Saiya was having trouble falling asleep. They had spent a majority of the night simply relaxing and talking in the meditation area, eating some snacks that Phoenix still had hidden away in her collection and the ones that had been stored in Uriel’s fortress itself.

  Ren had rejoined them and had been a delight to get to know better. She thought the odd daekin was adorable with that funny way of talking in Trade Pyrinese and the way they dug into the yummy snacks.

  They had speculated more about what the queen might decide on and what they could do in the meantime. A month of waiting around didn’t sound appealing to any of them, so Dazien brought up the idea of checking out the Hunter’s Guild soon and going monster hunting on the mainland.

  For now though, they simply enjoyed spending time together again.

  Saiya had her own room inside Uriel’s fort now instead of sharing with Rayna and Phoenix, and she wasn’t entirely sure if she liked it at the moment. Back in Tulimeir and the Sacred City she had her own room, but she didn’t like feeling separated from the others right now.

  She could feel how all of them were struggling between the happiness of being reunited, the grief of what they had all endured to get to this point, and the fear over what the future might bring them next. When she was about to get up and go see about sneaking into Rayna’s bed for cuddles like she often had as a child, a soft knock at her door startled her.

  Her aura recognized it was an extremely agitated Uriel on the other side. She gave Wally’s head a little pat as he laid curled up on her pillow and whispered, “Just stay here and sleep good for me.” The little wyrmling gave a big yawn and tucked his head under a wing in obvious compliance as a wave of agreement and sleepiness made its way down their bond, and she chuckled before going to open the door. Uriel was nervously standing there, rubbing his bare forearm and dressed in just some void black sleeping shorts.

  “Uriel? What’s wrong?”

  “I need your help with Daze,” he replied, looking back down the short hallway to the room they shared. “I made us separate beds so I wouldn’t accidentally hurt him in his sleep, but I’m pretty sure he’s having a nightmare at the moment. I was hoping you could help?”

  “Why not just put your gloves on and wake him?” she asked but started moving towards his room to offer her aura as additional help since she was already awake.

  He got a pained look on his face before explaining, “I know he’ll want to be held. He would often try to comfort me that way when I was the one waking in the night, but I… I can’t give him what he needs now. Please, Saiya. Just let him know he’s not alone.”

  She gave him a curious look before hesitantly saying, “I can try, but I think he’ll want you instead.”

  Uriel shook his head. “I’m going to go downstairs I think. I’m pretty sure that me being there will only make things worse… we had a slight argument about the sleeping arrangements, and he seemed angry when I wouldn’t budge.”

  “I was told long ago that you should never go to bed angry with your partner,” she mentioned before pausing at their door. “Are you sure you don’t want to help him?”

  Uriel sadly smiled at her. “This is me trying to help him. By getting someone who can give what he needs.”

  She frowned but nodded and quietly opened the door as Uriel retreated down the spiral staircase. Inside the small room were two narrow beds on opposite walls with a nightstand separating them. The empty bed on the left was covered in void black bedding that seemed to match Uriel’s sleep shorts. The bed on the right currently held a shirtless amethyst gemite tossing and mumbling in his sleep.

  As she got closer, she could make out a few words. “Don’t touch… off me… let go…”

  It broke her heart to imagine what he was battling in his nightmare, and she didn’t want him to suffer those memories any longer. She carefully sat on the edge of the bed, wrapped her aura around him, and gently shook his shoulder as she called out, “Dazien?”

  He made her start in surprise as he abruptly sat up half-awake and yelled, “Stop it!”

  “It’s okay!” she tried to say, putting her hand up to try and calm him down and whisper soft hushes. “Shh, you’re okay. It was just a nightmare. Nobody is hurting you.”

  He looked around in bewilderment before his eyes settled on her, and he asked incredulously, “Saiya?”

  “I think that’s the first time you haven’t used my title,” she replied with a soft smirk.

  “Sorry, I—My mind is scattered—I… I don’t—”

  “Hey, it’s okay,” she interrupted his stammering. She had never seen him so agitated and out of sorts before. His emotions were a roiling mess at the moment that she could barely decipher, and she took his hand to try and anchor him. “I know you’re confused and scared. You don’t need to talk about it, but I’m here if you want to.”

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  He nodded in understanding as he fell silent and seemed to relax slightly before apparently remembering where he was and looking toward the other bed. “Where’s Uriel?”

  “Downstairs. He asked me to come in here to help you.”

  His face scrunched in another wave of confusion tinged with anger. “What? Why?”

  She just smiled and calmly explained, “He seems to think you’ll want a hug, which you both know I’m more than willing to give.”

  “He—he sent you so that he wouldn’t feel the need to comfort me?”

  “No, he sent me because he wanted to comfort you… he just feels like he can’t do so himself right now.”

