Rhys tried not to look too excited when he spotted me coming across the restaurant towards him, but failed miserably. 

 “Hi.”  I gave him a smile as he stood up to greet me, then accepted the seat across from him.  “Sorry I’m late, Angelique was showing me the storage barn.  One of the coven members lives out of town a bit and has a farm, I guess?  They have barn where they keep a lot of the ingredients we need for potions.  It’s a bit of a drive and I underestimated how much time it would take to get back.”

“Not a problem,” he assured me.  “I already placed our order, so it should be out soon.”

I’d called him after I left the barn, worried he’d think I was standing him up, and he’d read off the menu for me so he could place our order in advance.  I was mixed between thinking that was sweet of him and being disappointed we wouldn’t have as much time pre-meal to sit and talk, but maybe we could just make up for that post-meal?

I really didn’t need to worry.  Rhys wasn’t in a rush to part any more than I was, both of us just enjoying getting to know each other and kind of being delighted about what we found out, even if we tried to keep it a secret.

“I’m a bailiff for family court,” Rhys explained when I asked him about his job.  I saw his eyes sort of sparkle with a different color as he talked – was that a nightwing thing?  Then I brought my attention back to what he was saying.

“My parents didn’t care much what I did.  I’m their oldest, but,” he paused, his expression troubled, “my parents, they thought I was slow.  Simple-minded.  They were always frustrated with me and sort of gave up.  I have a younger brother, he’s their pride and joy and he’s living up to all their expectations.  Only,” he stirred his coffee absentmindedly, “my brother wants to become a police officer.  I think because of me, because he wants to follow a similar career.  But my parents – my parents aren’t happy about that.  They told me I need to talk him out of it or they’ll disown me.”

That was a lot more than I’d anticipated when I’d asked him what he did for a living.  I felt angry at his parents for putting him in that position and even more so for not seeing the person he was.

“They’re wrong about you,” I told him firmly, if a little heated.  “We’ve talked about some pretty intellectual stuff when you’ve come over to our place – and you never have trouble following along.  I wouldn’t say you’re simple-minded at all.”

He gave me a smile which said he appreciated my response, but didn’t entirely agree with me.  “I was slow,” he explained.  “Growing up, I could never do what my parents expected of me in the timeframe they wanted.  I ended up a year behind in school.”

I considered that, resting my chin on my hands, my elbows on the table.  “Isn’t that possibly because they wanted too much too soon?”  I suggested.  “They may have just overwhelmed you with their expectations and you couldn’t keep up.”  Rhys did speak a little slower than most people, but I didn’t see that as a sign of reduced intellectual abilities.  He seemed to just be thinking things over more than most people did before he said anything.

Rhys turned it over in his mind, and yet again, I saw a flash of something in his eyes.  This time, I was almost sure it was some type of magic, but it didn’t seem to be something he was doing.  Was it something I was doing?  I didn’t feel like I was.  Could someone else have done something to him?  I needed to ask Dana when I got home.  I was kind of worried about that.

“Maybe,” he allowed after a long pause.  “But they weren’t wrong about me being simple.  I just…am.  I’m not a very complicated person.  Things are pretty straightforward for me and I like…I like simplicity.”

“Liking simplicity isn’t the same as being a simple person,” I corrected.  “With you, it’s very much of a what-you-see-is-what-you-get, which I really like – no questions about what motives you might have or what you’re feeling about a topic.”  It was actually one of the reasons I really liked hanging out with him.  In a world that had become complicated from the moment I woke up, he was a breath of fresh air.  No wondering with him, everything was just straightforward.  I decided to tell him as much.  “I like that very much, actually.  It’s been hard enough figuring out this era without trying to figure out people and relationships, but with you, I feel like – I feel like it’s not so much of a puzzle, you know?  But I don’t think that means you’re simple at all.  It just means you’re straightforward.”

He lit up with my words, his eyes definitely changing colors briefly this time.  Was it a happiness thing?  Maybe I was wrong about it being nightwing magic.

“I’m glad,” he stated.  His expression said as much already, but it was nice to hear the words anyway.  “I’ve tried dating a few times, but people sometimes think I’m mysterious at first and get disappointed when they realize I’m not what they expected.”

I decided to put aside for now the question of why his eyes were flickering with different colors and focus on another question.  “If you like simplicity, though, that begs the question – why me?  I’m a male witch with rare somni magic, who fell asleep for 400 years and still doesn’t understand half of what is going on around me.  I like wearing pretty things, which not all men do, and my family is a vampire/dryad hybrid and a banshee.  I feel like I’m just about the most complicated person around, so…why me?”

Rhys gave this some thought before answering.  “I was at the bar that night with some of my colleagues – supernaturals, of course.  I don’t go out with them often, but I try to join them once a month or so, and when I saw you, I don’t know, I just thought – I thought you were pretty and fascinating and I just – I just wanted to meet you.  I never go up to strangers in the bar like that, so I can’t even explain it, I just – I just felt drawn to you,” he explained helplessly.  “And your complications don’t bother me.   I suppose maybe I like simplicity so I could save up all my ability to deal with complications for you?”

