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"Your face is doing quite a lot right now."

"Start with the easy ones," Liora said, refilling my cup without being asked. "Alex."

"He talks too much."

"That's not a no."

"It's not a yes either."

"Nykos, then."

"He's rude to everyone except the people he actually likes, and somehow that's supposed to be charming."

"It is charming. On him."

I didn't argue that one, mostly because I didn't have a good argument ready, and Elira's grin widened enough that I knew she'd noticed the gap where my objection should have been.

"See," she said. "Told you. Something's there."

I set the knife down properly this time, because holding it while my hands weren't entirely steady felt like tempting fate. Liora's mouth had curved into something private and pleased, the kind of look that meant she'd already decided the conversation wasn't finishing where I wanted it to.

"Halver," she said, like she was testing the shape of the word. "That man is built like a deity."

"He's tall."

"He's built like something a temple would carve into a wall."

"I hadn't noticed."

"You've absolutely noticed."

I had. I wasn't admitting it out loud, but I had, and the way my face went even warmer probably admitted it for me.

"Corian, though." Elira set her cup down with the deliberate care of someone about to say something she found extremely satisfying. "That man needs someone to ruffle his feathers a little. All that composure. Somebody should mess it up properly, just to see what happens underneath."

I laughed at exactly the wrong moment, mid-swallow, and half my drink went down the wrong way entirely, spraying across the counter in a way that made Elira shriek with delight and Liora grab a cloth before I'd even finished coughing.

"That's disgusting," Liora said, wiping the counter while laughing too hard to sound genuinely annoyed.

"You said that."

"I meant it fondly. Mostly."

I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, chest still hitching, and Elira was grinning at me like she'd won something.

"You didn't deny that one either."

"I choked. That's not a confirmation."

"Choking is basically a confirmation."

"That's not how choking works."

"It's exactly how choking works when it happens on cue."

I gave up arguing, mostly because arguing required more coordination than I currently had available.

"Fine," I said. "Fine. I like them. All of them. Different amounts, different reasons, I don't know how to explain it and I'm not going to try while my brain is broken."