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Tiiran opened his eyes to a view of Orin’s chest, and then Orin’s jaw when he tipped his head back. Orin gazed down at him. Tiiran blinked before closing his eyes again. He didn’t remember finishing. He didn’t even remember moving.

He was sideways over Orin’s lap, with Orin’s shoulder for a pillow. Orin’s arm was firm around his chest, keeping Tiiran from floating away like a butterfly. Orin was aroused, although not nearly as hard as Tiiran had been, or had felt like he’d been. Tiiran’s bottom throbbed in time with his heart, pounding and hot, cushioned only slightly by how Orin had positioned him in his lap.

Tiiran shifted at the thought, his thighs sliding together because he was still naked.

He opened his eyes. “Orin?”

“You did so well.” Orin gave him a smile that made Tiiran drop his head, although his face already stung so much, he wasn’t sure he could blush anew. “I knew you would, but you surprised even me with the strength of that surrender. You gave me everything. Then again, that’s how you are. I’m a fool for not expecting it.”

Tiiran shivered. His thoughts meandered around the room. His limbs were heavy and plastered to Orin. He could hear Orin’s heart beneath his ear.

“Was good?” Tiiran should have blushed to hear himself, but embarrassment was distant. “Am not needy?”

Orin lost some of his smile and shook his head. “Perfect. Mine.”

Tiiran was warm to his toes.

Orin used his free hand to stroke gently over Tiiran’s lower lip, which felt swollen. And hot, much like the rest of him. “We will have to discuss this when you have teeth and claws again, but I’d like to continue courting you, Tiiran. With your permission.”

Orin watched him, apparently aware that Tiiran had to fight to drag to his thoughts down from the clouds.

“Continue?” he said after staring into Orin’s dark eyes for hours. “Roses,” Tiiran realized a few moments after that. “Elorin Vahti,” he said, thoughts flying away again. “Orin wants to….” He focused on the face now regarding him with either amusement or concern. “Master of Strays, are you sure? I’d like to kiss you.”

“One thought follows the other?” Orin wondered, but pulled Tiiran up so Tiiran could clumsily take Orin’s face in his hands and kiss him. And scratch gently at his beard. And kiss him again, or really, be kissed, since Tiiran pushed their mouths together and let Orin do the work. He sighed when Orin finally settled him back down. He would have to try that again when his mind and his body were reunited, so he could better focus on the sensations.

He must have spoken something of that, because Orin’s voice held a smile. “I’ll take that as a yes for the moment.”

“Yes, Orin,” Tiiran echoed dreamily, snuggling into Orin’s heat because the side of his body facing the rest of the room was beginning to feel cold. “Nikoly?” He wondered if Nikoly would take punishment well. He thought so, and imagined tears in Nikoly’s eyes again. Nikoly probably wouldn’t drool or drip snot inelegantly. Or maybe he would, if punished enough.

Then he would be good like Tiiran was, curled up and warm, and Tiiran would kiss him too. He was going to kiss them both. For some reason, that was allowed.

“Nikoly?” Orin asked in return, once again seemingly content to wait for Tiiran to gather his thoughts.

“Nikoly.” Tiiran shifted a little. “Tighter.” Orin tightened his hold and smiled when Tiiran rubbed his cheek against him. “I get both?” Tiiran’s tongue was distressingly slow to follow his already slow thinking. “Both of you?”

Orin hummed thoughtfully. “If you say, ‘But, Orin’ right now, I will get my special rope from my pack and leave you bound while I go displace books in your library.” Tiiran’s breath caught noisily. Orin hummed again. “Very good, kitten. You’re learning. As for your pup, someone has to keep an eye on you while I’m gone. And… he adores you.” Orin brushed some of Tiiran’s hair from his face although Tiiran hadn’t noticed any wayward locks. “It’s a familiar feeling.”

“But duckling too?” It was a question, though Orin might not approve of Tiiran’s doubt.

“Some are both or something in between.” Orin was brushing away hairs that didn’t exist, soothing Tiiran before Tiiran had realized he needed it. “Don’t worry about that too much either right now. You like him? He’s made you happy?”

Tiiran nodded.

Orin wiped tears from beneath Tiiran’s eyes. “Do you like making him happy? No need to answer right away. You can drift. I’m quite enjoying you like this. I don’t even care that I’m going numb sitting here.”

Tiiran regarded him with as much suspicion as he was currently capable of, which wasn’t much. He hadn’t expected this, or to learn that Orin was wiping tears and not tear tracks away. Orin’s smile told him not to worry over that either, so Tiiran sniffled and tried not to.

