Page 66 of Five to Love Him

“My hive likes cozy things.”

“We do. You knew?”

He shrugged, then leaned against us as he walked, not an easy thing to do. If we’d been in the underground, we’d have picked him up and carried him home in our arms.

“Sure I knew. You say it a lot, that things are going to be cozy, and you always mean it’ll be all or most of you, and I know you like that.”

We stopped just before the subway entrance and tugged on Leo’s hand so that he turned and faced us.

“Leo.”

He giggled. “Oh, those drinks were too good. You’re spinning.”

“Leo. We want to tell you something. Do you think you’ll remember?”

His silly grin dimmed, and he looked at us in the exact moment another flash of lightning brightened the world once more.

“I’ll remember. I’m not that drunk, mostly because that third drink was a virgin version.”

We flushed. “You knew?”

“Yeah. You’re not as subtle as you think, hive.”

“We knew two was your limit, so…but we should have told you. We do apologize.”

He let out a breath. “I want to buy a bed. A big one. I want to put it in Gran’s—in the master. I’d like to put in new flooring and new wallpaper first. And we need a nice big wardrobe so that your stuff fits too. Once you’re officially moved in, no one will be able to say I’m an incel anymore.”

He slapped a hand over his mouth, his eyes going wide. Then he began to cackle with the silly laughter of the drunk.

“Leo, we meant to tell you something just now, and you—do you mean all of that? You want us to move in officially?”

He stopped looking silly, and his eyes were big and bright when he lifted his hand off his mouth and held our gaze.

“Yes. I’ve been looking at beds, but to be honest, all of the logistic stuff and the putting on wallpaper stuff is really stressing me out because I have no idea how to do anything like that. I’m also clumsy.” The corners of his mouth turned downward. “I’m so useless. Fuck. Who said I was ready to be an adult? They shouldn’t call you an adult because of age, you should have to take a test, just like in Instructor Arick’s class. We all need a chimera in our lives who tells us we aren’t ready for adulting yet, you know?”

“You—you do mean it?” We put an arm around Leo while we took his hands in ours. A man in a suit coming up from the subway glanced at us briefly, but we didn’t care. “You are making your home our home?”

He shrugged. “Come on. It’s been our home for a few weeks now. Do you spend any time back at your place at all?”

We shook our heads, all of them, happiness stinging our eyes with tears. Coral asked us if we were okay, but when he saw us smile, he turned back to his blender though he winked at us before turning it back on.

“We…we meant to tell you something just now,” we said again.

“Is it that you’ll be moving in?”

“Yes! We mean, no, but yes. We’re moving in. We’re going to take care of the wallpaper too, Leo. But that’s not it.”

“No?”

“No.”

“Then what?”

“We love you, Leo.”

“You…” He was going pale, then pink, then lightning flashed his face, and raindrops fell on his forehead before we could raise our hand to ward them off.

“Let’s go down. We packed an umbrella, but we should make sure to catch the subway and get home before the storm really gets going.”