Partner

This made me giggle. So very muchly giggle.

I'm going to stumble off to bed now... so no more updates tonight, 'kay?

Read, review and enjoy.




Mik was packed and Paw had just slipped on his shoes when the emergency crew entered the apartment, weapons up. Weapons?

Small, pen like objects.

Mik raised his hands in the classic ‘surrender’ pose and Paw imitated him. What the hell…?

“Sorry, sir,” the leader dropped his weapon, “Souse gave us a start, we’re a bit jump. Please make your way to the elevator, quickly, quietly. The bus is waiting for you.”

Out of the apartment, down the elevator and onto the bus. Souse was curled around, nearly doubled over, between Edno and the side of the bus. Mik sat in front of them and Paw slid to sit right in front of Souse. He peered over the seat back and said something to Souse. The larger Sidhe didn’t respond. Essuan came on a moment later, a hand over her already swelling belly. Her eyes immediately fell on Souse and in an instant was between Edno and Souse, wrapping her arms around the male.

Koln came on behind her and sighed out as she snapped her fingers towards the man. The man shuffled down the bus’ aisle and handed Essuan a pack. She riffled through it, all the while shaking her head and saying something in the kind of tone a woman uses when her man does something stupid. A frustrated snarl came out of her mouth when Paw said something to her.

The verbal tongue lashing she gave Paw had all the malice and annoyance of a frustrated, pregnant woman who couldn’t get her point across.

“Ah,” Mik said out loud, explaining as Koln glared at him, “She’s upset that she can’t speak to us directly and wants to know what we hit Souse with so that she knows what to give him and Paw was trying to tell her to use her words, I guess, and I’m also guessing that she doesn’t know how to speak our language yet and thus, this.”

The Sidhe were watching Mik as the bus doors closed. Mik looked from Paw to Essuan and back to Paw.

Essuan said something that seemed to indicate that she was puzzled about what Mik had said. Paw responded in a nearly identical tone, not turning to speak to Essuan but more of tilting his head towards hers. The look on Essuan’s face said it all.

“She wants to know what we hit him with, Koln, I suggest you tell the woman.”

“Pepper spray,” Koln murmured, “he likely inhaled it, we’ve used it on Sidhe before,” behind Koln, Violet growled, “it will pass in a few moments.”

“Unless he has a lung infect,” Edno snapped at Koln.

“Sidhe don’t get sick.”

“Ah?” Essuan looked confused at Paw’s explanation but pulled something out of her pack and tried to stick it in her mouth.

Paw caught Essuan’s hand and snarled at her, snatching it from her and tried to put it in his own mouth. Essuan grabbed hold of his wrist firmly and hissed something out.

Not for pregnant women. Not for candidates. Was the best Mik could think of. He reached over and took the leaf from Paw.

“What do I need to do?”

“Chew it.”

“What would it do to you?”

“Those like me,” Paw pouted and looked out the window, “bad time dream time.”

“Ah,” Mik put the leaf into his mouth and chewed it until Essuan held out her hand and gave him a look that clearly said spit it out. Mik spat it out, into her hand, and tried not to think of how many civilized rules that was breaking.

His mouth tingled.

Wait. If he could share Paw’s dreams…

Aw shit.

Mik sighed and sat in his seat normally as the bus pulled out of the underground parking lot. He leaned across the aisle to Koln and whispered, “I might have a problem.”

“That being?” Koln asked quietly.

“I see dead people.”

“Dead people.”

“Now they’re sparkles.”

That moved around and swirled and up, over his head and back down and buzzing around Koln’s head. Mik tried to focus, knew that he had to keep. There. He took in a breath and placed both his hands on his legs, sitting up straight and looking down. If he looked down, he couldn’t see the sparkles.

His hands were huge. Like. The size of his face. One of his nails was crooked. Just. Barely. Maybe it was something he had eaten? He put his two hands closer together and leaned in to study the nail. Was it… or wasn’t it crooked? Maybe just a bit, just a little bit.

