Chapter 13
It was uncommon for Pyxlevir to journey to the grocery store.
At the beautiful home he’d recently moved out of it, his uncle Tyndarios took care of meals, including food shopping.
But now Pyxlevir was responsible for feeding himself, so he’d climbed into a car with his new housemates.
Grateful to avoid being squeezed against Gramlithyn, Pyxlevir had rejoiced at his former best friend’s offer to drive.
Without complaint, Pyxlevir had clamored into the back of the hybrid’s vehicle and allowed the conversation to flow around him as they traveled the short distance to the closest shop. Gramlithyn soon guided them into a parking spot, and Pyxlevir was eager to get their chore completed.
Pyxlevir’s weekend was nearly over, and he wanted to relax before work in the morning.
Or get as much tranquility as he could find these days.
His head hadn’t stopped spinning since the moment Gramlithyn had returned with his beefy shoulders, shorn locks, and sexy tattoos.
And Pyxlevir really needed to stop thinking about how attractive his mate was if he wanted to keep a clear head.
The car engine shut off, and Pyxlevir undid his seatbelt.
He slid along the seat until he could comfortably climb out.
Thanks to his short legs, he couldn’t bound out like the twins or Gramlithyn.
It was a fact of life that he was diminutive, and in his teenage years he’d accepted it without complaint.
But Gramlithyn’s disappearance six years ago had unearthed a wealth of insecurities, and Pyxlevir hated that a tiny voice inside him wondered if his height was one of the things his other half disliked.
Shutting off that train of thought immediately, Pyxlevir traipsed behind his housemates and barely registered the whooshing of the doors behind him.
A smile crossed his face as a memory surfaced.
Fragments of a long-ago trip for groceries popped into his head, and a clearer image of the fire alarm ringing in his ears as Aristos had burned his steak later that same evening, filling his father’s old apartment with smoke.
To this day, Pyxlevir and Kalthekor missed no opportunity to gently tease Aristos about that night.
“Pyxlevir, are you okay, dude?” Dasan asked.
Although Pyxlevir knew little about Dasan, he appeared to be both kind and caring. Pyxlevir liked him.
“Yep, sorry, just had a memory pop into my head and I forgot to move my feet,” Pyxlevir replied, rushing to get out of the doorway of the grocery store.
“Dasan, come with us,” Colburn insisted, urging the hummingbird to follow him and his twin as Gramlithyn grabbed a cart. “We’ll grab meat and stuff.”
“Cool,” Dasan agreed and jogged after the quickly disappearing twins. “We’ll meet up with you guys later.”
“You barely eat meat,” Gramlithyn argued, but Dasan waved him off and gave his attention to Colburn and Crispin.
The lovely recollection of the past was long gone as the awkwardness of being near Gramlithyn settled deep into Pyxlevir’s bones. They shared a glance. Pyxlevir shrugged.
“Guess we should grab what we need,” Pyxlevir suggested, heading in the direction of the fruits and vegetables. Their apartment building had a full kitchen, so Pyxlevir was interested in grabbing some snacks, and that was about it.
“Where are they going to put what they grab?” Gramlithyn muttered as they trudged toward the extensive selection of fresh offerings. “They didn’t take a cart or a basket with them.”
“Something I’m sure they’ll figure out the second they get to the meat section or wherever they were headed.”
Pyxlevir surveyed his options. Thankfully, there were tons of pre-cut choices, so he could easily snack without having to work for it. Tyndarios had insisted Pyxlevir learn the proper way to prepare fruits and veggies, but he had no desire to dust off his knife skills.
“They have carrots over here,” Gramlithyn offered.
Although Pyxlevir had loved carrots since he was a baby, he’d secretly grown to detest them.
It wasn’t their taste. They still bloomed lovingly on his tongue despite his dislike of their smell.
Fate hadn’t done him any favors by making Gramlithyn reek of the damn things.
Of course, no one but Pyxlevir was aware of that, so he had to choke down carrots constantly so no one figured out his secret.
But now he was on his own, and he refused to answer to anyone.
“I’ll pass, thanks,” Pyxlevir said.
Gramlithyn’s eyebrows flew up in surprise, but he made no comment as he grabbed several containers of the aforementioned root vegetable and added them to the cart.
