“To make sure you are taken care of,” Takil said. He hesitated before risking his status by giving a more honest answer. “To take care of you.”
Amryi stared at him, his eyes wide as he searched for some truth in Takil’s face. Takil tried to keep his expression open and maintain a steady gaze so Amryi could read the truth in his words.
Slowly, Amryi shook his head. “I know you guys like submissives, but trust me, I am not one. I’m horrified by that tail of yours. I’m an asexual. I don’t want anything going up the down chute, and the only thing I want to do with my penis is piss. Sometimes I might enjoy a little relationship with my left hand, but that’s as far as I’ll go, and I don’t go there often. So whatever weird thoughts you have about wanting a relationship,” and he wagged his finger between himself and Takil before finishing, “you can think again.”
Takil widened his eyes in confusion. “What does non-procreative sex have to do with relating to one another?”
Amryi blinked quickly again. Perhaps the gesture meant frustration because Takil was certainly frustrated with this conversation. He knew humans better than any Rownt alive outside of Liam and Zach, and yet sometimes he felt as if he did not understand them at all.
“Your palteia have sex with tails, right?”
“My Liam does,” Takil said. “But it is not sex when there are no genitals and no children are intended. It is pleasure. Non-procreative pleasure. But I do not know of any other palteia who enjoys pleasure.” He assumed most shared ilsil, but that was not the sort of pleasure humans associated with tails or sex or even relationships. They paid people at spas to perform human ilsil. To pay for such an intimate act felt profane.
“Wait. So chilta and palteia—it’s an asexual thing? Really?”
“Most have sex outside the chilta-palteia relationship,” Takil said. “If no female chooses them or if they are female and they find no suitable males in the area, then they will be asexual.”
Amryi snorted. “Asexual doesn’t mean you’re not having sex at a particular moment. It means you don’t want sex. Or at the very least, you aren’t going to go out of your way to have it.”
“Would asexuals engage in sex if they wished for children?”
“Maybe. Some of them.”
Takil considered this information. “Then Rownt are asexual by nature. Unless I want a woman to have an egg using my genetics, I am uninterested in sex.” And given how many high-ranked Rownt lived on theCalti, Takil was unlikely to have sex any time in the next century or two. However, Ondry had ensured that their genetic line would continue and by the time Takil was ka-ranked, he would have Grandmothers pulling his tail.
“But. Seriously? You’re fucking asexual?”
“We are not fucking,” Takil said, “unless we wish for children.”
“I... uh...” Amryi sighed and rubbed his hand over his face again. Takil did not understand what he had said that would warrant such a reaction. “Look, it’s been a damn long day. Why are you still here? I want to go home and sleep.”
“I am here to make sure you have a chilta who will make sure you take care of yourself. I want to know you are safe and happy.”
“Happy.” Amryi huffed. “I’ll never be happy again, so you can give up on that.”
Takil would’ve expected as much of a palteia.
“Will you leave now?”
“Do you have someone who ensures you take care of yourself?” Takil asked. Amryi would not love a new chilta quickly. He would mourn Qii, and since he had never transferred his loyalty, that mourning might last far longer than a Rownt would suffer given the same loss.
Amryi stared at Takil, and Takil gazed back. Waiting. The longer the silence continued, the more Takil believed that Amryi did not have anyone. To be palteia and alone was unthinkable.
“What do you hope to accomplish by sitting in this fucking bar and reminding me that I don’t have anyone at home? Qii’s wife didn’t even want me staying in the fucking house once he’d died. And what the fuck will you do about any of it?” He stood so fast that his chair flew backward and clattered to the floor. Takil recognized fury and pain. The two emotions were not so different on human and Rownt faces.
“I will wait until you choose someone or I will bring Rownt food and teach you of our tastes so you can learn to make drinks that Rownt would enjoy. And then I will show you the strength of my commitment until you agree to come with me and run a serving station on theCalti.” Takil was risking his pride by saying as much. Amryi was much more highly ranked. And while Takil was likely older, by human reckoning of lifespan, Amryi was the elder. He had run a successful business. He had proved himself.
Takil was a youngling who struggled to make his donations to the temple. However, he was the one who saw the pain in Amryi’s eyes, and he would not leave until Amryi had a chilta. The likelihood that Amryi would choose him was low, but no Rownt would walk past a palteia without offering. Not unless that Rownt were palteia himself.
Actually, given the palteia need to soothe and serve another, two palteia might try to comfort each other, although Takil had no idea how that would work.
“You want me to what?” The anger fell away, but Amryi took a step backward.
Takil had expected rejection. “I know I do not have the rank to offer to one as successful as you, but I will come every night and I will make my offer until you choose another chilta and I know you have rejected me.” Takil stood and walked toward the exit.
“Maybe I don’t want anyone, did you think of that, fuckwit?” Amryi called after him.
Takil turned. “I had not. A Rownt palteia would never choose to be alone. It would not be healthy because they would not care for themselves as a chilta would care for them. It would make it difficult for them to work their trade. If a human palteia is happy alone, tell me. If you are happy alone, tell me, and I will not return.”
