Chapter Thirteen
Rodney
I walk through the door, hiking my bags further up my shoulders. Kei is the first one to see me, his eyes going comically wide.
“Jesus Christ,” he murmurs, taking me in. “You look like you were mauled by a fucking bear.”
“What? Who was mauled?” Rin asks, coming into the room, Maki following behind him. They both stare at me, my face going bright red.
“It wasn’t a bear,” I say, setting my bags down. “It was a sparrow, thank you very much.”
Maki tilts his head to the side. “I’m not sure that’s possible. A sparrow doesn’t have a mouth capable of leaving those types of bite marks.”
Rin giggles, nudging Maki. “He means Gayle.”
“Ah,” Maki says, nodding his head. “That makes more sense.
“Let me see,” Kei says, stepping into my space and turning me around. He pulls the bandage away from my skin, making me wince. “He took good care of it, that’s good,” he murmurs. “You smell different but I’ll get used to it.”
He pushes the bandage back into place. Then he surprises me by giving me a hug.
“Congratulations,” Kei says before pushing me away and going back into the living room, flopping down onto the couch.
“Umm. Right. Thanks,” I say back awkwardly.
“Should we talk about the elephant in the room?” Rin asks, grabbing my wrist and pulling me into the living room properly, pushing me onto the couch.
“What elephant?”
“You’re mated now,” he says in way of explanation. “Remember when the three of us had the whole ‘leaving’ talk? I guess it’s time we had that conversation with you.”
“Oh,” I breathe out, my heart surging inside my chest. “Shit.”
Kei snorts beside me. “Let me guess, you guys haven’t even talked about that yet?”
“Not even a little bit,” I confess softly. “Gayle has a kid. It’s too soon for me to move in with them.”
“So you’ll be staying here, at least for a while?”
“I think so. Maybe by the time Calloway thinks about college, we’ll be able to find a place closer by. At the very least, I’d like to keep this as a streaming house when we all start finding our own houses?”
Rin nods his head. “That’s what Maki and I have talked about as well.”
“Fine,” Kei says, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Why do you look like we just stole the last cheese stick? What’s actually on your mind, Kei?”
“It’s nothing.”
Rin shakes Kei’s knee. “Anything that has you upset isn’t nothing. Talk to us.”
Kei bites his bottom lip, looking away. “I just have a lot of feelings right now,” he says softly.
“I never really wanted a pack but then you guys came into my life and it felt so easy to accept you as mine, you know?” I nod along, understanding the instincts that Kei feels even if I don’t feel them as intensely as he does.
“But now the pack just keeps getting bigger and I keep wondering if I’m responsible for everyone?
My shoulders just keep feeling heavier and heavier, like it’s my duty to make sure you’re all okay and cared for. ”
“Kei,” I say softly but he raises his hand, stopping me.
“I know it’s bullshit. You’re all your own people. Plus, you have your mates to take care of you, but my instincts still scream at me to take care of you guys. Your families are my families. I’m just, in my head about the whole thing. On top of that, now I’m anxious about you leaving me.”
“We’re not leaving,” Rin says.
“Not now, but you can’t live here forever. You guys have your mates, your new family units. Eventually, it’ll just be me here.”
Rin and I encompass Kei into a hug. Maki stands up, leaning against the back of the couch in order to join our awkward group hug.
We feel Kei relax against the contact. Sometimes I worry Kei is touch-starved.
He joins our snuggle piles but only when we need them.
They’re always for us, never for him. Plus he always pushes people away whenever he can until he’s too desperate to say no.
“Even if we don’t live here, this will still be the hang out spot. Even if we move out, we’re never leaving you, Kei. We love you,” Rin tell him.
“I love you, Kei. You’re my best friend and you’ll always be my pack alpha,” I say, giving him one last squeeze before pulling away.
Kei leans his head against the back of the couch, staring up at the ceiling. Finally, he nods. “Yeah, okay. I can live with that.”
Rin smiles before his face turns serious. “The charity stream is tomorrow.”
Kei nods his head and looks at me. “We’re gonna have to find some makeup.”
“Stop fussing,” Wizard says, dabbing more of his concealer against my neck. “Jesus, even I don’t look this fucked up and I was in heat last week.”
“I know better than to mark you up when I know we’ll be on camera,” Azaad says with a chuckle.
It feels so weird to see Wizard and Azaad in person.
This isn’t the first time we’ve met them but every time, I can’t help but feel a weird sort of marvel.
