Partner

I've been wondering Paw's age for a long time. I know the Sidhe's lifespans, but they reach maturity about the same time as people, so when it's a "young male" it's hard to tell, really.

I may get yelled at, but... hey, it's just the reaction you'd have to it all.

The last bit I've known since Souse spoke with Mik that first time, but Souse wasn't willing to bring it up and Mik was smart enough to figure it out on his own, without Paw actually having to explain it, which is good on Mik.

It also makes me want to obliterate all people.

Maybe just the northern country will do...

Read, Review and Enjoy!





Everyone went home early for pool time. A hopeful time when maybe, just maybe, the two tribes would meld or get along or something. Mik slid into his apartment and found Paw asleep on the kitchen counter.

Tree branch. Mik explained to himself, if he had a giant tree growing up he would have slept on the branches too.

That would have been like. The best sleep ever.

“Paw,” Mik poked him.

The Sidhe groaned and rolled over, forgetting what he was laying on and slid off the counter. Mik rushed around the corner to pick Paw up off the floor but found him on all fours, like a cat. Paw straightened slowly and turned to Mik, giving him a look that clearly stated that that had not just happened and Mik had best not bring up what had not happened.

“Pool time.”

“Ooooh. Mik swim this time?” Paw’s head cocked to the side.

“Mik will… wade this time.”

“Paw teach Mik to swim. Hohi no afraid of water, why be Mik?”

“I am not afraid of water,” Mik protested to Paw’s retreating back, “and it’s easy for Hohi to enjoy the water, it hardly comes up to his chin!”

“Ten foot pool.”

“Yeah, so a slight exaggeration,” Mik followed Paw into the bedroom, “I’m going to shower first, so you all don’t have to taste the fumes of traffic jams.”

“Very thoughtful.”

Mik had been joking about the why, but decided it was best not to question Paw on his sense of taste and to just… a shiver ran through Mik as a dirty, dirty thought fluttered through his head. Then he snatched up his swim trunks and went to the bathroom.

To wash the image from his mind.

Washed and clothed, Mik left the bathroom and found that Paw had already left. Sighing, he followed, closed the door behind him and moved to the elevator.

There were two new, huge windows in the pool room. Beneath them sat several trees, lining up against the glass. Around the pool were a medley of plants in pots of various sizes and shapes. There were chairs sitting about and a few tables with a selection of fruits and vegetables, as well as gorgeous arrangements sitting at the center.

Mik entered just in time to watch Paw pluck a flower from the arrangement and stuff it into his mouth. The man slipped to Koln’s side and looked pointedly at the several Sidhe who were snacking, not on the fruits and vegetables, but on the arrangements.

“Were those supposed to be decorative?”

“Are you kidding? Us waste money on decoration? No. But we can’t just call up a florist shop and ask for a bunch of flowers because we’re training our men how to make arrangements. So… we had arrangements made with a variety of local flora.”

“I could see leaves…”

“Essuan’s been eating a huge amount of flowers. Souse eats roots.”

“Weird.”

“More nutrients in the roots than in the rest of the flower. Essuan could be eating the flowers because that’s all a pregnancy can afford.”

Essuan appeared, as if manifested by her name, and draped herself over Koln with a sigh. For Essuan to drape over Koln she had to bend down and over. The Sidhe managed to make it look natural.

“The other leader,” Koln sounded displeased, “came over this morning to talk to Essuan. She seemed to be behaving herself, being nice, being gentle, moving some of the plants around. So I went in and she threw a fit.”

Essuan sighed again.

“A fit?”

Koln grunted and was poked in the ribs by Essuan, for bothering her, “I don’t think it’s the Sidhe she’s upset with, I think she’s upset with the presence of people. Tuhn’s been having fewer issues with her, but I doubt that the girl will ever trust Tuhn the way she does Hohi.”

“I don’t think any of the Sidhe will trust us the way they trust Hohi.”

