#aryion

Locks aren't inherently sexual beings. They don't have sex or gender within their own 'species', it's not something that's on their radar and they don't really mess around with it (with few exceptions - like Jeih, who is a wildly NSFW character). There are Reasons, for that.

Locks aren't social entities, they don't have all the relationship levels like social species do. They basically have two modes:

Companions - 'we share a major goal, our teeth are turned away from each other.' This is a joint choice. There's not much Lockian intimacy here, the focus is whatever the goal is and that usually relates to the primary heirarchy stuff (North Cliff, Empires, etc). It sets a baseline for consistent non-aggressive behavior between parties.

and

Bonded Companions - 'we're inexorably bound together, can't escape each other, and will eventually merge into a single entity.' This is not a choice either party has. It usually takes a while (sometimes thousands of years+) to resolve and is often a major source of conflict between strong personalities. This state also involves Lockian intimacy, which revolves around patterns and has nothing to do with sex. The pattern stuff drives the bonding process. Pattern stuff = bonds of some sort will happen, and you will be forced to deal with it.

There is a semi-secret third mode that involves Aryion.

Ary's work and specialty with the lesser wills is pattern manipulation, in Lockian healing and repair. His symbiosis with Jarovin tempers his aggressive nature and allows him to tolerate partial bonds - which is any bond created by the pattern work he's doing. So Locks that he is actively working on may partially bond to him, for a short time. These partial bonds are mostly one-sided. Ary does not, will not, and cannot reciprocate on a Lockian level (indomitable wills are incompatible with lesser wills anyway, from a bonding standpoint).

Where Jeih is concerned:

Jeih's pattern has been buggered since Hons tore up Yahndrall and started chowing down on the lesser wills. Jeih was unfortunate collateral before he even came into consciousness. In the aftermath of the Hons vs Ary battle that happened at that time, Ary sought out all the damaged, unsalvageable lesser wills from Hons's rampage to put them out of their misery. As he came up on Jeih, Jeih figured out a workaround in his pattern to keep himself functional and Ary made the decision to allow him to live.

Ary exists with that choice, takes responsibility for that decision and is ready to be the one to end him should he destabilize at any point. He has no emotions tied to that decision or that outcome - Jeih is beyond his ability to repair for a long time.

Aryion eventually acquires the skills needed for major pattern reconfiguration (several eons and a few partial bonds later) and is able to step in when Jeih does finally destabilize. In the time before Ary's able to help, Jeih meets his bonded companion (Kyrin) but is unable to bond, goes to Ary for help (he can't), he defects from the primary hierarchy, and then for thousands of years spends his time living as various material plane creatures, finally settling on being human and playing out a multitude of human lives. He embraces humanness and embeds himself in that race. He cannot bond and is propelled to seek out intimacy in a myriad of other ways, but these are no substitute for bonding so his appetite is insatiable. Plus side - he gets very good at making and breaking relationships, he learns to relate and emote like humans do, he can flawlessly human. Downside - he also stops living and feeding like a Lock and starts down that blood-soaked path of seducing and eating people, and starts losing his mind as he slowly starves.

When Jeih spirals and is on the cusp of giving up, Ary forcibly takes over maintaining his pattern and locks his consciousness in a human body. The move saves Jeih by allowing Ary to stabilize his pattern and buy him more time - but it also creates an intensely strong partial bond between them, much to Aryion's dismay and mild horror. Ary is so dismayed, in fact, that he refuses to acknowledge the bond's existence and Jeih spends a good bit of time incredibly confused on why he's constantly drawn back to the indomitable will. It's only after Jeih is up and running properly, after he's modified his behavior, has been released from his binding (to be a Lock again), and is actively trying to work out things with Ary, that Ary relents and fills him in on what happened.

Ary's work is not finished - not nearly so. The pattern reconfiguration requires Jeih to participate, which Jeih doesn't outright want to do for a while. And in the meantime, Jeih brings all of his humanisms, all of his charm, all of his innuendo and insatiable 'need to connect' energy down on Aryion. He would 100% love to squirrel Ary away and do sexy stuff all day. He does in fact convince Ary to borrow an actual human body and he does bargain for some Things at one point, but it's short lived. Jeih embraces his bond with Aryion and wants to take it as far as he can, because why not? Why not do all the things while they're there, explore it all, enjoy it all? He is content to treat Aryion like he wants to treat Kyrin - who, like Ary, does not really enjoy this flavor of attention.

Ary does not share Jeih's enthusiasm. He wants to do his job unbothered. He does eventually come to enjoy Jeih's company when Jeih gives him space, and eventually accepts their bond as a thing, but it is a struggle and it takes him a while to get there. He will tolerate some of Jeih's harmless eccentricities, he will tolerate the snuggles and some of the handsiness and the clinginess and will even now and again humor Jeih's desire to go on random human adventures. But it is not Ary's jam, Jeih is not his bonded companion and is not his preference. He has a long suffering attitude, and when Jeih annoys him enough he pulls rank and drives him off, viciously.

Until Jeih consents to the pattern reconfiguration they exist in this push-pull partial bond limbo. Jeih wants Ary's attention and is starving for any glimmer of affection, Ary just wants him to behave and be able to get to work. When the reconfiguration is eventually agreed upon, they consent to become companions and with that, Jeih gets the validation he wants and Ary gets to start on the reconfiguration. They figure out how to get along. They end up very patient and are generally very sweet towards each other, both giving space and neither asking too much.

Over time, as Jeih's pattern is repaired he's able to start properly bonding with Kyrin. That satiates him, and as he spends more time with Ky his partial bond with Ary dissolves and the two go their separate ways.

tl;dr - in summation, they're kind of a thing, just not a romantic thing, as much as Jeih would enjoy that.

In Lockian eyes they're partially-bonded, and companions, with the ultimate goal of repair and resolution. Their perspective is clinical, and they are waiting to see if Ary can actually pull the repair off. Ary's been in partial bonds before and while that's curious to them (due to his proximity to Jarovin), it's not unusual for him or to them.