We know them so well online but seeing them in the flesh is so strange in a wonderful way.
It always surprises me to remember they’re short kings, especially compared to Rin, Kei, and myself.
Wizard is wearing a black skirt that goes just above his knees, a black long-sleeved shirt with buckles and chains that go across his chest. His makeup is perfect like always.
Azaad on the other hand is all soft pastel colors with his cotton candy blue shirt and orange overalls decorated with 70s inspired flowers all over them.
They seem so opposite yet fit together so well. They’re adorable.
“I’m not fussing,” I say with a pout, letting Wizard cover all my marks with his makeup. Thank Christ he knows what he’s doing because I’m clueless.
We start the stream in about an hour and already, the website with our fundraiser is collecting donations. We haven’t even started and we’ve already hit three of our stretch goals.
“There we go,” Wizard murmurs, doing a final pat over the marks. “No one should be able to tell now.”
I stand up and look in the mirror, tilting my head back and forth. “You are brilliant. Thank you.”
“No worries! Always happy to help!”
The three of us step out of the bathroom. There’s a group of people all huddling in the kitchen, doing all the last minute prep for the stream. Our living room has been rearranged with our streaming equipment. The TV is all set up as well for when we do the racing game together later.
“How’re we feeling?” I ask, stepping into the kitchen.
“Good,” Rin says with a grin.
“Stressed,” Kei says at the same time but he’s smiling.
“This is gonna be awesome,” I tell them both, slapping them on the back. “What’s the latest number looking like?”
It’s Kei who answers. “We’re just about to hit 50 thousand.”
“Already? Jesus,” I hiss out, smiling as Gayle wraps an arm around my middle, sidling up beside me. “Should we change any of the stretch goals? We’re probably going to hit them all really fast at this rate.”
“Keep them as they are,” Azaad says, taking charge. He’s been working side by side with Kei, taking care of all the behind the scenes stuff together. “I have a few we might add if we really need to, but let’s play them by ear.”
“You ready to make the auction go live once we start?”
Azaad nods. “I’ll hit it once you guys explain it. Then I’ll share the link on everyone’s social media accounts.”
“Perfect!” Rin says, putting a hand on Azaad’s shoulder. “Thanks again for being here. We couldn’t do all this without you.”
Azaad’s face goes bright red. “No problem. Happy to help,” he says with an awkward chuckle. Wizard watches with a soft, affectionate look on his face.
We get our water bottles before heading over to the couch. Rin, Kei, and I sit on the main part of the couch while Maki sits on the floor beside Rin’s feet. Gayle sits on the arm of the couch beside me.
Azaad counts us down before hitting ‘go live’.
We have a monitor off to the side, showing us what the stream sees along with our total live donations.
We’re live on Rin’s channel but all of our channels are hosting his so if anyone went to our streams, they’d be redirected to this one.
All three of our mods have been given the mod status in Rin’s chat so they can help direct everyone and keep things running smoothly.
“Hello everyone,” Rin says with a wide smile, waving at the camera. “Welcome to this year’s fundraiser! I hope you’re ready because you’re about to be on a wild ride,” he says, starting to explain everything.
When it’s my turn to talk, I pick up the paper that Azaad made for me.
“This year we have a variety of things available on the auction site! You’ll have to check it out if you wanna see the full list but right now I’ll just share a few,” I say, starting to read the items from the list. “You could win an hour of gaming time with Blue, Suga, myself, or Snow. There are tickets to an at home Nanio Ninja game. There are tickets to see The Devastated live in concert. We have an art commission from Suga. We have a signed volleyball, signed by the entire Nanio Ninja team. We have a brand new computer tower. We have merch from the four of us, and so much more. Please, take a moment to head to the site and check it all out!”
“Thank you, Rodney,” Rin says, taking over again. “The schedule is also posted on my socials. I know a lot of you can’t stay for the entire time, but you can check out which sections you want to watch and plan accordingly.”
“Excuse me?” I jump in, looking into the camera. “Chat, you know I’m parasocial! You’re not allowed to leave once you’re here. Plan accordingly,” I say, pointing at them and squinting.
Kei snorts, shaking his head at me. “As you’ve all seen, this year’s theme is ‘community’ which means a lot of the events you’re going to see have to do with working together.
It means a lot to us that our communities can come together and do something good for the world so before we even get started, I just wanted to say thank you. ”
Rin and I nod along. “We wouldn’t be able to do events like this without you all. You’re helping make a difference.”