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Efflo sat on a small rickety dock at the edge of the lake, dangling his legs over the edge and splashing with his bared feet. His boots were cast haphazardly beside him, and his tattered pants were rolled up to his knees. The horse didn’t normally venture this far from his typical haunts but he was just brimming with excitement and couldn't seem to find a way to settle. He could barely contain his feelings, he wanted to shout it out loud, wanted to let everyone know how happy and wonderful he felt!

But if he did that, he wouldn’t be Efflo and so the undead boil settled for splashing, frustrated and frantic splashing. It wasn't nearly satisfying enough, if only he had someone he could talk to…

Lost in his thought, Efflo nearly jumped when arms wrapped around him. Calder’s voice echoed through his head, the kelpie boil sure was loud. But Efflo would know that exuberant voice anywhere, and even though it blasted his ears he relaxed, blowing out a small sigh. Nothing could bring him down today.

He tilted his head, smiling up at the other horse. “Hi Calder!”

Cooling off, that was probably what Efflo needed to do after everything. But a quick glance at the rags he dared to call pants made him think otherwise. He opted instead to remain seated on the dock, feet submerged.

“I’m okay up here,” he replied to the kelpie, smiling. The usually melancholy boil hadn’t realized it yet, but lately all he could do was smile, constantly grinning goofy little grins that refused to go away. He watched as Calder swam, marveling at how at home the other steed looked in the water. Efflo was all flailing and splashing.

“Uh, not much really,” the boil answered to the next question, just hanging out with my boilfriend. My boilfriend! At the thought of Gabby, he was unable to keep his cheeks from flushing that telltale hint of pink. But he didn’t voice his thoughts out loud yet, was it rude to brag about these things to people? Efflo was lacking in friend experience, let alone relationship experience, and he didn’t want to be impolite to Calder. But Calder had a boilfriend too, he’d said in the class they’d taken together. Maybe he could help…

“I… I, uh, started seeing this boil…” he said, shyly glancing at Calder.

Efflo blushed even more, but he nodded his head vigorously, powerless to keep the words from pouring out. “Yesss!” he gushed at Calder, feeling a bit like a giddy school-ghoul. “He’s tall and handsome, and he has these great big wings!” He stretched out his arms for effect, beaming proudly. “He’s so cool…”

The boil looked around for a minute, anxiously making sure that he and Calder wouldn’t be overheard. Then he leaned down closer to the water, hands gripping the wooden planks for support as he whispered to his friend,

“…He’s a really good kisser too.”

“He is!” Efflo agreed in an excited little whisper; too busy thinking about how to answer next to care that Calder was dripping all over him.

“Um, well, yeah!” He agreed again, nodding his head, “He holds me in his arms and I never thought I’d want to be held in someone’s arms before but it’s just really nice and feels like home! And, and he smells um, cold! Like a winter morning, all fresh and crisp and wonderful.” He sighed happily at the memory, leaning back onto his hands before turning to look at Calder again.

“Oh, I could never pick a best thing, I don’t think, Calder. I like everything about him! And no flying… I haven’t even seen his natural form yet but he’s a dragon so he’s gotta have one, just like us, right? I bet it’s so cool…” The boil was all-starry eyed and flushed, he didn’t think he’d ever talked so much in his life yet he couldn’t seem to stop.

“Did you hear about the attack on the school last week?”

Hold your horses, Calder! He was getting to the important things.

“Oh, well, I was just minding my own business in my room when these… things! Attacked! They ate everything,” he grimaced, thinking of the current state of his room. “I went to look for help… And wound up stuck in the student dorms, where we got attacked again. Gabriel was there and we ended up kissing and then… Yeah, that’s how we met.”

It was a very succinct version of the story, and Efflo left out a lot of choice details… It wasn’t that he regretted anything but that day had been very confusing and by the end of it, he’d been exhausted from both the battle and his emotions. So, best to just leave all that complicated information out of it, he decided.

He noticed Calder perk up, wondering what was so interesting. “He has two horns, um, and I think they are… Well, I don’t know if they are big or not, I’ve never really had anything to compare them to. But they’re really amazing, they’re like this pale blue-white and they curl a little bit at the end…”

“Well, he did try to protect me but… We weren’t the best fighters,” Efflo laughed sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. “The boss was pretty strong.”

Green eyes watched curiously as the other boil pulled out his Eyephone, marveling at the newer technology. His own phone was so old; it couldn’t do anything like Calder’s was. He looked at the pictures, thinking.

“Well, they are kind of like… A mix of them both, I guess? They’re thicker but they only curve down at the tips, and they kind of taper towards the end.”

"Don't you have any pictures? You should totally have pictures of your boilfriend. I take pictures all the time. See?" He showed a picture of Barth sleeping on the couch, with half his face cut off for his horns to be in the full shot." Calder then toggled between a few more images - Barth sleeping in his chair, Barth sleeping his bed, Barth sleeping in his bed in the same position but with his shirt removed, Barth sleeping with a cup set on his forehead, Barth sleeping with a finger coming from the side of the picture to touch a horn.

"I love taking pictures. Whenever I'm away from Barth, I can just bring him up on my phone and also show everyone I know who I love." He smiled, clutching his phone to his chest and looking back at Efflo. "Take a picture of him. Oh, and his horns. That way you can show me!"