Page 23 of A Very Monstrous Desire

So similar.

And yet not.

Theo huffed out a breath against the winter cold. His army jumper had been replaced with a jacket the monster had given him from a store beneath the platform bed, and if Theo wasn’t mistaken it seemed to respond to the change in temperature around him, heating and cooling him as needed. It had also moulded itself to Theo’s size which he was thankful for as he would have looked quite ridiculous wearing something designed for the monster.

The monster…

“What’s your name?” he asked as he looked across at the man(?) who just a handful of hours earlier had stroked Theo’s cock. Theo had tried not to dwell on that too much since then but given the entirety of his monster-on-human sexual experience centred on one monster and one monster only, Theo was unsurprised that it refused to leave his thoughts!

“We do not have names in the same way you do,” the monster said. “But you can call me Baku.”

“A being that devours nightmares,” Theo said slowly, and Baku tilted his head in obvious surprise.

“The name is taken from your Japanese folklore.”

“I know,” Theo said.

Baku seemed to…not smile exactly…but there was something almost like approval in his expression now. “You are well educated,” he said.

Theo nodded in response, seeing no reason at all to let Baku know that his knowledge of Japanese folklore was almost exclusively tied to a board game that he’d spent a year playing obsessively. Let his monster think he knew more about the world than he really did!

His monster… Theo was thinking of him in that way now, which was both ridiculous and unexpected. Ridiculous because this time yesterday Theo had been setting off to confront a contingent of munching monsters completely unaware monsters like Baku existed, and unexpected because Theo was a cautious kind of guy, and it was rare that he experienced instant attraction.

There was instant attraction now.

Theo had accepted that even before they left the cave because as well as being cautious, and slightly neurotic, Theo was also pragmatic. He knew what he felt. He might not like it, but he acknowledged it.

“Come,” Baku said, and he turned and began to walk through the wriggling grass.

Theo looked down. It wasn’t the grass that was wiggling but what looked like thousands of tiny, pulsing, blue maggots. Delightful!

“We’re going in the opposite direction to yesterday?” he asked as he picked up the same pace as Baku, which was challenging, as there was quite a difference in their stride. But once again, just like last night, when he didn’t quite keep up, Baku adjusted and waited for him, making sure they were walking together, and Theo was within seizing distance. Yesterday Theo might have thought that was because the monster was scared Theo would run…today he was not so sure…

“How do you know that?” Baku asked as they walked side by side.

Theo gestured behind them to where the forest had been. “I run a lot.”

“Why? Do you get chased regularly?”

“No. I do it for fun.”

“For enjoyment?” Baku asked.

“Yeah.”

The monster looked across at Theo. He was wearing the same sort of jacket but on him it was really moulded. He was ripped, there was no other word for it. Ripped men were absolutely Theo’s weakness.

“But you do not fuck for…fun,” the monster asked after a moment and Theo tore his eyes away. It was better not to think about how attractive the monster was, especially considering he wasn’t even human!

Theo must remember that!

It was surely quite an important fact!

“So…the direction we’re heading…” Theo began instead, choosing to ignore the monster’s words entirely. “If this is a mirror of my world the coast is that way, beyond the forest, but we’re not going that way at all even though the munching monsters are down there.”

“We will have to enter the forest eventually,” Baku said. “But the less of the forest we go through the better. I am taking us a longer way around which will leave us only the very edge of the forest to walk through.” He paused and looked around. “We must get there before dark. It is dangerous enough to be so close to the forest during the day but to do so at night…”

“It’s winter here as well?”

---