But he couldn’t do any of those things because of the fucking ring on his finger, so he worked some moisture into his mouth and said, “You were talking about dairy’s inflammatory properties. You got me so fucking mad I had to get up and come deal with you myself.”

A silent sob shook Shaw once as he pressed his face deeper into the pillow. Then he wiped his eyes, blinked them open, and looked at North.

“Why don’t you tell me a little more? You know. See if you can convince me.”

“North,” Shaw said, his voice broken. “You don’t have to—”

“I like a fair fight. I want to hear the whole fucking thing before I show you how absolutely fucking stupid you’re being about the most delicious food group on God’s green earth.”

Shaw wiped his eyes again.

“Scoot over,” North said.

“Tuck—”

“We were roommates, right? We shared those stupid twin mattresses in the dorms when we had to. Scoot over. I want to hear all about the evils of dairy.”

For a moment, the only noise for North was the roar of blood in his ears. Then Shaw nodded, shifting to the edge of the mattress, allowing North to slip in beside him. North wished, immediately, that he had pulled on a shirt. The expanse of skin against skin was enough, almost, to break down the walls North had put up for himself a long time ago. But not tonight. He wouldn’t let that happen tonight. And so he slipped an arm around Shaw’s thin shoulders and pulled him against him, feeling the shakes that ran through the other man.

“It all starts,” Shaw said, his voice muffled as he spoke into North’s chest, “with one simple fact: we are not baby cows.”

North’s laughter seemed to ease the bands constricting his chest, and suddenly he decided to allow himself one thing, one little thing, because he had been good for so long and he deserved just this one little thing. He hooked the sweaty strand of hair on Shaw’s forehead with his thumb and pulled it behind Shaw’s ear.

Shaw punched him in the belly. “Don’t laugh. I’m just getting started.”

“Ok, ok. We’re not baby cows. Go on.”

Shaw talked for a long time. He was good at that. But at some point, he slept, dreamless this time. North stayed awake until the room flooded with the gray pre-dawn, and then he closed his eyes to keep from crying.

PUPPY PATROL

This story takes place before Declination.

1

THE DOG IN the next cabin wouldn’t stop barking.

“Do you hear that?” North said.

“What?” Shaw asked from deeper in the house.

“That dog. The one barking.”

“I don’t hear anything.”