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Mydei had never thought that he would be back at Aedes Elysiae.
No, more like, he had never thought that he would be back at Aedes Elysiae while holding Phainon’s hand, watching him grinning from ear to ear, swaying their linked hands together as children would.
He couldn’t believe that seven years had passed since the last summer he saw Phainon.
Yet, he didn’t change much. He still had that duality that pulled Mydei in the second summer he saw him; one minute, he looked like he bore the weight of the world, and the next, he would look like an overly excited puppy, with a boyish charm radiating from him so easily, like a drop of pure snow that had never met the soil.
He was mesmerizing, truly.
It was as if those years had never passed, and they were fourteen again. Phainon was taller by a few centimeters, so sometimes Mydei had to tilt his head up to look at him, and his biggest worries were just how many sacks of wheat that he had to carry to beat Phainon’s count, instead of tour schedules, press releases, PR, album charts, and pleasing the executives of his label company so that they could get his band more promotional budget for their next album…
Mydei furrowed his brows, gripping Phainon’s hand tighter as if Phainon might disappear like smoke.
“Hey, what’s with the long face?” Phainon asked, poking Mydei’s cheek with his finger. Mydei grunted, immediately jerking away from Phainon’s icy cold skin with a glare, only to be met with Phainon’s delightful laughter.
“Why’s your finger all cold?” Mydei asked, maintaining his annoyed face, refusing to give Phainon the satisfaction. “Where’s your mitten?”
“I lost it,” Phainon answered lightly. “Well, more like… I dropped it? When I waited for you by the bridge, Hephaestion called me. He wasn’t sure which turn to take from the second intersection. I couldn’t slide the screen to get his call with that mitten, so I took it off. But it slipped from my frozen fingers, and the river had claimed it since. Help me warm it up again, Mydei.”
Mydei tch-ed. “No. Not my fault you lost it, HKS.”
“Fine, then I’ll just seek warmth from your million-credit face instead,” Phainon poked Mydei’s cheek again.
“Cut it off,” Mydei hissed.
Mydei was so frustrated by how much he hated and loved it—hated, because Phainon was so hella annoying when he poked fun at Mydei like that, loved, because his laughter looked a thousand times more beautiful when the winter air gave his breath a shape.
No, correction, Phainon’s whole self looked more wonderful in the winter atmosphere. While summer gave his complexion a little spark, winter made him absolutely glow. The whole cool-toned palette really suited him; the snow piling on the ground complemented his white hair, and the blue in the sky reflected his eye color so nicely.
It was as if he was glowing along with the snow itself.
Except his laughter now was tinted with a cheeky expression. The winter fairy now turned back into the ice-devil as he pressed his entire fingertips on Mydei’s face. Mydei jerked away instantly, cursing a string of Kremnoan and Okheman profanities while attempting to push Phainon away. The snow-haired man only laughed as he clung harder to Mydei, trying to stick his icy hand all over Mydei’s face.
“Cut that shit, Phainon, get off me.”
“No, Mydei, please, save my fingers from being frozen,” Phainon said, still laughing. His voice echoed mildly in the quiet, vast space of the snow-covered wheat field. A happy melody that awakened the crows that hovered low above them. “You’re so warm, please!”
“Get off me!”
His struggle was interrupted by the sound of a car horn, honking right behind them and startling them both. Mydei turned, only to see two familiar faces from behind the window; one of them grinning and waving at them.
“Yo!” Hephaestion pulled the car over, lowering the side window to greet them. The warm air from the heater seeped through, the temperature contrast making Mydei shiver.
“Mydeimos, you’re all red,” Eurypon said, frowning. It looked like he was kind of scolding him. Maybe it was. “It’s crazy cold outside. Get in, you two. Lest you’ll catch a cold!”
Mydei only muttered under his breath, but ran to the car anyway. Phainon followed suit, letting out a relieved sigh as he slammed the door shut and the cold was sealed outside.
“Hi Hep, hello, Mister Eurypon,” Phainon greeted them. “Glad you could make it here alright.”
“I almost missed a turn again. What is this village, really? Every corner almost looked the same,” Hephaestion laughed. “And what are you losers doing in the middle of the street?”
