Page 102 of Guiding Desire
Taros turned. “You can sit on the couch. And while Sen makes me a nice strong cup of coffee, how about we get you one or two outfits ordered? I hope you don’t mind, beautiful. He told me you’d let me expand your wardrobe.”
Orrey ran his hand over his too short hair. “I wouldn’t want to bother you right now, Taros.”
Senlas smirked. “You’re not bothering him, kitten. Taros, you have ten to fifteen minutes. After that, let Orrey choose something to watch while we eat.”
Taros nodded and let his neck muscles pop before pushing Orrey toward the couch. “That works. I already have a few ideas.”
Theteamregularlygatheredfor stream nights at Senlas’s place, and he liked having them there even in all his craving for elective aloneness. With Orrey there now, with the Conduit almost fully healed and having offered Senlas his trust, the setting was still the same, a family streaming night, but it felt entirely different.
Taros and Orrey had been happily sipping coffee and browsing one of Taros’s preferred brands on the window screen. Taros had helped Orrey order four outfits in the allotted time, and he’d been less obnoxious about Orrey’s taste than he’d ever been about Senlas’s.
“You didn’t have to make him do that right away,” Orrey said to Senlas when he started carrying andFloatingthe food and utensils over. The satisfied smile on the Conduit’s face belied the words.
“He didn’t make me do anything,” Taros said, looking ever so fucking pleased with himself.
And Senlas let Taros have that. The drama they eventually chose by means of whimsy and the thumbnail images on the streaming screen, wasA New Normal.After Orrey had secretly smiled and blushed at the sight of the layer cake, he actually leaned against Senlas while watching the drama.
The plot was inane. A Guardian, multiple champion of the Ferrean Guardian Games, got all hot and bothered about the cute, blue-eyed regular assistant to the regular PA person who was touring him all over the place and all through the cities.
The Guardian, on his quest to become a multiple city champion, got closer and closer to the assistant, and that relationship quickly progressed past the stage of any fling.
Several instances of that assistant being looked down upon by other Guardians and Conduits made Senlas wonder whether they should change the drama, but Orrey, for some strange reason, seemed invested, going so far as to ask about Guardian Games, a topic Senlas knew next to nothing about, not being a fan of either idiotic running about in the stadium or posing for cheering crowds who loved Guardians running about like idiots.
“They wanted to recruit me that one time,” Taros said, ever helpful. “I’m technically a panoplian. You know what that is?”
Orrey shook his head, even as Senlas tried to be annoyed. It didn’t work. Watching Orrey being interested in Guardian classifications was too endearing.
“Basically, our bodies are armor.” He lifted his hand and made killing-sharp blades appear all over it, looking as if they protruded from the skin, though in reality, they were Taros’s skin. “Mine is a lot more offensive than, say, panoplians who can harden their skin to withstand knives or bullets. And I have good acid and heat resistance.”
“He literally cannot get a sunburn. Unlike you, kitten,” Senlas said.
Orrey rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, it was my job to make sure no Guardian chasers succeeded in chasing down any Guardians. Hounds, I failed at that, didn’t I? I’m just like this guy, trying to sneak out of his room on the dirigible to Guardian On’s.” He pointed at the fictional PA assistant on the screen.
“No. You’re cuter. And you did everything right.” Senlas kissed the top of Orrey’s head again. The Conduit seemed to like it, though, and Senlas was determined to find out all the things Orrey liked, not just these spots for shy kisses.
“Did Senlas ever tell you he absolutely didn’t want to go to that parade? He even took extra-long driving back a Hound attack on the convoy we were running that morning.” Taros crushed down on a cracker as that sank in.
“Right, you said you were attacked that day. Can I ask, are there attacks every time you go outside the walls? More than one?” Orrey’s head turned to the screen where Guardian On was telling the assistant, who had finally found the correct room, helpfully furnished with a spacious bed, that dirigibles were very safe from Hound attacks. It made Senlas think there was probably a Hound attack coming in the next episode.
“They try sometimes, but not always. We’ve run convoys and other missions without a single instance of contact. That one on the day of the parade was more like an ambush, nothing you should worry about.”
Orrey shook his head. “I’m not. That’s what Guardians are supposed to do, fight Hounds, right? It’s just that I’ve never seen one. Not, you know, up close.”
Senlas pointed at the screen, where the dirigible needed to have an emergency landing because of some plot point he had missed. On the ground, a full Wild Hunt was waiting for them, the camera zeroing in on the face of one Hound with plenty of earrings in his pointy ears.
“Those’re AI generated, but they’re close enough.”
They watched a few more episodes, chatting and finishing more than half of the layer cake. Orrey had to be told by each of them that he was not required to put any dishes into the dishwasher, and after that, Taros had the grace to excuse himself for a night swim.
“Feel like you want to go to bed?” Senlas asked and closed the dishwasher.
Orrey was sitting there on the couch, clearly thinking about something again.
He nodded. “Should we…go to your room?”
Senlas cocked his head. “If you want, sure. But if you’d prefer to sleep alone, that’s fine.”
“How would you want to handle it? In a family?”