‘“Don’t know if I’m good at it. I want…” Tiiran stopped, warm through his chest when Orin bent down to press a light kiss to his tender mouth. “Want you to help me. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t.” The rest of his thoughts fluttered down to him in the next moment. “But you like him too.”

Orin ran his thumb over Tiiran’s bottom lip. “You have good taste, and you are correct; if I met him out on the road, and I didn’t know you, I would have had him on his knees as soon as we were alone. Open.” He tapped Tiiran’s mouth. Tiiran parted his lips without thought. Orin smiled, hot and hungry, then met Tiiran’s stare. “But I more than like you, Tiiran. Let’s be clear.”

He waited, something Tiiran realized just in time to stop himself from asking why . “Yes, Orin.”

“It won’t be this easy always, I know that, but fuck , kitten.” Orin tugged him up to speak into his hair. “My good boy. You please me so much.” He was slow to relax his hold and let Tiiran slump against him once more. “When you are more used to this, I am going to fuck you while you’re still sore, so you think of me for days, and Nikoly will see those bruises and remember you were mine first.”

Tiiran gazed up at him, breathing hard, and Orin clucked his tongue and resumed his soft caresses.

“Which are you not ready for. And which Nikoly certainly will like despite my intentions, because he’ll get to fuss over you.” Orin was all banked fires again but Tiiran had seen them and that was enough for now. “You’ll have to talk with him.”

Another reckoning. But this one had turned out well. Something light popped up in Tiiran’s chest. A moment later, he snorted a laugh. Orin seemed delighted, which only made Tiiran want to giggle.

“Knowing your boy as I know my own heart, he will join us shortly.” Orin sighed a little but was still smiling. “A conniving sort, your handsome suitor. But in a way that I support. Did you want to be dressed when he gets here?”

Tiiran pulled his attention from Orin to consider his naked body. Orin had cleaned him up, though Tiiran had no memory of it. There were goosebumps along his legs and one arm. He of course couldn’t see his behind or if his face was still wet with tears. He looked inquiringly back up at Orin.

“Not ready to decide anything yet?” Orin guessed with a nod. “That’s all right. You make enough decisions every day. A break is good for you.” Orin kissed his forehead and briefly nuzzled his hair. “You smell faintly of lemons today.”

“Lemon water.” Tiiran arched up to receive more nuzzling before he could worry over whether he should. “To help me get better. Nikoly’s doing.” He would probably make Tiiran drink more after crying so much.

Tiiran’s chest popped with light again.

Orin seemed to agree with this feeling. “Excellent. We should praise him together.”

Tiiran dipped his head in a nod, then spent some time staring at Orin’s chest while those words ran through his mind. Those, and ‘on his knees.’ “Orin,” he pronounced it slowly, “what did you two do?”

Neither of them had fully answered him. He hadn’t asserted his right to ask, Nikoly had said. But if he and Orin were courting, and he and Nikoly also were, then surely he could ask now.

“We talked.” Orin wouldn’t lie but Tiiran considered him carefully anyway. “He was trying to approve of me for you. Precious. As if I would been scared off by an earnest little cockwarmer like him.” Orin stopped, looked at Tiiran, saw his frown, then cleared his throat. “A devoted pup like him,” he corrected himself. “What scared me was thinking that he is near your age and far less troublesome of a partner than an outguard who doesn’t even have a home.” His smile there was sadder than Tiiran ever wanted to see from him. Then it brightened. “But I like him. You should have every treat the world has to offer. And what a treat he is.”

“You had him?” The question didn’t burn the way it had when Tiiran had thought it the other day. Orin was going to have Tiiran too, because he was Orin’s. Tiiran had said so and it felt good to think it. Tiiran asked now only because it should be clear. Subtlety didn’t work with him.

“No.” Orin shook his head. “I won’t deny it was in the air. But I didn’t think you’d like it if we did, and I believe his thoughts must have been similar. Although, that was before I’d fully realized you weren’t coming back. That hurt, Tiiran, but what it did to him? That was beneath you. All he wants is to please you. That is not something you can take lightly.” Orin paused as if weighing his thoughts and what he ought to say. “I make you feel better?” he asked, waiting for Tiiran to nod before he went on. “He hasn’t had that from you, or perhaps from anyone. Not for a long time, at least, if he ever had it. He was already tense and then you left him. So no, we didn’t fuck, but I did tell him he was good.” Orin leaned in to whisper over Tiiran’s ear. “I showered your boy in praise as you should have done, because he is starving. I will guide you if you wish, kitten, but you need to take care of him, and soon.”

