"But I like being around her, and I want to keep sewing. It's not that. It's... I think it's because I've moved so fast lately. From the compound to Ayla's place for a moment, then Jeera's, then I came here, and it's like... Drozel, every time I get comfortable, I move again, and I don't want to move. I want to be somewhere I can just stay, but this is your home, and I know that."
"And you," he said, palming my knee to make me look at him, "are welcome to stay, little sparrow. We didn't think you'd want to, but if you do, you can stay here as long as you need. You can stay until living with Lessa no longer feels like you're about to be given away. You can stay until you get sick of us. You can stayhere, Meri, for exactly as long as you need, and we arehappyto have you here."
"I'm not in the way?"
"No, you are not," he assured me. "Meri, Omden's been happy to have you around. He's enjoyed having someone to talk to about things he likes, and I think it's cute when he does that."
"He is kinda cute when he does that," I agreed. "But I know you two are, um... A couple? Is that the right way to say it? You're not married, but you are together."
"Partners," he offered. "That's what we call it."
I nodded. "In the compound, men said they had needs, and they didn't want guests because that might make it hard for them to get what they needed, and since I'm here, I don't want to make both of you not be happy. Not after you've been so nice."
"Sex," he realized.
I glanced away. "Yeah."
"Well." He chuckled. "I can promise that you being here is not bothering my sex life at all."
"Would me living with Lessa?" Since I knew he went to "visit" her quite often.
His mouth curled and twisted as he tried hard not to smile - and failed. "I have a feeling it wouldn't. And she can still come here too, if it makes you uncomfortable."
"For you and Lessa to... Consummate? Fornicate?"
"Fuck," he clarified. "That's a much better word for it. I can also promise she's the one starting it most times."
"But..." I dared to glance back. "You and Omden do fucking too?"
"Just fuck," he told me. "And yeah. I hear it's a Dragon thing to have more than one partner in your life. Apparently Moles don't do that, but we do, and we do it because we like someone." He scrubbed at his mouth again. "We also don't care what theperson we like is. Male, female, or something else. If we like them, then it's okay to like them."
I could feel my face heating up, but I was curious about this. "I was always told it's to make children."
"It's for feeling good," Drozel said. "Pleasure, I mean, which is about the same thing." And he cleared his throat, clearly as uncomfortable with this talk as me, and yet not shying away from it. "But women can fuck women, men can fuck men, and women and men can fuck too. In any combination they want, butwantis the thing we do differently, Meri."
"But not for children because you have birth control," I said.
"Because," he clarified, "tailed women can't have children. Men can't bear them. A woman can't get another pregnant. We fuck because we like it. We don't fuck if we don't, and I'm not sure how you feel about any of this."
"I'm not either," I admitted. "I know Gideon made me so excited at first, but then he just kept hurting me, and I didn't like that part. I liked kissing, though. And I like it when Lessa holds my hand like she does, but Ayla does that too."
"Does it feel the same?" he asked.
I made a face. "Not really. Ayla's my friend, and we've known each other long enough that I know when she's going to do it, so maybe - " I paused as the door opened again.
Both Drozel and I turned to see Omden. He froze in the doorway, none of his muscles moving at all.
"Relax," Drozel told him. "And come the rest of the way in, because this? Meri was telling me about how holding Lessa's hand is different from holding Ayla's."
"Ayla's her friend," Omden said, sounding as if that should've been obvious.
"Uh-huh," Drozel agreed. "And I got to 'anyone can fuck anyone.' We started with Lessa's place almost being ready for her, but Meri was doing that shrinking thing again."
"I didn't mean to," I insisted.
"We know," Omden assured me before looking back to Drozel. "So she doesn't want to live with Lessa?"
"Nope," Drozel said. "She doesn't want to have to move again. She likes it here."
