Page 87 of Thexan

“He asked a question.”

“And you answered it like it mattered.”

“It did matter.”

My throat tightened in a way I hadn’t expected.

I reached for his hand before I thought better of it, linking my fingers with his where everyone could see. The simple contact drew a few glances, but I didn’t let go.

“They’re starting to see you,” I said.

Thexan looked across the yard, his expression controlled, though I felt the bond shift with something I could only describe as careful attention.

“I am less concerned with being seen by them than with being accepted by you,” he said.

I turned toward him fully.

“You already are.”

His gaze moved back to mine.

“Then their adjustment is… secondary.”

“It matters to me,” I said.

“Then it matters.”

That was such a Thexan answer—precise, practical, and somehow more intimate than anything softer would have been.

I held his hand a little tighter.

“Come inside,” I said. “I need to check that bandage again.”

“The bandage remains intact.”

“I know. I still want to check it.”

His gaze held mine for another moment, and then he inclined his head.

“I will comply.”

“Good,” I said, unable to stop the smile this time. “You’re learning.”

As we walked back toward the infirmary together, I felt the settlement watching us, but the weight of that attention no longer pressed the same way. It was still there, still uncertain, still waiting to decide what he would become to them.

But for the first time, I believed they might give him the chance to become something.

And when we stepped inside and the door closed behind us, the quiet that met us did not feel like hiding.

It felt like the first fragile edge of home.

Chapter Twenty-One

Thexan

The infirmary door closed behind us, muting the sound of the settlement without fully separating us from it.

That distinction mattered more than I would have expected. Earlier, this structure had been a concealment, a recovery space, a temporary shelter in which Brynn had kept me alive while external threats converged around us. Now, after what had occurred in the central yard, the same walls carried a different function. We were not hiding inside them. We had stepped away from observation into privacy, and the difference between those two conditions altered the way I perceived the room.