Page 210 of Phoenix's Fire

"Okay," she relented. "You should also know Ayla was asking me some questions. I get the impression you should know about it."

"Like what?"

"Kissing," she said. "When it's okay, how does she know if she likes someone that way, and those sorts of things. It seems Lessa put something in her head, and then when things blew up because Zasen kissed her, he said other things, and she's starting to get curious."

"Good."

"But," she went on, "I may have told her it's okay for her to say she wants to kiss someone, and the man she says it to - of you three - would help her figure it out. I sort of implied that if she wanted to kiss one of you, then you'd teach her how."

"Oh." Well, shit. "Um..."

"Yeah," she said, understanding completely. "Which is why I'm bringing this up, because if your date is going to become a boyfriend, you might want to find a way to handle that."

I nodded, seeing exactly what she meant. "Considering she's more likely to want to kiss Kanik?"

"She actually said Zasen. I guess there was a moment after the bear, but he said that if she wanted a kiss, she had to do the kissing."

Letting out a groan, I dropped my face toward the ground and then scrubbed at it. "I have no fucking clue how he can screw shit up with her so badly."

"I know, right?" Saveah asked. "Zasen is so sure she's into Kanik. Kanik is so sure he's completely unappealing, and you're so sure she's just a friend. The problem is, Ayla's trying to catch up on everything she's missed, and the way I see it, she should be right around the 'boys are cute' stage."

"Experimenting, not serious?" I guessed.

She pointed at me. "You get it."

"Hey, I went through a 'boys are cute' stage too," I pointed out. "Granted, I'm not getting the impression Ayla's into girls at all." But I paused. "Until recently, I would've said she wasn't exactly into men either."

"She needed women to talk to," Saveah explained. "More than one of us, too. And she needed time to learn how to trust us."

"We introduced her to Jeera!"

"Zasen's sister?" Saveah scoffed. "Rymar, she's going to be rooting for her brother. Ayla knows that, and she's hyper-aware of the strong family bonds people have up here. She would never say something to Jeera that might sound bad about Zasen."

Which was another good point. "So who is she into?" I asked. "One of them?"

"I think it's more that Ayla's currently interested in the idea it's allowed. That she could find a man attractive, act on it, and not die because of it. In her mind, any attraction led to marriage, babies, and then death. It sounds to me like she's finally breaking that cycle."

I nodded. "Okay. I guess this means I need to talk to the guys, huh?"

"I handled that," she promised. "I also told Ayla I'd handle it, that she can come over at any time and talk if she needs to, and all the basic things. I'm pretty much faking this whole big sister role, but she makes it easy."

"Shit, she makes everything easy." But I found myself smiling as I said that. "She's impressive, you know? I can't believe she's only been here a few months. It feels like she's a completely different person, and yet there were hints of this even that first day."

"Ofwhat?"

I made a gesture towards the house. "Of her. Of this strong, brilliant, and independent woman."

Which made Saveah grab my shoulder, making me face her again. "Are you into her too?"

"What? No!" I scoffed just to prove the point. "I'm starting something with Qavan, remember?"

"Because you sound like you might think she's pretty amazing."

"I do," I assured her. "Ayla is amazing, Saveah. She's also sweet, innocent, and naive. She's been sheltered, abused, and terrorized. Never mind that I promised her that she's my friend. Just a friend, I won't take anything wrong, and all of that. See, Ayla needs someone to look out for her first, and I'm going to do that."

"I'm doing that," Saveah said.

"And I'm a man," I countered. "A horrible, terrifying penis owner who is going to be nothing at all like the men she knew down there. I'm also the guy reminding those two that it doesn't matter how beautiful she is, or how feminine she seems, or anything else that gets their dicks hard. Ayla is off-limits until she understands one very important thing."

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