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“Wait.” Garrett shook himself awake again. “You can’t go wandering around out there by yourself.”
Another smear of blue streaked over Maxwell’s nose as he shook his head. “It’s fine. His mother’s waiting for him just across the street.”
“Yeah, Garrett, I’ll be fine.” Rhast lifted his chin. “I know all the streets here now. I don’t get lost.”
“I’m not worried about you getting lost.” Garrett ruffled his hair. He was worried about a child wandering around the home of a criminal cartel unsupervised. “I’m sure you have a great sense of direction.”
“I do!” Rhast’s skin flushed pink as he gave Garrett a proud smile, then he turned on his heel and marched out. “Bye!”
Garrett watched him go with a smile. The kid had come a long way from the frightened, wide-eyed child he’d brought back just days ago. But once the door shut behind him, Garrett’s smile fell, and he swallowed. He wrapped his fingers around the edge of his metal stool and glanced at Maxwell.
“You told him,” he said quietly, with just a hint of the question he was too afraid to ask outright.
Maxwell nodded and slowly spun his stool to face Garrett fully. “I did.” He reached out and touched Garrett’s knee. “I told Joan too. And Martha. And Priest Lazar. And Sazahk. And Oliver and Mal’ik.” Maxwell’s smile grew, and he shrugged a shoulder. “And Colin too, because he was on guard, and I ran into him.”
Garrett grabbed Maxwell’s hand as his heart thundered in his chest. “You’re telling everyone?”
Maxwell laced their fingers together and pulled Garrett’s hand up to his mouth to kiss it. “I am.”
“Does that mean”—Garrett finally managed to speak the question that had been taunting him the second he’d opened the bedroom door and saw Maxwell sitting in his clinic like he always was—“does that mean you’re staying?”
“Yes, Garrett.” Maxwell grinned at him with a whole range of blues swirling over his throat. “It means I’m staying.”
“Fuck, yes, Maxwell!” Garrett leaped from his stool and yanked Maxwell into his arms. Maxwell laughed as he let himself be crushed against Garrett’s chest. Garrett held him as tightly as he could, wishing he could simply merge with him and suck him into his soul. “Fuck, you mean it?”
“I mean it.” Maxwell wrapped his arms around Garrett’s waist and nosed into the hollow of Garrett’s throat that he seemed to love so much. “I don’t want to leave everyone. I don’t want to leave my home. And I don’t want to leave you.”
Garrett rested his chin on Maxwell’s head and closed his eyes. “I thought you had. When you left last night.”
Maxwell’s grip tightened on him. “I thought you were asleep.”
“I know.” Garrett stroked his thumbs over Maxwell’s arms. “I didn’t want to pressure you to stay.”
“I’m sorry, Garrett.” Maxwell sighed, and his warm breath puffed across Garrett’s collarbones. “I just needed to think. And then talk to some people.”
Garrett chuckled. “It sounds like you talked to everyone.”
“Well, I had to talk to Sebastian first.” Maxwell pulled his nose out of Garrett’s neck and rested his cheek on Garrett’s shoulder instead. “He’s the only out torvar I’ve ever heard of, and I think I needed him to convince me I could survive it.”
“And he did?” Garrett made a mental note to apologize to Sebastian again and then throw him a fucking parade in appreciation.
“He did.” Maxwell nodded. “And he’s going to teach me some self-defense and, knowing him, some offense too. He’ll make sure I never get trapped in another body by a man with a knife again.”
“Good.” Garrett bared his teeth as a hot burst of anger flamed through his body and then extinguished. Kurt Buck was dead. He and Sebastian had found him riddled with bullets from a turret that only Maxwell could have controlled. Garrett didn’t know if he’d ever been so proud in his life.
“So, that’s that, I guess.” Maxwell picked at Garrett’s shirt and rubbed the fabric between his thumb and forefinger. “Since I’m staying now… Do you and I… Do we…” Maxwell made a frustrated sound. “What are we?”
Garrett smiled and nuzzled Maxwell’s hair. “We’re whatever you want us to be.”
“What do you want us to be?” Maxwell pushed Garrett’s chest away so he could scowl up at him.
“I”—Garrett took Maxwell’s hand and kissed the palm of it, then the inside of Maxwell’s wrist, and then pushed his sleeves up to kiss higher along the ribbons of blue—“want us to be friends. And comrades—”
“Just comrades?” Maxwell raised a dubious eyebrow, but the dark blue high on his cheeks gave away his interest.
“And roommates. And lovers. And partners.”
Maxwell’s throat bobbed as he swallowed. “Garrett.”
