Chapter 35: Tell Me I’m the One

Siren Song, Three Laws

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“Careful,” Caleb warned, eyebrows furrowing together.

Morgyn just gave him an exasperated look, sitting up and taking the glass of tea. “I’m not glass suddenly,” Morgyn grumbled into the cup.

Caleb released a quiet sigh. He knew that, really he did. Morgyn just worried him, a lot. For some reason, it just felt like there was something seriously wrong, some great reason to be so concerned. Ezio seemed to sense it, too, judging by how he acted, but mysteriously, the spellcaster wasn’t sharing what he felt.

Caleb liked Ezio well enough. He was generally very kind, and well-meaning, and he was interesting to talk to. And yet he was also somehow very intimidating. There was a lot that went on in his head, behind the grey of his eyes, that he didn’t talk about, and it gave him a very closed-off feeling. Caleb didn’t quite understand how Drake could love someone like that so intensely, but he also understood that Ezio and Drake had something that couldn’t easily be replicated.

Once, Caleb thought he might’ve been able to fall for Ezio, too. Actually, there were a few times when he thought he was. And surprisingly, a few times when he wanted to be. But Caleb wasn’t Drake, and he couldn’t be, so he’d never tried to do anything with it to speak of. It was just as well. Ezio was weirdly jumpy and skittish sometimes.

“You shouldn’t worry so much,” Morgyn said, curling up slightly around the cup. It gave off wisps of steam.

Caleb raised an eyebrow. “You still have a migraine,” he said. “I don’t think you’re supposed to have a migraine for this long this consistently. I mean, I haven’t been human in a while, but, I think that’s about right!”

Morgyn sighed, curling up around the cup a bit tighter.

Caleb sighed, too, settling down on the side of the bed. “I worry, Morgyn. That’s what I do. And I especially worry about you.”

Green eyes flicked up, meeting Caleb’s gaze. Morgyn looked like the blond had no idea how to take that, and Caleb had to admit it could be taken badly, too. He didn’t backtrack or try and change what he’d said, though. That looked worse, in many cases, and it was the truth after all. Sometimes, the truth wasn’t terribly attractive, or comforting. It didn’t make it any less the truth.

“You shouldn’t,” Morgyn said, lips tilting just so in wry amusement. “Worrying about me isn’t very good for your health. Just ask Ezio.”

Caleb snorted, but Morgyn blinked, looking surprised.

“Wait, you don’t think that’s actually-“

“What?” Caleb asked. “No. No that’s not a thing, really, it’s not.”

“High levels of stress can-“

“No, Morgyn stop it,” Caleb said, reaching over and wrapping his hands around the blond’s. “You didn’t cause Ezio’s heart problems. You didn’t.”

Morgyn looked down at the cup, watching the wisps of steam. “I think I want someone to blame,” the blond whispered.

“Blame his immune system or something, I guess,” Caleb answered softly. “Sometimes things just turn out wrong, and it’s no one’s fault, it just is.”

“I know,” Morgyn said. The blond looked up at him, and smiled just so, one hand letting go of the teacup and escaping his fingers to rest against his cheek. “I meant it, though,” Morgyn added. “You shouldn’t worry about me so much.”

Caleb smiled back, shrugging slightly. “I don’t know, that’s how I show I care, I guess. I fret a lot.” It was what it was, Caleb supposed. His life would be a lot easier, if he didn’t panic so much, but if he didn’t, then it almost felt like he didn’t care at all. It was a strange thing Caleb hadn’t spent a lot of time thinking about, merely because it was annoying trying to make sense of what was in your head. Caleb had stopped trying probably in the 1800s.

“I suppose,” Morgyn allowed. Then, the blond sat up a little, raising the cup and drinking some of the tea. “Do you have a computer?” Morgyn asked.

“Um, yeah, why?” was Caleb’s almost confused response.

“I should probably email my professors and such, let them know I have a cold and whatever, and maybe figure out what I missed out on. I don’t imagine I missed much, but it’s hard to tell.”

Caleb snorted. “Yeah, so it can be. I’ll bring my laptop by later, then. But for now, you should really rest.”

“I’ve been sleeping for a week,” Morgyn argued. “I’m feeling better today, anyway, I want to take advantage of it in case it goes away again.”

