"Ridoc, can I talk to you after dinner?"
Violet asked it so quietly that I almost didn't hear her over the noise of the dining hall in Riorson House. We were just getting our trays, and I picked hers up automatically along with mine because she was already carrying her books from our last class.
"Sure. Anything I need to worry about?" I grinned at her before following Sawyer toward the table we'd claimed as a squad - Imogen, Quinn and a couple of the fliers were already there, and Rhiannon was behind us.
"No, it's not bad. Just personal," she told me as we reached the table. I set her tray down next to where Rhi would sit, and my own next to Sawyer's. I spent about two minutes wondering what personal thing she could want to ask me about, but soon enough Sawyer got moony-eyed about Jes and I had to tease him, and then I had to have a quick potato war with that guy from Claw Section that got me in the back of the neck with peas the other day, and then Imogen was threatening my life again and... well, you get the idea. Typical Tuesday dinner.
Afterward I left with Sawyer and said I'd see him back in our room, then looped back to wait near the exit, since I wasn't sure if Violet was trying to be discreet or not. When she came out alone a few minutes later I fell into step beside her.
"Oh!" she startled. "I thought maybe you'd forgotten."
"No, you're good. I wasn't sure if you were trying to keep it quiet, whatever *it* is."
The look on Violet's face was nearly unreadable, and that usually only happens when the Wingleader- when Riorson is around. (The looks she gives Aetos are *entirely* readable.)
I followed her, waiting for her to be ready to talk at first, but when she didn't start I started thinking and that's usually dangerous.
I was the one who ended up breaking the silence. "Do you ever worry you'll forget about physics?"
"During an exam? All the time," Violet blew a stray lock of hair out of her face.
"No, I mean-" I shook my head. "When I'm dreaming there's usually a point where I do something and I realize the physics of the dream don't apply to me, like, I can fly on my own or time stops or whatever, and in the dream that's always kind of unremarkable and I feel silly that I forgot it." Violet started giggling as I described my dream where I just floated into Chantara because I'd managed to get distracted and lose track of Aotrom in midair somehow.
"Sometimes I worry I'll carelessly forget gravity works when I'm awake. Does that ever happen to you?" I could already tell what the answer would be by Violet's breathless laughter as she tried to get enough control back to actually answer me.
She did finally choke out a no and I grinned widely. "But did that distract you enough that you can tell me what you needed now?"
Violet gave a little gasp, like she hadn't realized what I'd been up to, and then she hid her face in her hands again.
"Felix - Professor Gerault - has me working on my control, right?"
I nodded. "We can all tell, Vi; he's a way better teacher than Carr was."
"Well, he wants me to work specifically on a situation where I tend to lose my control. And he wants me to work on it regularly."
For a sex god like myself, it wasn't hard to figure out what the situation in question was. "But Xaden's been away more often than he's here."
"And when he is, he's not exactly patient," she pointed out, "and neither am I, really." She finally looked up at me over her hands. Her face was nearly as red as the curtains behind her.
I felt bad that she was this embarrassed about it - I couldn't imagine how the conversation with Professor Gerault must have gone. "So how can I help?"
"I need someone I trust, someone who can be gentle, and someone Xaden probably won't find threatening."
"You said Xaden found Bodhi threatening, and Bodhi's his cousin, Vi. His sexy, sweet, incredibly datable cousin, but still. Can you promise me immunity from death by… well, death by Xaden? I'm sure he has lots of murder options."
She looked unnervingly dreamy-eyed as she confirmed that yes, Xaden could murder me in half a dozen ways without breaking a sweat, "but he promised he wouldn't! He just doesn't want to hear about it. And, um. He thinks you're ridiculous and a little funny-looking, so I think you're safe."
"I am pretty ridiculous, but I draw the line at funny-looking," I laughed, and Violet laughed too. There was her smile again, the real one instead of the anxious one she'd worn telling me about her assignment.
Violet put her hand on my knee. "I know it's a big ask, but will you help?"
"A big ask?" I shook my head. "How could it be? I love helping my friends, and I definitely enjoy sex."
