Twenty-five

twenty-five

Kris

We finally made it home. I could not begin to form the words necessary to explain how much I loved being back in my own home, with my own bed, and without EFTs buzzing about. Truly, the simplicity of life was a thing of beauty.

Our flight had come in very late last night, so by the time we made it home, we basically just threw off clothes and fell face-first into bed. I slept in, and it wasn’t until ten or so that I woke up. I came out yawning, found coffee already made in the kitchen, poured myself a cup, and then went to the living room.

Only to stop short at the sight before my eyes.

Zhen was on the couch, sitting so his bad leg was propped up, with only sweatpants on, hair lying loose around his shoulders. Yum, loved that morning view. The thing was, he was doing something very, very weird for Zhen.

He was reading.

Anyone who knew Zhen knew he wasn’t the type to sit still. Reading was something he did on the go via audiobook because he didn’t have the patience to sit still long enough to do it. The sight of my soul-bound husband sitting on the couch with two books in front of him on the coffee table, an open book balanced on his lap, and…was that a sketchbook on the other side of him? He was either drawing or taking notes, I wasn’t sure.

This whole scene was so viscerally weird that I just stood there watching him for a long moment.

Was he…was he moping?

Surely, he wasn’t moping.

Oh my god, I think he was moping.

Uhhh, where was a manual on Zhen? I didn’t know how to fix this.

His eyes finally came up to meet mine. “What?”

“You’re oozing guilt sitting there”—I pointed a finger to the stack of books—“and that’s just weird.”

“I know I’m normally running around at this time, but it’s not like I can run right now.” He pointed to his bad leg.

“That’s very true, I’m not arguing that point, but I have never seen you sit down and voluntarily give yourself homework.”

“Oh.” He gave his whole setup a sweep as if just realizing. “Yeah. It does look that way, doesn’t it?”

“This honestly concerns me.” I waltzed over and plonked myself in the chair next to him. “What are you even doing?”

“Creating redundancies.” Blowing out a breath, he set his pencil down and slurped coffee before continuing. “I know we talked about how the last fight went down, and you were fine with it because I protected you and Ama after the barrier fell.”

He was clearly not okay with it, despite my reassurances. The books in front of him said as much.

His expression screwed up into this frown that had a healthy dose of worry mixed in. “I’ve been in fights where I was so engaged with my opponent, I couldn’t begin to help anyone else. That fight, it worked out okay. Future fights? I can’t bank on it. And frankly, the thought of you being in the middle of a fight and having your defenses fail you again makes me want to stick a Phillips-head screwdriver into my ear and swirl.”

The thing that made this man so easy to love was his absolute dedication to the people around him. If Zhen decided you were one of his people, he did his absolute best for you. I also very much appreciated that when something did go wrong, he didn’t throw a fit about it. Even his brand of moping was to analyze what had gone wrong and find a better solution.

I couldn’t be upset with him because he hadn’t failed. I also thought, though, that he was having a hard time forgiving himself for it. If researching different methods and coming up with a plan helped get that guilt out of his system, okay. I could work with that.

Reaching over, I took his hand in mine and gave it a gentle squeeze. “If this helps and boosts your confidence for the next fight, then I won’t argue.”

He squeezed back, the tension riding in his body fading out as relief took over. “Thanks. I didn’t want to rehash something we’d already talked about.”

“If you need to rehash something because the first round of conversation didn’t work for you, then do. You did that for me, didn’t you? That street goes both ways.”

“Heh. True.”

I figured I’d gotten my point across, so I chose not to belabor it. “All right, so have you come up with something for next time? Or is more research required?”

“Hmm, more research might be required, but I had two ideas.”

Zhen picked up his sketchbook and passed it over to me. I let go of his hand to take it, then had to stop and really study what I was looking at. Huh. It looked like the frame to a pop-up tent, honestly, only it stood taller than one—he had a measurement of six feet. The base of the thing had some kind of rubber to it, marked at six feet long as well. “I see the design for it, but there’s no cover?”

“Right. Well, there can be, depending on the weather and such, but it’ll be minimal.” Zhen leaned over to trace a finger along the sketch. “These poles here aren’t really for support of something else. Rather, they’re to hold all of the protections. I really liked the protective method Ama showed us, but of course the weakness was that it was open to the elements. As we saw, it was easy to get around.”

I winced because yeah, it had been.

“But I can put that ash, tobacco, and iron shavings mix into the poles themselves.”

Huh. I was rather flabbergasted by this, but it was really intriguing, too. “Will they work encased like that?”

“Not sure about that part,” Zhen admitted. “I’ll have to call Ama later to ask her, and if not, I have an idea or three to put it somewhere else. The poles will also be there to tie talismans to, much like our other protective tent.”

“Ahhh, now this makes more sense. But you don’t want to put a cover over the top of it because…?”

“Sight lines for you.” His lips kicked up on one side in a sort of wry manner. “I know you do not like being in the dark.”

“Darn tootin’ I don’t.” That was one of the worst feelings in the world, to be shoved somewhere safe but without any means to fight back if it all went to shit. Without any way of looking for yourself to see how the battle was playing out, and not knowing whether someone precious to you was hurt or dying. I absolutely couldn’t be shoved into a protective box.

