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Nyx passed the bowl of spices over to Amani, who shook it slightly to judge the color, then brought it to her face and sniffed at it.“I think you’ve got it. Won’t know for sure until it’s cooked, of course, but it seems right,” she said, still squinting down into the small dish. Nyx made a note on the pad of paper he’d been scribbling on, then gestured vaguely behind his back for her to hand the bowl back.She clicked her tongue as she grabbed his wrist with one hand and slapped the bowl into his hand with the other, and he clicked back once he had a good grip. It wasn’t quite the kitchen procedure he’d grown up using – less surgical and more martial – but it was familiar after three years as a glaive and crashing Amani’s cooking parties. Ten glaives all crowded into one kitchen might give you nicer options for leftovers once everyone had finished trading their excess, but it left things a little cramped, and so it was only natural they’d start developing their own ways of doing things, and start letting their work creep in a little.If Nyx had started feeling his stomach wake up whenever they used the same technique as they handed off critical items in the field or in practice, well, it wasn’t like either of those places didn’t work up an appetite. It probably wasn’t conditioning.Nyx jerked his chin to the side, trying to break his wandering train of thought and get his focus back on what he was doing. Even coffee wasn’t doing much for his concentration at this point, but he needed to figure out this recipe tonight. He sprinkled the spices over the chopped meat then mixed it all together and divided it into equal portions. This part – rolling the mix into balls, wrapping the dough and checking the oil temperature – was second nature after this many attempts. It was the spices and the frying that were still giving him problems.Amani appeared at his elbow with a spoon, which he carefully transferred the dough ball onto so she could lower it into the oil. It was a slightly awkward task with just one hand – her other arm was strapped across her chest after she’d broken it in two places on their last mission – but even her one hand was better than if Nyx had been working alone.“Hold,” she said, interrupting the flow, and Nyx put the second-to-last pastry down and backed up. “The temp was getting too low,” she explained, with a nod at the thermometer. She watched the temperature and he watched the bobbing pastries, and together they got them all flipped and then out to dry, then repeated the process for the remaining two. It wasn’t the most efficient operation, but he was pretty sure this was the best results they’d gotten all night. From the way Amani was grinning at him, she agreed.As soon as they were close to cool, Nyx grabbed one and cut it carefully in two, passing one half to his partner in cooking. After a little bit of juggling to cool them off enough to actually eat, the two popped them in their mouth and thoughtfully chewed. The crunch was right, the proportions were right, and they tasted good to him. But Amani knew what they were supposed to taste like. Nyx watched as she seemed to take an age to chew and swallow, before she finally beamed at him.His smile felt like it was going to split his face as he grabbed her in a celebratory hug, though he kept enough self-control to keep from picking her up, despite the joy of success. He needed to be able to walk home, after all. The smile lasted through the next batch (just to make sure it hadn’t been a fluke) and the cleanup and he still couldn’t wipe it away even as he felt her couch try far more successfully to sap away any motivation he had for getting up to head home the longer he sat on it.Amani didn’t seem to be in much better shape, fading fast as she curled up on the other end, but when she forced her eyes back open and shook her head she didn’t focus on the bedroom she should be headed to or the door he should probably be leaving through. Instead, she stared him down with one of the assessing looks that had scared Pelna when they first met and always made Nyx want to push back, to prove himself or challenge her.“What?” he asked, purposefully not tensing up or hiding away.“You don’t have to do this, you know. Pelna wouldn’t ask it of you. I know Galahdans aren’t supposed to eat meat or flour or oil or pretty much anything this week. Cook loves to rant about having to accommodate it, and Ostium loves to rant about not being able to get what he wants for cooking this time of year, and I’ve seen you ghost us all before during the parties. You don’t have to change for our traditions.”What they weren’t supposed to eat was anything that required death, actually. Dairy was fine, but meat wasn’t. Acorn flour was fine, but regular grain flour that killed the whole plant when it was harvested wasn’t. The Solstice was Etro’s, and adding more death to it was claiming her power as yours, which was never a good thing when a goddess was involved. At least that’s what his Da had always said. Nyx was pretty sure it also mainly practice for long years of famine, to prove you could survive sustainably on perennials, but that had been his Pa’s perspective, not the official one.And it wasn’t like Nyx hadn’t had to deal death last solstice, anyway, when his squad and three others had been called out to deal with a truly ancient behemoth hassling the roads in Leide. He hadn’t died then, he wouldn’t die now for the much more minor offense of eating something someone else had already killed whether or not he ate it. But neither of those were quite the answer she wanted, either.