Yore woke up the next morning to find Fanner tucked in against his side closer than he needed to be in the large bed, still asleep. Yore reached his hand out to brush the hair away from Fanner’s face, but he stopped himself before he made contact. It wouldn’t have exactly been a molestation, but sometimes when he travelled with Slone they slept close together and he never would have done that to him.
He carefully extracted himself instead and went to get dressed. He would let Fanner sleep for a little longer, but they needed to make it all the way home today so they couldn’t delay too long.
Yore braced for pain as he did his morning stretches, but to his surprise it was actually less painful than usual. Fanner hadn’t been kidding about being good at giving massages.
Despite Fanner’s assurances, Yore had been a little worried the whole massage thing had just been another ploy to seduce him. It wasn’t that he distrusted Fanner personally. He hardly knew him. He had met a few other Companions in the last three years, though, and every one of them had been desperate for sexual validation.
Well, except for Lucas, but he didn’t count as a Companion in Yore’s opinion. As Lucas often said, being a Companion was a state of mind, not a matter of genetics. He was still incredibly horny when it suited him, of course, but his libido and his sense of self worth weren’t particularly connected.
Yore was typically not too much of a tempting target for lonely mages because they couldn’t get energy from him. Hamish, as one of the few humans who lived with the mages and someone who was naturally caring, got the worst of it. Despite his general promiscuity, he was incredibly careful about which mages he would have sex with.
Yore had pondered whether Fanner’s unusual behaviour might be related to his unusual powers, but he’d decided that if it was, the relationship was probably indirect. Danya had described Fanner as shy, soft spoken, distractible, and impulsive, which were certainly things Yore had seen in him, but he’d also said he was charming and gently flirtatious which didn’t really fit with the young man he’d met. Charming, maybe, in a sense, but flirtatious? No. His single seduction attempt had involved a rather, ah… direct approach.
Most likely that particular change in his personality was related to him going missing for a year and turning up badly injured, related to the information Lucas had passed on to him about Fanner being tied down and hurt to test his magic. It seemed he had already begun to disconnect himself from the idea of being a Companion, and not in the healthiest of ways.
Yore heard Fanner stir and looked over to see him sit up and rub his eye.
“Good morning,” Yore said. “How are you feeling?”
“Oh, um. Good, thank you, sir.” Fanner made a face. “I don’t think I’m supposed to call you sir. Am I?”
“I honestly don’t mind if you do or you don’t. Werewolves address one another by name regardless of rank, so it’s not something I expect you to do. Sometimes mages and occasionally Lucas’ human friends do address me that way, though, and it doesn’t bother me.”
Of course, Fanner didn’t actually know there was any real reason he should give Yore special respect. Yore had deliberately skipped formally introducing himself with his titles. Fanner would find out from the others soon enough, but they had such little time left together that it would only needlessly complicate things. Fanner was intimidated enough by him as it was.
“Well, um… maybe I could just call you by your name?” Fanner offered. “Not because I don’t respect you! I do, but I’m trained not to call humans by their names and I think I’d like to—I think in my head I’d like to categorise you as not human.”
“I think that’s a good idea. So that we can be friends, right?”
Fanner ducked his head as he smiled and nodded. “How, um, how are you feeling this morning?”
“Much better, actually. You are good at giving massages.”
Fanner nodded. “Maybe—maybe you could come and visit me some time and I can give you another one?”
“I’m a bit of a busy person and there are some things I’ll need to catch up on once I get home, but I’ll try to come by and visit you to make sure you’re settling in okay. I’m sure you’ll be fine, though. They’re used to welcoming ex-slaves, and you’ll have a friend there already.”
Fanner dropped his gaze and picked at the bedspread. He didn’t look convinced. “I have a hard time trusting people, but I trust you quite a bit. You’re a good person.”
“Then trust me when I tell you that the people I’m taking you to are every bit as good as I am.”
“I know, I just—” Fanner hesitated and then shook his head. “You’re right, of course. I trust you.”
“Hey, it’s okay. It’s normal to be apprehensive. Why don’t you get dressed and we’ll head down and get some breakfast with Lucas?”
Fanner nodded. “Okay.”
#
When they went downstairs, Lucas was sitting at a table with Berron and Fanner was worried he and Yore would have to join them and it would be awkward. To his relief, Lucas left the table when he spotted them and the three of them found one of their own.
“Did you sleep well?” Fanner asked Lucas while Yore went to order breakfast for the three of them.
“Yeah, not bad,” Lucas said. “Berron is a bit of a cuddler, but that’s nice sometimes. Though, nicer when it’s someone I can actually sap energy from.”
“Are you not able to receive energy from anything other than humans and other mages?”
“Correct,” Lucas said. “And what about you? Clearly you can take it from Yore, at least.”
Fanner dipped his head and nodded. “I assume it’s any living creature, but I’m not sure. It doesn’t really matter, anyway. I can get energy from food. I don’t want to take energy from others when I can get it in other ways.”
“Well, I mean, we all get energy from food. It’s not always enough, though, and of course for the rest of us it won’t come naturally balanced.”
“I wish I absorbed energy passively instead. It seems safe. Polite. I wish I could just forget all of the weird things I can do, but I suspect when we get to where Yore is taking me, there will be people who will want to put those abilities to use whether I like it or not.”
“They’re good people. They won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.”
“Mm, but…”
“But you probably haven’t said no to anyone a single time in your life without getting in trouble for it.”
Fanner nodded.
“So practise. Say no to people when it doesn’t matter so it’s easier when it does.”
“I—I suppose I can try that.”
Lucas nodded in Yore’s direction as he started to walk back over. “Here’s your chance.”
“Someone will bring our breakfast out soon,” Yore said as he sat down. He held a light brown cookie out to Fanner. “Here, try this. It’s gingerbread.”
Fanner exchanged a look with Lucas and Lucas nodded encouragingly.
“Oh, um…” Fanner said. “No, thank you.”
“Are you sure? It’s good.”
Fanner opened his mouth but no words came out. His hand reached for the gingerbread.
Lucas pushed his hand back down. “Say no and don’t apologise this time.”
“But I don’t want to be rude and—and I’d like to try it.”
“Nope, you have to say no.”
“Lucas—” Yore started to say, but Lucas held a hand up to silence him and gave him a stern look.
“Tell him no, you don’t want the cookie,” Lucas told Fanner.
Fanner could feel his breathing coming faster and tighter, his heart rate speeding up. “But I—”
“Just. Say. No.”
“No,” Fanner said to Lucas, as firm and as confident as he could muster, and he reached out and took the cookie.
Lucas’ face broke into a smile and he let out a laugh. “There you go. How do you feel?”
Fanner nibbled the edge of the cookie. “Like I’m going to throw up.”
“Ginger’s good for nausea,” Yore offered.
“Some mages get their freedom, but they never really stop being slaves,” Lucas said. “It’s a mindset that can be hard to get away from. But you, Fanner. You’re smart and you’re fiercer than you let on. I think you’ll be fine.”
“Thank you,” Fanner said. “I hope you’re right…”
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