“If it’s raining or snowing, it won’t be pleasant to be out in the air.” Zhen shrugged. “But on the other hand, you can’t have something over the top of it and still be able to shoot. I do have a modified version where there’s a small canvas to put on the very top to keep the worst of the rain or snow off of you.”

“You’ve really been thinking this through.” Just how long had this been percolating in his head?

“Yeah. Well, I happen to like you.”

I laughed and handed the sketch back. “I’m glad of it, too. What about weapons? You made a comment to me a while back that none of yours would work for me.”

“Correct, they will not.” Zhen put the sketch back off to the side. He pointed to the books. “There’s a couple of different options on weapons for you—things that are geared more for your weight and strength. All of my bows are flat out, their draw is way too heavy for you.”

I had tried, only once, to draw one of his bows. I’d moved it maybe an inch. I’d need to be an Olympian weightlifter to use his bows, to be honest. “So, new bow for me.”

“Yup. Already talked to my dad and uncle about it, and they’re working up different designs. If you don’t have plans today, want to swing by my parents’ house and choose one?”

“Sure. Maybe we can pick up a practice bow while we’re out. It’s not like I know a lot about archery except you pull back on the string and let fly.”

He liked my ready willingness. I saw the happy spark zing, and he sat up a little straighter. “Yeah, that’s a great idea. Um, I want Uncle Ty to start training you to snipe, too. I’m not a sniper, it’s not my thing, so I’d be a poor teacher. Plus you’ve got to get your gun permit.”

“That’s fine by me.” I adored Uncle Ty. He was cheerful by nature, patient, and a very good teacher. “There’s special rifles and stuff to do this with, I take it?”

“Yup, but the beauty of it is, we don’t need to make something custom for you. A lot of on the market guns will do the trick, we just have to modify them a little bit to handle monsters.”

“Got it. Then we definitely need to go to your parents’ place today and talk all this through, get a schedule going for training.” I looked him over, gauging his expression, and he seemed pretty happy right now. Time to broach the subject. “Zhen, I did have an idea.”

“Hit me.” He splayed his arms out in an exaggerated fashion.

“I’m still good with our every other month schedule.” I wanted to put that out there first so he wouldn’t think I was having second thoughts. “But I think part of my frustration with going on these hunts is that in between the battles, there’s not a lot for me to do. I hadn’t realized how badly that would be the case, and the sitting around really doesn’t feel comfortable to me. There’s also only so much I can do for Boss while on the road, as some of her job just can’t be done remotely. I honestly get a little bored, as there’s not enough for me to do. So, how do you feel about me being your social media manager?”

He blinked at me rapidly. “That’s not where my internal GPS said the conversation was going.”

“Too out of the blue?”

“A little, yeah. Uh, light of my life, I do not have a social media presence.”

“Trust me, I know. I went looking for it and was confuzzled when I didn’t find one. Do people seriously find you through word of mouth?”

“Basically.”

Seemed like a very inefficient method to me. “Well, think of it this way. If we can build it enough to get a good audience, you’ll have a passive income, plus people who need your help but don’t know how to reach you will now have a method of reaching you.”

He didn’t seem at all against this. In fact, his lips pursed for a second as he thought it through.

“I see your point and think you’re right. The only reason why I didn’t try before is because it’s a lot of computer time that I just don’t have the patience for.”

“Not surprised by that.”

“Plus, it was one more thing I had to keep track of on a regular basis, and that’s something else I really suck at.”

Also not surprised about that. “The only downside I see to this is that you’ll likely get more busy because of the exposure.”

“If we’re really going to try the on again, off again schedule, then yeah. That might cause problems.”

I’d brought it up because I had a solution. “I’ve noticed that your friends you like to pair up with also don’t have much of a social media presence. Jake is the most active out of everyone, and his last post was two months ago.”

“Uh, you’re not going to take on everyone, are you?”

“My thought is, let me create more of a group account. Not something focusing on you specifically, but you and your friends. All I would need from them is a picture, or a FaceTime video that I can record, on a semi-regular basis. I’ll handle the editing and posting. That way, the viewers know there’s a number of you, and they’re not going to be clamoring for just your help.”

Zhen hummed a little, thinking this through as well. “I literally see no downsides. And it’ll mean more steady work for all of us. No more frantic calls from someone because things have gone apeshit when the situation has dragged on for too long. Honestly, prevention is the best cure. A series of short tutorials on how to, say, salt an area to prevent Bloody Bones from popping up in ponds, or knowing how to hunker down if there’s something nasty targeting you, that’ll save lives, too.”

“I’m really glad you’re seeing all the benefits.”

“I am. This is a great idea. Let’s do it. I’ll reach out to my buddies and ask who all’s wanting in.” Zhen perked up even further. “Ooh, we’ll need a really cool name for the group and maybe a logo.”

And now he was going overboard. Well, it was fine. The more enthusiastic he was, the easier it’d be to wrangle all of the material that I needed from him. Plus, I’d managed to find multiple things for him to do today that would mostly keep him off his bad leg.

Day had barely started and I was winning already.