Nikoly was already pretty, but the sparkle in his eyes atthatmade Tiiran flush. It grew worse when Nikoly then looked at Tiiran, hungry and pleading. Tiiran nearly hurried forward to kiss and pet him. If Orin hadn’t held him, he might have.
“Is this a test?” Tiiran snarled suddenly, though it was a quiet snarl. Only Po, her head up and her attention sharp, might have heard it. “I thought from what you said that a test was bad.” He tugged weakly at Orin’s hand and glared up when Orin looked patiently down at him. Tiiran had made assumptions from what Nikoly had said and how Orin acted, but he must have been wrong yet again. “If you two made an arrangement and you are asking me to play along, then you should have told me.”
“Tiiran, no,” Nikoly protested, reaching for him.
Tiiran glared first at his loveliness and then at Orin for asking him such a question. “Nikoly is always good,” he answered at last. As Tiiran was not.
Yet Orin gave Tiiran’s hand a pat and his wrist a gentle squeeze.
“Honeybee.” Nikoly’s voice was rough. His shine was all for Tiiran now.
“I don’t understand,” Tiiran admitted, petulant instead of rightfully furious. Orin squeezed his wrist again.
Orin smiled down at him, then turned to Nikoly. “And was Tiiran good?”
Tiiran jumped. “Orin.” He heard himself stumbling over an explanation like a fresh-faced assistant. “Orin, I meant to be.” He turned to Nikoly, who had said he would tell Orin how ill Tiiran had been.
Nikoly met his stare and his expression shifted. “Eventually,” he said, and frowned at Tiiran’s betrayed gasp. Nikoly looked up to Orin. “Eventually, he was very good.” His gaze was warm and happy again when he glanced to Tiiran. “There were some problems I discovered, but I took care of them.”
Tiiran pushed closer to Orin, shaking his head in his eagerness to explain. “It was only some blankets.” He realized he shouldn’t have said anything after the words were out. “Fuck. Fuck everything.”
Orin’s eyebrows, raised high, slowly lowered into something too ferocious to be called a frown.
“Not like that.” Tiiran heard himself speaking again when he should not have, assuming Orin thought Nikoly referred to bed sport when really, Nikoly was speaking about actual blankets. But then Tiiranhadkissed Nikoly, many times, sosportstill applied even ifbeddidn’t. But Orin and Nikoly must have… or at least could have… done the same. “Possibly like that,” he added weakly.
“He’s still getting over the snuffles,” Nikoly murmured. “We call it a cold or the shivers where I’m from, but hearing him saysnufflesmade me want to grab him and force tea and soup into him.”
“That explains his adorable red nose,” Orin remarked. “And why he isn’t sicker. I assume you actually did have to force him?”
“Fuck off.” Tiiran interrupted their perplexing banter while rubbing his sore nose. “It’s not adorable.” He glanced between them, not furious or frightened, but something new, his heart beating fast. “If you two made an arrangement about me then you should have consulted me first!”
Everyone at the copying tables probably heard him.
“Then you should have been there with us,” Orin replied without hesitation. “Prepare yourself for the reckoning, kitten, because it’s here.”
Not a sound came out of Tiiran’s mouth when he opened it. Orin waited for a moment anyway, that ferocious look in his eyes making Tiiran lean harder against him to stay upright on unsteady legs. When Tiiran still didn’t manage a word, Orin turned back to Nikoly.
“Tiiran and I are going upstairs. Would you mind keeping others away from the second floor for a while?”
Nikoly glanced first to Tiiran. He studied Tiiran’s stunned, hot face, then answered, quiet, “I’ll have to check on him.”
“Of course.” Orin’s tone was pleased. “He’s a good boy, isn’t he, Tiiran?”
“Yes,” Tiiran wheezed, then shook his head, because he was mad at Nikoly, or would be when his senses returned. But then Nikoly ducked his head, almost bashful with pleasure, and Tiiran shut his mouth.
“That’s it.” Orin gave Tiiran’s wrist another encouraging squeeze. “Make him happy. You’re learning already. I knew you’d be quick once you set yourself the task.”
“You did?” Tiiran hadn’t. “I’ve been trying.”
“Of course, you have.” Orin’s approval only made his face hotter. Orin didn’t firm his grip, but he didn’t have to. He said, “Now come along,” rumbly and pleased with Tiiran, and Tiiran started moving.
“The reckoning?” Tiiran asked tremulously halfway up the stairs.
“Avoiding me was foolish.” Orin moved slowly to account for Tiiran’s shorter legs, staying with him for each step, warm all along Tiiran’s side. “If you don’t want me around you, you have only to say. I’ll listen.”
“I know.” Tiiran hung his head. “I knew it then, but I washurt.” That was barely audible. Orin might not have heard it. “Then you were gone and I worried so much. If you’d had an accident and I hadn’t seen you before you left… I was so worried.”
Orin led him to the landing and then onto the second floor, heading toward the nook Tiiran was starting to think of as theirs. He left Tiiran by the table, then dealt with the curtain over the window. He put down his bag by the chair, the sword strapped to his back as well, before turning around to study Tiiran, who hadn’t moved.
