Chapter 27
Claudio was, it turned out, having an easier time keeping up with Orion’s current duelling obsession than usual. He wasn’t entirely certain why. Part of him felt terribly distracted, wondering what Matty was up to.
Part of him felt freer, looser, than he ever had before.
As if he could lunge just that much further and recover, reach those extra inches, get that much more height.
It was utterly exhilarating and demanding enough to keep his mind from skittering against what was coming next.
What had to come next. He would never have a better point for this conversation with Orion.
The duelling, at least, came naturally. They’d agreed on a points-based match, and Claudio was currently ahead, three to two, first to five won.
Orion got a touch, though Claudio shifted out of the way and didn’t take the brunt on his shoulder.
He made a note to talk to Matty about the duelling and specifically the bruises.
He wasn’t sure what Matty’s standard or current practice was.
But the only people who’d seen him less than fully dressed in decades were either duellists and fighters or Penelopes.
Then he saw a chance, lunged, and got a solid hit on Orion’s knee.
Somewhat to his surprise, Orion stuck his hands up. “Hold. And yield the match.” As soon as Claudio did the same, Orion shook his head. “You’re at your best today.” Then he tilted his head. “What happened, and who should I be talking to about it?”
Claudio rocked onto his back foot for a moment, then snorted. “You think there’s someone involved?”
“Plausible grammar of magical change. I did learn that one in school. Though not by that name. Noun, though, I think, not something else.” The phrase had come from Gabe while they were in Germany.
He had an argument— a decent one— that while a lot of magical acts were verbs, and most of the rest were adjectives or adverbs, there were some nouns in the mix.
Orion cocked his head, taking a couple of steps back, paused to stretch out that knee, and then went off for the keep-cold box and something to drink.
Claudio took the chance that was sitting there and hopped up on the half-wall between the seating area and the salle again.
Orion handed over a bottle and settled beside him, which meant they could both look out at the unobjectionable and uncomplicated salle.
“Cheers.” Claudio offered the bottle, Orion clinked the neck with his, and then just waited.
It was a particularly active sort of waiting.
Orion had a number of moods, and some of them were slow-building and quiet.
More were a specific flavour of energetic, the same kind of energy that Matty brought to conversations.
Claudio would be chewing on that one for a bit. Later. “So. I’m seeing someone.”
There. Four words. That was easy enough. He felt Orion inhale next to him, then heard the careful, “Someone I know, then?”
“Know of. Don’t know if you’ve been in the same place for a bit? I don’t keep track of everywhere you are.” It was true. He was teasing, a bit too, and putting off the complicated bit, of course.
“And you are not a man of simple locations. How many bits of Albion have you been in since I saw you last?” Orion asked.
“Are we counting Trellech as one?” That slipped out before Claudio thought better of the hint.
But of course, he was usually in at least two in a given week, between the Ministry meeting and the Penelopes’ offices.
Often more, depending on the week, but the plural didn’t actually give anything away.
Orion shrugged, and Claudio took a minute to count them up.
Last Friday had been a Trellech office day.
Saturday he’d been in three different places across Wales.
Sunday he’d seen Minerva and been at home for supper with Mother.
Monday had involved two spots, thankfully both near portals in Scotland.
Tuesday had three stops in Trellech besides the Ministry and Matty’s flat.
And yesterday had been eight. No, nine, there’d been that twenty minutes in Canterbury.
Plus two more today. “Twenty-four, with no duplicates.”
Orion snorted. “Keeps you out of trouble.” Then he shifted. “Or does it?” The tone was now curious. “So. Tell me about whoever it is. Start somewhere, go on until you get to something informative?”
Claudio took a deep breath. “So. Someone I met through work.” That also didn’t exactly narrow it down.
“Not a Penelope, before you ask. Or Guard. A couple of years behind me at Schola. Clever, stubborn, committed to doing the thing that needs doing the best way possible even if it tears him apart.” The pronoun came out a bit before Claudio was ready for it, but there it was, sitting there.
