“You can’t take it back,” Trudy said, still facing the range. “But you want to.” Her voice was resigned.
“I would, if I could. You didn’t ask for it. And I… I won’t ask any more from you than you have already granted. I can… rent your guest room.” Danyen flailed to think of what television had shown him was typical of such arrangements. “I can clean, and perform tasks. A good part of my strength has returned; I can be more useful now. I believe there is seasonal work available nearby in return for compensation?”
Trudy turned to him, and there was agonized laughter in her face now. He had crowded close to her, craving her closeness as much as her forgiveness, forgetting the human need for personal space.
She touched his face gently. “I wanted you to stay,” she said softly. “But I didn’t want to trap you. Not like this.”
Danyen took her touch for permission and cradled her face in his hands. “I will try not to want too much of you,” he promised.
The human translation of his need and desire was hard between them, and Trudy’s expressive face went from sadness back to confusion. “I don’t think I understand,” she said, flustered and blushing.
“Neither do I,” said Rikard from the doorway, and Danyen dropped his hands away from Trudy to face the man he wanted just as much.
Danyen looked… different.
Rikard had become accustomed to an edge of exhaustion around the dragon, a feeling of being stretched too thin. But it wasn’t just the morning sun coming through the kitchen windows that made him seem to shimmer and glow.
He moved with new energy and grace, effortlessly, and before Rikard could really react to the fact that he was cradling Trudy’s face and pressing against her like a cat in heat, Danyen was across the kitchen and dropping to his knees at Rikard’s feet.
“I’m not sure that this is necessary,” Rikard said dryly.
Danyen tipped his head up and looked at Rikard with his emerald green eyes. “I have wronged you and have no way to make it right. I have broken your trust in the worst possible way. I don’t even know how to ask for your forgiveness.”
“Telling me what you’ve done might be a good start,” Rikard suggested, glancing at Trudy, who looked as confused as he was, a hand pressed to her hot cheek.
Danyen stood, and as always, it took Rikard’s breath away at how tall and broad he was to stand beside. “I have made you my human anchors in this world. I know that you are true to each other only, and I cannot ask for a place in that, but I have no way of releasing you. I swear I did not know this could happen or I would have left much sooner and saved you this indignity.”
“What does that even mean?” Rikard asked impatiently. Danyen’s closeness made his thoughts feel sluggish and he was cross to have so little control over himself. If he were any closer to the man, they would be fencing; Danyen’s erection was pressing against his tight pants, and Rikard had to shift to keep his own arousal from escaping his bathrobe.
“I will always need you for the energy that my life relies on. We are… bound. Irreversibly. I never expected it to work this way, and will never ask for more than you do now.”
Trudy came to stand beside Rikard and slip her hand into his. It felt very crowded, the three of them so close in the center of the little kitchen. “
You mean, you still want us to… ah… draw the energy for you, but you can get more from us now? Now that we’re your… anchors.” Her voice was breathless and her hand in his squeezed with hope.
Danyen nodded, raking fingers through his dark hair, distress in every line of his body. “It is not the… traditional method, but nothing about this is traditional.”
“You’d get more yet if you were directly involved, though,” Rikard guessed. Then he stopped trying to be subtle about it. Danyen had enough formality for all of them together. “If you fucked us yourself.”
Danyen’s head bowed as if Rikard had just chastised him. “I cannot ask that of you,” he said mournfully.
At Rikard’s side, Trudy gave a single, nervous chuckle.
“I thought we were too old to be good anchors,” Rikard said bluntly.
“And boring,” Trudy added.
Danyen looked between them, guilt still marring his perfect features. “I am older than you are, and you have never bored me.”
“We’re old for humans,” Trudy reminded him. “And we’re not magical.”
“You are strong and beautiful and desirable,” Danyen said sincerely. “And there is more magic in you than any of us realized.”
He spread his fingers in demonstration and energy crackled between each digit.
At that moment, the kettle shrieked for attention from the stove and everyone jumped as if the whistle was a gunshot.
When Trudy’s heart had returned to a more reasonable pace, she walked over and turned off the gas. “Good heavens,” she said, laughing helplessly. “I don’t need any caffeine now.”