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Gem and Gemma were close. Flynn didn’t want to try to lever his own considerable wit and charm in between ‘em, but he was gonna have to do something if he wanted to get closer to Gemma. He wanted to! He did! And he was sure she wanted it too. (And wasn’t that kick-you-in-the-spleen-with-a-tartan-boot amazing?!)
So it had to happen. But he knew it was gonna be mighty difficult not to unsettle Gem. He liked Gem well enough for himself, and also didn’t want to piss off Gemma’s brother.
Except…
Except it wasn’t that bad, after all.
There were days when Gem was anything but jealous. He clapped Flynn on the back after a battle in the usual quarry, and said, “Gemma’s looking forward to-“
Flynn couldn’t help it, “-our date?”
“Yeah! Have a great time!”
He rubbed his wrist absently, smiling up at Gem. The other guy really was quite nice. He had to remind himself that he’d figured Gemma to be a wee bit terrifying, too, when he’d first met her, and… and all right, fair point, she was still terrifying now he knew her, but he also knew what went along with the terrifying. He was starting to see that there were layers and layers to Gem, too, and those layers were awfully likeable.
Flynn strapped his wrist, he and Gemma got Chinese, and went for a walk. Flynn got so caught up in their spirited discussion about multiparallel space-time inversions that he didn’t realise he’d walked through the edge of a pond until the step-squish of his feet on the path alerted him.
It wasn’t that Gemma agreed with him completely, no, that wasn’t it. It was awesome when she did! But the captivating thing about her was how she spoke to him, and listened to him. She respected him as a person enough to tell him when she thought he was full of rubbish, and to grin at him while she did so, and, apparently, to shove him affectionately in the shoulder and make him walk through the edge of a pond.
& & & & &
She was also really good to cuddle with.
One day he and Gemma were half dozing, half snoozing, and half watching Scott and Summer fail to teach Ziggy how to play pool without denting the ceiling. They were in the corner of the big couch together. Gemma against the arm, because she’d dragged Flynn down to sit with her. He had an arm around her, his cheek resting on her shoulder. Gemma leaned her head against his. Her legs were curled under her. His were along the couch as he half-reclined against her. Her hair smelled really good, like the best kind of coconut smoothie, and he was in heaven.
Gem strode in with popcorn, in the big red chipped bowl. He did a ninety degree turn to head over to them immediately. Flynn smiled up at him, a little mournful because he was gonna have to shift over so the siblings could sit together, but Gemma shook her head.
“Don’t -,” she warned him. He could feel the chuckle reverberating through her like a purr of an E380 starting up. Gem plonked down next to Flynn, dragging Flynn’s feet across his lap, and offered them both the big bowl of popcorn.
“- move,” Gem finished, and now he could feel the humor in Gem as well from where they pressed together. Gem fed them both popcorn while they occasionally paid attention to Ziggy.
“How do you transcend the laws of physics? There’s no way that ball should’ve gone there!”
“It’s my own kind of genius, Sum – can I call you Sum? Can I call you Mer? Summsy?”
Scott’s low, amused rumble. “I wouldn’t recommend it.”
It was amazing. He could feel Summer’s expression even though his eyes were closed.
Ziggy continued, only temporarily chastened, as usual, “Summer, right. Summer.”
When the bowl was finished, Gem was somehow resting his head on Flynn’s hip and Flynn’s hand had found his far shoulder. He blinked, but Gem felt really amazingly good there against him, just like Gemma felt on his other side, and they obviously didn’t mind. So who cared, right?
It was only maybe an hour until the next Venjix attack, but it was the best nap of his life.
& & & & &
Things were coming to a pretty, pretty pass when Ziggy was the smartest one in the room. Flynn looked at him again, tea towel in one hand and a smoothie glass in the other, and said, “I’m sorry?”
Not because he hadn’t heard. Just because he was sorry. This made no sense. Except it made all kinds of sense. And ‘Ziggy’ and ‘sense’ were not words that spent a lot of time together.
“What are you doing with your boyfriend and your girlfriend for Valentine’s?” Ziggy said again, patiently enough. Well, patiently for Ziggy, which meant that his fingers were only doing a little of that spidery thingummy that meant they wanted to crawl off his hands and crawl away to haunt poor brave blue Rangers in the middle of the night by scuttling under the bed-
He really needed to cut down on the watermelon. He had some kind of watermelon-induced psychosis. That must be it. That was the only element in his diet that was different today, thanks to Summer and her Summer Fruit Extravaganza (even if it wasn’t actually summer. No one wanted to piss her off by commenting).
Psychosis would do it. After all, fingers did not come off. Only hands, like Tenaya’s.
Oh, yeah. That was a much less scary image. Moron.
“Valentine’s,” Flynn repeated, because his ears understood, but his mouth hadn’t quite gotten the message. His head was full of engine oil.
Ziggy said helpfully, “February fourteenth.”
“Right.”
“Day for love.”
“Yep.”
“Day after the thirteenth.”
“Got it.”
“Day for girlfriends and boyfriends.”
“Uh huh.” Flynn stopped. He stared at Ziggy. “What?”
Ziggy’s spidery little fingers patted him on the shoulder. “It must be complicated, coming up with something good for both of ‘em. You don’t want to make it seem like you think they’re exactly the same, but they like the same things and you don’t wanna short either of ‘em. I know! I can totally help!”
