I spent the next two days pampering Penguin.
I'd intended to go back home at first, but Llewellyn wouldn't hear of it.
"Do I need to bribe you?" he said, eyes narrowing. "Fine, I'll make pizza."
Well!
"Alright, alright," I said. "But I'm bringing my laptop."
And my phone charger, actually.
Llewellyn's shoulders relaxed. "Take your time. I'll go and buy groceries," he said. "See you at home," and vanished.
Uh. Well.
In the end, that had turned out to be a great plan. Penguin was still a bit shaken, but cuddling with Lumos helped, and he perked up immediately when Llewellyn let him turn the wood-fired oven on with his Fire.
After dinner, Llewellyn offered to fill the bathtub for him and let him turn into a fish and splash around.
Damn. I'd just realized I'd never actually let him swim before. Whenever he'd switched to his fish form, it had either been in the middle of battle or in Llewellyn's living room, to fill Lumos' water bowl. Granted, I only had a shower at home, not a bathtub, but still! I should have let him try this sooner.
Once he was in the water, Penguin moved his little fins experimentally. A few moments later he was splashing around happily, diving in, coming up, and swimming in circles.
I exhaled in relief and sat down on the floor next to the bathtub. I kept a hand in the water so Penguin could come closer to be petted, but also… I tested using my Authority to command the water, creating small waves and currents for Penguin. He flung his tail around, excited, and engaged immediately.
Ah, this was good. After all, there was such a thing as water therapy, right?
Anyway.
Between splashing around, cooking together, going for evening walks, cuddling on the sofa watching old feel-good cartoons, and sleeping all together in the same bed, Penguin soon seemed as good as new.
I was sitting at the kitchen table on day two, after Llewellyn and I had made out against the kitchen counter for… uh… an embarrassing length of time, when my phone rang.
I'd sent my notice that morning, telling the agency I was quitting, and I'd also sent a text to Niamh about it, so… the call wasn't completely unexpected. Still. I felt a bit strange suddenly.
"Hey," I said.
"Ryo!" Niamh said. "I can't say I don't get it, but I can't believe you're leaving. We'll really miss you! I'd actually been recommending you for a promotion, you know."
Recommending me for what?!
All my unease about having resigned vanished in an instant. I did not want a promotion!
"Er, thank you?" I said. "But Altan deserves it more than me. And you know he's getting married, right? That's why he's been taking all those extra shifts. He needs the money."
"Yes," Niamh said. "I'd been recommending you both. My cunning plan was to get you two to do all the work and get demoted, so I could moderate Flat White myself."
I frowned. "Moderate what?"
"You're telling me you didn't see it?" Niamh said, sounding gleeful all of a sudden, as if she was delighted to be the one giving me the news.
…That couldn't be good.
"See what?" I said warily.
Penguin had waddled over trying to climb my leg. I picked him up and settled him on my lap.
"I'll send you a link in the chat, wait."
On my laptop, my work messenger pinged.
"Flat White?" I said, frowning.
It was clear that Niamh was trying hard not to snicker, which was concerning.
I opened it and… No. What?!
"Welcome to Flat White," the page said, "the most popular fan-driven hub dedicated to shipping Llewellyn and Ryo! Founded by qwifi and altarbreaker, Flat White is a thriving space where fans can share art, memes, theories, and fanfiction about our favorite duo!
The name 'Flat White' references their iconic appearance: Llewellyn's brown trench coat and Ryo's white one."
"…"
I was speechless.
"We're going to— I mean, the team is going to moderate this?!" I asked, appalled.
"Emma brought it up," Niamh said. "But when I asked her, Are you sure you want my team—Ryo's colleagues—to go through hundreds of pages of explicit content about them?, she quickly backtracked. We agreed I was just going to set up some alerts. But obviously, I'll have to casually monitor it myself for… morale purposes, you understand. Unless I manage to get demoted to do it full time."
I rubbed my face. I was glad they weren't going to have the team on this 24/7, but still! This was embarrassing.
The Common Fan Activities page read:
-
Here you'll find:
- Fanfiction and AUs: Want to write fic of our boys? Omegaverse, Thread-Tied AU, or Dragon AU… All are welcome here!
