Nia woke slowly the next morning to warmth pressed solidly along her back and the steady rise and fall of Kael’s breathing behind her. At some point during the night he had shifted closer again, not aggressively or even consciously probably, but sometime after the fire burned lower and exhaustion finally dragged her fully asleep, the distance between them had disappeared until broad heat surrounded her from behind while one heavy arm rested loosely across her waist.
Nia stared at the cave wall for several long seconds while her half-awake brain attempted to process the situation with at least a little dignity, though maintaining dignity became significantly harder when a very large tiger beastman was unconsciously using her as a personal body pillow. The worst part was that her body had apparently adapted to the situation completely because the mountain mornings remained cold before sunrise fully reached the upper cliffs, and despite the thick furs beneath her, the warmth surrounding her now felt comfortable enough that some traitorous part of her clearly had not objected during the night.
Which meant she had probably curled closer in her sleep instead of away from him.
Absolutely unacceptable.
Behind her, Kael’s breathing shifted slightly before one of his ears flicked faintly against her hair, and Nia realized almost instantly that he was awake now too.
“You’re pretending to still be asleep,” she accused quietly.
Kael’s voice came rougher from sleep behind her.
“You’re still warm.”
“That is not a defense.”
“It’s a reason.”
Nia closed her eyes briefly against the cave wall while heat crept annoyingly up the back of her neck.
Behind her, Kael shifted slightly closer instead of farther away, apparently entirely unconcerned by the situation while morning warmth continued surrounding her from nearly every direction. The movement pressed the solid line of his chest more firmly against her back before his arm settled more comfortably around her waist again like this was the most natural thing in the world.
Maybe to him it was.
Beastmen truly had a terrifying relationship with personal space.
“You keep doing this,” she muttered.
“You keep staying.”
“That is because I am asleep.”
“You stayed after waking up too.”
Nia opened her mouth.
Then closed it again because he was technically correct, which only made the quiet satisfaction rumbling through his chest behind her more irritating.
Nia closed her eyes briefly. Kael had an infuriating habit of saying things that should have sounded ridiculous and somehow making them sound perfectly reasonable instead.
Outside the cave, distant movement echoed faintly through the mountain halls while morning activity gradually started building below them. Patrol shifts changing. Hunters preparing to leave. The soft scrape of movement somewhere deeper in the settlement.
The mountain was waking up.
Nia shifted carefully against the furs before trying to sit up, only for Kael’s arm to tighten slightly around her waist in protest.
She froze.
Behind her, Kael did not sound remotely apologetic when he said,
“Too early.”
Nia turned her head slightly to stare at him over her shoulder.
“You cannot physically imprison me because you’re sleepy.”
“I can try.”
“That was honest.”
“You’re warm.”
“That continues to not be a valid excuse.”
“It’s still a good reason.”
Nia stared at him while Kael looked entirely calm beneath the attention despite the fact that he was currently trapping her against his chest like an oversized heated blanket with territorial instincts.
His hair had loosened slightly sometime during sleep, leaving several dark strands resting across his forehead while the lower morning light from the cave entrance caught faint gold beneath his eyes. Without the usual alertness sharpening his features, he looked younger like this. Less territorial leader and more simply male, though the calmer appearance somehow made the steadiness in his gaze feel even heavier.
Nia looked away first before her thoughts wandered somewhere unhelpful.
Behind her, Kael’s chest rumbled again in quiet satisfaction.
“You’re staring again.”
“I was looking at your hair.”
Kael looked entirely unbothered by that confession.
“You can keep looking.”
Nia immediately regretted answering honestly.
The answer should not have been as effective as it was, which only made the quiet satisfaction in his expression more irritating.
She finally managed to pry herself free several minutes later only because Elder Bran’s voice drifted faintly from outside the cave entrance asking whether Kael planned to attend the early patrol meeting or sleep through half the morning instead.
Kael sighed directly into the fur behind him with visible disappointment.
Nia pressed her lips together hard to stop herself from laughing.
“You’re being summoned by responsibility.”
“I dislike responsibility before sunrise.”
“You run an entire territory.”
“I still dislike it.”
That answer felt strangely satisfying to hear.
Kael eventually pushed himself upright beside her with the slow reluctance of someone leaving warmth against his will, and Nia became sharply aware all over again of how large he actually was once he fully unfolded from the furs beside her. Large had stopped properly covering it several days ago because everything about Kael occupied space heavily. His shoulders. His height. The sheer physical density of him. Even half-awake, he radiated the kind of instinctive danger that made it painfully easy to understand why an entire mountain settlement listened when he spoke.
