#tallak

It's a familiar routine when they visit: Tallak helps cook, Vian helps clean up. Ammi cooked tonight, so Vian follows Anna to the kitchen to start on the dishes. He brings in the last few things from the dining room, rolls up his sleeves and starts rinsing.

They work in a comfortable silence. His anna Landril rarely talks much, so Vian doesn't think anything of the quiet until he notices that he's stopped washing. He glances over and sees Landril staring at him - specifically, at his hands.

"What?"

"How did you get those bruises?"

"Huh? Oh." Vian blushes and glances downward, at the distinct fingerprint bruises on his wrists he'd forgotten about until just now.

"Did Tallak give you those?"

He shakes his head slightly. "Yes, but it's not like you think."

Landril watches him silently, waiting for the explanation. Vian, very red now, stares into the sink. "I...we..." Deep breath. "We just like rough sex, that's all. It's totally consensual, I swear."

"...Oh."

"...Yeah."

Landril, awkwardly, turns back to the sink and starts scrubbing again. "I'm sorry."

"No, don't be. I appreciate you being concerned, really. But I'm fine. You don't need to worry." He returns to rinsing. "We try to be discreet, so people don't see things and get the wrong idea. But sometimes, we, y'know...get careless."

"Ah." They both fall silent. "I don't want you to think I...You know I love Tallak. And I don't believe he'd hurt you. But..."

"But abusers are very good at convincing you they're wonderful people who'd never hurt you," Vian finishes for him. "I know. And Tallak could do a lot of damage if he wanted to. But I promise you, he has never hurt me in any way that I did not want and ask for."

Landril uncharacteristically looks Vian straight in the eyes, searching for any sign of deception, of shame or pain, and finds none. He breaks off, and nods. "Okay. And..."

"Neither has Zhenya."

"Okay," he nods again, and starts in on the soup pot.

"Anyway, I guess that's one of the benefits of polyamory," Vian muses. "Unless they decided to gang up on me, which is exceedingly unlikely, if one of them ever did try anything, the other would put him in the ground before you ever saw a single bruise."

Landril brightens. "That's true."

"What are you guys talking about?"

"Oh, I was just telling Anna about all our kinky sex and how you aren't beating me." Vian flashes his bruised forearm in Tallak's direction, spattering water on the floor in the process.

"Oh." Tallak grabs a towel and starts drying dishes.

("No, you don't have to do that." "No, I want to though.")

"And how if you ever tried, Zhenya would end you," Landril adds.