Jericho's Senses

“Jerrrricho! Jer-eeeeeee-kohhhhh!”

“That’s right,” Jericho said pleasantly. “Jericho.”

“Jerry-koh, Jerry…”

“Uh-huh!”

“Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!”

Jericho’s pleased smile remained, though his expression became one of bashfulness in response to the small toddler’s sudden castration of the latter half of his name. “No, Jericho. I’m not Jerry,” he said warmly, reaching his finger out towards the child. It was promptly poked by her much smaller finger.

“Jerry…co,” she cooed.

“Hey! Jeri!”

Jericho’s attention was removed from the child as Tammie’s voice carried over the sounds of disjointed chatter and babbling surrounding him. The child, vindicated by Tammie’s nickname, simply stood up and screamed “Jerry!” before promptly turning tail and hobbling away to join the other toddlers. Jericho shook his head and stood up just in time for Tammie to stand before him. “Great work, Tams,” Jericho said, his soft tone mitigating the sarcasm his words dripped with. “Now she’ll always call me that.”

“Forever until you die?” Tammie chirped, then immediately ducked to dislodge the infant that attached themself to her pant leg. “Gah. What the hell are you doin’ out here with the babies, anyway?”

Jericho gestured toward their packmate, a boy named Adam with bone-straight, platinum blond hair to his neck, carrying a large barrel of sloshing water. As he walked, a tiny wave formed in the circumference and threw itself overboard, dousing an unsuspecting child on the ground. He squealed with laughter, startling Adam into checking who occupied the ground by his feet, and the momentum caused another wave to go overboard and splash another. More laughter ensued and Adam shot Jericho a pleading look with his icy blue eyes. Jericho beamed at him.

“I needed to watch ‘em while Adam got the pack moms some warm bath water,” he said. “But he’s back now, so I’ll help him.”

“Wait, wait,” Tammie said. “Charlie was lookin’ for you. I’ll tell him you’re busy, okay?”

Jericho’s eyes widened. “Charlie was? He’s alone right now? You think some boys are gonna start picking on him?” he asked, suddenly tense.

Tammie shook her head, a lone curl dancing before her nose as she did so. “Ahaha…I’ll help Adam, Jeri. Go see about Charlie, I think he’s by that tree you guys hang out at.”

Jericho bunched his leg muscles to take off, but he stopped himself. “N-no, it’s okay. If you wanna help me and Adam, that’ll be nice, but I’m not dumping my work on you.”

Tammie grinned and nodded, and the three werewolves got to work setting up the baby’s little field for bathtime. Eventually Jericho was free to go, and he hurried over to the tree where he knew Charlie would be waiting. He strained his ears to listen for the sounds of a scuffle Charlie was prone to finding himself in, but instead, Jericho heard soft singing.

“Pling pling a lindo piano,” Charlie was murmuring as Jericho grew close. “Traa-traa la bateria, toot-toot la trompeta…”

“Charlie,” Jericho called breathlessly. “Tammie said you were looking for me. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Charlie murmured. “I just wanted t’ hang out.”

Jericho frowned, somewhat irate upon learning he’d run for nothing. “Okay, well, hang out and do what?” Jericho puffed.

“Let’s sing together,” Charlie said, patting the grass beside his cross-legged self. “Charlotte n’ me used t’ do it all the time. But she doesn’t really hang out wit’ me no more.”

Immediately endeared, Jericho took a seat beside his friend and folded his own legs in a similar fashion. Charlie’s head bobbed in a short nod, then he looked away and continued to sing. It sounded like nonsense; Jericho had never heard anyone speak whatever tongue he was speaking, but still, he found himself entranced. He closed his eyes and listened to Charlie’s singing, and as bad as it was with how much as his voice cracked and pitch seemed to fluctuate randomly, he still found himself entranced.

They took turns singing songs until it was time to go eat breakfast.

Word Count: 662