"It feels a bit selfish, if all of the attention is supposed to be on me," she admitted. "I'm happy to do whatever you want after, to make it fair."
I shook my head at that, picking up her hand and holding it in both of mine. "We're not keeping score, Vi. That's only going to make you more anxious, and I don't think that would help with your assignment. We'll go slow and focus on keeping you relaxed and aware of what your magic's doing, and you're not allowed to worry about me. That's the only way I'm saying yes."
A smile twitched at the edge of Violet's mouth. "Thank you."
"He doesn't keep score, does he?" I asked. Xaden didn't seem like the type, but I'd been disappointed by handsome men before.
"Xaden? He keeps count, because he's always saying he wants to give me more orgasms than he did before. But he doesn't keep score." Her cheeks were bright red the way they always were when the subject of her sex life came up in any detail. It was adorable how she still had that reaction even when she was asking me for help making sure the whole of Aretia didn't know when she was getting off.
"What does he do that you like? Besides the thing with the fingers," I added, thinking about her feud with Cat.
"What doesn't he do that I like?" She had brought me into a section of Riorson House that I was pretty sure I hadn't seen before. I could feel something pulling at my skin like prickerbushes until Violet took my hand and started pulling me alongside her. "Sorry, the family wing wards are very particular."
"That's understandable," I told her. "Wait, are you taking me to your room? Like, your room with Xaden? That room?"
"Well, no, I didn't think we should… well, most every other room is full, but there's one or two on this floor that aren't being used because the wards make it a hassle, so I thought-"
I stopped walking so she had to look back at me. "Hey, it's okay. I promise, Vi, I'll tell you if I have a problem with something, okay?"
The room she took me to was about the size of the one I shared with Sawyer, but only having one bed made it feel bigger, and the bedding was just white on white on white. It felt more like a fancy inn than a room in a house, even though Riorson House was way too much to really be a house anyway.
On the upside, the bed looked freshly made and comfy as hell; it took all of my self control not to just jump on it. Instead I took my boots off, setting them next to Violet's, and hung my jacket up on a peg.
Then I jumped on it. She laughed, still one of my favorite sounds.
"Should we get started?" I asked, scooting back over to the edge of the bed and reaching for Violet's hand.
She made a little squeaking noise when I kissed her knuckles. I stood back up so I could cup her chin in my hand and lean in close. "I know this is awkward. So… reassure me one more time that you'll tell me if you want me to stop, and then I'll go all in on the seduction to get you in the mood, okay?"
Violet nodded. "I'm trusting you when you say you're into this, and I'm going to try really hard to stop overthinking and enjoy it."
"My job is to help you stop thinking," I told her, slipping her jacket off her shoulders. "Get you out of your head and into your body, right?"
"I thought the problem was I was too into my body and not enough in my head." She pulled her shirt off and I mirrored her. "If I need control…."
I watched her gaze rake over my chest while she blushed. I know I'm not Xaden (which is probably for the best, I don't want to do half the work that guy does) but I'm not embarrassed of myself either. I took the time to appreciate her while I helped her out of her corset, leaning down to kiss the relic on her back as it was freed. She shivered a little as I stroked her sides, my hands dropping to her hips and playing with the hem of her leathers before tickling her lightly.
"I don't think control can just be in your head when you're fucking," I told Violet as she giggled. "It has to be muscle memory, or you'll just lose it again."
"Muscle memory for my thoughts?" She sounded skeptical as she slipped out of her leathers and then, with a deep breath, her panties as well.
"The same way shielding becomes automatic, right? That's not conscious, it's muscle memory. Do you want me to take my pants off too, just so it feels equal?"
"You don't want to…?" Violet froze for a minute.
"I was going to start slow," I told her, "so I wasn't planning to need my dick today. Unless you really want to see it?"
"I saw it when you and Sawyer ended up running the halls naked last August," she reminded me. "You can leave them on, I guess."
"You don't sound very enthusiastic, and I try to only show my dick to people who are very enthusiastic about seeing it," I grinned, and she laughed again. I put on my best serious face. "May I begin seducing you for academic purposes, Cadet Sorrengail?"
