ROWAN
Two days after Gerald is removed from Essence, the apartment finally feels like ours again.
There are still calls waiting to be returned, statements none of us want to give twice, and enough paperwork sitting on the kitchen counter that Lev threatened to set it on fire before Amand moved it out of reach, but none of it feels urgent tonight.
Gerald is gone, his access is locked down, the gargoyle is dead, Medusa is safe, and for once there is nothing waiting on the other side of the door.
Lev is stretched across the couch with his head in my lap and his feet shoved under Amand’s thigh.
He stole one of my shirts after his shower and has been wearing it with nothing but underwear for the last hour, which would be distracting enough without him shifting every few minutes until the hem rides higher.
I drag my fingers through his curls while Amand keeps one hand around Lev’s ankle, and the whole thing is so familiar that it takes me a while to realize why it feels different.
Nobody is watching us now, timing how long Lev stays close to one of us or noting whether his magic settles faster when both of us touch him.
Nobody is waiting to ask what his scent does after sex or how long his camouflage holds after one of us leaves the room.
Lev can put his cold feet under Amand’s thigh because he is cold, and he can hook two fingers into my waistband because he likes knowing I'm there, and neither one means anything beyond what we decide it means.
Amand notices me staring and closes the folder resting on his lap. “You could just tell him to take the shirt off if you're going to keep looking at him like that.”
Lev opens one eye without lifting his head.
“I heard that, and I would like it noted that neither of you gets to complain about me wearing your clothes when you keep buying shirts large enough to qualify as bedding.” He shifts just enough to make the hem ride higher, which tells me he knows exactly what he is doing.
“I wasn't complaining,” I tell him, sliding my hand down to the back of his neck. “I can stare in my own house.”
Lev smiles and closes his eye again. “That sounded territorial enough that I'm choosing to take it as a compliment.”
Amand reaches over and tugs lightly at Lev’s ankle until he moves one foot farther beneath his leg. “You take most things as compliments if you work hard enough.”
“That is because I believe in myself.”
I feel the laugh move through Lev before I hear it, and some knot I didn't realize I was still carrying finally loosens. This is what Gerald never understood. He knew what the bond did to Lev’s body and what our magic did to his, but none of that explained why Lev annoys Amand on purpose, why he steals my shirts, or why both of us automatically make room when he crawls between us.
Amand looks down at the folder again but doesn't reopen it. “Essence sent another proposal.”
Lev groans and rolls onto his back so he can look at him. “I thought we agreed paperwork was banned after dinner.”
“We agreed you weren't allowed to burn it.”
“That sounds like a loophole.”
Amand’s mouth pulls slightly at one corner. “They are offering us independent contracts. We would choose the cases and work without direct supervision.”
Lev sits up slowly between us. “For Essence?”
“Technically.”
His expression answers before he does. “No. I still want the work, but I'm not building the next part of my life inside the company Gerald used to study me.”
I rub my thumb against the side of his neck. “Then we don’t. We open our own place, take the cases we want, and nobody gets access to us because they sign our checks.”
Amand nods. “That was my preference too.”
Lev looks between us before leaning back into me. “Fine. But one of you is doing the paperwork.”
Amand opens the folder again and taps one of the pages. “We can deal with the business side tomorrow.”
Lev reaches over, takes the folder from him, and drops it onto the coffee table. “Tomorrow sounds excellent. Tonight, I would like both of you to stop pretending there is anything in that folder more interesting than me.”
I pull him closer until his back settles against my chest, and Amand catches his chin long enough to kiss him.
Lev melts into it without hesitation, one hand sliding into Amand’s hair while the other finds mine where it rests against his stomach.
There is nothing frantic in it, nothing desperate or tied to fear.
When Amand pulls back, Lev turns his head toward me and kisses me next with the same slow certainty.
We stay like that for a while, trading touches and kisses without any urgency to make them become something else. Lev eventually ends up sideways across both of us again, one leg over Amand and his head against my shoulder, while my fingers trace lazy lines beneath the hem of the shirt he stole.
He goes quiet long enough that I start to think he is falling asleep.
Then he clears his throat.
Amand looks over immediately. “What?”
Lev scowls at him. “I was working up to something.”
“Then work.”
“That isn't helpful.”
I tighten my arm around his waist. “Take your time.”
Lev looks down at his own hand where it rests on my stomach, then reaches across himself until he catches Amand’s fingers too.
“I have spent a truly embarrassing amount of time avoiding saying something because every time I thought about it, either somebody was trying to kill us or biology was doing something weird.”
I feel my chest tighten before he gets any farther.
Lev glances up at me, then toward Amand. “I love you. Both of you. I have for a while, probably longer than I was willing to admit, and I'm saying it now because nobody is dying and nobody forced it out of me.”
For a second, neither of us answers.
Lev’s face starts changing immediately. “If you both make that expression much longer, I'm going to regret this and possibly become a wall.”
Amand moves first. He catches Lev by the back of the neck and kisses him hard enough to stop whatever threat was coming next, and I wrap both arms around Lev from behind until he is pinned between us.
When Amand finally pulls back, his forehead stays against Lev’s. “I love you too.”
I turn Lev toward me enough that he has to look at me. “So do I.”
His eyes go bright, and he tries to cover it with a crooked smile. “That was disgustingly sincere.”
“You started it.”
“I know. That was my first mistake.”
I kiss him before he can keep going, and this time he laughs against my mouth. When we settle again, he stays tucked between us with Amand’s hand resting over his thigh and my arm around his waist.
After a while, Lev looks toward the folder on the coffee table. “There was one useful thing in Gerald’s old Chameleon records.”
Amand hums softly. “The bond information.”
Lev nods. “My body is stable. It isn't still marching toward some mystery collapse we have not found yet. Your magic and venom are already part of my baseline now.”
I look down at him. “And you're comfortable with that?”
Lev twists enough to look back at me. “I was comfortable with you two before I knew what the biology was doing. Now I just know I'm not going to randomly drop dead because one of you spends too long at the grocery store.”
Amand gives him a flat look. “That was never the actual threshold.”
“You don't know that. Grocery stores are dangerous places.”
I snort, earning a glare from Lev that has no real heat behind it, and pull him tighter against me.