I got off the train and helped my heavily-bundled-up partner do the same.  He almost staggered under the weight of the heavy coats he was wearing, going all the way down to his feet, but I managed to catch him and then grab our bags.

“Can I take these off yet?  This town knows about supernaturals, right?”

I shook my head.  “Not yet, let’s wait until we get home.”  The station was neutral territory, last I heard, but just in case it had changed hands, I didn’t want to put Damion at risk if they saw an angel with me.

“Judah!”  Jasper came barreling towards me, almost knocking me over in a bear – well, demon – hug that thankfully I managed to brace myself for at the last second.  “You’re home, you’re finally home!  You don’t know how worried I’ve been and I thought you might have died!  I’m so glad you’re okay.”  He finally released me, pulling back, apparently completely unashamed of the tears in his eyes.  “It’s so good to see you, Jude.  I’m so glad you’re home.  I’m so so sorry about what I said, I didn’t mean it, but I’m so glad you’re home now!”  Then he gave me another hug.

I hugged him back, tightly.  I’d missed this.  I’d missed him.  Jasper had been my closest friend and practical brother for most of my life.  Thinking that he hated me had been crushing, even if it turned out in reality that he’d only said that under the emotional upheaval of losing his mother and wanting to blame someone, anyone, but had regretted it almost immediately, with regret turning into panic when he realized I’d disappeared by the next morning. 

I hadn’t meant to, but I’d put Jasper through a year of losing his brother, too, and not even knowing if I was alive or dead.

“I’m glad to be back.  I’ve missed you,” I admitted.  “But let’s talk at home, okay?”

“Sure, sure.”  He released me and reached to grab my bag, then paused when he realized the bundle next to me was alive.  “And who is this bundled…person?”

I slung an arm around Damion, nearly toppling him over given his current weighted-down state, but I gripped him and wouldn’t let him fall.  “This is my boyfriend, Damion.  For…complicated reasons, we both have to live in supernatural-only communities now, so when you invited me back,” I shrugged, feeling a bit embarrassed.  “Well, I hope you don’t mind an extra cousin,” I finished.

Damion had been more than willing to move with me.  When I’d told Aunt Catherine, she hadn’t seemed upset, but did tell me to stay in touch, so maybe Damion was right about her being somewhat fond of me after all.  She had been nice enough to take me in without warning and offer me full use of her house, cars, and resources, and just because I hadn’t taken advantage of all of it didn’t mean I didn’t appreciate it.  Accordingly, I’d promised to keep in contact with her.  I’d also promised, at Damion’s insistence, that I find a therapist I could properly talk to here in Tarin or make calls to Dr. Adair regularly, because he wanted to make sure I didn’t get bogged down in my thoughts again.  I’d agreed to that, too, not just because Damion was demanding it, but because I thought he was probably right.  I had started to move past what happened, but I also wanted to make sure I didn’t get stuck again.  I wanted to be able to protect Damion and be a good boyfriend to him, especially since he’d moved all the way here for me.

Jasper was clearly surprised at having someone extra move with me, but quickly offered Damion a smile.  “Sure, why not?  Come on, the car is parked over here.”

I made a mental note to explain the situation to him later and why Damion needed to be in a supernatural-only community, too, but I suspected he’d figure that part out as soon as he saw Damion’s wings.

As he walked, Jasper started to tell me about the changes in town since I had left so unexpectedly.

The third faction in town, shifters, had decided to make an alliance with us, effectively putting satyrs in a position where they had to start cooperating or they would be forcibly removed from town.  There’d been some back and forth, some satyrs and some demons both being unwilling to completely let go of past wrongs done them, but eventually about half of the satyrs had split town and the other half were settling into the new life of not fighting.

I stared at Jasper from the passenger seat, astounded.  “Wait, are you trying to tell me there’s actually peace in Tarin now?”

“It started with that fight where Mom died,” Jasper explained.  “Some of the shifters weren’t exactly pleased that several of their young teens had been captured coming home from school to be used as pawns by satyrs during that fight, but they were impressed that you and Mom managed to get them all free without any of them getting hurt – even if Mom ended up giving her life in the process.  So they decided they wanted to ally with us.”

In the back seat, Damion was struggling to remove some of his layers, but paused to give me a frown.  “You didn’t mention that part.”

“I – kind of forgot,” I admitted.  That had been part of the reason the fight hadn’t gone entirely the way I’d thought it would, an unknown surprise that explained why they’d been so overconfident in the first place.  They knew they had hostages and it would work for them either way – if we didn’t want to hurt the children, we’d be at a disadvantage, while if we didn’t care?  The shifters would be pissed that we killed their children.  However, losing Aunt Iora had honestly made me forget all about that part of the fight.  I’d been too focused on the fact that she had died and that I had made the judgment call which resulted in her death.  But…maybe there actually was a point to what my first therapist said, that I made the best call under the circumstances.  I didn’t really know either way and I wasn’t even sure it mattered because if it was the right call, it still resulted in my aunt’s death, but either way I did remember Dr. Adair’s comment – that regardless of whether it was the right call or not, Aunt Iora would want me to forgive myself.  That was what helped calm the ache in my heart, not whether or not the decision had even been the correct on.

“Well, point is, it started there, and now – things are a lot different.  We’re working on actually sharing resources.  Weird thing,” he mused, “it turns out we don’t all need the same resources and if we’d ever bothered to actually communicate, we might have been able to settle things years ago.  But we were too busy fighting.”

“I’m kind of surprised the pandemonium agreed to an alliance.  They – didn’t seem open to one when I left.”

“Ah, well,” Jasper threw me a look, “that also goes back to the same fight.  Suddenly they lost one leader in a fight, and the other disappeared to who knows where – we weren’t sure at first if the satyrs had kidnapped or killed you in revenge, and even when we confirmed you’d left town of your own accord, we didn’t know if you’d ever come back.  Anyway, with two leaders down, they were more open to considering an alliance than they might have been before.”

Damion giggled lightly.  “You helped without knowing it,” he told me.  “See, not all dangerous.”

I rolled my eyes but found myself smiling anyway.  Damion had that effect on me, plus, well, it was interesting to learn that the fight I’d regretted so much and my own disappearance had actually played into bringing about a peace in Tarin.

Maybe some of that pain had been worth it.  Would I make the same choice again if I knew someone had to die for peace, someone I cared about?  I…I didn’t know, but I did know I was willing to forgive myself for the past and appreciate the future.

Jasper pulled up in front of our house and parked, the sight of the simple two-story cabin giving me a happy pang.  This was home.  I was finally home again.  With Jasper, my family, and Damion, my angel.

“Welcome home Judah and – angel?!?”  He asked as Damion finally shed his final coat.

Damion happily escaped from the car and went barreling towards the house, pausing on the porch to wait for me.  “Judah, Judah!  Hurry up!  You have to show me around, and then you need to show me town, and introduce me to all your friends, and we can go to school together, right?”

His eyes were practically gleaming with excitement.  Damion had loved the idea of coming with me to a supernatural community where he didn’t have to worry about everyone seeing his wings.  He was finally free to just be normal and do normal things and go to school and didn’t have to constantly hide inside, afraid of being seen, or hide his wings.  He could just be a normal angel and no one would care here.

We were both home, I realized.  We’d both found the right place for us.

So I gave him a kiss and then opened the door to usher us both into our home.