"Yes, of course. Does this count as academic?" Violet wondered aloud as I reached for her face. I stroked my thumb along her jaw as she worked her way through her thoughts. "I suppose anything that's for a class is technically academic, though it feels strange in this context. It doesn't sound right to describe fight practice as academic either, now that I think about it."
I had to resist the urge to laugh at how seriously she was thinking about it, so instead I leaned in and pressed my lips to hers, effectively shutting both of us up.
Violet made a tiny, kittenish noise of surprise and I could feel the muscles in her jaw tense and then relax almost immediately. Her lips were just as soft as I'd always imagined they were when I thought about kissing her (not that I was going to make all of the times I'd thought about kissing her out to be her problem, up until the minute she asked me to). I slid my hand back from her face and twisted my fingers into her hair, working gently to pull out the pins holding her braid in place.
When I broke the kiss and leaned back to look at her, her pupils were dilated and her eyes were soft.
"Do you like hair pulling?" I asked her as I reached past her to set the hairpins I'd loosened onto the table beside the bed.
"I've never-" she said, and I could see the little crinkles reforming in the corners of her eyes as she started to think again, so I quickly dug my fingers into the slightly loose hair at the base of her braid and twisted, just as gentle as I could.
Violet moaned and I leaned in to kiss her again. I wrapped my other arm around her waist, rubbing the small of her back and holding her against me as she softened into my arms.
Fuck, if I wasn't careful this was going to get addictive. No wonder Xaden is like that.
"How do you feel?" I asked her when I pulled back this time.
"Good. I think I like hair pulling better now than when I was little."
I slowly pull my hand out of her hair, doing my best to avoid pulling anything unintentionally. "It definitely depends on who's doing the pulling. What I meant, though, is how is your lightning doing. Are you feeling the energy build up? Because if I'm not doing it for you, this homework assignment isn't going to accomplish much."
"Oh!" She blushed, and I relished the idea that I'd distracted her from why we were doing this. "Yes, I can definitely feel it starting to build up."
"Good. What if we… how about you lay down and I'll focus on you, Vi, and you can focus on just paying attention to what your body's doing. Let me know when it feels like it's going to be too much, okay?"
Violet laid on her back, loosened braid trailing out across the pillow, and I started rolling one of her nipples between my fingers. I watched the skin tighten into goosebumps as she whimpered. I didn't think I'd ever done this before, put all of my concentration and attention onto my partner. I like to be attentive, certainly. I'm always paying attention to what I'm doing and who I'm doing it to. But generally speaking, I'm also going to be enjoying myself, because I think even the most selfish of partners wants to think you're enjoying yourself with them. It's a matter of pride for most people.
But of course Violet's desire to do well with her homework, to improve herself… of course that would overwhelm her pride. Violet's just like that, it's one of the things I love about her. And yeah, it made me incredibly happy to know that I was the one she trusted to do this to her, to help her with this. To watch her muscles tighten under my hands as I worked my way down her stomach and reached for her clit, and the way her lower back arched up off the mattress.
That couldn't be good for her hips, probably, so I slid my other hand under her lower back to support her there.
After a moment she reached for me, digging her nails into my arm and I backed off.
"How does that feel?"
"Like I'm on fire," she admitted, "I didn't want you to stop."
I laughed. "I'm only stopping because we agreed in advance, don't worry. But were you able to pay attention to your energy building up?"
"Yes," she nodded.
"Now focus on relaxing your muscles and letting the power dissipate," I told her, and she followed my instructions. I gently massaged her thighs and hips to try to help reduce the tension there.
"That's not exactly helping," she murmured, smiling at me with half-lidded eyes, and I was actually incredibly grateful I'd left my pants on because the leather was the only thing reminding me to keep my dick in check.
"I could cool things off a little more literally," I snickered.
"You put an icicle down there and we're not doing this again," she laughed.
"You don't like temperature play?"
She blinked at me and sat up. "That's a thing?" I stored away for later that the best way to get her away from the edge was to distract her with some kind of knowledge she didn't already have. Not that it was surprising once I'd thought about it, but I hadn't actually thought about it before.