- Fanart: Whether you're a traditional artist, or use SnapDraw and SketchWise to generate character art, Dungeon posters, and alternate universe concepts featuring Llewellyn and Ryo, we're happy to have you!
- Theory Threads: Detailed meta-analyses about Llewellyn's and Ryo's trench coats, body language, and potential hidden meanings in released footage.
- Meme Culture: Trench coat memes, coffee-order memes—do your best!
–
I stared, speechless.
"Thread-Tied AU," I asked Niamh. "What the hell is that?!"
"Oh!" Niamh said. "It's a sort of Red String of Fate AU where people think of your trench coats as literally stitched from the same magical thread, binding your fates together."
…I could feel a headache coming on.
And they didn't even know I could see Threads coming out of the Knots! If they'd ever found out that was how Llewellyn and I tackled Distorted Realms, they were going to lose their minds.
"Do you want me to fill you in on the main fan theories and AUs?" Niamh asked, clearly having the time of her life.
Hell. Why not.
"Do your worst," I said.
Niamh cackled and immediately launched into a long speech, starting with the theory that said we were secretly married, possibly dragon shapeshifters, and had a dragon child, all the way to the…
"…Shoulder Theory, according to which your instinctive orientation toward Llewellyn indicates subconscious trust. Some also think you can stabilize a Knot just by standing shoulder-to-shoulder."
I'm… What do you even say to that?
"What's with this dragon, though?!" Niamh asked. "We haven't had a chance to talk since that happened. I reached out to Emma, but she just said 'Hell if I know,' and tried to call Llewellyn. I don't think he answered though."
Ah, damn. I trusted Niamh, but… the fewer people knew about this, the better.
"I can't say much," I said, "I'm sorry. But I promise he's harmless."
"Wait, so that wasn't AI?!"
Ah.
"No," I said, scratching my head before going back to pet Penguin. "But he really is harmless. When we found him, he was trying to make friends with inanimate objects and looked upset because they didn't reply and he thought that meant they were dead."
"Awww," Niamh went. "Wait, wait. So you two are not…"
"We're definitely not shapeshifters!" I said.
Honestly.
Niamh started snickering again. "Just checking."
Llewellyn came into the kitchen just then.
"Oh," he said, eyeing my screen, where I still had Flat White's homepage open. "You found it."
!!!! What did he mean, you found it!!!
"You mean you knew about this?!!" I said.
Llewellyn hummed noncommittally.
What, did he have fanfic bookmarked, or something?!
On the other side of the phone, Niamh was just cackling at this point.
"Niamh says hi," I told Llewellyn.
"What?!" Niamh said, startled. "I wasn't— Oh, but yes! Hi, Llewellyn!" she said loud enough that her voice carried.
"Hello," Llewellyn answered, friendly enough—then leaned in and kissed me.
Uh. Um.
I mean, Niamh couldn't tell from the other side, right? But still.
"Can I talk to her?" Llewellyn asked, also giving Penguin some attention.
Niamh shut up all of a sudden, probably surprised.
I grinned and passed the phone to Llewellyn.
"Hello," Llewellyn said. "I just wanted to give you a heads up myself, even though this is unofficial for now. We're thinking of expanding my account to also monitor mentions of Ryo. Emma will get in touch about this soon. So no need to delete Ryo's accounts at the end of his notice period; you can just upgrade his permissions to owner, to match mine."
"Oh!" Niamh said. Llewellyn was close enough that I could hear her through the phone. "That's amazing news! We were sad to see him go, so this is fantastic. I'll make sure no one deletes anything until we hear from Emma."
"Great, thank you," Llewellyn said. "I'll call her now."
He passed the phone back to me, raising his eyebrows.
I narrowed my eyes.
"When were you going to tell me?!" Niamh said, excited.
Um, I mean, I'd told Llewellyn I was fine with this, but… I'd honestly been hoping to postpone it as much as possible.
I sighed.
"This is great," Niamh said, sounding genuinely thrilled. "I have so many plans. I also expect to be invited to the wedding, just so you know."
Invited to what?! I started coughing. Penguin looked up at me to make sure I was alright.
"Okay," Niamh said, "back to the important stuff. Would you like me to send you the best fanfics?"
"…"
I covered my eyes with one hand.
"Yes," I said.