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Maybe it was the bond. Maybe it was just missing him already.
They stopped by an apartment block across from the park, where Cyprian and Mirel, and a Luminary guard smoking nearby, stood waiting.
“Good morning. I’m glad you could make it,” Cyprian said as Ryneth stepped out.
The other man’s expression was genuinely warm, and Ryneth couldn’t quite bring himself to make a snide comment about how this hadn’t been his choice, but just another order from the man who owned him. “Yeah.”
“Well, follow me. Up we go.”
They took the elevator up to the sixth floor, where Archer was already waiting for them. The smell drifting from his open door made Ryneth’s stomach grumble again.
“That’s a good sign.” Archer’s eyes lit up as he grabbed Ryneth’s hand. The others laughed. “I’m glad you could make it. Come on. Let’s get everyone fed. I’ve been up since six to make the dough.”
“You’re crazy, you know that?” Cyprian rolled his eyes but gestured for Ryneth to come inside with a smile.
The apartment was cozy. The kitchen was warm, the oven filled with buns and a first batch of bread already cooling on a flour-dusted counter.
“Shoo, Helianth. You can’t eat those.” Archer patted away a fat white cat that sat sniffing the bread under the foil.
“Helianth?” Ryneth blinked.
“Don’t ask.” Cyprian winked before he took a big bite.
Archer blushed. “Yeah. My… cat.”
Ryneth accepted the tigano Mirel held out for him and sat down on one of the stools.
“A regal name for a regal cat,” Cyprian commented after swallowing his first bite. “Right, Arch?”
“Right.” Archer didn’t look up, just stood in front of his stove, flipping tiganos with careful concentration. The boy’s tongue stuck slightly between his teeth as he worked.
“Anyway, how are classes going? I heard Daven enrolled you in Governance.” Cyprian shivered at the thought.
“Yeah, he did.”
“I-interesting?” Mirel asked carefully.
Ryneth thought about the question. He’d never considered college an option for him, so in that respect the classes were interesting. It was better than nothing. But he shook his head. “It’s not really my subject, but it’s a privilege to be in college.”
Ignoring the second part of his answer, Cyprian asked, “What would you have studied if you had the chance?”
“Civil engineering. What do you do?”
“Art.”
“I study science with a minor in art,” Archer added.
“Nice. Is that how you met?”
Archer and Cyprian stared at each other, then chuckled.
“Nope. When I came to Helion, I moved in here as his housemate.”
“And he got moved out the next day.”
“Really?”
“Oh, yes. I had caught Moargan’s eye, and well… the rest is history. You know what it’s like.”
