Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
MATEO
Mateo watched the argument with a little confusion.
He knew couples argued, his parents did from time to time when they were kids, but with supes he thought it’d be different.
More violent maybe? He’d thought he’d be proven right when the one with the long black hair started sparking electricity, but one touch by the man next to him and he settled like it never happened.
Were all supes that controlled, or was it a mate thing?
He snuck a glance at Dax out of the corner of his eye.
If he got to choose a mate, he’d choose someone like Dax.
The way the man could settle him with one of those all over hugs was probably similar to what Taron’s mate did when the other two started bickering.
Dax would make an amazing mate. But he wasn’t sure how that worked, and he wouldn’t want to bring it up right now anyway.
Dax was perfect. Mateo was still working on being a better boyfriend. Mating way too much pressure right now.
“Anyway,” Taron said suddenly, returning to the conversation at hand. “As you could tell, even mates have disagreements when it comes to living together. Especially in the beginning. So you all telling me that five strangers living together doesn’t come with any friction seems a little sus to me.”
“Sus?” Louis asked, nose wrinkled.
“You know, suspicious,” Taron explained with a grin. “My niece taught me that word. I need to keep up on the lingo since my bestie and his mate are adopting soon. Gotta make sure I’m still the cool uncle and all that.”
Mateo leaned closer to Dax’s side, murmuring quietly, “Remind me to never let Taron meet my sister. Those two would cause so much trouble together.”
Dax nodded in agreement, though he looked like wanted to ask more.
It made sense since Mateo hadn’t said much about his family yet.
He hadn’t gotten a ton of details about Dax’s family either, and he was curious what it was like growing up with so many siblings.
Maybe he needed to plan a date night or something.
Somewhere away from the condo so he could think straight and not constantly be scanning for disasters while he was supposed to be focused on Dax.
“Come on, people. Healthy communication is the key to happy living,” Taron encouraged.
Kaz was the first to say something, his cheeks a dark green with embarrassment as he said, “Uh… I don’t know… Maybe the furniture moving thing?”
That got a few confused looks, mostly from Mateo and Louis, but to Mateo’s surprise, Nylian spoke up and took accountability for that.
“There aren’t always good spots to sit in the sun in the evening without getting closer to the windows.
Moving the furniture ensures I can still get enough time in the sunlight. ”
Mateo frowned, confused, and Taron took up the explanation. “Fae need a lot of time in sunlight. It's a quirk of their species. But why not just move a chair closer to the window instead of moving all the furniture every day?”
Nylian, who normally didn’t express much emotion, grimaced and looked decidedly uncomfortable by the idea.
“He’s afraid of heights,” Owen explained, patting Nylian’s arm. “That’s why he’s got so many plants in his room. It blocks the view.”
Mateo felt himself wince internally. If he’d known that, he might’ve been more understanding about the mess when Nylian moved a literal forest into the house.
He also might’ve been willing to switch rooms with him if he’d known when they first moved in.
After the sound ward was put in place, Mateo didn’t really care which room he was in.
One of Taron’s mates frowned at the fae, asking, “Why would you accept placement in a high rise condo if you’re afraid of heights?”
Before Nylian could answer, Taron interrupted with a shake of his head. “That’s confidential. No one is required to disclose why they accepted a position in the pilot program. It was part of the rules.”
And one of the things Mateo liked about the whole set up.
He didn’t have to share with dozens of people through the whole process that he was so broke, he couldn’t afford to sneeze wrong before he got into the pilot program.
He in no way blamed Nylian for not wanting to share his story with the group, especially since none of them were close.
At least, Mateo wasn’t close to his roommates yet.
Nylian and Owen seemed to get along alright, and Kaz and Owen too.
Mateo grimaced. Why did it seem like he was the only one who didn’t get along with the smaller man?
There were a few other small things that were mentioned, like somehow the TV remote was missing and had been for a few days.
That turned out to be Louis, who’d taken it apart to use in one of his home projects.
He promised to replace it after getting a scolding from the project leader who’d forced him to come to this meeting.
It looked like Taron was satisfied with the progress as lunch was wrapping up, and Mateo could have gotten away with saying nothing at all since his initial issue that had drawn Taron’s attention in the first place was already handled by the sound ward.
But then he remembered Dax’s suggestion to communicate better with his roommates and his vow to do better so Dax would trust him more to be a good partner.
So despite just how uncomfortable confrontation made him, he forced himself to speak before everyone could get up from their seats.
“I, um– I don’t–” He swallowed, gripping Dax’s hand tightly when their fingers laced together under the table.
“I don’t want to nag or anything, but… the kitchen has been kind of a war zone since I moved in.
