I turned my attention back to the food, hoping that doing so would get Cooper to eat as well, and thankfully it worked. “So,” I asked him, “what would help you best tonight? Playing games? Reading? Watching a movie? Shopping online for more books to add to your library?”
He made a face. “My book addiction isn’t that bad!” Then he paused to look over at his bookshelves. “Um, mostly.”
“I hope you’re fine with me crashing on the couch,” I stole some of the fries before he ate all of them. “I wasn’t planning to come here until tomorrow so I kind of didn’t bring any clothes or stuff with me.”
He finished his burger but looked at me curiously. “What were you planning to do tomorrow? I wasn’t aware we had plans since you visited last weekend.”
“Ah.” I smiled suddenly. “It’s a surprise, but if you need a distraction, I’ll let you in on it. You have to promise to let me know if it gets too overwhelming, though.”
Cooper’s face displayed all his emotions in the way I was becoming increasingly addicted to. “A…distraction? But an overwhelming one?”
“Potentially.” I finished my burger and sat back. “Hopefully not, but probably tiring for both of us.”
He tilted his head to one side. “I’m kind of scared about the overwhelming part but now I’m too curious to let it drop.”
I flashed another smile at him and kept my eyes trained on his. “Well, I had this plan to go househunting tomorrow.”
He frowned a bit. “For me? I can afford a house, I just haven’t really felt the need for one.”
“Nooo,” I drew out the word a bit. “For me.” Seeing his confusion, I explained. “Nothing’s really holding me in Durmond. I’m not part of the enclave anymore, my job is flexible enough that it can work from anywhere with a reasonably sized airport – actually, I’d get more business here in Avenglade than back there, and, well, you’re here. So,” I took a deep breath, not sure if this would scare or excite him, “I’m moving here. Before you go and tell me I shouldn’t, I already sold my house, I’ve set up a rental arrangement for a hangar here and half of my stuff is already in a storage unit here. And I’ve already informed the supernatural council that I’m moving here. I can live in an apartment for a bit, but I was hoping to find a home that you might be willing to live in with me some day.”
He was just staring at me, mouth slightly open in shock.
I decided I might as well forge on. “It doesn’t have to be on an airstrip like my old place or have room for my plane – I can keep it at the airport, no problem. I don’t have attachment to any particular architectural style or anything specific in the house except room for a decent sized TV for us to watch movies, room for gaming setups, room for your books, and,” this might be verging into territory that he wasn’t comfortable discussing yet, but we probably did need to have this conversation at some point, “ideally some extra space in case we have family someday. Kids,” I clarified, seeing he was still confused. That did startle him and he just stared at me some more.
“I’d actually like it if you’re willing to come help me look for a house,” I added. “Since you’ll have a much better idea of what you might be comfortable with. I know you live more minimally than I do – other than your books – but would you have any preferences other than, say, room for a library?”
“You’re moving here?” He finally whispered.
Well, at least he’d processed that part of the conversation.
“Yes. We can make long-distance work, we’ve proven that, but,” I shrugged, “I’d rather be closer anyway.”
“Really?” His eyes filled up with tears, but based on the smile on his face, I assumed they were happy tears. “You’re – moving here? For me?”
“Um-hmm.” I stood up so I could get around the table and pull him into my arms. “I’ll chase after you, Cooper, no matter where you go.”
He sighed contentedly even while wiping his tears away. “That – I wouldn’t have asked you to, but I’m so glad and – and of course I’ll come househunting with you! I’ve never hunted houses before, though, so I don’t know that I’ll be much help.”
“All I need to know is if you like the house or not – if you could see yourself eventually living there with me.”
He tilted his head back to look at me, his cheeks a little red. “And…kids?”
“And kids, someday, if you want.” I paused. “Actually, we should probably have that conversation before we start sleeping together, about whether that’s something you want.” I kind of hoped it was, or this could get a little awkward.
Confusion filled his face. “How does that relate? We’re both guys, so….”
Ah. He didn’t know about angels, did he?
“Angels can reproduce with anyone, regardless of whether they’re male, female, human, supernatural, etc.” I took in his wide eyes and wondered if maybe, given all the shock he’d already been through today, if this would have been a better conversation for another day, but oh well, too late now.
“We most often reproduce in the traditional way,” I explained. “But we have a, uh, feature, if you will. Our bodies realize when we’ve been with the same partner for a long time and haven’t had kids and will make up for it magically. Most often in gay or lesbian relationships, or with someone who’s infertile for whatever reason, that sort of thing. Never one-night stands, just long-term partners. Anyway, basically we start to build up magic within us that eventually sort of…starts to leak out, I guess? We start to involuntarily make clouds from magic that sort of drips off us, as it were. The clouds follow us around until there’s enough of them that they condense in and form an egg.”
His jaw dropped open. “Like a chicken egg?”
