➳ Hello, loves! Thank you all for your support and patience. I didn't want to leave you all hanging too long, though this chapter is sort of just filler. I had intended to make it longer, but I know I kept you waiting long enough, so here you go! I will start working on the next chapter ASAP. Love you all!

Chapter Forty-Seven

They made it back without incident, though Jim was sure that he felt a bullet whizz passed his head, right before the magic of the Transportation Charm engulfed them. A week later, he noticed a chunk taken out of one of the rock walls in his living room, which scared the heck out of him. If Claire had been standing in that spot… Well, thankfully, she hadn't been, and though their sudden appearance had startled her, she hadn't noticed the bullet either.

Almost two months passed by without much drama — at least, on the Troll side of things; although Aja and Krel were just "upstairs," so to speak, they hadn't visited as often as Jim had assumed they would. From what little he had heard via Toby's gossip, the interplanetary beings had added one more to their household. Vex, the old man that Jim had seen only a couple of times when he lived in Arcadia, had apparently been rescued from the moon — yes, the moon! Honestly, Jim didn't know why he was surprised anymore — and was living with them again. And, while his old man persona was fake, obviously, that had not stopped Vex from falling head over heels for Toby's grandmother, much to everyone's combined amusement and horror. Even worse — or better, on your point of view — Nana seemed to reciprocate Vex's feelings.

Thank goodness their spaceship could rearrange itself to be as big as needed on the inside, because that was bound to get awkward for all parties.

Further, Zadra and Vex seemed to be furious with each other, and even Aja and Krel seemed cautious around the warrior alien. Toby had told Jim a long story about a political coup, betrayal, and regret, but he hadn't really understood the details too well. It was all far too political. Claire had pointed out that the Troll society was political, too, but Jim's position was more like a magical policeman; he still had to answer to the council of Elders. Aja's and Krel's society was a monarchy, and they were, essentially, the queen and king, even displaced as they were.

On the Troll side of things, however, everything had been quiet — which was more than a little unnerving. Sure, calm was good, in general, but this was one of those cases where no news was not good news. Every day ticked closer to their deadline of the Blood Moon. Sarah was safe, having gone with Anson to his rebel base in the jungles of South America, but that didn't mean that the Draknagoth wouldn't choose a different host to gather in. They all kept in contact, to share information (not that there was any, at the moment), and so Jim could stay in touch with his sister. She was coping well enough, even starting to learn some Trollish — which had resulted in some embarrassing miscommunications when she practiced with him; Jim had never thought of it, but the Trollish word for friend was pronounced only slightly differently from the Trollish word for mate — mate as in sex. He'd never laughed so hard in his life before, when Sarah had tried to say the simple sentence "Let's be friends" and ended up implicating something far more risqué.

The incident had been the first bought of humor that Jim had had in weeks, too stressed and worried over the lack of information, and the lack of anything to do, to really be able to relax. Things had been a little easier, however, now that Toby and Darci lived just above them, with the Tarrons. Jim hadn't realized how much he had missed his best friend until he was able to see Toby every day. Further, it gave him someone to spar with and actually talk to — not that he couldn't speak with his wife, but there were some things that it was just nice to be able to speak to another guy — his best friend — about.

"And then—" Toby grunted, deftly blocking Jim's wide, right-handed swing with a weightless thrust of his magic hammer. Daylight flew from his grip, but with practiced ease, Jim summoned the blade back, this time into his left hand, bringing the sword up to pin Toby's exposed torso. With a laugh, Toby flipped his hammer into the air, where it hovered a foot above his head, and threw his arms up in surrender. "Damn, I'm never gonna catch up with you, at this rate."

"Not enough action in Arcadia?" Jim asked, chuckling to hide the fact that the moves had left him a little breathless. Sure, he'd likely seen more action in the past year than Toby had, but in comparison to their Bular and Gunmar fighting days, things had been fairly docile on the fighting front — which only proved to frustrate Jim further, especially as he knew that there worse enemies on the horizon.

"Pixies and rogue goblins," Toby replied with a weak pout, reaching up to grab his hammer. The magic item transformed into its smaller state and Toby absently clipped it back onto his belt. Likewise, Jim placed Daylight on his back and allowed his armor to dissipate, leaning casually back against one of the many trees surrounding them. "Small potatoes."

Jim laughed, shaking his head. "So, you were telling me about your date the other night?"

