Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 2

of Tam's hot fingers at the base of his wings to pull Aeron down with him, over the edge.
    ****
    He was still a little sticky, but Aeron didn't mind so much. He paused for a moment to admire Tam's round, muscled backside before he threw himself on the mattress next to him. Before his wings were even settled, Tam tangled a hand in his hair and pulled him closer, pressing their foreheads together. He whispered, "I love you, Aeron."
    And Aeron whispered back, "I know, idiot ."
    Tam laughed. "What's that word?"
    At last, Aeron told him.
    Tammas laughed even harder and kissed him again, reaching around to grab his ass and pull Aeron's hips tight against his.
    Aeron didn't think he'd be very well rested for his trip tomorrow. He didn't mind that so much, either.
    ****
    They had tried it both ways, twice, and couldn't decide which they liked better. A shame they'd thrown out the bath water, but a quick morning rinse from the well solved most problems, even if Tam claimed he might never walk normally again. (Which Aeron suspected he said only to make him feel good; if so, it worked.) They laughed on the way back to the fated place where Tammas had first called him.
    "I thought you were a god," Tam admitted as they came into the small clearing. "I never thought for a moment you'd be stuck here. I thought you'd go home, and no one would ever know how badly I'd mangled things. When you waited in the tree, I thought you were angry. That you wanted revenge."
    "Sometimes I did." Aeron smirked.
    Tam smiled, but sadly. "I guess it's time?"
    Aeron leaned forward, wings fluttering to keep him stable, and kissed Tam once on the pretty mouth.
    "Did you really know I love you?" Tam asked, with that crooked smile.
    "Once I showed you how to talk to the trees, you were all mine."
    Tam's dark eyebrows disappeared beneath his hair. "You did know. Though, to— to be fair, I think I must've loved you since I was just a boy. When I'd wake up and you were gone from my mind... I liked just knowing you'd been there."
    It was comforting to think something good had come of it, as frightening as it had been for Aeron as a boy. A little voice in his head— his own, this time— said being bound to this man wasn't so bad. Maybe even something he could come to love as much as or even more than Tam had.
    But it should be theirs. Not their wicked parents'. So all Aeron said was, "Did you know I love you, too?"
    Tam colored and blinked and did several other very awkward and silly things to show his surprise.
    Aeron pulled back, turned around, and walked toward where the opening had been. "I should have this binding sorted out, if it can be sorted out, in a few days." He glanced over his shoulder and wings. "So if you wanted..."
    Tam swallowed visibly. "You would come back?"
    "If you call. Though, I understand if you'd prefer walking normally for the rest of your life."
    Tam snorted. " Idiot ."
    ****
    Awela's green-gold-silver wings flashed in the sunlight, distracting Aeron from the sensory information speeding through his wings, his skin, his eyes and mouth and nose. Home, barely a moon from when he'd left it, but it felt, smelled, seemed so different.
    She, however, did not. She flung herself at him, and he caught her up in both arms. Her legs wrapped around his middle and she squeezed hard enough that all the breath left him at once. Her wings buzzed. "Oh, Aeron, I can smell the mortal realm all over you— all that terrible magic. Why did you go? When did you come back? Why would you leave me?" And a million other questions.
    He spent the afternoon explaining, from that fateful crack in the world fabric to this morning's return ritual. She began with exclamations of annoyance, irritation at the mortals' presumption, laughter at their silly ways. She ended by sniffing back tears and hugging him close, telling him she loved him, telling him it must not be true.
    But she knew it was. Even if previous experience hadn't proven their father's complete disregard for him, the past moon would have. She said he hadn't even asked where Aeron had gone.
    The look of shock— not to say dismay— on Emyr's face when he returned to the Hill late that evening made Awela seethe and Aeron laugh. He presented his father with the compact parchment without a word of explanation.
    Emyr looked first to his daughter then to his son. He said, "Where did you find this?"
    "Don't be ridiculous, Father. Megha is dead, her son inherited me, and he doesn't want me." Well, not like