I shrugged a little. “Kind of? A little bigger initially, and they keep growing until they reach approximate normal baby size. They tend to be a really really pale glowing blue, almost white, if the genetics are purely angel, but if there’s another species involved, the shell will also take on traits of the other species – like for us, I’m pretty sure it’d have cheetah spots. If the partner is a demon, it’ll probably turn red but still glow; if a fairy, gold; and if an oceanid, it’ll get scales on it to match their tails. It all just depends, but the color of the egg actually has nothing to do with what the baby turns out as, it just reflects what the parents are. For instance, with us, we’d have about a 50% chance of an angel, 50% of a cheetah shifter, and about a 1% chance of a hybrid. Either a shifter with angel powers – or an angel who can shift, I’m not actually sure which one that technically would be – or a shifter with wings, so again, for us, that would basically be a cheetah who’d have wings when it shifted. But hybrid chances are pretty small, we’d most likely just have a shifter kid or an angel, but the egg would be cheetah spotted either way.
“Anyway, it takes about 10-11 months for the egg to reach maturity and hatch and we use a magical incubator during that time. It can basically translate any form of magic into the heat the egg needs. Angels don’t traditionally have magic that can be used for that,” I explained. “Before the incubator was invented, we often had to get help from fairies or demons, which usually means fairies due to context. Once the egg reaches maturity, it hatches, which really just means the eggshell turns back to cloud, dissipates into the air, and leaves the baby behind. And it’s a normal baby from that point on – well, apart from anything special based on whatever kind of supernatural it is.
“The magic to make the eggs is limited,” I added. “I guess our bodies are satisfied once we’ve had some kids and call it a day? I think the most times it’s ever happened to a couple was four, but the average by far is two. It’s not something that’ll happen immediately – it’s usually a few years of no kids before the magic is like ‘huh, something’s wrong, let’s fix this’ so it’s potentially several years down the road, but you do need to be aware that it’s a possibility.” I felt pretty hesitant, because I did want kids, but I didn’t know if Cooper did, so we really needed to have this discussion. “If it’s not something you’re interested in, traditional birth control usually works to stop it because it confuses the magic, I guess, but it’s not 100% so there’s still a small chance it could happen anyway.”
Cooper blinked several more times. “Oh,” he finally said.
I looked at him, feeling a little anxious at his response. “That’s why I wanted to talk about this at some point. Even if it’s several years down the road, if we want kids, the chances of having biological kids are actually pretty strong. Is that something you might want?” I asked tentatively. I really wanted him to be okay with this, mostly because I liked the idea of having kids with him.
He looked a mixture of confused and concerned, neither of which were great emotions to see.
“I’ve thought about adopting kids in the past,” he said slowly, “because I thought that would be the only way I would ever have family again. But…I was afraid they might not end up liking me, either. Since no one – almost no one – does. So I’ve kind of been afraid of the idea, because what if we had kids and they don’t like me?” He looked at me anxiously.
I almost sagged in relief that he was apparently okay with kids, just afraid they wouldn’t like him. “That won’t be a problem. For one thing,” I interrupted when he was about to disagree, “they’ll have already seen you, who you truly are. Introverts can be a little like cats – they can be uncomfortable with strangers, but once they’ve accepted you as their person, it’s an awesome feeling and you get to see all sorts of different sides to them. Well, kids start out preselected as your person. They’d already get to see the real you all the time and they’d know you adore them. They’ll love you, trust me.”
He looked doubtful still. “But what if they don’t?”
“Then,” I cast around for a solution, “they’ll learn to do it from me because they’ll see how much I love you. Seriously, though, I don’t think it’ll be a problem you have to worry about. Knowing how much you love them and that you’re always there for them? Unless they grew up to be totally unfeeling, I don’t see how they could not love that back.” I shrugged. “And if for some reason they are totally unfeeling? Well, then, I’ll just love you twice as much to make up for it.”
He sighed and pulled back so he could take my hands in his. “I don’t know how you always do that – find a way to make it all feel like it’s going to be okay.”
I smiled at him, feeling hopeful. “Does that mean you’re okay with having kids with me someday? Eventually? I’ll let them know as soon as they can understand that they’re required to love you, if that helps.”
This time he laughed. “Fine, yes – I wouldn’t mind kids someday. I would like more family, actually, I just was beginning to think that wasn't something I was allowed to have. So, yeah...I would like kids with you eventually. And I’ll help you look for a house, and you can stay here for tonight, but we’ll have to buy you clothes or you’ll just have to wear those tomorrow, too, because you’re too big for mine.”
“I probably should have left some of mine here at your place,” I mused.
“Too late now,” he informed me. “Come on, I want to read some. This has been a super eventful day and if I don’t find some way to relax, my brain will never shut off tonight.”
I conceded and followed him over to the bookshelves. “Meaning you want me to read while you listen?” I smiled at his blush. I kissed his lips lightly as I accepted the book he chose. “Anything to make you happy.”
He was right – today had been eventful, but at the end of it, Cooper was safe, he’d agreed to help me look for a house, he was happy I was moving here, and we’d talked about having kids someday.
Not bad for one day’s events.
Comments (57)
See all