Just as I finished brushing my teeth, I heard the front door creak open, and James’ telltale swear as someone trod over his feet. He’d finished his work for the day a couple hours ago and retreated to his sad pillow-corner to try and catch some sleep.

I popped my toothbrush in the holder, and poked my head back in the living room, spotting Jackal as he slumped onto the foldout couch next to Bruiser, still wearing his rumpled suit.

I approached him quietly, trying not to wake Bruiser or Bonaparte.

“Hey Jackal, you can come share my bed tonight if you want,” I said softly. “Brick still isn’t home, and Nightfall and Bastion will be up for ages working in the office.”

Once they’d gotten into it, they hadn’t wanted to stop. I’d barely managed to pull them away for a light dinner, and then they were back at it again as soon as their plates were clean.

With the existence of their world and every living thing in it at their fingertips, they had a good reason for the workaholism at least.

“Your bed?” Jackal repeated, sitting up in alarm. “With you?”

“Just to get a good night’s sleep,” I said. “I know this mattress isn’t great, and you’ve been tiring yourself out. You deserve a good long rest, after all the hours you’ve put in, and to not be woken up first thing in the morning.”

“No, I can’t,” he said, shadows dancing over his features in the dim light.

“We can swap, and I’ll stay out here with Bruiser, if you’re uncomfortable sharing with me,” I offered.

“It’s not that,” he said, sounding lost. “It’s not that I don’t want to, I can’t. Shouldn’t. I can’t share a room with you. What if I hurt you?”

“Why would you hurt me?” I asked, my eyebrows raising to my hairline. I’d never have even thought of the possibility of Jackal hurting me.

“It happened once before… When I was a child. I had a bad dream,” he said, his voice dark and rough with emotion. “I shouted and the house caved in. They all died… It is safer to keep your distance from me.”

Realisation dawned on me. This was why Jackal was pushing me away. It was why he had trouble sleeping here, surrounded by so many people. It was the reason for the dark circles that haunted his eyes. Why even back when we were travelling on the road, he’d been totally happy to bunk in another tent despite being under the mistaken impression we were engaged.

“Jackal, honey,” I addressed him, smoothing his short hair back, and feeling him turn his head affectionately into my palm. “You’re not a merman here. Or a minotaur. You don’t have your mermaid shout. You’re just a human. You can go to sleep without worrying about sleep talking or calling out in the night.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, come on,” I pulled him up by the hand and into my room. He stood awkwardly by my bed, looking at it uncertainly. “It’ll be okay. I promise.”

I pulled his jacket and shirt off, hanging them up on the chair, and he pulled his pants off and threw them over the chair as well. Clad in just his briefs, he climbed in under the covers and sighed audibly as his body relaxed into the mattress.

“This is a nice bed,” he smiled at me, and I joined him, resting my head on the pillow to look at him. He sought my hand with his and squeezed my fingers lightly. “Thank you. You’re a good friend.”

I smiled back at him, waiting for him to show some sign of drifting off to sleep, but he didn’t close his eyes. He just kept watching me with his molten honey gaze, his thoughts elusive and mysterious.

“Emma,” he said softly. “Why do you think I’m smarter in this world? I’m not as smart as the other guys, I know that, but… I feel like I did when I put those glasses of yours on.”

“Maybe it was because you were wearing them when the explosion happened,” I said. “You might have the equivalent of your stats when you wore them.”

“Oh.”

“Do you like it? The way you feel now?”

“I like not breaking things. And I like making plans that work. Having people listen to me. Like getting jobs, that was my idea,” he said proudly. “I like being useful to you. I like that you want me here.”

“When we go back, I’ll help you make it permanent and then you won’t have to worry about the glasses at all.”

“I would like that.” Jackal hummed thoughtfully. “And what about my charisma? I was still wearing some charisma boosting accessories. Do you… do you think they’re working still as well? Is that why you’re being nice to me?”

“Things don’t work the same in this world,” I said softly. “People have charisma, I suppose, but it isn’t like a base statistic, and it doesn’t make anyone do anything. But I still care about you if that’s what you’re worried about.”

He pulled me in close to him, wrapping me in a bear hug. “I care about you too. I wish… I wish you were attracted to me. If there was something I could do to make you love me, some quest I needed to do or secret thing I needed to unlock, you’d tell me what it is, wouldn’t you?”

I was glad it was dark, because I swore I was turning as red as a beetroot again.

