~*'.~*.'~

Setro's couch was comfortable, but the stare from Prishe was a fricking metal boulder. Claire felt her face twitch like lightning bolts. Setro had left to get them refreshments, and Prishe must've taken that as the perfect opportunity to pounce. Polished claws and all.

"So, you didn't think to maybe, I don't know, call first?" Prishe blinked with a pissed kind of boredom. "Y'know, before you dropped in like Sunday's newspaper. We were kinda in the middle of something."

Claire crossed her legs. She didn't really feel like getting snippy, so she hoped the new leg position was enough to show she was stationary. "If you were that waist deep into something, Setro would've told me to frick off."

Wow. Okay. Maybe she did have some fire in her after all.

Prishe didn't look amused. Lifting herself from the couch, her aura got dipped in an envy-glazed green. "He's just being too nice, like he always is," she muttered. "Look. Sorry Charlie. But I really don't think you should be here right now. Setro's going through . . . a rough patch. A super grassy one."

"Well, believe it or not, Prishe," Claire spat, "I'm Setro's friend too. If he's got a problem, he can confide in me."

"And what if you're the problem? Then what?"

At this, Claire's expression became a blade slicing steel. In some deep cubby hole in her head, she admitted Prishe might've had a point there. The rest of her head, however, wanted to shred that point to ashes. If Prishe wanted spice, she got the spiciest pepper in the bin.

"First of all, unless you're living here now, I don't think you get to tell me to leave." Claire leaned back, made a tight cross over her chest. "Second, Setro doesn't need you fighting his battles for him. If I'm a problem, he needs to get his ass back over here and say it to my face."

Now Prishe averted her gaze. She was bitterly smiling, choking out a humorless laugh. But her flames were lowering. No words could easily deny what Claire had said.

Prishe swiped her purse off the couch and flung it over her shoulder. "Fine. You wanna dampen his evening? Knock yourself out. But if he's feeling worse the next time I see him, you're gonna get the ol' Prishe slammin'."

Claire shrugged. "Cute. Can't wait."

If life was a cartoon, Prishe's eyes would've been glowing a seething red. "Setro, I'm blowing this joint! Sorry about dinner, but this seems better off without me here to witness it."

Before Setro could dig himself out the pantry, Prishe was already leaving a trail of steam to the door. By the time Setro stepped on the living room floor space, Prishe was gone.

". . . ."

And then there were two. Setro and Claire. Plus some uneaten refreshments and a side order of cringe-worthy silence.

Yeah. Maybe I should've thought this through a little more.

🎶 ᴺᵃʰ⁻ⁿᵃʰ⁻ⁿᵃʰ🎶

The dumbbell's material was a fresh, cold sting to Kain's hand. With every lift of his arm, he pushed out a steady breath. And with every pushed breath, he felt himself sweat a little more.

Perhaps this isn't the ideal way to relax after work, Kain realized, switching arms, but it's actually quite meditative. And frankly, I'd rather sweat while exercising than sweat over nearly missing deadlines.

Kain didn't like to admit he'd been slightly distracted lately, but at least it was a decent kind of distracted. His thoughts couldn't help but to grow legs, and walk back to the moment Claire said yes.

And she really couldn't have said it any better.

Kain smiled through his huffs. The smile was automatic, firmly painted, and it lingered as the minutes ticked by.

"Hey, Kain!"

Kain looked away from the gym floor to a wide, muscular build flouncing in his direction. Kain recognized him straight away--not only by the messy blonde hair that swayed in his stride, but also by his chirpy, sun-coated voice.

"Well, hello!" Kain greeted. "Good to see you, Snow. Fancy seeing you here."

The gym lights grabbed Snow's cheeks. Suddenly his expression glittered more than ocean ripples. "Well," Snow said, now towering at Kain's side, "I can't sit around at home all day and get fat."

A small chuckle slid from Kain's throat as he sipped his energy drink. The cool liquid was supposed to not bear any sugar, but Snow's presence must've been a force of nature. It was sweeter, now that he was here.

Mid-sip, Kain noticed there was something different in the curve of Snow's mouth. Kain lowered his drink, watched Snow gleam with an abrupt boldness.

"So," Snow hummed, and his voice was as sly as Kain expected. "When's the bachelor party?"

🎶 ᴺᵃʰ⁻ⁿᵃʰ⁻ⁿᵃʰ🎶

There wasn't much else to do at this point, so Claire and Setro tried to fan away the embarrassment-fog and pat down the tense static.

His thigh nearly grazing hers, Setro sat next to Claire. "You look very beautiful, as usual," he said, an inch above a whisper.

Claire had to take a moment for her heart to balance out. Back in school, Setro would say things like that all the time. She would be wearing clothes as simple as night shorts and a tank, and he'd compliment her like she was wearing a fancy-pants dinner dress. Even now, she only wore a t-shirt and jeans.

You never change, do you? Thank God for that.

In the midst of her thought stream, she noticed Setro's gaze had sank lower to her hand. Her left hand. The one flashing the thousand-dollar diamond ring. Stomach jumping, she formed a fist and closed it tight.

