Not Destiny

by N. J. Lysk

  He grunted as he got his elbow under him, feeling like it was a full set of sit-downs instead, but he managed to snatch the phone off the bedside table without falling on his face. He curled up on his side and turned the screen on.

  [Guess you...] the preview read, but Thomas didn’t much care, he was grinning as he waited for it to load. [Guess you must be changing already.]

  “Oh, fuck,” he said aloud.

  “What are you doing?” Colleen was holding a cup and giving him a look that would have got Valentina to drop whatever she was holding and raise her hands.

  Thomas did put down the phone. “The game... Is it today? Did I—?”

  She sighed, relaxing a little and taking a sip of her drink. “Yeah, you’re missing it. I called your Coach yesterday when they called me.”

  “You’ve been here all night?” he asked, his protective instincts momentarily distracting him from his professional failure.

  Colleen shrugged. “They gave me a cot to sleep on. It was fine.”

  Thomas stared at her. Colleen hated hospitals and it was very much a big deal if he’d forced her to remember the worst night of her life. He didn’t get on that well with his parents, but surely they both would have come to visit. Maybe they’d been, and Colleen had talked them into going home with the younger girls and let her stay.

  He didn’t ask, maybe because a small part of him was not that sure. Considering no neighbours would find out Thomas was sick...

  Colleen distracted him by offering him a proper cup of water and helping him drink. She then sat down on the bed and pushed him until he was lying on his back. “Stay there.”

  “I’m sorry,” he told her again.

  She rolled her eyes at him, snatching her coffee off the table. “Don’t be more of an idiot than you can help, T. It’s pneumonia; you couldn’t have done anything.”

  “I drank fluids and I stayed home,” he felt the need to point out. “I don’t know how—”

  “It doesn’t matter,” she cut him off, her smile forced but real. “You’re fine, and... This is different, and I have to get used to it anyway. Everyone gets sick sometimes; I have to be able to visit.”

  “Yeah, but...”

  She leaned down and put her arm around him as well as she could with him on his back. She squeezed hard, cheek pressed to his own, before sitting up again with a grimace. “Ugh, stubble.”

  Thomas laughed. “My apologies, my lady.”

  “Dunno how you can stand it,” she added with a dramatic little shudder.

  “You should see Uri—” He cut himself off and groped around for the phone.

  Colleen retrieved it from under the blankets but held it above her head. “Uri?” she prompted.

  “Ugh, guy I’m seeing,” he conceded. He was way too tired to play games. He extended his hand for the phone.

  “Huh,” she said, giving it to him.

  [Guess you must be changing already. Just wanted to say good luck!]

  [Do not break a leg] the second message added in French.

  Thomas snorted out a laugh and promptly fell into a coughing fit Colleen had to rescue him from.

  By the time he’d managed some water and was once again flat on the bed, he opened his eyes to find her looking at his phone.

  “French?” she asked gleefully. “Really? The language of love?”

  “Private joke,” he told her. “Emphasis on the private.”

  She shook her head. “Nah, you dragged me to hospital,” she reminded him, not because she hadn’t meant that she didn’t mind coming, but because they’d grown up only being allowed to be completely honest with each other. So they were. She resented it a little, even as she also knew it would be for the best and that he couldn’t have helped it. And he was sorry for putting her through it knowing she’d lost her childhood friend in a hoverboard accident as a kid—some overworked emergency responder had packed her into the same ambulance as the dying child and then left her in the waiting room waiting for their parents. Karen’s parents had arrived first, and Colleen had been with them when they’d received the news.

  She’d had nightmares for months, and Thomas had taken to waiting until their parents turned the lights off before crawling into her bed to hold her. Some nights it helped, other nights at least he was there when she started crying.

  It’d been long enough for her to try, and even if he hadn’t meant to make her come to hospital for his sake, she was right that it was for the best. They loved each other, and they had each other’s backs, but that also meant being tough on each other sometimes.

  The truth hurt, but it also healed; you couldn’t heal without getting the poison of lies out.

  “If you’re going to be this disgustingly cute,” she added. “Then at least I should get to watch.”