“You can’t make people fall in love with you, sweetheart,” I sighed. “But I am. Attracted to you, that is. I just… I don’t know if a relationship is a good idea for us or not.”

“Why not?” he asked, pulling me even tighter against him. My hands came up to rest on his biceps. “You said you didn’t think I could hurt you here. I want you, and if you want me and I won’t hurt you, what else is there to think about?”

“It’s more… communication. Expectations. I don’t want to let you down or hurt you if you were expecting more than what I could give you. It’s complicated.”

“It’s not complicated for me,” Jackal said, his brow furrowing. “I’m a simple man, Emma. What I want is simple, too. You and me together until one of us dies or the world explodes.”

“What?” I blinked.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“We don’t have to do math or taxes or contracts.”

“What?” I couldn’t hold back my startled laugh, but Jackal didn’t seem to mind.

“I had to do some of that when I got my job - which was really weird by the way. I’m used to being told to just stand and guard stuff or go and smash stuff, not… read things,” he shrugged. “I know your world has more of that, contracts and agreements and leases and whatever, but I don’t need it. I don’t need a binding or a wedding. I like you. I like how you make me feel. I like being with you. I just want to be with you. If you want me to be your friend, then we will be friends, but if you want to do more… I want it too. I want it all.”

My heart was racing in my chest, and I felt my world shift again. Could it really be that simple?

There was nothing exactly stopping me from getting together with Jackal. All of the guys had agreed that anyone in their party was pre-approved by them and that I could act as I saw fit. Sometimes I even thought they were just waiting for it to happen.

Jackal’s hands were around my waist, a respectful distance above my hips, but his skin was hot against mine and I felt an electric jolt run through my heart. It was like an emotional pulse of want, I could almost hear it audibly.

The only real objections I’d had to starting a relationship with Jackal were his limited intelligence and the fact I hadn’t known him well. But I’d travelled with him, I’d rescued Bastion with him, I’d travelled through a portal to my origin world with him… And he had experienced an increase in intelligence during the transformation.

When I’d met him I hadn’t been confident he even comprehended concepts like consent, but now?

He was still a simple guy, in his own words – direct, uncomplicated, and loyal - but I had confidence he knew his own mind and he knew what this was. It wasn’t like the time he’d thought we were getting married. Those couple of points to his intelligence had made a world of difference.

If we could get him through a single degree at the university, the change would be permanent. Even if he couldn’t read, the Animal Husbandry course I’d done had just been feeding fish to animals until they became domesticated. With Jenny’s assistance, I could make sure he was accepted into the course, and then I could hold his hand through it until he unlocked his stat increase. He’d be like this all the time.

I lay my hand over his heart, feeling it thump its steady rhythm.

“What do you want with me?” I asked him softly. “Tell me what you want.”

“I want to be with you,” he said immediately. “Like this. I don’t want to be apart from you anymore. I want you to be my family.”

I felt like the words cut me deep. How many times had I wished for a real family as well? Not the mess of people I’d been born into and the patchwork of family members that came and went with every marriage and divorce, but people who truly cared about me.

“And I want to kiss you,” Jackal continued. “I want to touch you. I want to taste you and touch you everywhere. I want to have sex with you. I want to hear you make those noises I’ve heard you make with the others, and I want to see your face when that happens. I want to make you smile. I want you to be happy I am around.”

“I am happy you’re around,” I said breathlessly. “You can kiss me if you want to.”

I’d almost expected him to pounce on me and ravish me, but his kiss was surprisingly tentative, and then he pulled back, looking at me with a hopeful and guileless expression.

“You taste nice.”

“Oh, I suppose that’s my lip balm. It’s strawberry flavoured.”

“I’ve never heard of strawberry before. Is that a special kind of berry in your world?”

“Just one that tastes good,” I smiled. “It doesn’t have any status effects or anything, like Newtopian berries. I can find you some at the shops tomorrow, if you like.”

“I would like that. I can’t imagine they would taste as good as you, though.”

“You can… you can have another taste, if you want.”

He smiled and leaned over me, dipping his head to kiss me again. His tongue ran lazily along my lips, and I opened my mouth in a shallow gasp. He sucked by bottom lip into his mouth, savouring me. Just as I was about to deepen the kiss, he pulled away again, and lay back in his previous position, watching me through contented, hooded eyes.

“Thank you, Emma,” he said, his voice heavy with satisfaction. “I think I will have good dreams now.”

