Page 89 of Found in Obscurity

Kit nodded.They don’t smell like you.

“Oh.” Lorin blushed and Kit grinned smugly. “Well we can, um, wash them in my detergent when we get home. And keep them with my clothes in the wardrobe. They’ll start smelling like me soon enough.”

Dammit.

Again with the logic.

Fine,he wrote, trudging back into the changing room to try on the rest of the stuff Lorin had piled in there.

It wasn’t that he hated clothes altogether. In the past he had, of course, worn clothes. But they had always been loose and easy to shed. He didn’t like to be restricted from any sort of movement, especially with his legs. If he could wear shorts at all times, that would be the dream.

So he was picky. Not just about scent.

He was wrestling with the stubborn sleeve of a sweater when he heard a familiar voice coming from outside the cabin curtain.

“Lorin, hey. Didn’t expect to see you out of your cave,” Glenn said.

Kit widened his eyes and rushed to get himself dressed again.

“Glenn!” Lorin said, sounding thrown off and awkward. “Hi.”

“Shopping?” Glenn asked as Kit scooped up his haul, bursting out of the door.

His excitement turned abruptly to jealousy as he found Lorin and Glenn standing closer than he necessarily liked. While he knew there was nothing there—Lorin washismate, and there had never been anything but awkward budding friendship between the two—the fox in him suddenly didn’t care.

He wedged himself between the two of them, his back to Lorin’s chest as he grinned up at the other man.

“Hi!” he said, working very hard to keep his face looking friendly. He had no idea whether it had worked, and Glenn was giving no indication one way or another as he smiled in surprise.

“You can talk!”

He seemed so genuinely happy that Kit relaxed his stance, shrugging in answer without the aid of his notebook.

“He’s okay to say hi and bye for now without it hurting,” Lorin said for him, pulling him into his side a little. “But he’s forbidden from trying anything longer than that until the pain in his vocal cords is completely gone.”

“Is the tea helping?” Glenn asked them both.

Kit nodded, shuffling the clothes in his arms enough to give the man a thumbs-up.

“It seems to be. We’ll have to wait to know for sure until we can safely get him to a doctor,” Lorin said before wringing his fingers together in front of him and shuffling his feet. Kit recognized the nervous habit and leaned closer, hoping it would help soothe him. “Um…can I, maybe, buy you that cup of coffee…to thank you?”

Kit felt pride burst inside his chest as Lorin got the words out. So maybe he didn’t like Glenn standing too close, but he did want Lorin to have friends in the witch community. Or friends at all. At least one friend.

He definitely didn’t want him to be lonely.

“I thought you’d never ask.” Glenn beamed, slapping Lorin on the shoulder.

Lorin stumbled a little and sent him a small nervous smile. “Great, um, let me just go pay for these and we can find somewhere?”

“There’s a cute café just around the corner that opened a couple of years back. Amazing pastries,” Glenn said, pointing his thumb behind himself. “Go check those out and we can head there right now.”

“Don’t you have clothes to buy too?” Lorin asked, looking at his basket in confusion.

“And miss the chance to make friends? No way,” he said, casting the basket aside and wrapping his arm around Kit’s elbow. “Some shirts can wait. Come on, Kit, we can…”

“He doesn’t leave my sight,” Lorin said, like a reflex.

Glenn paused for a second before fixing his smile back on and nodding. “Understood,” he said. “We’ll wait right here.”