Page 9 of Pointy Ears and Purple Glitter (Quirk of Fate #5)

“How long have you been living on Earth?”

“Huh?” Tynan was still worrying about the state of Malik’s bed. Malik had laughed when he mentioned it might be gone. He hadn’t gone to check on it. Tynan thought he really should. There was no idea how “impressive” his magic had decided to be.

“Er…thank you.” He accepted the coffee mug Malik had given him.

“I’ve been living on this realm about a year and a half, or thereabouts.

” He leaned forward, grabbed three sugar cubes, dropped them into his mug, and then, because he really felt he needed the extra boost, he added another two. “It’s been a learning curve.”

“I see you have a sweet tooth.” Malik grinned at him. There was something comfortable about the bigger man – or rather, sharing a divan with Malik. “I’ve learned something important about you already.”

“Ah, yes.” Tynan was sure his cheeks were radiating more heat than the sun. He looked down at his mug. “Sugar seems to calm my nerves. Don’t ask me why, because I have no idea.”

“Hopefully, I don’t make you nervous. Mate or not, I’m not going to jump on you. We’re just enjoying a coffee together.”

“I’m not nervous about you jumping on me.

” Tynan slapped his hand over his mouth, his cheeks flaming at that point, especially when Sparky laughed.

“I’m worried about your bed.” He dropped his hand quickly.

By the Fates, could I be any more stupid?

“Not if you have a bed, or if I’ll be sharing that bed with you.

” I’m just making things worse. “I’m worried that my magic might have changed your bed. You didn’t check it.”

“Why would it matter if your magic had done that?”

“You’re being so nice, and I really don’t deserve it.” Tynan sighed. “I’ve only been here five minutes, and I’ve ruined your home. Did you get angry? Nope. You just said, ‘what does it matter if your magic has changed the bed?’”

He desperately needed Malik to understand.

“You don’t know what my magic can do. It’s so erratic, so unpredictable…

We could go in there, or you could, or maybe we could, whatever, that’s not the point.

There might not even be a bed in there. For all I know, I could’ve turned it into a swimming pool or something useless… you know…for sleeping in.”

Malik was watching him so intently. There was a part of Tynan that wanted to shrivel away from it, because experience had taught him that being noticed wasn’t always a good thing. But there was such a kindness to Malik as well. He was so big, so solid, so calm. Tynan found himself warming to that.

“Have you ever thought,” Malik said, “that there’s nothing wrong with your magic at all?

It clearly works. This entire room has been redecorated, and there’s not one mistake anywhere in any of it.

I’m making assumptions here because we’ve only just met, but I can only imagine that if somebody was made fun of from when they were quite young, that maybe they had one little mishap, and then people around them used that as a source of gossip, time after time after time… ”

Tynan found himself nodding.

“…that it would be really easy for anyone, magical or otherwise, to lose their confidence in themselves.”

It wasn’t easy keeping his mouth shut, but Tynan wasn’t going to interrupt. He wanted Malik to keep talking. The tone of his deep voice was so hypnotic, and the calm it invoked in Tynan could easily become addictive.

“There’s a good chance your anxiety comes from the fear of doing something wrong, and that’s what sends the magic haywire in the first place. I love your magic. It helped you realize you and I are meant to be.”

“I’ll say it again, you’re far too kind. That magic you love totally rearranged your beautiful living space, and no one has the right to do that. You could’ve been allergic to purple for all me, or my magic, knew.”

“I’m not, and I’ve always thought purple and silver are a beautiful color combination.

I do think you’re deliberately misunderstanding me, though.

Your magic wanted to make a good impression on me.

It wanted to show me that you could do these things.

And is it at all possible that maybe if you feel you’ve done something wrong in the past, that this could be a case of your magic showing you that it’s an important part of you, if only you could see that for yourself. ”

Tynan sat there for a moment thinking about Malik’s words. “It’s not that I don’t believe you,” he said slowly.

Malik chuckled. “If anybody starts a sentence like that, it usually means they don’t believe the person at all and are trying not to be offensive before they tell the original speaker just how wrong they are.”

Tynan felt the heat on his cheeks increase.

