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Caleb stared down at his phone with a strange mix of dread and excitement. That was another maintenance request from apartment #D, then. There had been a time when he’d hardly had to do much of anything for this job—put on some window screens, tighten some loose pipes, that used to be it. The whole reason Veth had insisted he accept the job for some extra cash Caleb couldn’t refuse, and so that he could drop one of his other part-time jobs as he worked his way through school.
Now, well—now there was apartment #D. There was always something wrong, always some reason for Caleb to come up. The first time had been a genuine problem. Caleb had shown up at the door only to be pulled inside by a frantic girl with deep, beautifully blue skin and a dress that hugged full hips and had rather forcefully drawn Caleb’s eye. But first he had to take care of the washing machine that was shaking its way away from the wall. It had been simple, just an overloaded drum.
Jester was sweet. She’d been so thankful she’d insisted on sitting him down and sharing a couple pastries she pulled out of an impressively sized bulging paper sack marked with some bakery name Caleb didn’t recognize. The whole thing had been a little surreal. She was kind, and silly, and oddly charming. When she had handed him the cupcake, her hand had lingered on Caleb’s, and she had admitted a little sheepishly that she was still pretty new at doing her own laundry.
They had sat and talked for the better part of an hour. Jester talked about moving out of her mother’s house, about the struggle of living on her own for the first time, and about her attempts to get some of her paintings into some local galleries. Caleb talked about school, his cat Frumpkin, and he had even offered to help teach Jester a few things about living on her own if she was struggling again. He’d really thought there was, he didn’t know, something, there. He’d half considered leaving his personal phone number. But then the front door had opened.
The drow was one of the prettiest men Caleb thought he might have ever seen: rich plum skin, elegant clothes that flattered his slim frame, beautiful features. Watching Jester bounce over to him to press a soft, sweet kiss to the corner of his mouth with a tender, familiar ease, Caleb’s stomach bottomed out. Of course. They looked lovely together.
Caleb had extracted himself quickly after that, though Jester had done her best to prevent it. She wasn’t any less handsy with her boyfriend there either. All the more reason to flee. The drow, Essek, had just watched with an artificially pleasant, if empty, smile on those full lips.
That hadn’t been the end of it, though. Jester had taken him up on the offer for help, though she had to go through Veth to contact him, who seemed to find the whole thing hilarious. So Caleb had spent two hours in Jester and Essek’s apartment teaching them how to use the dishwasher without flooding the kitchen (apparently a past problem). It wouldn’t normally have taken so long, but he’d gotten distracted talking again.
They were both very easy people to get lost in. Jester was funny and silly, with an interesting view on life, and a talent to coax anyone into a conversation. And Essek? Essek was brilliant . He was going to school as well, for a physics degree, apparently in spite of his mother’s wishes. He had come to Wildmount for a chance to prove that he could make it without her help. Caleb wondered if he and Beau would get along or if he would infuriate her. He supposed it was 50/50 considering the way his and Beau’s own relationship had started.
Caleb had hoped that hanging out with the two of them together would curb any flirting, but Jester seemed unconcerned with her boyfriend sitting only a few feet away at times. She had even offered to braid his hair back for him after much of it had fallen loose of its tie while working. At that offer, Essek had turned fuschia, ears flicking wildly, the sweet chime of silver jewelry pulling Caleb’s eye, and had quickly excused himself from the room. Caleb had been sure that was it, that he would be kicked out, but no. Jester had braided his hair in a blue ribbon (to match his eyes) and lavished him with compliments about how soft and pretty his hair was until Caleb was sure his face was thoroughly pink. Essek had come back a few minutes later and they had continued on like nothing was out of the ordinary.
The time after that, Caleb came over to fix the refrigerator door. Jester had left a little after he had gotten there, off to show a painting. Caleb had been a little nervous about being alone with Essek that first time, but he hadn’t seemed angry, no. If anything his eyes lingered in a way that had Caleb’s mouth going dry and his palms sweating. Some of the politeness had faded away a little bit during that visit, and Essek had been awkward and earnest in a way that was heart-achingly endearing. He’d offered to order take out for them both as a thank you, and Caleb was weak. It had been a very nice afternoon, and when Jester got back and curled up on the couch between them it had only gotten better.
