Chapter Twenty

Three weeks later, Friday, February 10th.

Rahul parked outside of the clinic, leaving the engine running. As Leif exited the backseat and hurried around to the front of the vehicle, Rahul stepped out to meet him.

"Take care," Rahul told him, giving him a crushing hug. "Well see you in an hour and a half."

Leif kissed him on the cheek, then pulled back, giving him a cheerful grin. He waved a farewell to Tucker, still in the car, then dashed up to the office to attend his third and hopefully final therapy appointment.

Rahul sat himself back in the driver"s seat, then reached over to take Tucker"s hand as they watched the door close behind their boyfriend.He gave it a squeeze before pulling out and making the short drive to the nearby DOMA building.

"No more than an hour," Rahul said once they arrived.

"One hour," Tucker agreed. "Special meeting or not, Leif"s birthday comes first, and I"m not losing my day off for something that could probably be an email."

Rahul waited for Tucker to finish attaching his ID to his flannel shirt, then took his hand again and held it while they headed inside.

Rickert greeted them with handshakes once they arrived in the main office. "Hey, bro, glad you could make it!"

"Do you know what this is all about?" Tucker asked him. Looking around, Rahul saw two dozen techs and operatives standing around idly, talking amongst themselves.

"Nope! Maybe it"s someone"s birthday? Oh, could it be a surprise party for Leif? A second one, I mean."

Tucker shook his head. "If it is, nobody ran it by us. Oddly, though, I do smell cake. It could be for someone in a different department."

They spent a few minutes making increasingly outlandish guesses while other operatives trickled in, until the hubbub of conversation died down at the emergence of Director Wu and Executive Director Clairmont. The latter then casually climbed on top of someone"s desk in order to address the room.

"Good morning, Minneapolis Department of Mythic Affairs!" Clairmont said grandly. "I"ll try to keep this short, but I do have a few very important announcements.

"First! We just closed the case on the stolen heirloom garden statues, which have finally been returned to their rightful owner. Let"s give a round of applause to Detective Cohen, who found the original bill of sale that proved the correct transfer of property."

Jamie leaned in to Tucker, and Rahul overheard her tell him, "It was inside the magic mirror. I knew Mrs. Chipmunk was telling us the truth!"

"Next up, I know we"re all tired of lawyers and officers grilling our department over the Germaine situation, and good news, there shouldn"t be any more of that. I"ll leave the details out of it, but let"s just say that I managed to convince our detractors that continuing to publically back the suspended Major Anderson was just making it harder for their legal defense team."

Clairmont paused, looking over the room as he fiddled with the buttons on the cuffs of his shirt. He eventually settled on Rahul and Tucker, and he gave them a nod.

"Two more items. In order to help keep the peace around here… hmm, no, that"s not exactly it." He glanced down at Director Wu. "In order to do the right thing, I have resigned from DOMA, effective as of last night."

Clairmont had to raise his voice for the last few words at the abrupt clamor. He waited a moment for the exclamations and conversations to stop, then continued. "I brought some bad habits with me when I transferred here, and for that I apologize. Director Wu was correct in her criticism that, had I been more transparent over the years, circumstances in a lot of our cases would have been different. In particular, withholding critical information in our Germaine case."

"It"s an unfortunate affair," Director Wu said, standing with her chin held high and her hands clasped behind her back. "But it was my solemn duty to report Clairmont to the ethics board. I daresay I raked you over the coals, wouldn"t you say, sir?"

"You did a marvelous job of it, as I hoped you would," he said cheekily. "Which simply means I"m leaving DOMA and taking all the blame and attention with me. That said, please put your hands together for your newly appointed executive director, Fang Wu."

Rahul couldn"t help but laugh at the impertinence, and he clapped along with a clearly confused Tucker, going by the way he kept tilting his head.

Executive Director Wu gave an abbreviated speech thanking Clairmont for his years of "corrupt and complicit service," gave him the first slice from a massive sheet cake, and then informed the crowd that she was hosting a "Good Riddance" party for him the following night at a local pub. Under no circumstances was he to be invited, she said, but if he happened to coincidentally show up at exactly 7 p.m. when the event kicked off, then she wanted everyone to remain cordial and polite in wishing him a terrible time.