Tiiran shivered violently, then shivered again. He shut his eyes. “He’s always perfect.”

“He likes to be challenged, I think.”

“To please me?” Tiiran nearly moaned it. Was this how Orin felt? “I touched the back of his neck. Petted it. Petted him .”

“On your own?” Orin’s approval was confusing. “Well done, kitten. Very good work. And a decent example of the differences between… ducklings.” He sighed regretfully at the word.

“Cockwarmers?” Tiiran suggested.

“Not everyone involved in these matters has a cock.” Orin resumed petting him. “Those inclined to submit themselves to people like me,” he went on, undoubtedly giving Tiiran a more polite version of whatever he usually called his lovers of this kind. “Some want restraint and some don’t. Freedom worries you. You like being held tightly, and will probably love being bound. I’ll tie you up and watch you melt for it.”

Tiiran raised his head.

Orin seemed to understand his confusion. “Imagine I’m holding you as tightly as you like me to, but all over.”

“Oh.” Tiiran shuddered with pleasure. “ Oh. ”

Orin patted his cheek. “Your skin has pebbled enough. Poor thing. I forgot you’re getting over the snuffles. Let’s get you dressed.”

He was so nice after being so mean. Tiiran sighed against him when Orin got him to stand up, then stepped clumsily into the pants Orin held out for him. Orin dressed Tiiran with more care than children showed their dolls, clucking his tongue over Tiiran’s robe.

When Tiiran was dressed except for his shoes, his robe, and the state of his unbound hair, Orin picked him back up and settled with him on the chair again. Tiiran gasped, then hissed as his backside came into contact with Orin’s thighs. Orin crooned into his hair but didn’t apologize.

He was going to do this to Tiiran again someday, and fuck Tiiran afterward. Leave marks for Nikoly to see.

“Did you bruise me?” Tiiran wondered absently, imagining black-and-blue impressions of Orin’s hands on him. He considered that too. “For Nikoly to see? You won’t fuck me now?”

“You’re bolder when your thoughts wander.” Orin slid a hand underneath Tiiran and squeezed. Tiiran’s pained gasp reached the ceiling. “That’s why. You aren’t used to that. And, not to offend you, kitten, but have you ever been fucked before?”

“I can learn,” Tiiran insisted stubbornly after several moments of silence. “Would you fuck him?”

He didn’t say who but Orin knew who Tiiran meant and squeezed Tiiran’s sore backside again.

“Orin!” Tiiran protested in a shrill voice, though why this pain should be different from the rest, he didn’t know. “I didn’t mean instead of me. Only if you will take him as well as me. Because you’d like to. And you can. Can’t you?” He turned his face toward Orin’s chest. “I can see it. The two of you.”

“We should discuss this when you’re fully armed again.” Orin massaged Tiiran’s tender places, which also hurt, but though Tiiran whimpered, he didn’t tell Orin to stop. It felt good in a way he couldn’t explain. Orin-good, he decided, then promptly lost the thought.

“Nikoly calls me jealous,” Tiiran complained. As if Tiiran was a new assistant getting their heart broken because their lover had another lover. He wasn’t. He wasn’t .

“Some are not meant to love widely,” Orin answered placidly. “Some prefer a one-and-only, or a select few. Perhaps the fires in you are too big and too bright for just one, but perhaps others have been afraid of those fires, so you don’t trust that they are truly wanted. Did your jealousy lead you to try to hurt him—other than when you left us?”

Tiiran muttered to himself before growing louder. “I do nothing. He swears he can see it and hear it, that’s all. It pleases him.”

“The way it pleased you to imagine my hands rough on you, leaving bruises for Nikoly to see?” Orin said it so easily. “The way it pleased me? What about if I left those bruises on someone else? Some pleading pet in the far reaches of the country? There, there.” He pulled Tiiran tight to him and Tiiran’s stream of low, furious objections ended. “Jealous, indeed, beautiful. Yet you ask if I’ll tup your boy?”

“I can’t stop you from any of it.” Tiiran would have sunk his teeth into Orin’s shoulder, but the sturdy fabric of the gambeson wouldn’t let him.

“All you need to do is say so, kitten. You might not have accepted this yet, too worried about your new place by the fire to call it what it is. But do you really believe some random pretty could equal you? No need to answer that now,” Orin went on. “Let it simmer.”

Nikoly wasn’t a random pretty. He was a known pretty—and more than pretty anyway. He was helpful and clever, maybe even too clever. Which Orin liked. But Orin didn’t want Tiiran to think about that now.