Caleb was a lot of things, but a homewrecker wasn’t one of them. It didn’t matter that they were both gorgeous, generous, and intelligent. It didn’t matter how much Jester caught him off guard with her bouncy personality and impish disposition. She was so different from anything Caleb expected that she had so quickly and abruptly slipped past his defenses. Caleb had in no way been ready for someone like her, and he’d been thoroughly defenseless against the way she had so easily wormed into his heart.
Essek was so much like Astrid and Eadwulf that Caleb knew his interest in the man was inevitable. Essek was so smart, ambitious, and talented, precisely Caleb’s type. Essek was also a terrible idea, especially after the way things had ended with his exes. But as much as Essek might remind him of them, at times he was so different from them, too. He was endearingly awkward once you got past the polite mask he wore. His sense of humor was a little awful, and he was constantly fussing about his appearance in a way Caleb couldn’t help but think was charming.
Essek wasn’t as touchy as his girlfriend, whose hands lingered on Caleb at every opportunity, but the long tense moments between them sat heavy in Caleb’s stomach, and they both only got worse as time went on.
Just last week, Caleb had been over at their apartment to fix a leaking sink. It had been an easy fix, just a loose pipe, but there had been obvious grooves in the metal that had made it very apparent that it had been loosened on purpose. It had just been Jester that time, clad in some slinky pink dress that had thoroughly shown off her rather lovely… decolletage, all of which had Caleb’s face painfully hot.
She had spent half an hour leaning artfully against the counter in a way that showed off her legs and talking in the most obscene, comical innuendo Caleb had ever heard. She had leaned over the counter as Caleb had begun cleaning everything up and had asked in the most simpering voice imaginable ‘what size pipe’ Caleb thought she could ‘handle’. Caleb had fled as quickly as possible after that, a little embarrassed at how much that little show had actually managed to get him worked up.
Now, there was something else. Caleb really couldn’t seem to catch a break. He wondered if this would be a real emergency or a fake one this time, both seemed to happen just as frequently. Essek and Jester were both rather disaster prone, but that didn’t seem to stop them from creating new disasters to get his attention. Caleb still had trouble getting his head around it, that two people as gorgeous and wonderful as them could be interested in someone like him, and interested enough to go through so much trouble.
Caleb just didn’t understand. Especially when the two seemed to work so well together on their own. Last month, Essek had invited him over to watch some docuseries, and while Caleb had been determined not to be a homewrecker, he was still a man. Essek and Jester both were intoxicating to be around, so of course he had agreed.
Jester had been there too, and the three had all packed on the couple’s crowded couch. Jester had wrapped an arm around Essek’s middle pulling him down into her lap before he could manage to sit down between the two of them. He had turned a lovely shade of violet, all huffy and affronted, but he hadn’t moved from Jester’s arms the entire show, just let her bundle him up against her chest like an oversized lanky teddy bear. It had been adorable and a little hard to watch.
Caleb collected his toolkit and made his way up to his way up to apartment #D with his stomach in knots. It was silly, the way he found himself trying to smooth his hair back from his face as he made his way up the stairs. He barely got the chance to knock before the door was being pulled open. Jester looked distraught—a real emergency then. Her hair was pulled up in a messy bun between her horns that were notably absent of any of their usual adornments, and she was wearing a soft looking flannel nightgown printed with unicorns and cupcakes. Adorable.
“Cayleb! I am so, so, super, sorry for bugging you. I know that today is your day off from the bookstore and all that, but this really is important, I swear!” She looked so concerned that Caleb really couldn’t help smiling in spite of himself, holding up a hand to stop her.
“Jester, it’s fine. Really. What happened?” Caleb let Jester pull him further inside, the door shutting behind them.
“Well…” She looked sheepish as she pulled a brass knob out of the pocket of her nightgown. “I sorta pulled the doorknob off the bathroom door and now Essek is trapped in there. It was super an accident, Cayleb, I promise.”
Caleb had to remind himself not to laugh as he accepted the knob from Jester. It looked like the metal of the spindle had cracked. It would have slid right out with too much force. That made sense. It was any old building, and the knobs could probably stand to be replaced.
“You can fix it right, though?” Her sweet face was still twisted up with concern. Caleb rested a comforting hand on her shoulder before he could think better of it.
“It’s an easy fix, ja. We’ll have things back to working in no time.” The tension in Jester’s shoulders seemed to let out then, and she slumped a bit with a heavy sigh.
