Page 38 of His Theo

Yeah, having a backup plan for people who’d just moved to a new planet wouldn’t be a bad thing. Most of them had adapted well and merged into society quickly, but that was probably because they were wicked smart and had an innate drive to be the best.

“That’s important. I started to worry when I realized I didn’t know where you were living or what you were doing.” Of course, it should’ve occurred to me to worry sooner, but he was distracting.

And he’d started scrambling my brains again just by petting my head.

“You are a very thoughtful boy, my Theo.” His expression was a mix of pleasure and pride, and for a moment, I felt like a puppy who’d made his owner happy.

It shouldn’t have made me hard, but it did.

“Thank you, Master.” The gentle petting helped me calm down as I weaved my way through the downtown traffic and headed toward my apartment. That was probably his goal, but that just meant I’d made him even happier.

“I am supposed to ask what plans, appointments, or customs you must participate in this evening before we transition back to being Master and submissive.” I loved it when he used his new education, but part of it was interesting.

“Customs?” I wasn’t sure if it was the right word or not, so I decided to poke at it a bit.

“Yes. They can be religious or sectional in nature. No. Secular in nature and are considered to be of high importance by their participants. Examples are Christmas, which is the natal celebration of a deity, or ritual music where participants travel to follow specific icons. The Deadheads are one example.”

The way he enunciated Deadheads made me want to laugh, but based on his definition, he wasn’t exactly wrong.

But man, his Intro to Humans class must’ve been fascinating.

“I don’t have any customs you need to be aware of. I’m not that religious and I don’t have secular ones that you need to know about. I’m more of a casual Christmas guy, so nothing to worry about there, either.” Some of it was fun but putting up a tree and that kind of stuff just for myself was a pain in the ass.

“That is good to know. I would have adapted had that not been the case, however.” He looked overconfident about that so I found myself curious.

“Yeah? Has that happened?” I couldn’t remember seeing anyone at the dinner who’d looked religious in an obvious way, but I wasn’t stupid enough to think it was always something people announced.

“Yes. There have been several bondings with couples where the human has religious observations that must be kept. Some of your cultures have very strict rules on food consumption.” Jerker said it like it was just another fascinating human tidbit, but part of me was nosy and wanted to know more about how that must’ve gone over in the beginning.

Thankfully Jerker saved me from being rude as he kept chatting. “My list of meals is not extensive enough for religious observers.”

Making a thinking sound that was probably about the word observers, he gave up thinking about word choices after a few seconds. “Caretakers of human submissives must learn to provide them with sufficient nutrients.”

Before I could protest that a lot of Doms didn’t cook, he glanced over at me. “Human submissives only give themselves adequate nutrition thirty-seven percent of the time.”

The number couldn’t be that low.

Wait.

They had statistics on that?

What was I saying…of course they had statistics.

“Well, that’s a startlingly low number.” I wasn’t going to argue about it, though. “I…I’m not sure where I fall on that statistic but…but thank you for making sure you could take care of me.”

Yep, there was no point in being a brat about that.

I had a feeling he’d make me list out what I’d been eating on a regular basis if I did…and that would be a bad thing.

“Humans require extensive caretaking due to your physical and technological development. The knowledge that must be gained before we are ready to find our own submissive human is far-reaching.” Something about Jerker’s tone said there really was a checklist of skills they were handing out before they were encouraging his people to go out and find a sub.

That made the comments about that other guy not being ready make much more sense.

He needed to work on his to-do list more before he got a sub.

Not sure if that was funny or just part of life now, I nodded slowly. “I can see it being a big adjustment.”

There was no point in pushing to defend the idea that a sub could take care of themselves without a Dom because Nicholas and I used to talk about our favorite Pop-Tart flavors on a regular basis. He was sure that chocolate was only for desserts and I thought he was crazy.

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