Chapter 28 Easy as Pie
Chapter twenty-eight
Easy as Pie
Zef
The late October day was bright and happy, the sun shining, the mustard yellow sky clear of clouds.
Since the weather should have been reflective of Zef’s gloomy demeanor, they were miffed, which made the gloom darker.
They glared at the sky as they stood at the tram stop, Bryce’s wheelie bag in their grasp.
Thick fingers teased Zef’s upper hand, and they turned away from their silent argument with the sun to face Bryce. He stood beside them, a sad, knowing smile on his face. They returned the expression and laced their fingers with his, their palms pressing firmly together.
On the tram, they rested their head on his shoulder, soaking in his pheromones and presence while they still had him. Their heart hurt, and this time, it was not a good hurt. It was a bad, bad hurt. Because Bryce was leaving, and Zef would be alone again.
As the train took them from Envy to Purgatory, Bryce stroked their drooping antennas. “What’s with all the moping?”
“I am sad,” they said morosely as their antenna wrapped around his finger.
“I know. Me too,” he admitted, leaning in to kiss their cheek. “But I’ll see you for Christmas, remember?”
“Yes,” they said.
“It’s only two months.”
“I know.”
“It’ll be over before you know it,” Bryce said, and Zef glared at him.
“Stop trying to make me feel better. I am sad because I am going to miss you so very much. Let me be sad.”
With a nod, he kissed their temple. “Okay. I’m sad too. We can be sad together.”
Hugging his arm, Zef ignored the stares of everyone on the train at their display of physical affection. Bryce was their partner, and they only had another hour with him, so they would give and take affection as much as they wanted, propriety be damned!
The ride to Purgatory passed faster than it should have, and Zef followed Bryce off the train, their hands still twined. They walked through Purgatory station toward the platforms to the human world. Halfway there, their group of friends came into view.
They held signs saying, “We’ll miss you, Bryce,” and “Come back soon,” and Zef’s heart filled with fondness as a smile broke over Bryce’s face.
“Aw, you guys. You didn’t have to do all this,” he said as he was enveloped in all six of Gem’s arms.
“I’m saying goodbye first because I don’t like goodbyes or feeling sad,” Gemae said as he rubbed Bryce’s back. “Come visit soon, and send me cow pictures whenever you can.”
“Will do, Gem,” Bryce said as he patted the Araknis’s back.
Rusty stepped up next, and they fist-bumped each other. “Safe travels, man.”
“Thanks. Let me know when you have your next campaign ready,” Bryce said, clapping Rusty on the shoulder. “I’ll join the party with Discord or something.”
“Sounds good,” the Pyclon said.
Liel offered Bryce a handshake, and Oliver hugged him. “We’ll see you at Christmas.”
“Make sure Zef doesn’t forget their noise-canceling headphones for the plane,” they heard Bryce whisper to Oliver, and the human nodded.
“We’ll take care of them,” he promised, and Bryce’s shoulders loosened in relief.
Any other time, Zef may have been offended, but they were too sad to feel anything else. Willow cupped Bryce’s face, giving him a kiss on each cheek, and the human blushed red under his beard. Jude and Bryce embraced, then Toni took Jude’s spot.
“Keep an eye on Zef for me, won’t you?” Bryce said, and Toni snorted.
“I’ll keep two.”
“I am not a child,” Zef mumbled, but everyone ignored them.
“I know where you live,” Tad said, arms crossed over her chest, bulbous eyes narrowed in warning. “And don’t you forget it.”
Bryce swallowed thickly. “Okay. Take care, Tad.”
The Anura pointed two fingers at her eyes before jabbing her index finger at Bryce in the universal signal for “I’m watching you.” Even though he was five times her size, he still shrank away, half-hiding behind Zef. They patted his back in comfort and reassurance.
After all the farewells had been exchanged, they moved as a group toward the platform where Bryce would be getting on a train and leaving Zef forever. Well, not forever, but it felt like it would be forever, and they wanted to be dramatic.
Near the door to the train, Bryce unloaded his bags, then turned to Zef. They avoided his gaze, and he huffed, half-amused, half-exasperated.
“Zef,” he said, but they still refused to look at him. If they did, they would cry, and they did not want to cry in front of Toni. It would break the poor Elas’s heart. “Zef, will you look at me, please?”
It was the please that did it, spoken so sweetly, so softly.
With a sigh, they crossed all four arms over their chest and grudgingly met Bryce’s gray eyes. He was smiling, but it was sad, his eyes glossy. Tears flooded their vision, and they looked away again.
“Oh, sweetheart,” he said as he rubbed their upper arms. “You’re breaking my damn heart.”
“It is my heart that is breaking because I do not want you to go,” they admitted, breath hitching. “Do not leave me, my Bryce.”
He drew them into an embrace, his thick arms surrounding them, and they collapsed into his big, squishy body with a pained sound. “I’m sorry.”
Shaking their head against his shoulder, they said, “No, do not be sorry. You are following your calling to be the best animal healer in Montana, and I am so proud of you. But I will miss you so very much, and it hurts.”
“I know,” Bryce croaked, voice thick with his own sorrow. “I hurt too, but we’re gonna be okay. We’re gonna make it through this.”
“You promise?” they asked as they tightened their arms around him.
“I promise.”
“And you will text and call me often.”
“Every day,” he said.
“And we will video-call while we watch documentaries?”
“Yeah,” he said.
“And you will still love me, even when we are apart for many months?”
Bryce released them, cupping their face in his hands. They were crying now, silent, thick tears carving paths down their cheeks. He swiped them away with his thumbs as his own tears fell.