After congratulating Wu on her promotion and eliciting a promise that she and Alyssa would visit them soon to celebrate, then sharing a delicious slice of marble cake with Tucker, Rahul looked around for Clairmont but didn"t see him amid the crowd.

"He"s that way," Tucker said, motioning further down the hall. Rahul followed his boyfriend towards Jack Clairmont"s former office, finding him shirtless and packing away his last few potted succulents.

"Hey, boys, what can I do for you?" he asked cheerfully, putting his hands on his hips. "I"d offer you a drink, but I unplugged the mini-fridge yesterday."

With a little mental effort, Rahul lifted his gaze from the fabulously hairy chest and looked his one-time boss in the face. "You"re fine, Jack. But you weren"t thinking about leaving without saying goodbye, were you?"

Jack lost some of his joviality. "Fang and I might be putting on a little show about her not-so-secretly not hating me, but her criticisms about how I ran things were valid. And I wasn"t sure…"

"Stop. We hashed this out weeks ago. You"re fine in our books.Or getting there, anyways.Taking a rebar to the chest while trying to save our boyfriend counts for a lot."

"Ah.Still, I think"—

"Why are you leaving?" Tucker asked abruptly. "You"re not the type to cave in to demands."

"As long as I stay in charge, Anderson"s pet state representative will continue to harass this department out of retribution. This way, they think they get a win with my voluntary retirement, DOMA avoids some bad publicity, Fang gets some social collateral for "reporting" me, and I know she"s the perfect person to lead DOMA to where it needs to go." Jack paused to look at Rahul knowingly as he raised his arms above his head and flexed his chest. "Also, I am sick to death of collared shirts."

"He makes a valid point," Tucker stage-whispered to Rahul, then paused to undo the top few buttons on his shirt.

"Anything else, then, boys?"

"Don"t be a stranger," Rahul said. "You and I used to have drinks together after work, and I"d like to start that back up."

"Didn"t it start because you wanted to get into my pants?"

"Oh, I don"t deny it! You were an absolute hunk back then, and still are." Rahul made a show of looking at Jack from head to toe, and he responded by crossing his arms and doing a brief pec bounce. "But you also gave great advice, and I liked picking your brain for knowledge. Anyways, I usually host a dinner or game night at our place a couple times a month, I"ll send you the invites. Do come."

"I don"t know about coming, but I"ll show up.Maybe after a few weeks, anyways. You might have forgiven me, but forgiving myself is going to take some time."

They both paused when they heard Tucker whine, and Rahul looked over at him. His pup was frowning, staring at the ground with a furrowed brow. Rahul laid a hand on the back of Tucker"s neck, studying his face. Ah, of course.

"Tucker, don"t worry, he"s not leaving forever. You"ll definitely see him again."

"But what if I don"t!" Tucker cleared his throat. "Sorry, just, kind of got lost in my head."

"I"m sorry, Jack. Tucker"s not the best with goodbyes."

"No, I completely understand. I know what he needs." Jack started working at undoing his belt buckle. "C"mon, little pup, shift over."

Rahul quickly moved to close the door as his former boss and current boyfriend disrobed, and then Tucker was his weredog self, leaning down and pressing the side of his muzzle up against Jack"s werewolf chest while the latter patted him soothingly on the head.

"You are leaving," Tucker whined. "I know you did the bad thing, and I didn"t like you for a while, but you also did many good things for years, and I"m sad."

"You"re going to be fine," Jack said. "You"re a strong and brave puppy."

There was a perfunctory knock at the door before Fang opened it and walked in. She didn"t even pause at the sight of the two naked shifters, just turned towards Rahul.

"Good, I was hoping that you hadn"t left."

"What can I do for you?"

"It"s about the change in leadership."