Caleb shook his head. “There’s nothing to take advantage of feeling better with, it’s Thursday, and you’re moving out of here this weekend. Ezio’s not even here.” Caleb thought the blond would be better off taking advantage of the downtime and resting some more, but then that was Morgyn’s style, he knew.

Morgyn very rarely ever took proper breaks from things, the blond seemingly always doing something. That was in and of itself concerning, but Caleb also knew better than to say anything about that particular thing. Morgyn just liked to keep busy, and it was a valid thing, even if Caleb was convinced it was harmful in some ways. That was for Morgyn to decide, not him, though.

“I guess you’re right,” Morgyn said, then released a sigh, and curled back up with the teacup.

Caleb was just glad Morgyn hadn’t been asking any questions he didn’t have an answer to. While he could tell that Ezio was hiding something, he didn’t know what it was. For all he knew, it could be something completely unrelated to all of this.

“Does your head still hurt?” Caleb asked.

“A bit, yeah,” Morgyn answered. “I took a painkiller earlier, it should eventually stop.”

“You took the strong stuff, right?” Caleb asked.

“Yes,” Morgyn replied. “You’re doing it again, worrying way too much.”

“I did tell you it comes with the territory, in not as many words,” Caleb said, looking amused. “Try and get some rest if you get tired. I’ll be across the hall if you need anything, I’ve got a presentation to do.”

“You can’t stay?” Morgyn asked.

Oh. Uh. Well theoretically he could stay, but the way Morgyn asked that sounded… like a bad idea. Caleb still hadn’t even kissed Morgyn yet, they barely ever came into physical contact with each other, either. Mostly, it was because Caleb didn’t know if he could remember where the line was, wrapped up in the scent that was unmistakably Morgyn, the electric hum under the spellcaster’s skin. He didn’t want to mess up, not with Morgyn, not this time.

“I don’t think I’d get anything done if I did stay,” Caleb answered. “It’ll be fine, I’ll be back later.”

“You promise?” Morgyn asked.

“Yeah, I promise,” Caleb answered, and then he stood up, and headed for the door. Before Morgyn started pouting or something, and he changed his mind.

* * *

As he said he would, Caleb came back later, with a handful of notebooks, textbooks, and some pens. Morgyn had fallen asleep at some point, so Caleb settled down at the dining room table, and got to work on his presentation.

If he didn’t start working on it, he’d eventually forget he was supposed to be doing it, and generally speaking, leaving things for the last minute didn’t usually work out in one’s favour. Caleb actually wanted to graduate at some point, and while he and Lilith had a bit of money put aside, he wasn’t terribly interested in squandering it on wasting time on classes he wasn’t going to pass.

Drake was in the office, typing away on his next book. How that guy managed to write so much, Caleb would never know. Maybe that was something he’d never really understand, because he wasn’t a writer and couldn’t easily understand their ways. That sounded right. Somewhere between fiddling with the note cards that made up his presentation and trying to decide which images to use and which to leave out, the front door opened, and Ezio came in.

Caleb instinctively looked up and smiled at him. “Hey,” he greeted. “Welcome back.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Ezio answered, a very small smile of his own tugging at his lips. He and Morgyn looked exactly the same, somehow, now that Morgyn had transitioned, and Caleb never understood how that had happened. And all the same, they were beautiful in somehow very different ways. If Morgyn was the sun, Caleb thought, then Ezio was the night.

Maybe that was Caleb’s problem. He was trying too hard to catch the sun, but the sun wasn’t any good for a vampire, right?

“How’s Morgyn?” Ezio asked, shuffling over to the counter and setting his books down.

Caleb felt a little twinge of sympathy, as Ezio’s grey eyes fell on Mayor’s food bowl. He hadn’t been around in some time now, his scent had faded a good deal. He didn’t say anything. “Awake earlier,” Caleb answered. “Had some tea and I made sure eating something was on the list, but last I checked Morgyn had gone back to sleep. After insisting sleep was unnecessary, of course.”

Ezio snorted softly. “Of course. You always have a lot of luck getting the idiot to eat at least, so thank you.”

Well, it wasn’t like Caleb did it for Ezio, but he recognised the sentiment all the same. “Glad to be helpful,” he said. And then he went quiet, for a moment, trying to figure out what to say. Ezio was hiding something, Caleb could tell that much. He wanted to know what Ezio was hiding, because if it had to do with Morgyn, it could be important.

