Same. Both him, and myself. There was no point in worrying about things like forever. Right now, it was enough to know that I liked sitting next to him. I liked how he could either calm me down or wind me up with a challenge. I liked how he fiddled with his glasses and how we saw two totally different worlds but still came to the same conclusion. I wasn’t sure if it was love yet, but the label didn’t matter. Now that I had Tair to myself, I wasn’t planning on letting him go.

And all I could see were futures of us together. I leaned against him, resting my forehead on his shoulder. We’ve got a few days before anyone tries to kill us this time. We should relax.

A few days? Amusement crackled through Tair’s mental voice. What a luxury.

Unless the food kills us first. I poked at the flat, colorless sponge impersonating a sandwich on my plate. Want to bet how long it takes me to fix that?

“No bet.” Tair laughed. “I know better.”

I grinned at him. “I guess we can tough it out a few days. No winding back to meal times though.”

“Never again.”

Both of us shuddered.

As I smiled up at him, the possibilities shifted and an almost-solid future Quanta tugged Tair’s mouth to hers. I could hold back, but why bother anymore?

Only Tair was in my eyes.

I gripped his shirt and pulled his lips to mine. He leaned into the kiss, pressing against me, firm, but still gentle. Soft lips. His arms wrapped around me, encircling and comforting and possessing, but there was no hurry in either of us. We both had the same idea—a little slow exploration.

I could roll with that.

A throat cleared nearby. I opened my eyes to find two troublesome people hovering. The guy was tall and tanned with sea green eyes pinched in sort of amused disapproval. Hunter. Or Knight. I remembered his names, but I forgot which one he liked to be called. He stood with folded arms, dressed like a toy soldier in black fighting gear and I had to squint against the ghosts of his past. Dark, dark, and darker. “Making yourself at home, Orpheus?”

Tair’s expression tightened. There was some testosterone between them and I’d figure out the details later, but for now I fixated on the blue-haired girl behind soldier boy.

“Cipher?” I’d seen ghosts of her for years, but the reality wasn’t what I’d pictured. The tattoos and piercings were all dead on, but… “I thought you were taller.”

Hunter snorted. She elbowed him in the ribs as she fixed me with a scowl. “Sorry for being short.”

Scenes of her washed over me, from the ancient past to the more recent. And the future. With the four of us standing there, a whole bunch of worrying wisps sprouted around us.