I wondered if that meant he really wanted to go to sleep, but he rested back onto his pillow and continued to watch me. My eyebrows knotted in confusion. He’d just expressed so much desire for me, then he’d just given up instead of making out with me. Why?

Oh.

He’d stated plainly what he wanted, and I’d said what he could do. He’d taken my permission literally and missed the inference he could do a lot more than just kiss me and taste my lip gloss.

“Jackal, if you want to go to sleep, that’s fine, but… if you want to kiss me more, you can. And touch me. And…” I struggled to find the words, feeling incredibly off balance by the need to lay it all out plainly. But Bruiser and Brick had done a lot for my confidence in the early days of our relationship, so I called on that sense of self-assurance as I looked Jackal directly in the eyes. “We can make love together.”

He didn’t need a second invitation and kissed me again, and he pulled me in against him.

I swiftly discarded my clothes and pulled his briefs down as well, positioning myself over his lap.

“Emma,” he gasped.

“Mm?” I sighed, feeling him pulse and grow. Even as a human, his anatomy was built like a bull.

“Emma,” he murmured, jerking his hips against me, forcing a gasp out of me. “I’ve wanted this since the day I met you. You’re so beautiful. Make that noise again.”

His eyes seemed to darken, glittering with a passionate desire that seemed to build with every grunt.

Despite what I’d said about him not being a minotaur in this world, I could still see the wild spirit within him as his expression clouded over with lust.

“Oh, Jackal!”

“Yessss, say my name again, Emma,” he said desperately.

“Jackal! Jackal!” I cried, and wrapped my legs around his waist, pinning him to me. I felt lust rising within me as well, grinding myself against him, losing myself in the sensation.

“Hnnnnngh…”

His own groaning sounded pained, and I pulled back from the open-mouthed kisses I was lavishing his neck with to look into his eyes. His brow was covered in a glistening sheen of sweat, but his eyes were pinched, and his jaw was clenched.

“What’s wrong, honey?” I asked, before suddenly realizing what it was. He was desperately trying to keep silent. “Jackal, your shout won’t break anything here. You don’t have to hold it in. Let go, sweetheart.”

“You’re sure?” he panted, an air of urgency in his voice.

“Yeah, darling. You won’t hurt me,” I promised. “Give me what you’ve got and let go. It’ll be okay.”

He let out a mighty roar as he found his release and I clung to him, every thought I had in my head fading away except the knowledge that I wanted to hold on to him forever.

The bedroom door slammed open, but Jackal barely reacted, still clinging to me with shaky, trembling breaths.

I looked over to see Bruiser, Nightfall, Brick, and Bastion had burst into my room looking ready for battle with James peering cautiously over their shoulders from behind.

“Ah, we’d thought there was trouble,” Brick said apologetically. “We’ll leave you to it. As you were.”

James made a meep! noise and disappeared from behind Brick’s back.

“It’s about time,” Bruiser said, nodding his approval as he turned to leave.

“Mm, I suppose it was inevitable,” Nightfall agreed with a sigh. “A matter of time.”

“I suppose,” Bastion grumbled. “I’m just glad you’re alright. Scared the living hell out of me.”

“Sorry,” I said, sitting up and pushing Jackal off me. “Uh, were you two done for the night?”

Nightfall and Bastion looked at each other and nodded. “Yeah. If we keep going this late, we’ll probably start making mistakes.”

“I agree. It would be better to start fresh in the morning.”

I turned to look at Jackal, who was still looking a little dazed. “Let’s go have a shower and get cleaned up, honey. You go on ahead of me, I’ll be there in a minute.”

I pulled him out of bed, and he let out a satisfied rumble, kissing me once more before heading out the open door, still totally naked.

I stripped the sweat-soaked sheets off the bed, but before I could grab a fresh set from the cupboard, Nightfall took them and started making the bed for me.

“It’s okay, my goddess. You go clean yourself up. We can fit four in here, so long as one of our number isn’t a bear shifter or an orc,” Nightfall said, amused. “Although it may be a bit of a squeeze. I could take the floor tonight, if you are uncomfortable.”

“You need to get a bigger bed,” Bastion said.

“And a bigger house,” I giggled, stepping towards him and planting a kiss on his cheek.

“Go, Emma. Everyone needs sleep, including yourself. We will be here when you and Jackal return.”

“Have I told you I love you today?” I sighed happily. “Because I do. All of you. You make things feel so easy, even when we’re facing down things that seem impossible.”