“Ezio, what are you not telling me?” he asked softly. It was quiet enough that, if he wanted to, Ezio could pretend he hadn’t heard it.

Instead of that, however, Ezio’s gaze met Caleb’s, and for a long moment, Caleb was almost sure Ezio was going to freeze him to something. He had such an intense stare, really. “Don’t worry about it,” Ezio said, turning away. “That’s not yours to be concerned with.”

“If it has something to do with Morgyn-” Caleb started, but Ezio cut him off.

“Of course it does,” Ezio said. “But like I said, it’s not yours to be concerned with.”

“Ezio, please,” Caleb whispered. “I’m worried.”

Ezio didn’t answer for another long moment, and Caleb wondered what went on behind those eyes. He seemed to be having an internal debate about something, and then he turned back to look at Caleb. “Morgyn is a sage,” he said, tone even and calm. “Things like this are going to happen.”

Caleb’s eyes narrowed sharply. “Things like this didn’t happen before,” Caleb said, his tone vehement and insistent. Things like this, they didn’t happen in the 80s and the 90s, or the early 2000s, this was a new thing. Ezio couldn’t just sweep it under the rug and pretend it was always there because it wasn’t.

Ezio’s gaze hardened, just slightly. “Sometimes, things change, Caleb,” he said. “And sometimes you have to deal with something you don’t know if you’re ready for.”

“Ezio, what are you not saying?” Caleb repeated.

Instead of answering verbally, Ezio shook his head, shuffling around the kitchen counter to put his house keys up. “Just pay attention,” he said, dropping the keys in their holder with a metallic clang. “And if anything happens, you put Morgyn’s safety over everything else.”

Something about the way he said that made Caleb’s skin suddenly decide to crawl. He glanced down, thinking about it. It made sense that was what Ezio would want, because Morgyn was always at the top of Ezio’s list of priorities, and truthfully, aside from perhaps Lilith, there wasn’t much above Morgyn on Caleb’s list of priorities, either. It made complete sense. So why did it bother him so much?

Ah, no. “What about you?” Caleb asked, his head tilting back. “Morgyn needs you.” And if they were ever in a situation where Caleb had to choose one or the other Ember, while he hoped to whatever being was listening that never happened, he didn’t think he’d know what to do.

Ezio released a snort. “I said everything, else, Caleb,” he answered. “I meant that. Everything.”

Yeah, Caleb definitely didn’t like that. But that was Ezio’s way all the same, and he knew it. That was what Ezio thought he wanted. The spellcaster was always putting Morgyn above himself, and this time would clearly be no different. And that bothered him, too. There were a lot of things about Ezio and Morgyn’s weird dynamic that bothered him, but he always figured it wasn’t his place, and so he held his tongue.

“I don’t like that, Ezio,” Caleb said. He didn’t.

Ezio released an airy snort, and smiled. “That’s why I didn’t ask you to like it,” he said, and then shuffled around Caleb towards the bathroom.

And Caleb liked it even less.

* * *

Though it was difficult to focus on it, Caleb had eventually gone back to doing his presentation work. Ezio had gone to take a shower, and when he came back out, he smelled like lime and coconut. Caleb had always liked that scent, but hadn’t ever worked up the courage to ask him where he’d gotten it from. It was probably kind of weird to be paying so much attention to what he smelled like, wasn’t it? Morgyn usually smelled of toasted sugar, which sort of smelled of brown sugar to him. Not quite exactly, they were just very similar. Either way, Caleb had decided, the first time he’d smelled it, that he liked that scent.

He still absolutely did, but lime and coconut were getting up there somewhere by now.

Lilith hadn’t been home in a few days now, but she was probably still trying to work things out with the Charms. He hoped she was having decent luck, at least. He was worried about her, of course, but it seemed a bit silly to bother her right now. Who knew how close she was to getting things taken care of, and it would be best not to distract her, he figured. She could be very close to figuring it out, and he didn’t need to mess it all up for her.

