Partner

I had to finish this quick due to being needed to drive someone off and about. Sooooo

Well, it works.

Read, Review and Enjoy






At the end of the two weeks, Mik had said goodbye to his mother and growled at Jay to take care of her. It was a relief to know he was going back, yet at the same time, Mik worried about what he would return to.

An empty house, of course.

The program car took him into the apartment’s parking garage rather than to the program building and so Mik had gotten out and went, naturally, to his apartment. He had dropped his duffle bag with a large thump -the rock- on the floor. The place had been cleaned and dusted, but even to his dimmer senses it seemed unlived it, hollow even.

He sighed and was tempted to fart or belch or something, just to get rid of the unused, sterile smell.

Instead he left the apartment and made his way to Edno’s place. A quick knock and Mik worried about the time of day. The partners should be home, but it wasn’t unknown for Koln to keep everyone late.

Edno answered the door, in a rumpled sweater, rumpled sweats, a pair of glasses perched on the end of his nose and a book in his hand, “Ah, Mik, has it been two weeks already?”

“Yes,” Mik entered the apartment when Edno motioned for him to.

The door closed behind him and the apartment was… quiet.

“I would take you to him, but he’s sleeping at the moment and had trouble last night. Nightmares have been plaguing him during the night, so during the day he’s been sleeping curled around Souse. I am sure Souse will be happy that you are here to pick him up. Essuan seems to think it’s adorable, Souse… well I’m not certain what he thinks, he just does.”

Panic welled up inside Mik, “Did you let him watch the news before bed?”

“Last night he did, but otherwise, no. Nothing but children’s shows. Souse has been very careful with the television. At night he won’t let Paw watch it, takes him up to the green room instead. They meditate or garden. Sometimes they just sit and look out over the city.”

The change in Paw’s sleep disturbed him. Was it because Mik had gone, because of a great change in Paw’s life, or some other problem? Did Paw not care for himself as well as he did everyone else in the tribe?

Mik sat at the table and found himself nervous. Edno went about making tea.

“We’ve had the last few days… to ourselves so to speak. A partner tried to poison his Sidhe… the one with the one eye? Bastard. The partner, not the Sidhe. I have no idea what he gave the Sidhe, but it went mad and tore him apart. For the moment we’re waiting on word on whether or not he’ll recover. Paw won’t speak to us about it, nor with Souse.”

“Different tribe,” Mik said, “You have to talk to the violet eyed girl. Which means you need Paw, likely.”

“The pregnant Sidhe mysterious miscarried. She ate something that killed the babe, Koln thinks she did it on purpose.”

“Why? They’re so attached to their children…”

“Blood work came back, it’s not Sidhe, not entirely. They did what they could to make her comfortable, put Essuan in a room with her because she’s the only one we know of who has had mothering experience. The pregnant one is on the mend. Given six to nine months, Koln’s hoping she will be pregnant again, this time with a child she could keep. She’s shown interest in the male with the cast and in Hohi.”

“I don’t think Hohi will settle.”

“Hohi’s interested in our Lillow.” our, as in … Edno was claiming Lillow even though she was with another partner? “brings her flowers and makes her giggle and the adults watch but turn their heads when he kisses her cheeks. Violet, as we’ve been calling the other leader, is actually content with letting Hohi pay attention to someone else. She’s relaxed a bit. She told Tuhn her name, but did it in such a way that Tuhn believes she should keep it to herself.”

Edno shrugged as he set a mug before Mik. Behind him, on the stove, the kettle began to boil. Edno sighed and went to the stove to retrieve the kettle, “All of the Sidhe but for Paw have had another physical. A proper measuring and such this time. Souse was not pleased with it all.”

“Mm.”

Edno poured the water into Mik’s mug, “because of your age thing… if the one eyed one dies, they are thinking about dissecting him. Nort hasn’t been allowed anywhere near him, before you ask. Only… eh… Palt? The doctor.

“Lillow’s speaking now. The girl is even more adorable when she speaks. Talking about kittens and such, Koln is considering allowing her to have one… but he’s not certain how Essuan will take it when all she has is fish.”

“Sidhe seem to love kittens,” Mik murmured, “I don’t understand why. They’re all claws and howling.”

Edno snorted, “get a cat, raise it right, it’ll be the best kind of company for someone who sleeps all day and has random boughts of energy and craziness. Laser pointer on the wall and she’s up and nearly on the ceiling. Any kind of purchase whatsoever and they can climb it.”

“Laser pointer?”

