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Uriel followed behind Dazien in his usual spot as they returned to the kingly room. He had been thinking over a lot about their relationship since their capture, and he finally felt ready to explain those thoughts to his partner.
As he sat on the sofa, Dazien conjured the golden door to his [Armory] and disappeared into it for a moment before returning with a small notebook. He knew that inside it, scrawled across many pages, lay the history of their relationship together, in a way. They used it to help clearly lay out the boundaries and expectations between them and had been using it since the day after the night they first became involved in a more romantic sense.
Dazien had been the one to insist on using it, having learned about it from the Priestess of the Lover, who helped guide him through relationships over the years, but Uriel found himself grateful for it as well during their time together.
“I know you said you’d be willing to help me practice my Royal Voice more, but are you sure about that? We added not doing that to the rules back when I first summoned Rex and got the ability,” Dazien asked as he sat down next to him.
Uriel could tell Daze was nervous, but he knew now that he didn’t want to have that rule anymore. “I’m sure. I think…” he sighed, thinking of the best way to phrase his ideas before saying, “I want to keep trusting you, Daze. I have trusted you already with so much, chosen to surrender everything to you, and I think I forgot that when we argued last.
“I was so hurt by the idea of destroying the person who mattered most to me that I let those emotions override the fact that one of the many reasons I love you is because you’re the type of person willing to protect others over yourself. I shouldn’t have gotten angry over you simply being who you are. Your powers— your voice is part of that now. You’re my king, and I never want to fear your commands.”
“That command wasn’t fair,” Dazien interjected, “I shouldn’t have hurt you—”
“No, but I’m not sure anything would have been fair in that situation. You tried to choose the best option, and I should have trusted in that choice.” He paused for a moment before adding, “But I also don’t want to be so bound by my past that your commands feel more like a compulsion than a request. I think facing this fear with the person I trust most will help us both. It will take away the advantage you have if I can still say no.”
Dazien nodded and looked down at the small notebook in his hands, “I know we talked about this in depth when we first became physically involved, but you still hold the keys to your submission, Uriel. You can always tell me no if it’s not something you want, too. I don’t want to take something that you don’t want to give. I’m grateful that you grant me control. That you trust in me so completely. There are few words that can express how much that means to me, and I don’t want to lose that because I made a mistake.”
He opened the book, navigated to the most recently written page, and asked, “If you want to try getting over your fear of verbal commands and allow me to train my Royal Voice with you, then I’ll update that rule in here, but I want to make sure you’ll use our color system if it gets to be too much for you.”
“I know,” Uriel replied, giving a subtle smirk, “Red if the order is too much. Gray to slow down. Golden to continue. We don’t need to update those, do we?”
“They’ve been working well so far, I think,” Dazien replied, scratching some notes onto the pages. Amethyst eyes glanced over at him and his partner added, “I personally wanted to ask if we needed to update our messy list.”
“Why would we? We never really had one to begin with.”
“Well… I have family now,” Daze pointed out, “When I first talked about that kind of list, you said it didn’t matter because neither of us has family, and we were both okay with potentially courting the same person. You said you would never be interested in one of my exes but didn’t care if I dated one of yours… which I’d like to point out don’t exist.”
“Why are you pointing it out?”
“I just noticed that you don’t seek out others like I do and want to make sure you’re not simply going along with my whims on—”
“Daze, I really don’t care who else you court as long as it doesn’t mean throwing me aside. My feelings on that haven’t changed.”
“Really? Because you did try to run—”
He gave an exasperated huff, “I know, and I’m sorry for that. We’ve both made mistakes, but I… I don’t want to lose you. I think the fact that the mistakes we both made were for the sake of protecting others is proof that neither of us meant to hurt each other. We might stumble and mess things up, but if we both still work towards us, then nothing should tear us apart.”
Dazien gave him that brilliant smile that still took his breath away at times and replied, “That makes me really happy to hear, Senesh. I agree wholeheartedly.” He tapped the notebook and said, “This is part of that work. So, do I need to actually create that messy list? After the situation with Padma, I was thinking adding family as off-limits will help both of us avoid that unnecessary drama. Not really as a hard rule, since I prefer simply setting personal boundaries over limiting each other, but I know that you prefer to have clear rules to point towards, and this would give you a nice excuse to politely turn down any Waylands that may approach you again.”
“That’s a good idea,” he thoughtfully replied, then noticed Dazien’s look of hesitation and prompted, “Is there something else about that? Has Patric or some other Wayland approached you?”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Dazien snorted a laugh before clarifying, “No, nothing like that, it’s just… Well, even though we’re not blood-related, Phoenix is technically my sister now.”
Uriel stared at him for a long moment, letting the implication settle before asking, “Are you hesitating because you actually are interested in her like that?”
Daze rolled his eyes, “No, Senesh. While I can appreciate her beauty just as I do many others, she is very much not my type. You and she may be similar in some ways, but the things that make you different are also what make her and me incompatible in that regard. While I care for her, romance is definitely not there for us.” He paused and leveled a pointed look at him as he added, “I’m asking if you’re interested in her like that.”
