The Silver Rest’s common room at this hour had the specific texture of a morning that was between the last guests finishing their breakfast and the first preparations for the midday service, and it was in that particular gap that Rex ca downstairs to find that he was not alone.
Diana was at the eastern table.
Lily was beside her.
When he ca down the stairs, both of them looked up. Their expressions suggested they had devised a plan and were eager to see how it unfolded.
"Good morning, Rex." Lily smiled with her eyes closed at him. "I hope you’re ready to start the morning before your expedition."
"That expression... I know that he didn’t get enough sleep last night," Diana said.
Rex looked at them.
"Breakfast," he said.
"We have it," Lily said, pointing to the table, where two plates were already steaming and a third was set up in case soone knew where they were going.
Rex sat down.
The three of them ate breakfast in the quiet of the common room, and their conversation resembled that of people who had shared significant experiences and were spending ti together before facing more challenges.
Rex explained the expedition’s paraters in the version appropriate for this table, which was accurate and complete but did not include the underlayer’s interior details. Lily listened with the specific focus she applied to things she was going to worry about and wanted to have accurate information for, and Diana listened with the tactical attention she brought to all operational briefings.
"Three days out," Diana said at one point.
"Approximately," Rex said. "Depending on what the canyon system looks like when we’re inside it."
"And Aurelia," Diana said.
"If she’s in the system, we’ll find her," Rex said.
Diana looked at him with the expression that was the complete version.
Rex looked at her.
He reached over and placed his hand on the back of her head for a brief mont. This specific gesture held a significance for Diana that it lacked for anyone else at the table. She leaned into it, embodying the presence of soone fully engaged in the mont, not rely acting it out.
"You said what needed to be said," Rex said.
Diana said, "I know."
"That was the hard part." Rex said, "Not the one where you’re careful about it."
"I know," she said again, and the second ti she said it, it was more than the first.
He pulled his hand back.
Lily observed with an expression that blended jealousy, acceptance, and genuine warmth. Over the months, she had cultivated this look after coming to terms with the fact that being close to Rex also ant sharing his attention with others.
Rex turned to look at her.
He placed his hand on the top of her head and ruffled her hair gently, just as he did with Lily, which held the sa aning for both of them.
She laughed, surprised into it, and the laugh was entirely her, the one that ca when she had stopped performing for a mont.
"You’re going to be fine while I’m gone," Rex said.
"I know," Lily said. "But I wanted to have this morning anyway."
"Fair," Rex said.
Rex set his fork down and looked at the two of them across the table.
"Co upstairs," he said.
Neither of them asked why. Diana folded her napkin with the unhurried motion of soone who had already decided, and Lily was halfway out of her chair before the sentence was finished.
The three of them moved through the common room and up the stairs in the quiet that ca naturally when no one needed to fill it.
The room had the morning light coming in through the eastern window at the low angle that ant it was still early, cutting across the floor in a pale stripe that hadn’t reached the far wall yet.
Rex sat on the edge of the bed. Diana took the chair near the window. Lily sat beside Rex without asking, close enough that her shoulder was against his arm.
For a mont, nobody said anything, and the silence felt distinct, as if three people who had spent enough ti together experienced silence not as an absence of conversation but as a different kind of communication.
"I don’t like this," Lily said finally.
"I know," Rex said.
"I know that you know," she said. "I’m saying it anyway."
She turned to look at him, and her expression was the one she wore when she had decided to be honest about sothing she usually managed. "Every ti you go sowhere I can’t follow, there’s this thing that happens in my chest..."
"I’ve gotten used to it, which doesn’t an it stops happening."
Rex looked at her.
"Well... it stops when I co back," he said.
"That’s the only reason I let it happen," she said.
’She felt lonely, huh...? Poor girl...’
’Well, I’m busy trying to steal from and fuck a lot of won... and she probably knows about that."
She leaned her head against his shoulder, and Rex shifted his position to accommodate her weight. His hand ca up and rested at the side of her face, not holding, just present, his thumb moving slowly along her cheekbone in the way he did when he was giving her sothing real rather than sothing managed.
Lily closed her eyes.
"I used to think," she said quietly, "that caring this much about one person was sothing that happened to other people."
"The kind of thing you read about and thought was probably exaggerated."
"And?" Rex said.
"And it’s not exaggerated," she said. "It’s worse than they describe."
"Worse," Rex repeated.
"You know what I an," Lily said, and opened one eye to look at him sideways with the expression that was half accusation and half sothing much softer. "Don’t pretend you don’t know what I an."
Rex did know what she ant. He tilted her face up with the hand that was already there and looked at her for a mont before he kissed her, and Lily made a small sound against it that was not surprise, just the imdiate, unguarded response of soone who had been waiting for the specific thing that was now happening.
It was not rushed. Rex kissed her the way he did when there was ti to do it correctly, unhurried and complete, one hand at her face and the other finding the small of her back to pull her close.
Lily’s hands gripped his shirt with the reflexive hold she always had, as if staying connected physically was the thing that made the rest of it real.
When he pulled back, she kept her eyes closed for a mont longer.
"You do that," she said, "and then you tell you’re leaving for three days."
"Correct," Rex said.
Lily opened her eyes and looked at him with the expression that was pure Lily, exasperated and completely devoted and not doing a thing to hide either of those things.
"I hate you," she said.
"You don’t," Rex said.
"I know I don’t," she said. "That’s the problem."
From the chair by the window, Diana said, "She’s been rehearsing that line for two days."
Lily turned imdiately. "I have not."
"You said it in front of the mirror yesterday morning," Diana said, and her voice had the specific tone of soone reporting a fact with imnse personal enjoynt.
"Diana."
"You also did a version where you said it with your arms crossed," Diana added, "which I thought was very committed of you."
"I will put sothing in your tea," Lily said.
"You’ve threatened that three tis this month," Diana said, "and my tea has been consistently fine."
Rex looked at Diana with the expression he typically wore when sothing exceeded his expectations, which was the closest he usually ca to genuine surprise.
Diana t his gaze.
She had the quality she’d had since the confession, the one that was different from the version of herself she’d carried before it. Not more relaxed, exactly, but more settled.
It was as if she had set down a burden she hadn’t realized she was carrying, and she found that moving without it was easier than she had anticipated.
"Co here," Rex said.
Diana stood from the chair and crossed to the bed, and Rex moved back to make room. Diana sat beside him on his other side, placing him between her and Rex in the arrangent that had beco natural when all three were in the sa room and no one had a specific objective requiring different positioning.
She didn’t say anything imdiately. Diana rarely opened with words when a physical thing would serve the sa purpose more precisely.
She turned slightly toward him and looked at his face with the focused, evaluative look she brought to things she considered important, the look that ant she was running a complete assessnt.
"You look like you didn’t sleep," she remarked, her gaze assessing.
"I had things to do," Rex replied.
"Things," Diana echoed.
"Things," Rex affird.
Diana looked at him for another mont and then rested her head on his shoulder on the opposite side, mirroring Lily’s position in a non-literal way, with each of them doing the sa thing for their own reasons.
Rex’s arm ca around her, and she settled into it with the specific quality of soone who was being honest about what they needed.
"When you co back," Diana said.
"When I co back," Rex said.
"I want one night," she said. "Properly... not in between things."
"You’ll have it," Rex said. "Right, Lily?"
"Yes... it’s fair for my older sister to get the second ti, hehehe."
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