Changes

Changes (Chapter Eight)

The door swung open to reveal a slightly disheveled, but moderately clean apartment. The walls were lined with bookshelves, stuffed to the point that some of the books looked like they were hanging on by magic alone. The rug on the floor was visible, but only in patches, as there were piles of books on the floor, as well as clothing strewn about. A garbage can in a corner held an overflowing amount of waste, as it seemed that one of them had neglected to empty it. There were no windows visible, since the bookshelves that lined the room blocked any that might have let light in. Instead, two standing lamps illuminated the room.

“Ah, finahlly home aht lahst, yoo two.” Remus stood from a comfy-looking armchair in the corner, putting down a book. “Ah was beginnin’ tah worry.”

Romulus laughed. “Sorry, bro. We took a bit longer than we’d anticipated. Learned a bit more about our new friend, though. And she of us.” Romulus turned his head, and threw a smile over his shoulder at Cassi. Without warning, her face smiled back, turning just a little pink.

“Ah, well thaht’s good. Ah’m gonnah put on some tea. Yoo guys wahnt some?” Remus headed toward a door on the right side of the room.

“I would love some. Cassi? How’s some tea sound?” Romulus asked. Cassi mumbled an affirmative, and Remus turned from where he stopped by the door, and went through. As the door swung to accept Remus into the room beyond, Cassi could see kitchen furnishings.

“Yep. That’s the kitchen.” Romulus nodded, surprising Cassi a little. He pointed at a second door on that wall, and said, ‘And there’s the bathroom, should you need it…don’t worry, it’s far better maintained than the rest of the place.” Another smile had Cassi joining in.

“You mean, there aren’t books piled high in there, too?”

Romulus laughed, but then looked a little sheepish. “Uh…actually…no, there’s books in there, too. We uh…like to read a lot.” Regaining his composure, he pointed to the opposite wall. “And over here, these two doors lead to the bedrooms. The one on the right is mine, the left, Remus’s.”

Cassi wandered over, and pushed each door open a crack to take a glimpse. Remus’s room was cluttered, disorganized, and it took her a few moments to realize that the unusually large pile of junk on the one side of the room was his bed. An ashtray sat on the end table nearby, filled to the brim with the stubs of finished cigarettes, and the window on the wall next to it was open a crack, presumably to release the smoke. Cassi looked at the wall by the end table, and saw black marks. Apparently, Remus wasn’t always particularly careful with his cigarettes.

Romulus’s room was sufficiently pleasant. His room was also surrounded with bookshelves, but the books occupying his bookshelves seemed to be of a different variety as those within the living room- whereas the living room was filled with mystery novels, romance novels, science fiction, etc, Romulus’s shelves were stuffed with exotic books, books with spines written in languages that Cassi didn’t recognize, and other books that she couldn’t even begin to describe. His bed was well kept, and Cassi was shocked when a black spot on the covers uncurled, and a head appeared, staring at her.

“Oh!” Her surprise slipped past her lips before her brain registered that the black blob was in actuality a cat, who was now sniffing the air in her direction.

“Ah, yes. I see you’ve met Rae.” Romulus chuckled. “Don’t worry, he’s quite nice, but not really sociable, though he likes a little attention. You probably won’t see him outside my room, though. Poor baby’s blind, has been for as long as I’ve had him. He spends most of his time in there.”

As if in response to Romulus’s claim, Rae got up, stretched his front paws far in front of him, and strode across the bed, and jumped to the floor. Cassi held still as the massive cat approached her slowly, sniffing the air as he got closer. Apparently satisfied, Rae pushed right into the living room, and began to rub Cassi’s leg.

“Well. I’ll be damned, I think he likes you.” Romulus said in awe, and watched as Cassi bent over and picked Rae up, holding him as though she would a baby. She scratched behind his ears and whiskers, and the underside of his chin, and Romulus could hear him begin to purr. “He’s almost never that bluntly attentive. Barely likes Remus. Who, by the way, isn’t crazy about Rae.”

“Thaht little fooker shite in mah bed! Ahf course ah’m not crahzy about ‘im!” Remus gripped as he reentered the living room, carrying a tray of cookies and chocolates. “Ahnd ah’ll tell yoo, if ‘e does it agahn, ah’m gonnah do more thahn yell aht ‘im.”