“We were just from the winter market, grabbing some bread and cookies for snacks before,” Mydei said. His skin started to feel slightly numb from the sudden change of temperature. But it was welcomed. He noted to himself that taking a walk in the middle of winter in Aedes Elysiae was NOT a great idea, and the beautiful white-blanketed scenery was best enjoyed from inside a car with a comfortable temperature.
“No, no, I mean, what were you two doing, fooling around in the middle of the street like that?”
“Oh,” Phainon gave Mydei a side glance and a grin. “I lost my mitten, and Mydei refused to hold my cold hand. I was just demanding my right as a boyfriend to hold his hand for warmth.”
“HKS,” Mydei hissed. How could Phainon say something like that in front of his Father without shame?
“What? Mydeimos Gorgo? Refusing to hold The Phainon’s hand?” Hephaestion gasped dramatically. “Scandalous. He used to talk about The Phainon’s hand very deliberately. What might change in the span of a week we were separated, Mydeimos? Tell me?”
Mydei glared at Hephaestion through the car’s rear view, while Phainon turned completely at him, beaming half in excitement, half in disbelief. Like he had just struck gold.
“What?” Phainon asked, looking more gleeful than he had the right to be. That asshole.
“What, you mean, what? Oh… don’t tell me, Phainon didn’t know how obsessed you were with him when you were a child?” Hephaestion made another dramatic gasp. Mydei was very tempted to just strangle him here and then. Finding a bassist to replace him should be easy enough. “Oh, it was such a good ol’ time. You know, every first day of school after his summer vacation in Aedes Elysiae, Mydei always talked about Snowy. How strong he was, how he could carry two sacks of wheat without breaking a sweat, yet how gentle his fingers handled the fragile pages of the book in the library. Peucesta still had a bet on that Mydei made a whole poem about Snowy’s hand. We just couldn’t prove it yet.”
“Hephaestion!”
Eurypon laughed, and Mydei didn’t like the sound of that at all.
“Oh, so he talked about Snowy in school, too?” Eurypon added, to Mydei’s horror. “I thought it was a home-only thing, you know? Every time Mydei was back from summer vacation, he insisted we do more workouts, eat more protein, and even challenged me to a one-on-one. In Karate, in basketball, in nearly anything. He said he had something to prove to Snowy. Heck, he didn’t even shut up about you when he slept.”
“I never talk in my sleep. Shut up, old man.” Mydei defended himself.
“But you did! You mumbled in your sleep, ‘Let’s fight again, Snowy!’ Over and over again. Every time he was back from Aedes Elysiae, he always stepped into the house looking all dreamy.”
“I did not look dreamy,” Mydei hissed. This was all absurd. How does even dreamy look like?
“Did,too. You mumbled when you fell asleep in Leonnius’ parents’ car. You said ‘I’m gonna win, Snowy’ twice. Leon recorded it. He still has the recording.” Hephaestion said.
“Oh! Can I have the file, Hep?” Phainon asked.
“Shut up, HKS! You too, Hep!”
“And not just your hand!” Hephaestion added, looking all determined to embarrass Mydei. Phainon was looking at him, wearing a shit-eating grin that Mydei just wanted to smack. He could feel his cheek heating up, and the car’s heater had nothing to do with it. “Mydei talked about you aaaaalll year. He thought he was being cool about it. But he mentioned it every five seconds. We made a bet on how much Mydei would mention about Snowy and Aedes Elysiae. The average was six hundred times. Peucesta won two rounds. I won one.”
“You made that up,” Mydei straight up growled now, his cheeks even warmer.
“Oh, that’s only at school,” Eurypon said. “Imagine how much he went about it at home.”
Mydei balled his fists because if he didn’t, he would straight up strangle Hep. And his father. He didn’t know what the Okheman patricide and general homicide law was, but if it was too severe to carry out, he wanted to kick them out into the freezing cold outside and leave them there. He didn't care that Hephaestion had no one else to spend New Year's with, or that his father still had business to take care of, even though he was a thousand miles away from Kremnos; the freezing curb seemed like a suitable alternative for a traitor.
“Oh? Gorgo and I made a bet about Mydei’s first kiss. Gorgo won, by the way. She always believed that Mydei would be brave enough to be the first to initiate it.”
Note to self: Google on how to disown your father while he’s still married to your mother.
“Shut up, old man,” Mydei hissed. “Hephaestion, you’re banned from my family’s vacation forever and a hundred lifetimes after this one.”
