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Tiiran was allowed to think again once in his room with Nikoly and Orin speaking and moving quietly around him. Not that he did much of that at first. He dozed and woke and dozed again, then was gently prodded awake and given food, which he was instructed to eat by two irritatingly tall figures. Since arguments did not seem ready to fall from Tiiran’s tongue, he ate, then tipped his head to the side and dozed some more.

He was vaguely aware that he’d had work to do before the incident in the library, but concern, like arguments, was a far away, unpleasant concept when he could instead watch Orin and Nikoly through his eyelashes.

Lovers , he thought with rising, though confused, delight. I have lovers .

It was his only thought for some time, aside from fleeting admiration for Nikoly’s mouth or Orin’s hands, or the mellow sound of their careful, quiet conversation. He suspected he was deliberately being left to think, or not think, because they were both overly cautious with him when it came to feelings. Which was perhaps fair, since Tiiran rarely knew what his were.

But acknowledging that made him realize his thoughts were returning to him. Fortunately, the strength had not returned to his body, so he had little motivation to move to inform the two across the room from him that he was beginning to properly wake. Even speaking seemed like too much bother.

Tiiran had never sat like a lump with no purpose before. Another realization, and one he also didn’t have the strength or motivation to consider. The day had had enough new experiences. Lying, or really half-sitting, propped up against the headboard of his small bed, and doing nothing while his mind drifted, was something that would have to go unexamined.

“So the housekeeping staff likely have no idea he even occupies this room?” Orin was thunder in the distance. Which was worrying, but not enough for Tiiran to make the effort to speak.

“I explained the situation to them,” Nikoly explained, leaving Tiiran to wonder exactly what had needed explaining. “He has more blankets now, at least. I’ll work on curtains next.”

The light through the window was what woke Tiiran in the mornings. But that wasn’t worth an argument either.

“The weather is warming. He should have said something during the winter. Feral creature probably slept in the library when it was coldest. The library gets fuel for the fireplaces.” Orin did not sound pleased.

“I will take care of that too,” Nikoly said crisply. Evidently, he was also displeased with Tiiran.

The rest area for the assistants was perfectly fine as a place to sleep on cold nights. Tiiran wasn’t the only assistant to think so.

“Him and Mattin together.” Orin grunted, making Tiiran twitch guiltily. “They encourage each other.”

“When Tiiran has less to do and think about, he will doubtless turn his attention to Mattin.” There was a pause. “Mattin is pretty.”

“Don’t worry, pup.” Orin puffed out a laugh. “You’re still the prettiest. Anyway, if Tiiran and Mattin truly wanted each other, they would have snuck off to a cubby long ago.”

Tiiran frowned over that, although his frown eased away at the idea of kissing Mattin somewhere in the depths of the library. He didn’t feel hot and mindless as he did about Orin or Nikoly, but he did grow warmer.

The dull clatter of dishes and crockery startled him from the daydream, although it was nearing evening, or perhaps was already night; Tiiran didn’t want to turn to look at the window either.

His body was heavy, his blood humming. His limbs had seemed to float above him for a while, yet the throb of his behind, while muted, was ever-present. It beat in time with his heart, which was a strange way to think about an ass… or a heart, he supposed.

“Awake a bit, are you, kitten?” Orin asked quietly from very close. Tiiran cracked his eyes and obediently tipped his head back so Orin could give him some water to drink. Orin had done that a few times already, so it must have been important. He let Tiiran rest again afterward, his approval a comforting weight even when he was some distance away.

“I’d tell you there’s no need and you don’t have to, but you’ll do as you please.”

“It’s my pleasure, yes.”

The two of them were a steady, easy hum, softer, then louder, then quiet for long enough for Tiiran to doze again.

The sound of a door being closed brought his head up, then got his eyes open, although it went unnoticed by the two across the room.

Orin was in the room’s only chair in front of the empty fireplace, an open book resting upside-down over one knee, his head angled toward Nikoly, who must have just come into the room. When Nikoly had left it, Tiiran had no idea, but assumed it had been to return their tray and dishes to the kitchens, because a visit to the kitchens was evident in the bowl he held out for Orin.

“The leftover buns from this morning’s bake,” Nikoly said in the especially sweet tone he used when bringing Tiiran food when he felt Tiiran needed to eat and not when Tiiran had mentioned being hungry.

Orin’s eyebrows were high. Surprise made him slow to take the bowl, but Tiiran noted he didn’t refuse it.

“Thank you.” Orin caught off guard was a sight worth Tiiran keeping his eyes open. Orin’s expression was both annoyed and astonished. “But I would have been fine.”

Tiiran, waking up that much more, abruptly remembered that Orin had probably not stopped for long, if at all, at the barracks before coming to the library. And, well, he was bear-sized, and likely had a bear’s appetite to match. Whatever he’d eaten for dinner had probably not been enough.

“Outguards might be used to temporarily going without,” Nikoly was quietly smug, “but there’s no need while you’re here. You could have asked for more food.”

He sat on the edge of one of the unused beds, which he or Orin must have dragged closer to the fireplace. His smugness undoubtedly grew when Orin began to eat like the starving giant he was, but Tiiran couldn’t blame him. If anything, he owed Nikoly his thanks as well for pointing out that Orin had likely gone hungry many times waiting for Tiiran.

Foolish, but that was Orin when he got an idea in his head.

Orin finished the first slightly stale bun in three bites, then stopped to consider Nikoly. Nikoly had removed his robe but was otherwise as neatly dressed as he might have been in the library.

“You don’t need to serve me.” Orin was speaking carefully, his gaze watchful now. Nikoly should take equal care, but Tiiran didn’t know if he would. “You’re not sworn to me. Or him,” Orin added thoughtfully, “but that’s a matter of time.”

Nikoly lowered head demurely. “You did a lot for us today. And you inhaled your dinner. I was concerned, which I am allowed to be.”

“Stubborn,” Orin muttered. Tiiran smiled to himself; he could have told Orin that. “Bet that made your training fun,” Orin observed, then had another bun. Tiiran was going to have to watch to make sure Orin ate more during his visits. That this would likely mean Tiiran also eating more should please everyone and possibly even make them be quiet about the subject.

“My education and training were a struggle, yes.” Nikoly’s back was to Tiiran, so Tiiran couldn’t see his face. “But nothing like what you did to Tiiran today.” Oh, he was amused, shivery mirth in his voice.

“That came later, in a much less formal setting?” Orin guessed, also amused. “Still, I don’t think a smacked bottom or some equivalent would do you any harm, should it ever be needed. Although a better punishment for you would be refusal of service.”

Nikoly started up from the bed, then clearly forced himself to sit back down.

Orin hummed. “But I would never do such a thing to someone like you unless I felt you truly needed it. Nor would I advise Tiiran to do so. He wouldn’t anyway; he dislikes seeing you unhappy. He doesn’t know what to do about it, but he dislikes seeing it.”

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. He knows 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 flirting didn’t make 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.