Cassi and Romulus turned back to the center of the room, and watched as Remus put the tray down on the side of the center table, and plopped himself into his armchair once more. Looking at each other and suppressing laughs, they each took up ends of the couch. Cassi neatly tucked Rae next to her, and he promptly curled up and fell asleep.

“So, Remus, you told Sorcha everything, I’ll presume.” Romulus grabbed a chocolate cookie and leaned back.

“Yep, yep. She’ll be wahnting to see us in the mornin’ ahfter today. Well, closer to noon, ah think.” Remus nodded. “Ah think she’s goin’ tah decide whaht she wahnts us do work on first once she figures out whahat we’re up against. In the meahntime, she sahys sit tight for the night.”

Once again, Cassi found herself searching for a clock. She never wore a watch, because the damn things never seemed to stay working for too long. Slowly, they lost time until they just stopped altogether. She spotted a clock sitting on the bookshelf closest to the kitchen door, and read the glowing numerals to be a little past three in the morning. She was shocked to find that despite it growing increasingly late, she was no longer as tired as she had been only an hour ago.

“Well, with that squared away and a day to ourselves…that’s lovely. Am I the only one who’s not completely tired?” Romulus asked. Cassi and Remus nodded in agreement. “Well then, I think we need to find ourselves something to do for a bit until we are. I’m thinking…cards?”

“Sounds good to me.” Cassi said, amused.

Remus reached to the side of his chair, and opened a wooden box that sat between the chair and the bookcase nearest to him. He pulled out a black box, which though unmarked, Cassi assumed to be the deck of cards. Then he stopped, and looked back at Romulus. “Whaht ahre we playing?”

Romulus peered questioningly at Cassi. “I think it’s too late to be starting up a game of poker or something that involved, so…do you know how to play scat?”

Cassi nodded, relieved they wouldn’t be playing a game with chips- she tended to lose when gambling was involved, and she despised cheating by using her powers to ‘edit’ her chips.

Remus stuck his hand back in the box, and removed a small, velvet bag. Tossing it on the table, he opened the black box and removed a dark colored deck of cards, and began shuffling them. Romulus reached over and picked up the bag, as well as another cookie, which he stuffed into his mouth while he opened the bag and poured it’s contents into his hand. Cassi watched him count out the multicolored beads, replacing the extras in the bag and dropping the bag to the floor at his feet. He then handed her three beads, and passed three across the table to Remus. His last move before settling back into the couch was to press down on the center of the table, and Cassi was shocked to see the table bow in the center, creating a small, bowl-shaped indent in the surface of the wood.

Seeing her expression, Remus explained. “It’s for the beahds. Yoo know, so they don’t go ah-rollin’ ahround on the tahble. Thaht one’s our pot.” He stopped shuffling for a moment, reaching over to the table just in front of him. He used one finger to push down on a rather worn looking spot on the table, and just like the center, it bowed underneath his finger and formed a smaller indent. “Ahnd this one’s for your lives.” He poured his beads into the bowl.

Looking at her own edge of the table, she saw a slightly lighter colored oval, and slid her finger over it. Cassi couldn’t feel any indent, but she assumed it needed the push, so she applied a bit of pressure. Instantly, it began to give, forming an identical bowl just like Remus’s and Romulus’s, who had reached back over to do his own.

“Now! We begin!” Romulus grinned. “Deal, my man.”

Remus flipped out three cards to each of them in a clockwise circle that would have made the con man cry. As he was setting the deck into the center of the table, Romulus and Cassi reached out for their cards.

“Oh, and I should warn you, be ca-“

Suddenly, a searing, burning pain hit Cassi’s thumb pad, and she dropped the cards onto the table, where they landed face down. She examined the thumb, which other than being a little red, was unharmed. She glared at Romulus.

“Heh…as I was just staying, and apparently too late, be careful how you grab and hold the cards…” Romulus stated, trying not to smile.

Cassi carefully picked her cards back up, giving them a look over. At once, she realized what made these cards unique- where the normally black spades and clubs sat on the cards instead held iced over versions of themselves, and the same for the red hearts and diamonds- except they were aflame. She held one close to her eye, and examined it- sure enough, the flames flickered back and forth like a candle.

“Whoa. That’s…cool.” Cassi grinned.

“A perk of having some…” Romulus laughed. “Special friends.”

“Great! Ahre we done lahughin’ at ‘em? Cahuse, ah’d like to plahy now, if thaht’s ahlright!” Remus remarked grumpily.

