"I'm sorry, sir!" I yelped, trying to decide if I should go back to my room or hide in another.
The living room seemed like a bad idea. I certainly wasn't going to enter anyone else's private chambers, but the bathroom? I could use that! They wouldn't disturb me in there, and they'd forget I'd been in the wrong place in a few seconds.
But Drozel's next words crushed my half-formed plan. "Come here!Now!"
"Sir..." I tried
Softly, Omden said, "Be nice, baby."
"No," Drozel said before raising his voice again. "I don't hear you walking, Sylis."
My heart was pounding in my chest. They told me it was okay. They'd admitted they all did it, but that was vastly different from having a stranger burst into the middle of it! Such things were meant to be kept private, but I hadn't known. I'd thought the kitchen was a public area.
"I didn't realize I should knock," I said as I rounded the corner, keeping my eyes on the ground.
Drozel closed the distance between us, then hooked a finger under my chin, lifting my face from the floor. I could feel the tip of his claw denting the soft skin there, and the way his thumb touched my jawline was gentle. It was his weird Dragon eyes that made my heart trip.
Green. Not bright green, but the muddy sort we found growing on trees. Lessa would know the name of it, but to me they looked similar to Tobias's. Light, but not pale. Not blue. Not like the Righteous.
Drozel ran his thumb along my jaw a second time, making the hair there crackle. "Growing a beard?"
"I didn't think I'd be allowed a razor."
He murmured. "The beard makes you look older. I like how it defines your jaw." Then he let my face go and dropped his hand down on my shoulder. "And if you catch me kissing my partners?"
"Lessa's just a friend," Omden countered.
"I'm trying to use terms he'd understand," Drozel explained.
Which made Omden grin. His eyes were on me, acting like that smile was meant for me, and it made a little curl form on my own lips. Immediately, the fear I'd been fighting began to evaporate.
"We should start at the beginning," Omden said, moving closer - and leaning in to kiss Drozel's neck as he passed the man. "Come, Sylis. You need to be sitting instead of standing. Baby, we both are going to need a tea. The warm kind."
Drozel's tail flicked once. "Only because you asked nicely."
Omden chuckled as he guided me to the couch, and then sat down beside me the way Meri always did. "Why did you run?" he asked.
"I didn't realize the kitchen was a private space, sir."
"It's not," Omden said. "And the sir thing isn't necessary." He leaned in, resting his hand on my knee and met my eyes. "For Dragons, our entire home is a sort of private space. See, we have a level of privacy between the complete public masks Moles are expected to wear and the atrocities that happen behind closed doors which you people call 'private.'"
"I don't know what that means," I admitted.
"It means," Drozel said as he came into the room carrying three cups of tea - and then he paused.
It wasn't to set down the cups. No, his eyes dropped to where Omden's hand rested on my leg and stayed there a little too long.It was almost as if the entire man had simply frozen in time for a heartbeat. Then his tail flicked again and the man began passing out the warm tea he'd just made.
"It means," Drozel tried again, "that when we're in public, we speak a certain way to not upset anyone around us. It's different from how Moles do it, though. Mostly, we try not to say adult things where children can hear, or cruel things about someone else."
"Then there's a level of public that's for friends," Omden said, taking over like the pair shared their minds. "You probably felt it when you were with Tobias. You could say improper things and know he wouldn't tell anyone. You had secrets. You could scratch your ass if it itched and not worry about being yelled at for it, right?"
"Yeah," I said, knowing exactly what he was talking about.
"That's the level of public for this house," Omden said.
But Drozel made a little noise, cutting him off. "The difference, Sylis, is that for Dragons, showing affection is expected. I hug my friends. I kiss my lovers - and yes, I have more than one. That's also allowed. I use profanity, I fart, and I say rude things without thinking." He glanced at Omden's hand again and smiled. "Other things are completely private, like fucking my partners. Changing clothes. Bathing, even."
"Not kissing," Omden said.