"Ugh," Toby rolled his eyes, also leaning back against a tree, and then sliding down to sit at its base. He gestured for Jim to sit next to him, and he moved to oblige. "Date. Krel ruined it. Here I am, trying to propose, and he appears out of nowhere and dumps orange juice over Darci's head!"

Jim laughed again. "Poor Darci."

"She was furious," Toby grumbled, pulling a small, black box out of his pocket to show Jim. He flipped the velvet lid open, and the light of the half moon shining down through the forest canopy caused the diamond ring to sparkle with a slightly magical glow, of which Jim knew both Merlin and Claire had helped imbue the object with. "She thought Krel and I were playing a joke on her, because he was able to find us, even though we were out in the middle of the woods."

Jim cringed, his stomach twisting with both humor and sympathy. "Did you explain?"

"I tried to," Toby sighed, snapping the lid of the ring box shut with a light snap. "But she was too mad. She only started speaking to me again this afternoon."

"Why would Krel do that?" Jim asked, unable to help laughing a little bit. Despite Darci's supposed fury, Jim knew that she loved Toby unconditionally.

"He said dousing the newly engaged couple in the favored juice of our people is an Akiridion tradition," Toby replied, shoving the ring box back into his pocket with a sour look on his face. "His timing was off."

"So… did you ask her, then?" Jim laughed, watching as his best friend continued to pout.

"No," he grumbled, throwing Jim a deep scowl. "I didn't even manage to get down on one knee! How did you ask Claire to marry you?"

"Over the phone," Jim smirked, laughing slightly harder when Tobes shot him an incredulous look.

"Are you serious?" Toby said in a flat voice, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Yup," he replied, shrugging weakly. "I mean, we'd talked about it, obviously, but when I asked her, it was just spur of the moment, so, yeah… I asked her over the phone."

"You're no help, whatsoever," Toby groused, shoving his shoulder gently into Jim's.

Speaking of phones, Jim's took that moment to go off. Pulling the phone out of his pocket, he tapped the answer and speaker buttons. "Trollhunter Jim and War Hammer Toby at your service, my love."

"Are you two still out, or are you on your way back?" Claire asked, her voice heavy and nasally, devoid of humor.

"We just stopped training," Toby said, frowning down at the phone and then looking up at Jim in concern. "You sound awful, Shadow Dancer."

"What's wrong, baby?" Jim asked, shooting his own concerned look back toward his best friend.

"Baby is exactly it," she replied, her voice dipping into a deep, froggy tone, and then there was a clattering sound, followed by the stomach turning noises of retching.

Toby cringed, his cheeks taking on a green tinge. "My little El is sick?"

"No," Jim said, shaking his head, his face heating a little. They had yet to tell anyone about Aiden, and though Jim knew that AAARRRGGHH! had detected the change, his previous slip up of speaking the knowledge aloud without permission had apparently scarred the former Gumm-Gumm General, and he had remained tight-lipped about it. "How do you feel about having a nephew?"

"What?!" Toby squealed (yes, actually squealed), a wide, excited grin spreading across his face, replacing the melancholy of his failed proposal. "Really? You guys are having another baby? Wait…" he frowned, biting his lip anxiously. "I thought you were playing it safe, since… uh… well, before."

"Jim got horny," Claire's hoarse voice came back over the phone, a slight teasing tone in her voice.

Toby snorted a laugh as Jim let out an indignant, "Hey!"

"I started getting sick with Ellie so early… I thought maybe I'd lucked out this time, but Enrique brought home some moldy socks, and it normally doesn't bother me, but I caught the scent, and… and…" Claire tried to explain, but she quickly choked, and then she started retching again.

"Ew," Toby groaned, cringing back from the phone. "Uh, so… saltines and ginger ale?"

"Please," Claire rasped after another short bout of retching. "Pretty sure you can get some at the truck stop. I've already sent Enrique off to Merlin to see if he has anything that can help, but you know that he's useless at most kinds of healing magic."

"Uh… maybe we could go into town, instead?" Jim suggested, unable to help the nervous energy welling up inside of him. "I'm pretty sure Sylvie thinks I'm a runaway who lives out in the woods, at this point."

"Sylvie?" Toby asked, cocking his head to the side in confusion. "Who's that?"

