Chapter Twenty-Five #2
“You matter to me as well,” Zyr said. “And I’ve no wish to leave your side. However… I’m struggling to attend. Not from displeasure. Merely confusion. May I put my arms around you?”
Weird to hear you matter to me, from someone not family, and believe it.
Stranger still, Robin had zero urge to run to the hills at the emotional attachment.
People left too easily. But not Zyr. Not his obsessive beithir, who clung to Robin whenever he was allowed.
Who got lost in his own head, but always let Robin know.
“I like how you asked, beithir. You may.”
Robin put his arms around Zyr too, draped them loose around his middle, fingers hooked in his shirt, chin at his shoulder angled to not get a horn in the face, other hand resting at the base of his tail.
“Ever try talking out your thoughts when you struggle to be present?” he asked. “Go full Notes from the Underground without the creepy narrator.”
“Until now, there’s been no one to speak to.
And silence has never bothered me.” Zyr sighed, his arms solid and grounding.
“I’m certain your brother means well by his offer.
The value of an allotment granted as shelter to someone under threat, with treasures to protect, is incalculable. Even if to share.”
“But?”
“But…” Zyr hesitated, as he so rarely did. “You’ll die very soon. I’ll have no further value to your House. Only debt. The sort of debt that would leave me honor bound to offer more than I am willing to give.”
Robin got it.
It made sense.
Fae were fae, and they dealt with shit like this like fae. Like how humans handled things like humans: stupidly.
If they bonded, it’d be a different story. From what Zyr had said, it worked a little like marriage in community property states. Everything assumed to be shared. Hell, Zyr only had his current allotment because of his past bond, and that didn’t seem to bother him.
Bond, and they’d both live longer if they survived the week, and it’d be fine. Safe, even.
Safe, and Zyr tied to a mind that might one day not react to medication.
Someone who might lash out just because on a bad day, with no escape.
That aside, Robin liked his world. He wanted to go to hockey games, have a purpose in his work, and see his family.
He didn’t want to give up the monthly rope tying class he taught, or his friends at the dungeon.
Zyr didn’t even like leaving his library, let alone his world.
So, yeah, he got it. A handful of decades, then a dead Robin. Debt. Better be killed now than give up his other treasures.
Robin had jinxed it, just now, thinking Zyr wouldn’t leave.
He felt like throwing up.
“Yeah,” Robin said, instead of ruining Zyr’s shirt with the remnants of his lunch.
“Okay. I need to go take more time off, in that case. Tell them I have a family thing for the next couple weeks. Take me to Banyan tomorrow so I can hitch a ride with Talia? Everil can bring me here when I leave work.”
“Of course,” Zyr replied. Then, carefully, “I’ll speak to the Solstice Kings, while I’m there. It may be they’ve some remedy in mind that I’ve not thought of.”
“Yeah?”
“I’ve no intention of simply showing my throat, Treasure. I promise you that.” That damn tip-toe talking Zyr did sometimes, when Robin was in a place, thrown off and throwing the unseelie off in turn.
Robin twisted his fingers tight in Zyr’s shirt and pressed his face harder against his neck, glasses forced up again, tangling in his hair.
“Promise accepted. Even if they haven’t, or don’t, I’m not mad,” he told Zyr’s throat, eyes shut. “At them or you. Just, we need to both be around long enough to warrant a talk about how we’ll work as a thing. Just do your best, beithir. That’s more than enough.”
“I’d much prefer you be angry at my potential demise than not,” Zyr said, tightening his grip that little bit more, so Robin could lean in further with a snort of amusement. “Do we not currently work as ‘a thing’? Is it my propensity for putting my boots on the furniture?”
He’d be mad later. Not at Zyr, just at his death. Not yet, though, with Zyr surprising a proper laugh from Robin. He leaned back enough to press a hard, decisive kiss to the corner of Zyr’s mouth.
“We work. Your propensity for being a little shit and all. I’m talking timeshare. Figuring out a way to keep functioning in my world and see you more than a couple times a week.”
“If your brother is willing to offer me an allotment, I suspect he would be willing to secure you a wisp’s services on a permanent basis.
And if he’s unable, I’m not without debts to call in.
” Another one of those hesitations, then his tail curled further around Robin’s calf.
“And when you wish it, I can accompany you.”
“Yeah?” Robin asked. He tugged at Zyr’s shirt, holding on how he would his horn if they were wrapped around each other where he could reach.
“Okay. If you come to the club with me, we can set it up so no one will talk to you without my permission, if you want. Or you can unleash the full force of your glower. Whichever. Get you more up to date Nora Roberts.”
“The club?”
And Robin, already imagining what it might be like to drop by the dungeon with Zyr at his side, grinned.