Perian shook his head. He could still remember the feel of the other man’s fingers on him, the gross spike of desire when Perian had yelped in pain. He wasn’t sure that anything would make that go away.
“Can I have a bath?” Perian asked suddenly.
Like that wasn’t a weird thing to ask of your friends with no explanation.
“Of course you can have a bath,” Molun told him. “Arvus is going to run it for you.”
Perian sucked in a breath that still had a bit of a stutter to it and buried his face further into Molun’s chest. If he pressed himself far enough inside, then he would disappear and not have to deal with anything, right? Maybe Molun’s feelings would cover over everything, and Perian wouldn’t feel so weird anymore.
They stood there, Molun continuing to cuddle him until Arvus announced that the bath was ready.
“Can you come sit with me?” Perian asked.
They exchanged glances but told him that of course, they could come sit with him. Perian had never stripped in front of them with less interest in anything happening, and they had apparently caught his mood, because there were no suggestive comments or looks.
“What’s that?” Arvus asked.
Perian looked down at his arm, where the Warrior had grabbed it and wrenched his wrist. There were livid bruises forming.
Perian swallowed. “That was me trying to stop something horrible from happening. But I wasn’t strong enough.”
“Who hurt you?” Arvus asked, his voice gone lower and sharper.
Sniffing, Perian said, “They’re taking care of it. The doctor and Cormal and Brannal and Onadal.” He sniffed again. “Cormal saved me, actually. Isn’t that weird?”
Oh, he was crying again.
Arvus enfolded him in another hug. “That’s not weird at all. You should always be saved if you need help.”
That was a nice thought. Not that Perian wanted to need to be saved, but if hedidneed to be saved, then he definitely appreciated when someone was there to help.
“Did the doctor look at your wrist?” Arvus asked.
Perian stared at him blankly. “Why would the doctor look at my wrist?”
“Because it’s hurt,” he answered patiently. “It’s swollen.”
Perian stared at his right wrist, and then he looked at his left wrist, and he realized that Arvus was definitely correct. The right one was swollen in addition to being bruised with the clear marks of large, grasping fingers.
“Oh,” Perian said. “No, she didn’t look at my wrist. She was busy. It wasn’t me she needed to worry about.”
“Let’s get you in the bath,” Arvus said. “All right?”
Perian nodded, shedding his trousers and underclothes, and they helped him settle in the water. He then learned that his hurt wrist should definitely not be submerged in heat.
Molun came to kneel on the floor beside the bathtub.
“Let’s wrap it in this.”
“Need to clean it,” Perian said, grimacing. “Please.”
Molun nodded. “Yes, of course.”
Perian had imagined scrubbing his arm clean, but there was no way he could handle that with how much it hurt. Molun carefully ran a cloth over every inch of skin on Perian’s hand and lower arm, making sure that everything was clean before he wrapped the wrist in a cloth that he had clearly wet himself, because it was refreshingly cool. Perian sighed and leaned back a little in the bathtub. The heat of the water seemed to have helped warm him up.
“That’s better,” Molun said. “You just relax. I’ll keep an eye on your arm, all right?”
Perian nodded, distantly realizing that was a weird thing to say, but it was exactly what he needed to hear.
