Page 62 of The Lost Art of Finding Where You Belong

“We aren’t expecting to see you for days, don’t kid yourself,” Nisal assured him.

“Great,” Perian said. “Because I love you all, I really do, but—”

“You need to have lots of sex with the man of your dreams?” Molun suggested.

“That!” Perian agreed triumphantly. “And Bennan had to talk me out of panicking this morning about him not actually coming back, and I know that’s really silly, but if I concentrate on everything that I’m going to do to him when he gets back, that seems to help.”

“Oh, Perian.”

And right there in the hall, they tugged him to a stop and all wrapped their arms around him in a massive hug.

Aww. A little part of Perian had thought they might dismiss his fears or tell him he was beingsilly.

His arms were smushed between all of them, but he grabbed every bit of them that he could and held on, just basking in their presence and the fact they cared about him—even when he was being illogical.

“Come on,” Molun finally said. “I’m hungry.”

That got them in motion again, which was also good, because Perian would probably not have moved away from them, and it wouldn’t have been comfortable to try to sleep standing upright in the hallway.

Dinner was noisy and boisterous as always, and Perian let the laughter and good cheer wash over him, trying to absorb it and let it wash away the worry that niggled in those dark corners of his mind. These were people who dealt with this sort of thing all the time, who went out into danger or had people they cared about go out into danger regularly.

He supposed this probablywasthe way to deal with it. You kept living your life, used humor as often as possible, and waited for the people you cared about to come home. Most of the time, it probably worked.

On those terrible occasions where it didn’t, surely you’d be hit with grief when you found out the news no matter what, so worrying about it beforehand offered no benefits. He sucked in a breath, blew it out, and realized he’d been pushing his food around on his plate. Deliberately, he made himself eat while he tried to pay attention to what people were saying.

Dinner began to break up, and clumps of Mage Warriors and Warriors started to stand up and move away. As always, Chamis was one of the first to stand up, but then the most amazing thing happened. Instead of leaving, he circled around the table until he was standing next to Bennan, who glanced up and then froze, staring like this was the most amazing thing that had ever happened to him.

Chamis leaned down and said something to Bennan that was too quiet for Perian to hear from across the table. Bennan nodded, and without even looking at any of them, without saying so much as a goodbye, he rose and followed the other man out of the room.

Perian didn’t realize he was grinning like an idiot until Molun nudged him.

“What isthatsmile for?” he wanted to know.

Nisal sounded amused. “Are you proud of yourself?”

Perian shook his head. “I’m proud ofthem,” he said happily. “So proud.”

Nisal smiled. “Oh, Perian.”

“What’s going on?” Molun asked.

Arvus said, “I think Perian wants everyone to be as happy as he is.”

“So much,” he agreed, still smiling. “I mean, if everyone else could not have to deal with the separation anxiety, that would be even better. And people who don’t want partners, they obviously don’t have to have them. But truly genuinely happy with the person or people you care for and them caring for you?” He gave a happy sigh. “I want that for everyone.”

Molun squeezed his arm. “That’s really sweet. What actually happened?”

“I gave a nudge,” Perian said, shrugging. “It seems like maybe it worked.”

Onadal shot Perian a stern look. “Are you going to try to pair up everyone in my training yard?”

Perian had kind of forgotten he was there. “Uh, only if their partner or partners is there, and they’re interested?”

He heard Nisal and Molun snort and gathered that probably wasn’t the expected answer.

Onadal said, “You’re going back to work as soon as your arm is better, you hear?”

But Perian was sure there was a gleam of amusement in his eye.

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