"Who"s a good detective?" Jack said, holding the sides of Tucker"s head. Tucker froze to the point of not breathing. "Who"s a very good boy detective that I trusted with the hardest cases and solved them all by being kind and honest?"

"Is… is it me?" Tucker whispered back.

"It"s you!"

"It"s me!" Tucker"s wagging went into overdrive.

Rahul shook his head fondly and tried to give Fang his undivided attention. "Come on, out with it, though I have a good guess. Tucker and I have to leave in just a minute to pick up Leif."

She nodded. "Jack is no longer in command, and you"re no longer in Anderson"s crosshairs. You"d have to give an public apology and explain the reasoning behind your discriminatory remarks you"d made about Johnson—it helps that the two of you are dating, and that you assisted in bringing Germaine in—but I"ll be direct. Rahul.Do you want your job back? Would you like to return to being an agent of DOMA? Say the word, and I can get the wheels turning."

He"d been expecting it, but to hear it out loud was still like a thunderclap on a clear day. He looked over at Tucker, seeing him hug the slightly smaller shifter while petting him hard on the head. He thought of the recent events with Leif, and what this change would bring.

He nodded to himself, then turned back to Fang and opened his mouth.

◆◆◆

Rahul turned about deftly on his skates, gliding backwards on the ice so he could watch Leif and Tucker as they made their stumbling progress. They were holding hands and laughing like lunatics, even as Tucker"s feet slid out from under him, taking Leif with him.

He did a quick arc to change momentum, then went back to offer his arm.

"Puppy, I"ve seen you in action, there"s no way I"ll believe you"re this bad at ice skating."

Tucker grinned up brightly at him, doing a wiggle with his shoulders—his human version of a tail wag for when he didn"t have one.

"It"s my first time! I ain"t never visited any of these places growing up in the south. Don"t worry, pardner, I"ll get the hang of it soon."

Leif worked to steady himself, overcompensating too far and nearly falling again as a few of the other recreational skaters at the outside rink went past their group.

"Oh, for sure! You"re already doing great. I think the first time I went ice skating, I just kind of hugged the wall the entire day."

Leif and Rahul each took one of Tucker"s elbows, helping him to get started, then they stayed together in a leisurely moving group. After a few minutes without any more falls, Leif and Rahul left their boyfriend to skate out a couple of faster laps before rejoining him, then kept behind him until the melody sounded, signaling the end of the hour.

"Fifteen minute break while they redo the ice," Leif said as they left the rink and changed into their normal shoes. "Are we staying for the next shift?"

"Up to you, darlin"." Tucker guided them over to the line where a vendor was selling hot chocolate and other snacks. "Timewise we"d planned on staying, but we could also head back and have an early lunch or get an early start on your full body massage.

"Let"s stay, then, I"m having fun."

Rahul rubbed the back of Leif"s head affectionately, then helped Tucker carry the three hot chocolates with whipped cream to an empty table.

Rahul started drinking his immediately, then received a kiss from Tucker as the shifter licked the cream out of his mustache.

"Aw, dang, I wish I could have gotten a picture of that," Leif said.

Tucker looked at his untouched cup. "We could recreate it? Here, babe."

Rahul obliged by dipping his face into the paper cup.

"It"s not the same if it"s staged!" Leif said, laughing, but pulled out his phone anyways.

Tucker leaned in, taking his time licking the whipped cream off of Rahul"s face, and Rahul surprised him by rubbing his own beard against Tucker"s. He heard Leif cheer.

Tucker did his best to lick the cream up, but his tongue wasn"t nearly long enough to reach where it had been spread. Rahul sidled closer, but he shook his head and instead turned to Leif. "Little help, darlin"?"

Leif took one last picture and then lifted a finger to wipe away the whipped cream.Tucker pulled back, shaking his head with a grin as he avoided the finger, then leaned back in.Entirely red in the face, Leif did a quick lick across Tucker"s face, getting most of it, then smiled and held his head in place while he slowly licked the other side of his cheek from chin to forehead.Still blushing, he then picked up a napkin to finish the job.

"Okay, let"s go have lunch."