Who was being climbed on by both Lillow and the violet eyed girl as they giggled and poked and pulled and pinched at the male. Hohi lay on the floor by the pool as if neither of them existed. Essuan slid away from Koln and moved to the three Sidhe, flopping down beside her brother as she let out sighing words.

Paw came away from the table and presented Mik with a clover flower.

“No thanks,” Mik said.

Paw pushed the flower under his nose. Mik sighed and took it from Paw. The Sidhe reached out delicately and plucked off one of the purple buds and dabbed it to his tongue, grinning before he ate the flower.

Mik copied Paw’s motion and found that the ends of the clover flowers were extremely sweet with nectar. He ate the flower, but only because Paw had done so. There was no flavour to it, it was just… silk on his tongue.

Paw grinned again and skipped off, back to the table.

“What’s it taste like?” Koln muttered.

“Sweet,” Mik plucked off another of the tiny flowers and popped the whole thing into his mouth, “silky sweet. No. Not that one. That was just a flower.”

Koln eyed the purple head as if it were going to eat him, but plucked a few flowers off of it when Mik offered it to him and put them into his mouth. A grimace, and then an ‘oh’ face and Koln grinned.

Mik didn’t think he had ever seen Koln smile in the least.

Paw returned suddenly a chomped the flower head off of the stem as Mik and Koln watched. One bite and the entire thing was in his mouth and he held it there for a long moment, making certain he had both of their attentions before he chewed noisily on it and skipped away again.

Mik was left holding a stem.

Essuan slipped up a moment later and plucked the stem from Mik’s hand before walking back to Hohi and offering it to her brother. She giggled as he ate it out of her hand.

“That… doesn’t seem brotherly,” Koln muttered as Hohi’s tongue darted over Essuan’s hand.

Mik blinked and tried to … think of something, “I. Have no idea. Souse.”

The leader was across the pool, but came around it and edged away from Mik, putting Koln and Mik between him and the pool.

“That doesn’t seem very sibling like.”

Souse looked at Essuan and Hohi and then back at Mik. The look was absolute bafflement, “Mik has never cleaned his brother?”

“Certainly, but not by licking him and he didn’t …” Mik recalled a time in the bathtub when Piho had giggled no matter what he did.

Souse shrugged, “small things can be licked off. Animals do it, never killed them. Essuan is the babe of her family, they dote on her and she looks up to him.”

“Him? Not the others?”

“Hohi was man of the family. But when her uncle took over the tribe, he… was not a good leader. Hohi and Essuan left and were captured. Essuan escaped and Hohi did not.”

Sploosh.

Hohi had leaped into the pool, dragging Essuan with him. His head popped out of the water, and then his shoulders. Her head popped out but she was treading water, trying to stay afloat.

“If he did that to my woman, I’d kill him,” Koln growled.

“Hohi is allowed such things,” Souse murmured, “Essuan acted the same when she first came to us. Innocent and care free. His position is one in the middle of the tribe, not with status but not without. He can move up or down at any time of his choosing, but he stays the same.”

“No desire to be otherwise.”

“He is a teacher of children. He is the one who looks after them and then teaches them to hunt and fish when the time comes. While the rest of us are out working for the tribe, he takes the children to learn the ways of the land. He would work beside Paw in a functioning tribe, both teaching the children. He has so much movement because he knows his place and has taught many a thing before. Paw is a witness to history and a story teller, but has not earned his place yet.”

Hohi walked to the side of the pool and crossed his arms on the side as he looked up at Souse and grinned.

Souse backed away from the pool, nearly toppling the violet eyed girl as she passed behind him. She gave a shove and Souse stumbled forward. Hohi grabbed Souse’s flailing hand and yanked him into the pool. When Souse came up sputtering, Hohi grabbed a hold of him once more and lifted him so that the leader’s head and shoulders were above water.

Paw slipped an arm around Mik’s back and looked down at the man, “swim time?”

Looked down. Paw had been the same height as Mik before and now he was nearly an inch taller. Mik hid his shock at the sudden realisation and said, “Sure.”