"Yeah, it's all about sensation, just like anything else is, really. If you want, we can try it sometime? I've become something of an expert in temperature play, you may have guessed."
"Of course you have." Violet paused for a moment and then stood. "I like the idea of experimenting, but I'm also not sure if it's a good use of your time? I don't want to-"
"Vi, if you're enjoying yourself, it's a good use of my time. Are you okay, though? Was this too… too much for you?"
"No, it was great, you were great, I'm just making it weird," she said as she got dressed. "It's nothing. Should we practice again tomorrow?"
"Of course. I'll see you after dinner tomorrow, then." Once she was dressed, she picked up her boots and disappeared out into the hallway.
I laid on the bed for a few minutes, staring at the ceiling, trying to decide what the fuck I was feeling. Aside from hard, because I was definitely feeling hard.
I'd been flirting with Violet pretty much as long as I'd known her, but like Rhiannon, she'd always shut me down. And that was fine, because she was a great friend and I loved our squad dynamic. Besides which, it was like ten minutes before she was obviously, single-mindedly, obsessed with our Wingleader, which was also understandable. He was hot. Who wouldn't climb him like a tree, given the opportunity?
But what she'd needed had never really been sex, and that had always been fine. I was good at identifying what I was feeling and then putting it where it needed to go. I prided myself on not confusing horny with other feelings, because that was where like seventy percent of the drama in the quadrant came from. (Jack Barlowe, I'm looking at you, man.)
When Violet said she needed help, of course I was going to help her.
When Violet said she needed me to help her in bed, yeah, I was on board with that.
Now that I was actually left alone to think about it, after kissing her and touching her and almost bringing her to orgasm, I was slowly realizing that I was kind of fucked. Not even in the good way.
I had never stopped being a little bit in love with Violet Sorrengail, and now I was committed to doing a variety of activities with her, and while I was capable of loving someone platonically, and I was capable of fucking someone platonically, I was no longer sure I was capable of doing both at the same time.
Okay, well, I had a still half-mast cock and a need to prove to myself I could fuck platonically if I wanted to, so that meant it was time to put my boots back on and go look for someone I could solve both problems with. Feelings about Violet could be a problem for Future Ridoc.
And you know what? It worked. I mean, for the most part it worked. Spending the night with a very creative flier definitely helped me remember that I was capable of fucking someone for fun. At breakfast, Violet seemed like her usual self, so it was easy for me to be my usual self. The day itself seemed normal enough.
Then Violet asked me to meet her after dinner again for "practice" on her way out of the mess hall and my heart did something like it was going to explode messily inside my chest instead of just redirecting all of my bloodflow from my brain to below my belt, and I knew I was back in Fucked-Yet-Not-Fuckedville, Population: Me.
I was sufficiently distracted, in fact, that I almost missed the look that Sawyer gave Rhiannon over his pudding. She turned to look at me, considering, like she was trying to decide if she needed to be wearing her Squad Leader face or her friend face.
"What?" I asked. It came out sounding like when I was about to get caught in the middle of a prank, and I hated that I sounded so obvious, but I was nothing if not obvious, I guess.
"You've been kind of weird today," Sawyer said. "That's all."
"What are you and Violet practicing?" Rhiannon asked. She'd gone for Squad Leader. Probably a good choice, because it was homework, and that did sort of make it her business.
I shrugged and gave a look at Sawyer's pudding, wondering if I could freeze it fast enough to leave the spoon stuck in it. I started dropping the temperature on it as he moved the spoon in and then willed my power at that fucking pudding as fast as I could.
"Ouch," he dropped it, shaking his hand. "Are you trying to give me frostbite?" The pudding cracked down the middle when it hit the table and half of it slid out of the little bowl, spoon still lodged in it.
"No, I just wanted to see if I could freeze the pudding solid with the spoon in it."
"Well, spoons get cold too." He reached over and took my pudding, which was only fair and also I'd lost my appetite when Violet got up anyway so he was welcome to it.
I picked up the spoon with the frozen pudding attached and gave it an experimental lick. "That's not half-bad."
"Oh, no, you don't. I know better than to put my tongue anywhere you're going to freeze it," he told me before I even had a chance to try. Unfair.