“But you’re welcome in my family’s vacation!” Phainon chimed, looking so gleeful it was almost blinding. “Please tell me more, Hepy. And about little Mydei’s antics, too. I never knew him beyond that know-it-all kid that come with a truck of new books every summer!”
“No, one more word and you’re dead, Hephaestion!”
Hephaestion and Eurypon burst into a laugh. Thankfully, before any of them could get a chance to embarrass him any further, they arrived at Phainon’s family house. Mydei quickly got out of the car, grabbed the bag of bread, and stomped inside, his face completely warm and flushed. He would get back at them. He swore by Nikador they wouldn’t get away with it.
“Mydei, you’re back—Wait, why is your face all red?” Gorgo was the first to welcome him, looking slightly alarmed at Mydei’s current state. He was about to answer her, but Eurypon materialized from behind him like a ghost.
“Oh, it’s nothing, honey. He was just being all shy now that we told Phainon about his massive childhood crush on Snowy,” he said with an easy laugh. Mydei didn’t know how he could even hate the sound of his father’s laughter.
“Oooh, is it time for childhood stories, already?” Gorgo laughed, much to Mydei’s horror. “I thought we were going to have to wait until the second family dinner!”
“Mother!” Mydei gaped, feeling utterly shocked by the betrayal. He gripped the handle of his shopping bag tightly, staring at Gorgo as if she had just stabbed him with a lance.
“Oh, no, honeycake, I have no intention of embarrassing you as your father might do,” Gorgo said, grinning proudly as she patted Mydei’s shoulder. “I assure you, your mother here has all the good intentions.”
Mydei furrowed his brows. The way that his mother said that line specifically made it very suspicious. He narrowed his eyes, while his mother welcomed Phainon and guided him to sit next to her on the living room sofa.
“... There’s no way I’m going to tell Phainon something ike you throwing five stones at our neighbor's five windows because they threw a pebble to hurt Kokopo the second, honeycake.”
“Honeycake?” Phainon grinned so brightly like he was determined to be the second sun. Except, he looked very annoying when he was like that.
“Mother!” Mydei hissed, his voice thick with warning.
“Oops, sorry,” she laughed, crossing her legs and making herself very comfortable. Phainon got her the thin blanket that draped on the one-seating sofa, looking as eager as a puppy when Gorgo continued. “But really, I’m just gonna tell Phainon the good stories. Like that one time you asked me to send you to a child cooking class, and asked our house maids to make up your own bed, because you want to be a capable husband for your spouse when you grow up.”
“Mother, I swear to Nikador’s wrath!”
Phainon chuckled. “Really?”
“What, it’s a nice quality you have, Mydeimos. No need to be ashamed about it,” his mother said. “Your mother is doing you a favor here. Go make us a cup of warm chocolate if you don’t want to hear it, but Snowy-boy must know these cute stories, so he knows how lucky he is to have a partner who is so strong and so gentle like you.”
“Oh, by the name of the Strife,” Mydei palmed his face, much to Hephaestion and Eurypon's delight.
“Oh yeah, it’s all nothing but good intentions, son,” Eurypon cackled. He placed his suitcase by the living room sofa in Phainon's home, then took a seat next to Gorgo as he continued. “He told Miss Dinah from the kindergarten playgroup that he liked the cooking session because he wants to take care of his family nicely someday. What did she say Mydei told her again? ‘It looks hard, so I have to start early, right?’”
Mydei rolled his eyes. “I was five!”
“Which is proof of how much of a romantic you are at heart, just like me!” Gorgo said, with her eyes wandering and her sigh light, like she was so proud of Mydei.
“Aww,” Phainon glinted his eyes at Mydei, smiling. “I didn’t know you’re such a softie at heart, honeycake.”
Mydei glared at him. He could feel another rush of blush creeping on his neck. “HKS!”
“Oh, he’s such a gentleman, trust me,” Gorgo added. “He once spent his weekend cooking a large batch of chocolate cookies for all the girls for Valentine’s Day. So no one feels left out.”
“But he didn’t have a concept of keeping secrets,” Hephaestion supplied, sitting on a one-seater sofa next to a fireplace. “So he asked everyone their taste and preference in cookies. Soon, all the guys heard it and demanded he bake them each one, too. It was hilarious. The boys called it ‘Mydei’s Grand Chocolate Chaos’.”
