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I gave my attention to Aias once Ayen turned to face the river. Aias blinked with a confused look on his pretty face. Then he closed his eyes and shook his head, a light smile on his lips.
“My, my. Are you that upset about someone else having me?”
My eyes widened just as Ayen’s did.
“What are you saying? I’m being serious!” Ayen nearly shouted, refusing to face me as he turned.
Aias shrugged and walked closer. Noticing this, Ayen rose and moved away from the edge of the river. He took a few steps away from me before Aias blocked his path. Aias reached out and grasped Ayen’s chin, slowly turning his face this way and that.
And then he smirked, and with a tilt of his head, he murmured, “Not bad.”
It sank into my brain late, very late, and when it did, heat surged under my skin. The water around me began to bubble, and I panicked, slapping my cheeks quickly to eradicate the warmth before the liquid would begin to boil and reveal my presence.
“Aias!” Ayen yelled, trying to push the other away.
They looked so alike, their velvety brown hair and warm skin looking like it was kissed by the sun itself. Aias was taller and had a stronger physique, perhaps because he was more mature.
“At least now I have someone waiting for me,” Aias teased, leaning closer to Ayen.
“Stop joking around and leave!”
“Don’t be so harsh, sweetheart.”
Peeking through the gaps between my fingers, I almost exploded. It wasn’t uncommon for Elves to have a mate of the same sex. Our tribe had many such pairs—even Elanil’s sister had a female mate. I didn’t know the exact details, but same-sex mates were able to conceive as well, regardless of whether they were both males or females.
However, the scene before mewasuncommon. I’d never seen two Elves so intimately close, and it had me tense, expecting to be yelled at for breaching something that was meant to be private.
Aias was almost hovering over Ayen, who was crawling back on his elbows. How did they end up on the ground when they’d been on their feet a moment ago?
“Calm down, I’ll leave right now.” It didn’t look like he was preparing to leave—he was still pursuing Ayen, who truly seemed stressed.
“You’re not even retreating!”
“That’s because you keep moving aw—”
“Aias.”
I didn’t recognise the new voice, and I couldn’t see who it belonged to.
“You’re supposed to be in your assigned home, Aias,” said the new voice, male, sounding frustrated.
Aias hummed, returning his attention to Ayen with a devilish grin. “Something interesting caught my attention.”
I was confident he was keen on Ayen. There was a fine line between being interested and simply having fun, and Aias wassprintingbeyond that line.
“Just finish what you’re doing and return at once.” And almost as though he was never there, the voice disappeared like a whisper.
“Take him with you now!” Ayen yelled, pushing Aias’s shoulders.
Luckily for him, Aias drew himself away, offering a hand to Ayen as he stood. Ayen, however, slapped the offered hand away and stood on his own, returning to the water with an extremely red face. A part of me felt horrible for making him so uncomfortable, but another part thought that there was more to Ayen’s irritated expression. He wasn’t the type to easily lose his composure.
“I wouldn’t be too upset if she rejected me,” Aias said, his voice serious despite the small smile on his face.
Ayen’s shock mirrored my own.
“Her brother answered on her behalf,” he explained, looking over to the trees. “That alone had prepared me for rejection. I had some time to accept that.”
“Then why—”
