Bronson was woken up by a series of loud knocks on their front door, audible all the way from their room. That didn’t mean he got up to answer it though, he wasn’t expecting anyone. A pillow crashed into the back of his head.

“Go see who it is.”

You’re not scary, you’re just annoying. The bird was creepy, Bronson could admit that.

He affixed the brooch to himself and waited for it to kick in. He’d regained enough strength in his arms that they no longer shook so much the brooch risked leaping out of his hands, but he still had a long way to go to get back to his former self.

He picked up the pillow and balled it up before throwing it back at Abrax. Not bothering to get fully dressed to greet the nuisance, Bronson stood behind the door and peeked his head around the edge. Jem would so totally not get away with that without being shouted at.

“Hey Bronson!” said Vic, with a bubbly lilt to her voice. “I was going to head into the city to do some grocery shopping and I was wondering if you wanted to come along?”

Taking the morning off can’t be too bad.

“Yes, yes. That sounds fun, just let me get dressed first.” He left the door ajar and hurried back towards the room.

“Who was it?”

“Vic, she asked if I wanted to go shopping with her.” Bronson pulled his shirt over his head.

“Cool, I’ll come too.”

Nooo, my time alone with Vic. And away from my roommate.

Abrax peeled the sheets away from himself and shambled towards the bathroom.

“Is that a bergil in your boxers or are you just happy to see me.” Bronson stifled a laugh. It seemed Vic was less restrained than he was, he’d thought about making a similar remark, but he wasn’t sure if there was an equivalent phrase here, and he still wasn’t sure how his new roommate would take it. But bergil? Isn’t that a tree rat?

Abrax growled low, “Shut up Vic.”

Bronson was pulling on a pair of shorts when Abrax returned.

Abrax leaned in close and hissed,” Don’t let people in while we’re not dressed. It’’s embarrassing.”

Bronson couldn’t help himself. “Young, hung and high-strung.”

Lightning fast Abrax lifted a finger and flicked him in the centre of the forehead.

“Ow, why does everyone do that?”

“You deserve it.”

Bronson ignored Abrax’s words instead directing his attention towards making sure they didn’t smell awful. “Hey, I’m going to try something.”

He built up an image in his mind, cleaning the worst places first, then moving outwards.

“Don’t do anyth–”

Before Abrax could finish his sentence Bronson committed, imbuing a line of Kol into his words. “Clean as a whistle.”

About a tenth of his capacity was drawn into the spell and it got to work.

It felt like his whole body was being exfoliated, with special attention given to his armpits and groin. The image probably needed refining.

Abrax gave him a look torn between irritation and interest. “What language was that?”

Bronson scrambled for a reasonable answer. “Regional dialect?”

“Wasn’t I the one asking a question? Also, test your new incantations on someone else first.” Abrax lifted his arm pointedly. He no longer had armpit hair.

Bronson couldn’t help but feel a little smug with that unintended side effect, if it annoyed Abrax it was a bit funny. I’ll stop when you stop throwing pillows at me.

Bronson and Abrax came out of their room at the same time, their baby-soft skin now clean and odourless. Bronson went over to Vic and Abrax passed by them, towards the bookcases. “He wanted to come along, that’s not a problem right?”

“No that’s great, I just didn’t expect him to want to come with us.”

Abrax turned to face them, his attention locked on the black bird with silky feathers in his hands. It made a little cooing noise as he gave it scratches under its chin and on its belly. “Berrioux likes going out.”

It didn’t seem like Abrax was going to say anything further and he walked back towards them, Berrioux flying up to nestle in Abrax’s hair, just between his antlers. He gave Berrioux another little scratch under the chin then linked arms with Vic.

She grabbed Bronson with her other arm and they walked arm in arm out of the apartment. They had to unlink their arms to walk down the stairs and once they got outside Bronson actually ended up sandwiched between Vic and Abrax. He gave Berrioux a nervous glance. It looked alive now, but it’s normal stillness was unnerving.

“Bronson, you’re really bony.” said Abrax, reaching over and running his hand along Bronson’s forearm.

“We should stop and get lunch while we’re out too,” said Vic.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Abrax’s hand fell back to his side. “No sorry I can’t afford it.”

Lunch could provide a better opportunity to get to know the two better, and he could weave in some of his back story. “It’s fine, I can pay for us today. I have my first work shift later.”

“Thanks.” A smile was audible in Vic’s voice.

“How did you get a job so quickly?” asked Abrax. “I thought you only just arrived.”

“I did but my uncle knows her, so he got me the job.”

Abrax sighed. “If there are any other positions could you put in a good word for me?”

“I’m not sure if there will be any opportunities, but I can ask?”

The truth was that he was actually going to see Ayo for some physical reconditioning, so finding Abrax a job wasn’t the most likely.

As they got closer to the end of the pathway the sound of rain grew louder. “I don’t suppose anyone has an umbrella?”

“Don’t worry about it I’ll handle the rain, think of it as me paying you back for lunch,” said Abrax.

He didn’t use an incantation, instead creating a runic diagram in the air and once it was complete a barrier blinked into existence. It was centred on Berrioux and the bird flapped its wings a couple of times landing on one of Bronson’s antlers. Aaaa runaway the doom bird is on my head.

The rain barrier made their walk through the city a lot more pleasant than Bronson’s journey the morning before. Even if Vic was like a force of nature. She had very clear ideas of where they should go and most times she got what she wanted. Admittedly that was because Bronson wanted to explore to begin but soon found Vic’s assessments to be dead on.

