Ardent Cure: Lennox and Mielo

 

Chapter 13-

 

1

                Mielo looked outside and found the sun almost completely dissipated beyond the horizon of squat buildings and proud trees. If he wanted to get home without warranting much trouble from his father, he should get going … but it was a forty minute walk home from here, and he’d feel much safer if Allan took him. Mielo saw no reason for the kid to deny him company on the way home, especially since they were dating now, but the blond was surprised when Allan shook his head and turned his back to him.

“Aren’t you old enough to walk alone by now?”

“Yes, but I sought it vould just be nice to—”

“Oh Mielo, just stop. What? You think one of those weird vampire things are gonna come out and getcha?” Allan taunted, turning around and tackling Mielo on his bed. The blonde fell backwards, giggling as he clung to Allan, who gifted the boy with kisses up and down his neck. “Don’t worry Mimi, there isn’t shit out here. Most of the people who get turned live further inside the city; there are hardly any of those freaks of nature out here in the suburbs.”

Mielo pouted, clearly disappointed with the lack of support … he also remembered the politically correct term for the vampire things and the freaks of nature. Lennox told him that they were actually called Dardexians. He didn’t care about the statistics, he just wanted to feel safe on the way home. If only Allan could see past that, if  only he cared enough.

“Okay,” Mielo sighed, “can I call you vhen I get home?”

“Sure—though if I don’t answer Matt might be on the other line.” Allan replied as he crawled off the foreigner and helped him pack his things. “So what did Lennox want to talk to you about?”

“Eh, just mein comprehension,” the younger spat, wishing Allan hadn’t brought it up. He didn’t want to remember Lennox right now, or even think about him

. “So, bis spater,” the boy finally mumbled when all his things were collected, and he headed outside into the cool night breeze.

The walk was actually kind of pleasant at night. There weren’t that many obnoxious kids out, nor any nosy or paranoid adults. Mielo was able to walk under the trees and sky, left to ponder about life in peace. He wondered how Lennox felt about the boy’s new relationship. He said he didn’t care …. Why did it still bother Mielo? Did Mielo really want Lennox to be jealous, just like the guy said himself? Maybe …. The reality of what happened was disappointing, and actually confusing. How did Lennox feel about Mielo? He made lunches almost every day for the boy, he even admitted to missing him. Maybe the guy just wanted to have a father-son relationship, and Mielo somehow completely misinterpreted it for something else—something sick and disturbing.

                He was about half way home when he felt something was off about this walk. Normally there were crickets in this part of town since there was so much foliage, but they had stopped. Mielo never realized how much he appreciated crickets until they shushed themselves. The boy felt nervous, and he looked around briefly, but he hadn’t been given any reason to feel suspicious of being followed,so he went on.

                It was the last leg of the walk home now, ten minutes and he would be safe! Wow, what a night! He was surprised to find that walking in almost complete silence shattered ones thoughts. Mielo’s brain was empty for a good part of his trip, unease had chased out his thoughts of his father, Allan, and Lennox …

Most of the people who get turned live further inside the city.

That’s right, Allan. Only most of them live in further in the city. That meant that there were still a few that got attacked out here. Mielo noticed he was next to a wooded area, he was near a small park that he’d never noticed before. There still weren’t any crickets, or other nightly animals for that matter, the boy wouldn’t turn his back to it. Chills went down his spine as he felt a faint cold breeze tease his skin, forming goosebumps that lifted his hairs. There was a ringing in his ears, the kind one hears after a blast of loud noise. He turned around and saw nothing, but there was a tug on his shirt and next thing Mielo knew, he was being lifted off the ground.

“Vha-- AHH!” He screamed, but having trouble vocalizing at the desired volume for his throat was being crushed by the collar of his shirt. He kicked and flailed and reached up to try to claw himself free, but when his hands finally found the talons that gripped his shirt, he withdrew with a sick feeling in his stomach. The skin he felt wasn’t human, it was smooth but it had an odd almost serpentine texture to it, and there were long curving protrusions arching from the tips of the strong fingers. Mielo imagined a dragon was carrying him off, but he knew that it had to be one of those creatures, a Dardexian. He looked down and saw trees speeding below him as he was flown over the forest.

