Tiiran looked up at him in furious, slightly trembling question. Nikoly raised one eyebrow. Tiiran didn’t know what answer Nikoly expected from that but gestured toward the copying tables and the remaining assistants.
“Orin isn’t shy.” Tiiran didnotthink about ducklings, or plump asses, or plush mouths. Not with Nikoly in front of him. “He’s probably had several of the librarians currently here.” Tiiran scowled because Nikoly wouldn’t care and then because perhaps Nikoly did care but not for the reasons Tiiran might have first thought. “Are you asking because you have your eye on him?”
Nikoly raised his other eyebrow, making a matching set of surprised confusion. “I don’t have my eye on Orin. I’m only vaguely certain which outguard that even is. I thoughtyouwere with him, or at least considering it.”
“You know who he is, even if you don’t know his name,” Tiiran declared confidently. “He’s not handsome like you but he has a presence.” Several expressions flickered across Nikoly’s face before he went almost pointedly blank. “The assistants used to comment on him even when they weren’t fucking him. You see, Orin is very large, even other tall people think so, and, as I said, he has apresence. I’m not good with defining things like that but I once thought that Orin moves as if he is at all times aware of his power, and though he’s not hiding it, if you look, you can see that he is containing it. A stranger might not know he is a well-trained, well-armed outguard with a scholar’s mind without seeing him with a sword or with a book, but you can tell he’s not harmless if you know him at all. So he moves with care.”
Nikoly once again opened his mouth, then shut it.
Tiiran hadn’t actually described Orin well, he realized. Nikoly was probably lost.
“He has a short beard and shiny hair, both dark like blackwood in color,” Tiiran continued. “Sometimes he brings his travel pack and weapons in here but he usually tries to stop to clean up first. He’s the one who leaves lists of the books he’s taken—which had nothing to do with me; he was granted that privilege years before I ever spoke to him. I know outguards are tough and can be dangerous, but Orin is… careful not to seem so when in here. Or at least when talking to me.” Tiiran paused to rub his chest again and think of who or what Orin might have been if he hadn’t joined the Outguard.
Nikoly continued to watch him, so Tiiran tried to find better words.
“He still teases, though in a different way than Po does. And he’s very observant—so watch out if you do meet him, because he will suss out your secrets—and fast.” Nikoly blinked several times. Tiiran felt himself smiling. “Even if he doesn’t say anything, he will have noticed.”
His smile faded almost the moment he finished the description, because with it came the embarrassing realization that Orin almost certainly knew something of how confused and hungry Tiiran was around him.
“Does he often give you gifts?” Nikoly broke into Tiiran’s sad thoughts.
“No.” Tiiran put his hands to his cheeks as if to hide the color. “This is the first. Well, the first that isn’t fetching food or carrying things for me. If one considers those gifts.”
“One does,” Nikoly answered quietly. “That long poem you were copying is for him?”
Tiiran’s back stiffened. His shoulders could have covered his ears. “That’s none of your business. But yes. Notforanything. I just thought he might like it. Oh.” He looked at Nikoly with worry and more embarrassment, but if anyone would know about such things, it was handsome Nikoly. “Is it wrong to do that?” He wouldn’t want Orin to think he was demanding romantic attentions from someone uninterested. “Friends give gifts, don’t they?”
“They do.” Nikoly would not stop regarding Tiiran seriously. It was only making Tiiran warmer and more uncertain with no way to calm down. “As do others,” Nikoly added unhelpfully.
“You’re looking at my eyes again,” Tiiran said as he realized what exactly held Nikoly’s attention.
“They’re a shade of blue now,” Nikoly informed him. “Maybe that’s how Orin learns your secrets.”
Tiiran swallowed a sudden lump in his throat and fought the urge to look away. “If so, he’s very polite about it.”
“You trust him a great deal.”
Tiiran’s eyes had better not be turning any new colors. “Yes.” He didn’t know why he was breathless, or why he said nothing while Nikoly studied his face and his eyes the way Mattin studied old histories. “He said once that he worked hard to get me to relax around him. Most people wouldn’t do that. I’m not offended that no one would, but once he told me he had, it… it felt….” He waved a hand over his chest. “I don’t know how it felt.”
“Good?” Nikoly guessed.
Tiiran shrugged. Weird. Good. Warming. Entirely too much and some other things besides. “Odd,” he said at last. “But as I said, I’m odd too. You don’t have to pretend I’m not. I know I am.”
“I like it,” Nikoly answered without hesitation. “I like you.” He frowned with sudden determination. “You wouldn’t even be that odd to my mentor. She’d admire how you work and how you take care of everyone here.”
“I couldn’t take care of anyone.” Tiiran stared at him blankly. “I wouldn’t know how.”
“Po told me the old Master Keepers never brought breakfast for everyone in the library.” Nikoly smiled at Tiiran’s gasp but went concerned and solemn again almost immediately. “I think you should talk to him.”
“I talk to Orin whenever he visits.” Tiiran decided Nikoly needed some spring tea; he clearly needed something to help sharpen his thoughts.
“Tiiran.” The patient tone brought Tiiran’s chin up. Nikoly was once again unconcerned with Tiiran’s temper, though his cheekbones appeared faintly darker. “Why doyouthink Orin took the time to get you to relax?” He barely paused before asking a second question. “Would you like some tea?”
Tiiran was already nodding. “If you’re having some too.”
“With you?” Nikoly gave him a guarded look. His smile when Tiiran nodded again actually stole Tiiran’s breath. Nikoly didn’t seem to notice. “I’d be pleased to, very pleased. Shall I bring it here?”
“I can get it.” Tiiran wasn’t like the old Master Keepers.