Rahul looked to Tucker, who was making happy growls as Leif wiped his face off.

"Were"t we staying?"

"Changed my mind," Leif muttered, and Rahul saw him adjust his pants before he stood up, grabbing his hot chocolate.

"Ha! Alright, cub. I"ll turn our skates in."

Rahul downed the rest of his drink, then grabbed the rented ice skates and stood in the short line to return them. He watched as Tucker and Leif made their way to the rink"s exit, Leif pausing a few times to pick up discarded cups and litter until he deposited his gatherings in a trash can.

Rahul caught up with them a moment later, wrapping an arm around his two boyfriends.

"Question, cub. Are we headed straight to lunch, or are we making a detour at home first, so you can get some things out of your system?"

"Uh, the second one."

"Perfect."

◆◆◆

Amid the raucous laughter of their friends, Rahul did a twirl, shaking his hips in tune to the music as he performed for a Leif that was as red as a tomato. On Leif"s other side and just as red in the face, Sebastian mirrored Rahul"s movements as they did a paired dance that was as much belly dancing as it was strongly suggestive.

The sheer garments that Rahul and Sebastian wore didn"t leave a lot to the imagination, and if the tenting that Leif was trying fruitlessly to hide was any indication, he appreciated the view.

Well, it was his own fault for not wearing any underwear beneath his booty shorts. Rahul decided that he would take none of the blame, but all the credit. He watched as Sebastian did a provocative hip thrust. Most of the credit, then.

The song and dance came to an end with Rahul and Sebastian kneeling on the ground, their hands laid on Leif"s thigh.

"Um, thank you, I loved it, yes. Thank you, Rahul. Thank you, Sebastian." Leif squirmed in his chair, and Rahul reached out to grab his cock through the thin layer of booty shorts.

"We can all see you liked it, cub," Rahul teased.

"Rahul, goodness!" Sakari chastised as she turned her back and covered her face with her hand. "Let the poor man have some dignity."

"Alright, alright!" Rahul stole a quick kiss, then maneuvered himself to shield Leif from view while his cub stood and tried in vain to constrain his hard-on. "Leif, you"ll probably need to change your shorts if you"re gonna stay hard the rest of the night. Course, most of us don"t mind."

"Um, maybe, but all the same I think I"ll go put on a jock," he murmured back. "Be back in a minute!"

As Leif ran upstairs amid cries of disappointment, Tucker came over and slid his hands around Rahul"s waist.

"You"re a terrible tease," he said, using a hand to lightly tap Rahul"s partial chub. "I love the outfit, though. How"d you get Seb to wear something this transparent?"

He and Tucker watched as Sebastian tried to make a retreat to Rahul"s office where his original clothes were kept, but Sakari stopped him and began fingering the mostly-transparent material.

"I just told him that I"d take care of our costumes, and didn"t show it to him until it was too late! I did have to convince him to leave his boxers behind, though. I know these aren"t traditional outfits, but they"re fun."

"Mmm." Tucker raised his voice. "He looks amazing, doesn"t he, Sakari? It was a wonderful dance!"

"He does! It was! You see?" With her multiple kitsune fox tails undulating, she traced fingers up and down Sebastian"s chest. "Everyone loved your dancing. And it was a very thoughtful birthday gift."

As Sakari tried to convince Sebastian to keep the outfit on for the rest of the night, Leif came back downstairs. He"d kept on his incredibly short shorts that displayed his thick wrestler"s legs, and though it was still obvious he was hard, he was no longer jutting out like a one-pronged hat-rack.

Still blushing but smiling divinely, Leif hurried over to give him a hug.

"I loved the dance," he said.

I love you,his eyes seemed to add.

◆◆◆

Once the last of the guests were gone, Rahul grabbed Leif and guided him to the couch for a cuddle. As he lay lengthwise across it, Leif sat himself on his lap, idly playing with his silken outfit. Rahul softly ran his hands up and down Leif"s legs and rump, sliding his fingers up the shorts to finger the bands of his jockstrap.