He felt a breath on his cheek and turned his head. Paw was looking at Mik’s hands with wide, intent eyes, trying to see what Mik saw. The bus lurched to a stop and Mik’s head hit the seat in front of him before bouncing back and hitting the seat he was sitting in.

Essuan was leaning over it, frowning at Mik. Two cool, long fingered hands pressed to either side of his face, held him still as the whole world seemed to spin. Essuan looked to Paw and said something, looked over at Koln and said something.

No. That was Paw translating. Paw’s voice created reverberations in the air, colours and swirls as Koln’s clashed in, a jarring sort of colour in response. Paw spoke to Essuan and Essuan looked back down at Mik, blinking those huge brown eyes. At the edges, it was almost green. Like a tree grew out from the pupil of Essuan’s eyes, stretching high into the sky.

Old time tree.

Essuan had it there, all along. In her eye.

Some idiot reached out and poked Essuan in the eye. The Sidhe blinked and looked down at Mik like a mother does a child who has just brought her a toad.

Oops, that was his idiot hand.

One of Essuan’s hands gave Mik’s face an affectionate pat and she turned to say something to someone else. Lillow slipped up the aisle and removed Koln from his seat, she patted Mik’s leg and Mik sluggishly turned towards her. She smiled innocently at him and made a motion. One that Mik had seen and associated with Souse’s position. The altered ‘okay.’ Then she said a word.

Mik tried to imitate the motion and Lillow sighed.

An exasperated sound from Lillow? How often had he just tried to do that?

Mik pulled himself upright and looked around, frowning at the people who glared at him.

“What?” He said.

To which they all responded with that motion.

Was it the leaf… or had she really done it so often that everyone but him got it? But it had only happened once.

Lillow drew Mik’s attention with a snap of her fingers. She patted her knees and started with a quick rhyme that sounded something like “atta vatta ishta va.” patting her knees and reaching over to pat Mik’s knees as she began again. Paw’s hands slipped around behind him, took his hands and imitated the movements Lillow had made.

When Mik finally managed to make the motion on his own, Lillow added an , “Oohsta ishta vatta neen,” as the second line and more motions.

“Sadstu mahnsun Ill to van.”

“Ill,” Mik stopped and made a face, “god of the underworld?”

Lillow sighed and repeated the entire rhyme with the line.

Mik frowned and looked around. Wobbly. Everything was wobbly but he was having a moment of…

When had they left the bus and gone into the program building?

Lillow drew Mik’s attention and repeated the rhyme. Mik repeated it after her.

“Soh. Voh. Ne. Noh. Toh. Tahn, Ilv. Un. Jin. Vahn. Do.”

Numbers. The hand motions Lillow made were for numbers. The tune sounded frighteningly like a tune from a child’s show that Paw had watched over and over and over again.

Mik struggled to repeat the line and Lillow sighed out, “Mik back.”

“What?”

“Hours,” Paw sighed, “like squirrel on speed. Up and down and around and around and just no stopping. Mik wore out Sidhe.”

“It was not hours. It was like four lines.” Mik protested as the world made a frightening spinning motion for a moment before calming once more.

“That all Mik remember from…” Paw paused and Lillow looked up like she was trying to remember something.

She said something in Sidhe and Paw sighed, “one hundred and forty two songs? Long hours! We all sleep now, yes?”

“I… what’s going on?”

“Later,” Lillow snapped, “count. Soh. Voh. Ne. Noh. Toh. Tahn, Ilv. Un. Jin. Vahn. Do.”

Mik sighed out and rubbed his face, finding his energy draining with each passing moment, “Soh. Voh. Ne…” like.. No? “Noh? Toh… Tan. Vu. Jin Van. … go?”

“Mik stupid,” Lillow muttered, “Lillow going to sleep now.”

“Do!”

“Mikkums,” Paw murmured.

“What?”

“Shut the fuck up and go to sleep. Affore Paw knocks Mik to senses.”




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