Amid working on his presentation, Caleb had remembered something that he needed to talk to one of his professors about. He’d been a bit annoyed about it, but it wasn’t terribly late, either, so he gathered his presentation papers and note cards up, gone to Britechester, and asked his thousand questions about the assignment that he needed to ask. He’d come just in time, it’d seem, because that professor was just about ready to go home. It wasn’t like it’d be the end of the world if he missed office hours, just a bit annoying.

Now, of course, he had a better idea of what he was doing with it. It made it notably easier to figure out how to arrange the note cards, and decide on what information he wanted to leave out, or add in. There were so many different ways he could think of to arrange it, it was almost fascinating in and of itself. Caleb, as it turned out, kind of enjoyed learning.

He walked along the pathway, shuffling through the note cards and papers, thinking about all the ways he could arrange the data and how he wanted to present everything. And then, suddenly, he jerked backward as something slammed into his arm. The papers in his hand fell, and he could hear the sound of books clattering onto the concrete, and a feminine squeal.

“I’m sorry, sorry, really,” the same feminine voice said. Caleb shook his head to clear it, and then looked down to find a dark-haired young woman scrambling to catch all the papers before they flew away in the slight breeze. Caleb didn’t say anything, simply started after the ones that had begun to float away, snatching them up, and then he returned to her.

“It was my fault,” he said, handing her the papers he was sure were hers (his handwriting wasn’t nearly that pretty). “I’m sorry.”

“No, honestly, it’s just kind of something I do,” she said, shrugging and laughing slightly. Her voice wasn’t exactly melodic or anything, it had a slight hint of a rougher edge to it, but he didn’t find it unpleasant all the same, and her laugh was almost infectious. And as she looked up at him, he found it terribly difficult not to stare at her eyes. One was a very dark, deep chocolate brown colour, and the other was green.

“You frequently crash into people?” Caleb asked, smiling slightly.

“Yep,” she answered, nodding once, and handing him a stack of papers. A glance verified they were indeed his, or this girl mimicked his chicken scratch quite well. “I trip over life sometimes,” she said, her eyes widening comically as she said it with such gusto.

Caleb couldn’t help the laugh. “I’m Caleb,” he said, holding his hand out.

“Oh, right,” she answered, and she took his hand. “My name’s Liberty.”

As they shook hands, Caleb sensed it. That slight flash of electricity, flowing from her hand into his. The same sensation he got from the Embers, just notably weaker. Magic. “I’m sorry, is it insensitive to ask you where you’re from?” he asked.

“Oh, I’m Chinese,” Liberty said, taking her hand back and smiling. “And before you ask, my eyes are natural, yes, they really are this colour, I can’t tell you why either. Well, there’s some science-y mumbo jumbo behind it but you don’t really look like a science guy. Not that this is a bad thing!”

Caleb laughed. “Well, being technical about it, cooking is kind of a science.”

“You’re in cooking?” Liberty exclaimed.

“I’m still learning, but yes,” Caleb answered. “And for the record, your eyes are beautiful.”

“Wha-oh,” Liberty spluttered slightly, looking bewildered. And then she snorted softly. “No one’s ever said that before. Well, one kid when I was in fifth grade said it, but I think he was mocking me.”

Caleb almost uttered an apology. Kids could be awfully cruel, sometimes, but she looked up at him and smiled.

“Yours are, too,” she said.

“Thanks,” he answered. “So, what are you taking?”

“Physics,” Liberty answered, her tone wry. “I want to be an astronaut. Or get closer to the rockets than this at least. But I seem to have ended up on the wrong side, here, and I have no idea where the lobster is.”

He looked a bit apologetic. “You’re on the wrong side of the river,” he said. “Er, rivers, plural, there are three in between here and there, but anyway, you have to go past Gibbs Hill and…”

Somehow, just by the way she was looking at him, he could tell she was going to forget everything he’d just said in a few minutes. Instead, he snorted, and shifted his weight. “I’ll show you,” he decided.

“You don’t have to!” Liberty protested.

“Come on,” Caleb said, taking her sleeve and tugging her towards Gibbs Hill. “It’ll take me less time to just get you there than it will for you to try finding it by yourself.”

Besides, he was absolutely going to get her number by the end.

* * *

“There is a school rivalry,” Caleb said, as he walked along the pathway, “but some of us don’t take it too seriously.”