I kept licking at the frozen pudding anyway. "No, seriously, it's good like this. We should make some next summer, everybody will want one."
Rhiannon rolled her eyes. "Your avoidance is very impressive, Ridoc, but you didn't answer the question."
"Oh, would you look at that, I've got to get going," I said, jumping up and taking the frozen pudding with me.
It disappeared from my hand. "Not bad," Rhiannon said behind me. "Whatever you're doing, please don't make it my problem, okay?"
"It's just homework," I told her. "Seriously. If she was practicing with you, or with Sawyer, nobody would think twice about it."
"Because that's normal. You? Not so much." She stared at me. "You heard my instruction. Make sure whatever you're doing doesn't become my problem."
Okay, I could handle that. I wasn't going to make it Violet's problem, I sure as fuck wasn't going to make it Rhiannon's problem. It was nobody's problem but mine. I could figure this out.
Ten minutes later I walked into the spare bedroom in the family wing where Violet was waiting for me, already half-naked, and I nearly passed out from the rapid evacuation of blood from my brain.
"Hey, I hope you don't mind that I figured I should start getting undressed…?" she asked as she set her corset down.
"No, you're good." I grinned as I tossed a spare blanket on the bed and started taking my boots off. "Are you still a hard no on temperature play, Vi? I was thinking that might be a good way to back you off when you get too close."
"I'm not sure whether I'll like it," she said slowly, letting the laces of her leathers hang as she started to shimmy out of them. "I'm willing to try it if you think I'll like it, though. I trust you, Ridoc." She looked up and smiled at me and she looked so incredibly genuine about it that I nearly lost my balance and fell over as I pulled off my second boot.
"I'm good!" I announced preemptively, dropping the second boot and standing up. Violet let her panties fall while I was taking off my shirt. "Still going to leave your pants on?"
"Yeah, I have to make sure my icicle doesn't get ahead of himself, you know?" I tried to make it sound casual.
Violet started to frown. "I told you-"
I cut her off. "Violet, no, I told you, I'm fine, you don't need to do anything for me. This is supposed to be working on a problem for you."
"Okay, if you're sure," she sat on the edge of the bed. "What's the extra blanket for?"
"It just felt kind of empty in here, I thought maybe some color would help. Plus it's probably a relief for whoever has to wash the bedding, don't you think?"
Violet blushed a little, but she helped me spread the dark green blanket over the white duvet. "Is it soft enough for you?" I asked her.
"Oh, yes, it's fine." She slid her hand across it. It was some weirdly soft fabric I'd found by flirting with one of the women who worked in the house, and the color shifted a little depending on which way you moved your hand over it. I could see Violet noticing it as she moved her hand back and forth. "Should I just lay down like I did yesterday?"
That meant minimal kissing, which was maybe good. Maybe less good, because the goal was still to get her to enjoy herself. Fuck, why did I suddenly feel like such an ickle firstie. This was - it wasn't the only thing I was good at, but sometimes it felt like the only thing I was good at, and I needed to get it together.
I climbed up next to her on the bed and reached for a pillow. "Anything you're in the mood for today?"
"I'm interested in your temperature play," Violet said as she lay back. I snuck in as she did, sliding the pillow under her hips. "I was thinking about it last night, after I went to bed."
Oh. Oh, okay, she was thinking about me. After she went to bed last night. When she was all pent up from me not letting her cum. So much for keeping Lil’ Ridoc from joining the party. I'd never really let myself think about Violet while I got off because she wasn't interested, same as I didn't think about Rhi or Imogen, really, but I might have to make an exception later for thinking about Violet thinking about me.
"Well, first we have to get you worked up," I told her. "You seemed to like the attention on your nipples yesterday, so let's get to work." Just to mix it up a bit, I wriggled so that I was laying next to her, my mouth in the perfect position to take her nipple between my lips. Violet gasped just like she did the first time as I swirled my tongue around in slow circles. I took her other breast in my hand, not wanting it to feel lonely, and it wasn't very long at all before Violet was getting appropriately worked up.
Without letting up with my tongue, I reached down for her clit, stroking a few times before I finally leaned my head back to talk.