“I’m gonna love you every day. Even when we’re apart. Even when we miss each other so badly we wonder if it’s worth it. Even when we argue or have nothing to talk about on the phone or when we have too much to talk about that we get annoyed that the other person won’t shut up.”
Zef cracked a smile, and Bryce laughed wetly. “You’re it for me, Zef. You hear me? You’re my person, my partner, and I love you, okay?”
They nodded. “I love you too, my Bryce.”
“Here.” He pulled something out of his pocket, a small, black box, and pressed it into their top hands. “I want you to hold on to these for me.”
Fingers quaking, they opened the box, revealing two shiny pink hoops. Mantodean steel earrings. Partnership earrings.
“Bryce,” they said, voice breaking.
“One day, I’m going to ask you to wear them,” he said, taking their lower hands in his and squeezing. “I ain’t asking now, but one day, I will, and I hope you’ll say yes.”
“Bryce,” they sobbed openly, his name barely intelligible.
“When you have doubts, when the distance feels too big”—he kissed their cheek, speaking against their skin—“I want you to look at these and remember that I love you. That you’re my home now, and I will always come home to you.”
They kissed him, his words too beautiful to bear.
And he kissed them back, cradling their face in his big hands.
The kiss was salty and wet, and they hated how they ached.
But the ache wasn’t only bad. There was goodness in it now, a hopeful throb for a future that was close enough to touch but not grasp just yet.
This would not be forever. This ache was for now, and they were both strong enough to weather it. And one day—hopefully, soon—they would be together again, and they would never have to ache again.
Breaking the kiss, Zef clutched the earrings to their chest with their top hands as their lower hands framed Bryce’s neck. “I will treasure them always, and when the time comes and you ask me to, I will wear them proudly. Because you are my Bryce, and I love you so.”
With a sob of his own, he hauled them into a tight embrace, and they hugged him back fiercely, ignoring the people around them witnessing their intimate exchange of tears and affection.
“This ain’t goodbye,” he said in their ear.
“It is a see-you-later,” they finished like a promise.
“You were right, Jude, I can’t handle this.” Toni sniveled from somewhere behind them, “Bryce, you can’t leave Zef. It’s gonna kill me. Do you want my death on your conscience?”
The interruption helped, and Zef snorted a broken laugh as they pulled back enough to admire the earrings once more. They were not ready for Bryce to pierce their lobes and slide the hoops in, but they would be one day, and it filled them to bursting with joy and hope and love.
Wiping their faces dry, Bryce and Zef glanced back at their friends.
Toni, Gem, and Willow were weeping, and Oliver was rubbing his nose with the back of his hand and sniffling as Liel rested his head on the human’s shoulder.
Jude kissed Toni’s arm above his biceps fin and patted his back as Rusty held several of Gem’s hands between his paws.
Tad stood several feet away from the group, looking bored and slightly annoyed. But when she met Zef’s gaze, the corner of her mouth tipped in a small smile, and she flashed them two thumbs-up. They smiled sheepishly and returned the gesture.
When the train blew its first warning whistle, Bryce lifted a hand in farewell to the others, and they all waved back. Zef’s heart twisted painfully, but they refused to ruin their last minutes together with sorrow. So they grabbed his face almost roughly and kissed him again.
“I will see you soon,” they whispered against his lips, and he nodded.
“See you soon.”
“I love you. Most ardently.”
“Love you too, heart and soul.”
Another train whistle.
“I gotta go, Zef,” he said, and their chin quivered.
“I know.”
“It’s gonna be okay. I promise.”
“I know,” they repeated, still holding him close.
A third whistle, and the conductor was calling departure.
Bryce turned his head and kissed their palm, then he leaned in and kissed them one last time, sweet and lovely. “Love you.”
“And I, you.”
Then he was ripping himself away and loading up his bags. He rushed to the train door and climbed inside, taking the wheelie bag they handed him. Reaching out, he swiped his thumb over Zef’s chin, and they smiled up at him.
“I’ll see you later,” he said, and this time, it was a vow.
“Yes,” they agreed, “I will see you later.”
Then the door beeped in warning, and he pulled his hand inside.
Zef stepped back from the edge, and a heavy, bluish-gray hand dropped onto their right shoulder as rough, bark-like fingers tentatively threaded with their lower left hand.
Tad waddled over and wrapped her stubby arms around their leg, rubbing her cheek on their thigh.
They sensed the rest of their friends behind them, reminding them they were not facing this alone, and they managed a teary smile as Bryce waved one last time. Then the doors shut with a hiss, and he was out of sight.
“I love you, Bryce Edward Elliot,” they called loudly enough to be heard over the noise of the train’s imminent departure.
Bryce’s muffled voice reached them through the metal door. “And I love you, Zefryn Ignatious Pyrnai Armydel Lynor Syhle Persephyn Xolany Clementyne Ootyk.”
Laughing and crying simultaneously, they reached up and squeezed Toni’s fingers on their shoulder as they tightened their grip on Willow’s hand. They smoothed a palm over Tad’s bald head as the train’s wheels began to turn, slowly at first, then picking up speed.
As they stood on the platform and watched the train disappear, surrounded by their friends—their family—they cradled the pink earrings to their chest, every nerve-ending singing with hope.
Because this was not a goodbye, not by a long shot.
It was a see-you-later; it was a soon-you-soon. They simply had to wait.
Wait for their beloved to come home to them.
Wait to be reunited once more.
For Bryce, they would wait forever.
And the rest? The rest was easy as pie.