Liberty, following along behind him, smiled again. She seemed to smile a lot, and Caleb found it a little infectious. “I’m sure eventually I’ll get tagged with silly string or something,” she said. “I was usually the one everyone picked on in high school. Not so bad in grade school, at least. I was invisible in grade school.”

“You can turn invisible?” Caleb asked. That sounded like something that was plausible to him.

Strangely, she burst out laughing at him. He couldn’t be too mad about it, though. “Not exactly,” she said. “I just meant, I mostly read books when I was a kid and minded my own business. I don’t really stand out, aside from my eyes. Beyond that, no one paid me much mind. I had one friend, she was also Chinese, and our moms were friends, but then she moved and now I’m just invisible girl that trips on air.”

Caleb made a face. “I don’t think you’re very invisible,” he said. “You do have friends, right?”

“Oh sure,” Liberty answered, waving a hand. “Summer and Travis, actually. Well, Summer kind of made friends with me and Travis… ahh, Travis.”

“That bad?” Caleb asked.

Liberty snorted. “If it was legal, he would’ve married Hillock II,” she said.

What exactly a Hillock II was, Caleb had no idea, but he just smiled at her and nodded like he knew what she meant. (He’d ask Ezio later. Ezio knew nearly everything.)

“Summer and I had a crush on him in high school. I had a feeling he wouldn’t be terribly interested in me, but Summer, I mean, she’s everyone’s best friend, the It girl, right? I think she was even literally prom queen at least once. But he doesn’t seem to be interested in her, either. I hope she gives up on him. I did, and I like to think I’m much happier.”

Caleb looked a bit sad. “You’ll find someone that’s your speed,” he said. “There’s someone out there for everyone.”

“Yeah, maybe not alien-loving face-planting nerds,” Liberty said, giggling.

Caleb heard it, when her foot kicked the concrete slightly wrong. And she went down; instinctively, he quickly moved over and caught her before she hit the walkway. To his surprise, she burst into laughter again.

“Oh fuck, thank you!” she said, getting her feet back under her, and adjusting herself. Caleb let go once he was sure she wasn’t going to fall again.

“You’re going to hurt yourself one day,” he said, shaking his head.

“I told you,” Liberty answered, still giggling. “I have the grace of a newborn baby duck with a birth defect.”

That was oddly specific, Caleb thought, and he raised an eyebrow for a moment, but he didn’t argue with her. It was a moot thing, and she really had just tripped over her own feet. Surprisingly, this time, the hum of magic under her skin was stronger than it was the last time they’d come into physical contact with each other. Caleb remembered Morgyn mentioning that magic could sometimes be made dormant, for varying reasons, either because a spellcaster was born with magic that was stronger than their ability to control it, or because they had very dangerous abilities, or to protect them from people that might want to hurt a spellcaster.

Caleb would wonder who might want to do that, but he had a few guesses. Either way, he thought perhaps her magic was dormant, sleeping just under her skin, and being around him made it become a bit more active. That was troublesome, because it meant that it was likely that being around him could put her in danger as a side-effect, if her magic was reacting to his and trying to reactivate, and it was dormant for her own protection in the first place.

If he remembered correctly, Morgyn had also mentioned once or twice that there were a lot of cases where the magic was dormant only because the spellcaster blood in their family line had thinned out to the point they were barely still a spellcaster. That had happened with Caleb and Lilith, if he remembered right. Theirs was so weak now, if they wanted to become spellcasters, they’d have to learn magic, rather than being born with it. It wasn’t impossible, and Caleb had considered it a few times. He eventually always decided that it was a little too much for him.

“If you say so,” he said, smiling. “So, get closer to the rockets, huh?” It almost sounded like she already got in range of them.

Liberty laughed quietly. “Yeah,” she answered. “I clean toilets at the space centre. Nothing too glamourous or anything, but I don’t want to be a janitor for the rest of my life. They said they’d consider giving me a promotion and letting me join the spacefaring teams if I went through a physics degree, so, here I am.”

“Are you enjoying it?” Caleb asked.

“I am,” Liberty answered, nodding. “But I also really enjoy science anyway. Actually I’ve always loved science, ever since I was a kid, and I could probably have done my entire science class’s homework every day in high school and enjoyed it.”

“You did the smart thing, did it, and charged, right?” Caleb asked.

