“Here I am,” I said.
He grinned. “There you are. Did you find what you were looking for?”
Shrugging, I kicked at the moss underfoot. “I guess so? Thrones aren’t really known for their candor, are they?”
“That they are not,” he agreed.
“I just wanted…” I sighed. “I dunno. I feel like I should be mad, but it’s easier to just be chill. You know?”
Gideon hummed noncommittally. I shrugged again.
“I think I might be high,” I said seriously.
With a nod, he scrubbed a palm over his face. “I think I am too. I haven’t been high in a really long time.” He balked. “Fuck, don’t tell Jai and Noel. They won’t respect me anymore. And don’t tell Michael! I’ll be in so much trouble.”
I snorted, then burst into hysterically high giggles. He gaped at me. I laughed harder.
“We have to sober up before Jai and Noel get back.” He grunted as he climbed to his feet. I was still laughing too hard to reply. “Come on. We’ll teleport back, and—let’s bake cookies!”
His loud suggestion startled me from my laughter. “Okay. And tacos. I want tacos.”
“I will buy you all the tacos,” he said.
“Really?” I smacked a kiss to his chest because I couldn’t reach his beautiful mouth. “That’s nice. I love you and your mouth.”
“Thank you,” he said. “That might be the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”
“Aww.” I cooed happily as he pulled me close. We began to glow, and the fishhook snagged my spine.
We baked chocolate chip cookies, and Gideon ordered tacos. When the delivery guy came, we were extremely normal.
“Thank you, magical taco man,” I said. I flipped up my finger guns and winked at him. “You have yourself a good day now.”
“Sure,” he said as he handed the bag of tacos to Gideon.
“Smooth,” Gideon said with an approving nod. “He doesn’t suspect a thing.”
“Cool as a cucumber. Pew, pew, pew.” I shot my finger guns at the delivery man as Gideon shut the door between us.
Later, we lay on the floor in the living room, heads tucked beside each other as we ate chocolate chip cookies and tacos. I stared at the ceiling. Gideon stared at his hand.
“My hands are big,” he said.
“So big,” I agreed. “How many tacos do you think it takes to circle the Earth?”
“A lot.” He turned slightly to look at me, his nose brushing my forehead. “Probably all the tacos in all the realms.”
“Yeah, that sounds right.” I tilted my head until our noses brushed. Then I turned back to my taco. “These are the best things to ever be in my mouth.”
“Don’t tell Jai or Noel that. They might get offended.”
I chewed my taco. “Why? I don’t get it.”
“Because of… you know?” He grimaced. “Dick stuff.”
I’d never heard Gideon say the word dick before. I may have spewed taco toppings all over myself as I burst into laughter.
“Did you just make a sex joke?”
“I’m tripping! I can’t help the things coming out of my mouth,” he said crossly.
“Or the things going into your mouth!” I raised my finger guns, forgetting about the taco in my grasp. “Pew, pew—aw, my taco!”
Even later, we sat cross-legged facing each other, knees touching. And Gideon was saying, “But seriously. Just think about it. Who decided that the alphabet was actually in alphabetical order?”
I gaped at him, my brain way too high for this. “That’s deep.”
Gideon nodded sagely. “Right? Because the letter was just a letter until someone said, ‘Hey! Hey, that—that—that thing is an A. And it comes first.’”
“Whoa.”
“Right? Right!” Gideon’s eyes were wide and bloodshot. “What if that person decided that the alphabet started with a Q?”
I didn’t have an answer.
And then:
“Sometimes,” I said, “I wanna put my face on your face romantically.”
He smiled so sweetly at me. “I like it when you put your face on my face romantically.”
“That should be a greeting card,” I said before smooshing my face against his. Romantically.
When the sun began to set, we were back to lying on the carpet, this time on our sides. Our knees knocked, and our arms brushed. Our noses were inches apart.
Gideon said, “Sometimes, I’m afraid I’m not enough for you.”
I said, “Sometimes, I’m afraid I’ll take too much and leave you empty.”
He said, “I would give you the world.”
And I smiled. “You already have.”
As the shadows of evening stretched over us, he whispered quietly, like a secret between us, “You know I love you. But, like, I think I might be really, really in love with you.” Then he said, “And maybe someday, you could let me watch you when you touch yourself. I think… I think I’d like that.”
My cheeks were hot. My skin was tight. I swallowed the lump in my throat.
“O-Okay. That would be—yeah, I could—we could definitely do that. If you wanted. I’d—yeah, I’d like that.”
His cheeks were pink. His dimple was deep. I nudged his nose with mine. And we breathed.
“What the fuck happened here?”
I startled awake at Jai’s barked words. Gideon was snoring, lying on his back on the carpet, one arm thrown over his head. His other arm was wrapped around me, holding me against his side. I didn’t remember falling asleep, but the sky outside was black.
Lifting my head, I blinked sleepily up at Jai and Noel. They stood in the doorway, gawking at me.
“You’re back.” I beamed at them. “I missed you.”
“Why are there tacos everywhere?” Noel asked.
My head was thick and full of cotton, and I stretched out the kinks in my back. I investigated Noel’s claim. Huh, there were a lot of tacos.
“They’re mine,” I said as I grabbed one that was still wrapped snugly in tissue paper. It was cold but still delicious. “You want one?”
They stared at me like I was crazy. Gideon continued to snore. I ate my taco.
“Is that…” Jai leaned in and sniffed.
“I beg your pardon, sir. It’s not polite to smell people,” I said around my bite of taco.
“Is he—” Noel started.
“Yup.” Jai stepped forward and nudged Gideon with his boot. “Gid! Wake up.”
With a snort, Gideon awoke, blinking bloodshot eyes. “Huh?” He found me first, chowing down on my cold taco. Then he caught sight of Jai and Noel. “Oh, hello. Evening, gentlemen.”
He sat up and ran a hand through his messy hair. Cookie crumbs stuck to the strands. I snickered into my food.
“What in Hades did you two do?” Jai crossed his arms over his chest, scowling like an angry parent.
“Nothing,” Gideon and I said simultaneously.
Noel hid a smile behind his hand as Jai’s scowl darkened. “Are you high?”