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“Ok, I was sure I was going to have to tell you in a padded room. Or one of those rooms where they let you break everything. Or maybe first one then the other.”
“What? Why?” Then Shaw laughed. “Oh my God, North, I’m not jealous. I mean, it’s cute that you have a friend. Finally. After, like—wait, how long have I known you? And I’m glad it’s Emery. See, Emery and I are soulmates, so it would make sense that he’d also be attracted to your—is grumpishness a word?”
North wasn’t sure about grumpishness, but he did know that their current position meant Shaw was basically in prime position for a sack tap. While Shaw was still groaning, he dumped him on the floor, crawled across the bed, and helped himself to the second unicorn latte. Shaw whined and moaned and made a pathetic display of dragging himself onto the bed, but a few sips of the unicorn latte proved to be restorative, and not too long after, they were cuddled up on the bed together. The mini-split chugged, trying to cool the room. The sun had climbed above the window, filling the room with shadows. Outside, a car accelerated, and then the sound faded into the distance.
“I’m very happy you have a friend,” Shaw whispered.
North grunted.
“Did you hug?” Shaw asked.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?”
For some reason, that made Shaw giggle into North’s side, and North stroked his hair. When Shaw had recovered, he propped his chin on North’s shoulder and stared at him.
“What?” North asked. And he thought maybe grumpishness was a real word. Maybe.
“I want to know what you’re feeling.”
“I’m not feeling anything.”
“North!”
“Jesus Christ.” He wrestled with that one for a while and finally said, “It’s fine, I guess. Holy shit!”
He rubbed the spot where Shaw had pinched him as Shaw said, “Emery and I are not going to be friends with you—”
“God damn it, am I going to have to hear that for the rest of my life?”
“—if you act like this.”
“Great. Fantastic. I’ll watch whatever I want on TV, and nobody will scratch me with their fucking toenails at night, and I’ll stop getting calls at six in the morning because some asshole across the state wants to argue about the best model of telephoto lens.”
That made Shaw giggle again, and North stroked his hair some more. He could feel something loosening, his muscles relaxing, his hand slowing against the silk of Shaw’s hair.
“I know you have friends,” Shaw whispered. “But everyone from college is in such a different phase in their life, and you’ve got Jadon and Zion and Truck and Pari—”
“Yeah, Pari.”
Shaw punched him and continued, “—but it’s different because of work. And it’s different with us because we’re, well, us now. And I want you to have people you can be yourself with, and be happy with, and know that they love you.”
“All of that sounds like the fucking worst.” But Shaw’s silence dragged more words out of North, and he heard himself talking. “Apparently I’m a royal asshole. Some of the stuff Emery said.” He tried to stop there. “Do I really pick on Auggie? I mean, I know I give him shit.”
“Oh yes,” Shaw said.
“What the hell, Shaw?”
“Does it help that he likes it?”
“Are you serious right now? Oh my God. Even my partner thinks I’m an asshole.”
Laughing quietly, Shaw bent to kiss his shoulder. “You’re not an asshole. Well, you are, but you do it on purpose, and that’s different.”
“Now I have to be nice to all those motherfuckers.”
Shaw made a skeptical noise.
“I will. I’m going to be nice to them. I can be nice.” That got nothing from Shaw, so North said, “Say something, dumbass!”
