He shrugs, but says and signs nothing.
Maybe he’s unsure. Or ashamed. I know his people did a fucking number on him, and I don’t think it’s going to be an easy fix. Or a fix at all. I don’t think there are trauma therapists for Vyastil just yet, though it might be something to ask Quilliyn about.
Maybe if there aren’t, there can be in the future. I assumed every Vyastil living on Earth is here voluntarily, but now I’m not so sure.
“Are you hungry?”
He shakes his head.
“Want a latte?”
The caffeine doesn’t seem to disturb his system. He’s kind of like Amara. She has ADHD, and when her stimulants wear off in the evening, she’ll come over and raid my cupboard for coffee grounds because it helps her wind down for sleep.
He perks up, and I can’t help but tug him down so I can press a soft kiss to his lips. “Anything for you, baby.”
He purrs against me, nibbling against my jaw before letting me go. I don’t want distance between us right now. I want to curl up in bed with him and rot the rest of the evening away.
But I hear Amara and Gia making noise, which means they’re probably heading over, so I let him go, carefully step out of the ring of his tail, then dip into the kitchen to feed my family.
“Look, it matches perfectly!” Gia says, holding up Cielo’s foot. She’s already filed and painted the claws on his hands, then given him a thorough massage before moving to his feet.
They’re the least human part of him, besides the tail. And his ears. And fangs. And skin. And okay, mostly everything, but those feet are not humanoid at all.
She attempted to use her callous smoother on them, but it didn’t do anything, so she moved on to painting his massive claws to match, and he’s now staring at her with a proud grin, his hand curled around his huge cappuccino mug.
He’s on his third one.
I appreciate that both Amara and Gia aren’t giving him shit about consuming a breakfast drink in the evening. They can be a bit much about tradition sometimes, but Gia also secretly likes pineapple on pizza, and loves getting stoned and ordering Dominos at midnight, so I think she’ll keep our secret.
“Do you like them?” I ask. Cielo and I are curled up on the couch together, and I have my thighs around his hips because he’s shuffled his whole body toward Gia so his head is resting against my shoulder. It’s not the most comfortable position, but the weight against me is soothing.
His head knocks back against my jaw, and he gives his purring hum as he nods his head.
I’ve undone his braid, and I’ve been combing my fingers through his hair, which he seems to really like. “I think they look amazing. You’ll have to keep them out all the time.”
He frantically shakes his head. “Hurrrrt. You.”
“You won’t,” I whisper against his long, pointed ear. “I promise.”
He hums a disagreeing sound, but I’m not in the mood for a fight, so I let it go. It’s a nice, pain-free evening so far. I want to enjoy this. Closing my eyes, I dip my head lower and bury my nose against the crown of his hair.
He smells more like me than his world now. I wonder if that bothers him, but I don’t want to ask. I don’t want to make him even more unhappy than he has been.
“Cielo went to the gym today,” I say instead.
Amara twists around. She loves the gym more than Gia does. “How was it? Were people dicks?”
Cielo’s brow furrows, and he opens his mouth, then changes his mind and switches to sign. ‘No. Chadwick, Tyler, and Brody were nice.’ He fingerspells each of their names carefully. I should ask Luca about giving them a sign name so Cielo can use that instead.
Amara mouths the letters and then bursts into laughter. “Oh my god. Of course you’d make friends with a Chad, a Tyler, and a Brody.”
“Be fucking nice,” I hiss at her.
She waves me off. “No, I’m serious. Only you would be able to charm a fucking Chad.” She leans her elbow on the coffee table as she observes him for a long moment. “Are you doing okay?”
Cielo blinks at her.
“You were pretty rough when you got here a few days ago. We’ve been trying to give you space to rest, but I don’t know. I just wanted to check. I mean, you look way better.”