"The lady that runs the truck stop," Jim explained, reaching up to tug on one of his horns anxiously. He glanced up through the tree canopy to see the half moon again. They'd been out since dusk, so it was likely around midnight by now, and a quick check of his phone confirmed that it was ten minutes past. "I think I barely missed child services coming after me the last time I was up there."

"Jim, I need something," Claire's garbled voice panted over the phone, and he could feel her weariness through the phone. "I've been puking almost non-stop for an hour and half." More retching sounds followed that declaration, and then there was the sound of Ellie whining and calling for her mother in the background.

"I've got her," Darci's voice echoed over the line distantly, and Ellie's cries quieted.

"Darce?" Toby squeaked, his face turning red. "Is Darci there?"

"I called her to come watch Ellie," Claire replied tiredly. "She was already on her way down. Why'd you guys dump orange juice on her the other night?"

"Ugh," Toby groaned, dropping his head into his hands. "I'm sure Jim will tell you later."

"Whatever," Claire choked out, heaving a little, but managing to hold back the next bout of vomiting, for the moment. "Just… get me something fast, please."

"Okay," Jim responded, pushing his concerns over being thrown into child custody aside in favor of his concerns over his mate's health. "We'll be back as fast as we can."

"Hey, uh…" Toby stuttered, blushing a little as he stopped Jim from pressing the 'end' key and addressing Claire over the phone. "Could you ask Darci if she wants anything?"

"I will find a way to puke right through the phone, if you don't get going right now."

"Right, sure, okay," Toby stammered with a nervous laugh, and then the phone cut off with a beep.

"She's extra moody this time," Jim noted with a small laugh, barely holding back the grin that was pulling at his lips at his best friend's scandalized look. "Don't worry. Once her stomach is settled, she won't be so angry."

"Sure," Toby squeaked, shrugging an overly nonchalant way. He stood to his feet and Jim followed after him, moving to grab the backpack he had carried out with him and tossed against the base of a tree when he and Toby had started sparring.

"It's only a couple of miles from here," Jim explained, unzipping the bag and pulling out a set of smaller sized clothes that he'd started carrying with him, just in case he needed to transform into his human form. "Just let me change real quick."

"I'm glad you finally cut your hair and shaved," Toby snickered, watching as Jim muttered the spell that triggered his transformation.

Jim cringed through the slightly painful change, but then he was standing in his human form, slightly taller than he had been as a full human, but looking like his old self again now that he'd taken the time to clean himself up. He quickly changed out of his baggy, troll-sized clothes and into his human-sized ones, which consisted of a simple pair of jeans and white sneakers, and a pink t-shirt with the words "Proud Daddy of an Awesome Daughter" that Ellie — via Claire, of course — had given him. That was bound to trip Sylvie up a bit, he thought with a quiet chuckle.

"Yeah, I wasn't a fan of the hipster look," Jim laughed, pulling his shirt over his head, and then slinging the strap of his backpack over his shoulder. As always, his Amulet was tucked safely in his pants pocket. "C'mon, it's this way."

"How many miles are we talking about, exactly?" Toby asked skeptically as he fell into step with Jim, and they started walking in the direction of the truck stop. "I'm still new to the area, remember?"

"About 2," Jim said, shrugging. "Maybe 3."

"Whaaaaat?" Toby whined, his shoulders slumping. "Man, we need to get a new Vespa."

Jim laughed again, shaking his head. "For a couple of miles?"

"Well, we gotta teach my niece and nephew how to drive one, right?"

"That's at least 15 years off, you know."

"Hey…" Toby said after a few minutes of walking in comfortable silence. "How d'you know it's gonna be a boy? I thought you couldn't tell what gender babies are gonna be?"

"I can't," Jim laughed shrugging with a light blush. "But… we went to the future, remember?"

"Wait…" Toby reached over and grabbed Jim's arm, shaking it excitedly. "You mean… you met your own future son? That's awesome! What was he like?! Wait…" he repeated, his eyes becoming even wider as he shook Jim's arm again. "Did you meet any of mine and Darce's kids?"

"Uh…" Jim, stuttered, raising a hand to unconsciously tug at one of his horns, which was — of course — not there. Ruffling his hair awkwardly, he tried to be as honest as he could without going into all the details. "No. I mean… um… look, you can't really trust much of what Claire and I experienced, since it's a future we intend to change."

Toby's face fell, his expression paling. "Do… do Darci and I break up?"

