Page 43 of Horns & Heart
I glanced at him.“Well, that’s good to know, I guess.”
I wondered what expectations those would be.I hadn’t been here that long, but even I could tell they did relationships differently, what with wrist sniffing being risqué.
“You were joking just now, yes?When you said how you would enjoy an anatomy lesson?”Lissir asked.
I cleared my throat and headed into Inkiri’s room with Lissir still trailing behind me, then I realized I’d left my clothes in the bathroom.Before I could curse myself for that, my gaze fell on a folded bundle on the bed: the clothes I’d stripped out of yesterday.The cat socks were on top.
My throat was suddenly tight with emotion.“Yeah.Sorry, I can be a sarcastic b-word sometimes.”Cat had always called me that, only she used to say “bitch”.I really missed her.I picked up the clothes bundle.They smelled of detergent.“Did Ink wash these for me?”
Lissir clicked.“Fellisse and he ran the laundry yesterday, yes.Or they ran the washing machine.So much smaller than what we have back home.You seem surprised.Do you not enjoy wearing clean clothes?”
I ran a hand over the cat socks.I really loved those socks.“Of course I enjoy it.It’s just…I didn’t expect them to do that.”
Lissir looked around the room and found my friendship bracelet from yesterday.
“Your wrist.”He beckoned for my hand.
I moved the clothes to my other arm and held out my hand for him to take.He put the bracelet on me, pulling the string snug.
“I like you, Rory.You’re not what I expected from some of Vergis’s tales.And Inkiri…well, mate calls don’t equal sympathy.They never did, even when they were common.But he loves you, I think, which means we all want you to be family.Family helps one another out.Especially when it’s laundry, which is a little thing.Do you understand?”
“I guess?”The religious commune had said stuff about all of us being in this together, except they had phrased it differently.A lot differently.They’d mentioned sin in every other sentence.These guys had justdone.“I’ll help out in whatever way I can.”
Lissir tilted his head.“You helped Nokim with his cooking and testing teas and learning more about potatoes.I’m sure all the anatomy and medicine will help too.Inkiri is right when he says you’re frail though.”He squeezed my hand like he had before.“You don’t need to worry about soaking with Fellisse and Nokim.As I said, you’re family, and they don’t expect anything.”
I nodded as if I understood what exactly he meant.This whole entire situation was a bit overwhelming.I’d been more or less dragged—very gently—into the home of these monsters not two days ago, and yet they’d already adopted me.Well, not Vergis, who had casually threatened to murder me if I screwed Inkiri over, which was pretty fair, all things considered.If these guys were Stockholming me, they were doing a damn fine job.
Lissir released my hand with a final squeeze and left me alone to get dressed.
“There’s food downstairs, and maybe you can help me figure out a few of the things I’m missing in my books.I can tell there are jokes in them that I don’t understand.”
“Sure.Caught the manga bug, huh?”
Lissir tilted his head this way and that.“What’s a manga bug?”
“Just a way of saying you got into something, got interested in something, you know?Like Nokim caught the potato pudding bug, you caught the manga bug, and Fellisse caught the café au lait bug.”
Lissir lit up.“Oh!I may have read that phrase before, actually.Inkiri caught the Rory bug.That’s what it means to be cute as a bug.It all makes sense now.”
I looked back at the cat socks on top of my clean, neatly folded clothes.“I guess it does.”
