Page 88 of Gates of Tartarus

Deo nods seriously in reply and starts looking up local restaurants. I want to object, but Lachy has one massive arm wrapped around me and is absentmindedly playing with my hair, while Deo casually rests his free hand on my thigh as he scrolls through his phone. Lachy’s so warm and snuggly, like a giant teddy bear, that it’s almost impossible not to sink back next to him. This is a different level to our friendship than has previously existed, but neither he nor Hideo seem at all concerned or surprised by the contact, so I slowly, slowly lean into Lachy’s side, giving him plenty of opportunity to adjust if he isn’t comfortable. We’ve always been close, with brief hugs, and had that kiss… but since we last discussed things we’ve drifted back to our normal. And even our normal didn’t usually include wrapping around each other on the couch. But as soon as he feels me moving, he pulls me up and back slightly, until I’m nestled against him. Hideo glances over and, with the hand that isn’t scrolling through menus, tucks the blanket in tighter around me.

“Chinese?” he asks. “There’s a place called Red Ginger…”

Lachy and I exchange looks and burst out laughing.

“Not there!” I say, giggling.

“No!” Lachy interjects at the exact same time.

We look at each other again and say in unison, “You willnevercome back here! This is not a den of iniquity!”

Hideo looks puzzled at our outburst and asks curiously, “Storytime?”

“There’s no real story,” I answer, still laughing slightly. “Lachy, Gemma, and I went in, and the owner is a real piece of work. For some reason she got it into her head that the three of us were a… couple?”

“The word would be ‘throuple’,” Lachy corrects me with a funny little grin.

“Not really! That can’t be a real word.”

“It is,” Hideo replies, also with a strange twist of his lips. “It definitely is. Like a couple, but with three people instead of two.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “There’s a word for that? Wild!” I laugh. “Anyways, so she thought Lachy, Gemma, and I were athroupleand refused to serve us. Like, all I wanted was some Moo Goo Gai Pan, lady! But she was all up in our faces, talking about how Gemms and I were kept women, and how we were upsetting the moral... what was it, Lach?”

“The moral balance of the town. She wasreallyunhappy with us. Largely based, I think, on our decision to share an order of fried dumplings. The horror! So no Red Ginger for us. Her head would probably explode if she delivered an order here and found Kai in a new throuple.”

“Oh yeah!” I say with a bark of laughter. “Kailani, Hideo, and Lachlainn, throuple for the ages! Hideo would organize us, Lachy would take care of us, and I would... what the hell would my job be in the throuple?”

Lachy and Hideo look at me in unison, with oddly serious expressions on their faces. “Well, Suge,” Lachy says slowly. “You’d love us.”

I wait for them to laugh, or grin, but they just look at me, radically different men with identical expressions on their faces. The fire of Lachy’s emotions in my stomach flares briefly, but before I can discern its feeling, there’s a loud knock on the door.

Hideo lets out a sound somewhere between a growl and a groan. “What is this place, Broadway and 42nd?”

I shake my head, still cuddled in beside Lachy. “No one ever comes here! I mean, even Lachy doesn’t usually show up at our door unannounced. And you’re my best friend, Hideo, and even you’ve never been here!”

Hideo pauses for a moment, and looks down at me with an incredibly tender expression.

“Best friend, hmmmm? Not just partners?”

I stutter slightly before replying in as dignified a way as possible, “Well, it’s a tier, my best friendship level. With three spots, occupied by three people – you, Lachy, and Gemma.”

“So not a throuple, then?” he asks softly, as a second knock sounds from the front door.

“I mean, I don’t want to sleep with Gemma…” I reply, completely discombobulated with the direction of the conversation. Deo suddenly breaks into a full-force, unrestrained grin, which I’ve seen him do maybe five times since I’ve met him. It transforms his gorgeous but serious face into something completely different, adorable and open and boyish, and I completely lose my train of thought and just stare.

The knock sounds a third time, and Hideo bounces off the couch, still grinning at me, before going to answer the door. He pulls it open slightly and then, with a roll of his eyes and a huff of frustration, opens it the rest of the way. Jonah stands on the porch, smiling happily and holding three large boxes of pizza.

“Hey guys!” he calls over Hideo’s shoulder. “Delivery?”

Lachy makes a rumbling sound in his chest, oddly comforting against my cheek, like cuddling a purring kitten. Hideo looks to me with a cocked eyebrow, silently asking my opinion, and I shrug uncertainly, somewhat reluctant to let him in but also suddenlyreallyhungry for pizza. Hideo slowly moves aside, obviously disinclined to let him in, and Jonah takes the boxes into the kitchen to set them on the counter.

“Kai, got you a classic margherita? And for Lachlainn a meat lover’s okay? Tanaka, I guessed a veggie pizza, which is what I eat too. Hope that’s close to right?”

We all look at him, gaping slightly, before my stomach growls again and breaks the silence.

“I, uh, I mean... yeah? Pizza margherita is my favorite but how…?” I stumble over my words. Honest to God, the last 24 hours have been the strangest in my life, and that is saying something.

“I noticed at work, when we put in the order, you always ask for plain cheese. So I just thought maybe this would work.”