Chapter 25 #3
Eddie turns back to look at the mirror, taking in the sharp black suit, lined with ocean blue satin.
The vest is a dark velvet, covering a shirt of deep blue.
Jackson notices how the suit fits him perfectly, highlighting every curve and hard muscle.
It showed off his strong shoulders, broad chest, and defined ass.
“I have that same suit, I think. In red and black with hints of green.”
Jackson says, trying to extract his attention from drinking all of Eddie in. He is truly a sight to behold, merely inches away from his own hands.
Eddie chuckles, catching Jackson’s wandering gaze in the reflection of the mirror. “It was a gift from your mother for my last birthday. I’ll be sure to thank her again if our paths cross tonight.”
He turns and takes Jackson’s hands in his own.
“I don’t suppose this is the part of the story where you change your mind last minute, put on your best suit, and grab that mask you tried to hide yesterday?
” Eddie presses a gentle kiss to the back of Jackson’s knuckles.
His touch is warm and gentle, Jackson’s breath catches in his throat.
Jackson wants to say yes, anxiety be damned.
There is just that last little bit of doubt he truly can’t shake, no way to guarantee his magic would behave.
Instead of closing the distance between them, to take that final step towards what he had been denying himself, Jackson offers a rakish smirk.
“If it was, I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise by either confirming or denying. ”
They share a laugh as Hakeem joins them from his room, all dressed for the ball. Jackson admires how he looks beside Eddie, silver against the warm tan of Hakeem’s skin versus the ocean blue lining Eddie’s suit against white skin.
They huddle together as Jackson takes a photo on his phone. “Well, don’t you both look handsome this evening.” He whistles and winks at his boys. “Alright, Sarah should be here soon and Wendy just texted me she arrived. You two have all you need before you go?”
They did, and as Wendy knocks on the apartment door, Sarah shoots a message to Eddie that she was pulling up in front of the building. Jackson goes to let Wendy in as Eddie offers Hakeem his hand, “Shall we?”
Hakeem beams behind his glasses, taking the extended hand. “We shall.”
Wendy strolls in wearing a trench coat and seems to have a full face of makeup on. “Well, you look suspiciously fancy for a night of take out and romantic comedies.” Says Jackson with a raised brow.
Wendy flips her hair nonchalantly. “If the delivery guy is cute I want to look my best, nothing more. Not all of us have two adorable roommates waiting for us after a hard day’s work.” She says, gesturing to Hakeem and Eddie holding hands.
“Well, this time I will be the one waiting for them to come home,” Jackson rolls his eyes as he looks at the two men holding on to each other.
He truly is lucky, even with all his mess, that those two stood by his side.
They deserve a night out without having to worry about him.
“You two have fun, I’ll see you when you get home. ”
The guys give him light nods and small smiles as they head out for the evening. No point in keeping Sarah waiting. “We’ll see you later, Jackson,” Hakeem calls back as Eddie leads him by the hand to the elevator.
* * *
Jackson collapses into the couch besides Wendy, burying his hands into his hair in a huff. “Why is it so hard to not go to a society event? I’ve missed plenty. I’ll start going when I turn a hundred.”
“So you say,” remarks Wendy as she browses through delivery options on her phone.
Jackson tilts his head to glare at her. “And what is that meant to imply?”
Wendy doesn’t look up from her phone. “Everything else a non-elven adult in society does, you partake in. You avoid these events because you never saw the point when the people you cared for most either weren’t going; namely Mrs. Lee, or, you saw them on a regular basis; namely your parents and grandmother.
You saw no point in traveling to far off realms when it forced you to don a mask in front of the entirety of fey royal courts.
You said yourself the winter solstice was one you couldn’t avoid as the bare minimum as your duty as the Nocturne heir.
Don’t go spouting that hundred years bullshit to me. ” She bites out the last part.
“Then enlighten me, why is avoiding the spring solstice so hard this year?” Jackson rolls his eyes, voice thick with a sarcastic tone.