"How are you doing?" Claire asked. The words were faint and soft--a breeze in the thick of summer.

Setro's reply was just as tender. "I'm okay."

"Just okay?" Claire moved her fist to smoosh her cheek. "I mean, you've got this cool job in construction and a . . . super protective friend . . ."

Though Setro laughed, it wasn't anything near joy. His emotions sparkled out of control, because they finally seemed sick of hiding themselves away. "I know. I just . . ." He shook his head and bit his lip to white. He didn't want to say anything more, but he was losing whatever battle he had with himself. ". . . I miss you. A lot. And I know that's selfish and dirty and utterly shameful of me to say, but I guess . . ."

Claire stared with her mouth agape. She wanted to say something, anything, but her eyes couldn't even stay in one place. So while her heartbeat played a drum-solo, Setro plastered his forehead to his palms.

"I'm sorry," he choked. "I guess I wasn't as ready to watch you move on as I thought I was. As I wanted to be."

The refreshments remained untouched. The silence was constricting. There were butterfly-like tingles in Claire's core as she remembered Setro's heat, then how sweet his skin used to be. Would he taste more like paint now? Maybe sawdust? Or did he sweat sugar like always?

Damn.

She felt an electric pull toward him--a familiar feeling that never ended in anything platonic.

By some miracle, she pushed it down. When Setro got up from the couch to breathe, Claire pulled her voice from the dark. "D-don't beat the crap out of yourself. You can't predict how you're gonna feel all the time."

"But here I am, pouring myself all over you. It's not proper by any means." Setro didn't dare turn around. "Claire, you and Kain are engaged--you should be celebrating. My feelings really shouldn't matter."

Before Claire could stop herself, she was off the couch and gently forcing Setro to face her. She really shouldn't have, though. Now she exposed herself to his emotional, blue seas. So to keep herself from melting, she curled her arms around his neck and pressed her flesh tightly to his.

"Well too bad. They matter to me."

Soon Claire's thoughts were blank pages, as Setro buried his face into the crook of her neck, as his hot breath weakened her shields. She felt his lips part against her skin, his arms pressing her deeper into him . . . .

Oh my God . . .

Guilt was looming over her shoulder, but all she wanted him to do right then was kiss the fricking life out of her.

🎶 ᴺᵃʰ⁻ⁿᵃʰ⁻ⁿᵃʰ🎶

A hearty, crisp laugh escaped Kain. Out of all the things, Snow was wondering about a bachelor party? "Well, I actually haven't given it any thought," Kain admitted, needlessly readjusting his ponytail.

"What?!" Snow's loudness bounced around the gym walls. Luckily not many people were around, but the ones that were shot a quick brow arch in their direction. "These are your last few days of being a free man! You gotta celebrate!"

Kain didn't quite have the same mentality. The sound of celebrating his last few days of being unmarried was more of a dull sting, and not much of a confetti-popper.

"Perhaps. It's just . . ." Kain rolled his neck, blinked at the gym lights. "Claire and I have been together for a while, and I knew she was wary about making a commitment, but . . . I feel like we're ready." His face stoned serious, he looked back at Snow with a brighter aura cradling his features. "I'm ready. I've been ready for quite some time. My days of being alone--a free man--are long behind me."

Wisps of understanding blew by Snow's ears. His gaze did a short dip before he slowly, steadily nodded. "Well, I'm happy for ya. And I wish you and my sister the best."

As Snow's beefy hand flung out to slap Kain on the shoulder, Kain whispered a thank-you. And for a few fleeting ticks he marveled at how causally Snow could call Claire his sister . . . like it was biological, written in the stars. Being part of such a tight-knit family would be new to Kain, but certainly not an unwelcome adventure.

"But I'm serious--I wanna be the first one to know about that bachelor party!" Snow began trotting toward the exercising machines, flashing a toothy goodbye-grin.

"I will talk to Cecil about it," Kain called back. "You know him--he's quite the party planner."

"All right!"

Though Snow was already several feet away now, his warmth and sweet glaze still lingered. Kain swung his ponytail back behind him, picked up his dumbbell yet again, and let another smile grace his face. Excitement started buttering his spirit. What awaited him in this chapter of his life was a bundle of unwritten words. But so long as he spent them with his wife-to-be, the love of his life, it'd be a book worth reading to the end.

~*'.~*.'~

🎶 ᴺᵃʰ⁻ⁿᵃʰ⁻ⁿᵃʰ, ⁱⁿ ᵐʸ ʰᵉᵃᵈ
ᴺᵃʰ⁻ⁿᵃʰ⁻ⁿᵃʰ, ⁱⁿ ᵐʸ ᵇᵉᵈ
ᴺᵃʰ⁻ⁿᵃʰ⁻ⁿᵃʰ . . .
ᴹᵃᵏⁱⁿ' ᵇᵉᵃᵘᵗⁱᶠᵘˡ ᵐⁱˢᵗᵃᵏᵉˢ 🎶