Later at night

Part 2

"Well, there you go. They're all done."

Hana looked over the two sets of bookshelves Glas had just finished assembling in their living room. He'd really done a good job - these shelves hadn't been bought at a store, Glas had made them from scratch from finished wood he'd brought over. He definitely had a nice touch with woodwork.

"They're beautiful, Royce," said Rain, walking in from the kitchen to stand beside Hana. "They're much nicer than our old shelves.”

"Yeah, thank you. It was really nice of you to make these for us," Hana said happily.

"It was no problem at all," Glas replied. "Now just let me move them up against the wall here," he continued, turning toward the first bookcase.

"Do you need some help?" Rain asked.

"No, I've got it," he declared. He lifted one bookcase and manoeuvred it up against the wall. He paused for a moment to catch his breath, then repeated the process with the other one, setting them next to each other.

Hana watched him as he moved the shelves. They were obviously heavy, and Glas’ arms strained with the effort of moving them. She could see the muscles in his chest flexing through the light T-shirt he was wearing, and her heart started beating a little faster at the sight. She briefly pictured him taking it off, wondered what it would feel like to walk up and run her hands down his bare chest....

She stopped herself before her thoughts could go too far down that road. It wouldn't do to get all hot and bothered in front of Glas.

However, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Rain was staring at him as well.

"There we go," Glas said, stepping back and looking the shelves over one last time. "Now all we have to do is put the books back." He glanced over at the neat, orderly piles of books on the other side of the living room.

"Oh, we'll take care of that, don't worry," Hana said hastily. "You've done plenty already."

"Yeah, we can do it after dinner. Which I'd better go check on," said Rain, turning and heading for the kitchen. "It shouldn't be too much longer, by the way."

"Great," Glas called out as Rain left the room. Then he gave an exaggerated sniff. "Although I might not be very pleasant dinner table company," he concluded with a chuckle. Between their new bookcases, and hauling their old shelves down to the dumpster, he'd done quite a bit of work this afternoon.

Hana smirked. "Why don't you take a quick shower before we eat?" she suggested.

"Good idea," Glas said, nodding. "I'll just be a few minutes." He turned and headed for the short hallway leading to the bedrooms and the bathroom, and a moment later Hana heard a door close and the water start running.

She walked into the kitchen, seeing Rain standing in front of the stove, carefully watching the stir-fry she was making. She moved up behind her girlfriend and wrapped her arms around her waist. Rain turned toward her, and Hana gave her a quick kiss.

"So, I saw you checking him out," Hana said softly. Rain tensed a little at the words.

"I was just..." she began, but Hana cut her off.

"No, baby, it's okay," Hana quickly reassured her. "I'm not upset. I mean... I was doing it too," she finished in a whisper.

"You liked what you saw?" Hana asked after a moment's silence.

Rain blushed and ducked her head a little. "Yes," she replied quietly, stirring the meat and vegetables in the pan before her.

The admission excited Hana. It had been a few days since Rain had had her dream about Glas. They hadn't talked about it after that night, but Hana had noticed her girlfriend looking Glas over more than casually a few times since then.

Hana had had her suspicions, but finding out that there was more to this than just a dream, that Rain actually was attracted to Glas.... The possibilities were... intriguing, to say the least.

They definitely had to talk about this later.

***

"What?" Rain’s tone held a mixture of surprise and amusement. "You glued his lunchbox shut?"

"Yep," Glas answered proudly. "And I did a fine job of it too, if I do say so myself."

Hana smiled at the musical sound of her girlfriend's laughter. After dinner, they'd put the books away and moved to the living room, and Hana was seated on one end of their couch with Rain snuggled up against her. Glas was leaned back at the other end, half-turned to face them, one leg resting easily on the cushions.

Hana wrapped her arms around Rain’s waist and relaxed against the pillows piled behind her. She liked this, this atmosphere. It was nice. Comfortable.

"No matter how hard Deke tried, he just couldn’t get it open," Glas continued with a grin.

Rain giggled again. "I probably shouldn't be laughing at this," she said, "but that is funny."

"Hey, he deserved it," Glas protested. He glanced at the clock on the wall. "I'd better get going," he said. Hana turned and took note of the time; it was fairly late, later than she'd thought it was. She'd totally lost track of time during their conversation.