Wendy gives him a withering side eye. “Because, Jackson, you are denying yourself happiness by not going under the thinly veiled disguise of granting the men who care about you reprieve from your company. News flash, my dear, if they didn’t want you there they wouldn’t look like sad puppies at the idea of you not going. ”
This again. Jackson doesn’t want to hear it. Wendy hadn’t forced the topic since he said he wouldn’t go last week, so why is she seemingly mad at him now? “What did I do to deserve this scrutiny?”
Wendy abruptly stands, her face scrunched in anger. “Because, Mr. Nocturne.”
Uh oh, he’s in trouble.
“That was before you casually mentioned buying custom masks for tonight. If it was just for Hakeem and Eddie I could call you sweet and considerate. But you just so happened to mention that you had ordered one for yourself too, and THEN decided not to go.”
“I tell you far too much these days.”
“Don’t you change the subject. You want to go. You wanted to go so badly you got masks in each of your eye colors.”
Shit, he did.
“You are standing in your own way.” Wendy is now pointing an accusatory, well manicured, finger in Jackson’s face, forcing him deeper into the couch.
“I’m sorry, but I cannot stand by quietly when the happiness that has escaped you for years is so close, but the fear of losing it causes you to push them away without you realizing.
You call yourself a broken man, but a broken man doesn’t have the hope in his eyes I see in yours.
” Wendy’s voice begins to crack. “Do not give yourself hope, then be the one to take it away from you.”
Jackson sighs in defeat, he hates that she’s right. “I’m sorry, Wendy. I may have been wallowing too much on the matter.”
As Jackson gets up to offer his friend comfort, his mind snaps back to something she had said. “Wendy?”
She sniffles, “What?”
“What did you say about fear?”
“Huh?” Wendy looks at him with glossy and confused eyes, “Oh. You’re letting the fear of losing them, like you’ve lost so many before, push them away. You don’t mean to, but you’re keeping them at an arm’s distance.”
Is that truly what he’s doing? Jackson buries his face in his hands, a dry chuckle echoing from behind them.
“What’s so damn funny?” Wendy has returned to her spot on the couch, legs crossed and one knee bouncing furiously. A manicured hand pets Princess Bandit who has joined her on the couch.
With one hand tangled in his dark hair, the other dropping to his side, he speaks to the ceiling. “That is the third time someone has told me that this week. Are you conspiring with my therapist and Steven by chance?”
Wendy rolls her eyes at him and huffs, “I am not that manipulative. Call it fate giving you a sign or whatever.”
Jackson feels his shadows move, what now?
He turns to see what mischievous prank they were en route to pull now, the first in ages now that he thought about it, when a tendril of shadow places a photo frame in front of his face.
It’s the framed photo of himself, his grandmother Eloise and Brenda Lee, on Brenda’s hundredth birthday. “Fate, huh?”
Brenda had left him the apartment, with the odd stipulation he’d find two roommates to share it with till graduation.
He had found Hakeem, his mana match, and Eddie, someone who could understand the world he came from.
Were it anyone else, would they have been as kind, patient, and forgiving?
Would he have spent so many hours, days even, watching television, going to the store, sharing his deepest hurt, and creating so many happy memories with them?
Would he have adopted a rambunctious raccoon who is currently snoring in a giant pink cat castle in his apartment after having her fill of scratches from Wendy?
No, he wouldn’t have.
A tendril of shadow passes him his phone, for once he thinks he might know what they wanted from him.
He pulls up Jean-Claude’s contact information and turns back to face Wendy.
“Let’s test fate then, shall we?” He presses the call button and turns the phone onto the loudspeaker, the dial tone echoing through the apartment.
They should have left already. He has no way to make a last minute decision and make it on time now, his best suit still in Nocturne Castle to begin with.
Jean-Claude wouldn’t be available to portal them to the Spring Realm, even he had limits.
Jean-Claude would answer and say they were already in the Spring Realm.
He couldn’t return to the castle in the Winter Realm, then to the apartment, then back to the Spring Court whilst also having to return to the Winter Realm after the ball.
