(no subject)
Title: The Little Things
Pairings: Cain/Glitch, Jeb/DG
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: It takes two to bond, but far more than that to be a part of things.
Notes: This is going to be done in sets of two hundred-word segments.
“I’m still not sure what I’m supposed to do with it,” Jeb pointed out, giving the motorcycle a cautious look. Behind them, Cain lingered with Glitch while the inventor discussed performance upgrades and DG smiled broadly enough to light up the room. “Ride it?”
“You know, there’s other things that are far more fun to ride,” Glitch said pragmatically and when Cain began to choke, Glitch glanced his way. “What! What’s so wrong about riding horses?”
DG smiled slyly at the look of horror that refused to leave Cain’s face. “C’mon, Jeb, let’s leave your Dad to his prudish ways.”
*
“Don’t touch that! Or that. Or especially that. Maybe I should just tie you up in a corner.”
Cain paused, his hand still resting on one of the strange devices Ambrose kept in his lab. “Tie me up?” he echoed dubiously. “Is that why no one comes to visit you?”
“Jeb’s too busy with DG and vice-versa and Raw…well, I tied him up the once and he growled at me.”
“Azka-D?”
“Same as the Queen. They say they’re not allowed to see my work because it might one day benefit the O.Z.”
“So I’m the consolation prize.”
“Best one ever.”
*
“So, is there some kind of secret?” DG asked, while she sat with Jeb and they took turns braiding the various flora of the O.Z. into a makeshift rope. Jeb had insisted he was not making a daisy chain, but DG had wanted to do something similar. So they’d compromised.
“To what?”
“To getting your Dad to talk, has he always been this…”
“Stoic?” Jeb supplied. “No. He used to be a different man, but the Suit changes you. We all got changed.”
“Just don’t go getting all close-mouthed on me. I need you,” DG said with a sunny smile.
*
“Cain?”
Glitch’s voice was wary and shook slightly as he wandered the dark halls to his bedroom.
“Cain, they said you wanted me?” He pried open the bedroom door and discovered a smattering of lit candles and that his bed now beheld silk-woven sheets. Suffice to say, Glitch was shocked. “Cain?” he asked warily, staring at him. “What is this?”
“My nefarious plan to get you to rest,” he said, patting the bed. “I dare you not to sleep like the dead.”
“I don’t think that’d be very pleasant,” Glitch laughed nervously.
“Then don’t die. I prefer you as is.”
*
DG didn’t know what it was about the Cain men, but they had a mysterious pull. It had to be that enigma, taunting you on and tugging you closer. That was the only reason she could really come up with for why she was dancing so close to Jeb when no one else was on the floor and the music was long over.
“Maybe I should put you to bed,” Jeb murmured quietly, palm resting firm against her back as she leaned in closer, tired of questioning the way she felt for him. “You’re half-asleep on your feet.”
“Come with?”
*
Glitch did, in fact, sleep like the dead.
He woke up to a shadow in his room by the window standing like a gargoyle to keep watch over him. From the silk sheets, Glitch pushed them and watched them pool, biting back a comment about how he could use some company.
“I’m still safe,” he mildly said, something in him wanting more than just sheets and candles.
“Good. Call if you need anything else.”
He left before Glitch could let the words trip off his tongue that yes, yes, he did need something else if Cain would oblige for him.
*
DG didn’t have a shred of an idea why she had suddenly decided she had virtue and morals and all sorts of things that prevented her from doing anything last night while Jeb had been right there in her bed.
And suddenly she had started babbling on about ‘no, not tonight’.
Now was the morning and she was sitting in bed, chewing on her thumbnail and staring at Jeb’s shirtless backside. “Hey, Jeb?”
“Nn?”
“I think I have a great idea how we should spend the morning.”
He blearily peered up at her and she grinned mischievously.
“Really?”
“Really, really.”
*
Glitch ran right into Cain’s backside in the halls, yowling in pain at the sudden collision. “What! Cain, what…!” He peered around Cain’s shoulder to find the cause of Cain’s horror and distress.
