"What are you two looking at?" Gilded asked, following our gaze with a frown.
His eyes landed on the page on Caerwyn.
Shit.
He looked surprised for a moment, though probably at our reactions to it more than anything else, then—
"Wait. Does that have anything to do with the dragon in that viral video?!"
…Goddamnit. Why was he so clever?!
Well, whatever. It's not like we were going to confirm.
"None of your business," Llewellyn said immediately.
Gilded and Tiernan both looked unimpressed.
I sighed. Gilded was one thing, but I knew Llewellyn and the TAPESTRY guys were close, especially Tiernan.
In the end we managed to put them off for the time being. Though I don't think they bought it in the slightest.
The good news was that I managed to convince Tiernan to leave his books with us on the promise that we'd tell him as soon as we could. I planned on using them in my Core Partition as soon as possible.
"Do you think we should actually tell them?" I asked Llewellyn with a sigh when they left.
I mean, they seemed trustworthy. They'd both had our backs more than once, and it would be nice if Gléonwon had more people visiting him since we had so much going on and couldn't always go. The problem was… the more people knew about him, the bigger the risk.
"Mmh," Llewellyn said. "I don't think they're a problem, but let's ask Gléonwon first. If he's comfortable with it, I've nothing against it. However, we need to test that he has a way to teleport away or contact us if something goes wrong—for example, if Gilded and Tiernan are followed there and someone attacks him when he's alone. So we can go and help."
Those were good points.
Even though I was grateful they'd come over to check on Llewellyn and share what they knew, I was glad to see them leave.
Especially because a moment later the System pinged with—
[System Alert: Partner Llewellyn's Vital Signs need sustained proximity to stabilize! Physical contact is recommended for increased Healing Bonus!]
So anyway.
I crowded Llewellyn against the refrigerator and kissed him.
Llewellyn let me get away with it for approximately five seconds before flipping us around.
Pfttt.
Well. That was great too.
"Really?" I said, grinning. "Even now?"
Llewellyn pressed flush against me and we were making out again.
…Damn. I melted against the refrigerator door and Llewellyn's arm sneaked around me, holding me up.
Soon enough, Penguin and Lumos started running around us, chirping and barking.
Llewellyn broke the kiss, still pressed close, and I looked down at them.
"What is it? Would you like to go and play in Llewellyn's Core Partition?"
Penguin stopped for a moment, then chirped enthusiastically.
He seemed to really like the place. One day I should go and check what kind of setup they had there.
"System?" Llewellyn asked. "Can you teleport them?"
A few moments later they were gone, and I was pinned to the refrigerator, wrists on each side of my head, and we were making out again.
Llewellyn's eyes were clear, if a bit hazy because of the kissing. Looked like the proximity had really helped.
I knew this was almost normal now but—uh… when he kissed me again my stomach swooped.
"…"
Damn, I really liked him.
Anyway.
"We could go too?" I asked into the next kiss. "If you'd like some fresh air."
He was better already, but… it might help.
"Mmh," Llewellyn said. "No. Shower and then bed?"
Yeah, okay, I liked that plan too.
***
Full-body making out in Llewellyn's gigantic shower was always the best.
And… well. Llewellyn clearly didn't seem off anymore. In fact, touching properly, with clothes out of the way, really seemed to increase his recovery speed tenfold.
As I was distracted looking for a towel to dry my hair, Llewellyn had somehow changed the bedsheets with clean ones.
Then he just dragged me into bed where we… resumed kissing.
Okay, maybe we were still a bit too hungover for anything more, but… making out like this was still amazing.
Though, I had to admit—
"Hey," I said, tugging his head back a bit to look at him. Something was gnawing at me. I hesitated. "Do you think we're… going too fast?"
Llewellyn paused, lifting himself up a bit to look down at me. "Do you?"
I mean…
Honestly? No.
The time had been short, but we'd been through a lot. I'd died, we generally had to fight at least one Distorted Realm a week if not more, we'd had to deal with multiple Destabilized Artifacts, the Alliance was after us, I'd been doxxed, my flat had been bombed…
Either of us could die again any moment. It felt a bit stupid to waste time.