“The food’s important, but being together is more important. And I’d rather eat with you at the same table, with the things that bind you together, than stay pure for the holiday, whatever that actually means.”A corner of his mouth quirked up, nowhere near as wide as the smile from before, but not fully faked, either.“Besides, I think the sun will come back no matter what I do or don’t do. But if we have these just right, I can make Pelna smile,” and he could make her smile, but saying that now would distract them, “and so why wouldn’t I? His smile is like the sun; that’s enough for me.”Amani kicked his knee, her sap quotient apparently exceeded, but she was smiling, too. Not warm and captivating like Pelna’s, but just as beautiful for its rarity, no matter how small. Like the moon, if he wanted to continue the metaphor.But no matter what Drautos or Libertus said, he was smart enough to not say it out loud.Nyx hid his own smile – far too real for a moment like this – by finally pushing himself to his feet and gathering up the bounty of their hard work. Amani was only two steps behind him, helping to seal the package so the sun sambasas stayed warm. It wasn’t necessary – these were just the test runs for tomorrow, and it wasn’t like Nyx minded them a little cold – but he let her fuss. Sometimes it was stifling but tonight it just felt nice.As Nyx shrugged on his jacket and started juggling the packages, he glanced at the clock, trying to figure out how long before the next train. They ran slower at night and on a holiday like this, but if he hurried, he might be home by 11 or so. Midnight at the absolute latest, if the crowds delayed him.Midnight.Spinning back around, Nyx hurried toward Amani, not even bothering to muffle the noise of his boots on the cheap flooring of her apartment. Her roommates were out celebrating, and her neighbors probably were too, if they weren’t dancing to the music that had carried well enough through the walls that Nyx hadn’t even had to turn on the radio to fill the quiet. “I bet if we stop by my place for nicer clothes, we could make it to Pelna’s not long after midnight,” he said, letting the slightly manic rush fill his smile and maybe persuade her. It hadn’t worked yet, but a man could hope. It seemed to form most of Nyx’s diet at the moment, anyway.“Midnight isn’t dawn. Dawn is when the solstice starts,” she said, face still neutral but rocking back on her heels slightly. Hopefully that meant she was at least considering it.“But you said these are supposed to help the sun come back. No point in that if the sun’s already up. Besides, aren’t they better warm? Wait and we’ll just have to do all this tomorrow. Might as well strike now.” Nyx smiled again for good measure, trying to punctuate the cavalcade of words so that it at least ended on a positive note. Usually, the end was all that mattered, anyway.Right?She looked down at the containers, then at the clock, and Nyx fought the smile turning into a smirk. Just because she was thinking about it didn’t mean—Amani sighed. “Fine! Just let me get dressed.”Worked every time.While Amani changed, Nyx double-wrapped the sun sambasas so they would definitely stay warm. He didn’t mind them cold, himself, but these were for Pelna.The trip to Nyx’s place was efficient, as expected when Amani was running the show, and it didn’t take long for Nyx to pick out what to wear, given the lack of options. Money and time were both tight, after all, and he’d rather spend both on something he could share. That meant it was a quarter till midnight when they arrived at Pelna’s door.“Should we wait until it’s closer to midnight?” Nyx asked, shifting foot to foot. The soft singing they could hear on the other side of the door proved Pelna was still awake, not that Nyx’d had much doubt. If Pelna wasn’t still preparing for the party tomorrow, he was probably gaming or fiddling with some bit of garage sale tech – taking advantage of their day off tomorrow to stay up the whole night.“No,” Amani said, knocking on the door. “Give him time to be a good host for us first.”Yeah, that was fair. It was also still far too much time for Nyx to overthink all this, unfortunately.Pelna’s shadow appeared in the doorway as he checked the spyhole in the door, then the locks rattled as they were thrown rapidly.“Nyx! Mani!” he exclaimed grabbing them both by the wrists while he finished shoving the door open with the rest of the way with his hip. He beamed at them, the same whole-hearted smile that Nyx had compared to the sun earlier, as he tugged them inside and closed the door behind them.“What brings you by—no, wait. Give me a second.” Pelna tugged his headphones out of his ears as he hurried off toward the kitchen area of the room. He pulled three beers out and brought them over to the coffee table, which was the emptiest Nyx had ever seen it with just a single cup of coffee and Pelna’s laptop.. “Okay, sit down, have a drink, and then tell me what brings you here. And hey, if you want to sleep those off here I have plenty of work for you to help with in the morning.”“That was almost devious,” Nyx said, the half smile he’d been sporting since Pelna opened the door widening to the real thing.