"I know you said no presents," Tucker said as he strode naked across the living room. Reaching behind the second couch, he pulled out a wrapped package. "But Julia, Rahul, and I have been working on this for a while, and today seemed a good day to give it to you. We didn"t want anyone else to feel bad for not bringing you nothin", so now that they"re gone, here you go.Happy twenty-sixth birthday!"

"Oh, it"s kind of heavy." Leif slid off of Rahul"s lap, sitting next to him.Tucker joined them on the other side of Leif, and together they watched as he carefully undid the multiple pieces of tape.

"You know you can just rip it, cub."

"The silver wrapping is so nice, though! It seems a shame."

Tucker reached behind Leif to lay a hand on Rahul as the wrapping was at last undone, revealing a sturdy tome about the size of a large dictionary or encyclopedia volume.

"Worth a Shot: Alchemical Cocktails and other Spirits," he read aloud, then gasped. "Oh. Oh!"

"It"s a list of all your major potion recipes from your online document," Tucker said, getting more enthusiastic as Leif began paging through the book. "It"s organized by the primary alcohol, has ingredient variations, and every page has room for you to add your own personal notes. Plus, all the page inserts are removable, so you can reorganize, add new recipes, or edit the ones you have. Also, pictures!"

"This is amazing! Thank you both so much."

"Nah, it was all puppy"s idea," Rahul said. "I just helped organize it a little."

"You still put in a dozen hours of work," Tucker said, sticking his tongue out at him behind Leif"s back. "And Julia"s the one who got us the book material. I guess there"s a vested market for sturdy mage tomes?"

"Oh gosh, my very own spellbook!" Leif hopped up off of the couch, squeezing the book to his chest, then set it down so he could grab his phone with both hands. "Oh geez, I need to tell Julia thank you also."

"We figured it would help when you take your exam."

"It will, yes," Leif said. "It"s also a really cool cocktail recipe book. I"m going to keep it here in the living room on my bartending station!"

While Leif typed and sent several paragraphs worth of text, Rahul looked back at Tucker, who was gazing at Leif with fondness. Unable to resist, Rahul slid over, wrapped a hand behind Tucker"s head, then pulled him in for several kisses.

"You did good, pup," he said, before trailing added kisses down Tucker"s throat, gently biting at his neck.

Then Leif was beside him, running his hand through Rahul"s hair, his shorts starting to acquire a noticeable bulge. It was at the perfect height for Rahul"s mouth, so he turned his head around, laying a kiss on it…

◆◆◆

"Ohh, fuck me, pup," Rahul moaned, his body rocking from the rhythmic thrusts of his beloved. He"d already come once, coating their bed, but it seemed like he was building for a second orgasm.

As Tucker grabbed his ass with both hands, Rahul turned his attention away from the sounds of Tucker growling lowly and moved his hands back up to Leif"s stomach. Lowering his head, he took Leif"s cock back in his mouth, swirling his tongue around the head.

Pausing to breathe, Rahul stroked Leif"s cock slowly up and down and played with the foreskin as he looked up the bed at where Leif was propped up on his elbows.

Love you,his cub mouthed, clearly enjoying himself too much to muster the effort to speak out loud.

"Love you, too," he said back, then sped up his strokes. Tucker wasn"t far off, so he needed to catch Leif up. Wrapping his arms around Leif"s legs, he dragged the young man closer, giving himself a better angle. Opening his mouth, he took Leif in, slowly going down until he could tongue the base of the shaft, his beard tickling Leif"s balls.

The ecstatic groan Leif made was enough to spur him on further, and he bobbed his head lustily…

◆◆◆

Snuggled up together in bed with the lights off, Rahul ran his hands up and down Leif"s chest, hearing the even breathing of a sleeping Tucker at his back.

"Did you have a good birthday?"

Rahul felt him wiggle. "The best, thank you. That was probably the best birthday I"ve ever had!"

"Mmm. That makes me both happy and sad at the same time."

"It"s fine. My childhood birthdays aren"t really good memories anymore—"

Thanks to parents that he was no longer on speaking terms with, Rahul knew. He hugged Leif tighter.

