NOVEL NEXT Chapter 29: Reunion
Aoife
I slowly drifted back to consciousness on the stone floor, I must’ve passed out from the pain. I really needed to stop falling unconscious, pretty soon people were gonna stop taking it seriously. As my eyes flicked open, I tried to stand, but a sharp sting of pain dropped me back to the ground with a hiss. Instead, I raised my head up and glanced around the room, taking stock of what happened. The four faced, four winged thing was dead, its sword lying on the ground a few feet away, Erica was no longer restrained, now propped up against the wall nearby and drinking deep from a large canteen, and Cass was sitting in one of the chairs, facing the door. Now though, she was looking at me, a stern look on her face.
“Don’t try to get up, Aoife. Just relax, ok? You both need some time to recover before we even think about getting out of here.”
I nodded and tried to tell her I would, but all that came out was a bunch of chirps, hisses, and rumbles.
Right…
I huffed out a breath, a little puff of mist hissing out of my nostrils. Regardless of when it was going to happen, we’d need to talk strategy eventually, and I wanted to be able to speak when we did. I closed my eyes and focused, and slowly I felt myself returning to my more human form. I had no idea how Cyrus managed to look so perfectly human, but the body I had now was close enough, only the scaly patches, tail, horns, and teeth remained. With a grimace, I slowly dragged myself fully against the wall, and sat there next to Erica, briefly glancing up into her thoughtful eyes.
“Soo… Aoife, huh?”
I chuckled softly and leaned into her.
“Yep. Got the whole gender thing figured out, by the way. My name’s Aoife, and my pronouns are she/her. Nice to officially meet you.”
Gently, she scratched me behind my horns like she used to. Logically, I knew it had only been a few days since we’d seen each other, but it felt like a lot longer than that. I had a feeling she felt the same. Thankfully, even fully grown, spiraling out of my skull like they were, the scritches felt just as good as I remembered.
“Hell of a time to figure it out. I’m glad to meet you too, Aoife. You look… good, all things considered. I like the horns and tail and stuff, it suits you.”
“And stuff?”
The scritches stopped. I looked up towards Erica, wondering what could’ve possibly compelled her to commit such a terrible sin, only to find her staring straight at the ceiling.
“Y’know, the scales and the uh… other stuff…”
Oh… maybe now I could pay her back for how much she’d teased me this week. I stared at her expectantly.
“And um… yeah…”
I waited.
“Look, Aoife, it’s nothing.”
I raised an eyebrow.
Something snapped in her then, and she spoke rapid fire, her next few sentences practically unintelligible.
“It’s just…
You were always really cute, but you also clearly had stuff you were working through, and the whole bull head thing I have going on kinda put me off that whole line of thinking anyways, but now I’m half dead, so I’m probably not thinking straight, but holy shit you’re gorgeous, and whatever made you grow your horns out all the way and stuff also made you the most adorable fucking shortstack I’ve ever seen, and if it weren’t for the bull head and the fact that we’re both super hurt I’d probably pick you up and kiss you till our lips hurt… if you wanted that, that is.”
Well holy shit.
I don’t know what I was expecting, but this was definitely not it. I just thought it’d be fun to get her flustered or something, to make her admit that she’d been looking, but this was something else.
“I- um…”
She let out a snort, and her hand dropped from my head.
“It’s ok… just forget I said anything…”
“No! I just- it’s a lot to take in, that’s all. I think… I might feel the same way.”
“Might..?”
She wasn’t gonna make this easy on me, was she? Fair enough, I’m the one who started this. She deserved complete honesty from me here. I took a deep breath and organized my thoughts.
“I have never in my life felt anything approaching those feelings towards anyone, I think the gender stuff was getting in the way, but now that I’ve figured it out, suddenly the door’s open for a lot of feelings I never even considered before. I know I like you, that I care about you in a way that I’ve cared about very few people before, I know you make me feel safe, and that I want to keep you safe, and I know that when you picked me up it gave me butterflies and that nobody gives head pats like yours. We could be dead tomorrow, but assuming we aren’t, I’d like to explore these feelings together… if that’s ok with you…”
Slowly, nervously, she slid her hand behind my back, her other hand resting just beside my thigh. She looked at me, a question in her eyes.
I nodded.
Her hand carefully made its way beneath my legs, mindful of the bandaged wound on the left, and in one smooth motion, she scooped me up, holding me loosely in her lap. I nestled right in, quickly pecking her collarbone before I leaned into her chest. She began tracing lazy circles with her thumb across my back and shoulders, pausing every now and then to scratch in that most sacred of places behind my horns.
We stayed like that, in comfortable silence, for what could’ve been hours, until finally, Erica drifted off to sleep. Clutching me tightly, holding me to her chest, and letting out tiny little half snores. It was strange to think I was ever frightened of her, right now, she just looked adorable. That settled it then, even if I did die tomorrow, I’d die happy. Satisfied. I’d do my best to avoid that though, if only for the chance at more nights like this. I was perfectly content.
At least until I saw Cass watching me and smiling.
She cocked her head and winked, before she mouthed the words ‘I heard it all’.
If my leg wound hadn’t killed me yet, embarrassment just might.
