Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
MATEO
The conversation with Taron ended up being delayed for the day since he wanted Louis present, and the poor man wasn’t awake enough to even know where he was.
He disappeared into his room with the larger man and didn’t come back out for the rest of the day.
Mateo wasn’t complaining. He snuck to his room the second Taron’s mates convinced him to try again another time and hopped into the shower to clean up.
He spent the rest of the night hiding in his room, playing around on his laptop and ignoring the hunger pangs after he attempted to go to the kitchen and happened to see Oliver creating…
something in the kitchen. He was almost afraid to ask what and the mess he was leaving was enough to send Mateo back to his room or risk losing it completely.
Who needed to use every counter while cooking?
Unfortunately, the quiet with Louis asleep didn’t last forever.
After Mateo crawled into bed for the night, a clattering sound that sounded like someone was rearranging the kitchen broke the silence, and no amount of covering his head with a pillow or stuffing cotton in his ears was enough to block it out.
Why would someone rearrange the kitchen for the entire night?
He’d just barely fallen into a fitful sleep when someone knocked gently on his door. Exhaustion and annoyance made him unnecessarily snappy when he shouted, “What?” at whoever was at his door.
Whoever it was hesitated for a long moment, just long enough for Mateo to think he was going to have to get up and open the door to answer it, which would just irritate him more.
“Mateo? You’ve got visitors at the door,” the soft spoken voice said uncertainly.
Kaz.
The irritation fled in a flash and guilt swamped him instead.
Kaz was the shy orc who regularly offered Mateo a portion of his food whenever he cooked for himself.
He sounded almost hurt by Mateo’s reaction, which only made Mateo feel worse.
Of all the roommates he had to snap at, why did it have to be the gentle giant?
Throwing his covers off his legs, he rolled out of bed and hurried for the door. Kaz was already headed down the hall when he managed to open it, and he scurried to his room before Mateo could say anything.
Great. Not only was he the roommate who accidentally complained in front of the program director, but he was also the asshole roommate who snapped at people who were just sharing a message. Maybe he was the problem.
With Kaz’s door firmly shut, Mateo wasn’t sure whether he should knock or not. He decided to first address the initial issue, going to the door to see who was visiting so early, then figure out the rest later. Maybe he’d know what to say once his brain was awake.
When he saw Dax in the hallway with the guy from the pool, he visibly winced.
“You forgot, didn’t you?” the mage said with a smirk.
Shaking his head, Mateo scrubbed a hand roughly over his face. “No, I didn’t forget. I had a rough night and didn’t realize you’d be here so early. Sorry. Come on in.” When the wards kicked into gear, he grimaced and added, “Dax and–” He cut himself off, realizing he never asked the guy his name.
“Miles,” Dax offered with a smile that held a wealth of concern behind it.
“Right. Dax and Miles, as my friends, please enter.”
He remembered the phrase that Taron had used the day before with the guy that had brought Louis home. Thankfully, it worked just like it had for Taron, and Dax and Miles stepped inside, allowing Mateo to shut the door behind them.
“Holy shit. What happened in here?” Miles asked, drawing Mateo’s focus to the kitchen.
He immediately jerked his gaze away again.
He’d been avoiding the kitchen for a reason.
Oliver was always apologetic about the messes, but he refused to let anyone help him clean it up and ended up making more of a mess than before trying to fix his mistakes.
Apparently this was the source of the sounds the night prior because the mess was somehow worse than it had been when Oliver had been cooking.
He must’ve been up all night trying to fix it.
Which begged to question, how the hell did it take so long to clean?
Oliver looked up from where he was scrubbing a pan in the sink, splashing dirty water all over the counter, and wrinkled his nose. “I’m fixing it. This pan is just… being… stubborn–”
He scrubbed harder, and Mateo felt his face twitch just watching him. The guy was going to scratch the pan and make things worse if he didn’t stop.
Miles looked incredulously at Mateo and Dax, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at Oliver. “He does realize there are cleaning spells, right?”
“I can’t do magic,” Oliver argued, groaning when he scrubbed too hard and splashed water all over himself. Brown water. What the hell had he done to that pan?
“No, like cleaning spells you can buy from a shop and use at home. No magic required,” Miles insisted. “You can find them at any spell shop. I’m pretty sure there’s one like right across the street.”
Oliver straightened from where he was hunched over the pan, cocking his head. “There are spells in spell shops even humans can use?”
“Yeah,” Miles agreed, his incredulous expression saying this was common knowledge.
“Not all of those shops accept humans inside,” an ethereal voice said from behind them. Nylian stepped carefully around the puddles on the floor to access the fridge where a pre-prepped salad was already waiting for him.
Oliver’s shoulders slumped. Mateo didn't blame him. He knew not all supes accepted humans. He hadn’t known some spell shops didn’t allow humans inside. The few times he’d been inside one, the owner hadn’t cared he was there because he’d been respectful and…
Accompanied by a supe.