“Oh!” Eurypon flicked his fingers. “Isn’t that when he got jumped by a group of bullies because Mydei didn’t bake them any?”
“Yeah, Uncle, that was it,” Hephaestion said. “Mydei refused to give them because they were particularly mean to the baby dromas that lived near the canteen. When they bullied the baby dromas again, Mydei just stepped in and said, ‘If you’re looking for a fight, fight me instead!’. Pretty sure he meant that he challenged each one of them, but those cowards jumped him before we even had a chance to interfere. I was gonna help, but… mark this, this is very cool of him to say,” he paused to clear his throat, wearing a serious face when he mimicked Mydei’s tone. “‘Back off, Hep. I said I am going to face them. Not we.’”
Mydei could feel himself flushing and groaning when his traitorous parents laughed with Hephaestion and Phainon. He rolled his eyes, deciding to walk away from the living room to serve the bread and the cookies instead. But even here, he could hear their voice loud and clear.
“That’s the know-it-all kid,” Phainon laughed. “I assume he won it?”
“Yeah,” Hephaestion said. “From then on, those bullies kept challenging him, and he always came out as a winner. That’s when the school gave him the title of Mydeimos the Undying.”
“Hephaestion, shut up!”
“Wait, that was in elementary school?” Phainon raised his brows.
“Yep. I think some of the parents were concerned that a scrawny child beating the shit out of kids larger than him. Almost got him kicked out of school, too. But the students protested. They said Mydei is the gentlest person in school. Pretty sure that was because he baked them cookies.”
“Aww,” Mydei could hear Phainon say. “Mini-dei was such a wonderful kid.”
“HKS!” Mydei hissed.
‘Not just gentle, but stubbornly strong, too,” Gorgo said. “He once cried to me, refusing to go to the Karate club because ‘what’s the point? What good is that club if I couldn’t beat Snowy if no one could match him?’”
“Mother, please kindly shut up!” Mydei straight up shouted from the kitchen, to their laughter. Mydei pressed his lips tight, cutting the bread he bought into uneven sizes, and knew exactly which one he would give Hephaestion, his Mom, and Eurypon. Nothing. All of these slices would go to Phainon’s family. None of his folks and that shit-eating grinning bastard with snow hair would get any of this Aedes Elysiae special baked bread. He would also add salt to their hot chocolate. He would get his revenge.
“Hey, son, is something the matter? Why are you looking mad?” Audata came from the back of the wood-fired kitchen, where she had been baking the meatloaf, looking slightly confused and concerned. Behind her, Cyrene appeared, her pink hair slightly dulled from the smoke that came from the wood fire, but she still looked fresh regardless.
“Apologies for shouting, Momma,” he said, flushing again but not from embarrassment this time, but from shame for losing his cool in front of Phainon’s parents. “It’s just… my parents are telling my childhood stories to Phainon. They just won’t stop.”
“Oh?” Cyrene suddenly perked up. “You mean, they were telling Phainon your embarrassing childhood stories?” she asked again, already taking off her apron when Mydei caught a glimpse of a cheeky expression on her eyes. She looked exactly like her baby brother when she was like that, and that gave Mydei a glimpse of hope… somehow.
“Yeah,” Mydei said. “That’s so annoying.”
“No, no, that sounds fun,” Cyrene said, to Mydei’s dismay. But then, she winked one eye at him. “As it happens, I also have a few stories of Phainon’s that I haven’t told you about. What do you say we join them, Mydei?”
Cyrene gave him a half-tugged smile, and she looked so mischievous that Mydei couldn’t help but nod. It looked so much like a fun revenge—the counter-offensive that Mydei just knew was too good to pass up.
Upon seeing the unspoken mischief between them, Audata chuckled and banished Mydei from the kitchen, telling him that now that the meatloaves were in the wood-fired oven, she had nothing else to do and might as well just make each one of her guests a warm cup of chocolate while waiting for dinner to be ready.
“Tell him about the rubber chimera, too,” she whispered to Cyrene knowingly, to Cyrene’s conspiratorial giggle.
“Aww… isn’t he such a hero?” Phainon sighed, responding to whatever story that Gorgo might have told him. When Mydei entered the room, he glanced at Mydei, offering a warm, affectionate smile. The way he looked at him… Mydei thought that maybe… maybe, despite the teasing laughter and his prodding to Mydei’s silly childhood stories, Phainon was actually enamoured by them.
