Essence of Quinn Parts 3 & 4 (MxM)

Challenge

Quinn didn’t realise he was smirking until Water smacked him on the arm, breaking him out of his thoughts.

“Earth to Quinn!” the water ghoul said, waving a hand in front of his face.

Quinn blinked and met his eyes, taking a sip of the coffee he’d just been staring into.

“Sorry, what?” he said, realising that the ghoul had been expecting him to answer.

Water sighed and shook his head.

“It doesn’t matter. What’s got you all dreamy eyed, anyway? As if I couldn’t guess.”

Quinn slid his eyes to Air who brought a hand to the bruises on his neck and stroked a claw over them, absentmindedly. Water followed his gaze and rolled his eyes.

Quinn and Air had made sure that his new apothecary was well and truly used to its full potential last night, ending up in the shower together washing off the remnants of the witch’s blood.

Air had basked in the attention that Quinn had found himself showering him with and Air’s expression seemed to be just as dreamy this morning, if not more so, than Quinn’s.

“I mean, I can give you the full rundown if you want, aqua boy, but it might make you blush,” Air said with a grin.

Water laughed and shrugged.

“You can give me the dirty deets later, bird brain. I hear Earth getting up and I’m pretty sure he won’t be interested in that particular story.”

Quinn chuckled and Air cackled and sure enough the big earth ghoul appeared in the doorway.

He narrowed his eyes and looked between them all.

“Why do I feel like my ears should be burning?” he said.

Water snorted and handed him a coffee.

They ate a light breakfast and by the time they’d cleaned up, Air was practically bouncing with excitement.

“Air, calm down, this is going to be a regular thing! There’s no need to get yourself so worked up,” Quinn said reasonably.

It made no difference.

Air came over and gave his neck a playful nip.

“It’s going to be so much fun! I can just tell he’s going to be great at this stuff.”

Quinn grunted. ‘This stuff’ was a weapons practice session and the ‘he’ was Itzal. They had a scheduled training session and Itzal was now on that schedule. Secondo thought that some physical activity would be good for him and help to keep him distracted for a couple of hours at least.

Today was the day that Santos would be sentenced. His execution would take place within twenty four hours of that sentence being passed.

Today was the day that Itzal was going to have to face the monster from his worst nightmares.

Today was the day that Itzal would become truly free.

The ghouls headed down to the gym to wait for him. It was a cold day but the sun was out and Quinn got the feeling that today was going to be a good day.

They didn’t have to wait long before Itzal appeared, head down, hands in pockets and with his brows knitted together in thought. He looked exhausted and Quinn could tell that he hadn’t slept well.

“Itzal! Hi!” Air said.

The shadow ghoul looked up and offered him a smile and a small wave of his hand.