“HILFE! HELP!” The boy shrieked hoarsely, feeling helpless, he was too afraid to look up at the horrific face of the thing. He didn’t have much of a chance to even take two breaths before he was dropped again, and fell through the trees, snapping several branches on his way down before hitting the leafy forest floor.

“Hnng …,” the German groaned, urging his body to get up and run away, but he couldn’t. Was he paralyzed? No, he couldn’t have been, he was able to wiggle his toes at least. But he was sore and in shock. He heard a loud thump and a rustle of leaves as the creature landed about ten feet away from him. If only he’d left a little earlier … if only Allan had come with him … if only he didn’t reject Lennox, maybe he’d be somewhere far away from here, safe with him.

Mielo finally found the strength to move his body, and he crawled about three feet before he was snatched up again, only this time it wasn’t his clothes that the creature clung to. Something sharp sunk into the boy’s skin, like needles. They penetrated deep into his abdomen, maybe even down to his intestines, and he was flung against a tree by them. The air was knocked out of his lungs and he wondered if he would die here-- probably. Corpses drained of blood were found in the city all the time, he only knew this because he heard kids talking about it, he didn’t care to get his current events from the news.

He felt more like he was being beat up by his father than by a creature of the darkness after he was thrown around some more. Sure, his father didn’t have super strength and claws, but if he did, Mielo imagined that his nights would be something like this. He wondered how much he could take after he felt his body growing cold. There was a big gash on his lower belly, he knew he was losing a lot of blood through it. He thought about Lennox and what the man had said … There are no Dardexians here that will hurt you, trust me … he was angry at the man. He’d lied to Mielo, there were monsters about.

Heavy footsteps were approaching Mielo slowly, crunching the leaves beneath its feet. The boy’s anger melted away. Maybe he was meant to die, he didn’t have anything to live for anyway, did he ever? He was with a boyfriend that didn’t care, his father hated his guts, and the only man that ever gave a damn about him didn’t care enough to take Mielo away from it all.

The creature kneeled next to him, and he could feel the talons pull him up, the creature had hot breath with no scent. It didn’t reek of death or decay like Mielo would have imagined it to. The boy closed his eyes, blocking out the darkness of this place with his own darkness, and relented. He was in the arms of death, and he could feel the breath get hotter as the monster clamped its jaws around his neck. He felt the little blood he had left vacate his body, and embraced the cold that set in. The boy was empty now, and ready for death.

His conscious didn’t flicker, there was no light at the end of the tunnel, there was no life left to flash before his eyes … he was still here. The empty cold changed, and suddenly Mielo was filled with the cold. It was an aggressive sensation, like ice in his veins, rushing to the furthest reaches of his body from the bite on his neck. The creature hadn’t let go, and seemed to be pumping the freeze into the kid. It spread until it consumed Mielo’s body, and the ice turned into fire as he squirmed in an unrivaled discomfort. He gritted his teeth together so hard that it sent a wave of pain up his face and into his skull. The creature finally let go and Mielo could no longer sense it through the white hot agony that engulfed him in the dark.

The boy writhed in the dead leaves of the forest, feeling the bones in his body change. He could feel everything, every inch of his body was self aware. His pain was concentrated in every join in his body, then it moved to his skin, then it moved to his ears, then it moved to his fingertips, then it moved to his back side and he felt something odd appear on it. He was quaking heavily, was he having a seizure? Did he survive the attack but was having a bad reaction to whatever contagions were in the monster’s saliva? He knew no answers, but he knew all the questions in the world as he reached up to touch his face. He scratched himself with his nails that were sharpened into points like a cat’s claws. The boy opened his eyes finally and everything was bright, each star that peered through the tree branches seemed like a nocturnal sun, he heard noises he’d never heard before, and his nostrils filled with the pungent odors of the night. His body went numb and his eyes rolled up into his head, he knew nothing now, and he was nothing but black silence.

