by JS Harker
God, he was such a dork, thinking like this about a guy he’d barely started seeing. But there was something about Flynn. Something comfortable, like reading a favorite book for the tenth time or settling in with coffee and video games during a snowstorm. He was a calm, easygoing constant.
Whereas Derek was a hot mess currently making a hot mess. He managed to get the fudge into the pan barely in the nick of time.
That was when he spotted the corner bit of chocolate missing out of the first pan. More glitter surrounded the corner and coated the counter beside it. Derek picked up the pan. There wasn’t glitter underneath.
Flynn’s roommate had returned, only she didn’t make any sense. Who put glitter on a corner of something? And the stolen piece of fudge was relatively small. Derek wasn’t even sure how someone could dig it out without making a bigger mess.
And hold on. Derek counted the doors to the cabin. The place didn’t seem that big from the outside, and the bathroom was through the bedroom Flynn slept in. There was one more door unaccounted for. Derek knocked gently on it in case anyone was inside. When he heard nothing, he opened the door slowly.
A coat closet.
Derek rubbed his forehead and looked around. He poked his head into Flynn’s room. His closet door was wide open, and the only other door led to the bathroom.
Where did Flynn’s roommate sleep? Where did she live? Derek frowned more at the room. Either Flynn was making the roommate up, in which case Derek needed to get him some mental help or check to see if there was family that could come help him, or he was lying. Neither option felt like Flynn. He seemed so down-to-earth and peaceful. Not that the mentally ill couldn’t be peaceful, but inventing a roommate was a pretty strange thing to do.
That didn’t solve the problem of all the glitter either. Flynn’s hands had been covered with the stuff—which made Derek wonder about all the places glitter could have gotten on or maybe even in him—but there hadn’t been such an obvious hole in the fudge when they went into the bedroom. Flynn wasn’t in the main room. Derek hadn’t gotten into it.
“Um, hello?” Derek said out into the room. “Is there a spirit lingering here?”
The tiniest sound of bells rang through the air. Derek jumped. Ghosts could make noises. But there weren’t any bells around for a ghost to ring.
He was getting himself worked up over his imagination. Maybe he had missed the moment when Flynn stole some fudge. His mind had been in other places. Maybe the roommate thing was some kind of joke Derek failed to understand. Flynn had an odd sense of humor. Or maybe he believed there was a glitter-spreading ghost living in the cabin.
Whatever the case, Derek could stop worrying about the phantom roommate and finish the batches of fudge. He went to the kitchen. Every once in a while, he swore he heard the bells again, but it had to be the music or his imagination. His explanations felt convincing until he turned around and spotted a little glowing-blue fairy taking a chunk of fudge out of the first pan.
Derek jumped and gave a shout. The fairy took off with her stolen food and flew straight to the aluminum foil house on the shelf. Derek dumped the fudge into the last pan, not caring if he leveled it out right or not. Then he tossed the pot into the sink and went to the shelf.
“I saw you. I so saw you.”
No response from inside the house.
“You’re the fairy from the mall, aren’t you? I’ve seen you before.”
A soft blue glow lit the inside of the house. She poked her head out of the entrance.
Holy crap. Fairy. And this time Derek wasn’t super exhausted. Or was he? He’d had a full day of work, grocery shopping, cooking, and getting laid. But he felt energized, not tired.
He waved at the fairy because staring at her was rude. “Um, hi. I’m Derek.”
She leaned out of the exit more. Her translucent wings spread out behind her, and Derek felt guilty for making her so cautious. “You screamed at me.”
“I’m sorry,” Derek said. “You scared me.”
She stepped out of her house. She wore a nightgown, which wasn’t what Derek had seen her wearing before. Either his imagination was running away with him, or she was real and had changes of clothes. Which made sense. He didn’t wear the same things to bed as he did to work.
“You may call me Lulu,” she said.
“It’s nice to meet you, Lulu,” Derek replied.
“Huh. You actually have some manners.” Lulu took off from the shelf and landed next to the fudge pan on the counter.
