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Anver grumbled under his breath. "But Zeal wants me to be a guardian. I know that much. So I'm going to lose most of my lace? Otherwise, it wouldn't be clear what Path I'm on, right?"
"Sounds as if you kinda like all that lace," Nari teased.
Anver thrust out his bottom lip and shrugged. "I actually like how he did the Path of the Body. It's technically on my hips, but also makes it clear that I'm not here to fuck."
"Just something to look at to get us in the mood," she pointed out.
Even in the fading sunlight, I could see Anver's cheeks getting darker. He hadn't blushed in a while, but I had a feeling she'd caught him off guard. I also wasn't going to ruin it for him, because I knew how that felt. I did, however, have an answer to his living quarters issue.
"Before Choosing," I said, keeping my eyes on the sunset even though my attention was on them, "Nari said something about how it didn't matter what Paths we were on. We'd find a way to make it work. So, doesn't that still work?"
"How so?" Anver asked.
"Who cares if our place is your official residence? So long as you're where you need to be in the morning, there's no rule in the temple that says you have to sleep inyourbed that night."
"True..." he admitted.
"So move in now," I told him. "We have a couch, and it's pretty nice to sleep on. Not sure we can fit someone else in the bed, but there's no reason we can't rotate."
"I'm sleeping on the couch then," Nari said, her voice a little too serious to be believed.
Anver just chuckled. "You do know that you're the reason they all want the bed."
"They?" I asked before he could get out of it. "Saying you haven't spent a few nights wishing you could wrap your arms around her, breathe in the smell of her hair, and hold her as you slept?" I lifted a brow to make my point. "The word you're looking for, Anver, is 'we.'"
"Yeah, but - "
"Do not," I growled, finally looking over at him, "bring up fucking. I'm not fucking Talin or Ela. I still like to cuddle with them, because we're more than friends. Might not be sexual, but what's the difference between me and Talin and you and Talin, hm? Me and Ela and you and Ela? I love those guys. I don't want to put my dick in them. You, however, don't mind kissing them. So just stop already. You're normal, ok? Just as normal as I am."
Anver leaned his head back, letting his eyes fall on the quickly darkening grass below us, and a small sigh fell from his lips. "I just feel like I'm being selfish," he admitted. "Like I'm too lazy to try to take care of the people I care about that way."
"Not how it works," I assured him. "Ela loves me. He's loved me for years. I love him as a brother. He loves me as something more. We both know it. We both accept that it can't happen because I'm just not into him like that." I paused to kiss the top of Nari's head. "I like women, and just women. I love that I can talk to Ela about anything. I can't get enough of how he lets me be his hero. I'm fucking addicted to the rush of being the guy who can stand up for the punisher, you know? Still don't want to fuck him, and he will never hold that against me. It'swhyI can love him. Now, you explain to me how that's any different for you."
"But I don't want to be just his friend," Anver pointed out.
Nari actually laughed at that. "Were we just friends when we were kids, running down the hallways holding hands?"
"No..." he admitted.
"Were you just friends when you held Ela and picked the wax from his hair, watching over him to make sure he'd be ok?"
"No."
She nodded. "But we weren't fucking. We weren't allowed to, and yet we weren't 'just' friends, right?" She lifted her weight off me and leaned the other way, into him. "We're not just friends, Anver. Not me and you, and not you and Ela. Talin? I don't know where that stands, but if I can fuck a patron without loving him, then why can't I love someone without fucking him?"
"You make it sound so normal," he said, but that didn't come out like a complaint.
"You'renormal," she assured him. "The same way every unique person is."
I liked that. Lifting my arm, I draped it over her shoulder, not even caring when my hand landed on Anver's on the other side. He looked over, our eyes meeting in front of Nari. I smiled. He smiled back. The best thing was that it just felt... right.
He was back. We were back. This wasn't quite how I'd imagined things going when we were in our primary training, but if anything, it was better. They'd always said that Zeal might not give us what we wanted, but he'd give us what we needed. I was starting to see exactly how that worked, because this? It was everything I'd never known I longed for. Love, friendship, and family, all jumbled up until the terms no longer mattered.