2

                For a moment, Lennox’s own thumping heart was the only thing he could hear, the sounds of the night only returned to him after the rush had ended. There was a slight ringing in his ears as his knees buckled beneath his weight and he fell to the ground. The man was breathing heavily, he felt as though he were human again after running a marathon. He lifted his hand and wiped some blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his wrist and he grinned. Mielo had stopped moving, he would be passed out for at least a few hours now … and he’d wake up as a new creature.

                Lennox crawled over to the boy to look at him, brushing the leaves away. Mielo’s hair colour had changed, it was now a light grey, almost platinum, with darker beige colours tuftes down by his ears, his hands were now a dark rich brown, as were his feet, his new thin gracefully curving tail, and a mask shaped patch of skin on his face. His ears were now shaped like a cats, and bore the same rich chocolate brown colour. The boy’s claws were a golden colour, and Lennox rubbed them with his thumb as he held one of Mielo’s hands close to him. He needed to know, needed to see, what the boy looked like all over, and stripped him of all of his clothes.

                A wave of arousal overcame Lennox, as it was his first time seeing the boy completely helpless. Passed out and nude in the middle of a suburban forest where no one would dare travel at this time of night, Lennox held the boy in his arms. They were similar now beyond normal standards; the teacher was in his most natural form with his tail flicking behind him, and the student was in his new form, completely limp. Mielo’s legs were now satyresque with three toes, one dewclaw by his heel, and another by the rest of his toes. His tail was tipped with a curved barb that resembled a natural hook that some animal might use to swing on branches with. The chocolate colouration covered the boy’s tail completely, and enveloped his arms up to mid bicep, and his legs up to mid thigh. Combined with the chocolate coloured ears and mask mark, Lennox came to realize that the boy strongly resembled a traditional Siamese cat.

                His heart throbbed at the darling creature he’d just conceived through a bite, and his body quivered at the thought of the times he would have with the new Mielo. He felt bad for roughing him up so much … almost. He reached down and kissed the boy’s neck tenderly, inhaling his scent and licking off the blood around his wounds. Mielo was safe in his arms now, cradled in his lap as the man trailed his hands down the boy’s bare front. The skin was perfectly smooth and devoid of flaw save for the deep scratches Lennox had just given him, but these were not flaws so much as they were a signature of his maker. The man ran his fingers through the silken hair he’d longed to feel ever since he saw it, he ran his palms down the boy’s sides and legs as he peered between them. Mielo’s crotch was now smooth with no external genetalia, instead it had a slit that would sprout forth the boy’s manhood when he was aroused. His whole body was an exotic streamlined beauty, Lennox kissed its chest and shoulders and back and held the boy closed to him until he was satisfied.

                With his hands and fingers having explored every inch of Mielo’s body, the man redressed him, placing the gloves, hat, and scarf he’d gifted the boy back on his with great care. He was deeply satisfied that his student still wore them even after they’d drifted apart for three weeks. It made him wish that he could simply take the blond home with him-- but that wouldn’t do, that ruined everything. He had to leave him here. Lennox kissed Mielo under the chin and slipped his hand under the boy’s shirt one last time before he gingerly arranged him safely under a tree and left.

 

3

                “I just don’t know what I’m doing for Thanksgiving this year … no. I hate parties. I was just thinking of going over to Tony’s house, his family doesn’t have a huge thing about it.” Shay was one the phone with a friend from school that she didn’t quite enjoy outside of the academic setting. It was difficult for her to reject invitations to events because of her condition. She didn’t feel at all comfortable at normal social outings, and she was running low on excuses.