When dishes are left overnight or spills are left all over the counter…
” He grimaced, shaking his head. “Nevermind. Maybe I’m making a big deal out of nothing. ”
“None of that,” Taron interrupted, and when Mateo looked up at him, his expression was understanding. “It’s your home too, Mateo. If it’s too messy for you to use it like everyone else, then that’s a problem that needs to be addressed.”
Lifting a shoulder awkwardly, Mateo admitted, “I know I’m probably more particular about it than most people.
I tried just helping clean when I noticed a mess, but people would get weird about it, and it felt like I was bothering them, so I just…
stopped going in there.” He cast a glance at Dax, the regret over the last time he tried to cook for his boyfriend still fresh in his mind.
“I’d like to be able to go in there more, though… ”
The fallout from conversation with Taron went about as well as Mateo had expected it to go.
People made more of an effort to be more courteous, but the awkward tension in the condo rose to epic levels after that lunch meeting.
Mateo was pretty sure it wasn’t just him who was hiding in his room whenever he was home.
And since he and Dax were only a few weeks into dating, he couldn’t just ask the kraken to move in with him to ease the awkwardness a little.
The kitchen was a lot cleaner than it had been, but Mateo got the feeling that had a lot more to do with Owen steering clear of the kitchen entirely rather than people cleaning up after themselves better.
The more time passed that Owen didn’t go near the kitchen, the worse Mateo felt.
He finally had to admit defeat and call Dax.
He wouldn’t be able to have the conversation on his own.
“Mateo? Is something wrong?” Dax asked upon answering the phone.
Mateo sighed. It wasn’t a good thing that his boyfriend’s first instinct when answering a call from him was to ask if there was something wrong.
“Uh, no. Not exactly. I just… I was wondering if I could ask for your help.”
Dax, for his part, didn’t hesitate. “Of course you can. What’s wrong? Do you need me to come over?”
Mateo couldn’t decide what was worse: letting the mood in the house linger just so Dax didn’t find out just how much worse things had gotten in the past few days or relying too much on his boyfriend to fix things with his roommates.
Dax did volunteer more than once to help, and he did say he was used to living with large groups of people, so he probably knew how to handle things like this, but still…
“Mateo?” Dax prodded when he didn’t immediately answer. He sounded concerned, which was only making things worse.
Clearing his throat, Mateo finally forced himself to speak. “Yeah, actually. Can you come help me figure out how to apologize to Owen?”
Dax was quiet for a moment before asking, “Things are still awkward, huh?”
“Yes,” Mateo admitted with a defeated sigh. “And I think he’s avoiding going into the kitchen.” His voice went quiet when he added, “I didn’t mean it when I said that he shouldn’t go in there. I was a jerk.”
“I know you didn’t,” Dax agreed reassuringly. “I’ll come over and we’ll talk to him together, alright? Give me like thirty minutes. Sometimes the trains run poorly when the weather is bad.”
Mateo hadn’t even noticed the weather. He peeked out of his room, finally hearing the drumming of the rain against the windows in the otherwise quiet condo.
The whole condo was kind of gloomy, matching his mood and possibly everyone else’s.
He slipped back into his room again, sitting on the edge of the bed with a forlorn sigh.
This all felt a lot like his fault. He shouldn’t have said anything and just dealt with being uncomfortable. He wasn’t planning on staying here that long anyway.
He finally left his room when Dax texted that he was on his way up. He scanned the dark living room as he passed through, noting that the furniture was in place and the new remote was sitting on the coffee table. Simple fixes that didn’t make the house incredibly awkward like his request had.
He opened the door to let Dax in, surprised when Kaz and Nylian came off the elevator with him, all three of them dripping wet from the rain.
When he glanced over his shoulder, he noticed the rain was now coming down in sheets, which meant anyone caught in this weather was going to get soaked.
He glanced at the puddles already forming at their feet as they toed off their shoes and grimaced, heading for the cupboard to fetch the mop as Nylian and Kaz went to their rooms to change.
“Want some help?” Dax asked, running his fingers through his hair to tame most of the dripping locks.
“No, I’m okay. I’m just going to mop so no one slips. I’m not sure who else is home or if anyone else is out, I didn't even realize anyone had left, but–”
Before he could finish his sentence, someone knocked at the condo door and Owen came scurrying out of his room, completely unaware of the water on the tile floor as he hurried to answer it.
Mateo could just see the potential problem before it happened and his hand shot out to stop the smaller man as he shouted, “Shit. Owen, wait!”
Too late. Before either he or Dax could react, Owen’s feet went out from under him, but instead of falling on his butt like most people, he flailed and waved his arms, somehow managing to trip forward instead of backward and landed on his face with a sickening crunch.