“Thank you so much, Cayleb. You really are the best.”
Jester pulled him along further into the apartment, to the little hallway bathroom. Caleb had used it before, hell, their apartments were the same floor plan. It was a tiny little thing, and Caleb couldn’t imagine it would be a pleasant place to be trapped in. He wondered how long Essek had been locked in there.
“Jester? Is that you? Is Fjord here?” Essek’s voice called from beyond the door. Caleb wondered who exactly Fjord was.
“I told you, Fjord is super busy. He said he’s helping the Clay’s across town, and he’s not getting off work until late.” Caleb was almost certain she didn’t need to raise her voice that much for Essek to hear her. The doors weren’t that thick. This place was too cheap for that.
There was a drawn out moment of quiet. “Caleb?” Essek sounded uncharacteristically unsure.
“Hallo.”
“Ah, Caleb, right. Exactly how long do you think it will take you to get this door open?” There was a nervous, jumpy edge to Essek’s voice. Caleb wondered if he was claustrophobic.
“It shouldn’t take me longer than five minutes, at most. I’ll just remove the mounting screws and latch plate, and then we should be able to set you free. I’ll go pick up a replacement at the store and come back and put that in later.” Caleb sat down his dinky, little toolbox, routing around for his screwdriver.
“Right, five minutes. I can work with that.” Caleb frowned listening to the sound of Essek opening and closing drawers in the little bathroom. He shot Jester a curious look, but she just rolled her eyes, so Caleb let it go.
It was an easy, quick repair, just kneeling down to remove a few screws and pulling the whole thing out of the door entirely. It only took Caleb three and a half minutes before he was sticking a finger through the face bore to pull the latch back himself.
When Caleb did swing the door open, he almost wished he had waited a little longer, if only to prepare himself, though he didn’t know how much good that would really do him. Caleb wasn’t sure he had ever seen quiet so much skin on Essek before. His legs were bare up to mid thigh, all dusky, purple skin on display. Essek was always so carefully covered up in his long sleeves, great coat, and trouser cut perfectly for his figure. Essek always looked gorgeous and put together, but here he was in a fluffy pink bathrobe that didn’t reach his knees and all Caleb could think was he had exquisite legs, deceptively long and slender for his height. Self control, Caleb reminded himself, pulling his eyes away from his bare legs as he scrambled back to his feet.
Essek was wearing less makeup than Caleb had ever seen on him, but even that much seemed to be a recent addition, going by the pile of makeup scattered across the counter top. His eyes weren’t silver lined and skin didn’t seem as perfectly even and smooth. Combined with the high flush to his cheeks and the nervous way he held closed the fluffy pink robe (a set to go with the Jester’s nightgown Caleb realized) Essek looked… enchanting.
For a moment, Caleb let himself get lost in the fantasy of coming home to something like this, watching Jester squeeze past him to wrap her arms around Essek, lifting him up off his feet with a squawk of protest. The two of them, cozy in their pajamas, having a lazy day curled up together on the couch. Caleb imagined himself there, Essek curled up against his side and Jester’s head in his lap, her horn digging into his thigh, but Caleb not having the heart to move her. He could imagine it all so easily. It wasn’t too far off from how they already spent nights watching movies. Caleb imagined what it would be like if he could wrap an arm around Essek’s shoulder, tuck him carefully against his side, and drop a gentle kiss to Jester’s forehead.
But that wouldn’t be happening. Neither Jester nor Essek were his to have. They would never be his to hold, and he would never have the opportunity to feel the press of their lips. He would never be able to watch these sweet moments between the pair without that agonizing tang of bitterness, without the knowledge that he could never share something like this. If he were a better person, a smarter one, he would leave right now. He would talk to Veth seriously about finding someone else to send to apartment #D.
Caleb scrambled to gather the parts of the broken door, storing them away in his tool box. Jester and Essek were saying something, he wasn’t sure what. He couldn’t focus. All Caleb could think was that he needed to get out of this stupid apartment, away from these stupidly pretty people.
“Wait, wait, Caleb.” Jester grabbed the sleeve of his coat startling Caleb enough he almost toppled his box over. Her hands abruptly dropped, and Caleb hated the unsure concern on her face as she took a small step back. “You don’t have to leave right now, you know. You could hang around a little bit if you wanted to.”
