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It took us—by which I mean Dakota and Star, and even Nico—just under thirty minutes to clear the room, and Dakota whooped when the keys they'd collected worked and the door started opening.
Giving him a one-armed hug, I leaned up and pressed a kiss on his chin, then did the same to Star. "You two were great! Well done."
"What do you want to do next?" Dakota asked as we headed outside, and I pursed my lips in thought. While I would have loved to continue our evening somewhere else, I had a feeling Star was just about done with the outside world. My homebody friend—boyfriend?—could only handle so much outside interaction at a time, even if he wouldn't outright complain about it.
"How about we get some takeaway and head home? We can have a nice meal and chat," I suggested since no one seemed to be coming up with any great ideas, and Star pointed at me.
"I second the suggestion," he said, making me smirk. Of course he did. He was lucky I knew him so well.
"Food sounds good," Nico agreed, and Dakota clapped his hands.
"All right, then. I know this really great restaurant. How does Thai food sound?"
"I've never tried it before," I said, letting go of Dakota's arm when we reached his car.
"Then you'll love it. Let me place the order now and it'll probably be ready by the time we get there," Dakota said as he leaned against the car and started making the order on his phone.
"So, did you have fun?" I asked Star as I turned to him, and he smiled.
"Yeah, it was surprisingly interesting," he said. "And it was just us too."
"There are bigger rooms for bigger groups, but I thought this one would be best for us," I said, and he smiled.
"It was a great idea. Thanks for thinking of it."
"My pleasure," I replied with a grin, and Star raised a brow at me.
"Don't think I didn't notice you didn't enjoy it as much as Dakota and me," he said, turning my smile into a scowl.
"That's not true. I had fun," I grumbled, but I'd never been able to lie to Star, and I didn't succeed now.
"Sure. Next time, we'll think of someplace we can all enjoy, okay?" he said, and I nodded.
"There, all done!" Dakota said, and Star winked at me before nudging me toward the passenger side of the car.
"Let's go home," he said, and I smiled. Home. I liked having a home with these three men.
Fourteen
Nico
After we got home, Star and Dakota served up the food. Apparently, I wasn't allowed to even step foot inside the kitchen this evening. It was sweet how they wanted to give me a break from my daily chores, though I'd need to take some time to explain to them that I actually enjoyed doing them very much. Living a normal, human life was something I'd only dreamed of doing, and it was still new enough that the simple daily chores filled me with immense satisfaction and joy.
As we ate, Ryk kept up a steady stream of conversation. When Ryk was in the room, you didn't need to worry about the conversation falling into a lull or things getting boring. Still, there was something I wanted to discuss with everyone, and now seemed as good a time as any.
After we'd decided to date, I'd used the trusty internet—humans had made some truly great inventions in the past century!—to search what a relationship between four men could look like. Of course, too many of the results had literally answered my question with 'helpful' videos, but I'd found quite a few good blog posts too. The one thing everyone seemed to agree on was communication. Without it, our connection might as well be doomed from the beginning, Fate bond or no.
"Guys? I thought it might be a good idea to discuss what we want our relationship to be like. Set some ground rules, maybe?" I said when Ryk finished speaking his current thought, and all eyes turned on me.
"That's a good idea," Dakota said at the same time Ryk asked, "What kind of ground rules?"
"Well, for example: can we only go on dates when it's all four of us? Or are we okay going in groups of two at different times?" I asked, and Ryk pursed his lips in thought.
"I, for one, am all for it," Dakota said. "I'm at work five days a week, and I'd rather you guys went out and had fun whenever you felt like it instead of waiting for the weekend every time."
"But won't you feel sad about missing out?" Ryk asked, and Dakota shrugged.
"I might, or maybe I won't. We wouldn't know until we try, right? I've never been in a poly relationship before, so I don't know how I'll react to any of it or what my limits are."
