Page 14 of Hummingbird and Kraken

“Ooh! Tentacles!” Declan lifted the tip of his tentacle and turned it in one hand, exposing the suction cups on the bottom and the smoother top. Geir let him manipulate it, amused. “I can’t believe how soft it feels! I kind of like the slime. But don’t you get dried out? Like, does the slime all evaporate? Or get all over everything?”

“I don’t usually shift half-way like this.”

“You should do it all the time. Hang on, are there other kinds of animal-people? Like werewolves?”

“There…” He almost mentioned his neighbors, but that wasn’t his information to disclose. “No, that’s not my story.”

Declan rolled his eyes. “You’re no fun at all. How about aliens. Are there aliens?”

Geir gave him an incredulous look. “You mean people from other planets?”

Declan nodded.

“Not to my knowledge.”

Declan sighed dramatically. He was stroking along Geir’s tentacle now, running two fingers between the rows of suckers at the tip. Geir felt himself growing hard. And since there still weren’t any clothes between them, there was no way Declan couldn’t feel it pressing against his hip.

“Oh my God. How do you change color like that?”

Geir couldn’t remember the last time he’d tried to explain it. Maybe never. “I… I don’t really know. Sometimes I can control it,” he made his tentacles flash red and then blue, “but usually it just happens without me noticing.”

“It looked like they were matched to what was behind them before, like the color of my skin and the green blanket. But what do black and white stripes mean?”

“That’s, um…” Geir felt his face growing hot.

Declan laughed, that carefree bubbly sound that filled the room with warmth. “It means you’re horny, right?”

Geir grunted. He wasn’t going to admit it.

Declan squirmed in his lap, his intentions clear. “Well, you can put your horny tentacles wherever you want them.”

“I think squids do it to attract their mates,” Geir finally grumbled. “You can see contrasts better under water.”

“Ooh! So are you a squid?”

“I’m a kraken.” He didn’t see the harm in naming himself now. Any damage had already been done.

“Wow. I thought krakens were myths. Though I guess it doesn’t get more mythical than a human who can change into a sea monster. Or are you a sea monster that can change into a human? Wait, is that offensive? How do you identify? I mean, you’re not a monster. I don’t think that at all. I guess I have some stereotypes about krakens, but I promise I’ll learn. Just let me know what language I should use.”

Geir didn’t quite understand all of that, but he’d picked up on one thing. “You don’t think I’m a monster?” Most people saw Geir as a horrifying beast. A nightmare. A freak. To allies in battle, he was a killer, a weapon on their side. To enemies, he was often the last thing they saw.

“I mean, only if you identify that way. But you’re not monstrous, you know. You’re kind and sexy and a little quiet, but I like that about you as long as you don’t mind that I talk too much.”

“You don’t talk too much.” Declan talked a lot, but it was like the fresh flow of a river or a field of flowers bursting into bloom. Geir liked it.

“You’ll get sick of it eventually,” Declan muttered into his chest.

Geir didn’t think that was possible, though it seemed too soon to say so. They’d known each other for less than a day, but everything felt right. Declan was his last ray of sun. He tightened his tentacles and pulled Declan in closer, eliciting a happy sigh of relaxation.

He ran a human hand down Declan’s chest. The round welts from his suckers were darker than before, like he’d burst the capillaries under Declan’s skin. “I’m hurting you.” He traced his finger over one larger red circle that overlapped a few smaller ones. Some of the welts had a small, neat crescent moon of scratches along one side.

Declan looked up at him under lidded eyes. “You’re not hurting me. You’re claiming me. I want to be covered in your marks all the time.”

Geir sucked in a breath. He couldn’t think of anything he wanted more. Declan, perpetually covered with round, red marks that proclaimed him his.

Without a second thought, he wrapped his tentacles and arms around Declan, covering his torso and arms and pulling him tighter in.

“That’s right,” Declan breathed. “Like that.” His breaths were coming faster, and he whimpered as Geir let the teeth embedded in his suckers bite into him. He would need to be careful not to do this too much, too often. Or at least to take care of Declan’s skin afterward.