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“You would miss your father?” Itori asked.

“No,” he huffed a bitter laugh. “Not at all. But I would feel guilty for leaving him. I’m supposed to take care of him.”

“He cannot take care of himself?”

Will shook his head. “He can, technically. He just doesn’t. He’d probably drink himself to death if I didn’t go there every week.” Bitterness coated every word.

“He can care for himself, and he does not? This makes no sense.”

“Nothing about humans makes sense,” Will said.

“Your father makes up part of the cage,” it was too keen an observation.

“Yeah. Yeah, he does,” Will admitted.

“I see.” His hand kept stroking. Will could tell he was thinking about something, but was too afraid to ask what it was.

“How’s your energy today?” Will asked after a gap of silence.

“Better that there was no digging today.”

Will nodded. “We should try for a few rounds tonight. I don’t know how much longer we have. You need to be strong.”

Itori shifted, hand coming to tilt Will’s face to his. He kissed Will gently. “You have told me that humans get weak from not sleeping. You should not spend all night here.”

“I want to,” Will said. “I’m okay, really. And–and being here, with you, is worth a little tiredness.”

Itori’s eyes searched his face. Will wished for the umpteenth time he could see Itori’s eyes in the sunlight, to know if his irises were gold like he suspected they were.

“I am pleasuring you well?” Itori asked. He gave Will a flash of teeth in what was an approximation of a smile.

Heat went through him. “Yeah. Yeah. But it’s also just… being with you. Talking. I know you have to leave soon, but there’s still so much I want to know about you.”

“Like what?” His thumbs rubbed over Will’s cheeks.

“Like–like what you eat. Like what kind of jewelry your people make. Like, if you have holidays or… events. Or friends, you must have friends, right? Before the veins closed here.”

“I do have a few kin that I visited regularly,” Itori said. “Some might have noticed the closure by now if they tried to come here.”

“What will they do?”

Itori looked away. “Nothing. The vein collapsed, there is no fixing it. They will consider me lost to them.”

That was unspeakably sad. Will’s hands came up to cover Itori’s. “We will make you strong enough,” he declared, “you will see them again.”

Itori turned back to him. This close, Will could see the diamonds of his eyes constrict. “What would you say if I told you that I do not want to leave. That I would stay here, with you.”

It felt like someone was constricting Will’s heart. “You can’t. They’re going to drain the water.”

“But if they weren’t. If all this could be undone.”

That was a dream.

“I still wouldn’t want you to be caged here,” Will said. “You should be able to see your kin, your parents again.”

“But what of you, Willowtree?”

Will swallowed hard. “I don’t matter.”