“Master Jackson,” Jean-Claude’s voice answers through the phone, “is there anything I can assist you with?”
“Jean-Claude, have you left with my parents and grandmother to the ball yet?”
“Your parent’s and grandmother have already departed for Primavera Castle.”
“See?” Jackson turns to Wendy, a smug expression across his face, to show her that fate wasn’t telling him anything. Before he could speak again, he’s interrupted by Jean-Claude.
“Though they did not require my assistance, it was decided they would take a carriage to the ball. I arranged for them to be taken to and through the portal station, to Castle Primavera, myself before they departed.”
What? They never bothered with anything but Jean-Claude’s magic for portal travel.
Wendy looks smug as she raises an eyebrow, before gesturing for Jackson to continue his conversation. “What-um-spurred this odd decision?”
“I do not know, master Jackson. Lady Eloise recommended a scenic route this solstice, your mother simply agreed to oblige the request. Now, is there anything I can assist you with? I find myself with time on my hands this evening.”
Jackson can’t believe it. Jean-Claude has the time and magic to take him and Wendy to the ball. He looks at the picture in his hand, jaw dropped as his words fail him. Since when did his grandmother care for extending her time outside the castle?
“Well?” Wendy now stands beside him, bouncing with excitement. “Didn’t you have something to ask Jean-Claude, Jackson?”
“Well,” Jackson says, trying to regain his composure, “I was debating going to the ball after all. Call it a spur of the moment decision. But I am afraid my plus one for the evening doesn’t have the time to dress for the-”
He is cut off by a blast of wind as a trench coat is thrown past him.
A full, sparkling pink and green ball gown seems to have materialized on Wendy.
Where was she hiding that?! He hadn’t noticed the matching heels.
Her hair, usually a green bob, was now styled in loose green waves around her face. “How the hell?”
“Aeromancy to essentially shrink wrap the dress under the trench coat,” replies Wendy, triumphantly.
“And if I didn’t work up the courage to attempt this?” Jackson now raises both eyebrows, not believing the over preparedness of the woman before him.
“Then the delivery guy would be dropping off take out to a lady in a full ball gown. If we were going to wallow, I was going to do it in style. I wasn’t going to let you use me as an excuse.”
“You are truly unbelievable.”
“I know.”
Gods help him, he loves that woman.
“Master Jackson? Have you made your choice for the evening?” Jean-Claude asks from beyond the phone. Jackson had forgotten about him in the shock of Wendy’s reveal.
It seems Jackson can deny fate no longer.
Three separate people have told him to not allow his fear to push away the men he cared for.
Those two men are now on their way to a prestigious party, potentially about to dance in each other’s arms all through the night, and he wants to join them.
And now, the one person who could get him there after allowing him time to shower, style, and dress himself was waiting for his command on his phone.
There was just one more thing to take care of.
He turns his attention to the tendril shadow looming over his shoulder, as if it were peering over it. “Is this what you want too?” He asks jokingly, before realizing the shadow seems to be bobbing itself up and down.
“Did you just nod at me?”
Wendy raises her own eyebrow in question, “Did your shadow thing nod at you?”
Jean-Claude asks from the phone, “Did I hear you say your shadows nodded at you, sir?”
The shadow had indeed, and was continuing to, nod at him.
And now his shadows, which have never seemed to agree with him, seemed to be nodding their desire for him to go. There was only one time in recent history they seemed to fully agree to his command outside of a simple lesson, when it was to hunt down the man who scared Hakeem.
With a sigh of defeat, Jackson cracks his neck and rolls his shoulders back. It seems it was time to give fate his full attention. “Jean-Claude.”
“Yes, Master Jackson?”
“Please grab my suit and meet me at my apartment in Solomon City in about twenty five minutes.” He makes his way past Wendy to his room as he speaks, pulling the bat mask from the box on his bedside table.
He traces his thumb over the blue material and silver swirls, he had truly chosen the colors with Eddie and Hakeem in mind. “It seems we shall go to the ball.”
A resounding, “Hell yeah!” echoes from downstairs from an excited Wendy.