Tiiran wrinkled his nose for that but still didn’t comment.
“You could advise him to do anything,” Nikoly pointed out, almost making it a question.
“I could. Doesn’t mean he’d listen. As I am sure I’ve said before—Tiiran is the danger here, pet. Not me.”
Tiiran scoffed quietly. He was as dangerous as a cat, which meant he could scratch and bite but not much else.
“Are you that worried for him?”
Tiiran would have scoffed again, but Orin’s words nearly choked him.
“He’s not afraid of the powerful. He’d scare anyone. I’m only an outguard, regardless of how he likes to think of me.”
“All of the assistants think of you that way,” Nikoly responded after what seemed a very long pause. “You fucked some of them into believing you’re more than a little fae yourself. Sorry to tell you.”
“You’re not sorry,” Orin answered, almost laughing before he leaned in and lowered his voice. “And what will they think of you, situated between the two of us? They’ll hardly believe you a meek puppy. Only fools would believe that for long, anyway.”
Tiiran’s lips formed the “Oh” but he made no sound. Orin and Nikoly were talking as they had before, flirting, or not flirting, around unspoken subjects and Tiiran. Mostly around Tiiran.
They had before as well. Tiiran hadn’t noticed.
Orin was being brilliant and incisive, and oh so tactful, and Nikoly was pretending, as he did, to be soft and innocent but all the while being clever and charming. Tiiran was not charming. He could never be charming, even with practice.
For a moment, that was a pain in his chest, and he frowned over it, alone on his bed. Then he remembered that he was on his bed watching them because they were in his room. They were his lovers, and they were in his room to keep an eye on him, and they were discussing him in between all their odd flirting.
Their flirting was pretty, anyway. Tiiran couldn’t manage it, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy it the way he’d enjoyed watching Nikoly swallow around Orin’s cock. If Tiiran hadn’t been there, it probably would have gone much the same.
But Tiiran stopped his thoughts there, uncertain of his conclusion. Would they have stayed together afterward? Would Nikoly had brought Orin extra food? Would Orin have offered so gently to untangle Nikoly and help with whatever must have been worrying him?
Possibly. But more likely, they would have continued on as they did, an outguard and an assistant playing the same game as everyone else in the library, even if that wasn’t all that either of them wanted.
Tiiran bit his lip. Orin had told Tiiran he liked having someone waiting for him in the library. And Nikoly was so eager to help him,eager to serve, Orin had said.
Orin would do just as well for that, Tiiran reasoned. He was certainly more qualified to make Nikoly happy in bed matters. Orin was no doubt a brutal fighter, but he was sensitive. Nikoly was sensitive too, gentle when it came to care.
They would suit each other. The realization eased the tension from Tiiran’s shoulders before they could rise up to his ears. Maybe, in a library without Tiiran, Nikoly and Orin might have started out as occasional lovers, but given time and their natures, they would likely have become friends, or more.
That offered a new conclusion: if they grew tired of Tiiran, or Tiiran was dismissed from the palace for his big mouth, they both could remain to make one another happy.
His eyes stung a little at the thought, but no tangle presented itself. That might have been the lingering effects of his reckoning, or having his cock touched and sucked, true, but Tiiran would wait and see. Which, despite what some assistants thought, he was more than capable of doing. If it involved library funds or the word of a Master Keeper, he usually had no choice.
“Tiiran is not a fool,” Nikoly remarked, bringing Tiiran back to their conversation. He didn’t know how much he’d missed.
“And he called you a stray, hitting you where you hadn’t realized you had a wound.” Orin was gentle again. “He doesn’t understand missing a family or the people who truly know you. But you have him now.Heknows you.”
Nikoly turned his face away from Orin, giving Tiiran a glimpse of an anxious frown before Nikoly glanced back to Orin. “Does it bother you? ‘Untangling people’ as Tiiran says?”
Orin looked down at the empty bowl, then sighed as he set it on the floor. “With most people, it’s rather like a puzzle or a riddle. It’s fun as well as useful, knowing their hidden answers. But I don’t “untangle” everyone. Only if they want it, or I feel it might help.”
“Thank you.”
That seemed a strange answer, but Tiiran could ask Orin to explain it later if it still bothered him. Though Orin would probably just tell him to speak to Nikoly.
Fair. Tiiran ought to. Not now, but he should. They could talk about the library, and Orin’s appetite, and what kinds of flirtingdidn’tmake Tiiran want to throw something at every person getting dazzled by Nikoly’s smile. And then other things, like whether or not they would all do this again.
Not in the library, of course. Not without preparation beforehand at least. Tiiran had not enjoyed being nearly carried out of the library—supported by Orin on one side and Nikoly on the other, after Nikoly had first gone downstairs to make Tiiran’s excuses and apologize to Po for stealing Tiiran away for the rest of the day. Tiiran wasn’t actually sure an apology had been required. Po had pursed her lips at the sight of him but then pretended to go back to her work.
With Tiiran and Nikoly gone, the others were likely not doing much. But Tiiran couldn’t blame them for wanting a rest. The library needed more assistants, and since that wasn’t happening any time soon, they needed breaks to compensate for the extra labor.
