It was a lovely morning. Winter was close and the soft chill in the air had a way of sneaking into the house. He had lost count of all the nights he had spent here instead of his own apartment, but it was hard not to when the mansion full of magical creatures had slowly but surely become his favorite place in the world.

What wasn’t his favorite, however, was waking up to find the bed empty... So he did his best to drag his sore body off the silky covers, slip on some sweat pants and limp all the way to the kitchen to find the man he had fallen in love with.

Hm, hi, Moore. How you doin?

“I’m afraid I’ve double booked. Roxanne’s dragging me out on a double date with her and one of her work friends so... can we reschedule?”

“Psst.”

The previews haven’t started yet, but he’s lost interest already. All he needed to see was the long hair to know who was sitting two rows ahead of him in the movie theater. 

“Psst. Hello? Hello, Mí lo Monster?” His hoarse attempt to grab the other’s attention could hardly be considered a whisper. Santí, uncaring if the other was ignoring him or just couldn’t hear, climbed over the seat in front of him and moved to the seat behind the familiar face. 

“You’re Mí lo Monster, right?” he leaned forward and asked. “I follow your Instagrams, it’s very good.” 

One would think that a town used to Autumn’s early sunsets wouldn’t be so quick to spook at the dark, but the chaos that ensued as the festival was thrust into darkness was surprising, to say the absolute least. More surprising was the fist to the face that he received as a result. 

Blinking in the dark through the oncoming pain, Sam shoved Randy away into some poor unsuspecting stranger. Sam! he heard from somewhere in the crowd, setting alight his own panic: that of being called into work during a moment like this. 

He looked for any sort of exit, but it is only when he saw Milo in the glow of his phone, no doubt going live on Instagram, that Sam felt the sudden urge to get the hell out of there. For as much as he enjoyed Milo’s company, his energy was not the kind Sam needed at the moment. 

Sam backed away, but it was too late. Eye contact was made, and there was no chance in hell that he was going to make it out of there without a million questions.

Ben had lasted all of a week before they were storming out of their apartment, weaving their way through people with a single destination in mind that they were just convinced would solve the restlessness burning under their skin. Befriending Milo had been a sort of an accident, but one they wouldn’t take back for anything now. Who else could they turn to in moments like this?

 Luckily, it didn’t take long to slip back to where they knew the other would likely be and they barely resisted the urge to flop onto the nearest horizontal surface to really play up the drama mostly in jest of themselves, but they did perch themselves on a counter and wait (semi-patiently) for Milo’s attention. Once granted, they beamed before blurting, “I’m going to buy a motorcycle. You seemed like the best person in town to point me in the right direction.” Ben may have been up all night researching the different companies and styles and had a few narrowed down, but they’d been surprised to realize that not only did they trust Milo’s opinion…they wanted it before moving forward with the impulse purchase. “Help me, please?”