Page 22 of The Lost Art of Finding Where You Belong

“This is not it.”

Perian huffed a breath. “This is Brannal’s room.”

They kept staring for a long moment, and then their face lit up. “This is Brannal’s room.”

He pressed his lips together and tried not to laugh. “Yes, it is.”

Nisal turned to him excitedly and pushed their finger into his chest.

“Peri, this isBrannal’sroom.”

Perian nodded, not sure about the nickname but not about to object right now. “Right.”

Poke, poke.

“You know what this means?” they asked.

“I have no idea,” he said, entertained but entirely confused.

“You should be less sad here. Because Brannal is all around you.”

Perian blew out a breath, touched. He’d expected a drunken non sequitur, and instead, they’d hit him right in the gut withfeelings.

“Itisnice to have these reminders,” he agreed. “I mean, it would be better if he were actually here, but it’s a good reminder that he’s coming back, and if I curl up in the bed, it still smells a bit like him.”

Nisal’s face lit up with curiosity.

“Does it really? Lemme see.”

Perian considered trying to protest, but in the end just gave in to the inevitable and let them push their way into the bedroom and face plant on the bed. There was the sound of very loud sniffing.

“Uh… maybe? What does Brannal smell like?”

Perian could only laugh and come to flop onto the bed next to them.

“It’s kind of hard to describe what another person smells like. Brannal smells like Brannal.”

They tilted a bit to the side so they weren’t face-first in the blanket anymore.

“That is… not helpful,” they said, squinting at him like he was defying logic.

“I know,” he agreed. “Uh… he smells like leather, usually, since he’s all done up in his Mage Warrior garb.”

Nisal managed to raise their hand.

“I wear leather. Do I smell like Brannal?”

They looked a mixture of intrigued and a bit alarmed by this prospect.

Oh, wow, this was going to be even more complicated than he’d expected.

“You both have that smell in common,” he clarified.

They considered this and then nodded, rubbing their cheek against the blanket as a result.

“Ooh, soft.”

Perian thought maybe that was going to be the end of it, but then they demanded, “What else?”

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