Villain's Second Heart: Trapped in A Fantasy Novel (BL)-Chapter 14: From Another World

'...Did she just say...'

"We are not sharing that bed." Oberyn's voice was firm.

Silence.

"I mean, there's only one spare room here, so -"

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"Absolutely not. I'm still not even sure I fully trust you! What if you...I don't know...swap back!?"

Ezra shrugged. "You can have the bed, then. I'll ask Deek if they have any extra blankets and sleep on the floor."

"No, you can't just lay on the floor like a barbarian," Oberyn snapped.

"Then what do you want me to do?"

More silence.

Oberyn crossed his arms, looking at the bed. It was wide - a full-sized mattress.

He cleared his throat. "Ahem. I suppose we could put a wall of pillows between us, and you can sleep on the edge of the bed against the wall. I will take the side closer to the door."

"Whatever you say," Ezra grinned.

"What are you smiling like that for!?"

"Oh, nothing." Ezra continued to grin, his smile from ear to ear.

"Stop that, or I really will make you sleep on the floor!"

"I don't know what you're so worked up about," Ezra shrugged, the delight on his face still readily apparent. "You had no problem sleeping ON me earlier."

"That's different," Oberyn said, giving Ezra the side-eye.

"It'd be weirder if I was a girl, wouldn't it?" Ezra teased.

"Why would that be?" Oberyn seemed genuinely confused. "What's so special about girls?"

Ezra paused for a moment, moving from flirtatious to pensive. He hadn't gotten a good read on the Nephilim yet - but Oberyn did seem like he was asking an honest question.

"That's right, I suppose your people don't have...well, wait," Ezra realized. "Are you saying you don't see any difference between men and women?"

Oberyn frowned. "Women have more pronounced chests, especially human women. But I suppose men tend to be more muscular. Like you, Ezra. You are very..." he paused as he spoke, trembling slightly.

"Very...manly...but not in a brutish and burly way like most human men. No, I would say you have the physique of a man, but the energy is more balanced. Perhaps a touch feminine."

"Do you have the word 'gay' up there on the moon?" Ezra chuckled.

"Huh?"

"Damn, you're clueless," Ezra sighed. "Do you Nephilim even date?"

"Date?" Oberyn asked. His mind flickered. Sure, they dated - three months ago he was in a relationship himself, with a girl who he thought he'd spend eternity with. But fate had a cruel way of rearing its ugly head.

"Of course we date..." he said quietly. "When we find someone who we want to spend every day with, we give them a bouquet of flowers. If they accept, they are considered 'dating'. And, should the relationship persist for two years, it is often understood that they will give the other a wing-feather from their own back. And from those two feathers, new life is born..."

Oberyn said it all so wistfully. He and Tiana were far from their two-year mark when they broke up, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't fantasize about that life. Having a child of his own. What a monster that kid would have been - having two Magicians for parents.

"Does it need to be a girl-feather and a boy-feather? Is there a stork involved?"

Oberyn had no idea what a 'stork' is, so he only commented on Ezra's first question. "No, why would that be? Well...I suppose humans do need to match a male and a female to procreate, but we Nephilim have no such limitations. Love is love."

Ezra's breath caught. No hesitation. No uncertainty. Just three words, spoken like the simplest thing in the world.

"That...sounds pretty nice, Oberyn."

Ezra's eyes flickered in the light of the setting sun, which spilled through the wide window in the spare bedroom. He thought about it - he had a general sense of what he looked like from Alcor's vague memories, but he hadn't even looked in a mirror yet. He wondered what color his eyes were in his new life - in his old, they were a basic, dark brown.

In Ezra's Earth, same-sex relationships were less common, and even illegal in parts of the world. But in this fantasy world, that didn't seem to be the case - between Deek's casual teasing comments and Oberyn's 'love is love' comment, he felt far more secure in his sexuality.

"So, you wouldn't have thought anything weird about dating another man?"

Oberyn tensed at the question. "I suppose not. I...had not ever thought about it, though. I..."

Oberyn took a deep breath. He certainly had never told anyone about Tiana, not since his arrival on the Earth. He'd never even had a heart-to-heart conversation like this.

"A childhood friend," Oberyn said. "She was my world, and for a while, I was hers. But that was long ago. But someday, I hope I can return to the moon. I want to see her again."

"Ah."

Ezra felt a knot curl tight in his stomach. For all the flirtations and teasing he'd been doing, he never considered the possibility - Oberyn's heart was elsewhere.

He concluded that, despite the quick looks, the lingering gazes, the small moments of physical contact - he must have been reading too far into it. Oberyn wasn't attracted to him, he rationalized.

'He's just an awkward guy, caught up on some girl.'

His body seemed to drop several degrees in temperature in that moment - ice in his veins. He realized how stupid he must have been. Did he come across as pathetic, desperate?

Like some lovesick idiot caught in the rush of a new world.

He got caught up in the fantasy - of being in a new body, a new world. Of seeing an attractive man like Oberyn come out of nowhere. Maybe Alcor was right - he was on the wrong path. This wasn't the romance the Storyteller set aside for him...it was an obstacle.

"Well, sorry about the questions, man," Ezra said flatly. "I'm just curious how this world works. It's so different, you know?"

"I know the feeling well," Oberyn replied, his gaze drifting to the window. "That blue sky - I'd only ever dreamed about it, when I lived on the moon. What it would be like to live under this sky. We Nephilim may resemble humans, but our culture couldn't be more different."

Ezra joined Oberyn in looking out the window. "You could see the Earth from the moon, right? You could look up at it?"

Ezra had seen pictures taken from outer space, even from the moon - but that was his world, not this one. He wondered if the view was the same.

"Every day," Oberyn smiled. "And now, every night, I look instead at the moon. But even though I can see it, it's still a world away. A world I might never get back to."

"I don't think I'll ever see my world again either," Ezra said. "But I'm okay with that. I'm just going to make the most of my time in this world."

"You're an admirable man."

Oberyn turned to Ezra, hoping to catch his gaze, but the human's focus never drifted from the window.