Hi. I am mostly looking to see if others have had this experience and if there are any language suggestions people might have.

The cast involved is this; and we are a polycule in a "line" formation.

Lake - Me - Jason - Barbie

All of us have been together multiple years at this point. Me and Jason live together. Barbie sort of has a room in our house (she prefers to sleep seperate but has not moved in, we refer to it as her room when she is here), and Lake lives a few blocks away. We all concider each other family. Jason Lake and I have spent holidays together, and vacationed together. We have all met our respective meta's families when possible.

Jason and Lake are very close. They are not dating each other, and neither seems to want that. They do engage in group sex together and use love language towards one another. They have a close intimate friendship that is seperate from the polycule, and regularly hang out and have for years.

Barbie and I are both aromantic and are not dating each other but are courting each other in some type of way. We engage in solo BDSM play and dynamics with one another. We are friends and hangout 1-1 without our shared partner. We have used love language, but we are not consistent/regular/super comfortable in it just yet.

In both cases "friends" does not fully encapsulate the bond, and neither does "metamore" since the relationship exists seperate from the shared partner.

With Barbie and I the closest modeling that suits us that I have encountered is BDSM/Leather households. "partner" is not quite right, but vague enough (re: "play partner") that I have used it on occasion. "Member of a kink household" is too wordy, and not quite accurate but in the ballpark. QPP is maybe in the ballpark as well? It's complicated and more word suggestions would be good.

With Jason and Lake, "partner" is not accurate, but "friend" is not accurate either, QPP is close maybe?

Sister-wife/brother-husband is hyper gendered language and the connotations are not for us. Plus none of us are married nor intend to be. That said, the concept of it is not far off from how we engage with one another.

We use "trio" and "foursome" for the groups, because "triad" and "quad" have implications that don't apply to us.

Has anyone else developed these close relationships with a meta before? It's not something I have seen much of in other polycules and not in ways that last and/or don't turn into triads/quads. But I also can't imagine that it's unheard of. For us this just naturally developed after years together, and was not something we set out for or sought out (except perhaps Barbie, as she did intentionally begin courting me and now we are here, but it was not her intention when she began seeing Jason).

What language have you used for such dynamics? Any language suggestions for us?

edit: someone suggested I draw a diagram