Bushes rustled, preceding Taron’s eager grin as he dragged Wash behind him. “See? I told you it was a short cut. I studied the map. The paths were parallel.”
Then, because Taron is a secret genius, he studied the puzzle of getting the trinkets with a critical eye, stepped around a bush on one side and followed a small path up to where the trinkets were sitting, snatching one and tossing it in the air, catching it with a grin.
“Four down, six to go,” he beamed. “You keeping up, Z? You know what happens if I win!”
“If you’re going to say anything about sex, I’m teleporting home,” Wash complained.
Taron waved that comment away, grabbing Wash’s sweater sleeve again to drag him away. “Don’t be such a perv. He has to do aerials with me if I win. Why is your mind in the gutter, my friend? Does it have something to do with an adorable little fairy?”
He shot Peri a wink as they passed, with Wash growling and dragging his feet the whole way. Peri giggled watching them go.His grumpy boyfriend would give in to Taron eventually. He got the feeling everyone always did.
“I swear to the gods,Taron, if you don’t stop–”
“You’re the one who refused to fly up and get it,” Taron bit back, his words tight as he tried to keep his balance with Wash standing on his shoulders. “How do you weigh this much? Are you built like a tank under all those hoodies?”
Wash rolled his eyes, stretching to reach the damn trinket they were trying to grab. There was no way Tony hid all these himself. Someone had to help him. Wash hadn’t built that prosthetic for climbing trees, and this one didn’t have any branches low enough to assist either way.
“Do you have it?” Taron gritted out.
“Not yet. Just a little–”
Taron’s foot slipped and he yelped as they both fell, Taron crumpling to the ground while Wash scraped his side along the bark of the tree, trying and failing to slow his fall. He landed beside Taron with a resounding thud, gritting his teeth against the pain.
“Shit, Hugo, are you alright?” Taron croaked, rolling onto his side to look Wash over.
Waving him away, Wash took a few minutes to breathe. He knew it wouldn’t be a good idea to climb onto Taron’s shoulders. He’d suggested the other way around, he was more solid than Taron realized, but Taron had refused. Like everyone else in Wash’s life, he assumed Wash’s stature meant he was weak and therefore he couldn’t be the one to lift the shapeshifter up. Anger boiled just under his skin, and he held on to his temper by a thread, the burning pain along his side only fanning the flames.He rolled to his feet, intent on storming away, maybe teleporting home, but Taron’s whimper made him hesitate. He glanced over his shoulder, taking in the man still on the ground, and frowned.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“Today?” Taron joked, then winced as he sat up, holding his wrist protectively against his chest.
Making an irritated noise, Wash spun around, kneeling in front of Taron so he could take a look at his wrist. It was swelling already, which wasn’t a good thing, and from the way he held back tears, Taron was feeling the pain.
“Is it broken?” he murmured, putting his hand out so Taron could show him better.
“Goddess, I hope not,” Taron replied, whimpering the minute his skin touched Wash’s palm. “Ugh, if I broke it, Zephyr will never let me forget it. He’s always telling me to be more careful.”
“You should probably listen to your mate,” Wash grumbled, then rolled his eyes when Taron pouted at him. “Don’t give me that look. I told you it wasn’t a good idea. I could’ve lifted you just fine.”
“You also could have flown up there and gotten it for us,” Taron pointed out, still pouting.
That was true, and he hated that Taron had a point. Grinding his teeth, he admitted, “I don’t… like flying around other people.”
“Why not? I’d kill to be able to fly.”
“Yeah, well, if you spent half your life being teased about it, you probably wouldn’t feel the same way,” he snapped, then swallowed the familiar rage down. It wasn’t helpful right now. “Hold on to me. I’m going to teleport you back to the resort.”
“Wait, wait! That’s the last one!” Taron insisted, pointing at the tree again. “Come on, Hugo! I’m injured!”
A frustrated growl punched out of him, but he felt bad for Taron getting hurt. He was right, Wash could have just flown and saved them both the trouble. His embarrassment got the shapeshifter hurt. The least he could do was get the damn toy down.
Shoving to his feet, he used the momentum to take off like a shot, hovering in front of the tree long enough to grab the stupid mini stapler before dropping back down again. He handed the thing to Taron, scooping him up off the ground with no more than a grunt. Taron yelped in surprise, but Wash teleported them back to the lobby of the retreat before he could comment, setting him down on one of the couches so he could rest while Wash requested a healer.
“Thanks. You’re not going to tell my mates, are you?” Taron asked warily.
“Depends. Would they be more pissed that you got hurt, or more pissed that you hid it from them?”
The way Taron’s face screwed up said it was the latter, and he didn’t want to admit it. Rolling his eyes, Wash pulled out his phone and texted the two men who would definitely want to know Taron was hurt, letting them know where he was and that a healer was on the way.