Liberty laughed slightly, and then abruptly stopped, looking a bit perplexed and maybe a little annoyed. “No, actually,” she said. “Damn it.”

Caleb snorted. “I’m sorry,” he said. “But maybe you can do that in university. A lot of the students here um, well there’s a sliding scale of how seriously they take their studies, I guess.”

“What are you going to do after you graduate?” Liberty asked.

“I don’t know,” Caleb replied, shrugging. “I’ve been seriously considering opening a restaurant of my own, but I’m not much of a manager guy.”

“That’s what employees are for, silly,” Liberty answered.

“Yeah, I guess so,” he said, smirking, and then he stopped. “Well, this is Foxbury Institute. I can’t help you find your classes though.”

“That’s fine,” Liberty answered, smiling. “You got me this far at least. Thanks. Really.”

“You’re welcome.” For a moment, they stared at each other, and then Liberty moved to go.

“Well, I’ll see you around-” she started.

“No, wait,” Caleb interrupted, reaching into a pocket, and writing his phone number down. He handed the paper to her. “This is my cell,” he said. “If you uh, get lost on Britechester grounds again, just give me a call. I’ll come save you.”

Liberty looked surprised, but she took the paper, and then pulled one of her own out, taking the pen from his hand, and scribbling something. Then, she handed it to him, and the pen back. “That’s mine,” she said. “If you ever feel like getting into Blicblock, you let me know.”

Caleb smiled, snorting slightly, and Liberty turned around and wandered off across the Foxbury grounds with a slight spring in her step. Caleb shook his head, took a breath in and turned away, only to hear the tell-tale sound of Liberty’s feet catching the concrete wrong.

She tripped, but caught herself from falling. “I’m fine!” she said. “Just fine. I’m okay.” And then she went back on her way.

Caleb made a face. Great. He had a sovereign of chaos, and apparently, he’d just decided now he had a clutzy queen. Well, his life was never going to be boring, that was for sure.

* * *

He and Morgyn were purposefully quiet, as they came back up the elevator. Morgyn still had a headache, but it was steadily going away, and Morgyn wanted to go out somewhere. So, Caleb had taken the blond out somewhere. It wasn’t really the movie date they had been discussing before, but it was something, and it got Morgyn out of the apartment. Ezio could stay inside for weeks on end and not be bothered by it. Morgyn tended to get a little stir crazy after a while.

Caleb wasn’t big on going places, either, but wherever Morgyn was, that was an okay place for him to be all the same.

As usually they did, the two of them stopped outside Ezio’s apartment door. There wasn’t much sense in going in, because Ezio was probably sleeping, for one thing. He still got up at ridiculous hours of the morning, and Caleb didn’t like disturbing his sleep (neither did Morgyn). And, of course, there was always tomorrow, even if it felt like a lifetime away. Caleb stopped to one side of the blond.

“I’ll have to plan the next date better,” he said.

Morgyn reached over and patted his shoulder. Caleb tried to ignore it. “It’s fine,” Morgyn said. “I did kind of spring this one on you last second, and all that considered, you did really good.”

Well, if Morgyn thought so, Caleb wouldn’t argue. He’d just have to trust that Morgyn meant what was said, and Caleb didn’t generally have trouble doing that before. “I guess I did,” he said. Sometimes, it was better to take the path of least resistance, he supposed. Besides, Morgyn was still recovering from whatever it was that was wrong, and Caleb certainly didn’t want to make it any worse.

“We can do the movie date some other time,” Morgyn said, rocking back on the blond’s heels. “Or we can do something else next time, whatever you want. I’m not really picky.”

Caleb snorted. “I don’t know, you’re picky about some strange things at times.”

“Yeah, I guess I am,” Morgyn admitted quietly. “But I try not to be too picky with you. Honestly, I’m just really happy that you think about me so much.”

The soft smile that crossed Morgyn’s face, the slight little flush across the blond’s nose, made Caleb’s heart leap. He didn’t have that kind of reaction to anyone else. Maybe wondering what it was he felt about Morgyn was a silly thing to wonder, in the end, because it seemed pretty damned obvious if he stopped thinking about it, and started feeling it, instead. All the same, there were questions that remained unanswered, specifics and semantics that he had to work through in his head and in his heart. Caleb just didn’t think it was fair, to say that he loved the blond, and yet not really know what he felt at all.

