Chương 150: Chapter 149 [Back to Monkhaven]

Leo and Shai walked down the street toward the square, later than they'd meant to be. They'd not exactly rushed getting out of bed and the village was already well into the business of packing the festival away around them, villagers pulling down bunting, shifting crates, sweeping the last of it back into storage. Ahead, the others were waiting. Sam spotted them coming and lifted his chin in greeting. Leo returned it. They walked up to the lads.

Morning greetings came back at them in various forms, a nod from Sam, a raise of the chin from Phil, Luka lifting a hand.

"Good night?" Sam asked, the smirk already there.

"Yup," Shai said.

"You? I saw you sneak off with that elf you were dancing with." Sam laughed.

"Yeah, it was fun." Leo noticed the love bite on his neck and said nothing, just grinned. Then he looked at Luka properly and the grin stayed for a different reason.

"Man, you weren't kidding in the chat. You look absolutely done in."

"I've had about an hour," Luka said.

"Maybe. She was relentless. I'm not complaining, I just..." He paused.

"I'm not looking forward to the walk home."

"Did you have fun, though?" Shai asked. Luka's expression shifted into something that was trying not to be a smile and failing.

"Oh, definitely. Just didn't expect quite that much of a workout. Not a bad thing." Phil laughed. They all looked at him.

"So?" Leo said.

"So what."

"Don't even." Phil sighed.

"Yeah, all right. I had a really good night." He paused, then squared his shoulders like he was about to say something that would cost him.

"And I'll hold my hands up. I apologise for every weeb comment and cat girl joke I've ever made. Last night was fucking mint." He grinned.

"Am I hearing things?" Sam said, looking at Leo.

"I must be," Leo said. I still don't believe it, though. Phil rolled his eyes.

"You two are such a pain in the arse, man." Leo laughed. Trust him to change his stance on something and then double down. Brandon and Rika walked up not long after, both of them looking like they'd had about as much sleep as Luka. The group looked at them. Then at each other. The question was obvious enough that nobody needed to ask it out loud, which meant Brandon saw it coming.

"No," he said, before anyone opened their mouth.

"Didn't happen. Don't start." He looked at Leo.

"Also, fuck you."

"What did I do?"

"You forgot to mention you might have told Koss to come find me about Fifty Shades. I had to sit there and go through the whole thing again. You should have seen her face, man. She kept asking questions with this evil grin on her face. I never want to hear the name of that movie again." Leo had forgotten about that. He tried to hold in the laugh, since Brandon was clearly annoyed, but he failed.

"And second," Brandon continued, trying to ignore Leo losing it, "where did you all disappear to? I didn't even notice you'd all gone until it was just me and Rika." If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"You were in your own little world," Luka said.

"We didn't want to interrupt." Brandon gave him a look.

"Whatever."

"So why do you both look absolutely wrecked then?" Sam asked. Brandon rubbed the back of his neck.

"Rika wanted to see what the quiver did. I was curious as well, so we went back to the archery ground and stayed longer than we meant to." He glanced sideways.

"Then when we got back to hers, we had an argument about me sleeping on the floor."

"I won," Rika said. The others grinned.

"She didn't want me on the floor, I thought it was the right thing to do. So we compromised and I slept in the bed next to her. By the time we actually sorted it out it was getting light. So yeah."

"He was so warm," Rika said, with complete sincerity. The group collectively ooohed. Brandon gave them the finger. Rika laughed.

"I think I've figured some of it out as well," Brandon said, nodding at the quiver on his back.

"I'll show you all later." Mike showed up with Ronan, Diane and Carl a few minutes later, Kai arriving just after them. Kai caught Leo's eye when he arrived, gave him a nod, then looked at Shai. Whatever he saw made him smile, quiet and brief. Leo figured that was as close to a blessing as he was likely to get. Ronan had Diane on his arm, the two of them mid-conversation. Sam noticed, watched for a second, and when Diane glanced over he pulled a face like he was being sick.

She stuck her finger up at him without breaking stride. He grinned. Jeff showed up a short while later.

"Nice to see you all again. Hope you had a good time. Take care on the way back, I'm going back to bed. See ya." He turned and headed off back down the street.

"He's tired. Didn't get much sleep."

"That makes a few of us," said Phil with a grin.

"You get up to much? I saw you both dancing."

"Yeah, it was a good night," he managed to say before his face turned red when he noticed Diane smirking at him. A few minutes later, Nessa appeared at the far end of the square, Sasha a half-step behind her. Leo noticed and nudged Shai.

"Oh, this could be good." Nessa walked over.

"Hey everyone. Everyone ready to..."

"Hey Phil." Sasha appeared at Nessa's shoulder, bright and unhurried.

"Miss me?" Phil stared at her.

"It's been half an hour."

"You didn't answer the question."

"What are you even doing here?" She frowned.

"Why do you sound annoyed? You sounded a lot happier last night." The grin that followed made it clear she knew exactly what she was doing.

"I'm coming with you obviously. We just came from the elders' building, Koss said it's fine. Another hand to help out and all that. I want to check on my sister as well." She tilted her head.

"Will you show me around town later?" Phil became aware of the lads watching him. All of them. Grinning.

"Yeah," he said.

"Fine. I'll show you round."

"Nice." She grabbed his arm. Phil sighed and stared straight ahead, refusing to make eye contact with any of them. Four UIs opened. [Luka] and here we observe the phil in its natural habitat [Luka] it appears a female of the species has made her intentions known [Sam] The male is assessing his options. [Luka] fight or flight [Parmo] looks like he chose neither [Luka] the phil isnt known for its smart nature.

it has chosen to go along with the situation for now [Leo] The Phil seems to be regretting it's decisions last night. It's mating dance was apparently super effective. Phil noticed the messages and snorted despite himself. [Leo] how's it going over there [Phil] fantastic cheers [Luka] the male attempts to use sarcasm to hide its obviously terrified nature [Phil] I swear, I'm going to get you all back for this. Parmo good luck explaining 50 shades of gray has sequels. [Parmo] No. Don't you fucking dare.

[Phil] Leo, when we get back I'm locking the door and putting that DxD anime on, I hope you're ready to die of cringe. [Leo] Go for it. Me and Shai had plans to watch it already. [Sam] Nice [Luka] Nice [Parmo] Am I the only none weeb in this chat now or something? [Luka] It's good man. [Phil] Sam. I'm going to tell Nessa you were telling me you regret never getting that dance with her. That you told me you're jealous of Mars. [Sam] Go for it.

She'll get all embarrassed, I'll tell her you're full of shit and she'll have it out for you. Your funeral man. [Luka] do me next. [Phil] Fuck you, it's no fun if you want it. [Luka] Wow dude. That sounded creepy as fuck. [Phil] Oh fuck off... Mike looked around the group.

"Everyone got everything? Ready to set off?" Bags started disappearing one by one as people dumped them into inventory, until the group was standing empty-handed, which still looked faintly absurd no matter how many times Leo saw it. Leo heard Sasha's voice from Phil's direction.

"So you're going to show me round when we get there yeah?" Phil nodded.

"Yeah."

"Nice." A pause.

"And later we can go to bed and you can play with my ears again. You seemed to really love that last night." Leo snorted. He couldn't help it. Shai's shoulders shook beside him. The lads were already losing it. [Phil] Not a fucking word! [Luka] Sorry did you say something? I don't speak furry.