                “NO! It’s NOT because I’m poor!” She boomed. This is why she didn’t like this girl, she always assumed Shayla’s behavior could be attributed to her financial status, “good luck inviting Frank, he doesn’t celebrate anything … no, not even birthdays--” The girl stopped in mid sentence as her ears pricked up vertically. There was a very faint sound and a chilling breeze against her back. She whirled around to face her open window, her pupils constricting into slits as she stiffened up. There was a small piece of paper jammed in between the window panes that wasn’t there before.

                “I gotta go.” She wheezed, hanging up and returning the phone to the charger. Shay sniffed the air in a series of shallow and deep inhales and fear coursed through her, every part of her body betraying her paranoia. Her tail flicked, and she resembled a cornered animal as she waited. What she smelled on the air was Lennox … and blood. He’d just done something, and he was leaving a note for her.

                The girl only approached the piece of paper when she was sure the man had left the vicinity. She plucked it from the window and slammed it closed before she unfolded the paper.

“I need you to pick up Mielo for me. I left him in the woods off of Front Street.”

“WHAT THE FUCK?” The girl shrieked, thoroughly horrified of what she might find.

“Is everything alright in there, Shay?” Her mom’s voice called through the door, it wasn’t tinted with worry so much as simple parental diligence at the outburst.

“Yeah, mom!” Shay called, swallowing hard and reminding herself that ignoring the note wasn’t an option. She didn’t care what Lennox would do to her if she disobeyed him, but it was for Mielo’s sake that she knew she had to go through with this. The girl opened the door to face her mom, “I gotta go pick up a friend real fast.” She explained, “I shouldn’t be long.”

“How far is it?” Ms. Gomez asked instinctively.

“Its uh … Front Street, by the forest.”

“The good side of town?”

“Yeah …,” Shay looked down at her taloned feet, guessing that it wasn’t far from where Mielo lived.

“Alright, hurry back and STAY SAFE!”

“Kay.” She made haste to get to the roof of her complex and spread her wings, they were an electric violet with an equally violent coloured blue membrane. Dardexians needed assistance to fly, like bats, they required a ledge to jump off of. There were very few that could simply take off from the ground like birds, but they were usually tiny. She jumped off the ledge, an updraft caught her, and she was gliding through the night soundlessly.

It wasn’t but five minutes until she’d reached the forest and tracked down Mielo. Her heart was pumping fearfully, for the scent of blood grew stronger as the boy’s scent did. Was he killed?? No, Lennox wouldn’t do that, but he would definitely--

“SHIT!” Shay screamed, looking away from the roughed up boy who was bizarrely arranged under a low tree. There was blood and dirt all over, mixed in with the leaves, staining Mielo’s clothes, but the green gloves, scarf, and hat were strategically kept neat. Of course, Lennox got him those, he wouldn’t soil them. Shay wasn’t used to this kind of carnage, she was used to raw steaks, road kill, and blood donations from the hidden centers scattered around the city. If there was anything in her stomach at the time, she would have hurled it on the spot.

There was no time to get sick anyway, Lennox had turned Mielo into a Dardexian with his contagious bite, leaving the boy the most helpless he would be in his life. Not only that, but the man had put Shayla to the task of cleaning up the mess that was left behind.

“Ugh … great. Mom. Is going. To FREAK.” She said to herself, attempting to calm down, but her own voice never did any such thing. She picked up Mielo, feeling her stomach churn with nausea again as she felt a cold open wound on the boy’s side press against her. Nearly doubled over, she looked around for a tree tall enough to give her a lift off, but there was no such thing around, she didn’t even know if she could carry Mielo while flying. She’d have to find a building if there was any chance of getting back home safely. Humans feared Dardexians invading the suburbs next, Dardexians feared the Hunters invading the suburbs next, Shalya couldn’t risk walking because of this. She walked in the direction that she knew lead out of the woods quickly as possible, and hoped that there were some buildings that she could climb up, unseen, and use for lift off. If she fell to the ground with Mielo in her arms, so be it, she’d sustained worse during her flying lessons, and she was sure Mielo would thank her in the end … even if she did crack some of his ribs by accident.