"How are you feeling?"
"Good," she whimpered.
"Okay but like… how's the power feeling?" I prompted her.
"Oh, of course," she said and if she wasn't already red I'd think she was blushing. "Okay, I'm paying attention… I can feel like I'm close."
I nodded, moving my fingers away from her clit before letting them gather a thin layer of ice and sliding them along her inner thigh.
Violet shrieked, arching up off the bed as lightning cracked outside.
"Oopsie," I pulled back. "Sorry! I probably should have given you a more specific warning."
"You're fine. I'm fine. Just, let's not do that again, okay?"
I leaned up and pecked her on the cheek. "Of course. Everybody has preferences, that's fine." It wasn't until I pulled back and she reached up to touch her cheek that I realized I'd even kissed her there. "Was that too intimate?"
Violet blinked at me. "Did you just ask if giving me a peck on the cheek was too intimate while your hand is still between my thighs?"
"I - yeah."
"You're adorable." She giggled again, and pecked me on the cheek. "Now get back to teasing me, this homework isn't going to do itself."
I did as she instructed, trying very hard not to get distracted by the adorable comment. Or the peck on the check. Or trying to make a joke out of the homework doing her or… something. I couldn't quite manage it, especially not when I was also focusing on how her muscles were tensing and the way her breathing was getting short again.
"What are you feeling?" I asked her again.
I asked her that a lot over the next week.
Checking in before, checking in after, checking in to help her keep her focus where it needed to be while she got close. I felt like I was thinking about her more than I was thinking about myself, which wasn't helped by the fact that half the time when I was done with her I didn't actually want to go out and find somebody else to spend time with.
"You okay?" Sawyer asked me after a few days.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I answered, maybe a little too fast, as I pulled my sleep pants up.
"It's just that you're… you know, here. You've been here three nights in a row."
I blinked, turning around to look at him. "Henrick, this is my room. I live here."
"But do you? Do you sleep here? At this hour? On a regular basis?"
"I'm sorry, are you worried I'm not getting laid enough?" I stared at him for just a moment before I realized I wouldn't be able to tell him exactly how laid I was or was not getting. Shit. Deflect with humor! "If you and Jesinia need a third you can just ask, you know."
He rolled his eyes at me and the moment passed, thank the gods. "I'm just checking in on you, you're my friend, and you've been doing extra study sessions for like a week and a half now."
"I'm fine, I promise. Just trying to catch up on sleep while we can." I made a show of crawling into the blankets. I'd considered sleeping in that family wing room just because the mattress was so nice, but it felt too intimate. And there was that thought again, what was too intimate? How much intimacy was I allowed?
"Well if you've got a cold or something, don't give it to me," Sawyer continued, and I promised him I'd warn him before getting snot all over him. Eh, maybe I would sleep there tomorrow night, just so Sawyer wouldn't worry about me too much.
But the next day, Xaden was back - we all knew because his patrol riot arrived while we were out on the flight field. Violet didn't immediately disappear with him into Riorson House. Instead she spent the afternoon making Significant Eye Contact with me and setting fire to the practice rune boards.
I finally managed to pull her aside just as we were released from rune lessons. "Do you need to tell me something or are you just making sure I noticed Xaden was back?"
She looked a little stunned. "Of course you noticed he was back, you notice everything."
And then it was probably my turn to look stunned. "I do?"
"Of course you do. I just wanted to… I didn't want to leave you hanging. It seemed rude to just… assume you'd know I'd be with Xaden tonight."
"I appreciate that," I told her, determined not to feel anything complicated about that because I'd known from before anything started that there wasn't going to be anything more to this than a homework exercise. Nope. Not feeling anything. And no dragons were laughing at me in the back of my head either.
"So we're good?" Violet asked it so tentatively that it almost broke my heart, except I'd just finished saying I wasn't feeling anything, so nothing could be broken.
"Of course we're good," I smiled at her, and it was easy to be genuine because I did love her and I did want her to be happy.
That night I met up with the girl from the staff who'd help me find the good blankets and her boyfriend, and if I spent any time thinking about someone else's delicate hands as I kissed her fingers, I don't think I let on. The both said I had an open invitation back in their bed.
