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Asyut was getting braver. When he’d first been brought here, he’d been unwilling to leave the far corner of the dormitory at all; then, he’d been unwilling to leave without Heti or Wepwawet as an escort.
This time, he had walked all the way to Ophois’s sickbed on his own.
Then again, he’d probably only been willing to chance it because Khasar was out of the room—and now he was back, his shadow falling across Ophois and Asyut’s joined hands.
Asyut tensed, and Heti wondered if he was about to bolt back to the other end of the room. If the White Scars would let him get away with that.
But before Heti could intervene, or even warn his brother, Khasar reached over to pet Asyut’s hair.
It was a familiar gesture to Heti, who’d been here so much longer—no longer alarming. But Asyut still parsed any touch as an attack, unless it came from one of his own brothers. Even the humans who served here frightened him.
At least he didn’t hurl himself away from Khasar—or worse, try to fight. But he had gone stiff with terror.
Khasar was apparently oblivious, or pretended to be, still stroking Asyut’s hair. He was unlikely to retaliate. Without his psyker gifts Heti could no longer be sure, but he thought he knew the man’s pattern by now. But—
Heti leaned in on Khasar’s other side, resting his head on Khasar’s shoulder. If you want to touch someone, touch me.
Khasar let out a breath. Heti hesitated a moment, and then decided it had been more like a laugh than a sound of anger. But he was still touching Asyut. So—
Heti steeled himself, and climbed into Khasar’s lap.
Khasar went still. Heti had startled him. (Would he expect this now? Now that it was on the table—
No matter. No matter. He’d expected to have to go further than this before now, after all.)
But Khasar had moved his one hand from Asyut’s hair to Heti’s, and the other to his back. It had worked.
Heti used his relief to draw the tension from his limbs, sprawling across his protector like a lap pet. (Perhaps that was his purpose, now. It was hardly the worst use he’d been put to.)
“I see now,” Khasar said, some little while later. For a bare instant Heti tensed, but he managed to relax his limbs and hoped Khasar hadn’t noticed the lapse.
“I frightened him, didn’t I?” Khasar sighed, leaning back. Heti went with him. With the two of them so close he could feel the vibrations of Khasar’s voice, the beating of his hearts. It was… it was something he might learn to find comforting, given time. “You really are a good brother.”
Heti had no idea how to respond to that. But apparently this was all Khasar wanted of him, just now—to rest here, together. He could worry about the rest of it later.