“Hi, Glitch,” DG said, her face as red as a tomato as she shimmied into a pair of jeans and Jeb did his best to crawl under the blankets.
And gods help him, but when Glitch saw horror on Cain’s face in comparison to the giddy humiliation on Jeb and DG’s, he laughed with joy and delight. “Congrats, doll, couldn’t have picked a better man,” Glitch enthused.
*
Cain was in a bear of a mood and they had elected DG to go after him, even if she’d put on an affronted expression and demanded to know why her. Jeb and Glitch could only shrug and mumble, ‘he won’t smack you’.
“Are you pissed at me?” DG asked when she caught up with him.
Cain was just staring out at the O.Z. from atop a gently-rolling hill. “No. Guess I’m angry with myself. Last I saw Jeb, he was in love with his guns and toys. Now…”
“He grew up,” DG agreed quietly.
“And I missed it all.”
*
Jeb and Glitch waited back at the Central palace for Cain and DG to return and Glitch took to pacing the wooden slats of the floor, Jeb’s critical gaze landing upon him. “You know, there’s about a dozen reasons I can think of,” Jeb casually brought up.
“For what?”
“For why my Dad’s not acknowledging the fact that you’re a little crazy over him.”
Glitch panicked. Jeb remained calm.
“If he ever does,” Glitch finally spoke, words shaky and soft, “I like to think it’s because he’s ready for the long haul.”
“That’s the only way he knows,” Jeb promised.
*
Cain was dragged out of Jeb and DG’s way by Glitch, who babbled on about showing him something new in the gardens, but Cain’s somber mood dampened Glitch’s excitement. Eventually, Glitch snapped. “Is it really all that bad!” he demanded, shooting Cain a displeased look.
“He’s my boy!”
“And he’s an adult now,” Glitch countered immediately. “Now quiet so I can give you roses and woo you!”
“…what me?”
“I’m tired of dancing around it. I like you. Here. Have flowers.” With that, he shoved thorn-covered roses right into Cain’s hands, only to remember too-late about the thorns.
“Glitch!”
“Oops.”
*
Cain was looking slightly pale as Glitch sat there on his knees before him, picking out every last thorn from his open palms, cupped as though they would hold water. “Almost done,” Glitch promised, an edge of anxiety in his voice. “Just hold still and maybe try to forget that I forgot to dethorn them?”
“Just hurry up,” Cain murmured, taking a deep breath and hissing as yet another thorn was plucked out. “Where are the roses?”
“I had someone put them in a vase in your room. Might as well keep them after all this trouble.”
“Might as well.”
*
Later that evening, Glitch found himself staring at the new little scars in the candlelight of his room. Cain had decided to put him to bed once more and see if he couldn’t get the headcase to sleep, but all eyes were on those scars.
He took Cain’s palm into his hand, ghosting his lips above the skin and pressing slow and light kisses to each and every one, lingering when he could. Cain’s palm was warm under Glitch’s cool lips and he pretended that he was making some kind of imprint.
“A kiss,” he explained, “to make it better.”
*
“So is it calm?” DG asked wryly as she leaned against Jeb’s doorway. “I kinda figured there would be something, but not this much. Or is it just that your Dad doesn’t like the idea of you dating one bit?”
“I think to him, I’m still ten,” Jeb admitted, wandering closer and letting his fingers drift to the beltloops of her trousers. “So, how about another motorcycle lesson?” he asked. “Promise I’ll teach you how to shoot a gun.”
“I grew up in Kansas,” DG deadpanned. “There are dented cans that’ll tell you I know how.”
“So, the sticks?”
“Convenience.”
*
It was a sense that perhaps not everything was right with the world. It was the feeling that things were not what they once were, reflected Raw as he stepped through the door of the palace to arrive for his visit. The air had changed and the whole world moved slightly to the left.
