Supper actually smelled amazing. A dozen civilians were working on a feast, mostly using new supplies brought by the Sanctuary folks in magical storage. With people from practically everywhere in the world, the cuisine knowledge covered every continent and style you could think of. Competence and opinions, however, were just as varied…

Rosa and Adele got in a fight before the first course. Pretty soon half a dozen women were standing around arguing, Haley and Hank in the middle trying to calm them down, everyone else at tables or playing games in the entertainment hall as they waited.

Mason sat with Rebecca and her nurse friend Aila.

“So I hear you’re from…” Mason’s brain blanked. He felt a little embarrassment come on as he mostly just stared at the very slight, very pretty blonde.

“Finland,” Aila finally helped him and grinned.

“Right.” Mason cleared his throat and watched the girls exchange amused feminine looks he certainly wouldn’t be unpacking. “Don’t think I’ll pretend to know anything about that. Just another dumb American here.”

“Five and a half million people,” Blake exhaled as he answered from nearby. “Capital Helsinki. Stuck between Russia and Sweden on the Baltic Sea. Very nice pastries.”

Aila pulled back and stared, looking very impressed. Mason rolled his eyes.

“Have you been to Finland?” she asked, raising her voice slightly to be heard over Rosa and Adele’s increasing shouting match.

“Unfortunately no,” Blake slid a little closer and smiled with his handsome, slightly punchable face. “And now I suppose I never will. But I’d love to hear all about it.”

Aila glanced at Rebecca, who shook her head.

“Sounds like you know everything anyway,” Aila said as Blake was sliding ever closer to her seat.

“Shouldn’t you be sorting out your feast?” Mason nodded at the red-faced pack of civilians now jabbing fingers in each other’s faces. “I’m hungry.” Streak whined with a slight growl beside his chair. “And so is my increasingly large and impatient wolf.”

Blake slid away from Aila with a wink and a sigh. “You’re right. Duty calls. And anyway I’m a taken man, so you really shouldn’t be flirting with me.”

Aila and Rebecca laughed, and Mason just shook his head as his brother wandered off towards the kitchen.

“He’s quite the character,” Aila said when he was gone, and Mason blew out a breath.

“Yes he is. But at least he kept my childhood entertaining.”

“I bet.” Aila grinned and they had a few moments of comfortable silence before Rebecca jabbed her friend’s arm.

“So how’s your love life?”

Aila’s eyes flicked over Mason before she dropped her hand to the table and made a whistle like a falling bomb. “I haven’t had time, to be honest! I feel like I’m the busiest person in this place. Except Mason, of course,” she gave him a wink. “All the new people coming, players getting hurt, crafting people hurting themselves.” She sighed. “And there’s not enough men. And that was before all these new…” she lowered her voice… “horny bitches showed up.”

Rebecca giggled and leaned in with a meaningful glance at Mason. “Tell me about it.”

“Oh please.” Aila frowned with a little pout. “You guys are practically married.” She sighed. “I’ll just have to live vicariously through you. Except now I can’t even…” she dropped her voice even lower. “Did you know now in phase two you can’t even…you know…take care of yourself?”

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“Dinner is served!” Blake announced, shooing various people forward to start carrying plates.

Haley finally came out from the cooking area, blowing some hair from her slightly sweaty face as she took off her apron.

“Those women are crazy,” she announced, sliding in beside Mason and putting her head on his shoulder. “Did I miss anything good?”

“Just Aila here tellin’ us the woes of being single.”

“Oh poor girl.” Haley gave Mason a quick, and very private, meaningful look, which he completely ignored as he prayed for the food quickly. “But you’re so pretty,” she went on. “It can’t be so difficult.”

“We didn’t all snag one up before we hit the gates,” Aila teased, but kept on glancing at Mason with a very wandering eye.

Then Phuong arrived with a steaming plate of food, and smiled politely before sitting in an empty spot next to Aila. He’d stuffed several large bites of some kind of noodles into his mouth with great slurping gusto before he looked up at everyone else.