Because he looked at him like he had just fallen in love with him again.
Mydei almost returned the smile, before Cyrene spoke.
“Oh, speaking of heroes,” she said. “Phainon looooves being a hero! Did you remember how much you sulked when you didn’t get the role of a hero in the elementary school’s play, Phainon?”
Phainon’s gentle smile was halted, replaced by an expression of mortification so fast that it almost looked comical.
“Cy!”
“What? What is it about?” Hephaestion, the traitor who was just revealed half of Mydei’s most embarrassing stories, now turned against Phainon, looking at Cyrene with a look of dangerous curiosity.
“You know, he was just so obsessed with playing hero at the school play!” Cyrene said, taking a seat on the arm of Hephaestion’s sofa, leaning in to ruffle Phainon’s hair. “But my baby brother loved being a hero so much that he always became the hero of the play, too. He helped paint the props, gathering the team, all to make the school play happen. But he got sick one day from doing too much, so the teacher gave the role to someone else. He sulked all month. I think he only finished sulking when he met Mydei that one summer.”
“Oh?” Mydei raised his brows, giving Phainon a mischievous grin while the other looked… absolutely blushing. It looked so cute. He looked like a snowman drenched in pomegranate juice. “I didn’t know you were such an actor, Phainon.”
“I didn’t!” he said. “It was just a school play.”
“But you rehearse the lines very seriously.” Audata appeared from the kitchen, bringing a tray of hot chocolate, and placed it on the ottoman table right in the middle of the room. “You even asked me to be the princess and your Dad to be the fairy godmother to help memorize the line. Nymus, come down, we have cookies and chocolates.”
There was a muffled answer from the direction of the wood-fired kitchen, followed by a series of footsteps as Hieronymus, Phainon’s father, came and joined them in the living room.
“That serious? You should have become an actor, with that dedication,” Gorgo added, grabbing the mug and chuckling. But there was a seriousness in her eyes, like she was talking about business. “I have a contact with a couple of casting directors. You should try. Maybe that’s your real in to the entertainment industry.”
“No, Mother Gorgo, stop, it was so many years ago,” Phainon said. The cheeky grin he wore now turned into a bashful expression, and Mydei started to see why Phainon looked so overjoyed earlier. He laughed as he sat on the floor under Phainon, poking his cheeks that were heated by shame.
“My little actor snow-boy,” he said.
“Shut up, Honeycake. It was one time!” Phainon hissed, looking genuinely embarrassed that Gorgo, the real entertainment person, was acknowledging his interest in acting.
“Speaking of one time,” Cyrene said again. “Did you know that Phainon tried to befriend a new guy in Middle School one time just because he was blond? The kid painted the tips of his hair with red color, and Phainon started following him around and calling him Haikas.”
At that, Hephaestion and Eurypon burst into joint laughter, while Phainon’s cheeks were getting redder.
“Did he even know what it means?” Gorgo said, laughing along with the Kremoan men.
“He didn’t, and so did the other kid. But maybe he looked it up somewhere, because the next day, he punched Phainon and called him a curse word, too.”
Mydei chuckled, much to Phainon’s embarrassment.
“I thought it was a cute Kremnoan word to call a good friend! Like, like buddy, or something,” Phainon said. “I didn’t know it was a curse word. Mydei! How could you call a new friend from a small village with such a curse word?”
“You were hella annoying!”
“Like you were such an angel yourself, My-day-mouse!”
“Aw, but asn’t that what you think of him, son?” Hieronymus said. “The first time Mydei spent summer here, you told me…”
“Dad, please no,” Phainon said, suddenly looking panicked as he whipped his head to the direction where his Dad sat. “Please, not that on!”
“No, no no, that sounds so good to miss,” Hephaestion said, leaning in to Eurypon like it could crack him the secret. “What did he say, uncle?”
“Dad, please, I’ll do anything.”
“No, please, we’d love to hear that,” Eurypon said, and with that, Mydei erased his earlier desire to disown his father. Maybe he could forgive him… this time.
“Yes, Dad, come on, spill it out. I don’t even know this story,” Cyrene said.
Hieronymus laughed. “He said, ‘Dad, I just saw a very beautiful blonde angel. I think he is my soulmate. How can I make him my soulmate?’”
