“Oh.”Tommick stared at him for another moment, something soft in it, before growing worried.“You’ve barely touched your brandy.”
Dorrimin had a bigger swallow, used to the burn enough not to choke.
Tommick watched his throat move, then jumped and turned to face Dorrimin’s mother, who was going to pretend she hadn’t seen that, but she had.Dorrimin had certainly seen it.He was decidedly drunk for a sober person.Tommick was pressed close, and his getting closer would have done that to anyone… except maybe Ollis, who preferred daintier men.
Tommick flashed that especially friendly, bright smile of his.“I’ve heard people say that decorations put people in the mood to spend money, that’s all.”
“It was a good idea,” Dorrimin said firmly.“And it won’t hurt anything to try.People will still need toilet scrubbers even if they don’t see them in the window.”
Ollis snorted again.“Sorry.That was just a very Dorri thing to say.”
“He’s marvelous,” Tommick sighed, then glared down at the glass in his hand.“I mean, it’s nice.”He cleared his throat.“How you support him.And take in his friends.And give them brandy.You don’t have to.”
“I don’t think he ate enough today.”Dorrimin didn’t mean to voice his suspicion, but he’d had some brandy too.
Tommick swung a glare his way.
“Not that I believe you aren’t capable of buying yourself food,” Dorrimin added, a bit more hesitant.“Although, would you like to learn to cook?I could show you.”
“I’ve been studying hard and wanted a break.That’s not immature.That’s what people do,” Tommick defended himself quietly.“I was planning to eat supper at home.”
“He’s just worrying again.”Ollis jumped in to embarrass him, and Dorrimin was going to remember that with the next beau she brought home.
“I can get you something else,” he offered Tommick sincerely, although Tommick had sunk down even lower and now their thighsweretouching.
They were also touching in other ways.Dorrimin realized with some surprise that he kept reaching over to brush hair from Tommick’s forehead.Tommick kept letting him.
“Oh.No, thank you.I don’t want to be trouble and anyway, I’m strangely tired.”Tommick’s glass was only half empty, so it couldn’t be that.
“You were trying to walk up a mountain with the wind pushing against you,” Dorrimin’s father chimed in still staring at his book.“You will likely be sore tomorrow.Use the…”
“…Soothing Liniment for Strains and Aches,” everyone but Tommick finished for him.He responded with a harrumph and a twitch of his mustache.
“We make it for ourselves, which is allowed, provided we don’t sell it to anyone,” Dorrimin explained to Tommick in a whisper.“Ours doesn’t feel nearly as greasy as some others.I could… I could help you with that too, if you need.”
He scowled in Ollis’ direction after that but his sister was now apparently pretending she couldn’t hear.
Tommick gazed at Dorrimin as if he couldn’t believe what was before him.
“We are friends, aren’t we?”Dorrimin wondered sincerely.“Of course I would help you.And you’re… you’re, if not family, then something like it.Are you sore now?”
“No.”Tommick’s voice was faint.He stared at Dorrimin for another moment, then jolted and looked around the room with a small self-conscious grin.“At least my yawning won’t be rude,” he offered pleasantly, although now that he’d mentioned it, exhaustion did explain why he kept slipping down and inching closer to Dorrimin.
“Do you want to sleep?”Dorrimin studied him intently, uncertain why Tommick gave him a quick, offended glance.
“Yes,” he admitted, “but this is nice.I don’t mind staying.”
“But you’ll…”
Dorrimin's protest was cut off by his mother.“Why don’t you make him more comfortable, Dorri?”
“Yeah, use Dorri as a pillow,” Ollis remarked, looking up from her nails and smirking.She could hear again, suddenly.Dorrimin wasdefinitelygoing to remember this.
Once he got over his mortification, that was, and the feverishly hot blush that surely Tommick would feel in a moment or two.
Fortunately, Tommick was too busy glancing from Ollis to Dorrimin’s mother to notice.He finally blinked rapidly several times before slowly turning to Dorrimin.
Dorrimin nodded, perhaps too eagerly.
