Chapter Twenty-Six #2
“But,” Molun continued, “that doesn’t mean that has to be the rule with you if it doesn’t fit.”
Trill frowned. “But you didn’t like it when you thought I had sex body.”
Molun smiled faintly. “True. But I think that was mostly because we didn’t discuss it beforehand.
” He shrugged. “And maybe a little bit of jealousy, if I’m being honest. But that doesn’t mean we still can’t talk about it and figure out what works for all of us.
If you get that wandering feeling or you realize you need to feed from more people than just us and you want it to be through sex, then we try that.
I think we need to talk about it and not bottle stuff up inside.
I don’t want you to feel guilty or me to feel pouty or—or Arvus to defy all expectations and break all the stones in the bedroom in a temper tantrum! ”
One of Arvus’s eyebrows rose, but he didn’t object.
Molun smiled at Trill. “We don’t want to hold you to anything unrealistic or anything that might do you harm. We’ve shared a few sexy times with Perian and Brannal, but we’ve never been in a full relationship with a child of two worlds before, and we want to get it right.”
“I’ve never really been in a relationship at all,” Trill admitted. “And I definitely want to get it right. But that all sounds really sensible. I, uh, will probably worry a lot about making you unhappy, especially at first. But I’ll keep working on it.”
“That’s all any of us can do,” Arvus agreed with a soft smile.
“Molun and I have been in a relationship for years, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have things to learn about being in a relationship with you.
The three of us together is different from anything we’ve done so far.
That makes all of us new, and it makes this something for all of us to work on. ”
Trill nodded. “Do you always know the right thing to say?”
“He always does,” Molun agreed with a grin. “Unlike me, who tends either to get it spectacularly right or totally wrong.”
Trill couldn’t help but laugh. It made him feel better about inevitably messing up. Because he was bound to, wasn’t he? But it seemed like they all expected to do that, and that was just… part of being in a relationship?
“Thank you for discussing this with me,” Trill said earnestly. “My, uh, my mom and my grandmother didn’t like to talk things out or explain things very much. I got pretty used to living like that.”
Never quite sure what would set them off. Never supposed to put his own feelings above theirs.
Molun smacked a big kiss to his cheek. “Of course, honey. I mean, there are plenty of times we don’t like to talk, if you know what I mean.” He gave the most ridiculous leer, so it was really impossible to miss his meaning, and Trill couldn’t help but smile.
More seriously, though he was smiling, too, Arvus added, “But our relationship works because we talk to one another, and we’re sure that will be even more important with three of us. Communication is what lets us grow. And we want to do that together.”
Trill couldn’t help but smile. “Your acceptance means a lot to me. Thank you.”
Arvus slipped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him close.
“Well,” Molun admitted, “I guess I can’t promise we would have accepted everything quite so quickly if we hadn't met Perian first, but I’m confident we would have figured it out anyway, given how much we care about you. We accepted him, after all, even though it was a shock.”
“I can’t really imagine,” Trill said.
When he envisioned it, it ended in fire or other dramatic deaths. What must it have been like for Perian, who didn’t even realize what he was?
Molun said, “Well, the thing is, by the time Cormal announced that Perian was a carnalion, we’d been friends for months.
If there was one thing we knew, it was that he’d never hurt us.
Arvus told me all about how Brannal had said the two of them needed to pleasure themselves while I was unconscious after my injury and Perian was sleeping next to me.
I mean, honestly, I’m not sure how he didn’t figure everything out at that point. ”
Arvus’s expression was rueful. “I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to anything that wasn’t you, baby.”
Molun said, “Aww,” and gave Arvus a kiss, which he returned gently.
Arvus continued, “Truly, though, almost as soon as Cormal said it, a lot of things suddenly started to make sense. I mean, apart from that bit about Perian being dangerous. As soon as I understood that he could heal people, it was obvious what he’d been doing with Molun.
For that alone, I would care for him and protect him forever. ”
“I’m so glad he was there,” Trill said fervently.
They both nodded rapidly.
“Do you think he’d like me to demonstrate more healing of your leg?” Trill asked.
“I think he’d appreciate that very much,” Arvus agreed.