Raw didn’t let any of that show as he was greeted by an excited DG, who proclaimed that she had ‘so much to tell you!’ and hugged him tightly. At the touch, he felt an intimate foreshadowing of how things were shifting, even as they spoke.
*
They had gone from kissing scars in the candlelight to kissing other places in the dawn of the suns. Glitch had wound up forgetting what he was doing mid-kiss to Cain’s palm and began to run them slowly up his arm, jumping straight to the lips when Cain didn’t do anything but give a sharp and heavy exhalation suddenly.
Call it what you would, but Glitch’s synapses had done them a very large favour with such a large skip.
Eventually, they parted, but only because DG shouted at the door to, “come see Raw when you’re not brimming with whatever-he-called-it!”
*
Soon enough, there was a crowd downstairs. Raw watched through his own unique perspective as Cain and Glitch greeted them in their own ways (Cain with his subtle nod and Glitch with his full-on tackle and excited babbling). Jeb stood before Raw with pink cheeks and a hand stuck out, waiting to be shaken.
“You,” Raw began slyly, “are more than DG’s friend now.”
“Is it that obvious?”
“Jeb has DG’s lipstick on him,” Raw advised and Jeb fell back to fix that while the spirit of the room lifted Raw’s spirits and brought him to the feeling of home.
*
While Jeb was flushing red from his embarrassment and DG rubbed a palm up and down his arm to get him over it, Glitch was slowly drifting back towards Cain and making quiet noises with his throat.
“What?” Cain deadpanned curiously.
“Just thought we could finish that unfinished business,” Glitch reasoned, fingers toying with the hem of Cain’s shirt. Cain was slowly going a shade to match Jeb’s colouring, but it was less embarrassment and more a different kind of flush. “Maybe, say…my room?”
“Did you blow out the candles before we came down here?”
“Uh oh.”
“Glitch,” Cain growled.
*
There’d only been a small fire in the room and Glitch had torn down thick drapes and put it out while Cain went for the strongest alcohol in the room, downing a glass while staring at a soot-covered Glitch, wondering if they ought to head back and explain to Raw and the others why they suddenly sprinted away, yelping, “Fire!”
Glitch smiled sheepishly as he wiped dirt from his face. “It’s out?”
“Maybe we should just agree to not indulge in romantic conventions,” Cain ruefully commented, as his hands still hurt from thorns and his eyes teared up from smoke.
*
Jeb and DG made a break for it before dinner, heading in a sprint towards the library so they could ‘have a little fun’ before the awkward situation that was dinner was upon them. She had laughed warmly when he yanked on her hand and tugged her into the candlelit and grandiose room.
“Jeb,” she whispered, following along. “We both have bedrooms.”
“Yeah, and what’s the fun in a newfound relationship without the daring sexual promiscuity?” Jeb deadpanned.
“Wow,” DG mouthed, drawing out the vowel. “I really don’t want to know what you got taught in that Resistance of yours.”
*
“I’m not going to dinner,” Cain mumbled, still swathed in sheets.
“Why?”
“Because Raw will be there.”
Glitch stared at Cain, not putting the pieces together - in fact, they seemed to be from four different puzzles -- until all the pieces finally clicked together. “You don’t want him to know what we did?”
“No, he can know,” Cain argued. “I just don’t want him feeling beat by beat what we just did.” Never taking his eyes off Glitch, they managed a long conversation in silence in which they both agreed that it was best that Raw never know that much.
*
There was a long and heavy moment in between Jeb’s breaths and DG’s as they settled from the rather contorted position they had achieved on the spiral staircase in the library. In that single breath, she looked at his jaw, at the sheen of sweat and the way his lips were parted.
“Jeb,” she murmured, her voice lazy, words sticking together. “If you want, I’m yours.”
“And if I want to give you the same thing?”
“I think we can reach a compromise,” was DG’s pleased and lazy reply, curling up with him as they sank heavily to the ground.
