Initiative (Suncoast Society #31)(5)

From across the table, Darryl smirked at him.

That boy is getting a beating when we get home. And not the fun kind, either.

Grant consulted his spells list again, trying to gauge how much of his precious magic he had left to use for the day. He was their party’s strongest spellcaster. Then, after another quick scan of his items list, he decided.

“I use my wand of magic missile on this guy.” He pointed at one of the goblins that had surprised their party in the middle of the night, in a location where there weren’t supposed to be any goblins. Grant rolled to hit, succeeded, then rolled for damage.

Axel made another roll of his own, then a frowny face as he marked off one of his NPC sheets. “Dammit,” he muttered. “The goblin goes down.” He pulled the figure from the map and drew a stick figure in its place.

“I withdraw behind this boulder here.” Grant pointed at the one drawn on the battle map before he moved his figure.

“Finally,” Darryl said with a grin. “My turn?”

“Yeah,” Axel said.

Rusty returned with a fresh bottle of hard cider. “What’d he do?”

“We’re down a goblin,” Darryl said.

“Finally,” Rusty said as he retook his seat. “We were getting slaughtered.”

Grant sat back, watching his partner across the table as Darryl took his turn. They’d only been in this game group for about a year, after making contact with their old friend, Rusty, through an accidental encounter at a local BDSM munch group.

Way back when in high school, they’d all played D and D and other games, even though Rusty had been older than them. Back then, Rusty had usually been their DM. Darryl and Grant had been the same age as Rusty’s younger brother, Corey, which was how they’d gotten into the original group in the first place.

It’d been them, Corey, Rusty, and a few other friends.

“So you guys hitting your high school reunion this weekend?” Rusty asked. “Corey said he’s flying in for it.”

Grant took a sip of his iced tea. “Yeah, we got a room and everything. Don’t know how many other people will show up that we used to hang with, though.”

“Packing your dice?” Rusty teased.

“Duh,” Darryl muttered as he moved his character’s figure on the battle map. “What do you think?”

Grant suspected it’d taken a great feat of will on Darryl’s part not to crack a semi-dirty joke about different, more “adult” kinds of dungeons. While Rusty, Eliza, and Mike Kennedy were kinky, most of the rest of the gaming group either weren’t, or weren’t clued in about their extracurricular activities. While everyone knew Rusty and Eliza were a little…nontraditional, they all went out of their way not to make their more vanilla friends feel uncomfortable.

Darryl and Grant had missed their ten-year reunion. Grant had been too busy at work, and Darryl wasn’t going to go anyway because he couldn’t afford it. At that time, the only reason Grant would have gone was if Darryl had been planning on going.

Ever since high school, they’d remained close friends.

It was only in the past three years since Darryl’s divorce that they’d been far closer than that.

At ten o’clock, Axel’s phone alarm went off and the sound of the TARDIS wheezing filled the room.

“That’s it, folks,” he said, silencing the alarm. “I’m turning into a pumpkin. We’re still in initiative next week, so plan your moves. Let’s see if we can get more than three rounds in.”

Once pictures of the battle map had been taken and all the figures safely stowed, everyone packed up and prepared to leave. Grant and Darryl hung back with Mike as the others left.

“Corey and Marcy aren’t leaving until Monday morning,” Rusty said to Darryl and Grant. “You guys want to have dinner with us Sunday night?”

Grant and Darryl exchanged a look. “Ask him,” Darryl said. “He’s the boss.”

Eliza giggled and smacked Rusty’s shoulder. “See? That’s what I mean, barbarian.”

He stuck his tongue out at his wife. “No one asked you, Ma’am.”

Faster than any chaotic neutral rogue, her hand shot out and she snagged her husband’s earlobe, dragging him down to her eye level. “What was that?”

“Nothing, Ma’am,” Rusty mumbled.

“That’s better.” She let go of him. “We’ll miss you at Sigalo’s on Saturday.”

“Jenny and I will be there,” Mike said. “She wants to go to the club Saturday night.”

“Oh, cool beans,” Eliza said. “We’ll make sure we pack for it. Tilly’s over in England for another couple of weeks, so we were going to drop out.”

“We’ll definitely go to the club next Saturday,” Grant said, reaching out and cupping the back of Darryl’s neck. Like this, alone with trusted friends, they could truly be themselves without worrying about who saw them. “And maybe even make the munch next Sunday.”

“I can’t,” Darryl said. “I have to play at that children’s concert at the church that Sunday evening. Paying gig.”

“Oh, I forgot.” Grant looked at their friends. “I guess I’ll be going stag to the munch and getting take-out for him.”