Guilty. “I’m trying to understand what you’re saying,” he said, changing tactics.

“I did make a mistake with my magic, years ago, a lot of years ago, possibly before you were even born, I don’t know.

And yes, I can hear some truth in what you’re saying about being ridiculed afterward, because I was teased and mocked for the longest time, not only about my magic but about all sorts of things.

The color of my hair for example.” He reached up, flicking the ends of the offending strands.

“If a fae has light colored hair, it’s supposed to be blond and beautiful. My hair’s gray.”

“Your hair is silver,” Malik corrected gently. “A very beautiful shade of silver, I might add.”

Gosh, this man’s gonna make me melt into a puddle on the floor.

“Thank you,” Tynan said. “But the fact still remains that I was always different.

Maybe my ears were a bit pointier, my wings a bit bigger, the silver in my hair instead of being blond.

It was like everywhere I went, I was being teased and mocked before I even tried to do anything.

“When my mating mark came in, there were so many comments about the fact that I had a horn on my hip.” He looked at Malik.

“They weren’t kind. There was a lot of suggestion that the horn on my leg was about as close as I was going to get to a…

you know… an actual appendage. Nothing about me has ever been right. ”

“So you came to Earth.” Malik was nodding. “I can understand why. You were clearly living in a toxic environment where you weren’t appreciated at all. It takes a lot of courage to step out and live on your own in a totally different realm.”

“But I’m useless at it,” Tynan cried. “Useless at so many simple things that I’m sure you take for granted every day.

I’ll give you an example. I almost got evicted from my office because I didn’t understand that people were supposed to pay first and last month’s rent and things like that.

Or getting utilities connected. I was without electricity for a week because I didn’t understand I was meant to have an account, and money, and credit cards, and all the stuff people use every day on Earth.

Half the things I was told I needed I’d never heard of before. ”

“It can be a culture shock, living among non-paranormals.”

“Have you known about rain all your life, or that the temperature in the air changes for no reason except people say it’s seasonal?

I didn’t know that. Nothing like that happens on the fae realm.

I’m not complaining, honestly, I’m not.” Tynan didn’t want Malik to think he was a basket case.

“There’s just so much about living here I don’t understand, and I wasn’t prepared for. Gods, you must think I’m a mess.”

“No, I don’t,” Malik said firmly, “and I’m going to ask you to please stop talking like that about yourself.

What I see in front of me is a man who is simply different.

Wonderfully, uniquely different. I know what that’s like.

What’s important is how you respond to your situation.

You did a hugely courageous thing and came to a realm you knew nothing about, and when times were hard or confusing, you didn’t run back to the fae realm, you stayed and tried to work things out. That’s truly special.”

Tynan’s hands were held in fingers that were far bigger than his own.

“You have beautiful magic inside of you. It just wants a chance to prove it can be a positive thing for you. You have to be in tune with it, much like I am with my rhino. I’m not sure you’ve ever been given a chance to do that yet. As a rule Fae are…” Malik trailed off.

“Arrogant, superior gossips who can’t bear to look foolish,” Tynan supplied, trying to be helpful.

“I was gonna say arrogant SOBs, but that covers it.” Malik chuckled.

“The few fae I’ve met, and admittedly it’s only been a few, so it’s not like I can say with any guarantee that a whole species of beings is like that.

But they do walk around with their noses so far in the air, it’s a wonder they don’t trip over.

” He stuck his nose in the air and wiggled his face from side to side, making Tynan giggle.

“Virtually everyone I know on the fae realm is like that. For some reason, they see it as a weakness to have a closeness with somebody, to have a genuine connection. They’re so busy worrying that every hair is still in place, that they look immaculate, but what do they do?

They don’t do anything. They just get together for their luncheons and their dinner parties and gossip all the time.

I was so sure there was more to life than that. ”

“There is, there definitely is.”

Tynan wondered if Malik knew he was brushing his thumb in soothing patterns over the back of Tynan’s hands.

It was a heavenly feeling, just that one little touch.

“I really felt that if I started a business and tried to make a positive difference to someone else’s life, that I wouldn’t feel so bad about myself.