"No!" Jim replied quickly, shaking his head. Toby breathed a sigh of relief, but continued shooting Jim curious looks as they walked. Sighing in resignation, he continued. "I… Aiden said that you and Darci had a son a couple of years younger than him, but I didn't meet him. It… it was a pretty dark future. No one…" Jim paused to gather his emotions together, and then continued again in a froggy tone of voice. "Humans were pretty much wiped out."

"Oh…" Toby breathed in stunned understanding, and then he frowned in confusion. "Who's Aiden?"

"Your nephew," Jim laughed, relieved that Toby hadn't fixated on the revelation of his untimely death, which Jim was determined to circumvent, anyway.

"So, you met your kid, then made said kid?" Toby snickered, his cheeks reddening a little.

"Not all in the same day," Jim replied, blushing furiously. "But, uh… yeah."

Toby laughed again, but then sobered, looking down at his feet as they walked. "How is Claire handling all of this?"

"She's…" Jim sighed, stuffing his hands in his pockets and shrugging slightly. "She's better than before… with the ectopic pregnancy, I mean. She's still mourning — I am, too — but… I don't know. It's a little easier to deal with the loss with time and a new baby. Not that Aiden is replacing—"

"I understand," Toby assured Jim, cutting off his hurried attempt at clarifying himself. "You don't have to try and explain that; I know you both well enough to know how you must be feeling."

Jim nodded, but still felt a little guilty inside. "I… I…" sighing again, he paused in his walk and pulled his backpack to his front, reaching into one of the side pockets. Carefully, he pulled out a delicate gold chain with a quarter-sized chunk of slightly glowing sapphire dangling in the center. "Claire hasn't wanted to bury or cremate him; every time we try to talk about it, she can't bring herself to make a decision, so I… I used some forging and magic to make him into a gem, for Claire. So she can always have him with her."

Jim ignored the wet glow in Toby's eyes as the boy reached over to gently touch the chain, careful to avoid touching the gem, itself, though Jim wouldn't have minded if he did. "She'll really love that, Jimbo. When are you going to give it to her?"

"I'll have to do it soon," Jim chuckled in a hoarse voice, gently tucking the necklace back into the side pocket of his backpack and slinging the bag back over his shoulder as they continued to walk. "Before she checks her jewelry box and notices that he's missing. Maybe later tonight, once she's feeling better."

"She said that she got pretty sick with Ellie," Toby hummed thoughtfully. "It sounds like she'll be the same with Aiden."

"I hope it doesn't get that bad," Jim replied, cringing as he remembered how debilitatingly sick his mate had gotten when carrying Ellie. "We were traveling, then, which might have made it worse. She was always a little dehydrated. And…" he ground his teeth together in angered frustration. "And Mom would come to check on her and give her fluids, if she needed them. We'll have to figure out different methods, this time."

"Still not talking with Dr. L?" Toby asked in a hesitant voice. "Does she even know about the new baby?"

"No," Jim answered to both questions, stuffing his hands back into his pockets, so Toby didn't see how tightly they were fisted. "She doesn't want to talk to me, and I'm not too keen on speaking with her any time soon, either."

Toby winced at the anger in Jim's voice, biting his lip with an awkward expression on his face. "So… have you talked to Strickler, then?"

"Yes," he said, his shoulders slumping a little in defeat. Sarcastically, he added, "Good news, though; he finally got up the nerve to ask her to marry him, and she said yes."

"Well, that's great!" Toby chimed in excitedly, and then cringed back at the look Jim shot him. "What? I thought you were okay with them getting married? You said Strickler asked your permission and everything."

"It's not that," Jim sighed, frustrated that his instinctual habit of growling translated into more of a dying gurgle in his human form. "I want them to be happy, and I know he'll do right by Mom, but… I think he thought that asking her to marry him would distract her from being angry with me; that we would make up, because she'll be excited about all that, but…" he bit back the tears of rejection stinging at the back of his eyes as he continued. "But when I talked with Strickler last week, he said that she was making all these wedding plans and making up guest lists and stuff… but he said that every time he hints about inviting us, she changes the subject."

"She does know how to hold a grudge, doesn't she?" Toby laughed in a slightly bitter and sad tone.

"Like the best of 'em," Jim replied with a bitter chuckle. The tree line was beginning to thin out in front of them, and he could hear the subtle sound of engines running, and tires rolling over asphalt. "It's just just passed that tree line — see the lights?"

