I am thinking about how Khatha called Dome his brother but also talked about wanting to just be the two of them and we know that he is narrating this for himself, both in the past and the future, and I wonder how much of calling Chan his brother is self-protection.
He didn't have a chance at any kind of out romantic relationship with Chan in the 1820s and no way of expressing it openly. And, even now, it can be difficult to face and speak when you mind is filled with centuries of fear of the words and what they mean, especially when neither Dome nor Chan are there to put their own view into the mix.
Khatha obviously loved Chan and loves Dome... but he doesn't have the words for it because those words must be intimidating, must be big, especially when neither man is there to help him define who or what they are to each other.
Chan was the person he cared for the most, the person he wanted to alongside alone, the person he wanted to protect and to keep and he was the one who brought his death to him... to call him brother when he can no longer speak of the love they might have shared but did not have the chance to is all he can do.
And Dome is in a coma because of him, trapped, leaving Khatha again alone and again without any certainty about feelings on both sides and he does not know how to press, he barely knows how to feel, he's been trying not to since Chan's death.
But everyone else knows how Khatha loves Dome.