Fortune was on her side when she found a tall stone encased house, it was very posh looking … she wondered what Mielo’s house looked like. This was his neighborhood, wasn’t it? She thought, for a moment, that taking him home would be better, but she remembered the clues she’d gotten about the boy’s home life and dismissed the idea readily.

No one was awake at this hour of the night, and since the area wasn’t commercial, there were no wandering pedestrians. Shay had modest difficulty scaling the wall because one of her hands were full, but she made it to the roof without being detected, and stood at the top for a minute. How would she do this? She could just carry Mielo in her arms and hope that he didn’t disrupt her aerodynamics, or she could load him onto her back and hold him there with her hands. She thought the latter was a better option, it was more likely to work despite it making her clumsier, but Mielo had a higher chance of slipping off if she lost her grip. It was much like slipping on a backpack when she slung the boy’s arms over her shoulders and grabbed them tightly. If Mielo got a dislocated shoulder from this, she’d just blame it on Lennox, or the boy’s attacker since she was sure she couldn’t tell Mielo who had done this to him.

She spread her wings soundlessly, closed her eyes, and jumped. There was no updraft here, the building wasn’t as high as the complex she lived in, so there were only low winds that blew horizontally. She flapped her wings hard, trying to gain altitude, she could feel the wind around her warp at the disturbance of her shape. Her muscles burned, but she managed to get up to the updraft zone, and a little higher where it was safe to glide. She’d be back home in five minutes, safe and sound. She would rest with Mielo in good hands.

4

                It was very dark—pitch black, in fact. Mielo couldn’t see, smell, or feel anything. He could only hear a loud ringing noise which was quickly fading. As the volume of the ring decreased, he could see a growing distant light with a strange foggy silhouette of a woman standing in front of it. It was Mielo’s mother. He didn’t have to wait for his vision to clear, he just knew. Her blond ringlets bounced freely from her shoulders as she walked towards her son, though her face remained hidden under a mask of black shadow, and he saw himself reaching an arm out to her. Wait, was that his arm? He reeled his limb closer to his view to see the deformed extremity. His fingers were long, crooked, and most horrifyingly of all, inhuman. He bore massive yellow and brown claws, and in a panic he lifted his other hand, which seemed to have the same fate.

He lowered his vision down to his legs, which no longer possessed any human looking qualities. Terrified, he called out for his mother, who seemed frightened. He couldn’t blame her, his voice was comprised only of loud gargling growls that caused a great amount of pain. His mother shrieked, turned around, and began to run away from the boy. Mielo attempted to stand up, but he could not budge his legs one bit—as though his appendages were nothing but dead animals—they practically looked like mangled road-kill.

“AAHH!”

“Mielo, calm down!”

“Meine Hände! Meine Beine! Ich bin ein monster! Mutter! Bitte! Verlass mich nicht!” the boy wailed, his arms flailing about wildly. It wasn’t long until Shay splashed some water over the boy’s face to get him out of his wild frenzy.

                “Dude!” Shay grunted sternly, glaring down at the boy with concern, “shhhh, the people downstairs are probably asleep!”

                “Vhere am I?” Mielo gasped as he wiped his face with the back of his arm. He didn’t notice the change in colouration, too scared to really pay attention to anything but his location. It was a tiny room, only about ten by six feet in floor space, the walls were a pleasant buttery yellow and the floor was hardwood covered in fluffy rugs. Upon the walls were numerous bulletin boards plastered with miscellaneous pictures newspaper clippings and other scraps, band and movie posters, hand drawn pictures on printer paper, and some trinkets hanging on nails. The ceiling was donned with hanging mobiles, models of animals in flight, and more posters. There were only a few closely packed pieces of furniture that didn’t match, one dresser, one desk/vanity table, and one bed that was layered thickly with hand sewn quilts and pillows. There were some individual shelves built into the walls that held various figurines and trinkets.

