By My Side - Sam/Aomaris Fanfiction

55) Dangerous Solution

The next day dawned bright and sunny, a direct contrast to the mood that both Sam and I were in. We awoke later than usual and I could tell neither of us had slept very well last night. Given the choice, we both would've laid there for hours on end. Today was the day we'd invited everyone over for dinner, though, so we had to prepare.

I spent the majority of the day in the kitchen and on a whim, decided to make Hunter's Chicken for dinner. I knew everyone liked it and Aiden had a slight obsession with barbeque sauce, so he would love it. I'd also set to work making a rather large Summer fruits crumble, as I personally was craving something sweet. Sam spent his time setting the dining room up to accommodate nine people. We'd bought a dining table that could expand in size a couple of years back for occasions like these. I had both dishes ready to go in the oven half an hour before the guests were set to arrive.

A loud knock on the door made me jump and almost drop the glasses I was pulling out of the cupboard.
"Can you get that, Sam?!" I shouted. Though he didn't answer me, he must have opened the door because I was attacked just as I set the glasses on the counter.
"Nicky!!" The small child roared, hugging my legs. I could already hear Matthew, Ronnie and Sam laughing at Aiden from the archway. With a chuckle of my own, I twisted around and ruffled his hair.
"What's up, Aiden? How are you?" The miniature incubus released me and grinned widely.
"I'm awesome! Look! I can hold fire now!" He thrust out his hand, palm facing the sky, and there flickered a small amount of bright orange flames. I smiled. Aiden, as an incubus, had unique powers, which were fire and wind manipulation. While he'd managed to produce a breeze or two, fire was coming a lot easier to him, so he wanted to master fire before he began working on wind.
"That's great! Maybe not in the house though, yeah?" Aiden giggled and nodded, extinguishing the fire by closing his fist and running back towards his parents. I followed him, still smiling.
"Hey, Matthew. You good? Ronnie isn't driving you insane yet?" My best friend's mouth fell open in fake shock and Matthew laughed, shaking his head.
"Nah, I don't think he could ever do that. I love him too much." Ronnie's mouth abruptly closed as he turned bright red and Matthew grinned at his husband.

Another knock on the door broke me away from the others and I opened the door, revealing Damien and Twila. Both of them smiled at me and Twila raised her hand in greeting.
"Hey, guys," I said. "Matthew and Ronnie are here already, we're just waiting on James and Iridessa."
"That's fine," Damien answered calmly. "It's nice to see everyone again." I nodded and waved them into the dining room, where they sat down next to each other. Ronnie was on Matthew's left side and Aiden was on the other, sitting next to and talking animatedly with Sam, who was engaging in the conversation with a curious expression of wistful fondness on his face. Not even five minutes after Damien and Twila arrived, James and Iridessa appeared at the door and I quickly put the dinner in the oven. I wandered back into the dining room to take drink requests. To my surprise, it was only the incubi that asked for alcohol. I knew Sam's go-to already, he liked his tequila. James was a fan of scotch and I was surprised that Matthew wanted rum and coke. I knew Damien's preference for alcohol was something called Sake, but we didn't have any of it in the house so he settled for a Spanish liquor known as 43. I personally didn't really drink, and the spouses of the incubi were the ones driving that day, so they all decided on coke. I myself just ended up having raspberry lemonade.

From there, everyone relaxed and upcoming events became the topic of conversation until I heard the oven timer going off. Sam jumped up to help me and we served dinner quickly. As predicted, Aiden adored the hunter's chicken and everyone else gave me compliments on my cooking. In the midst of the meal when there was a lull in the conversation, Sam cleared his throat and everyone fell silent, staring at him, me included. With a small smile, he gestured to me and I frowned for a second before remembering the entire reason we'd invited everyone over. I felt myself turn red as everyone's gaze turned to me instead.
"Um... I wanted to... I mean, there's a reason we, uh... we invited you all here. Tonight." My throat suddenly felt very dry. Everyone waited patiently for me to continue. "Recently, I finished writing one of my books. Last week, I managed to get it sent out to a publisher, and I got news back last night." The room became more still. I swallowed and I could feel myself blushing still.
"They, um..." My throat stuck. I couldn't talk. Sam, with a knowing smirk, took over.
"They're gonna publish Phoenix's book." He finished. Nobody moved. Aiden frowned slightly.
"What does that mean?" He asked me. I cleared my throat.
"Basically, they're gonna make sure that everyone can read my book if they want to," I explained. Without warning, the tiny incubus leapt up from his seat on Sam's other side and ran around to me, hugging me tightly.
"That's awesome! Can I read it?! Can I?!" I laughed slightly, recovering from my mild panic.
"Sure, bud."