Flynn put the glass down. Picked up another one. Ziggy jumped his butt up onto the counter, on the second try. “With my boyfriend and girlfriend.”
“Yup.”
His legs were swinging. Flynn wanted to hug him just as much as he wanted to smack him. How dare the little man be clever? What right did he have?
“My boyfriend and girlfriend. Gemma and… Gem.”
“Yup, but Gemma probably wants to be the girlfriend, not the boyfriend. Probably. I mean, I’m not judging. The Zigmeister, he does not judge unless he’s being paid good money to judge some kinda contest! So what you wanna do is, you wanna get them similar things but in gold and silver. Or pick two things that they both like, and get one for one and the other for the other.”
“…Thanks, Ziggy.”
“Any time! Now, about the payment for this advice. You know how Dillon told me to never borrow his Black Nails shirt and I said I never would, and how I totally did, and it has a big greasy stain down the front from where I fell over a ketchup truck?”
“You fell over a- never mind.” Flynn’s headache was intensifying. He closed his eyes for a moment, and nodded quickly. “Leave it in my hamper and I’ll take care of it after this, when I’m doing my next load.”
& & & & &
“What are you getting your boyfriend for Valentine’s?” Flynn asked experimentally to the pair of black legs visible under Dillon’s car.
Dillon groaned. “Has he been on at you, too?”
Why the hell was everyone so much smarter than him?!
“A little,” Flynn admitted.
Flynn wasn’t sure quite how Dillon did it, but there was a near visible black cloud around him that went along with the annoyed grunt. Oh. Wait. That was oil. He grabbed a rag from the pile and dove to help.
& & & & &
It hadn’t been easy, but Flynn had taken Ziggy’s advice – (Imagine. Ziggy giving advice.) – and he’d found photo frames, in gold and silver, and he’d found a photo taken by Summer that he’d put in it for both of them. The three of them together, making smoothies. Gemma cutting bananas, Flynn with one hand behind his back, in the process of tossing Gem the container of frozen yoghurt. Gem with both hands up high ready to catch. All three of them grinning.
The party was going pretty well so far. Summer had an arm around Dr K in the corner. Dillon and Ziggy sat with them, and Dillon was letting Ziggy hang on his arm without giving him more than the occasional irritated look. That was pretty close to a full declaration of love from Dillon.
“Flynn,” Scott called, slinking over to him with a tall glass of something. “Here. Made this for you.”
“What is it?”
“It’s blue,” Scott said conspiratorially.
Flynn frowned at him. The glass was frosted, and sweating. But blueberries were blue, right? And they tasted nice, and were even good for you. He took a sip, and his eyebrows shot up. He took another, longer gulp. It was definitely blue, and it looked not unlike windscreen wiper fluid, but Scott was their leader and wasn’t quite that stupid, right?
Scott gave him a thumbs up.
It tasted good. Hell with it.
Flynn found the twins in the corner and handed over their presents with a small nervous squawk.
Gem opened his first, and bounced excitedly over Gemma’s shoulder. “Open it, open it! You have to see what he gave us!”
Scott was talking to Summer, now, and Dr K had her violin in one hand while she listened.
She grinned, and opened hers, too. They both handed their wrapping paper to a rather bewildered-looking Ziggy, who was also holding a cup of something dreadful and pink and wearing heart-shaped glasses.
Flynn spared a moment to wonder if Dillon had given him the glasses. Dillon’s giant bouquet of lollipops had Ziggy written all over ‘em (literally, and mostly spelled correctly).
“Beautiful,” Gemma breathed. “Absolutely-“
“-beautiful.”
Gem threw an arm around him, and Flynn tensed the hell up. Ziggy was right. He was really right. And it was so wrong, but Ziggy was right. Which meant he really had to do something about it!
Gemma said worriedly, “Flynn?”
Flynn gulped.
Gem looked like he was about to cry, and he stepped back, running his fingers through his hair. He held onto his photo frame like it was his prize possession. Or maybe a shield.
Flynn groaned. He’d messed up. Big time. “It’s okay.”
“Flynn what is it? You look-“
“-horrified,” Gem completed, and if Flynn’s face was horrified, his own wasn’t much better. “Don’t want you to be. Want you to be happy.”
Oh, to the hells with it.
“Look, if it’s all right with yer sister, I’d really like to kiss you! Are we boyfriends as well as me and Gemma?”
“You and I aren’t boyfriends,” Gemma said with helpful bounciness. “I’m thoroughly in support of people finding the right gender, but I’ve been a girl all my life. And please kiss him! It’s definitely-”
“-okay,” Gem completed, smiling just as widely as Gemma. “We didn’t want to-“
“-push you,” Gemma said.
So he groaned, and slid his fingers behind the nape of Gem’s neck to pull him close for a very satisfying kiss. When he came back up again, there was a silver chortle from next to him and then Gemma’s lips on his. That was Gem’s hand on his waist. Gemma’s on his cheek. That was. Wow.
“We got you a pillow. For-“
“-napping!” Gemma completed.
And that was such a good perfection on top of all these other perfections that he was able to ignore Scott chuckling and reaching out to bump fists with Gem. He definitely ignored Dr K handing twenty dollars to Summer.
It was a wee bit terrifying to be squashed in between Gemma and Gem. But it was more than a wee bit awesome, too.
Flynn liked it.
(He owed Ziggy a really big favour. He didn’t like that so much.)