He was pleased with his handiwork.
There had been certain difficulty in telling Gabby that he needed a few hours alone and that the dragon could not, for whatever reason, bother him and it had been ever harder when those few hours had turned into most of the day, until Efflo had finally dragged himself back to his dorm, damp, singed but feeling accomplished. He’d texted Gabby that he needed a quick shower but that he could come over soon.
Efflo was waiting now, hair still a bit wet from his shower but he’d changed into dry clothes, his soggy ones laid out to dry on his dresser. He’d left the door unlocked, and he’d thought about it as his hand rested on the handle for a moment before he’d hurried inside to finish preparing. He didn’t know why, but it struck him as something significant, that he left his door unlocked now, that he willingly invited someone in. He didn’t remember being particularly callous to people before, but then he didn’t notice the lapses in his memory, the gaps that hid anything but Gabby.
Gabby had changed Efflo, in ways he never thought would have been possible but he didn’t remember needing to be changed. But it was a fleeting feeling, and lost as quickly as it had come, pushed aside by more important things like if everything would be enough, if Gabby would like it, and how excited he was to show off all he’d done to the love of his life.
Efflo had caught a fish.
It sat neatly in its box on the table, next to a couple of plates and some cutlery Efflo had snagged from the cafeteria, and a small salad he’d made for himself. He’d used all the techniques that Sibyl had taught him, but in the end he was still a horse and not a selkie, and it had taken what felt like forever to finally snag one of the slippery things. He didn’t know if Gabby liked fish but meat was meat, right? And he was pretty sure that his boilfriend wasn’t about to start eating rat or snake, which was about the only other thing Efflo was willing to stomp on in the name of love. Once he’d caught it, there was the problem of preparing it because Efflo knew Gabby liked nice things and he wasn’t about to just stick a slab of raw fish meat onto a plate and call it a surprise.
No. He braved fire for Gabby.
Okay so, granted, it had an oven, and a pretty contained flame. Still, he thought he’d been pretty brave; he’d barely even flinched when he’d opened the door to pull it out. Then again, it was difficult to flinch underneath several layers of oven mitts. But he’d done it, and now it was all ready, only missing a certain boil who was tantamount to the night’s success.
xNio Love
