Page 102 of Forget Me Not

“Dandelion,” Ray sighed it, “let it go.”

“Dandelion!” Cal bumped up against him, eyes still narrowed, but his agitation now focused on Ray. “Someday, Branigan, you and I are going totalkabout flower meanings and why and how long you have known them.”

“Someday?” Ray echoed, taking comfort in the idea, even if it wasn’t possible.

Cal’s eyes were wild. He scrambled at Ray’s shoulders and then gave up trying to climb him and jumped. Ray caught him, only stumbling back a step or two, knocking into the corner of the shower.

Cal took Ray’s face in his hands. “Stop being devastating for one fucking second please,” he ordered, not sounding even remotely angry. He didn’t add anything else, justlookedat Ray before exhaling dramatically.

He was odd. But Ray was in this bathroom with him, staring back at him. Ray was odd too.

He’d known that, of course. In the sense of always or almost always being the only were around. But never in the sense that he, personally, was weird.

But he supposed he must be. He had a work partner but no friends. He didn’t take vacations. He apparently researched flower meanings in secret. He’d known what violets meant, after all, and was sure that Calvin had too; there were other flavors of candies Calvin could have chosen.

Ray hefted Cal in closer to him to better hold him although Ray’s arms and legs were trembling faintly and his bones already felt heavy. He wanted to enjoy this while he could. “How much does your father shine?”

From the reaction in the Rainbow Wings office, quite a lot. Benny too, but Calvin had been treated like a movie star.

“Oh my God!” Cal exclaimed in disgust. “So much! And it actually got worse—brighter—when he left her, and then when he retired. Which… which means it was the right thing to do, or he believed it was, no matter how much it hurt.” Cal grumbled to himself and seemed happy to stay where he was. “Maybe that was why she went without more argument. I never questioned that part before. But she would have seen his colors. Intention and will matter somehow.”

Calvin shined because what he did was right, at least at the time. Lis would have known that. It was part of why she loved him and maybe also why she hadn’t fought harder to stay.

Ray had no way of knowing if things were truly different now. But Cal was clinging to him and Ray didn’t want to make him leave.

He couldn’t have anyway. He wouldn’t get a chance to.

Cal abruptly raised his head to squint at Ray suspiciously. “You’re also shiny and always have been. But you are definitely starting to rival him, and spiteful goblins can pretend not to care all they want but—Ray? Did you… decide something or have an epiphany or something like that? Your core colors are still missing but… I thought it was the sex but you’re… you’re kind of blinding right now. Oh. Oh that’s terrifying. Wonderful and terrifying. People who do right are…”

“All I did,” Ray reminded him, “was ask to make you happy.” To make him proud, and to live, if he could.

Cal’s heart thumped into a faster rhythm. He swallowed. He opened his mouth then closed it again.

“You must be getting tired,” was all he said in the end. “Put me down. Go rest and I can clean up in here… maybe take a quick shower as well. I’m all sticky.”

So was Ray, now. Ray put him down.

He stopped Cal before Cal could step away. “Hot water brings out the bruises?”

Cal’s wings snapped to life. He gave Ray a leer. “Want to watch?”

Chapter Fourteen

WHEN HE and Cal emerged from the bedroom sometime later, Lis and Calvin were on opposite ends of the couch, Lis was holding one of Cal’s sodas. Calvin had a mug of tea and there was no sign of his cardigan. The heat had been turned up. Lis asked Cal if Benny was coming over, and if so, could he bring some human pain relievers.

“I’m sorry,” Ray had said to her and to Calvin again, although Calvin waved it off then gone back to contemplating his tea. Ray was fairly sure they’d had no tea in the house that morning. Lis looked over at Ray and then at Cal before smiling knowingly and returning her attention to Calvin.

Ray was not going to ask any questions, no matter what Cal did with his eyebrows or how he whisper-accused Ray of being a terrible spy. The oversized sweatshirt Cal had on didn’t quite cover the marks at his neck, but they were already barely noticeable. Ray had insisted; even if one of Cal’s parents was a fairy, one very much wasn’t.

Ray had on the sweatpants that matched and a plain white t-shirt. He was settled into the reclining chair by a determined Cal, and was still there, trying to focus on case notes, when Benny returned with a coffee for himself and two bottles of over-the-counter pain pills.

Someone ordered pizzas as well as something called a cookie pizza, which thankfully no one expected Ray to touch. They spent another hour or so dividing up tasks or reading, with Cal and then Lis buzzing around restlessly after a while, at least until Calvin had received a call about some sort of event and, visibly flustered, fled into the backyard to have his conversation.

Cal exchanged a look with his mother. “He’s embarrassed every time he’s recognized for it. I don’t know why. If it was some uptight American human masculinity issue, then he wouldn’t be out in public in a purple sweater.”

Once again, Ray had no idea what they were talking about. “Recognized for what?”

“Ah,” Lis, Cal, and Benny said in unison. Lis finally leaned forward. “A few years ago, Calvin joined a book club so he could read all the literature that he didn’t get a chance to read as young man, the classics, things like that, but it got him talking.”

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