I waited impatiently while Dad and Sorrel loaded our luggage into the rental car.  “Can we go faster?  We’re already late thanks to the whole rental car situation.”

Honey climbed into the minivan and flopped into one of the front seats, looking grouchy.  “Yeah, I’m actually surprised you were able to talk them into renting us something, Mom, given how it ‘goes against their policy’ or whatever.  What kind of idiot comes up with a policy like that, anyway?  Not renting to out-of-towners?  Don’t people come here to the beach all the time?”

Mom took the front passenger seat calmly.  “Sometimes it’s just knowing how to deal with people,” she told us with a bit of a twinkle in her eye.  Yes, yes, Mom was good with calming people down and whatnot, but it still had taken a lot longer than expected and now we were going to be late for meeting with Riven.

Sorrel clapped a hand on my back as he passed me to hop in the back seat.  “Relax, bro, it’ll be fine.  Riven’s not going to disappear just because we’re a few minutes late.”

I got in next to Honey and startled buckling myself in.  “He better not,” I muttered.  “This has been enough torture as it is.”

Dad threw me an amused look as he got into the driver’s seat, but despite all of my family’s entertainment at my frustration, I found myself getting filled with more excitement as we pulled away from the airport.  Finally, we were almost there.  I was going to squeeze every minute I could out of this vacation and make sure I spent as much time with Riven as I possibly could.

Riven was sitting out on the front steps of the house when we arrived, idly waiting.  The moment he recognized Dad and Mom in the front seats, he hopped up, followed the path along the front of the gated front yard, and opened up the gate leading to the garage so we could get in.

I barreled out of the car almost before Dad parked it and ran to wrap my arms around Riven, who hugged me back.

“Riven,” I murmured into his shoulder.  “Riven.”

“Hey Riven!”  Honey sounded cheerful as she followed me a little less frantically.  “It’s good to see you!  Texting isn’t the same.  Um, Ren,” she nudged me, “let go so we can hug Riven, too.”

I almost refused, then reluctantly obeyed, knowing that she would probably tickle me or something to make me if I didn’t cooperate.  Riven gave me a smile as I let him go, though, a smile which promised that he understood how I felt.

Percy Holt’s house was a large rectangular affair in a contemporary style, I guess?  It was a little darker than I’d have personally preferred, and the house itself felt huge on the inside, with lots of open space that could have been filled with plants but sadly wasn’t, but it still seemed nice.  Percy met us at the door and showed us around, including the upstairs guest rooms where Mom and Dad would be staying in one and Sorrel and I were in the other – Honey got the study downstairs where there was a pull-out bed in the couch.

“When I got the house initially, Gwen thought I was crazy for getting a four-bedroom place just for me,” Percy looked slightly embarrassed, “but it was a great investment and I liked the land with it, it seemed ideal for Gwen and Sterling to have space to run in unicorn form without worry – the fence isn’t the kind you can see through – so I just went with it.  Now I’m glad I did,” he threw a smile at Riven, “because if I’d had a one-bedroom place it might have been a little more awkward for Riven.”

I tugged at Riven’s sleeve when Percy turned his attention back to explaining something to Mom and Dad.  “Can I see your room?”

Riven nodded and opened the door next to the room where Sorrel and I would be staying – yay! – ushering me into his room.

The color scheme in here was done in blues and whites, a little different from the rest of the house so far, which led me to believe Riven might have painted the room after he got here.  On his bed was the stuffed bunny Honey had given him for Christmas and he had a shelf full of books next to a desk, the set Sorrel gave him for Christmas at the top.  The laptop my parents gave him was set out on the desk, along with what I presumed were his school books.

And by the window was the begonia plant I had given him for Christmas.  I’d struggled a lot with trying to come up with a good Christmas gift when we’d found out he hadn’t celebrated before.  We’d all ended up getting him clothes and practical stuff, but I wanted to give him something extra special, too.  Somehow, the only thing I could come up with was a plant, and I’d practiced a lot to make sure I could do this, but I used magic to create it for him.  Not just a typical seed and making it grow, but actually conjured it via magic.  Riven had watched, spellbound, and seemed fascinated by the whole thing, which made me glad I went with that option.  And now it was sitting by the window, next to a particularly comfy looking chair that seemed to be his reading spot.

“It’s kind of simple,” Riven admitted as I looked around.  “Sterling keeps telling me I need to get stuff for the walls but I don’t even know what I’d get.  I’m not huge into bands or movies – they’re fine, but I don’t love them enough to stick posters of them on my walls, you know?”

“What about pictures?”  I asked as I wandered over to the bookshelf to peruse the other titles he had gotten since he moved here.  “You could put up photos or something.”

“Hmm.  That reminds me,” he unlocked his phone and pulled open his pictures, showing me…the last picture I had sent to him, of a tulip in our garden.

I looked up at him, puzzled.  “What?”

“You take really good pictures, Ren,” he explained.  “I know you’re not even particularly trying to take impressive pictures, you just do it automatically.  Have you ever thought of actually trying to take more artistic photos, or even just taking a photography class?”

A blush spread across my cheeks at his praise.  Riven liked the pictures I took, even enough to suggest I pursue it?  “I, well, no, I hadn’t – you really think they’re that good?”

He gave me a confident smile.  “I think you have natural talent, and if you were trying, you could take some really amazing pictures.”

I was thoughtful as we got summoned to rejoin everyone else.  I had no idea what to do with my life as far as career goals went, but if Riven thought I had talent, well, that was enough to at least consider a class like he said, right?  See if I really liked it if I delved into it more?  I had a long ways to go ‘till college – I was only starting 8^th grade this fall – but if I discovered what I wanted to do now, wouldn’t that make life easier and mean I could start focusing on that?  I did like taking pictures of stuff, but I’d never really thought of doing anything more than your average fairy documenting all the pretty flowers and cute animals they came across.