Oh. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea for Oliver to go to those shops after all.
Miles huffed, annoyed. “If they aren’t willing to sell to specific species, they’re stupid. Let me just set up this ward. When I’m finished, I’ll make a charm for you. You’re making things worse, splashing around like that.”
Oliver opened his mouth to argue, but Miles didn't let him finish, spinning on his heel and waving a hand at Mateo. “Show me your room. This shouldn’t take too long, but you can’t be inside while I’m working or you’ll throw off the ward.”
Mateo figured that’d be the case, as wards were very specific.
He’d read about them in one of his college classes and if he was standing somewhere in the room while a ward was being set up, it might decide it’d only work if he was standing in a specific spot.
He led the way to his room, shooting a frown at Kaz’s door when he passed.
“Is something wrong?” Dax asked.
He shook his head, but the guilt ate at him the entire time he showed Miles around his room and the mage got set up in the space.
They decided not to include the bathroom because it’d require more energy to do two connected spaces, and it wasn’t like Mateo was going to be sleeping in the tub.
Once Miles shooed him and Dax out of the room, Dax put an arm around Mateo’s shoulders, squeezing gently.
“Tell me what’s wrong. You looked upset when you answered the door. Did something happen?”
Man, the kraken could see right through him, couldn’t he?
Mateo grimaced. This really wouldn’t put him in a good light with the guy he was spending time with.
“I, uh… was a little grouchy when my roommate woke me up to let me know you were here. I kind of snapped at him, and I think I hurt his feelings.”
Dax’s gaze followed Mateo’s to Kaz’s room, and when he looked back at Mateo again, his expression was horrified. “You snapped at Kaz? But he’s so sweet!”
DAX
He knew the minute it came out of his mouth that it was the wrong thing to say. Mateo already looked like he felt bad. The shame in his expression wasn’t fake. Dax wasn’t doing anyone any favors by making him feel worse.
Pulling his mate into a hug, Dax wrapped both arms and tentacles around him, squeezing him tightly to reassure him. “I’m sure we can talk to him. He’s a nice guy. If you explain that you had a rough night and weren’t fully awake, he’ll realize it wasn’t personal.”
Maybe. Dax had interacted with Kaz in Spellbound’s research library, and the sweet orc was as soft as a marshmallow. He might be more cautious around Mateo now for fear of pissing him off again. That wouldn’t make Mateo’s life in the condo any easier if one of his roommates was afraid of him.
“Come on. Miles is busy in your room, so we might as well take the opportunity to talk to the guy.” He untangled himself from Mateo and tugged his hand toward the door Mateo had been staring so guiltily at.
Mateo didn’t argue, though he did drag his feet, and Dax could tell he wasn’t sure what to say.
The poor guy looked exhausted, which really wasn’t helping with this whole situation.
Giving the door a polite knock, he waited for Kaz to open it, smiling up at him when Kaz cracked the door open to peek out. “Hiya, Kaz!”
“Oh. Hi, Dax,” Kaz greeted, opening the door a little wider. He froze when he noticed Mateo behind him and looked like he wanted to close the door again to get away. Dax tried to reassure him with a friendly smile.
“Mateo here wants to apologize to you. He wasn’t fully awake when he spoke to you like that. He didn’t mean it.”
Kaz looked dubious, and it didn’t help that Mateo was looking anywhere but at him. Dax bit back a smile, snatching his mate with two tentacles on his shoulders and pushing him forward to talk to Kaz himself.
Clearing his throat, Mateo croaked out, “I didn't know it was you. I had a rough night, but that’s no excuse and I should’ve been nicer. I’m sorry.”
Slowly, the mistrust eased from Kaz’s expression, and he looked to Dax for reassurance before speaking again. “S’okay. I get it. It wasn’t me who caused you to have a rough night… right?”
He sounded legitimately worried, and Dax was quick to reply since he knew the sweet giant wasn’t the problem.
“Nah. Mateo is an incredibly light sleeper and hasn’t been sleeping well.
” He waved a hand toward the hallway where Mateo’s room was.
“I’m having a friend put up a silencing ward.
He’ll be nicer when he gets some sleep.”
“Oh…” Kaz frowned, looking toward the hallway then back to Dax. “I haven’t heard anything, but my parents always said I sleep like a rock.”
Dax nodded. That was pretty common with orcs, actually.
Their families tended to be loud and boisterous, so they learned young to sleep through anything.
Dax was more similar to Mateo, since being under water muffled a lot.
Learning to sleep outside the coral realm had been a trial, and he’d needed to resort to sound machines to help him sleep better.
He considered it with a frown. The ward would be nice, but maybe Mateo would benefit from a sound machine, too. Something to help him get that restorative sleep he so desperately needed.
“Well, hopefully the wards will help Mateo get some sleep. In the meantime, don’t take anything he says before he’s fully awake to heart. He didn’t mean it. He was just grouchy,” Dax said brightly.