“What would you do with your time? When you’re not fucking or eating?”
“I’d sleep.”
“What else?”
“I don’t know. I hear bugs are very interesting. Maybe I’d start watching them.”
“Would you want company? A fellow bug-watcher?”
“You?”
“Maybe.”
“I was thinking you’d be the bug-watching master. My teacher. I wouldn’t know where to start, all by myself. I might do it wrong. I might squish one. Or see a really interesting tree and get distracted from the bugs. Aye, I’d definitely need some guidance.”
“Well, I could help you some of the time. But I’ll be very busy with running the valley, you know.”
“Why willyoube running it?”
“Because you can’t be torn away from your bugs.”
“Whyeitherof us? Why wouldwebe in charge?”
“It’s our valley. We found it.”
“But the other people live there, right? Shouldn’t they get to choose who’s in charge?”
“No, it’sourvalley. What if we give power to people and they mess everything up? We’re stuck there, remember.”
“So we’ll have to work hard to make sure theydon’tmess it up.”
“We’d have an easier time of that if we kept all the power for ourselves.”
“But thenwe’dbe the ones messing it up.”
Finnvid sighed. He had a feeling he wasn’t going to win this argument, and wasn’t sure he even wanted to. “So, they’d choose their leaders. Maybe thatwouldgive me more time for bug watching.”
“And fucking.”
Finnvid fought to control his blush, and was reasonably successful until he felt Theos’s hand brush along the top of his ass, so high up that it could have been considered his lower back. Just one tiny suggestion, barely even a hint, and Finnvid’s face flamed. He pushed away, suddenly aware of how little he was wearing.
He’d been lounging there, almost naked, body entwined with another man’s, their spilled seed drying on each other’s bodies, as if it were . . .
He stopped himself. Itwasnatural. Or maybe itwasn’tnatural, but maybe “natural” wasn’t such an important thing to be.
Unfortunately, Theos had noticed his reaction. He sat up himself, hissing a little as something hurt, and shifted a hand’s breadth away. Theos’s expression was still gentle, his body relaxed. He wasn’t angry, he was just giving them some space.
Finnvid shook his head. “You must be getting tired of this. Of me, and my doubts.”
Theos shrugged. “You’re much less annoying now than you used to be, and I managed to put up with you then.”
“You threatened to torture and kill me then.”
Another shrug. “Of course I did. You were very annoying.”
Finnvid knew he shouldn’t be pleased. Shouldn’t feel as if he were glowing with pride, just because he’d managed to become less annoying to an arrogant Sacrati. But there really didn’t seem to be much connection between what he knew and what he felt, not lately. So he let himself smile, and then, when he realized that Theos was still looking away from him, he nudged the man’s foot with his own.
Theos turned to him, saw the smile, and frowned in response. “What are you grinning about?”