                “My place,” Shay answered in a soft tone just above a whisper, “you’ll be safe here, don’t worry.” She sat down next to the boy on the floor with a towel as she began to dry off the area around him.

                “I-I-I-I don’t know v-v-vhat happened,” the whispering German stuttered. He barely remembered what happened, except that he had sustained a large injury “V-vas I mugged?!”

                “N-no …,” Shay stammered as she looked away from him, “you were … uhh … recruited.” The girl tossed the towel over Mielo so that he could dry himself off.

                “Huh?” Damn, a word Mielo didn’t know. “Vhat do you mean?--” he shook Shay by the shoulders, but he paused when he noticed his hands. They were completely  brown-- he had little, sharp, yellow nails, and in his surprise he found that he could extract and detract them at will. “Ein Spiegel,” Mielo murmured to himself,  his eyes darting to the vanity table. He attempted to make his way over to the mirror by crawling to the nearest wall and hoisting himself up. Mielo wobbled clinging to the wall, then he pushed himself away from it to see his transformed feet. “No-- it vasn’t a dream!” the boy almost wailed, forgetting about the slumbering members of Shayla’s house. “I cannot valk! Shayla, bitte, bring me over der Spie--eh, ze mirror over zer.”

                “Shhh!” The girl hissed more forcefully this time, “sit down! You’re gonna wake everyone up!” She grabbed Mielo and pulled him back down on one of the plush rugs that covered her floor, “lemme get you a hand mirror.” She rolled her eyes, seeming hesitant, though she pulled one out of the drawer and held it.

                “Umm … are you sure you want to s--”

                “Vould I not ASK if I didn’t vant to see?” his brow lowered and he bared his teeth, his new instincts kicking in as he let out a deep rumbling growl. His hand seemed to automatically reach for his throat as he realized how much of an animal he just sounded like, though it wasn’t like any kind of animal he heard before. If he had to guess which animal he thought it resembled most, he would have figured some demonic tiger of sorts. But that wasn’t all, he was hearing voices, like a television was on in the next room, only he could tell it was real people beneath and next to him having conversations. They had to be Shayla’s neighbors, but it couldn’t be! He could hear them as clearly as if they were speaking at normal tones in the next room! Shayla’s voice, which was right next to him, was almost loud enough to give him a headache, so the boy’s own voice seemed to split his brain open. “I just need to know vhat else has changed. If I can hide enough of zis zen maybe mein Vater von’t see it, ja?” But he already had a feeling that even his face had markings.

                “You’re not going anywhere, your father won’t have a chance to see it! I’m keeping you here!” Shalya spat, not displaying any fear at the deep growl Mielo had just inadvertently emitted, “why do you even care what that old Nazi sees? Everyone knows he beats your ass!”

                Mielo opened his mouth to say something, but stopped. He really didn’t need a bigger headache, and he also had nothing good to say, in fact, he was rather taken aback. Everyone knew? Who was everyone? The whole school? The whole county? Maybe it was just Shayla and her friends, for she was the type to only include people she liked in the term “everyone.” Still, more people knew than Mielo thought and he was ashamed.

                “I-- I just vant to see … I need to know vhat I haff--” He stopped short in his pleading whisper and then looked up at the girl, “vait-- how did you find me? I vas all ze vay out in ze voods ….”

                “Well, I--” Shayla stammered, seeming very guilty. Had she been stalking Mielo and was on scene when this happened? “I … I found you. It wasn’t hard … I smelt your blood.”

                “Mein Blut …?” The boy wheezed in a barely audible tone, even to himself. His hand slid down to his side where he was slowly becoming aware of a great stabbing pain. He felt a raised lumpy line going horizontally across the left side of his abdomen, slightly above his belly button. It jogged his memory, and he finally registered all of the other injuries upon his body, but saw that he was clean and stitched up, “vhat?”

