Page 44 of The Lost Art of Finding Where You Belong

Molun emerged from the water closet, and Arvus held up a handkerchief.

“A hand, if you please.”

It was wet a moment later, and Arvus carefully cleaned off yesterday’s salve.

“That’s really handy,” Perian said.

“Sure is,” Molun agreed cheerfully. “I can wet anything you like.” He came closer to look at the wound. “Looks like it’s all right.”

Perian nodded.

Arvus smeared more salve on and rebandaged it, then made sure that Perian had another tonic.

“Thank you both,” Perian said. “For last night and today. You’ve been wonderful.”

“You too,” Arvus assured him.

Perian scoffed a little, because he didn’t think he’d done much, but Molun reached out and squeezed his right hand.

“We mean it,” he told Perian earnestly. “Because I’m not saying we don’t have amazing sex on our own: obviously, we do. But it wasextraamazing with you last night, knowing you were watching us and getting off on it.”

Arvus nodded in agreement. “It really was.”

Perian thought back to his own show with Brannal, and he had to agree there had been an added factor of enjoyment knowing these two were watching and liking it so much. He nodded.

“Thank you. It really has been great. But I’m going to go get cleaned up and have breakfast.”

“You’re welcome to join us,” Molun offered.

But Perian shook his head. “No, the two of you need to start your day, and I need to start mine as well. I’ll see you later, allright?”

“Dinner?” Arvus suggested.

Perian nodded. “Yes, thank you.”

Part of him wondered if he was depending too heavily on them, but they seemed to enjoy it, and he enjoyed it, and he’d kind of had a trying couple of days… Arvus had said it was good to get support when it was on offer and you needed it. Perian would try to concentrate on that.

He was going off on his own right now because that was part of his routine, and Arvus and Molun had jobs to do, but they would get together again later just like they’d been doing all week.

“See you later,” Perian told them.

“If you wind up hurt again, I’m serious about figuring out how to throw fireballs,” Molun threatened.

Perian laughed. “Got it.”

He remembered to retrieve the shirt they’d discarded last night but didn’t bother to put it on, since he’d need a fresh one for the day, and headed back to Brannal’s room.

He went into the water closet and cleaned up, careful of his newly-bandaged arm. The help really had been nice.

Perian changed into clothes for the day, moving slowly to get everything done up without hurting himself, and then sat down at the table to enjoy the breakfast that was laid out for him because Brannal had wanted to make sure he was fed while he was away.

Perian had lots of people who cared for him now. It would be different when he went back home—although maybe he could also change things there. He didn’t think he was suddenly going to become best friends with his employees, but perhaps he could reduce some of the distance his father had imposed?

If things didn’t end badly here, he could hopefully have people come visit, just like he and Renny had talked about (even if gettingherthere was probably going to be a challenge, that didn’t mean it wouldn’t happen eventually).

It was beginning to feel like Perian had more options than ever before, and he relished them.

Chapter Nine

---