"How did I not know about this place before?" Toby grumbled as they jogged the last few feet to emerge from the tree line and into the well-lit parking lot. It wasn't overly crowded, but there were several trucks parked in the back lot, and a few cars in the front lot and at the gas pumps. One guy, maybe in his mid-fifties, was leaning against the side of the building, facing their direction, and puffing on a cigarette. When they came into view, he jumped and his cigarette fell from his mouth in shock.

"Where you come from?" he grunted, eyeing them and the dark forest behind them suspiciously.

"Car broke down," Jim said without stopping or looking at the man. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Toby slowing down and opening his mouth to speak, his natural inclination to be friendly with everyone taking over. Quickly, Jim reached over and grabbed Toby's arm, pulling him along with his quick pace.

"Ain't no roads in that direction," the old man grunted again, but Jim just kept walking, only raising a hand to give a dismissive wave.

"You don't have to be rude," Toby grumbled when Jim let him go again, and they kept walking around the side of the building and toward the entrance.

"Sorry," he replied, shrugging as he held the door open for his best friend. "It's just… I'd rather get in and out with as little interaction with people as possible."

Toby snickered, walking inside ahead of Jim. "I think you've gotten seriously anti-social."

"I have not," Jim argued obstinately, leading the way toward the aisle where the packages of soda were kept. "But I'm serious about Sylvie; she thinks I'm a runaway."

"You are a runaway," Tobes snickered again, spotting a case of ginger ale on the bottom shelf and leaning over to heft it up into his arms. "This good?"

"Yeah," Jim nodded, already heading to the back wall, where the cold cases were. "I'll grab a cold bottle, too. I'm not that kind of runaway."

"Has she seen you since your growth spurt?"

"No," Jim said, shaking his head, turning down the snack aisle. "I don't know if they have saltines…"

"Down here, boychick."

Jim jumped in surprise at the familiar voice, not having noticed the woman standing at the opposite end of the aisle. "Sylvie! Hey! Uh… how long were you standing there?"

"Long enough," she replied, shooting a meaningful look between Jim and Toby, and Jim cringed, realizing that the nosy woman had likely seen them enter and had been following at a distance. Which meant, of course, that she had no doubt heard the whole runaway comment.

"Look—" Jim started, but Sylvie cut him off with a raised hand and a stern look.

"I've had my suspicions for awhile, now," Sylvie said in a calm voice. "I've seen kids come through here, same as you, before. I know the look of 'em. I don't know what troubles you're runnin' from, but livin' on the streets is no good."

"Sylvie, it's not what you think," Jim tried to explain, the hairs on the back of his neck rising as he glanced around and saw that a few people had noticed the commotion and had stopped to watch.

"Yeah," Toby interjected helpfully, giving a charming smile. "I was just joking, you know? I mean, Jimbo's living normally and everything. He's not, like, a runaway runaway. I mean, uh…"

"Thanks, Tobes," Jim grumbled under his breath when Sylvie only raised a skeptical eyebrow at them. "Sylvie, I'm 18, okay? I'm not a kid, and I'm perfectly safe."

"18, hm?" Sylvie repeated, crossing her arms over her chest. "I can see you've grown in the last couple o' months, but I'm guessing you're no more than 17, at most. You barely looked 15, last I saw you."

Jim's expression probably gave away his slight guilt, judging by the knowing look on Sylvie's face, but he would not admit to it out loud. Sighing, he held up his left hand, which was still clutching the bottle of cold ginger ale, and pointed to his wedding band with his other hand. "Believe what you want, but I'm an adult, okay? I'm married, and we own our own home and everything. The only reason we came by was because my wife is having really bad morning sickness, and this was the closest place to us that I knew would carry some ginger ale, at least. This is Toby, my best friend; he's been visiting for a couple of weeks and came up to help me."

Sylvie's expression faltered, her mouth falling open in shock. Once again, she looked him up and down, but instead of backing down, her concern only seemed to grow. "Good lord, boychick! I've certainly heard some whoppers, in my day, but that one definitely takes the cake!"

"What?" Toby said, giving a short, confused laugh. "You think he's lying? Why else would we be hauling this much ginger ale anywhere?"

"I think I understand," Sylvie said, almost to herself, nodding with a grim expression on her face. "You said you was from California, right? Oh, I thought that they were more accepting over there, but I guess there's bigotry everywhere."

