Benji dropped the last of my boxes in my room.  “You weren’t kidding about not having much stuff.  Don’t worry, we’ll fix that.  Honestly with all of us, you’ll probably end up being a hoarder within six months.  You’ll end up finding random gifts for you showing up every other day – we’re all kind of excited Nathan’s finally dating.”

I actually had more stuff than I expected.  When I’d made my unplanned move to Avenglade, I’d only had the clothes I was wearing at the time.  I hadn’t even noticed at first when the clothes I’d borrowed from Riven were subtly replaced by ones that actually fit me, and when I did eventually notice and protest, Riven and Ren both refused to let me take any of the clothes back.  And then they’d deliberately gifted me some more clothes, nicer ones.

“You need to look presentable for the parents,” Riven had pointed out, a big smile on his face.  “And for the grand opening.  Plus it doesn’t hurt to have some good date clothes.”

On top of the clothes, Riven had given me several books he’d realized I liked and Ren gave me a plant.  Apparently that was a fairy thing.  I noticed Benji got one, too, as a housewarming gift.

I’d never planned to live with a prey shifter, let alone my boyfriend’s brother, but Benji had recently decided to get his own apartment, which happened to be relatively close to the daycare, and he wanted a roommate, so somehow I’d ended up moving in with him.  I think it had more to do with his general enthusiasm level and tendency to talk over everyone so I barely had a chance to figure out what was going on before he’d decided I was moving in, and then didn’t give me a chance to protest.

But I liked Benji.  He was energetic and talkative and practically the opposite of me, but he was likeable.  Plus he was the first member of his family who’d found out I was dating Nathan and he literally got so excited about that he poofed into his shifted form.  Unlike Nathan, Benji was a Netherland dwarf, with very round head and tiny ears – and a lot more energy than Nathan typically displayed.  Benji had then bounced around the room until Nathan caught him, amused, and told him to calm down.

I’d eventually met the rest of his family when I was brought over for dinner.  That was overwhelming.  So.  Many.  People.  And all prey shifters.  But there were still several younger kids, so that distracted me and helped a lot, plus they all seemed to be delighted that Nathan was finally dating someone and didn’t even seem to care that I was a predator shifter.

It might have helped, too, when I shifted to show the younger ones what I was and they all immediately decided I was the cutest thing ever and one of the younger girls tried to tie a bow on my head.

And now here I was, moving in with Benji.  As much as I enjoyed staying with Riven and Ren, I was glad I was starting to be independent, living on my own – well, with a roommate, but splitting bills – and starting work with Nathan.

Which brought us to the open house tonight.  Everything was done, painted, and furnished.  The yard was appropriately forested, things prepared for various supernatural kids and their abilities, and everything ready to officially open next week.  It looked great, though I might have been a little biased about that.

I got ready early, then found myself fidgeting while I waited for it to be time to leave.

“You know,” Benji said around a mouthful of food while he watched me, “you could just go on.  Nathan’s probably there already, as nervous as you are no doubt, so maybe you can calm each other down.  Or,” he shrugged, smirking, “make it worse for each other, I don’t know.”

The daycare was within a couple blocks of the apartment, which made it easy for me to just walk over there and one of the reasons I’d agreed to move in with Benji.  He had a point – I was just going to be on edge here, waiting, I might as well at least go over there and just be stressed there instead.

It was different to feel stressed out and nervous, but this time about a good thing.  I no longer had to spend my life nervous and jumpy at every shadow, fearful that he was going to catch me.  I was free to just live and be happy, even if that meant I was going to be stressed out about meeting parents of people who were planning to send their kids to our daycare.  The kids weren’t even going to be here tonight – which was a shame, I’d have liked the distraction.  Actually I’d probably just have ended up talking to and playing with kids all night and ignoring the adults, so maybe there was a good reason why we’d decided it was adults only.

After a bit more hesitation, I grabbed my things and headed out, quickly walking the couple of blocks to the daycare.

Benji had been right, Nathan’s car was parked out front, and I found him pacing in the entryway.

“Miles!”  He smiled brightly and gave me a quick hug, but I could see the tension in his face.  “You’re nervous, too?”  He asked.

He probably could see it all over my face, but I nodded anyway.

“Hey boys!”  Ren’s voice came from the doorway, surprising both of us into turning around.  Riven was with him, beaming at us, and he quickly sped over to give both of us hugs.  Then he stood back, looking secretly proud about something.

I had to assume the something was the large flat object Ren was carrying, which most likely was one of his photos.  Nathan had gotten several of his photos to decorate the daycare already, and I was pretty sure we weren’t expecting another.

Ren leaned it against the wall.  “We brought you a housewarming gift, I guess?  Or not house, exactly, more of a ‘congratulations on opening’ gift, I guess.  Riven thought you’d like this more than plants for the daycare.”

Apparently fairies were convinced everything needed more plants.  We did actually have a few potted plants indoors already, but this didn’t seem to be enough to satisfy Ren.

Nathan glanced at me and shrugged, apparently as baffled as I was about this picture.  Then he stepped over to it, his long slender fingers carefully pulling back the wrapping and letting it drop to the floor.

My hands flew up to cover my mouth while Nathan took a step back and just stood in silence.

A couple of weeks ago, Riven had somehow talked us into letting Ren take pictures of us in their back yard.  Not human form – in shifted form.  He kept insisting it would be a cute picture because of our ears.  I’d finally gotten to see Nathan’s rabbit form and his ears were so freaking long and so freaking soft when he let me touch them.  He was actually bigger than my shifted form – surprise surprise – although not by too much.  I almost hadn’t wanted to shift since I couldn’t pet those ears anymore, but when I did, he had snuggled up against me for a moment, pressing his bunny face against my fox face happily.

Unknown to either of us, Ren had taken a picture of that moment, the long-eared rabbit and the big-eared fox nose to nose, looking relaxed and happy together.  A sweet, intimate moment that I had found I cherished, and now it was in picture form.

“That’s incredible,” Nathan managed.  “Thank you.”

I almost wanted to jump up and down, I was so excited about this picture that I even forgot to be nervous about what was coming soon.  Instead I channeled my energy into tackling Ren with a hug, then giving Riven one, and then last Nathan, who wrapped his arms around me a little longer and gave me a light kiss on top of my head.

Something about that picture told me this was going to be okay.  We might be a rabbit and a fox, but that photo of a quick moment could show how happy we were together, regardless of our prey/predator status.

This was going to be okay.  I was going to be okay.  I might still have things to work on, fears to get over, thoughts my ex had placed in my head that I needed to learn to discard, and years of abuse to untangle and find a way to deal with, but I was starting to live again, starting to find myself, starting to thrive.  I was getting there.  I would be okay.

So I turned my face forwards, towards the door as voices reached our ears, ready to embrace my bright new future with good friends, a gentle and patient boyfriend, and a dream of a daycare that was becoming a reality.

Life was good.