The room burst with laughter, while Phainon face-palmed. But despite his embarrassment, Mydei could see that his lips formed a little grin. An acceptance of his childhood fixation. He shook his head and looked even more mortified when his mother added.
“Since then, he always named something blonde or orange or red in so many variations of ‘Mydei.’ Like the rubber chimera he brought to the tub,” Audata said. “I’m pretty sure the rubber chimera was called Angeldei and Floatydei.”
“Or the small scarecrow he made by the mills,” Hieronymus nodded. “It was called Strawdei.”
“And that orange-red stray chimera just outside the library,” Cyrene grinned.
“What?” Mydei raised his brows. “Isn’t his name Pommy? Pomegranates?”
“Cyrene!”
“No, Pommy’s name is actually Pomydeimos,” Cyrene said, much to Phainon’s groan. He shook his head in disbelief, looking thoroughly defeated, but still laughed with them.
After that, it was total chaos as their parents took turns telling more childhood stories about Phainon and Mydei, until it was time for dinner and the New Year’s countdown, and they got up to the dining room, eating the meal Audata and Mydei prepared for them, and the discussion shifted to small talks about what they had been up to, and what they were each planning for the upcoming year.
When everyone retreated to their respective rooms and the house finally settled into a serene peace, Phainon and Mydei stayed in the kitchen, volunteering to wash the dishes. The air was still thick with expensive wine that Mydei’s parents brought, the homemade meals, and the echo of several hours' worth of character assassination.
Phainon hummed as he washed the last of the plates, while Mydei wiped the water, snickering when Phainon’s hum hit a high note.
“What?” Phainon asked. “What are you thinking about?”
“Pommydeimos,” Mydei chuckled. “Tacky name for a chimera. I almost pity the poor little thing.”
“Mm,” Phainon huffed. “What, you’re gonna challenge me in a duel too, to defend his honor? Or maybe… having me experience the horror of not tasting one of your homemade cookies?”
Mydei shook his head. “Loser.”
“Softie,” Phainon said, nudging Mydei’s shoulder with his own—a solid, grounding heat in the cool room. The snow outside began to fall again, but he didn’t feel chilly at all, being with Phainon. He radiated a perfect warmth, like a morning sun.
For a moment, they just stood there, the only sounds the faint water against porcelain.
“The recording of you mentioning me in your sleep...” Phainon said, turning off the faucet. “Hephaestion actually sent it to me.”
“Delete it,” Mydei snapped, though there was no real bite in it. “I can’t believe they told you about the cooking classes. I just liked cooking, you know. Pretty sure I mentioned the Good Husband bit, thinking it would be an acceptable reason. I didn’t know how… weird for a kid to say that.”
“Aww, you were just a romantic,” Phainon chuckles. He turned his head, his blue eyes catching the light. The "ice-devil" was gone, replaced by that mesmerizing, boyish softness Mydei had seen earlier that day. “Mmm, to have someone so handsome bake chocolate cookies for Valentine’s Day. I bet the whole school is crushing on you.”
Mydei shrugged. “I didn’t care.”
“Because you already liked Snowy back then?” Phainon teased.
Mydei scoffed, reaching out to flick a stray lock of hair away from Phainon’s forehead. “Aren’t you the one calling me your soulmate?”
At that, Phainon laughed. "I did," he said. "Honestly, you were so cute! And I'm not even really embarrassed about it."
"And yet you tried to stop your Dad from telling everyone."
"It's just... Hephaestion was there! I just know he would just make everything ten times more annoying than it actually is, and he’s not gonna let me live it down.”
Mydei chuckled. “Yeah, to be fair, he’s not gonna allow any of us to live any of this down,” he said. “The next time we meet with the band, they will hear all about this.”
“Then our best bet would be just wear those stories like trophies,” Phainon said, giving him a genuine side smile that reminded Mydei of the gentleness of the Aedes Elysiae snow and the warm color of the golden wheat fields at the same time.
“Yeah. Love is embarrassing, anyway. Might as well just ride along with jt,” Mydei admitted, leaning in to kiss the corner of Phainon’s mouth. “But if you refer to me as Mini-dei one more time, I’m putting salt in your coffee.”
Phainon laughed, a real, chest-deep sound, and pulled Mydei a little closer. “Deal,” he said. “But… I can still keep the recording, right?”
“Don’t push your luck, Snowy.”