“Nein, no. No. I should get going. I need to pick up a replacement, ja?” Caleb tried to wave her off, but if anything Jester’s brow just pinched further in frustration. Caleb watched her drive an elbow into Essek’s side, making him jump.
“We, ah, we could get dinner. We would like to repay you for the trouble. It’s the least we could do, after all.” Essek’s smile was a little unsure, a little wobbly. His hands were worrying the robe’s tie so much that Caleb was convinced he would stretch the poor thing out.
“You really don’t need to pay me back. This is my job. That’s all.” Caleb shrugged. He hadn’t anticipated the way Jester’s shoulders would slump, and the way Essek’s mouth would tighten. Caleb supposed it made sense. Usually by now, Caleb would have caved under the offer of food and good company and suggested getting take out.
“It’s more than that though. We, we both, appreciate all you’ve done for us.” Essek’s expression was so earnest that it made Caleb’s chest ache. What had he really done for them besides potentially come between the two?
“But, really though, we could go anywhere you want.” Jester jumped in. “And I mean, it could be all three of us, or if, you know, if you’d rather just go with one of us, that’s fine too, totally fine.” Jester’s tail was thrashing behind her and Essek’s ears were pinned back to his head, a flush high on his cheeks.
“Was—I don’t—. You want to go out to dinner?” That was… something. That meant something, right? That had different connotations than just getting takeout with friends, didn’t it? Or was Caleb just reading into things?
“Well, yeah, of course.” Jester shrugged, rocking up on the balls of her feet swaying in place.
“We, ah, Jester and I have been talking, and we know we’ve been something of a pest for you the past few months. You’ve been very good to us, and we shouldn’t be making your job any harder. So, we resolved to talk to you the next time we spoke. We, ah,” Essek swallowed hard, eyes darting away. If he blushed any deeper he would match the color of that bathrobe.
“Come to dinner with us?” Jester jumped back in to finish. “We reeaaally like you, Caleb.”
“I’m sorry. This really wasn’t how I thought asking you would go.” Essek made an abortive gesture to his outfit.
“Are you asking me out?” Caleb’s tone came out perhaps sharper than he meant.
“We understand if it makes you uncomfortable. That’s fine.” Essek motioned between himself and Jester.
“Nien,” Caleb shook his head, stunned. “No, I’ve had more than one partner before. I understand what it is to love more than one person at a time. I, ach, I do not judge.”
“Good, that’s—that’s good,” Jester nodded, glancing sidelong as Essek, but his eyes were on the robe tie in his hands.
The moment stretched on, infinite and tense. The silence was heavy and awkward. Caleb half wanted to run, to get the hell out of this tiny bathroom, and out of this apartment, and away from the furtive look the pair kept sending him. They liked him. Caleb didn’t know what to do with that. They both liked him. How? Why?
This whole time, for months, Caleb had been trying to keep his distance. It had been for nothing. He felt like an idiot. He had never once considered that they had each known what the other was doing. He should have assumed better of them. But the thought that he could have this, them both? Absurd. How could he have ever thought that?
“Hey, Cayleb, can you pretty please say something, cause I’m kinda starting to freak out a little bit here.” Caleb’s eyes snapped back to Jester. She was smiling, but there was an obvious strain around her eyes, and a slight wobble to her lips.
“I’d, ah,” the words shouldn’t be so hard to get out. “I’d love to go to dinner some time, ja. With both of you.”
As soon as the words were out, Caleb found himself with an armful of little blue tiefling. “Oh, Cayleb!”
Her head only came up to his shoulders, horns knocking against his chest. She was so much smaller than him, but her arms wrapped around him were thick and solid, and Caleb let out a little wheeze when she squeezed him tight, sending him rocking up onto his toes. Scheisse, those arms.
Essek was watching with a fond, relieved look. “I’m glad you said yes.”
Caleb circled an arm around Jester’s shoulders, holding her close, and held out a hand for Essek. He took an obliging step forward, mouth curled in that amused, little grin that always warmed Caleb’s heart.
“And I am glad that you asked me.” Caleb caught one of Essek’s hands in his own, bringing it up to his lips to brush the lightest of kisses against his dainty knuckles.