"Uh… what are you talking about?" Jim asked, suddenly very uneasy of the pitying look that Sylvie was not only shooting him, but Toby, as well. He was also hyper aware of the people who had stopped to watch the interaction, several of them whispering to each other, while eyeing them.

"Well, you two, of course," Sylvie replied sadly, shaking her head. "You had to run away from home because your families couldn't accept the love youse had for each other."

"What?" Jim and Toby both yelped, giving Sylvie, and then each other, horrified looks.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Jim said hurried, shaking his head, even as his cheeks burned in embarrassment. "That's not— we're not— I really am married; to a woman!" He added the last bit in a hurried voice, even though he could tell that Sylvie didn't believe a word he was saying.

"Yeah, and I have a girlfriend!" Toby added, his face turning redder than his hair. "Jim and I aren't— not that there's a problem with it, or anything — but we're not with each other!"

"It's all right, boys," Sylvie said, sniffling and wiping away a stray tear, much to Jim's horror. The show seemingly over, a few of the less invested bystanders started to disperse. "I understand. My oldest son—"

"Sylvie, it's really not—"

"It's okay, Jim," Toby interjected in a grave tone, hefting the case of soda under one arm and reaching over to grasp Jim's free hand with the other. Jim immediately tried to jerk away, eyeing his best friend like he'd lost his mind — because he was sure that Toby had lost his mind. Toby merely tightened his grip, making it so that Jim would have to probably break Toby's fingers to get him to let go. "She's figured us out."

"Wha—" Jim started, his face blazing with heated embarrassment, his stomach twisting nauseatingly. It didn't help that he could feel Claire's distress and a little of her own nausea, as well. "No, we—"

"I'm sure you can understand that we just wanted to avoid attention," Toby said to Sylvie in a dramatic tone. Jim thought it was a little overdone, but apparently Sylvie was eating it up, because her eyes were beginning to fill with tears. "We've been living with my older sister. She is pregnant — that's why she sent us up here, for some ginger ale and saltines. She's just been so good to us, these last few months, it's the least we could do."

"Oh, you poor boys," Sylvie practically sobbed, pulling an oil stained rag from her back pocket and dabbing at her tears. "Oh, I'm so relieved that you're with someone you can trust. You don't know how much I've worried."

Jim tried to say something, but when he opened his mouth, only a distressed squeak managed to escape, his face practically on fire.

"Thank you, Sylvie," Toby sniffled, somehow producing a few tears of his own, though Jim did not recall his friend ever having been particularly good at acting. He'd clearly picked up some pointers in the last year. "I'm sorry that you've been out here worrying about my Jimbo; he's just so shy, it's no wonder he hasn't tried to explain our situation to you. He's so adorable. It's one of the reasons I love him so much."

And then, before Jim could react — because he was practically frozen in mortified shock — Toby pulled him closer by their grasped hands and leaned up. Jim turned his head to try and ask what the hell Tobes thought he was doing… and ended up in a lip lock with his best friend. It was brief and chaste, obviously — nothing more than a peck — but apparently Sylvie and the other bystanders thought it was romantic, because they all cooed and offered words of encouragement.

"Can we go, please?" Jim finally managed to squeak out, both his and Toby's faces burning red.

"Oh," Sylvie sniffled again, tucking her rag back into her pocket and reaching down to grab a box of saltines. "Of course. Come on, I'll get you at the register."

Twenty minutes later, they were back in the forest, walking in dead silence. Toby was still carrying the case of soda, while Jim carried a plastic bag containing the cold ginger ale and the box of saltines. Sylvie had insisted on walking them back to the road, thinking that they had walked in along it, so they'd had to go along with her assumption. They'd walked down along the road until they came around a bend, and then headed back into the forest to backtrack their way toward home.

"Jim…?" Toby finally said after another five minutes of tense, silent walking through foliage. His voice was high and a little hoarse, indicating his own embarrassment.

"What?" Jim replied flatly, keeping his eyes cast down at his feet. He wasn't angry with his best friend, but the whole fiasco had been mortifying.

"W-well…" Toby started, learning his throat nervously. "Uh… You know… um… I know we usually tell the girls everything, but d'you think… maybe we could keep this between us?"

Jim didn't answer right away, and they continued to walk in silence for another tense minute, until he finally felt that he could speak without dying of embarrassment or just start laughing. "Don't worry, Tobes. I don't kiss and tell."

To be continued...

✧ ✩ PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW! ✩ ✧