While Gramlithyn had eaten plenty of carrots thanks to Pyxlevir’s love of them, it was odd for the hybrid to make that his first choice.
But perhaps that was one of the many things that had changed in the past six years.
Doing his best to ignore the handsome hybrid and the scent of carrots clinging to the air around him, Pyxlevir chucked a few packages into the cart.
He barely paid attention to his selections.
Thankfully, Pyxlevir wasn’t overly picky.
Happy that he had enough to last him far more than a week, Pyxlevir stood next to the cart and studiously kept his gaze trained away from Gramlithyn.
The hybrid cleared his throat. “Need anything else? Fruit, maybe?”
“No,” Pyxlevir replied. “But I’ll walk over there with you if you want to grab something.”
“I think I’m good. The building has a full kitchen.”
“Yeah.”
What the fuck are we supposed to do now? Pyxlevir wondered. They’d finished their shopping in about two minutes and had no clue how long their housemates would take or where they were meeting up.
Gramlithyn muttered something under his breath.
“Excuse me?” Pyxlevir asked.
“This is stupid. We’re already done. They could’ve come here with us. Dasan will definitely want fresh shit. Are they expecting us to wait here awkwardly with the cucumbers?”
The corner of Pyxlevir’s mouth quirked. “I know Colby. He’ll want ice cream. That shit is going to be cold to carry since they didn’t think to get a cart or basket. Serves them right for running off.”
“Unless his tastes have changed, he’ll need like six hands for all his ice cream fixings.”
Pyxlevir’s gaze fell to his silk loafers. “Plenty is different, but Colby’s dessert preferences aren’t.”
“Nice to know something stayed the same,” Gramlithyn grumbled.
Lifting his chin, Pyxlevir stared into the dark brown eyes that had haunted his dreams for years. “Of course things changed. The twins were teenagers the last time you were around them.”
For a dozen heartbeats their gazes remained locked. Pyxlevir didn’t add that he was a damn kid too, but he swore it hung in the charged air between them. They’d been barely more than children when Gramlithyn had decided being mated to Pyxlevir hadn’t suited him and ran off into the wilderness.
Gramlithyn swung his head, and his mouth firmed.
“I know,” he eventually said.
The hybrid yanked his phone out of pocket, and Pyxlevir was effectively dismissed. It fucking hurt, pissing Pyxlevir off. But he didn’t utter a word. Like Gramlithyn, he dug out his phone and fired off a text to the twins. The sooner they were done shopping, the better.
∞∞∞
At mid-morning, the apartment was silent. Or nearly silent, Gramlithyn amended as Dasan bounded into the living room, singing under his breath and clicking his magnets together in one hand.
“It’s stupid, but I miss this weekend,” Dasan said. “It was fun last night making sundaes with the twins. The horror movie was a choice though. I could’ve skipped that shit.”
“Next time, say something. No one wants to put on something that everyone isn’t enjoying.”
“Except your Pyxlevir was legit burrowed under a throw blanket by the halfway point. I bet he saw about as much of the movie as I did.”
Gramlithyn shrugged, though it was feigned. “I didn’t notice.”
“Yes, you fucking did.”
“Excuse me?”
“Since I didn’t want to watch the movie, I was paying attention. You were sneaking glances at Pyxlevir constantly.”
Refusing to lie, Gramlithyn blew out a breath and sagged on the couch. “Maybe I was concerned because he wasn’t watching the movie. As teenagers, we watched all kinds of stuff, and he wasn’t one to hide from any of it.”
“Well, if you’d looked at the scene once or twice, you would’ve noticed that it wasn’t very scary. It was mostly blood and guts, which was gross. Maybe he was feeling squeamish.”
“I guess so.”
Dasan flopped onto the sofa, a cushion away from Gramlithyn. “Did you and Pyxlevir have a nice chat at the grocery store?”
“Not really. We talked about how dumb it was for you guys to run off without a cart or basket.”
“Yeah, shitty planning. I had to run back and get one. We were gone for a while though; you guys had plenty of chance to chat.”
Something in Dasan’s voice had Gramlithyn focusing on his friend, and his eyes narrowed. “It took you forever to answer my text yesterday wondering where the hell you guys were. That’s unlike you.”