Still.
This didn't feel like the way normal people approached this stuff. Though… well, I wouldn't know.
"No," I said. "I really don't. But, objectively, it probably is. That's why I'm asking."
"Then stop thinking about it. I'm fine with it."
That was the thing though.
"Why?"
Llewellyn hesitated a moment, hovering close, eyes finding mine.
"Because I like you," he said.
"…"
Uh.
My stomach did something weird.
He was also currently naked which wasn't helping at all!
Llewellyn's face cycled through different expressions, as if he was trying to get himself to speak. Or maybe he was reacting to whatever he was getting off me through the bond.
"I'm… more at ease when you're around," he said after a moment. His voice had gone rougher. "And when you're gone I try to come up with reasons to meet again, which is a waste of energy when you could just be here all the time—if… you want. You can keep up with me in Distorted Realms. You're better than me at them in some respects, even though you have less training and experience. You never ask for anything—which is rather annoying, because I want to do things for you and often I don't know what would be welcome." His ears had gone red. Uh. "I'm… just… listing things that come to mind. None of that is really the reason, except that I… like you."
"…"
I was dying. What the hell.
I pulled him into a kiss immediately.
I… had to say something back!
But I couldn't get the words out.
Llewellyn snorted. "I can feel you spiraling through the bond," he said, kissing down my throat. "It's fine."
It was not fine! I had to say it!
My heart was probably going to leap out of my chest any moment.
I tugged Llewellyn's head up again, found his mouth, and kissed him.
Damn.
…I was having an internal meltdown so kissing was perfect right now.
But… I had to say it.
"…"
Goddamnit.
Why was it so difficult!
"I— um—like you— too," I managed. I was feeling mortified and unmoored and… really hot all over. And a bit desperate. I craned my neck up for another kiss. "A whole lot. Obviously."
"…"
Llewellyn stilled. He swallowed. The bond went—
I found his lips again and the kiss escalated for a few moments, getting rather intense.
Or maybe I was feeling too possessive.
"Are you fine, though?" I asked after a moment, when things slowed down again, kissing him lightly. "Still feeling unstable?"
"Perfectly fine," Llewellyn said, mouthing under my ear. "Back to normal."
Well, the problem was… was his 'normal' okay?! And how would I know if he was lying?
I narrowed my eyes.
"System?" I asked. "How is Llewellyn doing?"
If his normal was actually not normal, I couldn't trust the bond either.
The System pinged.
[System Notification: Partner Llewellyn's Vital Signs have fully stabilized. Stabilization accelerated via physical contact. Partner Llewellyn is stable.]
"See?" Llewellyn said, smug.
I narrowed my eyes again.
I was fairly sure that didn't mean the problem had been completely solved, but… I supposed it was fine for now. I could ask the System for details later.
As for now, we could definitely kiss more, so… we did.
"We still have that training session pending," Llewellyn said, kissing down my throat. "Come fight me. You'll see I'm fine."
…Was this guy for real?!
Still. It wasn't a bad idea.
"Let's do it," I said, tugging him up into another kiss.
***
It was close to noon now.
Thankfully we were properly awake and not that hungover anymore, so we just put clothes on and got ready for our training, bantering throughout.
Was it weird that I was looking forward to this? We'd been putting it off for ages. The System had poked us to do it, we'd both wanted to do it… but we hadn't had the time.
Besides, it was my chance to see how well Llewellyn was really doing before we had to fight an actual threat. Not to mention… I'd learnt a lot since our last training session together. I wondered how any of that would hold up in a fight against Llewellyn.
"Ready?" Llewellyn asked.
Ha! I was more than ready.
"Ready to kick your ass," I said with a grin, fixing my shirt.
Llewellyn snorted.
"We'll see about that. System," he called.
The System chimed.
[Relocation in 3… 2… 1…]
As soon as we materialized—
"OHO!" someone yelled. "Looks like the captain's arranged entertainment fer the midday watch!"
…What the hell?! This wasn't our usual dojo!!!