Ezio was right, too. Things were changing, and Caleb had to decide, he supposed, whether he could still see himself standing here in a few years. There was time to figure it out, he always thought to himself, but if this incident was teaching him anything, it was that perhaps there was notably less time than he liked to believe. Things changing complicated other things, too, because when one thing shifted, other things were moved just ajar enough to become uncomfortable.

But things often did get uncomfortable. That was how one grew and learnt, after all.

“Of course I do,” Caleb said, smiling. “There’s usually not much else on my mind but you. Well, and my presentation.” He supposed his schoolwork was kind of important. “And my sister, also very important.”

Morgyn laughed, that dorky little laugh that made Caleb’s fingertips tingle, and then reached over and took Caleb’s hand. “Yeah, that’s all important enough,” Morgyn said. The blond went quiet for a moment, studying Caleb’s eyes, and then, in a slightly lower vocal register, asked, “Do you want me to stay with you, instead?”

Something jumped into Caleb’s throat, and he almost said yes reflexively, but then he stopped and thought about it. He shouldn’t say yes. It was, inevitably, a bad idea. Morgyn was impulsive, and for that matter, so was Caleb in some ways, and it was somewhat amazing they hadn’t already ended up entangled in bedsheets, and each other, as it was.

Morgyn still occasionally went out and came back smelling of someone else, too. It hadn’t happened too recently, at least, but Caleb couldn’t stop thinking about it, and yet, was terrified to ask about it. It didn’t matter, he was sure.

“Maybe another night,” Caleb said softly. “I have class in the morning, and I don’t really want you to be alone while I’m gone.”

Morgyn looked a bit disappointed, but covered it up pretty quickly. Damn it, it felt like Caleb kept messing this part up, and saying all the wrong things. “Drake is right across the hall,” Morgyn said. “But I guess that’s fair enough.”

“I know,” Caleb said, trying to think fast. “But you know, I worry about you a lot, remember?”

Morgyn didn’t say anything at first, and then simply nodded.

“I’m just saying you’re supposed to be moving to the Casa,” Caleb said, “not my apartment.”

Morgyn snorted softly, but looked a bit less upset about it, at least. And then, the blond stood up on tip-toes, free hand resting against Caleb’s jaw, and like every other time this happened, Caleb almost didn’t think about it quickly enough. But, just in time, he moved his head, and Morgyn stopped.

He could smell it, rather than see it, when Morgyn got upset. And some part of his heart broke, but he wouldn’t do that to Morgyn. He took a breath in, and looked back at Morgyn. He could see the hurt in those green eyes, and he wondered, why he couldn’t just go with it. It wasn’t like Morgyn hadn’t made it very obvious that was what the blond wanted, and still, he couldn’t do it.

“I’ll come by tomorrow,” Caleb said.

“Okay,” Morgyn answered softly, and then let Caleb’s hand go and went towards the door. Caleb tried not to sigh too loudly, turning around and heading to his own door.

Morgyn squeaking interrupted that plan. Caleb turned back around, as Morgyn raised a hand to blond hair, and then loosed a sudden rush of air and fell over.

Quickly, Caleb turned around the rest of the way and crossed the space to catch the blond before Morgyn hit the floor. The blond was out like a light, but Morgyn was breathing, at least, nothing seemed to be terribly in distress, Morgyn had just lost consciousness and Caleb couldn’t immediately identify why. That was unnerving.

As he tried to figure out what to do now, the door opened, and Ezio shuffled over.

“I thought you were sleeping,” Caleb said.

“I had a bad feeling,” Ezio answered quietly. Then, he reached down, and pulled Morgyn into his arms. “Morgyn’s been doing this off and on the last two days now.”

“This is getting worse,” Caleb said, standing as he did.

“Yes,” Ezio replied. “I can’t stop it entirely, not until I find the source of it, so this will just have to do.” He turned and went towards the door.

“Ezio, please,” Caleb said, reaching out and gently taking Ezio’s elbow, to stop the movement. “Please. What is going on?”

Ezio watched him for a long moment, another of those internal debates going on behind his eyes, sparkling just slightly in the light, worry swirling around in their depths. “Everything else, Caleb,” he said, and then pulled his arm free and went inside, closing the door behind him.

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