Page 24 of The Lost Art of Finding Where You Belong (Lost Arts #2)

He hadn’t been sitting at the sidelines for very long before Bennan jogged over. “I was starting to think we scared you off last night.”

“What, with being friendly and welcoming at dinner?” he asked with a laugh.

Bennan flashed a smile. “Very loud and boisterous?”

“Maybe I like a bit of loud and boisterous,” Perian said.

Someone walking past them made a sound of choking laughter, and they both laughed as they realized how that had sounded.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Bennan said with a wink.

There was nothing like flirting with someone who happily flirted back. They spent a couple minutes chatting, Perian updating him on the positive prognosis for his wound, and then Bennan headed back to work.

“Before I get yelled at for flirting again!” he called loud enough that Onadal clearly heard him and rolled his eyes.

“You clearly have some extra energy this morning,” the captain of the Warriors said dryly. “I’m sure you want to lead everyone around the track three times.”

“It certainly puts them in a good position to enjoy themselves,” Bennan said with a wink.

The Warriors fell into line and started their jog. Perian couldn’t fail to notice the redhead had found a spot right near the head of the pack where he was going to have ample opportunity to enjoy that view.

They were out of sight most of the time they were jogging, but each time they came back into view, Perian saw that the redhead had maintained his position.

After the final lap, Bennan took the opportunity afforded by being sweaty after the race to divest his upper half of clothes once more and pat himself with a towel.

It was such a nice display that Perian got distracted for a minute before he remembered to glance around. The redhead had positioned himself where he could look without appearing too much like he was looking .

They definitely, definitely wanted one another. Perian felt like he could sense the attraction from here.

Accordingly, when it was time for him to leave, he asked Onadal if he could borrow Bennan for a few minutes.

“To help me carry picnic provisions. Because I’m injured.”

Onadal looked like Perian had not sold that very well, but he yelled for Bennan anyway.

“You’ve been conscripted,” he said, thumbing a finger in Perian’s direction and then heading off to his novices.

Bennan grinned at Perian. “Oh, am I being put to work?”

“You’re going to help me carry stuff because I needed an excuse to talk to you.”

“You do not need an excuse to talk to me,” Bennan assured him.

Perian smiled. “I want to know what’s going on between you and the cute redhead man who keeps staring at you.”

Bennan didn’t even try to pretend he didn’t know who Perian was talking about. His shoulders slumped a little.

“Absolutely nothing is happening between us. I don’t think Chamis is really interested.”

Chamis! Now Perian had a name.

He scoffed. “He is definitely interested. He could not be more interested if he shouted it from the middle of the training yard.”

But Bennan was shaking his head. “No, look, I know it sometimes seems like he’s interested. I picked up on that, too; I’m not blind. He seems to like the way I look. But when I flirt specifically with him, it does not work. He just shuts down or doesn’t notice or leaves . I don’t want that.”

“No, of course,” Perian said, frowning. “Maybe he really is just shy, and you and I are kind of not ?”

Bennan huffed a laugh. “Well, there is that. But I’ve tried to talk to him at training, on patrol, randomly in the corridor, at dinner.

I’ve invited him out for a drink. I’ve invited him in for a drink if it’s people that are a little much for him, and I don’t think it just sounded like a euphemism for all the things I would absolutely have liked to do with him if he wanted to stay in with me. ”

Perian snorted.

Bennan’s lips tipped up, but then he sighed. “I make him uncomfortable even if he thinks I’m hot. He’s not actually interested.”

“But you’re actually interested?” Perian asked. “Not just to get him into bed?”

Bennan nodded, expression straying to something Perian would say was closer to “smitten” than anything else. “I overheard him telling one of the staff about his sisters back home and climbing trees with them and teaching them to ride. He sends hair ribbons and little toys back to them.”

Oh, wow. That was not, at all, the sort of detail Perian had expected. This was definitely not someone who just wanted to get into someone else’s trousers.

Like a dam had burst, Bennan told Perian all about Chamis, things he’d heard and seen, that one run they’d taken where they hadn’t said anything but had been side by side for ages, rare moments where they had actually spoken words to one another.

Admiration for the other man’s body weaved through the narrative, too, but this was definitely not just physical.

Bennan ended it, though, without hope.

“But interest isn’t always reciprocated, right? It’s fine.” His smile said it was not fine. “I’ve got plenty of offers, and I enjoy flirting with people.”