And somehow this same terrifying man had spent the morning complaining because she stopped functioning as a heater.
The contradiction remained impossible to take seriously no matter how often she saw it.
Kael stretched one arm briefly overhead before his attention shifted toward her ankle almost immediately afterward.
Nia caught the look instantly.
“Do not start.”
“You’re still injured.”
“I hate that you notice every time I move wrong.”
“You limp.”
“That still feels invasive.”
“No.”
Again, he sounded completely serious.
Outside the cave, Elder Bran’s voice carried again.
“If you make me climb this mountain for nothing, I’m assigning you patrol paperwork.”
Kael’s expression darkened immediately.
Nia blinked once.
“You fear paperwork?”
“Everyone fears paperwork.”
“That might be the most normal thing you’ve said since I got here.”
Kael gave her one long look before standing fully and moving toward the entrance.
Nia watched him go briefly before her attention drifted toward the scattered herb bundles near the preparation stone again, then toward the fire, then slowly toward the side wall near the storage alcove.
Her gaze drifted across the preparation area near the fire. The herbs worked for now, and the baskets worked for now, but she kept catching herself wishing there were better places for things. Somewhere to hang herbs without crowding them together. Somewhere dry for ingredients she wanted to save. Somewhere she could leave ongoing experiments without constantly moving them around.
The thought lingered longer than she expected.
Somewhere between the broth experiments, the herb sorting, and Kael quietly making room for her whenever she needed it, the cave had started feeling less like temporary shelter and more like a place people actually lived.
Movement near the entrance drew her attention again as Shen stepped quietly into the cave carrying several bundled herbs beneath one arm.
Nia blinked once.
“Where did you come from?”
Shen looked mildly puzzled.
“The entrance.”
“You move too quietly.”
“I’ve heard that before.”
His gaze drifted briefly toward the half-organized herb piles around the preparation stone before settling back on her again.
“You started rearranging the cave in your head already.”
Nia narrowed her eyes slightly.
“Why does everyone keep noticing that?”
“Because your expression changes.”
Nia frowned faintly at him before looking back toward the herbs beside the fire. Apparently her face had become significantly less private since arriving in this world.
Shen stepped farther inside before setting the herb bundles carefully beside the fire.
“Elder Bran sent these up earlier this morning. He said you mentioned drying properties last night.”
Nia’s attention sharpened immediately.
The herbs were unfamiliar, but several stood out based on scent alone. Bitter undertones. Oil-rich stems. Sharp resin notes.
Several possibilities immediately came to mind as she examined the herbs more closely.
Nia leaned forward automatically before catching herself when her ankle protested slightly.
Shen's gaze shifted toward her ankle as she adjusted her posture.
“You should sit properly before you fall over trying to reorganize the mountain.”
Nia looked up sharply.
“That sounded suspiciously close to teasing.”
A quieter kind of amusement settled in Shen’s eyes then, subtle enough that most people probably would have missed it entirely.
“Maybe I’m learning from Kael.”
“That sounds dangerous for society.”
“It might be.”
The calm softness in his voice somehow made the answer worse.
Nia looked back down toward the herbs spread beside the fire while Shen settled more comfortably against the opposite side of the chamber. Unlike Kael, Shen did not seem to occupy space heavily. If Kael felt like standing beside a mountain, Shen felt more like still water that became deeper the longer someone stared at it. Calm. Controlled. Quiet enough that it remained easy to forget how physically large he actually was until he moved too close.
The thought drifted through her mind absently while she reached toward one of the bundled stems near the fire.
“This one smells sharp,” she murmured.
Shen leaned slightly forward to watch her separate the leaves.
“Poisonous if eaten raw.”
Nia paused immediately before looking up at him.
“That feels like important information to lead with.”
“It slipped my mind.”
“That is a terrible sentence.”
A softer kind of amusement flickered briefly across Shen’s face before fading again.
“The roots become safe after boiling.”
“That would have been a much more comforting opening statement.”
Nia held the stem closer to the firelight while studying the leaf structure carefully. Thick veins. Slightly waxy texture. Strong scent oils.
“You already want to experiment with it,” Shen observed.
“I always want to experiment with plants.”
“That explains many things.”
Nia narrowed her eyes slightly at him before reaching for another bundle.
“You say that like I’m dangerous.”
