Epilogue
Two Weeks Later
Diego
"It's been, what, an hour?" I asked as I leaned against Shade's shoulder, and he pulled me closer with a hum.
"More or less."
"You're getting stronger," I murmured happily, wiggling my toes as the water lapped at them.
We were sitting at the beach in the Ocean area, and I was loving the heat of the sun on my face, especially because Shade was right there beside me.
He'd been practicing staying outside every day, and he'd gotten a lot stronger in a short time.
From a few minutes, we'd made it to an hour without him needing to retreat, and I loved it.
I loved that Shade could hang out with his friends now, and while it sucked that he couldn't do it without me nearby, it wasn't like we spent much time apart. His friends were my friends too now, and everyone knew we were more or less a package deal.
Last week, he'd helped Zamir play a few pranks—stealing Silas's snacks through the shadows when he wasn't looking, then giving it to Keoni, who gobbled it up instantly, and other annoying but harmless things—as payment for babysitting Pixie, and I got the feeling Silas was planning his revenge, though I doubted he'd be able to get a one-up on my Shade.
"I think we'll need to go back soon," he said after a few minutes, and I turned my head to press a kiss on his cheek.
"Okay. We can go back to our place," I said, making him smile.
It'd been more than two weeks since I moved in, and he still lit up every time I called it our place, or when I called him, "Come on, vida mía .
" I'd first called him that because of how much he seemed to love it when I spoke Spanish, but I'd quickly realized it was the perfect pet name for him, because he really was my life, just like I was his.
Shade hopped to his feet, pulling me with him, and then led me to wherever the closest shadow was.
It had taken me an embarrassingly long time to figure out why he could only use my shadow when traveling solo, but then I realized that my shadow would cease to exist the moment Shade pulled me in and yeah. .. that would be bad.
The world around me turned cool, and the chirp of crickets and the sound of running water from the river greeted me a moment later.
Pixie was in the Forest, since we'd tried taking her with us, but she'd freaked out at the sight of all the water and clawed her way up my body.
Shade had taken her there so she wouldn't have to wait for us alone in the Darkness .
After the first time Zamir babysat Pixie, Shade had started simply dropping her off at the Forest for him or someone else to look after her whenever we needed some alone time.
Pixie had befriended Dustin's cat, Scrappy, and the two had taken it upon themselves to terrorize the residents of the Forest. Half of them seemed to find the duo amusing, while the other half kept trying to pawn them off to another area.
"We still have a few hours until dinner. What would you like to do?" Shade asked, and I grinned.
Wrapping both arms around him, I trailed my palms up his smooth, lean back, raising my head so he could see my face. "I can think of a few things I'd like to do."
Shade chuckled, the warm sound skittering over my skin like tendrils of his shadows, and I pressed closer as I felt his breath against my lips, tilting my head so he could join our lips together.
I melted into the kiss, clinging to him as his wispy tongue slid into my mouth, dancing against mine as it caressed my mouth, the sweet, smoky taste unlike anything else I'd ever tasted.
Shade was so unique. None of the other supes here even compared to him, and he was all mine. How could I have gotten so lucky?
Shade had told me once that all supes believed in a being called Fate, someone who wove our paths together so fated mates could find each other.
I'd never believed in a God before, despite my mom's strong faith in one, but I believed in Fate.
Because how else would I have found someone as wonderful as Shade not once, but twice?
"Bed," I gasped against his lips, and he hummed into my mouth before picking me up and carrying me to it.
He dropped me onto the mattress, and after a moment of weightlessness, I bounced against it as he covered me with his body.
I loved it when he did that. It made me feel secure, protected, like nothing could get to me with him so close.
It wasn't like I was afraid of someone hurting me all the time, but being without your most useful sense was hard.
I had to be on high alert all the time when I was around people.
I could never just tune out or daydream.
Or at least, I couldn't before Shade. Now, he was always with me when I went outside the Sanctuary, whether that was to work, or the markets, or out to dinner.
He was always close, and he kept me safe from everything.
Shade tugged my shirt up my chest, and I leaned up to help him take it off, then quickly got rid of my pants and boxers as well.
I sucked in a breath as Shade's lips wrapped around my nipple, reaching down to cup the back of his head. I caressed the smooth skin as he continued playing with my nipple, then switched to the other one, making me arch up into him as sparks of pleasure raced straight to my cock.
"Shade!" I whined, and he pulled back, tucking his chin against my sternum. Was he watching me? I wondered what I looked like right then. My hair had to be a mess, and my lips felt swollen from our kiss and from the way I'd been biting them just then.
"You are beautiful, Diego," Shade murmured, and I shook my head, then slid my hand to his cheek, tracing the lines of his jaw and cheekbones, then the arch of his nose.
I traced his eye sockets with the tip of my thumb, then his non-existent eyebrows and his smooth forehead.
Shade waited patiently the whole time, letting me see him the only way I could.
"So are you," I murmured once I was done, and I felt his lips spread in a wide smile. He turned his head, and pressed a smiling kiss into my palm, then slid down my body and enveloped my hard cock into his hot mouth in one fell swoop.
"Shit!" I gasped out as his tongue caressed my length, the little tendrils racing up my cock as his shadows ran up and down the rest of my body. I was surrounded by him, and I never wanted it to end. Ever.