Tiiran said things anyway; he didn’t know how to cook and simmering took too long. “You get tense on your journeys.” He pointed out, frowning as more heaviness set into his bones. “If a lovely cockwarmer wants to submit to you and let you hurt them, or… or bind them… or praise them as you did Nikoly, and it makes you feel better, then you should.”

“And have to contend with your wounded eyes when I return?” Orin scoffed. “I think not.”

“You could not tell me,” Tiiran pointed out.

Orin made a garbled noise and urged Tiiran’s head back by tugging on his hair. “No hiding anything. I worked hard to earn your trust. I will keep it.”

“Well, then, Nikoly,” Tiiran rolled slowly on, thinking even more muddled by Orin’s excitingly firm hold on him.

Orin started to make that noise again, then stopped to study Tiiran with his eyes narrowed. “Is this another test?” His voice was even yet Tiiran shivered and quickly shook his head.

“‘M not a child.” Tiiran’s words stuck in his mouth again. His thoughts wouldn’t clear and he scowled for it. “Assistants play at bed sport. He’ll be a duckling you deserve. You’ll both be pleased. With each other.”

Orin slid his fingers through Tiiran’s hair, gently this time. “I knew I shouldn’t have let you leave.”

“Then why did you?” Tiiran stared up, genuinely bewildered.

“There was a library problem, and I wasn’t going to get in between you and your library.”

“Because it’s all I have?” It spilled out, Tiiran’s mouth suddenly working just fine.

“Do not make me spank you again,” Orin warned him, wonderfully mean and serious. “You have me. And your beat-of-four other half down there. And the rest of the assistants who worship you. And you have Nikoly. Do not shake your head or even attempt to argue. We can ask him when he shows up.” Tiiran had a feeling his eyes were very wide. Orin eased back enough to smile. “He’ll go wherever you go, Tiiran most worthy. Wherever you send him.”

Like a hunting dog . Tiiran shivered. “His people swear to certain others, he says. The way guards swear to noble families. Or something like that.” He blinked several times, then swallowed. “ Me ? You mean me? Why?”

Orin raised his head, turning toward the nook entrance. “Right on time. He really was trained well, likely to serve a noble of high station.”

Tiiran studied the side of Orin’s face, then followed Orin’s gaze. His heart kicked against his ribs as Nikoly appeared, once again carrying a tray.

Nikoly kept his gaze on the floor until Orin said, “Thank you, pup.”

Nikoly’s attention went from Orin almost immediately to Tiiran, which was when Tiiran remembered he was cradled in Orin’s lap. But Orin’s arm around him was solid and Tiiran’s limbs seemed to be lighter than air. Anyway, Nikoly had known something of what had gone on here already.

Despite that, Tiiran suspected he was blushing. At the very least, he was hotter than he had been.

“Salves, in case they’re needed.” Nikoly lifted the tray slightly in demonstration before setting it on the table. “And tea meant to calm.”

“He’s not even a tiny bit surprised,” Orin remarked, possibly to Tiiran.

“Tiiran has mentioned your plans for this,” Nikoly replied. He finally turned back to Orin. “He’s well?”

“Tiiran?” Orin prompted. “That’s for you to answer.”

Tiiran stared at Nikoly from his comfortable burrow on Orin’s lap. “I liked it.” The confession was quiet, in a small voice. He realized he was worried about Nikoly’s opinion only once a grin burst from Nikoly like the sun after a storm.

“I think we all knew you would.” He inclined his head. “Else, why allow Orin to say it at all? You aren’t one to tolerate such things.”

Orin coughed, amused. Tiiran bit his lip, winced at the slight pain, then pursed his lips instead. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know it would make me….” The words he wanted eluded him. “Warm,” he decided at last.

Orin coughed again. Tiiran reached up honey-slow to cover his mouth with his hand. Orin smiled against his palm.

Nikoly observed that, eyes dark, then turned back to the table and the tray. He had a handkerchief in his hand when he came forward, glancing up to Orin when he stopped in front of the chair. Then he was leaning over to gently wipe Tiiran’s face. If he knew he was wiping up drool and snot and tears, it didn’t appear to bother him. Nothing about Tiiran’s current state appeared to bother him.

Tiiran took hold of his hand anyway, just for a moment.

“I’m sorry.”

“I don’t mind.” Nikoly resumed his delicate work, a slight tsk escaping him when he cleaned up a speckle of blood from Tiiran’s lip. “I said as much, though I understand that your thinking isn’t the clearest right now.”