“And you keep stealing my food.”
“You left it unguarded.”
“I’m standing right here,” Derek said.
Lulu stopped reaching into the pan and turned to look at him. “I suppose you are.”
Derek was having a conversation with a tiny fairy. Some part of his mind finally caught up to the rest of him, and the ridiculousness of the situation made him suddenly tired. That had to be the cause of the renewed hallucination. Because fairies weren’t real.
Lulu sat on the edge of the counter, her legs dangling over the side, and stared at him. She had a piece of fudge in her hands. “You don’t look healthy.”
“I think I need to sit down.”
“Is this shock?”
“Maybe that’s what you are,” Derek said as he took a seat on the couch. “Shock. Do you hallucinate with shock? Do you go into shock after sex? Is that a thing?”
Lulu flew from the counter to the coffee table. She landed directly in front of Derek. “Don’t you know your body’s responses?”
“I had really lousy sex ed. And it’s not like it talked about doing stuff with other penises. It only cared about not getting girls pregnant and not giving each other STDs.”
“STDs?” Lulu said.
Just like Flynn, he had to explain everything. Maybe she was some manifestation of his pent-up thoughts about Flynn. Only it didn’t make sense for Derek to imagine a woman in that case. “Sexually transmitted diseases.”
“Humans can give each other sicknesses from sex?” Lulu asked.
“Yeah. Can’t fairies?”
“Not among the pixies. I don’t keep track of everything that can go wrong with the bigger folk.”
“Okay. Now I have to be dreaming or something.” Derek rubbed his forehead. “Because in what reality do I have a conversation about STDs with a fairy in the middle of the night?”
“You don’t believe in me?” Lulu asked. She sounded hurt, and not the fake hurt Gregory did for attention. A real kind of hurt, like she considered Derek a new friend and he’d quashed her hope.
“I’m having a hard time,” Derek said. “It’s not that I want to think you’re not real, but I mean, how can you be?”
Lulu jumped and landed on Derek’s knee. “What if all the stories could be true? Entire lands made of so-called fictional places? Whole kingdoms of fairies and my kind making magic?”
“I’d wonder what the hell you were doing here instead of there,” Derek replied.
Lulu laughed. “Flynn was right! I think you may be a believer after all.”
“You know Flynn?” Derek slapped his forehead. “Duh. Of course you do. Because you live in that house, don’t you?”
“You are a clever one.”
“Derek?” Flynn called out. He sounded half-asleep.
Lulu zipped into the air, hovering an inch from Derek’s nose. She held out her hand and blew glittery dust into his face. “Oh, sweet mortal. Drift now and think not. Slumber peacefully.”
Derek’s tongue felt heavy, and his eyes closed on their own. He wanted to respond to Flynn calling his name a second time, but he was so sleepy.
Chapter Twelve
THE bed was empty of anyone else when Flynn languidly woke. He wiped sleep from his eyes and sat up. Chocolate scented the air, heavier than when they finished having sex, and the bedroom door was wide open.
“Derek?” Flynn asked. Shy Derek hadn’t gotten nervous and taken off in shame, had he? An unfamiliar feelin
g nestled in Flynn’s stomach. Lovers had stranded him before, and he hadn’t minded. But Derek leaving bothered him. Not because he feared for Derek’s safety but because he wanted something more. A strange impulse, but perhaps he was more mature than his parents and Lulu gave him credit for.
Flynn slipped into his jeans, struggling to button them as he made his way out of the bedroom. Human clothing and their fastenings. “Derek?”
He looked up in time to see Derek slump over on the couch. Lulu hovered in the air near him.
She had done something to him. Used magic on him. On Flynn’s Derek.
Flynn hissed at her and was across the room in a heartbeat. Lulu was faster and flew right over her shelf, the one with all the needles sticking out. Flynn had no easy way to reach her without getting stabbed.
In the language of Winter, he snarled, “What did you do?”