Shade
I swallowed around Diego's length, making him groan as he pushed deeper into my mouth.
He knew I didn't have a gag reflex, and I was glad he'd stopped worrying about hurting me and started letting go.
I loved blowing him, and I especially loved it when Diego lost control and started thrusting into my mouth and actively chasing his own climax.
Wrapping a hand around my length, I clasped his hip with the other as I continued playing with his cock, taking it all the way inside me before pulling almost all the way off.
I did it a few times, until Diego tightened his hold on the back of my neck.
I could've still easily pulled back, but I let him take control, let him fuck into my mouth the way he wanted to because I loved it. I loved everything about this human.
"Shit, Shade! Your mouth feels so good. I'm so close," he panted, his voice rough and so full of desperate need that it made me moan around his length, which just spurred him on.
After that, the only sound in the area other than the ones nature made was Diego's panted breaths and my rough moans as we both lost ourselves to the pleasure.
All of my focus was on the man beneath me, on his warm body and slightly hairy skin.
I loved that contrast between us, loved feeling the tickle of soft hair against my palms whenever I caressed him .
"Shade!" Diego shouted, and then he was spilling down my throat, his cum hot and salty as I swallowed it down, pulling back a little so I could taste it.
I didn't know if all human cum tasted like this, and I had no interest in finding out, but to me, Diego's cum was delicious. It was salty and sweet and all him.
I grunted as my own climax rocked into me, pulling off Diego's softened cock and quickly sitting up so I could cover his abdomen with cum.
I loved painting him with my cum, loved seeing it on his dark skin.
I told him it made it easier to clean up, but I was pretty sure he knew the real reason I did it.
"Wow," Diego muttered, and I gave a laugh as I fell on the mattress beside him, turning to my side so I could throw an arm over his chest and snuggle closer to him. "Do you think it will always feel this way?"
"I think so. I don't think I'll ever get used to it. To you," I added, and Diego smiled, turning his head toward me. His dark eyes looked black in the complete darkness, though I knew they were a deep brown color, like the dirt deep in the Forest.
"I feel the same. I'm really glad the Sanctuary magic glitched that day and let me in," he said, and I pressed a kiss on his cheek.
"Me too. I'm sorry I never came looking for you." Even though he'd told me it was all in the past, I still felt guilty about that. I'd made choices for him that he should've had the right to, and that wasn't fair.
"Actually, I'm not," Diego said, surprising me.
"What?"
"I know I was mad before, and I acted like a jerk. I'm sorry about that. But I was talking to Keoni about it the other day, and he was surprisingly insightful about it."
"Keoni is pretty smart," I countered, and he pursed his lips .
"I didn't mean he isn't. I just meant because of how young he is. Anyway, he said that if we had stayed together, we might not have been able to have the relationship we have now."
I gave that a thought, and realized he was right.
If I'd been with him as he grew up, if we'd stayed friends, I never would've felt comfortable dating him.
It would've felt like I was doing something wrong, even if I'd had no romantic feelings for him until well after he was an adult, like he was now.
"You're realizing it too, right? That he was correct?"
I hummed, and Diego shook his head. "He sounded so... confident, like he had firsthand knowledge about it."
I blinked at that, then wondered if Diego could be right. Who could it...no. It couldn't be him , right?
"Anyway, after talking to him, I realized I much prefer us the way we are now. Sure, I would've loved to have grown up with your support, but I can also see how that would've caused issues for us later. Not that I think you would've—"
"I know," I assured him, cutting him off. "I know, Diego. But it would've hung over us, and the people we knew would've wondered. I don't even know if I could've felt this way about you if I'd watched you grow up."
"You said soulmates can be platonic as well. Do you think we would've been one of those if we'd stayed together?"
"Most likely, yes."
Diego sighed, then shifted, his face scrunching up. "Ugh, I need a shower. Wanna join me?"
A week or so ago, Silas and some of the other residents had built Diego a bathroom in my area so he could shower properly instead of taking dips in the river.
Since it was built according to Diego's needs, he didn't need light in there, especially once I'd taken over tasks like helping him shave.
While he preferred to do most things himself, there were some things I'd managed to convince him to let me do for him, and I loved it.
"Sure!" I hopped to my feet, taking his hand as we walked to the bathroom. Draven had magicked it up so there was indoor plumbing as well, and while I had no idea how it all worked, I was just glad Diego had every modern comfort he needed to live comfortably with me.
We stood close together as we showered, our palms dancing over each other's bodies as we 'washed,' and somehow it ended with another blowjob, this time with Diego pressing me against the shower wall as he took me into his mouth and made me come, after which we made out as I jerked him off until he climaxed again.
Afterward, we returned to our bed and instantly fell into a nap, only waking up when the dinner bell rang. I almost went right back to sleep, but I couldn't let Diego skip a meal, so I woke him up, then helped him get dressed since he was a little groggy.
My shadows always kept me cloaked when I was around anyone except Diego—most clothes felt too rough against my skin—so once he was ready, I took his hand in mine and we made our way to the Dining Room to eat with our friends—who were honestly closer to our family when I thought about it—hoping I'd get to do this every day for the rest of our lives.