Shen watched her calmly across the fire.
“You are rearranging an entire territory through soup.”
“That still sounds ridiculous when you say it out loud.”
“And yet.”
Nia sighed softly through her nose while continuing to sort the herbs into rough categories across the preparation stone. Bitter herbs near the left side. Oil-rich stems farther from direct heat. Fragile leaves near the edge where they would not dry too quickly.
Shen watched the process quietly for several moments before speaking again.
“You organize things instinctively.”
“My old work involved a lot of categorization.”
That answer slipped out before she fully considered it.
Not enough to reveal anything dangerous.
But enough that Shen’s attention sharpened slightly.
“Work?”
Nia’s fingers paused briefly against one of the stems.
Right.
She still needed to be careful.
Not because she thought Shen would react badly exactly, but because explaining almost anything about her old life required carefully reshaping truths until the conversation became exhausting.
“I worked with plants,” she answered after a moment. “Mostly cultivation and research.”
That at least was true.
Shen’s gaze drifted slowly across the organized herb piles before returning to her face again.
“You speak about food and plants differently from most people I’ve met.”
Nia smiled faintly without looking up.
“That might just mean most people stop at not poisoning themselves.”
A quieter sound of amusement escaped him then, softer than laughter but real enough that Nia glanced up automatically.
Shen’s expressions remained restrained most of the time, but the emotions beneath them became surprisingly noticeable once she started paying attention.
The cave settled into comfortable quiet afterward while Nia continued organizing the herbs beside the fire. Outside, the mountain had fully awakened now. Voices echoed faintly through the distant halls while movement carried up from lower levels of the settlement in uneven waves. Somewhere below them, metal struck stone rhythmically enough that construction work had probably already started for the morning.
Nia’s attention drifted instinctively toward the sound before her gaze slowly moved across the cave again. The more time she spent here, the more the place revealed itself as unfinished rather than primitive. Kael’s home already functioned well enough for survival, but now that her brain had started organizing it emotionally as living space instead of temporary shelter, she kept automatically noticing ways the cave could become more comfortable to work in.
Her eyes drifted thoughtfully toward the far wall while ideas slowly continued arranging themselves together in her head. A drying rack system could fit there without getting in the way. Somewhere easier to sort herbs would save her from constantly moving bundles around the floor. Better storage would mean fewer things stacked on top of each other whenever she wanted to find something specific.
“You would probably need more space between the bundles.”
Nia blinked before looking up sharply.
“What?”
Shen nodded toward the wall she had been staring at.
“The center would dry more slowly if everything hung together.”
Nia stared at him for a moment before glancing back toward the wall again.
He was right.
Because most people she knew back home either lost interest halfway through conversations like this or politely nodded while she rambled about plants and storage. Shen, meanwhile, had apparently silently joined the planning process several minutes ago without announcing it.
“You think like a kitchen manager,” she muttered absently.
Shen tilted his head slightly.
“Is that criticism?”
“No,” Nia admitted while still studying the wall thoughtfully. “Actually, that would make things significantly easier.”
A quieter sort of satisfaction settled behind Shen’s expression before he leaned slightly forward and pointed toward the fire pit instead.
Shen glanced toward the fire.
“That side of the room always feels warmer.”
Nia followed his gaze automatically.
She had noticed it too, though she had not paid much attention to it until now.
Nia found herself studying the room again from a different angle. Shen paid attention to spaces the same way he paid attention to conversations—quietly, but thoroughly.
“You’ve thought about this before,” she said slowly.
“I think about most things before changing them.”
Nia leaned back slightly against the fur behind her while studying him with renewed interest. Shen approached problems very differently from Kael. Kael’s instincts moved toward immediate practicality and decisive action while Shen observed first, understood the shape of something before touching it, and quietly connected pieces together before speaking. Even the way he discussed the cave felt methodical rather than impulsive.
It fit him strangely well.
“Most people would not care this much about kitchen space,” she said.
Shen's gaze shifted briefly toward the herbs spread across the preparation stone.
“Most people are not spending this much time sorting plants beside my fire.”
Nia huffed a quiet laugh before looking back toward the wall again while mentally adjusting the layout with Shen’s suggestions included this time.
A small pulse of excitement moved quietly through her chest before she could suppress it because this part felt familiar in a way almost nothing else had since arriving here. Building a place she enjoyed working in. Organizing something into comfort rather than merely getting by.
And for the first time since arriving here, she was not doing it entirely alone inside her own head.