“Maybe we’d better talk about it,” Molun suggested. “I wouldn’t want to take away from anything for the Prince.”
Ah, Trill could see why they might think that.
“As long as the two of you aren’t going to start withholding sex, and assuming Brannal isn’t doing so with Perian, we would probably be fine.
I mean, unless we decide to try something as extreme as what Perian did the first time.
But I’m not sure that’s even a thing that could happen.
” He made a face. “I mean, I still don’t understand how it happened last time. ”
But since normal humans couldn’t see the energy when it was pulled out by demons, maybe it sort of made sense that whatever had happened, the Prince hadn’t been visible to them.
That he’d been visible to his sister could perhaps be explained in that he’d somehow tied himself to her, so he was an extension of her in some way.
That Perian could render him visible to everyone was… not something that Trill would have said was possible, and he was very glad to be wrong.
“Can we go ask?” he asked.
“Of course.”
They found Perian and Brannal in the sitting room, and Perian closed his book as soon as he saw them.
“Good walk?” he asked.
“Good talk,” Arvus corrected.
Perian grinned. “I’m glad.”
Trill said, “I was wondering if you wanted a walk-through of how I heal Molun’s leg.”
Perian perked up immediately. “Oh, yes, please. Brannal and I had intended to do more experiments, but the only way to really do that was for Brannal to be injured.” His mouth flattened for a moment.
“And I couldn’t stand that. Accidents are one thing, but deliberately hurting him so I could try to heal him? ” He shuddered. “Just, no.”
Trill nodded in understanding. He couldn’t imagine deliberately hurting Molun or Arvus. Brannal was looking at Perian with pure affection on his face.
“But we don’t want to take any energy away from the Prince,” Molun interjected immediately.
Perian was already shaking his head. “I spoke to him earlier. We agreed to put everything on hold until we hear back from Trill’s friend, one way or the other.
If they come, we might have more answers.
If they don’t, then we can reassess. He doesn’t want to do anything that might risk harm to me unnecessarily.
I’d try it anyway, of course, but I agree that it makes more sense to wait until we hear back.
If it’s not likely to do much good, then it does seem silly to take needless risks. ”
Brannal’s tone was sardonic. “Note how he sounds so reasonable.”
Molun laughed. “Oh, is this the cleaned-up version?”
Perian shrugged and didn’t look particularly apologetic. The description of what had happened before certainly suggested that Perian would put himself at risk to try to keep others he cared about safe and well.
“I’m assuming that you’ve fed recently and regularly?” Trill asked.
Perian laughed. “You assume correctly. Brannal takes very good care of me.”
“The other way around,” Brannal assured them.
Trill really liked these two.
“Molun, how about you take a seat so you’ll be more comfortable,” Trill suggested.
He obediently sat down, Arvus and Brannal taking two of the other chairs, leaving Perian and Trill standing near Molun.
“Now, I’ve always been taught that you need to touch in order to heal, but given what you’ve done for the Prince, I’m not actually sure that’s true—or at least that it’s not necessarily true for you. But I think it’s still a good place to start.”
Perian nodded. “I spent a lot of time with Molun and Renny and Kee when I wasn’t touching them, but I also touched Molun a lot, especially once he was injured.
Less touching Renny, but we sat near one another and hugged and stuff, so I can’t say for sure.
Once Molun was hurt, I felt like I needed to be constantly near him, and I was usually cuddled up to him or holding his hand.
But I don’t know if that was necessary, like you said.
It might also have been me panicking about the whole terrible injury thing. ”
Trill smiled. “Well, you did such a wonderful job that Molun is still here with us right now, and let me tell you how his injury does not slow him down where it counts.”
Molun preened, Brannal groaned, and Perian laughed. Arvus just looked amused.
“That doesn’t surprise me in the slightest,” Perian said happily.
“It always helps me to remember that. When you’re healing, I mean,” Trill clarified. “We’re working on fixing a physical injury, but we’re not actually changing anything fundamental about the person. It might go below the surface, of course, but it’s all about the body.”
Perian had a serious expression on his face now, like he was really taking in everything that Trill was saying. Trill had never been a teacher before, and he hoped he got this right. But given that Perian had already been instinctively healing people, Trill wasn’t too worried.