I was pulled out of my reverie when someone called my name.

“Ren?”  Sorrel waved his hand in front of my face.  “Earth to Ren?  You still there or do we need to get dad to check on your brain to see if anyone’s home?”

I made a face and shoved him away.  “You’re annoying,” I informed him.  “We should get Dad to check on whether there’s a way to turn that off.”

Honey laughed and Sorrel just rolled his eyes and then tousled my hair, earning a frown from me that he cheerfully ignored.

“We were talking about having dinner with Gwen’s family and Bruce’s friend’s family,” Percy explained.  “I know you guys just got here and was trying to see if you’d rather have a dinner with everyone tomorrow instead of tonight.”

“I don’t care.”  I reached over to grab Riven’s arm.  “As long as Riven keeps me company, I don’t care.”

They all seemed amused by this, except for Riven, who gave me a soft smile and then moved to hold my hand and intertwine our fingers.  I leaned up against him, resting my head on his shoulder with my eyes closed, happy to just be in his presence again.  We’d been talking a lot over the phone since he’d moved, true, but that was different than getting to touch his skin and feel his warmth.

Dinner, as it turned out, came with a few surprises.  Apparently, Dad had actually met Morgan and their – her, currently?  Morgan showed up in female form but apparently had a male form, too, due to being oceanid – husbands, Hayden and Vance, before.  Hayden had gotten bitten by a shark and Dad helped save his leg, so meeting him again surprised them and Dad, but at least it was a good surprise.

Sterling was a surprise because he was literally running around trying to talk to all of us and learn everything he could about fairies in five minutes or less – despite the fact that we were going to be there for a couple of weeks so he didn’t need to rush – and then he informed me that Riven had confirmed he had unicorn vision, which Riven hadn’t told me yet because apparently he’d planned to show it to me when I arrived, so he seemed mildly annoyed with Sterling for revealing that surprise, but shrugged kind of sheepishly at me.

Then Alex overheard that, asked about why Riven would have unicorn vision if he was human…and somehow that turned into admitting that Gwen and Sterling weren’t actually humans but were unicorns and Riven was apparently a hybrid, which shocked Morgan’s entire family.  Well, except for the toddler Riley, he was oblivious to everything except trying to explore the entire house and see how much stuff he could try chewing on thanks to teething.  Gwen was clearly stressed about the reveal, but relaxed a little once Morgan’s family made it clear they weren’t going to tell anyone.  Bruce seemed relieved, on the other hand, and kept apologizing to Morgan for not saying anything sooner, while Morgan kept assuring him she understood.

I also learned during dinner that Riven was allergic to shellfish, something he hadn’t mentioned, either.  He’d started to scoop out something from one of the dishes and was stopped by Gwen grabbing his arm and Morgan almost snatching the dish away from him before explaining it had shellfish in it.  Merfolk like oceanids and aquatic shifters – like Bruce – ate a lot of seafood, and apparently Riven had tried some shellfish a while back, had a bad reaction, and had to visit the hospital.

I frowned at him when I heard this.  “You didn’t mention this to me!”  I wished my protection mark could help with stuff like that, but unfortunately, it didn’t.

He shrugged, looking a bit embarrassed.  “It wasn’t that big of a deal.”

“It was, kind of,” Gwen disagreed with him.  “It could have been worse – at least he was still able to breathe when the ambulance got there, but if he hadn’t, we didn’t have any way to treat him.  And if we’d been on the island at the time?”  Several of the adults shuddered at the thought.  Apparently the island where Morgan’s family lived was only accessible by boat and medical help probably wouldn’t have gotten there in time.

I frowned and opened my mouth to complain when Riven started to assure me it was fine now, he had an EpiPen in case it happened again.  Gwen then pointed out he’d nearly done it again by accident, just now, leading both her and Hayden, who apparently did most of the cooking for Morgan’s family, to decide that from now on, if they made anything with shellfish, they’d just have to make sure it was clearly labeled or something just to make sure Riven didn’t accidentally eat any.

Riven seemed touched by this and fell quiet.  I could guess why – up until a few months ago, he’d lived with his mom, who treated him terribly and sometimes didn’t even feed him.  Now he had his own dad, his aunt and her family, and another family who was practically more extended family who cared about him enough to get worried over him.  And that didn’t even count me and my family, who also cared about him.  It was kind of a big deal for a kid who hadn’t been allowed to experience love for much of the first 15 years of his life.

When dinner was done, Sterling begged to be allowed to shift into his unicorn form to show everyone, which got enthusiastic support from us fairies, too, since we hadn’t seen a unicorn before – well, except Dad, but it had been at least a hundred years since the last time he’d seen one – so we went outside into the wooded area and got to see him shift and run around.  Gwen gave in and shifted with him, both of their forms kind of ethereal and beautiful.

It suddenly dawned on me that I hadn’t shown Riven either my wings or my true fae form, where we turn really tiny, so since we were showing off magic stuff…I went ahead and turned into my tiny form and flew around for a bit.

Riven covered his mouth with his fingertips while he watched, his eyes wide, Alex and Jessie almost as fascinated as he was.  Alex pointed excitedly at all the flowers that were sprouting in my wake, which seemed to amuse Percy, and he started asking Dad if he was going to need to care for the flowers before I switched back to my normal form – we couldn’t hold true fae form for long – but let my wings show so I could see Riven’s response.

I got the distinct impression, looking at Riven, that he was dying to touch my wings, but he didn’t ask.  I wasn’t sure if he was just embarrassed, thought it wouldn’t be okay, or wasn’t comfortable doing so in front of everyone else, and I decided to ask him about it later, when we were alone.

When we were alone.  I was really looking forward to getting to spend some alone time with Riven.