"Thanks for dinner."

"No problem," Rain replied happily. "Thank *you* for the bookshelves."

"We'll see you tomorrow." Hana said as he stepped out into the hallway.

"Sure thing. Goodnight." With that, he turned and headed for the stairs. Hana closed and locked the door behind him and followed Rain back into their living room.

As they sat down on the couch together, Hana sighed softly. "That was fun," she said, turning to face Rain.

"It was," RAin agreed. "It was nice."

After a moment of silence, Hana spoke again. "So.... Want to talk about what we were discussing before? In the kitchen?" she said slowly.

Rain turned and looked at her seriously. "Okay," she replied. She was clearly a little nervous, and Hana moved to sit next to her, laying a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

Smiling in gratitude, Rain took Hana’s hand in both of hers and moved them to her lap. She looked down at them for a moment, absently stroking Hana’s palm with her thumb. Hana waited patiently, not wanting to make her any more uncomfortable than she already was.

"I'm attracted to Royce," Rain finally admitted. "That dream... it wasn't just a random thing. I've been... noticing... him for a while now."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Hana asked gently.

"Well, I... I wasn't sure about it," Rain replied. "I mean, I've never... felt this way about a guy before. But after that dream.... Well, after that, I was definitely sure," she finished, looking up and giving Hana a quick smile.

Rain didn't seem to be quite as embarrassed about this as she was the last time they'd talked. That was definitely of the good; maybe she'd gotten used to the idea of finding Glas attractive.

"Rain..." Hana began tentatively, "there's something I have to tell you." She'd been wondering how to broach this subject for a while now, but finally decided it was best to just come out and say it.

"I told you before that I had a slight crush on Glas at the beginning," she said, looking her girlfriend in the eye and gauging her reaction. At Rain’s answering nod, she continued.

"Well, what I didn't tell you was that, back on that first mission, we kinda... had a little... affair.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you!" she added hurriedly, before Rain could speak. "But things were totally over by the time you and he met and I didn't want anything to be awkward between you guys and I hope you're not upset with me," she finished, taking a breath. She had a not well-known tendency to babble a little when she was excited or anxious.

"Hana, honey, I'm not upset," Tara reassured her. "I mean, it was in the past. There's nothing to be upset about."

Relieved, Hana gave her a quick hug. When she pulled back, Rain favored her with another of her beautiful smiles. Only this time, there was a touch of mischief in it.

"So, you and Glas had an affair?" she asked, emphasizing the last word just a little.

"Well, not an *affair*," Willow replied. "All we did was kiss and fool around a little. We didn't actually have sex. Although...." She paused briefly, thinking over what she was about to say.

Well, if she was going to be honest, she might as well tell her everything. "I wanted to. I mean, we were both involved with other people and we knew that what we were doing was wrong, but still.... I really wanted to, and I think Glas did too. If it wasn’t for my love of you I think we eventually would have. But no, nothing actually ever happened between us," she finished.

Rain gave her hand a comforting squeeze, and Hana smiled at her in return. She'd been afraid that this conversation would go very differently, but RAin was being very understanding. She felt a little guilty for not having more faith in her girlfriend.

"So..." Rain said slowly, her smile broadening a little, "was he a good kisser?"

"Oh yeah," Hana replied emphatically. "He was very good with his hands, too," she said, shivering a little as she remembered the couple of times his hands had found their way under her shirt during their makeout sessions.

"God, I wanted him so badly back then," Hana murmured. "And..." she took a deep breath, steeling herself for this last admission, "I kinda do now, too."

Rain stared into her eyes with an intensity that Hana rarely saw outside of when they were making love. "I do too," she said at length, her voice barely above a whisper. Her words hung in the air between them, and several seconds of silence followed them.

"I'm still not quite sure what to think about it," Rain said, her voice breaking the stillness that had settled over the room. "Like I said, I've never been attracted to any other guys. And, you know, I'm still not."

Hana nodded. "I know what you mean," she replied. "I mean, like, Deke?" She shuddered in revulsion. "A *world* of ick."

Rain scowled at her words. "Ew, *not* an image I wanted," she said forcefully. She shook her head once. "But..." she mused, her expression relaxing somewhat, "you know, I see guys all the time and I don't find any of them attractive either. But Glas’... special.

