Page 28 of Ryld's Shadows
Kai thought back to how Hank had looked at Ryld. How patient he had been. How…kind wasn’t even the right word.Understanding. “I’m not sure it would make a great deal of difference to Hank to know. Except perhaps to make him angry with Ryld’s creators and his captors. However, as they say, knowledge is power. Perhaps it’s best to arm him with all we can.”
Tenzin gathered him close and let him simply snuggle into his fur until Kai stopped shaking. Hank wasn’t the only one with instinctive understandings.
* * * *
Hank greeted Ryld’s declaration that he wanted to stay in and watch a movie with enormous relief. Not that he minded going out, but he didn’t do it often and he was drained from the day’s excitement. From the, well, all the excitements of the past couple of weeks.
Fine. He was tired. He hoped he could stay awake for a movie, but if he couldn’t, he didn’t have to go anywhere.
“What kind of movie do you want?” Hank asked as he brought up the channel options. “Any idea?”
“I’ve watched movies about elephants, bears, snakes, dingoes… I liked the one about weasels the best. They’re very fast.”
“They’re cute little guys.” Hank scrolled through some of the documentaries. “Here’s one about gray whales? How about that?”
“Yes. Do you like popcorn?”
“Yes, please.” Hank shot him a grin. “That’ll make it like a proper movie night.”
Watching Ryld make food was an interesting process. If what he was making contained more than three ingredients, he checked the recipe. He set dials on the stove with surgical precision and measured everything to the exact drop. Popcorn, however, was only two ingredients to make, so no checking necessary. Either that, or Ryld just remembered the measurements he’d used from the last time.
Soon they had a huge plastic bowl filled with buttery popcorn, and then Ryld surprised him.
“This is very good on popcorn.” He held up a small jar of cayenne pepper. “Goblins like hot things sometimes. Do you like this?”
It was hard not to shout,fuck yes, but Hank managed a mostly calm, “Yes. Very much.” He didn’t even drool noticeably.
Once they were on the couch with the bowl between them Hank hit play and got comfortable. A few minutes in and Hank’s eyelids were already starting to droop.
“Sometimes this doesn’t seem real,” Ryld said.
“Hmm?” Hank dragged himself back to the waking world. “What doesn’t seem real?”
“This.” Ryld gestured with a hand that seemed to encompass the room in general. “This world. All of the things in it. All of the people. Maybe I am sitting somewhere else, watching this world like we’re watching the whales.”
“I think we all feel like that some days. The…well, they call it dislocation. But, yeah, I’ve had that feeling, too. That I’ll go to sleep in this world and wake up back home, because it had to be a weird dream.”
“I would be…it would make me unhappy, if you were no longer a part of this dream, if this is a dream.”
Ryld reached his hand out slowly and put his hand in Hank’s. “I’m glad you’re my friend, Hank.”
“I’m glad you’re my friend too, Ryld.” It was becoming a common refrain. Ryld didn’t seem to be doing it for confirmation, or at least not only for confirmation.
“Friends sometimes have sex.”
Well. Now I’m awake. “Um, sure.” Hank knew he should be pulling back. Fast. That he should be saying no. A firm and swift no. But there was a hopeful wariness in Ryld’s eyes, and he couldn’t seem to get himself to move or let go of Ryld’s hand. “Sometimes that’s true.”
It wasn’t that he wasn’t attracted. Entirely the opposite. He found Ryld achingly beautiful, his lovely sharp features, his astounding blue eyes and silver hair, the slender grace of him. So beautiful Hank had to look away sometimes. But sex could complicate friendships and it sure as hell could complicate work relationships.
“Ryld, I… I don’t want us to… I don’t want sex to change anything.”
“What would it change?”
“You might… I don’t know. Sometimes people feel differently afterward. Sometimes things don’t work. Feelings get hurt. I’m supposed to be here to look out for you. What if…what if people find out and think I’m taking advantage of you?”What if you see me naked and you hate what you see? Goddess.
“I understand. Sometimes I hurt people’s feelings with no sex involved at all.”
“Ryld. I’m more concerned withyourfeelings. Mine are pretty hard to hurt.” Hank lifted Ryld’s hand running his thumb along the back, tracing the delicate veins there. “I’m not suave or talented in bed or even terribly comfortable sometimes. It…I can’t just jump in bed with someone.”
