Appreciate Your Friends [c]

Dick scuffed his shoe along the wooden boards.

"I thought about how long I can go to avoid telling them," he admitted.

He couldn't help but feel like he should.

Eating wasn't as terrible as it used to be. They just accepted him as an incredibly fussy eater. He could also handle eating more. It was keeping up with the fake and vague story he had been using that was tiring. Checking with himself to remember the age he gave them and other little details like that.

It was a pain, but he didn't want to go through the process of telling them in case of rejection.

"Indefinitely, if you want my opinion."

Her expression evened out. "The fewer people truly know the better.  In ten years, perhaps, if you're still with the boy, reevaluate and decide whether to tell them. Until then, I would stay mum."

She hadn't lived for four and a half thousand years by frivolously telling people what she was. Their identity was a close-guarded secret, and telling people so soon was dangerous, especially in an age of mistrust and wildfire media like this one.

He was best not saying a word.

Dick brows furrowed together.

"Of course I will still be with him," he said dismissively. He couldn't imagine the next ten years without him. Hell, he couldn't imagine the next century without him, which left him pained.

But he agreed with what she had to say. The fewer people that knew, the better. He had, after all, always stood by that.

He clicked his tongue. Her answer was both what he wanted to hear and didn't.

"I just don't like being deceitful towards them."