*
Cain had, once again, frozen outside of the library. On their way down to talk to Raw (and pointedly avoid touching him) they had stopped because there were sounds coming from the room that vaguely reminded Cain of the time he had helped one of Adora’s cows through childbirth.
“I think,” Glitch commented when Cain had said that aloud, “that Jeb wouldn’t appreciate the comment.”
“Gods, I hope it’s not DG.”
“In which case, at least the cow comment is gender-appropriate?”
“Don’t ever tell her that. Really.” Cain could too easily envision the magical smackdown that could result from that.
*
It took Jeb two hours at dinner to explain to everyone in turn what he and DG were, exactly. It took that long, Cain suspected, because his own son wasn’t exactly sure of what was happening between him and the Princess. They had started as friends and had tripped into something more than that.
Besides, how in the Realm could Cain ever blame his son for taking so long when he himself stammered for what felt like an hour straight (it was actually two minutes) when Raw looked at him and asked what was going on between him and Glitch.
*
When dinner was through and each relationship had been (poorly) explained, Cain left the dining room to find Glitch perched on the lowest step of the staircase. DG and Jeb had left to their own devices and Cain was left to crouch down before the other man.
“I need to know something.”
“You need to know everything.”
“It’s important. Am I just some mad, strange replacement for Adora?”
Cain hesitated, at that. “You don’t replace the vanished. You … honour them, but you move on. You’re my moving on.” With nothing else to say, Cain led Glitch away and onwards.
*
“Are you sure about this?”
“No. You?”
“God, no,” DG scoffed, clutching tighter at the posies that Azkadellia had given her. “I mean, we’ve only been you and me for over a year. Annual. Whatever.” She flashed him a sweet smile heavily affected by nerves. “I guess it’s like Glitch says. If you don’t get your nerves together and jump off the cliff, you’ll get eaten by apples.”
“His metaphors always confuse me,” Jeb confessed.
“Dearly beloved,” began the priest before them, chastising with a glare to which they both offered sheepish smiles in return. “We are gathered here today…”
THE END
Pairings: Cain/Glitch, Jeb/DG
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: It takes two to bond, but far more than that to be a part of things.
Notes: This is going to be done in sets of two hundred-word segments.
“I’m still not sure what I’m supposed to do with it,” Jeb pointed out, giving the motorcycle a cautious look. Behind them, Cain lingered with Glitch while the inventor discussed performance upgrades and DG smiled broadly enough to light up the room. “Ride it?”
“You know, there’s other things that are far more fun to ride,” Glitch said pragmatically and when Cain began to choke, Glitch glanced his way. “What! What’s so wrong about riding horses?”
DG smiled slyly at the look of horror that refused to leave Cain’s face. “C’mon, Jeb, let’s leave your Dad to his prudish ways.”
*
“Don’t touch that! Or that. Or especially that. Maybe I should just tie you up in a corner.”
Cain paused, his hand still resting on one of the strange devices Ambrose kept in his lab. “Tie me up?” he echoed dubiously. “Is that why no one comes to visit you?”
“Jeb’s too busy with DG and vice-versa and Raw…well, I tied him up the once and he growled at me.”
“Azka-D?”
“Same as the Queen. They say they’re not allowed to see my work because it might one day benefit the O.Z.”
“So I’m the consolation prize.”
“Best one ever.”
*
“So, is there some kind of secret?” DG asked, while she sat with Jeb and they took turns braiding the various flora of the O.Z. into a makeshift rope. Jeb had insisted he was not making a daisy chain, but DG had wanted to do something similar. So they’d compromised.
“To what?”
“To getting your Dad to talk, has he always been this…”
“Stoic?” Jeb supplied. “No. He used to be a different man, but the Suit changes you. We all got changed.”
“Just don’t go getting all close-mouthed on me. I need you,” DG said with a sunny smile.
*
“Cain?”
Glitch’s voice was wary and shook slightly as he wandered the dark halls to his bedroom.
