Page 5 of Shifter Omegaverse AU

No, Rowan wouldn’t be doing any of that.

He stood up and cleared the table of their mostly empty glasses. As he walked by the concession stand, he thought he caught the flash of gray eyes, but he forced himself to keep going, walking empty-handed into the theater to wait for his brother.

2

Author’s note:

In case you were wondering, I did not set out to write a book about grief. The Canon story mentions Anabelle’s death, but it was up to every author to decide how much or how little they would feature that in their story. I got to chapter six before going “oh god, this is a grief book, isn’t it?” and then had to come back and rewrite this entire chapter.

Milo

“And then Ethel cried through the romantic proclamation and finally admitted to the entire theater that she was madly in love with Anabelle,” Milo said, pressing his shoulder even harder against Ray’s until finally Ray turned sideways and allowed Milo to tip over into his lap.

“I see,” Ray said, easily following Milo’s head with his hand to continue stroking his hair.

The first time Ray had done this had been the day Milo showed up here, at the apartment he shared with Andrew. Milo had burst into tears on Ray’s doorstep, and Ray had guided Milo, with all his lanky height, down onto the floor. They had held each other and cried until, slowly, their tears dried and they decided to get back at Andrew.

They’d watched several high school romcoms and read dozens of revenge stories online until they came up with the perfect plan. They would set a trap for Andrew at the diner Milo worked at, where they’d first met.

The plan had seemed perfect on paper. In reality, the second Andrew started shouting at Ray for betraying him, Milo threw several of the diner’s pies at him and got himself fired. Ray had invited Milo back to his place, and they’d tossed all of Andrew’s things off the balcony.

Without his job at the diner, Milo had been forced to move out of his crappy apartment and had ended up moving in with Ray. He’d eventually been hired as an executive assistant at the company where Ray worked, and he was still there today.

While he still worked at Ray’s company, he no longer lived with Ray. Ray’s constant parade of shitty men depressed Milo. On top of that, he wasn’t very good at keeping his mouth shut about how much better Ray deserved, and he and his beta pony were afraid they’d eventually push away their one and only friend.

So, now he rented a tiny studio apartment on the floor above Ray, and it was the best of a not-so-great situation.

“It was wild, and totally unexpected, and I really wish I’d gotten it on camera so I could prove it to you, but you’re just going to have to trust me that that’s exactly what happened, and I’ve been right this whole time, and they were absolutely more than just roommates,” Milo concluded, tipping his chin up to smile widely at Ray.

Ray’s dark green eyes hadn’t left the TV, a sure sign he was grieving over yet another failed relationship. The most recent guy, Travis, was a chump, and Milo was glad to see him go, but his heart broke a little more each time he saw Ray like this. His poor friend was way more in love with the idea of love than he was with any of these men; he just struggled to accept that.

“You could even call her and ask about it,” Milo said, squirming around until his bony shoulder blades dug into the soft meat of Ray’s thigh. Ray grimaced and looked down as Milo added, “Except she’s very busy today and will probably have forgotten the whole thing by the next time you see her, anyway.”

Ray blinked at him once and then again until, finally, a small smile curved his lips. “How convenient.”

“I hardly think memory loss is conven—” Milo shrieked with laughter as Ray dug his fingers into Milo’s sides. “Ray!” Milo cried, scrabbling at his arms and shoulders, trying to push him away, while also holding him even tighter.

Ray was decidedly the best thing to happen to Milo in years. Yes, they’d been some pretty craptastic years, but still. Ray was every bit the ray of sunshine his parents had named him after, even if he let worthless guys get him down sometimes. Milo truly didn’t know what would have happened to him if he’d gone from losing Anabelle to losing Andrew six months later without meeting Ray in the process. He still would have had Ethel, but she’d pulled away from Milo for almost a year after Anabelle’s death. Milo had done everything in his power to stay close to her, but Andrew had been less than helpful. If anything, he’d kept Milo from visiting Ethel as much as he should have.

One of the first things Ray did after they’d dropped Andrew’s dead weight was request to visit the infamous Ethel. She’d been so proud of Milo for throwing pies that she’d written him a check that helped cover his portion of Ray’s rent until he got back on his feet. To this day, Ethel still tried to sneak twenty dollar bills into Milo’s clothing and bags. He appreciated it, more than he could say, but he didn’t need the money now, so he usually used it to pay for their outings or fun things like the extra-large blue raspberry slush they’d shared the night before.

“I’m going—” Milo wheezed, basking in the giggles coming out of Ray, even as he dug his fingers relentlessly into Milo’s sides. “—to pee on your couch!”

Ray gave his sides one more good squeeze before releasing him. Milo stretched his gangly arms up over his head and kicked his legs up onto the sofa. He had to bend his knees a fair amount to fit on the loveseat, but he didn’t mind.

The room fell into a soft, comfortable silence, and Ray began tracing patterns into Milo’s chest through the bright purple sherpa hoodie he’d found at a consignment store. He and Anabelle used to go thrift shopping together, and it was the only way Milo knew to still feel connected to her. Did it mean he had a closet full of random, sometimes hideous clothing? Yes. Did that stop him? Absolutely not.

“So,” Milo said, after several minutes had passed, “do you want to tell me what happened with Tristan?”

Ray gave him an unimpressed look. “You mean Travis?”

Milo held both hands in the air. “Ugly po-tay-to,” he said, rolling one wrist. “Ugly po-tah-to,” he said, rolling the other wrist.

“He wasn’t—”

“His attitude sure was.”

Ray bit his lip, and Milo's pony whinnied, pawing at the ground in agitation. He loved Ray with his whole equine heart, just like Milo did. The problem was that whereas Milo had a habit of pushing those he loved, his pony didn’t want to risk losing him, just like they’d lost everyone else in their life.