“He’s asleep, that’s all,” Lulu replied in the same tongue. “Calm down! You’re overreacting.”
“Overreacting? You did something to him.”
Lulu shook her head and darted back and forth. “Flynn, Flynn, Flynn, calm yourself! He’s fine.”
Flynn glanced at Derek, then went to his side. Derek was breathing, but he wasn’t conscious. “You put him to sleep!”
“Regular old sleep spell I use frequently. It won’t harm him. It may actually do him some good.”
Flynn wanted to grab her. If he called on some wind, then he might be able to blow her down.
Lulu came at his face before he was ready to cast magic and smacked him right between the eyes before flying to her shelf. “You’re being irrational! Check your pet and see he is fine!”
“He’s not my pet,” Flynn snapped. “He’s my boyfriend.”
“Funny. You’re acting like those silly nobles when one of their pets get hurt,” Lulu hissed in reply.
Flynn blinked at her and rubbed the spot she’d smacked. It stung some, probably would have stung worse if she meant to hurt him. “I am?”
Lulu rolled her eyes. “What a silly question. Have you even given me a chance to tell you what happened before snarling and attacking me?”
Flynn scratched his ear. He hadn’t. Wrapped up in his own thoughts, he’d simply reacted when he perceived a threat—which was wrong of him. Lulu wouldn’t do anything bad to Derek. He dropped his gaze and shook his head. “I’m sorry for assuming, Lulu.”
“Were we in the feylands, I wouldn’t find fault with your reaction, but it’s me, and we’re in the mortal realm. I don’t go around attacking people!”
“I really am sorry, Lulu.” Flynn sighed. “And once more for good measure. I’m sorry.”
“Apology accepted, but come at me like that again, and you will see what even a single pixie can do to fey your size.”
Flynn turned to examine Derek. He did appear to be asleep and nothing worse. There was only pixie dust on his eyes. His breathing was even, but not the kind that went with a sleeping curse. Lulu wouldn’t hurt a human without good cause. Flynn shouldn’t have assumed the worst of her. But he had in a flash.
He plopped down onto the floor and scratched the back of his head. “What happened, Lulu?”
“To your common sense? I don’t know.”
He shot an annoyed glare in her direction.
Lulu landed on the edge of the couch arm. “He came out and made more fudge. Then something strange must have happened in his head because he started searching the house. I don’t know what for. He called out a couple of times and then made more fudge. It smells so good, Flynn! I just wanted another taste.”
“Did you get stuck again?”
“No. But he turned around and saw me.” Lulu put her hands on her hips. “He’s got better manners than you, even though he thought I might be fake.”
Flynn sighed. “I apologized thrice.”
“Yeah, well, I can still be offended. You used only words. And you didn’t see the look on your face. You’re terrifying when you’re pissed. I didn’t think you had that in you.”
“I thought he might be hurt,” Flynn said.
“Well, I decided to put him to sleep. It’s an easy way to explain away our conversation.”
Flynn drew up his knees and wrapped his arms around his legs. A necessary measure of deceit, but Flynn didn’t want to keep hiding what he was from Derek. He wanted to be more open, to fully relax and not worry in his presence. Most of the time he forgot himself and asked things he shouldn’t anyway. If Derek knew the reason, he might be even more patient.
Or he might run from their relationship without giving Flynn a second thought.
But maybe he wouldn’t. He had seen Lulu.
“Did you frighten him at all?” Flynn asked.
“A little, but more from seeing me when he expected no one.”
“So maybe he would be okay. With knowing about me.”
Lulu’s eyes went wide. “Flynn, that is not a simple thing to tell him. I can be dismissed. I can be safe. My queen knows where I am and will hunt through every realm if I don’t come home eventually. You, though. No one but me knows where you are. You, he could try to do all manner of evil things to. What if he captures you?”
“You can’t stick me under a glass,” Flynn said.
“I only told you that story to point out they are devious creatures. I got out from under the stupid glass without much issue at all,” Lulu replied. “What do you really know of this mortal? He likes the touch of you, but what else?”
