Sequel

Over the past week I have had migraines, headaches, stomach aches, head colds, sleeples nights, fevers and too much work. Meaning my brain has been dead and this took several days to write. If there are errors, I apologise. I have enough brain function to... string a sentence together, barely.

It's gotten so bad that I've taken a day off work tomorrow to recover, hopefully. Maybe I'll be able to write another chapter tomorrow.

Geh...

Read, Review and Enjoy.




Mari left shortly after, claiming that she couldn’t ignore the craving for salt any longer and there was a fast food joint around the corner that had enough salt to drown a horse in. Rel made his way to the couch in front of the television and the Sidhe moved with him, settling on the floor, the coffee table and even the back of the couch. The group of them had a long, drawn out silence, during which time Nave seemed to pick at Uhwan’s hair, searching the male’s scalp.

Rel caught Muan looking between the male and female and Rel, back and forth, back and forth. Muan finally mustered up the courage to shift from the coffee table to the floor between Rel’s legs. The Sidhe gave Rel a begging kind of look, a pleading, puppy dog look. To which Rel gave Muan a questioning look. If the parents were grooming, fine, that was their thing. Rel didn’t groom anyone. He wasn’t a dog, damn it, nor a monkey to pluck a tick off another member of the group and eat it.

Muan rubbed against the couch as if that would bring him closer to Rel, setting his head backward and on Rel’s right thigh. The position bared Muan’s neck to Rel and allowed the Sidhe to watch his parents grooming on the floor a short distance away. Muan let out a whining sort of breath, a sigh and a plead at the same time.

Raoh hopped off the back of the couch and went to the bathroom, returning a moment later with a brush, a comb and a pair of scissors. The male placed the comb and scissors on the table and held the brush out to Rel. Obviously being pitiful got Sidhe somewhere in a tribe. Or maybe grooming was an obligatory socialization. Like asking how someone was doing, except more interactive.

Rel took the brush and puzzled over the close teeth of the brush. It more reminded him of the type of brush they might have used in olden days, or something that in the present would be used on animals to collect hair. The bristles were fine, white and long. Stiff enough to brush through hair, but not so stiff so as to cause discomfort.

Muan’s head perked up, the Sidhe eyed Rel’s hand, and the brush, hopefully. Rel frowned but pulled the brush through Muan’s too long hair. A shiver ran though Muan’s body, pleasure roiled the air around the male. Rel blinked at the back of Muan’s head, wondering how such a simple motion could cause so much pleasure. Not sexual pleasure, but instead the pleasure of scratching that hard to reach itch. Of drinking that perfectly brewed cup of coffee on a crisp cool morning.

Insanity, that’s what it was. Absolute insanity.

Rel continued to pull the brush through Muan’s hair, over and over until the silken hair took on a softer quality. He couldn’t help himself, Rel set the brush asside and ran his fingers through Muan’s hair. Better than silk. Through and through. Rel didn’t realise his fingers were against Muan’s scalp until he felt the lump of a knot of hair, right behind Muan’s ear. He turned the Sidhe’s head gently to inspect the lump. It was not a knot of hair, it was some mixture of glue and melted plastic. Rel picked at it, the lump didn’t budge from the hairs, it was firmly attached.

“Scissors,” Rel muttered to Raoh, holding out his hand.

Raoh handed the scissors to Rel, handle first. Rel took the scissors and snipped out the lock of hair that the plastic lump was melded into. He plucked up the lock and held it around Muan’s head so the Sidhe could see it.

“How exactly did you manage that?”

“Er…” a non-compliant answer, that for Muan meant he wasn’t going to answer.

Osht held out a metal bowl to accept the lock of hair and motioned with his fingers in a cutting motion. Then to Muan’s hair. Rel took Muan’s head in both hands and tilted the male’s head backward, peering into Muan’s eyes.

“Osht wants me to cut your hair.”

“Cuhhh?”

“Snip,” Rel showed Muan the scissors and plucked at the male’s hair, “shorter hair.”

“Shor…” Muan made a motion with his fingers meaning a measurement getting smaller.

“Yes, cutting hair makes it shorter, and I don’t know if I can cut hair.”

“Lel cuhh M’wn hah. Har. Ha…”

“Hair.”

“Hairl.”

“Close enough,” Rel muttered, pushing Muan’s head back forward.

Raoh handed over the comb and Rel took it. Rel snipped at the mottled and speckled brown hair, trying to keep it levelled and even or presentable in some manner. He knew he was doing poorly, even though Raoh and Osht both nodded along to the snips. The longer bits of hair Rel collected and dumped into the bowl for Osht, whatever his father was planning on doing with it.

His father. It was all. Nice.

Rel finally set the scissors and comb to the sides and ran his fingers through Muan’s hair. The mottling and speckling of the longer hair blended together when it was cut shorter. Not mottled, so much as easing from one shade into another. He liked the length of Muan’s hair now. Long enough to run his fingers through, long enough to tangle his fingers in when…

Heat flushed through Rel, firing desires the likes of which he had never felt before. Arousal, yes, but this was so strong and gone in such a flash that he was left dazed and confused as he stared at the back of Muan’s head.

“Wha?” Muan tilted his head back, into Rel’s lap and against something that Rel really didn’t want the Sidhe to know about. The male grinned at Rel, making a sound at the back of his throat that was some sort of smart assed acknowledgement.

The elevator doors dinged and opened, allowing Ashun to step off the elevator. The young woman looked over the apartment and met his eyes before she looked at Raoh and grinned for a moment before she joined them.

“What’s going on?” Ashun asked as she looked from one parent to the next.

“I was cutting Muan’s hair,” Rel muttered, patting Muan’s head.

“Ah.” Ashun’s look lingered on Rel, “why do you look uncomfortable?”

“No reason,” Rel said quickly, his voice hitting a high note.

Ashun’s eyes narrowed, “why do males, when they are uncomfortable, get that high note in their voices?”

“Probably because a girl of your age should not be asking a man of any age why he looks uncomfortable,” Rel managed to growl out.

“Ohhhh. Oh. You’re aroused,” Ashun nodded and rocked back on her heels, looking over each of the other Sidhe, “okay, I don’t know how to handle that. So I’m going to go make cookies.”

“Cookies?”

“For desert, cookies will make things better,” Ashun murmured, moving off to the kitchen.

“Make what better?” Rel asked as Ashun walked off. The female didn’t answer him, “make what better?”

.