They walked to the shallow end of the pool and Paw slipped in first, the Sidhe made a point of looking about before offering a hand to Mik. Mik took Paw’s hand and allowed Paw to lead him until the water came up to his hips.

Taller. Not by a little bit, not over a long period of time. Over less than a month.

Paw was still growing.

Mik motioned to the circular waterfall and Paw looked delighted. The man ducked under first, not entirely certain why he was afraid of the waterfall when he knew it was nothing more than a thin sheet of water, and Paw followed behind. The Sidhe grinned at him and pinned him against the tube that the water ran up in.

No lips, no kissing, just the closeness of their bodies and the sound of the waterfall drowning out all else.

“How old are you?” Mik asked, wondering where exactly he got the courage to ask such a question.

“Old enough,” Paw murmured against his neck.

“But… you aren’t fully grown.”

Paw chuckled, “why does Mik say that?”

“You’re taller than me. When we met, we were the same height.”

“Neh? Clothing still fits,” Paw muttered, looking at Mik with a grin.

“Your clothing was big for you when you came, we weren’t certain on sizes,” Mik responded quickly, wrapping an arm around Paw and spinning them to pin the Sidhe against the tube, “You’re still growing.”

“Paw adult amongst Sidhe.”

“But amongst people, what would Paw be?”

“Animal.”

Mik sighed, “Age wise.”

“Sidhe no count years.”

“But you can.”

Paw made a sound and squirmed against Mik’s body, “Mik should kiss Paw.”

Mik gave Paw’s cheek a quick kiss, “Paw should tell Mik his age.”

“Paw beyond puberty, many years.”

“But you’re still growing.”

“Sidhe like that,” Paw shrugged and looked away from Mik.

“If you’re beyond puberty for so long, why are you arguing with me over your age? Why not just tell me?”

“Because Paw old.”

“Like what, twenty?” no older than twenty-five, Mik thought.

Paw coughed, a small sound that was more to fill the time than it was an actual cough.

“Thirty?” Way too old.

Paw shook his head.

“… under thirty?”

Another shake.

“… under forty?”

A shake.

By the gods, the suggested life span of a Sidhe was only forty, “You’re a bit youthful to be over fifty.”

Paw bowed his head and held up his hands. One hand had four fingers up, the other had two.

“Forty-two? Sidhe life span is only-” that was a stupid thing to say, “how long?”

Paw shrugged, “till Sidhe die. Souse seventy, Mik no yell at him.”

“Souse is… if we had your lifespan our families would be huge!”

Paw blinked at Mik, turned his head sideways, not understanding.

“Because we’d be going at it like rabbits.”

“Rabbits short life span…”

“No. Sex.”

“Ohhhhh. Who say Sidhe not have large family? Tribe is family. Family is tribe. Some large tribe have several families. When children born, some no survive, some survive. Some live but are taken by people. If’n adults can bring child back, out they go to bring child back.”

“Is that how you were caught?”

Paw nodded, “not supposed to talk about that. Not fair to dig up dead.”

“A lot of Sidhe are dead, Paw, if we don’t talk about them eventually, we’ll never be able to stop the killings.”

Paw shook his head, “not Sidhe. Child. Not fair to dig up dead child. Mother has grieved and trying to move on, not fair to her.”

Mik frowned, “no one’s been grieving, not that we could tell.”

“Her grief nearly kill her. Maybe people no grieve like that. Like nothing left to live for.”

Essuan. The reason why she had done nothing when Alan had beat her, had done gods knew what to her. The reason why she reacted so differently afterwards, why she was suddenly aggressive and motherly and more alive.

They had killed Essuan’s child to lure the tribe out.

Mik thought he was going to be sick, “How long has Souse been leader?”

Paw shrugged, “Whisper tell him be leader some odd years ago.”

“After he had already made a child?”

Paw nodded.

Mik took Paw’s chin in one of his hands and moved the Sidhe’s face so that Paw had to look at him, “one day, you are going to tell me exactly what happened.”

“Why? What point?”

“So I can kill them all.”


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