Page 43

Ezra

It took close to three hours of continuous labor, but at last, Ezra felt empty—the final egg had been laid. Exhausted, he curled up in his makeshift nest while Titan collected the products of his hard work and brought them onto the bed.

Three large, sand-colored eggs filled his arms.

Three sets of twins, statistical anomalies, their little miracles.

Titan kissed Ezra’s forehead and placed each of them so they made contact with Ezra’s bare skin, where his budding touch telepathy allowed him to feel their joy. It didn’t seem real that this was happening, yet there was no denying it.

These were his babies.

His.

And Titan’s.

Their not-so-little family.

Weary from labor, Ezra blinked back into focus to find Titan watching him with a smile on his face. He perched on the outside of the nest as though he didn’t want to intrude, which was ridiculous, because Titan would be the first to burst in uninvited if there was somewhere he wanted to be .

“What are you doing?” Ezra asked, voice cracking from hours of vocal cord abuse. Jude had brought him some lozenges when he’d returned with his promised stack of towels, but Ezra hadn’t had any yet—he was so tired, he was worried he’d fall asleep mid-suck and end up choking to death.

“I am observing you,” Titan replied simply, a smile ever present on his face.

“On my planet of Darvrok 6, we call such an observation of a lover ‘star gazing,’ as to behold a being you love so dearly is said to be equivalent of looking up to behold the marvels of the universe as it stretches into infinity overhead. I always believed such a thing to be an exaggeration, but I believe I have understanding of it now. You are as stunning as the sum of every visible star, and as limitless as space itself, full of wonder and potential—full of everything that makes life worth living.”

Ezra’s cheeks heated. “I look like I was just dragged out of a sewer.”

“This does not matter. When I see you, I do not see you as a finite moment. I see you for you.”

Ezra’s throat clenched from the onset of tears, but he was too tired for crying, even if it was out of happiness. Determined not to dissolve into a snotty mess, he patted the open space beside him in his pillow nest. “Come here.”

Titan obeyed without delay, the space fitting him perfectly.

Like this, their bodies sandwiched the eggs, warming them from either side.

“New rule,” Ezra told him, trying to be serious, but unable to keep himself from smiling. “No sappy stuff when we’re with the eggs. I don’t want them to feel me crying and think there’s something wrong with me.”

“But I do not produce sap,” Titan protested. “I am not a tree.”

Ezra snorted and grabbed him by the front of the shirt, pulling him into a leisurely kiss. “Dork.”

“Is this a type of tree? ”

“Why do I get the feeling you’re trolling me?” Ezra let go of Titan’s shirt and drew back, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. “I think you know exactly what I mean.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“Oh my god. You are trolling me.”

“I am neither tree nor troll,” Titan said, overly defensive in a playful way. “I am me.”

“All right, me. ” Ezra smirked. “If you’re not gonna agree to my rules, then you’re gonna have to pay the price—I want to learn how touch telepathy works so I can better understand the eggs. You down?”

“I am not?—”

“Oh my god,” Ezra said with a laugh. “Okay, okay. I’ll speak your language.

I require compensation due to your refusal to agree to my very simple and not-at-all confusing terms, and I wish for this compensation to be in the form of education.

You shall be responsible for teaching me touch telepathy for the betterment of my connection to our offspring. Is this agreeable?”

Titan tapped his chin in thought in an extremely trollish way, and had the eggs not been between them, Ezra would have chucked a pillow at his head.

“Yes,” he finally said, breaking out into a grin. “I find these terms agreeable.”

“Good, because if you gave me any more grief, your ass would have been grass.”

A look of genuine confusion crossed Titan’s face.

“You know what? Don’t even worry about it,” Ezra said with another laugh. “Just come here and kiss me until I pass out.”

Titan didn’t squabble over those terms.

One kiss at a time, he agreed, and agreed, and agreed.