  “Gimme,” he asked, making grabby hands.

  She vacillated but finally passed the phone over again. “No laughing,” she ordered, which almost set him off.

  He bit his tongue and typed with difficulty. [Not playing, got sick.]

  The answer pinged in his hands. [Sick? What’s wrong?]

  [Pneumonia, need antibiotics but will be okay]

  That was when the phone rang again. Thomas swallowed, checking his throat. It still hurt, but... He picked up. “Hey.”

  “Oh, you sound... I’m sorry, you probably shouldn’t be talking. I’ll—”

  “Don’t,” he asked quietly, but Uri listened.

  “I actually looked up your game to watch, you know? I thought I’d got the wrong match...”

  Thomas quickly covered his mouth to muffle a laugh.

  “So you stayed home? Do you need something? I can come... I mean, if you want,” Uri backtracked.

  “Not home,” Thomas explained. “Um, hospital, actually.”

  Uri didn’t speak for a long moment. “Did you just say you are in the hospital?” His voice rose in pitch as well as volume.

  “Yeah.”

  “And you didn’t—” Thomas heard him inhale, then exhale. “Sorry, just... you surprised me. What hospital are you at?”

  “Um, I don’t...” He glanced up to find Colleen’s eyes. She’d been shamelessly eavesdropping, naturally. “What hospital is this?”

  She raised her eyebrows, mouth twitching, but she told him, “Bethlem Royal Hospital.”

  Thomas repeated it to Uri. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes, half an hour max,” he informed Thomas in the same no-nonsense tone he used to stop kids in their tracks. For a moment, he couldn’t quite process that the line had gone dead in his ear.

  Uri had hung up. He was going to... He met Colleen’s eyes. “You gotta leave.”

  “What? Is he coming? I want to meet him!” she said cheerfully as she took a seat in the armchair provided for visitors, for all the world like she planned to spend a long time in it.

  Thomas rolled his eyes at her. “Come on, C, don’t make me beg. I’m sick.”

  She sighed but got up and leaned down to plant a soft kiss on his forehead. “Your team’s gonna be here after the game,” she warned. “And I’m picking you up and staying with you when they let you out.”

  “Thank you,” Thomas told her softly. “You’re the best.”

  URI WALKED IN WITH a nurse in the process of reassuring him that Thomas wasn’t in any danger. The man stopped speaking as soon as he saw Thomas, and Uri took one look at his face and crossed the space between them like they hadn’t seen each other in years, or like Thomas had been lost in a warzone instead of becoming ill in perfectly safe civilization.

  Still, he wasn’t going to complain about Uri’s hand cupping his cheek, his dark eyes travelling up and down his face. “You’ve a fever,” he said inanely.

  “A bit,” Thomas responded. He wondered what the hospital’s policy was on PDA... then winced when he remembered Uri’s policy. He turned his face into Uri’s touch, allowing himself to enjoy the closeness for a minute.

  “You gave me a fright,” the other man told him. “How
did it get this bad so fast?”

  “New strand of the virus or something,” Thomas mumbled. He could easily have gone back to sleep. Maybe if Uri would just climb on the bed and hold him...

  “I can’t really stay that long,” Uri said, taking his hand away from Thomas’s face and pushing a strand of his too-long hair behind his ear.

  Thomas opened his eyes, a little confused. He’d just rushed over and now...

  “I just—” He shrugged. He didn’t touch Thomas again but kept his hand raised like he was about to. “I needed to see you. But I’m volunteering tonight, can’t leave them hanging.”

  “Oh, the karaoke night,” he said, suddenly remembering. He’d had to miss several training sessions with the kids, but at least they were keeping busy.

  “Yeah,” Uri agreed, carding his fingers through Thomas’s hair in a way that felt sinfully good. “You’ll be okay?”

  Thomas risked smudging the line a little more and reached to take hold of Uri’s hand next to his face. “Yeah, sure. Just need to sleep it off.”

  For a moment, he thought Uri was about to kiss him, but the next time he opened his eyes it was because the nurse needed him to drink some more water.

