Page 82 of Guiding Desire

Orrey reached out, tapped a tetrahedron with his index finger. SenlasSpunit, making it appear as if it really were floating, suspended in the air.

“This is pretty impressive. The bigger black moldables in the living space too?”

“Yeah. I keep my power pretty active.” He moved the shapes back onto the shelf, lining them up by weight. “Do you feel like getting up, having breakfast, and seeing your parents? And stop by at the Judiciary, I suppose.” Senlas pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’ll have to call Col before we leave.”

“Yes, that seems the most important. You should do that now.”

“Clock,” Senlas said. It appeared on the transparent wall. “If I can give him another hour, he might forgive me.”

“All right.” Orrey sat up but clutched the sheet to him, casting around for yesterday’s clothes. He’d clearly not yet gotten over his embarrassment and insecurities.

Senlas swallowed a sigh and threw back the sheet, walked over to his dresser. He pulled out one of the many summer button-downs he rarely used.

“Here. I’ll take a quick shower, then make you coffee and breakfast.”

Orrey caught the shirt from the underhand toss, sighed. “I want a quick shower too.”

“Tomorrow, kitten. After they’ve cleared you.”

Orrey rolled his eyes and put on the shirt. It was a deep brown, not a color Senlas loved for himself, but with Orrey’s eyes and hair, it looked so much better. That it was his clothing on Orrey made Senlas feel a little better about himself, so good in fact that Orrey’s cheeks flushed when he noticed Senlas’s physical reaction.

“I’ll make breakfast. If that’s okay. I won’t touch your coffee grinder. Won’t touch it at all,” Orrey said.

Senlas slid the door to his bathroom open. “I don’t mind you touching my coffee grinder, kitten. You can touch it all over, grind as much as you like.”

“I’ll…do that then,” Orrey said. And while he was flushed, he leveled a determined look at Senlas, something that was a little unexpected, a lot exciting. “I can handle all the grinding you need me to.”

Senlas held the laughter in for two seconds before it broke out of him. “Fuck, kitten, you’re cute when you’re playing at innuendo like that. All the grinding you want later. I’m not having you skip any more meals right now.”

Orrey huffed. “I wasn’t talking about now to begin with. I wasn’t thinking clearly last night. I cannot comprehend what that Guardian—“

“Fucker’s name’s Alesa.”

“Well, him. What he would be scheming, but we need to tell Col as well as the Op-AI. It keeps an eye on morale, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, but it sounds like this isn’t an issue of morale. Look, we’ll get to it after breakfast.”

Orrey nodded and stood, heading to the door. The shirt went almost to his knees, made him look softer even though he wasn’t all that soft to begin with.

Senlas watched him head out, then went into the bathroom. His meds waited on the sink counter there, high dosages to keep him from overloading. He’d only taken them once since meeting Orrey as opposed to daily, and the yellow bottles now seemed useless.

Senlas stretched out his hand over the sink. There was no tremor at all, and his eyes weren’t bloodshot either. If he was experiencing any irrational thoughts the kind of which overload could bring, he wasn’t aware of it.

“And all that from some channeling and buffering. You’re one of a kind, kitten,” Senlas told the mirror.

A scream tore through the apartment. Orrey.

Senlas ran without thinking,Openeddoors,Feltfor Orrey,Pulled. He made it into the corridor outside his room in time to catch Orrey in his arms. The Conduit was wide-eyed, cheeks pale.

“S-sorry.”

“Yaran Warrak,” Senlas’s aunt said, the clicking of her heels following her words. She never took her shoes off. The woman herself came to a stop in front of them moments later. “Why is it that I get a call from your mother telling me to tell her what I think of your imprinted? You’d think that, if something like imprinting happened to you, you’d tell your auntie. Isn’t that a reasonable assumption, Yaran?”

“She startled me,” Orrey said.

“Auntie. You cannot come in here unannounced when I’m alone with him.”

She tsked. “Oh, like you would clobber me.”