They hadn’t started looking for groceries just yet, instead Vic gave Bronson a tour of the city. It seemed that Abrax was also not entirely familiar with the city either as his vision stuck on all the same sights as Bronson’s did. Maybe he just didn’t get out much.

Vic was very familiar with most of the shop keepers she saw, like a happily bubbling brook that had worn itself into a valley. All of them seemed happy to see her and some of the shine even seemed to rub off onto Bronson and Abrax, Though in the instances where Abrax spoke the shop keepers did seem to become more guarded.

Maybe there’s more to Thausians than I’d thought. It also occurred to Bronson that some of the reason Abrax had asked him to put in a good word might have been because some kind of discrimination. It left a sour taste in his mouth.

He still didn’t know why everyone was so against Thausians, from what he could tell there was nothing especially important about them, beyond the fact that they could block a chunk of the empire’s trade.

After the tour completed Vic led them to a small restaurant. The air inside was dry despite the high humidity outside, presumably some kind of magical ward. They soon sat down and ordered food, and while they were waiting Bronson asked a question he’d been wondering about.

“How come you know everyone?”

“When I was contributing for my scholarship, lots of the professors directed me to their favourite suppliers and I tend to get along well with most people.”

Bronson nodded at that, it made sense. “What about you Abrax, you’re on a scholarship too right?”

Both master and bird nodded at that. Bronson blinked. “Forget that, what’s up with the bird?”

“Berrioux is my familiar. They’re a faebeast and we’re in a contract. I assumed you’d already figured it out and that’s why you were wary of them,” said Abrax.

Bronson crossed his arms. “No I just thought they were kind of creepy.” Berrioux glared at him and Abrax chuckled giving his familiar another scratch under their chin, they seemed to like that.

“What’s the big deal with Thasuians? Why am I supposed to be afraid of you?”

“Oh you actually don’t know?” said Abrax. “It’s because of the fae, they live among us in our mountains and they aren’t like us. People are frightened of the fae.”

“People are stupid, it’s not fair to–” Victoria stopped talking when the waiter came with food. The waiter laid down their plates and the smell wafting up was divine.

Bronson wanted to reach down and start eating straight away but Abrax’s hand had already moved over holding some food out for Bronson. He hadn’t been sure if they would do it when eating this time, it was a somewhat intimate gesture, but over the morning he’d grown to the point of thinking of them both as friends.

He was about to reach down to reciprocate the gesture but another handful was thrust in his face. Bronson accepted but gave her a querying glance. As far as he understood, you were supposed to reciprocate straight away.

“You look like you need it,” said Vic.

Abrax didn’t look annoyed and just shrugged as if to say, ‘She isn’t wrong.’

Bronson rolled his eyes. At least Berrioux had no compunctions over forcefeeding him.

Bronson grabbed a handful of food feeding Abrax first and then Vic. Once he’d finished doing that, the other two also fed eachother.

There was something heartwarming about the scene. If he ever saw M&M again he’d want to try it at least once, he thought they’d probably enjoy the whole thing, even if just for the novelty.

After they were done sharing with eachother their each dug into their respective dishes. Berrioux took a little from each plate, but Bronson didn’t feel like arguing with a faebeast, and he had to begrudgingly admit the bird seemed nice enough.

Once they were finished they quickly left, Bronson only stopping to pay, very thankful for the fact that he was actually Jem Asterion and in truth had the bank balance to match.

From there they actually went grocery shopping, Bronson made sure to buy plenty of fryable food as he did enjoy it. A potato like vegetable, dry-cured bacon and eggs were all included in his purchases along side a number of foods that were more socially acceptable. He didn’t think Abrax would particularly care.

Bronson also asked Abrax if there was anything he wanted and Abrax added a couple more items to their purchases. Bronson didn’t see why he couldn’t buy things his roommate would also like. From what he’d gathered Abrax mostly ate in the cafeteria because it was free for students. The cafeteria was a nice option, but with only limited hours, it was good to have a backup plan.

Once they got back to the dorms Vic peeled off while Bronson and Abrax went into their own dormitory. Having abrax there to open the door was convenient, it certainly beat cutting his hand open.

They had just finished packing away their groceries into the cupboards when Abrax waved to get his attention. Bronson turned to face him.

“Thanks for today.” Abrax smiled. “I kind of thought you were a bit of a dickhead before, what with you flinching all the time around me, but you’re an alright guy and I had more fun than expected.”

“It’s not–”

“Yes I know. You’re in pain a lot of the time, Berrioux can sense it. Every time you flinched today, it coincided with it. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what’s going on.”

Okay Berrioux can sense pain, not creepy at all. Murder bird, an all in one murder. Berrioux does look kind of like a crow.

Misinterpreting Bronson’s silence Abrax continued. “It’s fine, it’s not any of my business. I just wanted to say we were cool.”

“Does this mean you’ll stop throwing pillows at me?” asked Bronson.

Abrax raised an eyebrow and smirked. “No.”

– – – – – –

Bronson knocked on the door to Ayo’s house. Seconds later the door shut behind him with a weighty clunk. It had an air of finality to it.

The next three hours were quite possibly the worst of his life.

Ayo was quite competent in guiding him through strengthening exercises while also lecturing him on his idiocy. There wasn’t any anger in her voice, but the disappointment carried across in her flat tone could fell a narcissist.