“Right,” Perian agreed. “But maybe—”

“I don’t want to scare him off,” Bennan said firmly, looking genuinely concerned.

Perian could see how Bennan didn’t want to make it worse. Perian nodded. It was clear he wasn’t going to get any further here.

Bennan insisted on carrying the blankets from Brannal’s rooms—“You’re injured, remember?”— and the picnic basket, making Perian feel totally ridiculous coming out to the garden carrying nothing at all, when he’d managed everything when he’d actually been hurt.

Bennan handed off the basket. “See you at dinner tonight?”

“Not sure yet,” Perian responded. “In the next day or two, certainly.”

Perian was hoping that once Brannal was back, he’d get to have private dinner with him every night possible, so it probably did make sense to have dinner with everyone else until then.

Bennan nodded and headed off, and the two Warriors assigned to Renny looked at him with concern.

“Everything all right?” the woman on the left asked, square beads glinting in the sun .

“Totally fine,” Perian reassured with a smile. “Just used my injury as a transparent excuse to get to talk to Bennan.”

The look of concern faded to be replaced with one of amusement.

“Oh, good. I wasn’t looking forward to Summus’s reaction if you were hurt worse.”

The man beside her nodded. Yeah, everyone knew about that, apparently.

“Totally on the mend!” he reassured them. “Can’t wait until he’s back even if I’m not looking forward to explaining what happened. But I’m sure I’ll figure out how to distract him somehow!”

Their laughter followed him as he headed through the bushes.

Renny was there and waiting.

“So Brannal isn’t going to get back and discover you want someone else instead?” she demanded.

Perian groaned. “Oh, is that what the rumor mill is saying now?”

Renny nodded.

“The rumor mill is entirely wrong,” he corrected with a huff as she helped him lay out the blanket and the picnic. “And I refuse to stop flirting just because some people can’t figure out the difference between flirting and action . Brannal knows who I am.”

Perian was pretty sure Brannal knew who he was. Brannal was the one who’d told him to spend time with Molun and Arvus, so he was pretty confident about that. Brannal had never seemed to mind Perian’s appreciation of other people, either.

“Good,” Renny said emphatically. “You’re good together, and I like that.” She looked at the blank space where Kee was apparently sitting, then rolled her eyes. “Of course, my opinion of the two of you doesn’t actually matter much. It’s all about how you feel together.”

Perian grinned. “Thank you, Kee. Honestly, though, I appreciate knowing you think we’re a good match.”

Renny nodded earnestly. “I haven’t ever seen him so happy, Perian—really, I haven’t.”

He beamed at her. “I haven’t ever been so happy before, either. I can’t wait until he’s back.”

“Did he say when he was going to get back on Monday?” Renny asked.

Perian shook his head.

“If he gets back in the morning, we can skip our picnic. I don’t mind.”

He was touched, but—

“I’ll have all the other hours of the day to reunite with Brannal. These ones are ours. I mean, unless you’re bored with me .”

She beamed at him as she cheerfully told him, “So bored. You are the most boring .”

“Oh, no,” he exclaimed. “What can I possibly do to redeem myself? I mean, knife fights don’t do it?”

She shook her head.

“Taming an untamable horse?”

Another negation.

“Discovering a secret hideaway?”

She scoffed. “That was Prince Horsey!”

Actually, those last two were probably both the horse.

He made a face. “You are one tough critic. What can I do?”

So they spent their lunch coming up with more and more absurd stunts Perian could pull to impress her.

Kee interjected periodically with his own offerings, one of which included a very unwise plan to “borrow” the actual physical throne of the Queen, relocate it to the top of the tallest tree they could find, dive off of said throne, and either land perfectly on a waiting Prince Horsey or into an unspecified body of water in a perfectly executed dive.

“There are only one or two flaws I can spot in this plan,” Perian managed to say between bouts of laughter.

“Only one or two?” Renny gasped out.

And they were laughing uproariously again.

Perian couldn’t wait to be reunited with Brannal, but he wouldn’t give this up, either. Renny said he’d made her life better—well, she’d definitely returned the favor and then some. He was so glad he’d happened upon her here in the garden when he’d first explored the quadrangle weeks ago.

He considered her for a long moment, thinking about everything that had changed since then.

“Do you want me to try to talk to anyone else about Kee?” he asked.

Renny shook her head. “Perian, they won’t listen. They’ve known since I was six that I think I can see him and talk to him. They don’t believe me.”

“But maybe—” Perian started .