Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Kei
My entire body feels like a fucking rock. We’re in the final stretch of our charity stream. Everything so far has gone off without a hitch. I don’t think it’s possible for me to feel more proud of all the work we’ve all put into this.
“Just a reminder,” I say into the camera, sitting right in front of it while Rodney and Rin stand next to our wheel of content. “Make sure to check out the auction site before time is over! If you want to win an art commission from me, bid now or forever hold your peace.”
“Don’t act like your art commission is the best prize,” Rin says with a grin. “I see the bidding war happening on my hour time slot!”
“We all know TwinkleKawa is gonna win again this year,” Rodney says, watching the donation number slowly rise. “Yippee,” he says, jumping up and down when we hit the next milestone. “Spinny time!”
“Gods, you’re a fucking child,” I say under my breath, knowing chat must be loving my displeasure.
Rodney spins the wheel and we all wait, watching as it slowly ticks down and lands on ‘music video parody’.
“Let’s go,” Rin says with a cheer. “That’ll be so much fun!”
“So long as you don’t scam them.”
“I would never!”
“What song will you parody?” Sullivan asks from his place on the couch.
“We should parody one of the songs from The Devastated and make it into a love song. That would be hilarious.”
The Devastated is a band that writes break up music. Their songs are always about letting go, having fun, and fucking past relationships in order to embrace your singleness. I’ll admit, I really like their music.
“I could get behind that,” Rin says with a nod. He erases that slot on the wheel, replacing it with someone else from our list so we don’t double up. This is working really well. We’re in the homestretch and people are excited to get us to spin the wheel as many times as possible before time is up.
Our initial goal was to hit 500 thousand dollars. Everyone has blown our expectations completely out of the water. We’re just over 700 thousand already and that number just keeps on going up. Plus, that’s without thinking about how much money we’ve raised from the auction.
“Holy shit,” Rin says, staring at the screen. “We hit the next milestone already? Fuck, you guys! You’re on fire right now!”
“Keep the donos coming,” I say into the camera. “If everyone just donates a tiny bit, it all adds up.”
Rin is the one to spin the wheel this time. “Huh,” he says softly when it lands on ‘audiobook stream’. “Okay, that’s not a difficult one! Y’all will finally have your sleepy stream you’ve been begging me for.”
“I’m reading smut,” I say right away and then immediately regret it when people start being weird in chat. “Okay, okay. Don’t say anything or the mods will get your asses.” Then I quickly add, “and no, not like that, you pervs.”
This goes on for a while before the hour is finally up. Our time is officially up.
Rin, Rodney, and I sit on the couch, looking at the screen, our hearts bare for everyone to see.
Every year, this is how the fundraiser ends.
We see how much our community has come together to do something good for the world and cry.
This year, we’re surrounded by our community, our real life one. Our pack.
We finally cut the stream after telling everyone how much this event means to us and thanking everyone for donating and being here. Then we all just sit on the couch, silent.
“Fuck,” I say, unable to stay quiet for too long. I feel so overwhelmed with everything I’m feeling. This was such a good event and I’m humbled every single year. It feels so good, knowing that people still care. That people are inherently good. “Holy shit.”
“Well said,” Azaad says from his place on the floor. Him and Wizard are lying on their backs, side by side, staring up at the ceiling.
“I think I need to sleep for a week,” Rodney says from behind me.
“We raised almost a million dollars,” Rin says, his voice barely above a whisper from his place on my other side. “Holy fucking shit.”
Gods, that feels so unreal. We’re just a couple of guys who like making a fool of ourselves online. How the fuck do we have the power to pull off something like this?
“That’s gonna help so many people.”
“We can’t start crying again, you guys,” Gayle murmurs softly.
“This is gonna be really cheesy but I have to say it,” I force myself to say.
I sit up and look around at everyone in this room.
My roommates and best friends are beside me, along with their mates.
Some of our closest mods came into town to help out and are here.
Sullivan, someone from Maki’s volleyball team who I instantly clicked with when we met is also here.
As much as I present myself as a prickly asshole and how much I loathe people getting actually close to me, these people are my people.
They’re my family whether I wanna admit it or not.
“I fucking love you guys. I’m glad I know you all. ”
Rin wraps an arm around my shoulder, shaking me. “We love you too, you grumpy bastard.”
Everyone in the room makes noises of agreement. They love me too. Gross.
“Food and then giant nesting pile?”
“Hell yes! The perfect way to end the event,” Rin says with a giant grin.
We order a shit ton of pizza and eat it around the living room. Afterwards, we put away the streaming equipment before covering the entire living room with blankets and pillows. Rodney makes the biggest nest I’ve ever seen. Then we all find a place inside, snuggled up together.
Normally, this many people all crowded together would leave me with one hell of a migraine from the smell. Thankfully, I have a pill that helps suppress my sense of smell for times like this. It’s doing its job and I safely get into the nest without risking hurting myself.
I squeeze myself between Rin and Sullivan, my back pressed up against Rin’s. With what little sense of smell I have at the moment, I can’t help but think the room smells like pack, despite there being smells I’m not used to. I trust and care about all these people.
Pulling out my phone, I check my messages with Sookie. My stomach does a weird sort of twist when I think about the way he won that battle royale match. I’m gonna have to do an online date with him and I can’t decide how I actually feel about it.
Sookie: Nice job today. Make sure you wear something pretty for me on our date.
Gods, he’s such an asshole.
That’s why I like him.
Me: Of course, darling
“Did he text you?”
I quickly close out of the app and slip my phone under my pillow. Then I look into Sullivan’s eyes, knowing he sees way too much for me to actually lie.
“Maybe.”
“That’s a yes,” he says with the tiniest chuckle, flashing me a grin big enough to show off his braces. “It’s kinda cute how you’re pining.”
