Strange, I guess. Almost like I’m dissociating.
There aren’t really words for any emotion I’m having. This whole situation is wildly unprecedented, and I don’t know what to do with myself, which is entirely unlike me. I’m feeling things I’m not used to, and I don’t know what to do with all of it.
I hear a quiet snicker and look to my right, just past Cielo, to find Everest covering his mouth while Rathyn holds a fork, spaghetti dangling from the tines, with a frown on his face.
“I do not understand this,” he says.
“Babe. It’s noodles and sauce.”
Rathyn scowls even harder. “The noodles look like worms, and thissauceresembles human blood.” For a moment, he looks horrified. “Do you consume human blood? Is that a ritual I am unaware of?”
My hands shake as I interpret for Luca, who is biting his lip so hard his teeth look like they’re going to break the skin.
Gia grins sweetly and folds her hands under her chin. “Sweetheart, no. It’s bolognese.”
“Bolo…nay…ze,” Rathyn tries.
Amara ducks her head and presses her temple against her wife’s shoulder as Gia swallows back a laugh. “Yeah. It’s vegetarian.”
“Made from plants,” Everest says with a snort. “And you love plants. Just try it, okay? You’ll probably like it.”
Rathyn’s long, long tongue darts out and attempts to gather the noodles, but they flop around wetly, and as he closes his mouth, most of them smack him on the chin, sending the tomato sauce splattering across his cheeks.
“This is a strange and useless human food,” he declares, putting his fork down and flicking the noodles stuck to his skin back into the bowl.
Everest is bent over, tears streaming down his face. “Babe. Just…” He clears his throat and wipes his eyes, then reaches over and takes the fork and twirls it until the spaghetti is gathered in a neat coil. He lifts it and meets Rathyn’s eyes. “Bite.”
“No. I will not consume your non-blood worms.”
Everest sighs and glances over at me, then at Gia and Amara, then finally at Luca before sighing and putting his fist to his chest, rubbing it in a circle. ‘Sorry.’
Luca makes an excited noise. ‘You sign!’
Everest quickly shakes his head, then shrugs and signs, ‘A little. Two years in school—a long time ago.’
Luca is always thrilled when people know any ASL. He spends half his day talking to tiny kids on the street who were taught the alphabet in their kindergarten classes. ‘You’re ASL champ!’
Everest flushes a little, then taps the spaghetti against Rathyn’s lips. His eyes flutter closed for a second, and it’s almost like they’re communicating telepathically, but…the Vyastil can’t do that, can they?
No. That’s not possible. If it were, Cielo would know I was jerking off for him.
Rathyn eventually opens his mouth, takes a bite, and chews, scowling the entire time.
‘He’s so pretty,’ Gia signs, but doesn’t speak. ‘Why are they all so pretty?’
Luca scoffs. ‘Don’t be rude!’ He shoots Cielo an apologetic look, but Cielo just ducks his head and shrugs.
He hasn’t said or signed a word since we got to the table. He also hasn’t touched his pasta. I told him he could go rest, but he insisted on partaking in this, and I wasn’t about to force him into doing something he didn’t want to do.
“Can I help you?” I murmur under my breath so no one else can hear. I don’t sign it either, and I know Luca won’t mind so long as I tell him what we said if he asks.
He licks his lips, then shakes his head.
“Not hungry?” I ask.
“Hunnrrrrgggg. No.”
I show him the sign for hungry, then for not-hungry. He repeats it perfectly.