Even better, there was no lightning that night, which suggested Violet's homework assignment had been a success.
Which… meant no more practice sessions.
Nope. I was proud of her. I was happy for her. I've always loved it when Violet, when any of my squadmates, succeeded. And the fact that I was also maybe a little tiny bit disappointed didn't even enter into it.
She skipped formation, like she always seemed to when Xaden was home, but I caught her as she lingered outside of Battle Brief. Was I imagining that she perked up when she spotted me? Nah, no matter what, she's a good friend. We're over the secrets thing. We're good.
"Seems like it was a quiet night last night," I grinned as I greeted her. "Is that a good sign, Vi? Hard work paying off?
"Oh, Ridoc, it was great! The whole muscle memory idea you talked about? Completely worked in the moment, it was amazing."
If I'd had any doubts, which I didn't, but if I had, they would have disappeared in the face of her infectious excitement. "Shadow daddy took good care of you, huh?"
She blushed as we approached the seats Sawyer was saving for us. "Do you have to call him that?"
"I don't have to, but it's cute how you blush when I do." She sat next to him and I sat on the other side, looking around to make sure the first years were accounted for. I saw Rhi doing the same thing and pointed out where Sloane was hiding. Rhi gave me a thumbs up.
"And when he threatens to murder you?" Violet asked as she got her notebook and pen out.
"I've told you before, that's hot too." Aisreigh and Devera started talking about the movements on the map and I watched as Violet refocused her attention on - well, no, she was doing the thousand-yard dragon stare all of us knew so well. I turned my own attention to Aisreigh, trying to settle back into my usual combination of note-taking and daydreaming.
As the day went on, though, I couldn't shake the feeling Violet was watching me. I mean, of course she was watching me, I was watching her too, we were all right there going through classes together, blowing up runes, listening to Violet complain about physics, getting shot down by Maren for the tenth time, you know? It shouldn't have felt that weird.
When she finished eating dinner, she made eye contact and tipped her head for me to follow her. Once Vi had turned away, Rhi looked at me and held her hand up, pointing two fingers at her eyes, then at me, then in the direction Violet had gone. She was watching me. Message received.
I shrugged innocently (which probably did not make me look any more innocent, because Rhiannon knows me) and turned, taking my tray with me.
Violet was waiting right outside the cafeteria, and she pulled me aside with a nervous air that reminded me of her asking me to help in the first place. I followed easily. She couldn't still be worried about me, could she? That was sweet of her but really not necessary.
"What is it? I thought you were good," I told her once we were out of the main trafficked hallways.
"I was wondering if I could ask you for another… I'm not sure if favor is the right way to describe it," she started.
"Anything," I answered automatically. "Don't tell me you can't resist my charms?"
"Well… that's kind of it," Violet's voice dropped. "The thing is, Xaden wanted to know what I did with you, so I told him…"
"Okay…" There were worse reasons to die, if he'd changed his mind.
"And he was wondering if you'd do it again. While he- while he watches."
Oh.
That was… not on my list of possible outcomes.
"How do you feel about that?" I asked her, because what else could I ask her? She was blushing, but that could definitely go either way.
Violet reached out and put her hand on my chest. "Ridoc, no. I mean, I care about both of you, I'm definitely interested, but it's about time this is about how you feel. I don't know if this is- is a one time thing for him, or if it'll end up being more. I don't want to get your hopes up."
With each word she said, my heart pounded harder inside my chest. "You don't want me to get hurt?"
"Of course not, Ridoc, I love you," she said, and then gasped, a little hiccup of a noise. I was pretty sure I'd never be able to use my signet again, because my chest had turned into a lantern of joy and warmth under her touch and her words. The hall we were standing in was brighter than it had been, the colors richer, the shadows deeper.
"I love you too. Platonic or not, Violet, the label doesn't matter to me. I'm up for whatever you want to try tonight, and tomorrow we'll let Future Ridoc and Future Violet figure it out together. How does that sound?"
"That sounds perfect," she smiled, leading me towards the stairs to the family wing.