Twelve

Khush

I'd be the first to admit that I had absolutely no clue about any kind of construction work. I could also be clumsy as fuck—you try slithering around an active construction area and tell me how it goes—which was why I was allowed nowhere near the actual site.

Instead, I'd been relegated to the task of keeping track of the stock, and getting everyone snacks every few hours. I didn't mind, because at least it allowed me to be a part of the whole thing. Even if I wasn't directly contributing to the renovation, I was still doing my part.

"Hey," Silas said as he trundled over to me in his troll form, sweat dripping from his brow, and I handed him a bottle of water—the reusable kind. We didn't bring the plastic crap to the Sanctuary—without a word.

He drained the whole bottle in one go, and I shook my head.

"You need to take breaks more often," I said, and he shrugged. Typical troll, unwilling to admit he was tired even if he was literally falling apart. "If you don't, I'll tell Touya."

Silas's eyes widened, and he threw the bottle at me. I caught it before it could smack me in the face and stuck my tongue out at him.

Instead of returning the favor, Silas smirked. "You know, once Dustin moves here, you won't be able to get away with all your shit too."

"What are you talking about? I'm a perfect gentleman," I said in a lofty tone, and Silas gave an utterly sarcastic laugh, the type where you pronounce each individual 'ha.'

"Oh, we're almost done with the roof. Wanna come and see it before we start on the walls?" Silas offered, and I nodded quickly. I'd stayed out of the way so I wouldn't cause any trouble, but I was itching to see how it was coming along.

I followed Silas to my cabin, and gasped softly when I saw how much it'd changed in a matter of days. The previously sloping roof was gone, the red roof tiles perfectly stacked on the ground to one side. They'd be put in storage until they were needed elsewhere, since they were still undamaged.

In place of the sloping roof was now a flat one that somehow made my cabin look bigger. I couldn't explain why, but it certainly looked that way to me.

It'd only been four days since they started building—the first day had involved Draven and the headmaster making a plan that would allow the headmaster to weave his magic through the walls—and they'd already come along so far.

"Haruto was especially helpful for the de-roofing part," Silas said, making claw shapes with his hands as he explained. "He used his spider-legs to remove each tile perfectly without damaging any of them. It was flawless."

"Where is he now?" I asked when I only saw Zamir around. Keoni had chores at the dining room today—almost all of the supes who lived at the Sanctuary contributed to its smooth running in some way, whether it was shopping for supplies, cooking, doing laundry, patching up the injured, or something else—while Draven was more of a planner in building projects, so his work was already done.

"I sent him back to his cabin to get some rest. He practically did the whole thing himself," Silas said, shaking his head, and I smiled. If Silas lived in the human world, I could very well imagine him running a construction crew where each member was like family to him, and where they all respected the heck out of him for it.

"I'll have to personally thank him later," I murmured, and Silas rolled his eyes at me, smacking me in the back with his tail.

"You say that as if you wouldn't have done the same for him," he reprimanded, then made a face. "Well, maybe not exactly the same thing."

The image of me on a tiled, sloping roof made me shudder, and I lengthened my tail simply so I could rise up and smack the back of Silas's head. Before Silas had taken off into the human world for a brief period, we'd practically grown up together. Silas was like a younger brother to me, which meant I reserved the right to smack him whenever he annoyed me, which was more often than not.

"Silas! I could use some help here!" Zamir called from the roof, and Silas waved at him before turning to me.

"Gotta go."

"Don't overwork yourselves, either of you," I warned, and he gave me a salute before bounding toward the cabin and leaping directly onto the roof because the stairs would apparently be too slow for him.

Shaking my head, I turned around and made my way back to my tree. It was where I'd set up my snack station, and I climbed onto the tree before pulling my phone out of the little fanny-pack thingy I'd started tying around my waist so I wouldn't lose track of it.

Pulling up our text chain, I shot Dustin a text. He'd said I could text him even when he was working because sometimes there was a lull between customers and he could reply.

Me : Hey, Dustin. How's your day going? I had a lot of fun at the arcade yesterday. We should do it again sometime.

When he didn't reply instantly, I figured he was busy talking to a client, and so I switched over to the streaming app, noticing my favorite gamer—who was apparently Dustin's best friend. Talk about a small world!—had just finished a livestream. The replay hadn't been uploaded yet, so I switched over to the fan group to see what he'd streamed about.

Reading through the comments, I figured out he'd played more of the fantasy game, and also mentioned that he might do another video with his friend, which reminded me that Dustin had told me he'd made a few videos with Quest too.

I went back to the video app and started scrolling through QuestBoy69's older videos, searching for the right ones. I knew exactly what I'd be doing for the rest of the day.

Dustin

Khush had sent me a text around an hour ago, and I still hadn't checked it except to peek at the notification preview. No, I wasn't busy with a customer, and yes, I felt awful about ignoring him.