“A damned drone,” Edno picked up his cup and looked into the living room, then back to Mik, “an errant drone has been flying around the building the last couple of weeks. They finally pulled it down this morning. It was a police drone. Suspected activity of fugitives, they said.”

“What did Koln say?”

“You’re fired. Finally. Damned thing disturbed the new tribe and when it came by it would wake Paw up. He’d howl like it was killing him or something.”

Mik sipped his tea, “how’s Essuan coming along?”

“She’s gotten in a better mood, constantly giggling and going on. Nice bit of red to her cheeks at all times. Doctor can’t make heads or tales of it, but Souse tells us the pregnancy is fine and that Essuan is fine.

“We managed to convince Souse and a female to take fertility tests. Do the whole, body scan and everything thing that doctors love so much. The female will have to go through a few more tests, but her partner is there holding her hand every time so she seems okay with it.”

“Why now?”

“The women haven’t bled since we … received them. Nearly two months now. They’re wondering why. Diet, body chemistry, something that the others did to them. Essuan got pregnant without it though,” Edno shook his head, “I don’t have a female but… I would think that if it happened to them naturally, they’d be itching by now. A woman gets used to having something and then it disappears, you can bet your last dollar she’s going to make a fuss. Especially with what the lack of it means.”

“Well we know they aren’t pregnant, we did the tests. And we’ve told them that seemingly they’re healthy, so why would they worry?” Mik sipped his tea.

Edno blinked at Mik, “that is true.”

Souse entered the kitchen, steering a bleary eyed Paw with him. Paw had one hand on Souse’s chest, leaning heavily on the other male. A small, disgruntled sound came from Paw’s throat. Souse said something to Paw and Paw’s head snapped up.

Through messy hair, Paw’s sleep clouded eyes found Mik.

A high pitched squeal cut through the silence of the apartment. Paw leaped up and down, clapping his hands and squealing as he tried to speak Sidhe through the sound. What it resulted in was a high pitched sound that kept changing notes.

Souse coughed and said something and Paw stopped leaping up and down and glared at Souse.

Mik set his tea down and stood, “Hullo Paw.”

Again with the high pitched squeal. Paw ran at Mik, his arms out, and latched onto the man, forcing the air from Mik’s lungs as he squeezed. Paw chattered to him, a quick, higher than normal pitch, as he giggled and made a lot of hand motions. Mik tried to tell Paw that he couldn’t understand a thing the Sidhe said, but Paw wasn’t listening. Paw said Mik’s name and there.

Was the motion for ayata.

“Paw,” Mik made the motion for ayata and paw leaped back as if Mik had bit him, “I can’t understand a word you’re saying.”

Paw blinked, eyes on Mik’s hands as if wondering if Mik had done it accidentally.

“Paw and Mik should go,” Souse muttered, “Souse want relax.” Souse pushed his shoulders back, thrust his neck forward and … grotesquely… cracked his back with a quick succession of cracks.

“Sure… we’ll … uh… leave you two be,” Mik muttered, “Come on Paw.”

Paw looked uncertain but followed Mik back to their own apartment. The Sidhe sniffed about the apartment and sniffed Mik’s clothing and then the hollow of Mik’s neck. His green eyes met Mik’s for a moment before he gave Mik a deep, hungry kiss. A claiming kiss. With a shudder, Paw pulled away, leaving Mik startled and just a little dazed.

He wanted more. But he drew himself back to his full height, even shorter than Paw than he had been two weeks before.

“Mik have fun?” Paw asked quietly.

“As much fun as I can have without you, Paw,” Mik drew Paw close and kissed him once more, darting his mouth into Paw’s for a moment before he pulled away, “all I could think about was you.”

“All?”

“Mm,” Mik smiled as Paw did.

“Paw missed Mik,” Paw whispered, setting his head on Mik’s shoulder with a sigh, “Souse say Mik come back but Paw not certain.”

Paw had made a hand motion when he had said Souse’s name, the motion looked like the ‘okay’ motion that people used, but the little finger was brought down to rest atop the nail of the index finger.

Mik pushed Paw away and tried to figure out how to speak. Jay hadn’t explained how to say ‘you’ and ‘I’ in Sidhe.

But then, Paw rarely said ‘you’ and ‘I’ or ‘him’ and ‘her,’ preferring instead to use proper names for all involved.

“Mik…” Mik sighed out, hoping that his sentence structure would make it understandable, “Mik ayata Paw.”

Paw blinked his suddenly larger, green eyes, looking from Mik’s eyes, to Mik’s mouth, to his hands. Then he broke into a smile, “Like Paw speaking badly, buts Mik trying.” Paw kissed Mik’s cheek, “Paw ayata Mik too.”


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