...he smiles, glancing at Asher with immense fondness. "That's a pretty nice way to be."

And then, looking at Ben again, "Asher says it's okay if I ask you on a date."

"Yes, it is."

"Do you want to go on a date with me? You'd have to plan it, I still have only about half a clue how this world works."

"Yes."

He makes THE MOST DELIGHTED IMAGINABLE FACE.

"--Wait, no, does true love magic even work for nonmonogamous couples."

"Fuck."

"You didn't expect it to work for gay people either and it'd be stupid if it didn't and we can test it, can't we?"

"I guess it would be weird if cheating on your partner once destroyed it."

"And if Takai is in love with you, that's more practical. Honestly, even if Takai has to be monogamous, we should arrange for him to be monogamous with you if we can."

"—if I have to break up with you to be omnipotent I am gonna use my omnipotence to make the damn magic work less stupidly."

"Or not that."

"Anyway I guess this means I actually should test if I can do love magic for Ben."

"May I suggest, with a complete lack of ulterior motives, that you hurt me and then kiss me and see if it heals?"

—he actually blushes.

"Cuuuuuuute."

"You can definitely suggest that. —I am maybe a little nervous about hurting you right now, but I'm sure we can figure something out."

"I don't want you to have to do things you're nervous about."

"I'm... if it's really okay then I'm fine, it's just... hard to convince myself it's really okay."

"It's really okay! I like it!"

He smiles at him. "Okay. Then—man is there anyone in this room who can think about what kind of thing would make a good test because all I can think about are things that would be really hot—"

Admire Asher's self-restraint in not saying "hot things would make good tests."

"Bite him so he bleeds?"

"Okay," he murmurs.

He takes a step toward Ben, reaches for his hand—doesn't quite close the distance on his own, but doesn't pull away either.—

Ben looks nervous but he puts his hand firmly in Tazalkyran's.

Now it is Ben's turn to be smiled at with deep affection.

He squeezes his hand, and picks it up and kisses it, and touches the side of his forearm where he can imagine a particularly lovely bite mark— "here okay?"