“I hate you.”
“Yet, you allow me into your home. That’s on you, dude.”
“Don’t talk to me about pining,” I say, narrowing my eyes at him.
“Who better to call you out than a fellow yearner?”
I poke Sullivan’s cheek, making him grin even wider. All around us, everyone is slowly falling asleep. I can feel sleep dragging at me as well. The weight of these last twenty four hours are hitting me all at once.
“You should tell him you have a crush on him,” I whisper before letting out a jaw cracking yawn.
“Yeah, I’m sure that’d go over well,” he says with a roll of his eyes. “We’re on the same team. I can’t make things awkward.”
“He doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy to make things awkward, but I guess you’d know him better than me.”
“You strike me as a dumbass,” Sullivan says, blinking slowly.
“Thanks,” I deadpan but can’t help but feel warmth with affection. “One of us needs to get our shit together and I don’t really want it to be me.”
“It’s scary,” Sullivan says, barely above a whisper. “Let’s ditch our crushes and mate with each other instead.”
I snort right in my friend’s face. He pretends to be wounded but we both know that wouldn’t work out.
Not only are we silently pining but I’ve talked to him about some of my preferences and let’s just say, they don’t align with his.
I’ve always found myself attracted to alphas while Sullivan has always found himself swayed by the sweet scent of omegas.
“I think my feelings are hurt.”
“No, they’re not. We’d have a terrible time as a mated couple.”
Sullivan pretends to think about it before nodding. “Yeah, you’re way too stinky.”
At this point, I can barely keep my eyes open. Sullivan just chuckles, patting my shoulder before scooting over until his head is resting on me. He throws an arm around my middle, snuggling close.
I’m warm, exhausted, and surrounded by some of my favorite people. I fall asleep quickly.
Our group sleeps for a solid twelve hours before we finally get out of our nest and start making coffee and food. Everyone takes turns in the shower, doing our best not to appear so zombie-like.
I come back out wearing my comfiest pair of sweats and a hoodie and a mask across my face. Dragging myself into the living room, I sit on the couch, wrapping myself in a blanket. There’s a tickle at the back of my throat and a headache building behind my eyes.
This happens every year, without fail.
“I think the after-stream funk is hitting already,” I say, looking up at Rodney with big eyes, hoping for a shred of empathy.
“You’re all stocked up on meds and stuff, right?”
“Of course. You think I’m an idiot or something?”
“Or something,” he says with a small smile. “Just sit here and take it easy. Maybe this time you just need a little rest.”
“Doubt it,” I say, leaning my head against the back of the couch.
I watch through heavy eyes as Rodney makes food for everyone. Once everyone has eaten, they start leaving. Sullivan is the first to go. Then Gayle and his son, Calloway. Next to leave is Wizard and Azaad. They both give me a hug, telling me to rest up.
“I think we’re gonna head out,” Rin says, standing in front of me. “I know you’re not feeling well so I’ll just stay at Maki’s house til you’re feeling better.”
I just barely keep myself from pouting. I nod my head, understanding.
“Do you wanna leave me, too?” I ask Rodney.
“Nah. Someone’s gotta take one for the team and take care of your ass.”
“My ass is fine. It’s the rest of me that doesn’t feel well.”
Rodney rolls his eyes. “Gayle will probably be back later this week. We’ll keep you company, Kei.”
“Okay,” I say softly. “Thanks for being here, Maki.”
“Thank you for allowing me to be included in your event. It was truly remarkable.”
A few days later, finds me in my cat form, sitting in a tiny nest that Rodney has made me in the window sill by the front door. The sun is shining down on me. I’m content. Or as content as someone who feels like absolute dogshit can feel.
The after-stream gunk has hit me and this year, I swear it’s somehow hit me worse than usual. I’m so sick with a fever riding my ass. In my human form, I’m sweaty yet cold, my entire body aching, my head throbbing, my nose clogged. I feel like hell.
In my cat form, I feel marginally better.
Something catches my eye. I watch as Azaad walks up to our front door, a large basket in his hands. He knocks on the door. Thankfully, Gayle answers so I don’t have to rush into shifting.
With a stretch, I get up from my little perch and head into my room in order to shift back into my human skin. I put a robe on, shivering as the cool air hits my bare skin. A moment later, Gayle is knocking on my door.
“Hey,” he says, handing over the basket. “Azaad said this is from your favorite mod? He said you’d know what that means.”
My eyes widen down at the basket, my stomach doing some weird shit inside of me.
“Thanks,” I say, taking it. Gayle leaves me and I stare down at the care package. I set the entire basket on my desk, looking through it. It’s filled with my favorite tea, a container of soup, the good kind of tissues that have lotion built into them, and at the bottom is a hoodie.
My hands shake as I pull everything out, setting them carefully on the desk. Finally, I touch the hoodie.
It’s black and soft. Almost like I can’t help myself, I bring the material up to my face, breathing in.
“Fuck,” I hiss out.
I’m not sure how I’m feeling right now.
When Gayle said who the package was from, I knew who Azaad meant was Sookie. We always tease about how he’s my favorite mod even though he’s only on the team because he has blackmail on me. It’s been a running joke for years.
I don’t know if I was hoping the scent on this hoodie would be awful, so I could finally put this weird ass crush to rest, or if I wanted it to smell amazing. My sense of smell is overwhelming on the best of days. On days when I’m sick, it can be even more awful.
Sookie’s hoodie smells amazing. Which means, he smells amazing.
He smells like raspberry tea but with the musky stink that comes with being an alpha shifter. Soft. Comforting. Safe.
“Fuck me sideways,” I say again before putting on the stupid hoodie and getting into bed, rethinking all of my life decisions and feeling extra sorry for myself.