"But Dennis threw me an absolutely wonderful one on my twenty-first birthday! Lots of drinks, and three male strippers."

"Were they hot?"

"They were, but overall I liked yours and Sebastian"s dance better. For them it was just a job, but for you two…"

"We danced with love and passion?"

Leif turned over in his arms, tilting his head up to receive a kiss. "Yes, exactly. And also the teasing outfits."

Rahul yawned while Leif made himself comfortable against his belly, and was working on falling asleep when he felt Leif jerk.

"Oh! You never finished saying."

"Hmm?"

"This morning. You said Director Wu talked to you about something important?"

"Oh, that? Right. Fang offered me my old job back."

He heard Leif gasp, followed by the sound of him covering his mouth with his hand. Leif lifted his head up to look at him, even though his poor cub didn"t have night-vision like either Rahul or Tucker.

"Rahul!" Leif whispered harshly.

"I told her I needed a day to think about it, first," Rahul added nonchalantly.

"Oh my goodness. Are you? Are you rejoining DOMA?"

"What do you think, cub?" he asked teasingly. "Am I going to tell her yes, or tell her no?"

He saw Leif"s shock wear off slowly, his face turning more thoughtful. After a moment, Leif laid himself back down, pressing himself up into his side.

"You already made your decision," he said slowly, wonderingly. "And I think… I think you"re going to say no."

"I am? Now why would I do that?"

Leif placed a hand on Rahul"s chest, running fingers through his thick chest hair. "I can think of three reasons. Well, three big ones, not counting littler ones like how you get to work your own hours."

"I confess, I don"t miss waking up at five or six in the morning. So what"s this first reason of mine?"

"You love a good mystery. And DOMA… I guess you can say it"s solved, for you. The cases are different, but you know how it"ll end. You"d go in to work each day, solve some things, then twenty years later, that"s it. But as a private eye, running your own business, you don"t yet know what surprises lay out there, or know how the whole thing is going to turn out."

"I like how you think. Keep going!"

With Leif"s face pressed up against him, he could feel the smile spreading. "Is this a test of my own investigative skills? But sure! Um, reason two. I think you"re an amazing investigator, but in your own mind, I think you feel like… that you"re just now hitting your stride. And if you stopped now, you"d never know how far you"d really get to go. You don"t want to quit the race."

"Ooh, I like that one."

"Am I right?"

"Not saying."

Leif wiggled his fingers against his side, trying to tickle him, but Rahul was made of sterner stuff.

"Don"t start a war you can"t handle, cub," he cautioned, sliding his arm down until his hand rested on Leif"s far more ticklish thigh.

"If Tucker weren"t sleeping…"

"Yeah, yeah. And the third reason?"

Leif sat up in the bed, sliding a hand up Rahul"s body, patting him blindly until it found his cheek.

"You want to be seen," he said softly. "When a detective or agent helps someone, or catches someone like Germaine, those people only remember that it was DOMA who did it. But for Sebastian and Sakari, they will always remember that it was Private Investigator Rahul Basu who saved their son. It was Rahul who helped that nice couple up north with the whole memory mushroom gang."

Leif leaned down, giving him the barest of kisses. "And it was Rahul Basu who talked with me and helped soothe my nerves when I first ran into a ghost in that alley."

"You met Tucker right after, though," Rahul pointed out.

"Yes, but Tucker didn"t just make a life-changing decision today, so he can stay out of it."

"Fair enough."

"I love you, Rahul."

"Love you too, Leif."

"..."

"..."

"...well?"

"Well, what?"

"Did I guess right?"

"Hmm. You know what? I like your reasons better, so I"m stealing them, and I"ll use them when I decline the position. So yes, you"re absolutely right on all counts!"

He heard Leif huff, and then felt his silent laughter as his boyfriend settled himself back down in his arms. It didn"t last long, because it only took him the space of a few breaths before he fell asleep, nestled up against Rahul"s side. Rahul rubbed his thumb over Leif"s hip affectionately.

Thank you for seeing me, cub.