He knew Orion had heard it. Now, he could only wait, quivering, though he didn’t think that entirely showed.
“Him.” That was Orion’s utterly neutral voice. “What House, then? And what name should I be using for the man?”
Now Claudio shivered. He couldn’t quite look at Orion. He kept staring across the salle into the corner. Orion let out a little sigh, hopped down into the seating area, and came back around to look into Claudio’s face, the smooth grey rock in his hands. “Here.”
Claudio reached out for it automatically, and as soon as he did, there was the steady physical weight of it, and the weight of everything it meant.
And there were Orion’s hands, cupped around his, so he wouldn’t drop it.
Orion just stood there for a moment, three breaths, before he asked, as gently as Claudio had ever heard him. “You were scared I’d do what?”
“I don’t know.” Claudio managed to look up now, to meet Orion’s eyes, then to look away again.
Orion grunted, tugging him down by the shoulder, so they were forehead to forehead.
No need to worry about where they were looking.
“I’ve never done this before. Wanted something with someone. The physical and the emotional.”
“Right.” That was Orion beginning to put all the strategy into play now. “House, name, other relevant details? You’re a trained and entirely competent Penelope. I know you know how to do reports even when your wits are still catching up with events.”
That made Claudio chuckle, just a little, breaking the trembling.
“Matthew Lawson. I called him Matty on Tuesday, and he liked that. We both like that. Boar House, Cammie’s year.
I asked her about him a while back, before.
When it was just going out for drinks after our meeting and not wanting to put my foot in something.
She was pretty sure he didn’t care for women like that, suspected the men. ”
“Did you know you might— I mean.” And then Orion realised something, and took a step back, blinking at Claudio. Not upset, but that sort of thunderclap of realisation. “Are you saying he’s rather like me, then? Cleverer than me, I bet. Not so far off in looks, if I remember right.”
Claudio’s chin came up, but he couldn’t actually argue against it.
Dark hair, sturdy, good height, broad shoulders, same overall build.
He should not think about the ways things had been physical last night, where that strength had been entirely appealing, on top of all the other enticingly interesting parts. “You’re not stupid, Orion.”
It was the old line, and it was something to say until he figured out what else.
He could say the safe thing or the risky one.
He flung himself at the risk now, his voice going a little more prim than he’d wanted, but it would do.
“I have not yet had the opportunity to discover if he’s as grumpy in the morning as you are. ”
Orion took two steps back, and then he was bending over, hands braced on his thighs, hooting with laughter.
It was contagious. It got Claudio laughing too, shaking the nerves out of him.
Their laughter fed off each other for a good two minutes before Orion finally straightened up.
“All right. So how do we give you that chance, then?”
“That’s your question?” Claudio had honestly not been sure what he’d hoped for or wanted or would get from this conversation. He’d been fairly sure, when he wasn’t all nerves about it, that it would be fine in the end. But he’d expected something more awkward first.
“Well, also when do we get to meet him properly? Does he duel? And a number of questions about what it means for all the other bits of your life,” Orion said. “Strategy. You keep me around for strategy and tactics.”
“Also other reasons,” Claudio protested.
“Loyalty and good humour, an excellent set of card skills, a duelling partner, and someone I can tell things to and it’ll be all right.
Putting those in no particular order, mind.
It’s—” He couldn’t say the next part; he didn’t know how to.
About how it wouldn’t change things. For one thing, it probably would.
Orion falling for Hypatia had, though in a way that had given Claudio two fiercely clever and delightful sisters, a near enough niece to be going on with, and a lot of pleasure.
Then he tilted his head. “You’re not being odd about this? ”
“Define odd in this context?” Orion put one foot back, stretching in the way that meant the movement was helpful. Then he straightened up and shrugged before stretching out one shoulder, the one that tended to cramp up on him.