“Cain, they said you wanted me?” He pried open the bedroom door and discovered a smattering of lit candles and that his bed now beheld silk-woven sheets. Suffice to say, Glitch was shocked. “Cain?” he asked warily, staring at him. “What is this?”
“My nefarious plan to get you to rest,” he said, patting the bed. “I dare you not to sleep like the dead.”
“I don’t think that’d be very pleasant,” Glitch laughed nervously.
“Then don’t die. I prefer you as is.”
*
DG didn’t know what it was about the Cain men, but they had a mysterious pull. It had to be that enigma, taunting you on and tugging you closer. That was the only reason she could really come up with for why she was dancing so close to Jeb when no one else was on the floor and the music was long over.
“Maybe I should put you to bed,” Jeb murmured quietly, palm resting firm against her back as she leaned in closer, tired of questioning the way she felt for him. “You’re half-asleep on your feet.”
“Come with?”
*
Glitch did, in fact, sleep like the dead.
He woke up to a shadow in his room by the window standing like a gargoyle to keep watch over him. From the silk sheets, Glitch pushed them and watched them pool, biting back a comment about how he could use some company.
“I’m still safe,” he mildly said, something in him wanting more than just sheets and candles.
“Good. Call if you need anything else.”
He left before Glitch could let the words trip off his tongue that yes, yes, he did need something else if Cain would oblige for him.
*
DG didn’t have a shred of an idea why she had suddenly decided she had virtue and morals and all sorts of things that prevented her from doing anything last night while Jeb had been right there in her bed.
And suddenly she had started babbling on about ‘no, not tonight’.
Now was the morning and she was sitting in bed, chewing on her thumbnail and staring at Jeb’s shirtless backside. “Hey, Jeb?”
“Nn?”
“I think I have a great idea how we should spend the morning.”
He blearily peered up at her and she grinned mischievously.
“Really?”
“Really, really.”
*
Glitch ran right into Cain’s backside in the halls, yowling in pain at the sudden collision. “What! Cain, what…!” He peered around Cain’s shoulder to find the cause of Cain’s horror and distress.
“Hi, Glitch,” DG said, her face as red as a tomato as she shimmied into a pair of jeans and Jeb did his best to crawl under the blankets.
And gods help him, but when Glitch saw horror on Cain’s face in comparison to the giddy humiliation on Jeb and DG’s, he laughed with joy and delight. “Congrats, doll, couldn’t have picked a better man,” Glitch enthused.
*
Cain was in a bear of a mood and they had elected DG to go after him, even if she’d put on an affronted expression and demanded to know why her. Jeb and Glitch could only shrug and mumble, ‘he won’t smack you’.
“Are you pissed at me?” DG asked when she caught up with him.
Cain was just staring out at the O.Z. from atop a gently-rolling hill. “No. Guess I’m angry with myself. Last I saw Jeb, he was in love with his guns and toys. Now…”
“He grew up,” DG agreed quietly.
“And I missed it all.”
*
Jeb and Glitch waited back at the Central palace for Cain and DG to return and Glitch took to pacing the wooden slats of the floor, Jeb’s critical gaze landing upon him. “You know, there’s about a dozen reasons I can think of,” Jeb casually brought up.
“For what?”
“For why my Dad’s not acknowledging the fact that you’re a little crazy over him.”
Glitch panicked. Jeb remained calm.
“If he ever does,” Glitch finally spoke, words shaky and soft, “I like to think it’s because he’s ready for the long haul.”
“That’s the only way he knows,” Jeb promised.
*
Cain was dragged out of Jeb and DG’s way by Glitch, who babbled on about showing him something new in the gardens, but Cain’s somber mood dampened Glitch’s excitement. Eventually, Glitch snapped. “Is it really all that bad!” he demanded, shooting Cain a displeased look.
“He’s my boy!”
“And he’s an adult now,” Glitch countered immediately. “Now quiet so I can give you roses and woo you!”
“…what me?”
