he still gives us what vaguely resembles a smile, his lips forming a straight line, and nods his appreciation.
“He’s not okay, is he?” Caelan whispers carefully in my ear.
I shake my head, keeping an eye on my brother and Seff, who has moved on to chatting about something less serious and imminent. “No. No, he really isn’t.”
Caelan
I had meant whatI had said about Theo coming to stay with us. That had been the easy bit, offering him a place to stay when he was obviously so fragile and haunted.
Butacceptingthat Tor is staying with me? Forever? That he isn’t leaving, despite what the shitty little voice in the back of my head likes to taunt me with? That is harder.
It obviously made Tor happy; his fizzy, butterfly feeling had flooded me through our connection after my declaration, and he hadn’t been able to keep his hands to himself all afternoon, leaving me horny and half-hard, trying to keep the others from noticing my tight hiking pants.
We stop for the evening in a pretty clearing overrun with colourful springtime wildflowers. After dumping our stuff, Roan gruffly announces to the group he is going to go hunt us something to eat and disappears into the trees. Gods, I am really looking forward to getting back to the Black Stump and some level of normalcy. Whatever is going on with Roan has killed his usually easy-going attitude.
After setting up the wards for the night and commanding Tor to get the fire started, Edith settles on the thick grassy carpet, encouraging Theo to come and lie down with his head in her lap.
“Come on now, my dear, you look positively exhausted. Why don’t I make you a flower crown?”
Colour floods his cheeks, the blush blooming there prettily, but he agrees, and in the end Edith has us all laughing with stories of her ventures into the Woods while she shows us how to make the colourful crowns.
Tor is much better at it than I am, nimbly wrapping the stems and blooms together until a beautiful halo has formed. He presents the crown to me with a flourish and a kiss on bended knee. Obviously I accept gratefully, dragging him in for a rough kiss that pulls him into me, and we both fall to the grass in a tumble, our laughter and kissing mingling when I pin Tor to the grass, tickling his sides.
“Stop, you’re going to wreck your crown!” he gasps and I finally relent, sitting up and offering my hand to pull him up with me. Tor takes it with a soft smile and hearts in his eyes, like he always does, before settling back in next to me.
“You sure you want to go stay with these two weiners?”
Theo’s cheeks pinken a little under his freckles, as he rolls his vivid green eyes towards Seff. “They are pretty gross. Who would have thought mycool older brotheris a giant dork when he’s inlurve?” Theo snorts and giggles at Tor’s indignant huff.
“You are such a brat,” he yells, without any menace, throwing a large yellow blossom at Theo’s head, which leads to Theo kicking at Tor’s legs where we are all tangled together.
The situation devolves from there, with Tor playfully tackling his brother and them both rolling around wrestling on the grass, while Seff and I yell encouragement from the sidelines as the brothers wrestle each other.
Somehow it’s me on Theo’s team, and Seff cheering for Tor, Edith muttering to herself, ignoring us all, until Tor manages to get his brother pinned under him on his belly.
“Admit defeat!” Tor’s crow is an obvious echo of some childhood game, but Theo still struggles beneath him, attempting to get purchase with his knees to dislodge his significantly bigger brother.
“Not fair,” Theo pants while he struggles. “You’re a giant! Get off me, dickhead!” He grunts as Tor snickers, unmoving as he straddles Theo’s hips. That is until, with one last surge of unlikely strength, Theo manages to unseat him, pushing him up and off until Tor is sprawled on his back, crying with laughter. Theo joins him from where he flops next to his brother, both laughing maniacally until tears run down their cheeks.
I am not too certain whether the tears are still happy or if they’ve finally broken the dam inside themselves. Edith spots something over my shoulder, her eyes widening, and I turn to see a concerned Roan silently slipping into the clearing, a carcass hanging from his hand. Worry colours his face as he puts down our dinner and comes to join us where we sit around the brothers still experiencing their emotional unravelling.
Edith’s eyes flare a warning at him and he nods solemnly as he drops down next to me, the furthest spot from where I know he wants to be, next to Theo. He pauses, looking back at me again, and flicks my flower crown with a smirk. He is trying to be nonchalant, but his dark eyes are radiating anxiety.
