“It’s not like I fuck around, Nyssa,” Rux said. “Mom knows that too. I’ve barely dated. Maybe that life just isn’t for me.”
Nyssa let the thought hang for a moment before responding with much more consideration in her tone.
“We don’t want you to be alone, hun,” Nyssa said, touching his leg. “I want some nieces and nephews at some point, you know.”
Rux didn’t laugh but continued to stare ahead. He was quiet for a long second, ruminating about his father and the impact his passing had on him every waking moment.
Rux had entered the world as a jubilant and curious little boy. He had learned to shift at a young age and was exploring his newly adapted state when his father’s life was taken in a yachting accident.
It had torn Rux apart in a way that imprinted on him at an early age. The trauma of learning that he had died, then constant re-traumatization afterward as he learned how it had happened, forced an entirely new person to form under his skin.
He had closed the door to everyone but his mother and sister. He had shut himself away from anyone who could have potentially been a good friend, hell, even a romantic companion, barely offering a glimpse into the darkness of his soul.
Nyssa and Mother kicked the door down and scoured the darkness for me in my darkest moments, but what sane woman would be willing to do that?
Then if she did, he was sure the darkness would swallow them whole. His heart would break all over again, and he wouldn’t survive it a second time.
Nyssa leaned forward and pressed a button on the back of the seat, flipping open a screen. She dialed their mother’s number, and a face almost identical to his sister’s bloomed in front of him.
“Son,” Ellen, his mother, asked promptly. “How did your date go?”
Rux blew more air upward to make his wandering hairs dance.
“Of course, she knew about it too,” he moaned.
“He fucked it up,” Nyssa answered for him, shooting her brother a look. “Classic Rux.”
Rux raised his hands into the air, then let them drop to his thighs with a loud smack. Nyssa turned back to face their mother on the screen.
“Mom, it's time for plan G,” she said sternly.
Rux furrowed his brow.
“You both managed to get through plans A-F without me realizing it?” he quipped.
His mother let out a light, flowery laugh. It reminded him of being a child. That thought had thorns attached to it, knowing she was living her life without her husband by her side.
“Plan G means Gerri Wilder, sweetheart,” Ellen said. “She’s a matchmaker. I’m sure you’ve heard.”
Rux had to lean against his hands to muffle his reaction.
Great, a matchmaker. Someone else to disappoint.
His sister lifted a hand to touch her brother’s arm. She squeezed it with a big grin on her face. It made his heart melt. They were his weaknesses, the only people in the world whose opinion truly mattered to Rux.
“Fine,” Rux huffed. “Why not?”
Nyssa clapped with joy, as did his mother.
“I will give her a call first thing tomorrow,” Ellen exclaimed.
Nyssa and Rux said goodbye to their mother, and Nyssa leaned over to pick up a champagne bottle that was sitting at her feet. She held it up to Rux like it was a trophy.
“I’ll drink to that,” she said enthusiastically.
They busted out the glasses and asked the driver to move along the scenic route for a bit. They talked about their childhood, which was often a bittersweet dive into memory lane for Rux.
Nyssa had been too young to remember their father after he died, but Rux was at the malleable age of twelve when the accident had happened. It had changed him in every way, probably in more ways than he could put his finger on.