                “We’re the same now,” Shay mumbled, though Mielo could hear her in crystal clear definition, “we’re … Dardexians.” The girl slowly shifted right before the boy’s eyes, her violet and electric blue markings blazing against the yellow of her walls. Her ears were medium length and droopy, matching her shoulders and face, “I just didn’t want to scare you when you woke up.”

                “Schhhh-Scheiße!” Mielo hissed, backing up against the night stand by reflex.”YOU are a monster as vell? H-how do I know YOU didn’t bite me?!”

                “I wouldn’t bite you!” Shayla defended, lowering her brow. “I recognized your smell AND the smell of blood! I was worried! You have to know there are good ‘Dexians out there too.”

                “Dexians...?” the boy was sure it had a longer name.

                “Yeah, short term for it,” Shayla explained as she finally brought over the mirror to the boy, holding the front to her chest. “You really want to see?”

                “You do realize you’re only making me more vorried by being eine schwierige Hu--ahh, just show me!” he was growing impatient.

                “Shhh! Okay, hold on,” the girl shakily turned the mirror over, but the boy didn’t want any more suspense. He grabbed the mirror from Shayla and his jaw dropped once he saw what happened to his features. His beautiful blonde hair had changed, and he had brown markings resembling a thief’s mask over his eyes-- his eyes. They were no longer an earthy green, but rather an bright aquatic green that appeared to almost be glowing.

                “Mein Haar, mein Gesicht ... Ich freue mich …,” the boy frowned, nearly dropping the mirror, which Shayla quickly grabbed from him. “I look disgusting!”

                “No you don’t!” The girl snapped, lifting her foot to stomp on the floor, but stopped herself, “you actually look …,” she paused and frowned as her face went very red, “nevermind.” She grunted, crossing her arms and turning away.

                “Vhat do I look like?” Mielo begged, crawling to Shayla and wrapping his arms around her stomach. “Vhy must you alvays be so damn vague?”

                “Nyeh!” Shay grunted in protest, “just-- nevermind! You’ll think it’s stupid!” She gently pried Mielo’s arms off of her and she hopped up into her bed, “you’ll think I’m an idiot for saying it!”

                The boy no longer had the patience for it, and he was already looking out the windows. “You must teach me how to valk! How fast did you learn?” he looked over his shoulder at the girl.

                “I learned … pretty fast I guess.” Shayla grunted, still not looking at Mielo despite the change of subject, “but you really should rest first. They say you should give your new bones a chance to set themselves first before you move around too much, or else it’ll hurt real bad later. Besides … I’m not the best person to teach you.”

                “But-- but you are ze only von I trust right now,” he narrowed his eyes at her. “Fine, I’ll haff you teach me tomorrow.”

“I set up a bed for you on the floor. It’s not as bad as it looks.” She walked over to a small mattress that had a pillow and a thin blanket set up on it for Mielo to sleep on.

“I cannot sleep on ze floor,” the now platinum blond huffed bitterly, looking at the flimsy object.

“Kay, then I’ll sleep on the floor and you can—”

“Nein! I vill not sleep alone after vhat happened!” The boy took Shayla by the wrist and dragged her over to the bed. He’d never be able to vocalize his want for a cuddle, but he’d been craving one for the longest time. Anybody would do, even a girl, and Shayla was kind enough to make Mielo her responsibility.

“What? H-hey-- you want to sleep in the same bed?” She didn’t seem too fond of the idea. She turned her head away from the boy, but he could tell she was florid at this odd request. Mielo rolled his eyes, knowing that since he couldn’t possibly humble himself enough to just ask, he got into the bed and pulled the girl in by the stomach. He dragged the female Dardexian until her back met his front, and he whispered goodnight to her.

“You’re a brat, y’know that?” Shayla whispered sharply, and Mielo only responded by tightening his arm wrapped around her. He let his nose brush against the back of her neck as he began to relax.

“Danke, Shay.”

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AN: Startin' to think I should name the chapters... |D

Wonder whachya'll think'o good ol' LENNY NOW AYE?!JIOsdjsofijsofjodfisdpsakod[apld,x