I wasn't ignoring him because I didn't want to talk to him. It was actually just the opposite.

I'd been on a bullet train since day one with Khush, and my fear had finally caught up with me.

What if I was making a huge mistake by moving in with him so soon?

Sure, Fate had brought us together and we were supposed to be soulmates, but that didn't mean we didn't have to work on our relationship just like anyone else, right?

Hitting the milestones without growing closer emotionally wouldn't help at all, and it might destroy our relationship before it ever had a chance to flourish.

I knew that for once we were both rushing instead of just me, but did that make things better? Or was it a "blind leading the blind" situation? I wasn't sure.

The worst part was, I couldn't really talk to anyone about this, not honestly at least. How would I explain my decision without explaining the whole fated mates thing?

Even Quest would have trouble accepting the fact that I was moving in with someone I'd only known for a few weeks. He'd probably offer me a guest room at his own place, a giant penthouse suite as it was.

Was I making a huge mistake? Would we end up regretting it?

Khush had mentioned that some members of the Sanctuary didn't really like humans, mostly because we were food to them, and they'd been starving themselves for years because they didn't want to be 'monsters.'

Was it right of me to intrude in their safe space simply because I was Khush's mate? I guessed I wouldn't be the first one, since Touya and Bellamy were both humans too. It still didn't seem fair, though.

My phone buzzed, and I glanced at it from the corner of my eyes, feeling annoyed with myself when seeing Quest's name made me feel relieved.

Picking up the phone, I opened Quest's text as Scrappy hopped into my lap, sensing my distress with her impeccable kitty-sense.

Quest : How are things going with you and McHottie?

Rolling my eyes, I tapped out a reply, feeling a little cautious as I waited for his reaction.

Me : He asked me to move in with him. I said yes.

Quest didn't reply for so long I honestly got worried. Then I almost jumped—making Scrappy hiss at me for dislodging her—as my phone started buzzing with a video call.

"Hey," I said as I answered it, and Quest glared at me from the screen, his frizzy brown hair falling into his eyes as he started speaking.

"Dustin Mark Sheppard!" For the record, those were neither my middle nor my last names. That was actually the name of Quest's current favorite actor. "Are you telling me you're moving in with the dude you met a few short weeks ago?"

"Uh, yes?"

"Have you learned nothing?" he demanded with a shake of his head, and I sighed. I understood why he was being so direct. He was the one I ran to every time I got my heart broken, and he was the one who held me and wiped my tears.

If we weren't both dedicated bottoms who were into hunky, man's-man types, we'd have probably ended up together, but instead we were the closest friends the other had ever had, which meant we'd earned brutal honesty from each other.

"I know. I know, Quest. I'm still not sure if I made the right decision, but Khush is…he's just different. He likes snakes," he is half of one , I thought to myself, "and I have fun whenever I spend time with him. Scrappy absolutely loves him, even more than she loves me, I think. And he was the one who asked me. It feels like I finally found someone who's on the same wavelength as me, you know?"

Quest watched me silently, his green eyes scanning all over my face. "Dude. You're falling in love with him, aren't you?"

I blinked, then shrugged, unable to deny it because I was. I was falling for Khush, and for once I wasn't afraid of doing it, because I was sure he was falling for me too.

It was strange. I had so much confidence in Khush, in his feelings for me, and yet I was scared of moving in with him. Why was that? Was I afraid of him changing his mind, or afraid I was making the same mistake again? Was I letting my past experiences confuse me and mess up something wonderful?

"Did I lose you?" Quest asked, breaking into my thoughts, and I shook my head, focusing back on him.

"I'm here."

"Listen, D. I know you've had shit experiences before, and usually I'd be telling you to take a step back right now, but I can see how much you like him. If you think this is the right thing to do, then do it. Move in with him. Just make sure you don't have any doubts before you do, okay? You owe that to yourself and to him."

"You're so wise, Sir Quest," I said, giving him a respectful bow. I could almost hear his eyes roll. "Oh, by the way, Khush is a fan of your videos."

"He is?" Quest asked, brightening up instantly. I bet Khush just got a few points in his book.

I proceeded to tell him how he was a fairly new gamer but still watched his videos, and Quest was utterly delighted to hear it. I promised I'd introduce the two of them soon—Khush would absolutely love that—before ending the call, and then stared at Khush's text for a moment before opening it.

Me : Sounds good! We'll definitely plan something. I was just talking to Quest, and he said he'd love to meet you. Maybe we could plan an arcade visit for the three of us? Silas, Touya, Keoni and anyone else who'd like to participate could join too. We could make a day of it.

Khush replied within minutes, and I smiled as I read his text. Talking with Quest had definitely helped, and so did making plans with Khush.

Khush : That'll be so much fun! I'll talk to the others later, see who's interested. I can't wait for you to move in with me. 3

Yeah, I didn't think I was making a mistake after all.