Jester made a high pitched little noise, doing a wiggly little dance that sent Caleb into a laughing fit. Scheisse, this all was… it felt too good to be true. Surely they were too good, too cute, too smart to be interested in him. But, here they were.
“I believe you promised us dinner. Tonight?” Essek asked, a thumb rubbing circles over the back of Caleb’ hand where he still held him.
“Well,” Caleb licked his lips glancing between the two of them. Jester’s eyes were wide and pleading, and her lip trembled with a deliberate kind of dramatism that had Caleb smiling again. “It is my day off. I don’t really have anything planned.”
“Yes!” Jester bounced up on her toes, stepping back away from Caleb, but her hands not fully leaving him, instead settling on his chest. “Oh, my, gosh! I’ll need to go get dressed, and I have to fix my hair!”
She reached up tugging at a curl with a frown. Caleb didn’t see anything wrong with how it looked right now. He supposed they weren’t as tight as usual, maybe. But he always thought Jester looked adorable, with her curls all loose and wild about her shoulders, the way they bounced as she moved.
“Wait, Cayleb! Where do you want to go?” Jester turned back to him with a curious look.
“We could always just stay in. We don’t have to go anywhere,” Caleb shrugged.
“Cayyleb! We get takeout together all the time, though.”
“But you both look so adorable right now. It would be a shame for you to have to change.” Jester grinned, and Essek went abruptly very pink around the ears again.
“I’m always very adorable.” Jester’s mischievous grin set Caleb’s heart racing.
“Caleb Widogast, you are a flatterer, a liar, and trouble.” Essek’s hands were tight on the bathrobe again and his smile was bashful in spite of his chiding tone.
“I—I would very much like to kiss both of you right now.” The surge of nerves that Caleb had felt earlier were back now, but it was the good kind this time, the butterflies before a first kiss.
Jester moved first, popping up onto her toes with a little bounce and Caleb gladly moved down to meet her. Her lips were soft, and Caleb’s hands easily fell to full hips, the flannel nightie soft under his hands, as she tugged him closer by his shirt. Her breath tasted sweet, and Caleb could feel the ghost of her incisors when she parted her lips. It sent a shiver down Caleb’s spine. It made him hungry for more, hungry to learn the shape of her, to learn the exact way Jester kissed and liked to be kissed in return. He wanted it all.
But then she was pulling away, and Caleb was blinking down at her trying to get his bearings. Essek’s hand was one his shoulder, and his eyes dark taking in the both of them. “Mind if I cut in?”
“Gladly.” Jester grinned, taking a step back wiping a cheeky finger at the corner of his mouth.
Essek didn’t wait for Caleb, instead wrapping a hand around the back of his neck and pulling him down. They were both so short. Their noses bumped, and Caleb’s ended up kissing more that corner of his mouth than Essek’s lips. Essek made a huffy little noise of frustration that had Caleb chuckling. He cupped Essek’s cheek in a tender hand, bringing him back into a kiss, genteler this time. Essek’s hand tightened on his neck, and Caleb’s moved from Essek’s cheek into his hair as the kiss moved away from gentle again, becoming hungrier.
Caleb’s free hand moved to the curve of Essek’s neck, where he could feel that heated soft skin where the top of the robe gaped. His hands didn’t get any further than Essek’s collarbone and the hollow of his throat before he was pulling away, only this time there was no Jester waiting to cut in. She was sitting on the bathroom counter watching with a grin.
Essek’s face was flushed, and his ears were forward and alert, the ends flicking every few moments. He wiped a dainty thumb over his bottom lip, the hand at Caleb’s neck sliding down his chest before falling to Essek’s side.
“We should, ah, we should probably order that food now.” Essek nodded, dark eyes darting around the room before he turned and fled, leaving Caleb there, blinking after him.
“Don’t worry about him, Cayleb.” Jester leaned forward on the counter, stage whispering to him with a conspiratorial look. “He gets a little shy.”
“Does he?” Caleb raised an eyebrow, a fond grin curling his lips.
“I can hear you!” Essek’s voice called back in from the other room sending Jester and Caleb both into laughing fits.
This was good. This was really, very good. Better than Caleb could have ever hoped for. He had spent so long wanting these two, and now he could have them both. He could curl up on the couch with Jester in his lap and Essek pressed into his side in their silly matching night clothes.
Caleb held out a hand to Jester. “Come on, we shouldn’t keep him waiting.”