"And it's not just physical, either," she continued. "I mean, I... I like Royce. A lot. He's nice, and he's brave... and he makes me laugh."

"So..." Hana suddenly felt very nervous, but managed to keep her voice steady as she spoke. "The question is, what do we do about it?"

"Do about it?" Rain echoed cautiously. She looked a little anxious again, but she clearly wasn't surprised that the conversation had taken this turn.

"Rain, honey, I love you," Hana said sincerely. "I'm totally in love with you." She rested her hands on her girlfriend's arms and looked her in the eye. "I would never, ever choose to be with anyone else over you. Not even Glas."

"But when you told me about your dream... when I saw that you might be interested in Glas... it got me to thinking. What if... we could all be together?" Hana fell silent, watching Rain’s face for any sign of her reaction to the idea. She bit her lower lip nervously as she waited.

Rain’s uncomfortable look from earlier had returned, but she actually seemed to be considering what Hana had said, rather than rejecting it out of hand. That was definitely a good sign. When she didn't say anything in response, Hana continued.

"You know that we're practically in a relationship with Glas already," she offered. "He comes over just about every day. He's even been spending the weekends with us lately. And we all like being together. The only difference is, he goes home at night.

"But what if...." She caught Rain’s gaze and held it seriously. "What if he didn't have to go home? What if he could stay... with us?"

"Well..." Rain replied slowly, "I'd tell you I need some time to think about it, but the truth is, I've been thinking about it a lot these past few days. I mean..." she trailed off briefly, seemingly struggling a bit with what to say next. "I like the idea," she finally admitted. She blushed a bit, but didn't look away as she continued. "But... could things really work... between us?"

"Well, we... we wouldn't be the only ones out there in an unconventional relationship, you know." Hana inwardly winced at how lame that response sounded. She really should have prepared for this conversation better.

But it was too late for that now. So she decided to make things as simple as she could. "Rain, how do you feel about me?"

"I love you," her girlfriend replied without hesitation.

"And... how do you feel about Glas?"

Rain was much slower to respond to that. She remained silent for several moments, her face scrunched up in that adorable way she had when she was really thinking about something. Hana waited for her answer with bated breath.

"I think I love him too," she finally declared. Her voice was initially uncertain, but she seemed to grow more sure of herself as she spoke. "I mean, it's different from the way I feel about you. But I like it when he's with us, and I miss him when he's gone, and I really do care about him. A lot."

Hana clasped her girlfriend's hands. "Does it bother you that I love Glas too?"

Rain shook her head. "No. Not at all."

"And, does it bother you that I want him to join us... when we make love?" Hana asked softly.

Even as the words left her mouth, Hana could still scarcely believe she'd said them. But it was true - she wanted this. She wanted this like she'd wanted very few other things in her life. Even just thinking about it almost made her shiver with desire.

"No," Rain replied slowly. "It doesn't. Like I said, I've been thinking about this quite a bit... and I like the idea. A lot." She fell silent, staring off into the distance speculatively.

Then she frowned suddenly. "But what about Royce?" she asked. "We've been talking about how we feel about this, but... how's he going to react?"

Hana chuckled. "Well, as far as the sex stuff goes..." she trailed off, blushing a little, suddenly feeling a bit self-conscious about talking about this. But she forced herself to press on.

"Believe me when I tell you he's not gonna have *any* problem with that," she said forcefully. "But he likes just being around us, too. And I know he really cares about us. I can tell. Rain, honey, I would never want to do this if I thought it'd just be about sex. But it would never be just sex for him. He's not like that."

Rain nodded. "I know. I mean, he never struck me as that type either." She took a deep breath. "Okay. I can't believe I'm saying this, but... okay. I want this too. But..." a worried look crossed her face, "how do we do this, exactly?"

Hana thought for a moment. "Well, like I said, we're practically already in a relationship," she mused. "The only thing we haven't done is have sex."

She met Rain’s eyes, trying to make sure she was really okay with this. "So when he comes over tomorrow...."

"Yes?" Rain replied. Her tone was a little anxious, but she didn't seem to be having any doubts.

Hana smiled mischievously. "We seduce him."