“All of the above?” Lucian asked. “Though I still don’t know what a donut is.”
“I’ll make some if I can find ingredients.”
Theo entered the bathroom with a sleepy half-awake smile looking adorably tousled. “Food?” he asked Lucian.
“Yes, angel. It is my duty to slave in the kitchen for you,” Lucian said. “As much as I do in the bedroom. You are ever demanding.” He held a hand out for Theo and tugged him into a hug which made Theo let out a long sigh of happiness.
“I’ll cook,” Yuri said. “Bake, whatever. Then you can show me how the rest of this world works?”
“Beyond christening every surface with our affection?” Lucian asked.
“I thought you’d already been doing that?” Yuri asked.
“Hmm,” Theo grumbled. “Yes. Except Star. He keeps to the dark…”
Yuri frowned, and Lucian gave a small shake to his head, an understanding conveyed in seconds. Star gave them only bits of himself. “What can I do?” Yuri asked.
“Time? Affection? I don’t really know,” Lucian offered. “Your presence changes us all, perhaps he merely needs to bask in you for a time?”
Yuri ducked his head into the bedroom to find Star had vanished from the room and Radu was still asleep. He glanced back at Lucian and Theo, who was now trying to wake for the day. “Which way is Star’s room?”
“Across the hall, down two doors,” Lucian said. “Do you want me to come with you?”
Yuri waved him off, amused by the way Lucian’s gaze followed the sleepy seraph’s every move. “Meet me in the kitchen later? I’ll gather Star and we’ll make some food. Should we wake Radu?”
“Nah. He’ll get up soon. The empty bed will rouse him,” Lucian said. “We all become big teddy bears for him to wrap himself around. The most amusing is when Barney crawls into bed with him and he wakes up staring into the winking hole of the cat’s ass.”
Yuri bit back a laugh at the thought. The purple cat had vanished from its perch near the door of the bathroom and bounced onto the bed, and seemed to be working its way under the covers.
Yuri tiptoed across the room and out to the main hall. He found the door to Star’s room, knocked lightly and paused to listen. He hated to invade Star’s space, but his gut worried a thousand things might go wrong between them after their ages of separation. They hadn’t sat down to really talk about the past, and while Yuri remembered a lot of it now, it didn’t feel like him anymore. A new life meant he could restart, right? What about Star? Would Yuri have to lose him again and wait for him to be reborn for him to start anew?
The door opened a crack, Star peering out with a hesitant gaze, blinking at the brightness.
“Hi,” Yuri said. “You okay?”
Star nodded.
“Can I come in, or…?”
Star hesitated.
“You don’t have to,” Yuri said quickly. “I don’t want you to do anything you’re not comfortable with.”
Star opened the door and stepped aside. Yuri swallowed hard but slid into the room, blinking at the dim lights, surprised by how dark and empty it was. Star closed the door behind him, but said nothing. He stood nearly motionless beside the door, his breathing shallow, and a sense of tension rising from him.
Yuri turned to study him, finding Star as beautiful as always, but the anxiety in his guarded expression making Yuri worry. “What’s wrong?” Yuri asked.
“Nothing.”
“Why does that sound like a lie?”
“I thought you’d be mad at me, or sad, or something.”
“Why?” Yuri tilted his head to look at Star, wondering where this was coming from.
“Because of everything.”
Yuri reached out to grasp Star’s hand and pull him into a gentle hug. The man stood stiff against him for a few seconds before relaxing into his arms. They fit together perfectly, nearly matched in size, but two halves of a whole would always align like they were meant to.