I felt my breath catch a little at that explanation – the idea that somehow I fit into his life because of my complications, because they perfectly countered the rest of his life.

I didn’t bother to stop the shy smile that spread across my face, but Rhys’s answering smile was more than reason to let it out.

“I like that idea.  I’m glad all this stuff about me doesn’t scare you off,” I added, a little ruefully.  “You didn’t know all that when you approached me, but you haven’t seemed bothered in the slightest by any of it.”

He shrugged a bit.  “It doesn’t bother me,” he explained simply.  “It’s just part of who you are, and I want to know who you are.”

I bit my lower lip, then suddenly reached across the table to slide my fingers in his open hand.  “I really want to be official, exclusive boyfriends with you,” I announced abruptly.  “But I, um, also want to go slowly?  Because I’m still trying to just catch up with life in general and figure out what I’m doing, but I do want this, so, um – ”

Rhys cut me off before I could finish, gently lifting my hand to his lips to lightly brush a kiss across my fingers.  “I would like that, too.  And going slow sounds great.”

So we both sat there, happily accepting our new status until we realized the restaurant was starting to close down and we should probably leave.

As we headed out the door, I remembered our earlier conversation and frowned a bit as I looked up at the gentle giant next to me.

“What are you going to do about your brother?”

He sighed, his eyes sad.  “I don’t know.  On the one hand, I’m flattered if he wants to become a police officer to have a connection to me, but on the other hand, I would worry about the danger he’s in as a police officer.  But I also want to protect his dreams.  I don’t know what to do.”

I thought it was extremely unfair of his parents to treat Rhys like it was his fault his brother was choosing a career they didn’t want for him and then threatening to cut off all contact with him if he didn’t help them out.  Honestly, he might be better off without parents around like that, but I wasn’t sure if he wanted to separate from his parents.

“Could you try talking to him in front of them?”  I asked hesitantly.  “Not telling him what they threatened – that would probably not help – but trying to find out why he wants to do this.  If he’s following his own dreams, I agree, it seems like you’d want to help him and protect that.  Like family should.”  Like Dana and Lola did, even being willing to move here to Avenglade with me and then agree to stay permanently like I’d hoped when I told them I wanted to join the coven.  They were willing to do so much for me, and we weren’t even blood related.

“They should want to support him, too,” I added, a little frosty and the idea of family not being supportive, “and they definitely shouldn’t treat you like that, but I mean…if this is what he really wants to do, even if it is to be more like you?”  I stopped next to Dana’s car, tilting my head back to look up at him.  “I can’t blame him for admiring his older brother and wanting to be like him.  It’s not even an awful reason for a career choice.  And if they still don’t understand when he explains, then, um, I mean, if they did cut you off, you could still talk to him, right?  He’s going to college in the fall, like Lola, right?  So you’d still have him, at least, and they – they don’t sound like people who are particularly supportive of you, so, um, it doesn’t seem like it would be totally awful if you saw them less.”

“I don’t see them often now,” Rhys answered automatically, but he was clearly mulling over what I said.  “And Drew – Drew wouldn’t let them keep him from me even if they tried.  They have tried, in a way.  Growing up, they discouraged us from spending much time together, but the older he’s gotten, the less he’s listened to them.  He’s very…headstrong about some things.”

Probably growing up as a younger child whose parents had doted on him helped with that.  He would be confident about what he wanted.  Maybe he was also aware of how his parents had treated Rhys and disliked that, was that part of the reason he wanted a career similar to his brother’s?  If so, I strongly approved of his brother.

“I don’t know how important your parents are to you or anything,” I added, “but you already don’t have a good relationship with them, so if the choice is giving up that relationship to support your brother or keeping it and making your brother unhappy….”

“The choice is pretty easy,” he finished for me, his face clearing up a bit.  “Thank you.  That helps.  You’re right, it’s not as complicated as I first thought.”

He paused for just a second, then leaned down to place a very gentle kiss on my cheek.  “Thank you, Nicky.”

I smiled at him, blushing, and waved goodbye as I got in Dana’s car.

This was a good date.  I hoped we’d have a lot more like it.

~~~~

“Nothing’s wrong with him,” Dana explained patiently after I’d described what I’d seen during dinner, worried that Rhys might be affected by some kind of magical illness or something.  “What you’re seeing is a witch’s clue for recognizing when someone is a soulmate.”  She looked a little amused at my blank response.  “It means Rhys is your soulmate,” she clarified.  “That’s all.  Nothing’s wrong, it’s actually a good thing.  Whether it’s platonic or romantic is yet to be seen, but given that you’re starting out dating, I suspect we have a pretty good indicator.”

I blinked, trying to process that.  I hadn’t even thought about soulmates since I woke up, although I used to dream about finding one as a kid.  Now I had, and it was someone I really liked.

Dana tried unsuccessfully to muffle a smile at my expression.  “Avenglade’s really working out for you, huh?  You found and joined a coven which accepts you, you’re getting training on somni powers, and you’re dating someone who happens to be your soulmate.”