That stuck into Aras the same way as that playful barb had before, but this one was made of ice. “Right.”
“So wouldn’t it make more sense to try being a couple now?”
“That doesn’t solve the power imbalance thing.”
“The power imbalance that’s only in your head? Or are you worried that, if you and I don’t work out, I’ll lose the job I’m only going to have for a couple more months anyway?”
That… Aras pressed in a little closer to Dane. “I hadn’t done the math on that either, I guess.”
“I figured. Anxiety’s not rational.” Dane’s fingers glided up Aras’s neck and raked through his hair. “Here’s how I see it going, as a paragon of rationality.”
“Let’s not get carried away, anime robot boy.”
“As theofficialparagon of rationality, it makes the most sense that we do couple things while we have the chance to be together. Try it out. Because if this ends up being serious, that means probably one of us moving to live with the other. We should know where we stand before committing to any kind of decision on that scale.”
And again, it made total sense, even though Aras’s belly still squirmed. “Moving across the country, huh?”
“Yeah. Big thing. Hence trying this now.” He sighed, and his breath washed hot and scented with vanilla custard over Aras’s face. “No pressure on that, though. We can just be a work fling and leave it at that if you’d rather. I just…it doesn’t feel like you’d rather.”
The ice already embedded in Aras’s gut chilled further. He didn’t like considering that this could be temporary…which was the problem. It wasalwaysthe problem. Aras was antisocial and standoffish enough that he didn’t often find himself in a dating position, but way too much of the time when he did, he fell in deep. If someone was comfortable enough to be around that he even considered a relationship, that was a signal for every bit of his anxiety-riddled self to dump fully into them. Which made parting worse…and, if he was honest, it probably drove more than a few of them away. So the reasonable parts of him, rather than the emotional, latched onto the suggestion of a fling.
“Let’s…try that.” Arashadto see his face, so he pulled back just enough that his eyes could focus again. Dane’s cheeks had flushed, though that was likely simply due to their combined body heat. At least, that’s what Aras told himself. “A fling. And then if it works better than that, we can cross that bridge.” He wriggled an arm out of Dane’s grip and tapped him on the nose. “I guess you can have your title, too.”
Dane grinned, although pressed into the pillows, it was a little lopsided. “Paragon of rationality.”
“I won’t be using it in public.” Aras was determined to keep this light. He’d unloaded enough on Dane already. This was big boy decision making, and he was a big boy. “But yes.” He squirmed a little bit, just until he could see the screen again. “Now come on. We’ve got time for one more before I turn back into a pumpkin, and I want to see what the fuck the princess thinks she’s going to do about the rising spider squid things.”
“The demontide.” Dane finally let off his hug, but when he shifted around, he pressed himselffirmlyto Aras’s side before grabbing his phone again. “If we’re going to keep watching this, you’re going to need to get the terminology right.”
“As soon as you can tell me the difference between a Three Fruits bowl and a Three Fruits Medallion bowl. Until then, spider squid things gets the message across.”
“God, it’s like trying to tell my parents about anime.”
“Well, I’m a grouchy electrician who collects carnival glass. Did you think Iwasn’tsecretly an old person?” Light. Joking. No pressure. A fling.
He’d keep this a fling.
Chapter twenty-three
Dane
Aboutfiveinthemorning, Dane heard rustling and water running. It wasn’t particularly loud, but he wasn’t expecting to hear anything, so it dragged him out of sleep. He looked around at his hotel room.
No.
He looked around at a hotel room thatlookedan awful lot like his, but was decidedly different. He never closed the curtains in a hotel, and these were both drawn and clipped together with one of the hangers from the closet. Where he left his luggage by the dresser, there was none to be seen. Sure, the room was dark, but there was light coming from under the bathroom door.
Which, as he started to wake up, wasalsoa pretty good indicator that something was up. He wasn’t sharing a room with anyone, after all.
The pieces busted through his still sleepy fog and he fumbled for his phone. Sure enough, they’d buzzed through not four, but eight episodes of Ancient Protectorate. After four episodes, the streaming service automatically shut off in case you fell asleep.
Which it seemed they had.
Dane wasn’t entirely certain what tocallthe emotion currently buzzing through him. It wasn’t panic, but it wasn’t exactly a warm fuzzy feeling, either. He loved the thought of them crashing in bed together while watching anime. Very much, that was the kind of activity he could get on board with. He appreciated that, as best he could tell, Aras had already woken up and was in the shower, and hadn’t felt the need to send him off to his own hotel room. But he also knew this was probably pushing things. Even if he didn’t fully understand or agree with Aras’s reservations, they were his reservations. He could have them. Sharing a bed, platonically or otherwise, might very well grate against the edges of those boundaries.
The water shut off and Dane didn’t have any time left to consider options. He wasn’t going to lay there and pretend to still be asleep, so he reached over to the nightstand and turned on the small sconce attached to the wall.
A few seconds later, the light turned off from the bathroom and the door swung open. Dane, again, wasn’t going to pretend he was blind, but he steeled himself to act like it was nothing, no matter what state of undress Aras walked out in. Like, he had to have known it was a possibility that Dane could wake up, so he wouldn’t walk out totally butt-ass naked…right?
