“So that’s how it is?” Tinker asked when Oilcan came and settled beside her and Thorne Scratch did the sekasha cold-eyed stare-off with Pony. Odd how she hadn’t noticed that little tradition had been missing — until today.
Oilcan grinned sheepishly and then admitted, “I figured she would hit me if I asked her to be my domi.”
“Smart man.” Tinker bumped shoulders with him lightly. “We still good?”
“Always,” Oilcan said.
She wanted to ask him how he felt about the change, but she knew how long it had taken her to just get over plain mad. She’d let him deal with it without having to drag how she felt into the mess. What was important was that no matter how he looked on the outside, he was still mentally the same. He tapped his thigh to some inner rhythm, obviously stringing words together to a song she may never hear.
“Loan me some money,” he said out of the blue.
“Okay.” Normally they swapped money back and forth like it was joint property, but things had changed. “Do you want it on the sly, no strings attached?”
“Nah, I want the strings. Make it all official.”
“Sponsorship?”
He nodded and grinned again. “I need so much to get my enclave up and running — again.”
“Thorne and the kids?” she asked.
“They seem to see it as ‘cousin’ and not ‘the Wind Clan,’ but they’re signed up for the whole shebang.”
She wasn’t sure how things worked between domana, but she didn’t care. Whatever he needed, she was going to see he got it. It turned out ridiculously easy to give it to him, too. It only took one phone call to the president of their bank and bludgeoning the man with her vicereine title, and the money was transferred from her account to Oilcan’s. All the while Oilcan silently laughed at her.“If you need more, let me know. I’ll put the squeeze on Windwolf.” She’d been ignoring how the whole money thing worked — enjoying the opportunity to get whatever she wanted without thinking where the funds were coming from — but she really should start paying attention to that whole mess.
They talked for a while, making plans, just like they always had. Giant plans sketched out with the barest details and a hell of a lot of trust that they both understood what had to be done and would do their part. She couldn’t have done half the things in her life without him beside her. This time, it was his dreams that they were making true.