  The tidal wave of sorrow and rejection that came from him almost crushed her. Her face must have made it obvious that she felt it as a wave of shame followed the next moment, and he buried his face into his hands. “Oh, Daze… No, hey, it’s going to be okay,” she murmured, scooting a little closer to try and take his hands again. “You don’t need to be ashamed of what you’re feeling. It’s just you and me here, and you know I would never betray your trust. I’m not afraid to share in your feelings, okay? You can talk through your fears or cry away your sorrows, and you’ll still be a king to me.”

  The gratitude was a relief for her to feel from him, but it still paled in comparison to the storm of sadness he let drown him as he brokenly asked her, “Why won’t he let me hold him anymore? Did they break me so much that he can’t bear to even look at me?” He looked down at their joined hands as he asked through his tears, “Do these marks they left me with remind him too much of his own?”

  “You know that’s not true,” she refuted. “You know he just doesn’t want to hurt you.”

  “I don’t care if he hurts my body… my heart can’t bear this torture,” he replied, finally looking up to meet her eyes. “I just want to hold him. To feel the comfort of his warmth and his heart beating with mine. To know that he still trusts and loves me despite what they did.”

  “You know he does, Daze,” she whispered, feeling his anguish bleed into her. “That’s why he sent me; because he cares enough to not want to hurt you even more.”

  “His absence is already doing that… I just got him back, only to feel like I’m losing him.” A ripple of hopelessness met her with his next words. “He won’t even try to compromise with me anymore.”

  Saiya wasn’t sure what to say to that exactly. She could agree with both sentiments and it didn’t seem like there was any good solution that could be compromised to. They both had new boundaries and needs that were beginning to conflict with one another. They both cared and wanted each other, but couldn’t fill every need the other had.

  “Well, I know I’m a poor substitute for him, but I’m pretty warm, too…” she finally offered, fluffing her tails up slightly for him to notice. “Do you want to hold me? You can even pet my tails… if you want.”

  There was confusion in his aura again as he tilted his head slightly and took her in. “You… You want me to hold you? In bed? Like I do with Uriel?”

  “I mean… well, if you just hold me to sleep, then I’m comfortable with that if you are. It’s not like we haven’t fallen asleep beside each other other before.”

  The brief tinge of embarrassment wasn’t that odd as she watched his cheeks flush slightly, but the flutter of desire she felt from him was surprising. It made her question her own desires that she had long pushed aside too. She already knew he didn’t like when people made their desire toward him obvious when he wasn’t interested in turn.

  “I… um, thank you,” he finally said after a moment. He looked back down at their hands before admitting, “I think I need that right now. Being alone… well, my mind keeps going back to those cultists.”

  “Hey, you’re safe now,” she replied, moving one of her hands up to cup his face and guide it upwards. “Look at me.” When his gaze focused on hers, she firmly stated, “I won’t let go of you, alright? You’re not there with them anymore. You’re here with me.”

  His nod was subtle but was enough to break the sudden tension she had felt passing between them. Carefully, she wrapped her arms around his torso and let him guide them down to lay side by side in the narrow bed. She pressed herself against his chest and wrapped her tails around him like a furry blanket.

  Saiya smiled as she pulled the other blanket he had been using over both of them. She recognized the patchy quilt as the one from his mother that he had let her borrow before, filled with happiness, hope, and love. She let those distant emotions flow through her now, and wished she could let Daze feel them too.

  “Is this alright?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” he replied, shifting slightly and letting his arms rest around her waist. He softly asked, “For you, too?”

  “More than alright,” she answered without fully thinking how that might sound, and was glad that he couldn’t see the blush on her face as she buried it against him as well.

  She felt a nudge of curiosity come from the bond between her and Wally, sensing him a few moments later getting closer. He must have slipped under the door crack as he flapped his little wings to hover in the air above them, tilting his his in question as he gazed down at them.

  Dazien chuckled softly and asked, “He’s not going to just stare at me judgmentally all night, is he?”

  Saiya gave a soft laugh as she said, “No. He would never judge. I think he just wants to know if there’s room for him too.”

  “Ah. I guess he doesn’t want me to hog you all to myself,” he replied. A gentle wave of fondness came from him as he said to the Familiar, “Don’t worry, Wally. I’m always willing to share.”

  The little wyrmling chirped happily before gliding down to rest on the pillow behind Saiya’s head where he usually liked to sleep.

  After a few quiet moments of them settling, Dazien rested his head atop her own between her furry ears. He took slow, deep breaths and softly murmured, “You smell nice… like the garden in the rain…”

  She felt her cheeks heat even more at the compliment, and her own nose now focused on his own sweet floral scent. It reminded her of one of the flowers in that same garden he had mentioned atop the Wayland Estate. The unbidden thought of getting to fall asleep to that scent every night sounded wonderful.

  Dazien’s body fully relaxed a few moments later as he fell back into sleep, and she silently wondered if she would be able to survive watching him court the royals that would likely never appreciate him for who he was. Then she realized that this had probably been a terrible idea if she had hoped to fall asleep since her heart refused to calm, and her mind tried to untangle the mess that her own emotions just got tied into.