“…Don’t make sense.” Tiiran grumbled to himself, which Nikoly seemed to think meant Tiiran needed to be petted more… whichwasnice.
Orin gave the top of Tiiran’s head a pat. “You don’t need to understand in this moment. A real bath and some proper rest would serve you better. You’re still recovering from an illness.”
From the snuffles, which were not that serious no matter how the two of them went on about it.
Tiiran made a face. “I don’t want a bath now.” He had clumsily cleaned himself in the privacy of his bath room while they had poked around his unremarkable bedroom. In truth, he didn’t want to move, and slid down and closer to Nikoly. “But I might sleep soon.”
Orin smiled, an odd twist to his lips Tiiran hadn’t seen before. “Let me help with that before I go.”
He lifted the table by Tiiran’s bed, unconcerned with the weight of the table itself or the books on top of it, then was in the middle of pushing one of the other beds closer to Tiiran’s when Tiiran noticed what had been said.
“You’re going?”
Orin shoved the bed across the last bit of space it took to get it even with Tiiran’s bed, then stopped. “Nikoly, are those two extra blankets the only other bedding? You two are going to be packed tight, and you’ll need a rolled-up blanket to fill the gap between the beds.”
“You’re staying?” Tiiran turned to Nikoly, who mumbled something before swooping to his feet in one smooth move.
“Would you like me to leave?” Nikoly was awfully formal for someone who had sucked Tiiran’s cock a few hours before.
Tiiran immediately shook his head. “But Orin.”
“Just so,” Nikoly agreed, back straight as he turned to Orin. “Tiiran doesn’t want you to leave. So you will stay.”
It didn’t sound like a question.
Orin considered Nikoly, then Tiiran, that odd, unhappy smile disappearing, replaced with something happier, though only briefly seen. “If you’re certain.”
“Thank you, Nikoly,” Tiiran said to make Nikoly glow. “You can wash here,” he told Orin. “Bathe if you want. You came straight to see me.” His face flamed at the reminder. “You should get to clean and have a place to sleep that isn’t the barracks. Though you might prefer those beds.”
“Should I move the last bed over, or would you prefer the distance?” Nikoly was more cat with cream than a dog wagging his tail, and yet Tiiran suspected Orin was a heartbeat away from calling himpupagain.
“I can take care of it, but thank you.” Orin dropped his shoulders. “Iamtired,” he admitted, with a glance to Nikoly. “I haven’t been traveling far, but I have been traveling frequently, back and forth escorting other outguards down the river to the capital.” He answered Nikoly’s possible questions before Nikoly could answer them. “It’s a little like when the old queen died, or so the older guards tell me. When the Canamorra were all newly dead except for a few children and wizened elders. Chaos reigned, but the outguards tried to continue their duty. They paired up then too. It made them harder to kill, or capture, or torture.”
Tiiran would have jumped up to shout in Orin’s face if he could have reached it. “Then why were you alone when I met you today?”
“A snarl,” Orin observed with relish. “You’ll be fully yourself by morning. I was alone, you demanding moggy, because I am not carrying any reports at present and because I’d rather not have my friends witness me bowing to your every whim.”
Nikoly cackled and then appeared very surprised with himself. “Sorry.”
Tiiran huffed at both of them. “I don’t havewhims.”
Orin simply nodded and considered the room again while Tiiran sputtered. “I can put my bedroll in the other gap if I bring the last bed over.”
“Bathe if you like.” Nikoly waved toward the other room, ever graceful. “I’ll take care of the bed. Tiiran, do you have night clothes or do you sleep without them?”
“Doyousleep without them?” Tiiran asked, not a thought in his head except for naked Nikoly, and then naked Orin when Orin snorted a laugh. Then he thought of them nude with him between them. Tiiran opened his mouth but a strangled version of his voice emerged. “Who could sleep with you both undressed and in bed with them?”
“Someone exhausted and pushed toward his limits several times already today.” Orin stretched to pop joints. “But I will bathe, if neither of you mind.”
With the little smile lingering on his face, Orin dug through his pack, then handed his rolled-up bedding to Nikoly before slipping into the bathing room. The sound of pouring water followed shortly thereafter.
Orin hadn’t fully closed the door. Tiiran dragged his attention from the glimpse of Orin’s arm and bare back as he undressed, to Nikoly, shoving the last bed into place and then shaking out Orin’s bedroll before rolling it back up again and putting it into position. The bedroll looked clean, which meant Orin really hadn’t been journeying far enough to need it or had stayed in places with beds.
Nikoly fussed with the blankets next, so much that Tiiran was tempted to ask if Nikoly had trained with the housekeeping staff. But though Tiiran was a rude stray, he wasn’t good enough at teasing to try it with a lover he didn’t want to offend. Anyway, if it had been him in Nikoly’s place, he would have been fussing too.
“Are you nervous?” he asked, or started to ask, a sympathetic tone that fell to a dry rasp when Nikoly, satisfied with the bed situation, began to remove his clothing. His shoes, then his socks, both placed neatly by or on the chair also holding Orin’s pack.
He pulled his shirt away, rendering Tiiran speechless, but left his pants and belt on as he came around the bed toward Tiiran. He plucked at Tiiran’s sleeve.
