#mortalalchemy

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. Ever. I don’t need to know about it if it hurts you to talk about,” Riley murmured, never one to push Stone into anything that made him uncomfortable, especially when it came to anything even remotely traumatic.

It took a moment for his brain to catch up and process the exact wording of what Stone had said, though, and it had him pausing, unsure if he should ask for clarification since Stone didn’t seem to have realised what he said, but it would eat Riley alive later trying to second-guess it if he didn’t.

“Wait, you... love me?”

It wasn’t so much that it was traumatic as it was Stone just didn’t want to hurt Riley more than he already had. He already felt more than shitty enough about it without adding salt to the wound.

Still, he hadn’t realized his own word choice until Riley had asked, leaving Stone freezing on the spot, instinct screaming at him to just say it was true but how much of it was him and how much was the animal he had become left something to be debated.

“I...fuck.”

There was no way to brush it off, pretend it meant something different when even before, Stone had never been exactly casual with things like that.

“Well then I guess it’s long overdue,” Lex grinned, pulling up a stool and resting his elbows on the bar. “Was gettin’ kinda bored and lonely home alone, so this puppy needed a walk.”

“You know what I really like about all of this? That when you say home, you mean my apartment,” he offered gently, pulling already a few bottles to prepare a nice looking cocktail that he knew Lex would appreciate.

[text: Cass] Yeah, cool. I don’t have work tomorrow so meet at 2 somewhere?

He had known Riley lived in the area, but couldn’t remember exactly where. It had been years since Peri had dragged him along with her when she “needed a break” from their dad and “his bullshit”. Still, it was almost startling to cross paths with anyone he had known before he “died”. 

“You don’t get it. Nobody does, but it’s fine. Just don’t scream at me while I’m high, alright? That’s all I’m asking. Please?”

He hadn’t wanted to believe Liss when she said Zayde was there but she wasn’t big on lying, not when she could do more damage with the truth. Still, Devin had hesitated, weighing the options before going down to the bar. If nothing else, Zayde generally needed a babysitter in bars and he doubted this would be any different. 

Catching sight of him made the shifter’s entire chest tight. God, he had missed Zayde and seeing him did nothing more than remind him of that. But he forced himself to shove the tsunami of emotion down and cross the room to confront him.

“Think ya talkin’ to the wrong person if ya wantin’ an answer to somethin’ like that, ‘cause morality is a bit of a grey area in my family, ‘specially where I’m concerned, and I’m not stoned enough yet to be talkin’ philosophically on that shit. Can probably fix that pretty quick though, if you’re up for it?”