“I know more than that.”
“Do you?”
“I don’t have to recite every fact to you. He’s open.”
“The best way to deception is the appearance of honesty,” Lulu said.
The old adage only caused more disturbances in Flynn’s increasingly troubled thoughts. He didn’t want to think like this about Derek. “He’s invited me to his parents’ home. A party. Surely I could figure out if he’s a liar there.”
Lulu gestured at the pans of fudge. “Is that what all that’s for? It’s not staying?”
“No, it’s not.”
“Maybe we should taste a little more before he takes it away.” Lulu crept to the edge of the couch arm.
“I don’t want to lose control on it, and it smells so good.”
“It is good.”
“How much have you eaten?” Flynn asked.
“Barely any! But perhaps you should help me clean up my dust some, because Derek is smarter than I thought. He notices things,” Lulu said.
“All right. But we’re not taking more of the fudge than we need to make this story plausible.” Flynn stood slowly. “And you’re not putting a sleep spell on him again.”
“What if he asks me to?” Lulu said. “You can’t say I can’t ever do it again. Ever is a long, long time.”
“Merciful ice and storm, Lulu. I am in no mood to guard against all possible outcomes with a few words.”
“Which goes to show what a youngling you are,” Lulu said. “Maybe that is why you like Derek so. He’s mortal and doesn’t need such strict guidelines against deception.”
“And yet you claim they are bigger liars.”
“The guidelines wouldn’t work. They don’t bind humans like they do the fey. They don’t have magic they could lose or anything like that.”
Flynn sighed. “I know. I know. Let’s see what mess you made of the fudge.”
They figured out they needed to cut a small portion of the corner. Flynn remembered Derek agreeing that fudge was cut into squares, so he carefully cut around Lulu’s hole into a square shape and took the rest from the pan. He split the portion between them.
The gooey chocolate melted in his mouth, and it was so delicious Flynn moaned.
“See why I took more now?” Lulu said.
Flynn’s ear twitched. He had promised he wouldn’t eat all of the fudge. That might prove a lot harder than he thought. “We’ll only take a tiny bit more.”
Lulu hovered over a pan, leaving a trail of pixie dust. “We
should take a whole pan. He’s not watching to stop us.”
“Because you put him to sleep!”
“It’s not my fault he can’t resist a sleep spell.”
Flynn shook his head. “He did promise me a pan, but I don’t want to eat it all tonight. I want some of it to last.”
“Fine, fine. But we’ll see if you have any restraint after a few more bites.”
Chapter Thirteen
HAVING a charming boyfriend was a bright and shiny experience Derek never wanted to tire of.
But if Flynn didn’t stop fidgeting in his seat, Derek was going to pull over and lose his cool. He didn’t want to be that guy, the guy who got pissed over nothing. He didn’t want to ruin Flynn’s fun, especially since what Derek really worried about was his parents’ reaction to his new boyfriend. They’d ask how school was going, too, and Derek had spent more time working than studying. His final grades reflected that. The big ear-to-ear grin on Flynn helped ease Derek’s nerves some, but his inability to sit still drove him crazy.
Flynn wanted to see everything they passed, from the forests to the farms to the small towns. Everything was absolutely amazing on the road to middle-of-nowhere Wisconsin. He’d swapped out the music, switching between a dozen radio stations before learning Derek’s phone had music. Finally he settled on a random ska Christmas album Derek forgot he had. He tapped his fingers along to the music on just about anything in reach, which included the dash, the door, the center console, and at one point, Derek’s leg.
Derek wished he felt that excited. Well, in a way he did because when Flynn kissed or cuddled him, he was almost too happy to stay still. Which was probably why he hadn’t taken Flynn’s head off for being the most annoying passenger ever.
The fourth time Flynn locked his seat belt and had to reset it turned out to be the end of Derek’s patience. Once the damn dinging was over, Derek cleared his throat. “I know this is asking a lot, but could you stop?”