  BY THE TIME KEENAN and Carry showed up, he was bored out of his mind.

  "Guys! I'm so sorry!" he called out, getting a glare from the nurse at the nearest station. He signed an apology before turning to his teammates.

  Carry looked blank. "What for?"

  "Um, for missing the game?" He took a sip of his water before he started coughing again. He’d mostly got the hang of it—it was all timing, really.

  "Dude," Keenan told him. "You. Are. Sick."

  Thomas sighed. "I know, I know, but still." He’d already found out they’d lost, and he knew it was his fault, even if it was a team sport. With him on their line, Keenan and Carry would have been able to use their magic effectively.

  Keenan might have been about to go all alternate captain on him, but Carry saved the day, or his frayed nerves, at least. "Here, we brought you some Chai." He turned to Keenan and ordered, "Give him the candy."

  The little control freak... On the other hand... "Candy?" he asked hopefully.

  “You realise you can buy all the candy you want, right?” Keenan asked him, laughing at him.

  "But free candy tastes better!" he argued, laughing too. Naturally he started coughing again, his throat’s marked reminder that he was not to use it for anything except some water until it was healed.

  "Oh, that's... I think we better stop with all the exciting candy talk or you're going to end up in real trouble," Carry decided, stepping away. "I'll leave the candy on your bedside table," he told him, babbling a little, but even as he panted for air, Thomas could hear the doubt in his voice. "It should be good for your throat if you don't bite it too much."

  He tried to say something reassuring, but apparently he’d already done too much because he ended up having to have Keenan help him drink some water. After that, he’d accepted defeat and waved them goodbye.

  IF HE’D HAD THE ENERGY, he’d have thrown himself a party the moment he got home. Unfortunately, fighting off pneumonia did take rather a lot out of a guy. Also, Colleen would have strapped him to the bed with his ties if he’d as much as requested to stay up and watch a serial.

  So he went to bed, and got woken by his steadfast little sister to drink some fluids, then again by his bladder.

  That time, he detoured to pick up his phone. It was almost out of charge, but there was a message. From Uri. [Hey, how’re you holding up? Kids send kisses]

  “What are you smiling at?” Colleen must have heard him moving around, but she was still in street clothes.

  “Why are you dressed?” Thomas asked her inanely, then checked the time on his phone. Yup, 1:35 in the morning.

  “Because society demands it of us,” she told him cheekily. “Also that I get a degree. Why is your boyfriend texting you at this time? Doesn’t he have a job to wake up for like a proper adult?”

  “He’s a lawyer,” Thomas replied with a shrug. His parents would bloody love it if they knew, of course. “He didn’t text me now, he...”

  “Uh huh,” his sister said, looking like she could read his thoughts. “So he’s that gone on you, then.”

  “What?” Thomas glanced at the time stamp, more to look away from her knowing eyes than because he assumed there was any chance she was right. “No, he texted me at seven in the afternoon. But someone confiscated my phone,” he added with an arch look in her direction.

  “You’re not gonna go all respectable on me, are you?”

  “Uri volunteers at an adoption centre every weekend, and I’m pretty sure he’d rather work there full time if he could.”

  “What’s stopping him?” she demanded, as uncompromising with a man she’d never met as she was with herself.

  Thomas raised his hands. “Need to charge this. Maybe you can ask him.”

  “Can I?” Colleen’s voice went high. “How serious is this? You haven’t—”

  “Colleen!” he cut in. “I gotta rest, remember?”

  She deflated. “Okay, but I get to meet him first.”

  “Sure,” he conceded. “You get to threaten him not to hurt me and all that.”

  She snorted, probably mentally dismissing the idea as a throwback to patriarchy—which was no warranty she wasn’t going to subtly imply Uriel better not fuck up.

  Chapter Fourteen: Uriel

  “Iknow you’re a big shot now and all, but you’d think I could find you at work.”

  Uri glanced up from his reader and had to squeeze his eyes shut before he could focus them on Jun.

  “Wow, when’s the last time you slept?”

  “I... I need to be ready,” he tried to explain.