“Well, duh. We wanted to give you guys the chance to get reacquainted. The whole point of this moving in together thing is so you guys can reconnect.”
“Dasan, what kind of deep emotional conversations do you think anyone could have in a grocery store? We discussed vegetables and fruits for about five seconds. Then we stood around awkwardly until you three joined us so we could get the fuck out of there.”
“Way to make the best use of your time, dude. You have an apology to make. Say you’re sorry for leaving him for six years.”
“If he’s anything like the Pyxlevir I knew, the first thing he’d ask me is why I left. Do you honestly think I’m ready to bare my heart and explain that it broke me that he didn’t want me as a mate?”
“You better be because that’s going to be a necessary step.”
Gramlithyn scowled. “Not the day after we move in together while we’re in a grocery store grabbing fucking carrots.”
“I’m saying you gotta embrace every opportunity you’re together if you want to have any chance at this working out.”
“It takes two people to create a successful matebond.”
“Duh, but someone has to make the first move.”
Although Gramlithyn’s conscience was telling him that Dasan was right, he was also terrified.
His first instinct had been to run, and a part of him was still chicken enough to find that idea inspiring.
The zebra he shared his soul with wanted the opposite and whinnied in his head.
His beast yearned for their other half. If Gramlithyn desired any sense of harmony with his zebra, he needed to mend the rift between him and Pyxlevir—and do it swiftly.
“I’m scared,” Gramlithyn revealed.
Dasan reached out and patted his shoulder. “Yeah, I would be too, but you’ve got one last shot with Pyxlevir. Do you want him, or are you going to let someone else have him?”
Gramlithyn’s zebra neighed so loudly in his head that his ears rang. “I don’t want to fail to win Pyxlevir’s heart,” Gramlithyn stated firmly, appeasing both man and beast.
“Then don’t waste time talking about fucking carrots.”
“What do you want me to do? Pyxlevir’s at work.”
Dasan’s grin was a mixture of glee and evil. “Do something dramatic, like in a movie, and barge into his office to declare your feelings.”
“Yeah fucking right,” Gramlithyn scoffed. “He’d probably eviscerate me.”
“We’re best friends. If you ran off without explaining why our friendship was over, I wouldn’t kill you. But I’ll be honest. I don’t think I’d talk to you again. Not even if you had a good reason.”
“Thanks, Dasan, that’s very helpful.”
“Wait a minute. Don’t get pissed. I can say that because I already know we aren’t mates. That’d be a game changer, I think. If Fate had paired us, I wouldn’t throw that away without giving you a chance to tell me why you left. Curiosity, at least, would have me listening to your sad explanation.”
“Sad?”
“Sad sorry excuse for running out on me,” Dasan responded with a cheeky grin.
“Right now, I’m wondering why I’m your friend at all.”
“Fuck you, I’m fun.”
“True. But we have something to figure out.”
“We haven’t fucked, so I’m clueless what you mean.”
Gramlithyn rolled his eyes. “I’m half elf. I can only respond to one person. What I meant was, we need some purpose. Or at least something to do while our housemates are at work.”
“Oh, a job. Yeah, that’d be good. I don’t want to spend your money.”
“We’ve pooled our resources for years to make it easier on us both. Nothing about that has changed. But we should figure out how to earn more because it makes me uncomfortable to rely on my parents.”
“Understandable. So, what are we gonna do?”
“No fucking clue. Do you have any ideas?”
“I barely finished my book on this Council shit; how do you expect me to have anything figured out?”
“If I could redo one thing, it’d be to think first before arranging to be teleported to Europe. We should’ve had an alternate plan and waited to return until it was set. Instead, we came straight to Vegas.”
Dasan laughed. “Dude, the one thing you should redo is not talking to Pyxlevir yesterday at the grocery store because you’re wasting your fucking time by ignoring that beautiful elf.”
Although Dasan was right, Gramlithyn didn’t bother to agree with him. Gramlithyn would have to force himself out of his comfort zone if he wanted to explain things to Pyxlevir. There was no guarantee that their matebond was salvageable, but Gramlithyn couldn’t let Pyxlevir go without a fight.
His zebra gave a whinny of assent. Man and beast wanted the same thing. Hopefully, their goal wasn’t a doomed one.