What Can I Get Ya, Hun?

She was absolutely soaked through to the core, on top of being sick and cold. The rain battered anything in its path like pissed off wasps tipped in acupuncture needles backed by the angry bite of the vicious winter weather that swept through her town every year. Why did she even bother staying here? She sniffed and pulled her parka up into her ears, having already tightened the hood around her face to the point only her eyes and nose were visible through the thick fur. She hated the cold. She should have worn more than capris on her legs. Boots would have been good. And a thousand blankets.

Her door opened with just the softest touches of her fingertips and closed with the reassuring rattle of chains and locks flicking into place behind her. At least here she could appreciate the sound of the rain beating down on the old roof as the wind made the walls creak against its onslaught. Rasmus was curled up on the floor near her cold fireplace- reminding her she needed to sweep out the ashes and store them for a later project… when she wasn’t fighting against the cottony feeling between her ears or the sensation of lead replacing the marrow of her bones. Her newest addition to her home lay stretched out across the back of the couch, each set of sleek, shiny legs twitching in waves as it slept, antenna twinging and fangs flexing over the head of the couch briefly as she came closer. She reached out and pat it's smooth head softly, listening to the clicks of acknowledgment and contentment as it rose into her near-frosty palm.

What she didn’t expect to see past it’s faintly patterned fur was the shape of a fully stretched out, dozing floater. Or she figured he was dozing. An eye hadn't come around to look at her yet, he hadn't said anything or moved since she closed the door. She should nudge him and tell him to leave. She should make him feel guilty about crashing uninvited… She walked around to the front of the sectional and sloughed off her coat along the way- she could pick it up later. It wouldn’t ruin the floor.

Her hand reached out to wake him up but instead, she felt herself kneeling beside him and nudging him over to the edge until she could slump down on top of him and wedge herself against the back of the couch. A wide yawn stretched her grey skin, dark circles scrunching and eyes pinching closed as she slid her arm around him. The tell-tell sand-like whisper of an eye materializing alerted her to his sudden awareness more than anything else, “Knew you’d come around here sometime Doll.”

“Mmm,” She turned her face down into the red material of his hoodie and hooked a knee over him, greedily leaching the bands of warmth that seeped from his longer frame. Rina even considered wrapping his hoodie around her and zipping them up inside. She doubted it would be able to zip fully, and she definitely didn't want to move any more than she just had to now.

There was a short moment before spindly legs cautiously sought out purchase along her side as the massive, fuzzy centipede slithered down and adjusted itself over her short figure in a loose S pattern. It spilled over onto Kedron as well but he didn't seem to care. Thunder clapped and made the creature tense until she raised the hand pinned between them to run over its long delicate tufts of fluff.

“Was going to bring Namburaka to find you if you didn’t pop up soon. Where you been?” A little jostling had him shifting his arm around until she fit into his side, his calloused hand settling between two soft, heated nodes warming her side. “Shit, you’re cold-” He started to hiss, flinching away and shifting around further as he realized the fairy was nowhere near as warm as she should have been.

“Hush,” She grumbled, curling her fingers around the hoodie zipper on his opposite side in an attempt to get him to still, “’m tired…" She trailed off but she could feel his curious gaze still weighing on her as he flopped back against the microfiber cushions, "You left something on the fence,” She muttered. Hazel eyes cracked open to look at the eye floating in front of her. She resisted the urge to reach out and touch it, “Checked the shack ‘n you weren’t there.” Rina pushed her arm down and fished around in one of her shallow pockets before pulling out a string of what she figured were kukuri milk-teeth, “Thanks for the gift.”

Ked grasped the bottom end of the fishing line he used to tie them together and Rina smiled drowsily, “Can’t take them back.”

“I wasn’t planning on it. What would I do with a string of teeth?” Her head dipped on his chest as he pushed out a deep breath. Maybe it had been a sigh, “I don’t see why you like these things. They’re teeth, you punch someone in the face and they go flying- get a good swing in and you’ll get a dozen of em and maybe even a tongue. You act like they're nuggets of gold.”

She shoved her shoulder into his ribs just enough to sway him and huffed, “They’re useful to me, and they're pretty. Now shhh… Sleep. I’ll call Rasmus over.”

A tasseled corner of the Scandinavian-patterned rug over the bear’s 'head' lifted, two glowing eyes blinking into existence at the sound of its name. It wasn’t anywhere near as big as Telema but Rina was sure the couch felt plenty crowded enough already between the three of them and Kedron didn't seem the type to just accept being sat on by anything. “Alright, don’t sick your rug on me.” His hand fell, tangled in neon green plastic line and Rina’s followed after it, teeth clattering over his stomach as they rolled between their fingers.

They stayed like that, Rina listening to the odd rhythm of Kedron’s heart and lungs working in tandem under his sternum and the male floater surprisingly silent otherwise. She drifted in and out, waking with every few twinges of the centipede and groan of the house. Eventually, it felt like she could tune them out, no more spindly brushes, no more straining house. Just the subtle ba-bum-bum ba-bum-bum and faint wheeze of lungs in her ear and across the shoulder against the couch cushion as he breathed through his hidden nostrils.

Rina stretched once along his side and curled right back up afterward, finally feeling the ache leave her bones the longer she laid there. Ked’s hand against her side tapped out and pressed an impatient pattern into the soft spaces between each rib that oddly enough felt soothing more than anything. Who would have thought? He even smelled half decent today too- she guessed he might have borrowed the bath while she was gone. That didn’t say much for his clothes, though they were blood free from what she could tell…

Her thoughts lulled between moments of clarity and trailing expanses of haze the longer he just stroked over her ribs, dancing his fingers over the side-seam of her now-damp shirt. He’d probably complain about the massive wet spot her hair had left on his shoulder. She’d help him forget the inconvenience with a new bottle of spiced wine that he seemed to enjoy so much…

“… Are you purring, Doll?”

She sighed, “Rasmus…”