“What? Faster to get it yourself,” he said with his mouthful, and everyone got up with a laugh.

* * *

After supper, there was music, and dancing. Mason wasn’t the poster boy for either, but with much prodding and whining, especially from Rebecca, he joined everyone else on the floor.

Blake was in his element—smiling and laughing as he flit from group to group, shaking hands and making nice. Mason reminded himself what a holy terror his brother was with a magical list of everyone’s names and personal details, nevermind mind powers. He tried not to worry about what that meant for him or anyone else, because he trusted his brother, and because he would always be there to make sure it didn’t get out of hand.

He tried just to dance, and enjoy himself. The music was your typical mindless dance club beat, and Rebecca was on her third or fourth drink. She was now grinding against him with a wide grin, Haley laughing and spurring her on.

When Mason finally escaped he sat with Haley and let Rebecca dance with Aila and a few other girls as he nursed some of Billy the brewer’s moonshine. He offered one to Haley, but she shook her head.

“I don’t feel anything,” Mason said somewhat sadly as he looked at his glass. “I’m pretty sure my stats and powers make me basically immune.”

She smiled and put her head on his shoulder as she watched everyone dance.

“Almost feels normal, doesn’t it?” she said, and he wrapped his arm around her and rubbed her back.

“Yeah. Almost.” He looked at Blake still out there cutting a rug, and lowered his voice. “Do people talk about his...mind powers? Is there any…I don’t know, concern?”

Haley pursed her lips, put back her hair and met Mason’s eyes.

“A little. But they know I’m with you and I think they don’t talk to me about such things as much. He's not sleeping with civilian girls two at a time or anything, so that helps. And he listens to people.” She smiled a little.

“And of course everyone's pretty afraid of you, so they don’t say much. But I'll keep an eye on things.”

Mason was about to protest about why anyone should be scared of him, but he guessed he understood. “Thanks.” He grinned. “I can't believe I almost left you in the forest.”

She opened her mouth in mock offense and slapped his arm, then Rebecca was traipsing over glaring at them both drunkenly. “Get up here. Not you, Mason, it’s girls only!” she said, grabbing the Canadian and yanking her up with a little too much strength.

“Easy on the civilians!” Mason said, laughing a little as he watched the dance floor swell with practically twenty girls.

Then Rosa was beside him, looking stunning as usual even in an apocalypse-issued plain white dress. She met his eyes and smiled shyly, her hands somewhat awkwardly twined in her lap. It definitely wasn’t in character, and Mason was a bit surprised.

“I talked to Haley earlier,” she said, and Mason as usual decided it was best to keep his mouth shut. “She said if I wanted you I had to play nice with Rebecca.”

Mason just nodded, and a little of the girl’s expected fire flared in her eyes, but she clearly fought it down.

“So your girlfriends need to approve of me?”

He sighed. “They're more than that. We're like family. So yeah, they need to approve of you.”

Rosa’s war with her temper clearly continued, but again she fought it down.

“I'm not sure how I feel about that.”

“I get it,” Mason shrugged. “You don't have to do anything. I like you, Rosa, and I want to see a lot more of you. But that's just the deal. We’re sort of making this up as we go along, but so far that’s the only rule I know.”

Rosa nodded, clearly unsure but handling it well. Mason smiled and took her hand. “Whatever you decide, you saved my life. Just like you saved everyone from Sanctuary, whether they know it or not. You’re one of the most impressive people I’ve ever met. And you’re also so sexy it breaks my brain a little.”

He wasn’t sure why he said it, except it was true. And suddenly the idea of Rosa saying no and wanting nothing to do with him seemed like a deeply troubling possibility. Her eyes were a little watery, and he leaned in and kissed her on the lips, probably lingering longer than he should have.

When they finally separated Rosa let out a long breath and gave him a playful slap on the cheek. “Maybe if the orcs don’t kill you, we can talk.”

She stood to leave, and Mason smiled, not remotely hiding his stare as she turned.

“I’ll do my best.”