“I’m tired of dancing around it. I like you. Here. Have flowers.” With that, he shoved thorn-covered roses right into Cain’s hands, only to remember too-late about the thorns.
“Glitch!”
“Oops.”
*
Cain was looking slightly pale as Glitch sat there on his knees before him, picking out every last thorn from his open palms, cupped as though they would hold water. “Almost done,” Glitch promised, an edge of anxiety in his voice. “Just hold still and maybe try to forget that I forgot to dethorn them?”
“Just hurry up,” Cain murmured, taking a deep breath and hissing as yet another thorn was plucked out. “Where are the roses?”
“I had someone put them in a vase in your room. Might as well keep them after all this trouble.”
“Might as well.”
*
Later that evening, Glitch found himself staring at the new little scars in the candlelight of his room. Cain had decided to put him to bed once more and see if he couldn’t get the headcase to sleep, but all eyes were on those scars.
He took Cain’s palm into his hand, ghosting his lips above the skin and pressing slow and light kisses to each and every one, lingering when he could. Cain’s palm was warm under Glitch’s cool lips and he pretended that he was making some kind of imprint.
“A kiss,” he explained, “to make it better.”
*
“So is it calm?” DG asked wryly as she leaned against Jeb’s doorway. “I kinda figured there would be something, but not this much. Or is it just that your Dad doesn’t like the idea of you dating one bit?”
“I think to him, I’m still ten,” Jeb admitted, wandering closer and letting his fingers drift to the beltloops of her trousers. “So, how about another motorcycle lesson?” he asked. “Promise I’ll teach you how to shoot a gun.”
“I grew up in Kansas,” DG deadpanned. “There are dented cans that’ll tell you I know how.”
“So, the sticks?”
“Convenience.”
*
It was a sense that perhaps not everything was right with the world. It was the feeling that things were not what they once were, reflected Raw as he stepped through the door of the palace to arrive for his visit. The air had changed and the whole world moved slightly to the left.
Raw didn’t let any of that show as he was greeted by an excited DG, who proclaimed that she had ‘so much to tell you!’ and hugged him tightly. At the touch, he felt an intimate foreshadowing of how things were shifting, even as they spoke.
*
They had gone from kissing scars in the candlelight to kissing other places in the dawn of the suns. Glitch had wound up forgetting what he was doing mid-kiss to Cain’s palm and began to run them slowly up his arm, jumping straight to the lips when Cain didn’t do anything but give a sharp and heavy exhalation suddenly.
Call it what you would, but Glitch’s synapses had done them a very large favour with such a large skip.
Eventually, they parted, but only because DG shouted at the door to, “come see Raw when you’re not brimming with whatever-he-called-it!”
*
Soon enough, there was a crowd downstairs. Raw watched through his own unique perspective as Cain and Glitch greeted them in their own ways (Cain with his subtle nod and Glitch with his full-on tackle and excited babbling). Jeb stood before Raw with pink cheeks and a hand stuck out, waiting to be shaken.
“You,” Raw began slyly, “are more than DG’s friend now.”
“Is it that obvious?”
“Jeb has DG’s lipstick on him,” Raw advised and Jeb fell back to fix that while the spirit of the room lifted Raw’s spirits and brought him to the feeling of home.
*
While Jeb was flushing red from his embarrassment and DG rubbed a palm up and down his arm to get him over it, Glitch was slowly drifting back towards Cain and making quiet noises with his throat.
“What?” Cain deadpanned curiously.
“Just thought we could finish that unfinished business,” Glitch reasoned, fingers toying with the hem of Cain’s shirt. Cain was slowly going a shade to match Jeb’s colouring, but it was less embarrassment and more a different kind of flush. “Maybe, say…my room?”
“Did you blow out the candles before we came down here?”
“Uh oh.”
“Glitch,” Cain growled.
*
There’d only been a small fire in the room and Glitch had torn down thick drapes and put it out while Cain went for the strongest alcohol in the room, downing a glass while staring at a soot-covered Glitch, wondering if they ought to head back and explain to Raw and the others why they suddenly sprinted away, yelping, “Fire!”
