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THORNE HAD NO IDEA what the fuck he was doing. Had he really just flipped off one of the dragons he worked for?

Well, technically, he didn’t work for Samuel. He worked for Jarvis and the other mages who had first hired him. Samuel was here, though, and he was a part of the family.

Thorne wasn’t. He knew that the mages and their dragons cared about him, but at the end of the day, he was a worker here. He wasn’t part of the family. Would that get him in trouble after what he’d done?

Probably not. If anything, Jarvis would probably find it amusing. Thorne wasn’t amused, though. He’d never been so unprofessional, and he didn’t like that Samuel could push him that far. He shouldn’t be able to. There was no reason for it.

Yet here they were.

He made his way back to the library to put the book back, even though he knew that Samuel had been reading it. He didn’t care.

Or maybe, he cared too much. He didn’t understand why Samuel could get such a big reaction out of him. He wasn’t the only one who sometimes put things where they didn’t belong or left things where they shouldn’t be. The mages were pretty good at not doing it after decades, but the dragons?

They always apologized, and Thorne wasn’t as irritated with them as he was with Samuel. That was what he didn’t understand. Samuel was a special case because he pushed things to the extreme, but still. Sometimes, Thorne wanted to strangle him, and that wasn’t like him.

So what was it about Samuel that pushed Thorne so much? Thorne wished he knew. He suspected that part of it was that Samuel wasn’t afraid to take up space, while Thorne had been trying not to for a long time. It wasn’t his place to take up space here, or at least, it hadn’t been in the beginning. When he’d been hired, he’d only been supposed to help around the house. Over the years, he’d taken on more and more responsibilities, and he was happy about that, but it wasn’t an easy position to be in. He wasn’t part of the family, but he wasn’t just a worker here either.

He didn’t know if he had a place. Even if he didn’t, though, seeing Samuel feel so comfortable here after moving in just recently irked him. The fact that he was also paying more attention to Samuel than he was to anyone else didn’t help. It was like he couldn’t stay away, even though he knew it would be bad for his blood pressure.

That was it. Maybe he needed to start ignoring Samuel. He doubted that would change the man’s behavior, but it would definitely help Thorne’s heart, which could only be a good thing. Not engaging with Samuel meant he wouldn’t be as stressed, which was what he was looking for. He just needed to ignore it every time he found something Samuel had left behind.

He snorted to himself and looked at the books in the library. If only it was that simple. Samuel was anything but simple, though. Thorne was sure he would find a way to be a problem, no matter what Thorne decided. That meant that Thorne needed to stay as far away from the dragon as possible, which might be easier said than done.

It would be better than having to deal with the brat, though. Thorne couldn’t believe that Samuel found him controlling. Was he for real? He wasn’t controlling. He just liked everything to be as it should be. More than that, it was what he was being paid to do. He wasn’t going to let one man, especially one as annoying as Samuel, get in the way of doing his job. He’d been doing it for decades, and he was damn good at it.

That was all he cared about.

Really.

* * * *

MATTHIAS WAS HUMMING as he made his way downstairs to the kitchen. He wanted a snack, maybe some crackers or something. He wasn’t really hungry, and he knew the cook would start on dinner soon, but he was feeling snack-ish. Hopefully, she wouldn’t kick him out for trying to eat. She always got a little annoyed because she was afraid that they wouldn’t eat what she cooked, but she should know better. She’d been cooking for the mages for decades. Matthias had never seen any of them refuse a second serving of anything that was served at the table.

He paused when he heard noise in the kitchen. He hadn’t expected Jillian to already be at work, and he hesitated, wondering if it was worth it. He decided that it would be. He liked Jillian, and he knew that even though she complained, she just wanted all of them to have nutritious diets and whatnot. She always clicked her tongue when she saw one of them eating junk food, which amused Matthias. It was like living with his mom.

Jillian made him miss his mom. She’d passed away when he was in college, and Jillian reminded him of her a bit. She was older, but then, Matthias’s mom hadn’t had the opportunity to grow older.

And that wasn’t something Matthias wanted to think about. He plastered a smile on his lips and stepped into the kitchen, ready to try to convince Jillian to give him some food. His steps faltered when he realized that it wasn’t Jillian he’d been hearing.

It was Thorne.

Matthias blinked at him as he watched him slam an empty cup into the dishwasher. Thorne seemed frustrated in a way that he only got when one specific person was involved, which made Matthias wonder what had happened. “What did Samuel do this time?” he asked.

Thorne was startled and turned to look at him. He glared a little, which didn’t do anything to make him look less handsome. He went back to loading the dishwasher, and Matthias watched him, wondering if he was going to explain. He didn’t owe him an explanation, but Matthias was curious.

He didn’t know what it was between the two of them. It was like every time they were in the same room, they had to start bickering. Their personalities clashed, but at the same time, Matthias suspected that if they sat down and talked, they might be able to solve their problems. They just didn’t want to sit down together. They were both stubborn enough that they were convinced they were right, and they were both ignoring the fact that maybe both of them were, a little bit.

“Thorne?” Matthias gently pushed. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but I know Samuel has something to do with your anger.”

“You’re right, he does,” Thorne snapped, turning around to face Matthias. “That man is frustratingly stubborn.”

“What did he do this time?”

Thorne shook his head. “What he always does. It doesn’t matter what he forgot this time. It’s always the same story with him. Does it matter what he forgot?”

There was a lot more animosity here than Matthias had expected, even knowing the history between these two men. He suspected something was going on, but he didn’t know what, and he wasn’t sure how to ask or even if he should. After all, this wasn’t really his business. He wouldn’t say that he and Thorne were friends, and he suspected that Thorne wasn’t really friends with anyone. Still, if there was something Matthias could do to help, he wanted to do it.

“I suppose it doesn’t,” he said. “But I realize this can be frustrating.”