Page 44 of Changeling
JimandSashabothhelped bring in their things, seemingly enjoying how much stronger they both were. After they were settled, Sasha sat down on the edge of one of the beds, looking rather out of place, and Jim jumped up in front of Nathan.
“I like Ula!” Jim announced. “She’s not like other people.”
Nathan chuckled at the comment. “Ya got that right.”
“Hey, umm…Nathan?” Jim asked, suddenly sounding almost as unsure of himself as Sasha, as his bouncing came to a stop.
“Yeah, pal, what is it?”
Jim leaned real close to Nathan’s ear, like he was sharing the deepest secret, and said, “I gotta go to the bathroom.”
There wasn’t enough alcohol or patience in theworld. “So go,” Nathan said. “You’re toilet trained. You know what you’re doing. It’s right over there.” Nathan pointed to the bathroom. The door was open so it was obvious what the little room was.
Jim nodded and headed off immediately.
Nathan called after him, “And wash your hands!” realizing as he did so how much he sounded like a watchful mother.
Then Nathan was alone with Sasha and he took small comfort in that. His main priority had to be making sure that Sasha was okay. Half the time, Nathan still worried he might say or do something to make his friend bolt.
“How you doing, bab—” Nathan literally bit his tongue, “buddy,” he amended, hoping Sasha hadn’t noticed his slip. “You holding up okay? I know this is weird, but you’re not having any doubts about trusting us anymore, are you? Jim didn’t scare you in the car or anything?” Nathan grinned as he crouched down in front of Sasha.
“No,” Sasha said, with that same small voice. His eyes were downcast, just barely peeking up at Nathan as he sat on the bed. “It’s just…I-I’m not…I’m not u-used to…” Sasha scowled at his inability to say what he wanted. Finally, he gave a very large child-like huff, leaned forward off the bed to get closer to Nathan, and said, “You feel really loud.”
Nathan blinked. “Ifeelreally…” He trailed then couldn’t help grinning as he realized what Sasha meant. “My emotions. You’re not used to being able to feel them from people as strong as you can now. Right?”
Sasha nodded.
“Well, I’m sorry for being loud,” Nathan said with a smile. “I kinda do everything loud. Bet Jim’s not much better, huh? But you gotta know then from what you can feel from us just how much we care about you. We couldn’t fake that.”
Again, Sasha nodded, which was why Nathan didn’t really understand why the incubus was still being so timid.
“There something else?” Nathan pressed, softly to make Sasha feel more comfortable.
Another nod, but Sasha didn’t immediately say anything. The incubus actually looked embarrassed, and when he finally spokeagain, his voice was so soft and quiet that Nathan had to strain to catch what Sasha said. “I can…see them on you. The…pheromones.” Just as ‘incubus’ had come out sounding kind of funny, ‘pheromones’ sounded more like ‘fair-moans’.
Nathan's initial assumption had definitely been correct: Jim and Sasha’s bodies still contained all the same abilities, it was just their minds that had been stunted. Nathan tried to remain calm after learning that. “Right,” he said slowly, “and you…know what that means?”
Sasha nodded once more. His eyes looked so big and wide, perfectly reflecting the child inside of him. “You’re not…mad?” he questioned.
“Mad?”
“Aren’t you mad that I-I’m…feeding from you?”
God. Nathan just wanted to hug the poor kid. “Sasha, I couldn’t be mad about that. It’s not like you’re sneaking into my bed while I’m sleeping. It’s…it’s a mutual decision.”
Sasha tilted his head.
“It means we both know about it and we’re both okay with it. We…both want it,” Nathan explained, feeling sort of weird discussing this with someone mentally so young. But then Sasha was an incubus, so of course he knew some of this stuff already. It was part of his very makeup, even if he wouldn’t need to feed from sex until he was sixteen. Nathan had a pretty good idea that Sasha probably didn’t know all of the details involved in sex yet anyway.
Still, he reassured his friend by saying, “You don’t have to worry. You’re, uhh…pretty freshly fed. You won’t need to even think about it. I’ll have you back to normal long before then.”
At last, Sasha looked relieved and soothed enough that Nathan saw the incubus’ shoulders relax. He smiled and it was much realer than any of the smiles Nathan had seen from him so far. “Okay, Nathan. Thank you. You’re really nice.”
Nathan chuckled. “Thanks. But, uhh…would you mind keeping this whole pheromone, you’re feeding from me thing a secret from Jim? I don’t think he’d understand. Seems you didn’t tell him what an incubus is anyway, right?”
Sasha sat up straighter. “No. I told him. You said it was okay.”
Hearing Sasha sound all worried again made Nathan speak up quickly. “Idid. I did say it was okay. You’re not in trouble,” Nathan assured him, placing both hands on Sasha’s knees since he was still crouched in front of the bed. “Just, umm…what exactly did you tell him?”