He blinked owlishly at his partner, the idea tumbling through his mind before he forcefully shoved it out and said firmly, “I’m her best friend, Daze. She doesn’t want anything like that with anyone, let alone me.”
Uriel looked down at the notebook for a few breaths before resolutely saying, “Add family to the messy list. You’re right that it would make things much too complicated.”
Dazien watched him for another moment, then said, “If you’re sure. But remember: nothing is set in stone. We grow and change over time. That’s why we do our Heart Checks and update this boundaries-book as needed. If we need to revisit this topic again in the future, just let me know. Alright?”
Uriel glanced up at his partner, and those unbidden thoughts threatened to tempt him with so much happiness that he knew he couldn’t have and didn’t deserve. He swallowed the lump in his throat as he nodded in agreement, “Alright.”
Dazien’s pen scratched more down in the book, and in an effort to distract himself from the suggested temptation, Uriel asked, “Do you want to try using that voice with me now?”
A purple eyebrow raised up at him as Daze asked, “Did you have something particular in mind for me to try starting out with?”
Uriel looked towards the golden doorway that held Dazien’s equipment for both on and off the battlefield and suggested, “You could try simply telling me what you plan to do with some rope and those pants that Xera got you that one Winter’s Break.”
Dazien’s smile turned wicked, “That is a wonderful idea, my Seneschal.”
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Phoenix stood in front of the door to Dazien’s room, looking down at the little girl trying to block her path as though the world might end if she got past.
Presley was splayed out with tiny arms and legs forming an X across the door frame that had the label, “Brother King and Storm Seneschal,” and Phoenix couldn’t help but give a tired sigh, “Look, I just wanted to check on them and ask for some advice. I know it’s a bit late, but there’s no way they’ve gone to sleep yet, right?”
“Not yet, but—”
“Then I’m sure it’s fine,” Phoenix replied with a roll of her eyes and knocked on the door above Presley’s head.
“But they’re busy!” her little sister retorted, suddenly trying to move Phoenix away from the door.
“What are you talking about? Is Daze training in that little sparring room again?” she asked, then realized she must have been mistaken when the door opened slightly, and slow music escaped from the warded room. The next clue was Dazien standing there in only pants, and they weren’t the normal silvery training kind. Instead, they seemed to be some odd kind of tight black leather.
“Phoenix? Is something wrong?” her brother asked with a confused look.
She had only seen Dazien shirtless a handful of times and she wondered if he really had been in bed already. The pants were still throwing her off, but maybe that was just what he normally slept in. Well, since she already woke him up, she went ahead and said, “Sorry, I didn’t think you’d be asleep yet—”
“Oh, I wasn’t,” he interjected, then gave an amused smile as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the doorframe, “Did you need something?”
“Just wanted to talk… is Uriel asleep already?”
That grin widened and became much more wicked-looking as Dazien replied, “Not yet. However, he’s a bit tied up at the moment.”
That confused her even more, and his smile made her wonder if he was somehow teasing her, which she simply wasn’t in the mood for at the moment. She really just needed to talk with her best friend, and… well, she just wanted the reassurance she knew he could offer her.
“Is it something I can help him with or talk to you until he’s ready?” she asked, trying desperately not to sound desperate. “Or I can just sit quietly until you’re both ready,” she added, taking a step forward to enter.
Dazien grabbed the door in an instant to halt her and said in a much more serious voice, “No, sorry. If I let you in right now, I’d be breaking about a dozen rules that I just finished updating.”
He glanced back into the room hidden by the door and said, “Are you good to wait while I talk, or do you want me to undo that first so you can join us?”
Phoenix was completely baffled by the statement until Tala said in an almost pitying tone, “The shiny one was having lovey time with the warm one, silly.”
“Oh. My. Gods. I am so sorry,” Phoenix said as she felt even her ears heat in a blush and she flipped around to make sure she didn’t accidentally see something she definitely shouldn’t. “I can come back later! I didn’t mean to—”
Dazien laughed, “It’s fine, Princess. We’re already interrupted and I’m fairly certain our curiosity and worry for you would distract us at this point. Give us just a couple of minutes, and I’ll come back to let you know we’re golden.”
“Golden?”
“Ah, it just means good to continue. Anyways, just wait right here,” her brother said before shutting the door again.
Phoenix covered her face with her hands in embarrassment, wanting to just melt into the floor.
“I told you they were busy,” Presley unhelpfully said as the smug little Emanation looked up at her.
“You could have been a little more blunt about them being unavailable rather than just busy,” she pointed out in her defense.
“Auntie Pati said privacy was important! Did you want me to shout that they were naked at you?!”
“No! I just… I just need a more obvious hint about that type of stuff,” she replied, feeling the tears forming as she tried not to connect this same obliviousness to how she had hurt Polissa and failed miserably.
She was surprised a moment later when the door opened sooner than she expected. Dazien was standing there again, still shirtless but holding up a silver star with blue and purple gemstones embedded in it hanging from a silver chain as he announced happily, “By the way, the adjustments we ordered for this to fit around Tala’s neck were finished and— AHG!”
The poor gemite’s explanation was abruptly interrupted as Tala manifested in her larger form and practically mauled Dazien in an attempt to claim her shiny temptation.