“I’m impressed,” Amani agreed, grabbing Nyx’s container and setting them both on the coffee table next to the drinks, before shooing Pelna to sit down first so they could settle on either side of him.Pelna was happy to make enough conversation for the three of them, helped along occasionally by questions from Amani. Nyx was content enough just sit back and bask in Pelna’s excitement and sip his beer. It was a good brand, one he and Libs had sold as their main import in their bar, but not Pelna’s preference, which was making Nyx ignore all sorts of feelings trying to bubble up.Eventually Pelna turned to Nyx, to ask him about his solstice memories in a tone that encouraged Nyx to take it in any direction he wanted – good memories or dumb ones, recent or barely recalled. Nyx was good at quips and saying what needed to be said when the chips were down, but Pelna had a rarer gift of actual conversation, giving people room to say what they wanted and never making them feel bad when they chose to keep quiet. Sometimes Nyx thought it was more powerful magic than anything the King had.Amani making exaggerated glances at her watch gave Nyx the perfect out so he didn’t have to actually deal with any of those thoughts, thankfully. Or at least gave him a way to deal with them without looking at them too closely.“Actually, we came over because Amani helped me make something from your stretch of the coast, and I wanted to make sure it came out right. Would you…” The words cut off in Nyx’s throat, so he just turned to unwrap the containers and extract the prettiest pastry they’d managed.Stiffening his spine, Nyx placed it carefully in his mouth, caught between his teeth so that half of the round sambasa was hanging out of his mouth, ready for Pelna to share if he wanted. Pelna was staring in shock – good or bad Nyx couldn’t tell – and Amani behind him looked like she was about to shove Pelna forward to get it over with. Nyx was very very glad she refrained.Pelna’s hands grabbed Nyx’s upper arms, and for a heart-stopping moment Nyx was sure that he was going to say no. He didn’t want to share the treat, didn’t want to spend the rest of the year together, didn’t want to make that commitment to Nyx of all people. But Pelna used his grip to pill himself forward instead, slowly leaning closer, his eyes full and locked on Nyx’s until he was close enough to bite down on the other half.Nyx and Pelna had kissed before, but this felt somehow more intimate, for all their lips barely touched. Nyx’s hand shot out to catch the flaky bits of pastry that fell between them as it broke in two, then as soon as he’d swallowed his bite of sambasa – not even registering the taste at this point – he promptly dumped the whole pile on the carpet to kiss Pelna properly, pulling him forward into Nyx’s lap. He’d take the way that Pelna’s tongue chased down every bit of the taste from Nyx’s mouth as a sign they’d made them correctly, anyway.Amani was laughing by the time they separated, but all Nyx could see was the way Pelna’s entire face was lit up with joy as he stared back at Nyx.“There are easier ways to ask me to be your boyfriend, you know,” Pelna said eventually, still sounding a little breathless. “You didn’t have to go to all this trouble.”“Oh, but he insisted,” Amani said, sounding smug and delighted. “You should have heard him. He said you were a sun and he’d do anything to keep you smiling.”Pelna’s smile turned bashful at that, and Nyx was pretty sure he was blushing, so of course he had to kiss him again, leaning into him until Nyx was pretty sure Pelna was only staying upright because Amani was bracing him from the other side. Nyx could taste the spices now, but they only spurred him on, reminding him that Pelna had agreed to seeing through the year together, had wanted this, even knowing what a mess Nyx was.Amani wasn’t laughing this time when they pulled apart, but she did reach around to pat Nyx’s hand briefly as he stroked his other hand along Pelna’s hair and gave himself time to believe that this was real.“The nice thing about the sun, though,” she said, before Nyx actually managed to find the words he wanted, “is that it shines on so many people. Would you?”Pelna shifted around enough to see her, and Nyx leaned around him enough to see that she had placed one of the sun sambasas in her mouth as well, looking more uncertain than he’d ever seen her since they’d met his rookie year. Nyx carefully didn’t move, for all that he wanted to reach forward and put a hand on her hip in reassurance, or wrap an arm around Pelna to keep him steady when he leaned closer. This had to be Pelna’s decision or it wouldn’t be true, even if it would hurt like fire to leave her behind. She’d threatened him enough during all their planning for Nyx to acknowledge that.Thankfully Pelna didn’t make them hold long, leaning forward with a groan to bite down on her pastry as well. Then Nyx let himself go, plastering himself along Pel’s back and burying his face in Pelna’s neck, while reaching around to grab whatever part of Mani he could, which turned out to be her thigh.He left enough room for the other two to separate enough to swallow, but as soon as Pelna was gasping out something that sounded like a string of yeses, Nyx leaned back in, trailing kisses down Pelna’s shoulder as he and Amani kissed, silently thanking the stars that this night of all nights they had plenty of time until dawn.