Glitch smiled sheepishly as he wiped dirt from his face. “It’s out?”
“Maybe we should just agree to not indulge in romantic conventions,” Cain ruefully commented, as his hands still hurt from thorns and his eyes teared up from smoke.
*
Jeb and DG made a break for it before dinner, heading in a sprint towards the library so they could ‘have a little fun’ before the awkward situation that was dinner was upon them. She had laughed warmly when he yanked on her hand and tugged her into the candlelit and grandiose room.
“Jeb,” she whispered, following along. “We both have bedrooms.”
“Yeah, and what’s the fun in a newfound relationship without the daring sexual promiscuity?” Jeb deadpanned.
“Wow,” DG mouthed, drawing out the vowel. “I really don’t want to know what you got taught in that Resistance of yours.”
*
“I’m not going to dinner,” Cain mumbled, still swathed in sheets.
“Why?”
“Because Raw will be there.”
Glitch stared at Cain, not putting the pieces together - in fact, they seemed to be from four different puzzles -- until all the pieces finally clicked together. “You don’t want him to know what we did?”
“No, he can know,” Cain argued. “I just don’t want him feeling beat by beat what we just did.” Never taking his eyes off Glitch, they managed a long conversation in silence in which they both agreed that it was best that Raw never know that much.
*
There was a long and heavy moment in between Jeb’s breaths and DG’s as they settled from the rather contorted position they had achieved on the spiral staircase in the library. In that single breath, she looked at his jaw, at the sheen of sweat and the way his lips were parted.
“Jeb,” she murmured, her voice lazy, words sticking together. “If you want, I’m yours.”
“And if I want to give you the same thing?”
“I think we can reach a compromise,” was DG’s pleased and lazy reply, curling up with him as they sank heavily to the ground.
*
Cain had, once again, frozen outside of the library. On their way down to talk to Raw (and pointedly avoid touching him) they had stopped because there were sounds coming from the room that vaguely reminded Cain of the time he had helped one of Adora’s cows through childbirth.
“I think,” Glitch commented when Cain had said that aloud, “that Jeb wouldn’t appreciate the comment.”
“Gods, I hope it’s not DG.”
“In which case, at least the cow comment is gender-appropriate?”
“Don’t ever tell her that. Really.” Cain could too easily envision the magical smackdown that could result from that.
*
It took Jeb two hours at dinner to explain to everyone in turn what he and DG were, exactly. It took that long, Cain suspected, because his own son wasn’t exactly sure of what was happening between him and the Princess. They had started as friends and had tripped into something more than that.
Besides, how in the Realm could Cain ever blame his son for taking so long when he himself stammered for what felt like an hour straight (it was actually two minutes) when Raw looked at him and asked what was going on between him and Glitch.
*
When dinner was through and each relationship had been (poorly) explained, Cain left the dining room to find Glitch perched on the lowest step of the staircase. DG and Jeb had left to their own devices and Cain was left to crouch down before the other man.
“I need to know something.”
“You need to know everything.”
“It’s important. Am I just some mad, strange replacement for Adora?”
Cain hesitated, at that. “You don’t replace the vanished. You … honour them, but you move on. You’re my moving on.” With nothing else to say, Cain led Glitch away and onwards.
*
“Are you sure about this?”
“No. You?”
“God, no,” DG scoffed, clutching tighter at the posies that Azkadellia had given her. “I mean, we’ve only been you and me for over a year. Annual. Whatever.” She flashed him a sweet smile heavily affected by nerves. “I guess it’s like Glitch says. If you don’t get your nerves together and jump off the cliff, you’ll get eaten by apples.”
“His metaphors always confuse me,” Jeb confessed.
“Dearly beloved,” began the priest before them, chastising with a glare to which they both offered sheepish smiles in return. “We are gathered here today…”
THE END