The game itself was wholly amusing to Cassi, who spent nearly the entire time listening to the boys’ banter back and forth as they attempted to play mind games with each other. She managed to keep herself from burning or freezing her hand another time, as well. Romulus kept the game upbeat, constantly making sarcastic remarks, which Remus simply made ‘hmph’ sounds at. An hour later, the game ended, with Cassi astonishingly in the lead. Cassi pegged this on the boys’ preoccupation with making each other lose.

Remus stood, and grumbled something that sounded suspiciously like a curse and an insult, collected the remains of their tea and cookies, and headed back into the kitchen. Romulus began to clean up the cards and beads. As he was replacing them into their respective containers and returning those to the box, Cassi heard some odd sounds come from the kitchen, followed by a large ‘whump’ noise. Moments later, a particularly vile curse word floated into the living room.

Cassi looked at Romulus, alarmed. “What was that?”

Romulus couldn’t help but grin. “If I had to guess, I’d say he probably dropped several of those tea cups, managed to catch them in time, but in putting them back on the counter, whacked his head good on a cupboard door.”

Seconds after Romulus said this, a very annoyed looking Remus strode quickly from the kitchen to his room, slamming the door behind him as he held a hand to his forehead.

Romulus laughed. “He never seems to remember when he leaves those cupboards open.” The two of them enjoyed the laugh, the air relaxing some more around them. Cassi found herself watching Romulus’s eyes sparkle as he chuckled, the corners of his mouth stretching upward as that smile overtook him, with the left side rising just a touch higher than the right. His lips, and how soft they looked.

Cassi stopped herself, amazed at what she was feeling. She normally was able to easily suppress this kind of feeling, having taught herself to never get close to another person. But here, with him, she felt comfortable. As Romulus straightened the room a bit, talking about the various other stupid things that Remus did on a regular basis, Cassi could barely hear him…her mind was preoccupied with wondering what it would be like to kiss those lips.

Romulus walked with her over to the doorway of his bedroom. He began to say something about sleeping arrangements when Cassi stopped him by lifting her head up to kiss him. She did not press herself on him- only brought her lips up close enough for him to realize what she was doing, and gave him plenty of time to stop her.

But he didn’t, and their lips touched, a shudder passing though the both of them as the kiss went on. Romulus’s hand slowly traveled from his side, up her arm, finally coming to rest cradling the back of Cassi’s neck as he pulled her in tighter. Cassi didn’t object, instead parting her lips and using the tip of her tongue to brush his lips, which allowed her entrance. She slipped it inside, and explored the inside of his mouth, running her tongue along his teeth before massaging his tongue, feeling it massage back.

As their passionate kiss came to a close, Cassi felt her cheeks becoming flushed. She suddenly was aware of what she had just done, and instantly began to worry that she had gone too far.

But the expression on Romulus’s face told her she had nothing to worry about, the slightly lopsided grin remaining on his face.

After that moment passed, Romulus gathered himself, and looked at her, amazed. Finally, he managed to get out, “Uh…that was…incredible.” Cassi smiled sheepishly, her cheeks remaining the glowing red they had become. “But…may I ask…why?”

Cassi looked at him, searching her mind for the words to say. She failed to find any, so she just inched toward him again, entering them into a second kiss, just as passionate as the first, though shorter.

Romulus seemed ready to pass out from pleasure. “Right then. No reason needed, I suppose.” He grinned again, and Cassi felt a warmth inside her that she hadn’t felt in a very long time. She pulled him into the bedroom.

Rae, who had long since left Cassi’s lap once she became to engrossed in the game to continue her petting, was curled up on the bed once more. However, his head lifted as the pair entered the room, and he stood up, and strode to the corner of the bed. Cassi watched, curious what he was up to, when all the sudden, Rae leapt off the bed, and she gasped. She had nothing to worry about, however, as Rae landed perfectly on a nearby bookshelf, and proceeded to curl up once more. Cassi laughed at her foolishness, and gave a look at Romulus, who shrugged, saying “He may be blind, but he’s certainly not handicapped.”

Cassi pulled off her overshirt and her jeans, leaving her in only an undershirt, bra, and panties. Romulus pulled off his shirt, and climbed into the bed with her.Cassi laid her head on his shoulder, and wrapped an arm around his muscular torso. Romulus ran his fingers though her hair a few times, and she relaxed.

Her last thought as she succumbed to the sleep pulling at her eyes was that here, curled up with this newfound warmth she had, she felt safer than she had all day long.