  Jun shook his head, snatching the reader away before Uri could react. “You need to be alive.” He came around the desk and pulled on Uri’s arm, surprising him enough to shock him awake. For one thing, Jun was a head shorter than him and about half his size, there was no way he’d be able to get him to his feet. For another... it was an awfully dominating attitude for a beta to take towards an alpha.

  Jun had always seemed to remember before, but... His fingers dug into Uri’s underarm rather painfully and he winced. He blinked up at Jun, who was frowning. Had his friend really treated him like an alpha before? Betas had no real reason to remember, did they? For the first time, it occurred to him that for Jun, Uri could just be... a friend, a colleague. And right now, a person who’d been reading for so long his thoughts could hardly cohere.

  He was right about that much, at least. “Come on, let’s get some coffee and food in you.”

  Eating felt amazing, and Uri had drunk half the coffee before registering the taste was off. “You poison me to steal my case?”

  “It’s decaf,” Jun said with a smirk.

  Uri glanced down at his cup in disgust. “Why?”

  Jun rolled his eyes at him. “Because I know what you’re like when you get obsessive, so you have eaten and now you’re going to take a nap.”

  “What? I can’t take a break now, I still—”

  “Or you can waste the twenty minutes arguing with me,” Jun said mildly. Every line of his lithe body seemed to radiate his endless energy.

  In other words, Uri was fucked.

  He heaved a sigh, then got to his feet and put the crockery into the dish washing fountain. Jun followed him into the room at the back of the office where they kept the sleeping pods—only three of them but of the highest quality.

  “Are you planning to sing me to sleep?” Uri asked a little sharply.

  “Do you want me to?” Jun blinked his long lashes at him, asking in a sweet syrupy voice like he couldn’t talk someone into confessing by speaking his incredibly insightful observations until they were sure he knew it all anyway.

  Uri didn’t say a thing. When you didn’t even have the energy to roll your eyes at such antics... He pressed the pod open and toed of
f his shoes before climbing into it to lie down.

  “Sweet dreams!” Jun called as he made his way out.

  He sounded so smug Uri would have got back up just to prove him wrong, if he could have...

  He used the last of energy to hit the button to set the alarm instead.

  BECAUSE URIEL WAS A grown man and able to admit his mistakes, he went to find Jun when he woke, groggy but with a clearer head. He had made sure to sleep at night, having learned the lesson about pulling all-nighters early during his university studies, but he wasn’t that good at stopping once he’d focused on something important, so he’d been getting to bed rather late all of the last week.

  Jun was wearing the green-tinted glasses that helped him with his own dyslexia—Uri might not have wanted to buy all that alpha bullshit about manliness but he was still glad his own brain favoured cream and not a bright colour like green.

  “Ah, the prodigal prince returns,” he told Uri with a smile.

  “Son,” Uri corrected. “And the prodigal son is actually a dick to his dad, and his dad is still hung up on him, so that’s an insult.”

  “Who says I didn’t want to insult you?” Jun shot back, shrugging.

  Uri rolled his eyes but didn’t respond. “Thank you for making me take a break,” he said formally.

  Jun raised his eyebrows, lips curving upwards, but all he said was, “You’re welcome.”

  “And sorry I haven’t been around. I meant to follow up on how the visit to the adoption centre went...”

  “Oh!” Jun straightened like he’d been injected with adrenaline. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about! They asked us back.”

  “What?”

  “The Peckham kids!” Jun seemed ready to vibrate out of his own skin. “We visited again last weekend and it was great. I had to take Rimini out to dinner Monday and yesterday to keep her from baking up a storm. She’s so happy, it’s a little scary.”

  Uri had thought the visit to Peckham was just an experience to ease Jun and Rimini into the search... He had to quash down the part of him that felt the kids were his somehow, to protect, at least. If one of them wanted to be adopted by his friends, they’d certainly be well cared for, and as a plus Uri would get to keep seeing them. The internal promise eased something in him, but he also needed to protect Jun. “That’s great, just... well, just remember a lot of those kids don’t want to be adopted; they’re waiting for their families to be ready to take them back.”