Episode 149: Gloves (Spaden)

Delaney Lefavre was moving into his house. Delaney was the hottest, smartest, quietest girl in school. Delaney was …. Right there.

“So, you’re moving?” he asked, because he still was sorting the details out and he wasn’t sure what else to say to her aside from how has your one week of summer been (which he guessed hadn’t gone that well since she was moving to a new realm without family, and there had been no warning) or what have you been up to (see the last question). She probably hadn’t seen outside to ask what the weather was like, but that could have been a valid question otherwise.

So he stuck with his simple question, and waited while she tucked back her blonde hair that had a wave to it. “Yes. I think so.”

Delaney was one of the most enticing people he had met. He’d had a crush on her for years, a year, however long he’d known her. A lifetime, if no one was counting.

“Cool,” he replied. “Maybe we can hang out. If you like hanging out.”

“Hang out?” she laughed, and he felt bad for not laughing too but he wasn’t sure why it was funny. “Okay, we can hang out.”

She picked up her bags and started walking further into the apartment, the place she was moving to. He took a heavy looking duffel from her before she could settle it onto her shoulder. “Here, let me put this somewhere.”

He couldn’t remember if they had spare rooms. He could just sleep on the couch. He started to lead her toward the right, where the hallway opened up toward the kids’ rooms within their apartment.

“Can I get you some lemonade? Soup?” he asked. His mom made soup when someone had a bad day. Maybe he could figure out how to make soup.

“I just ate,” she replied. “Thanks though.”

He was out of questions. If they were in school he could ask her something, like about a book he saw her reading. But who was he kidding – he didn’t talk to Delaney. She was that girl that you looked at, like something fragile at a museum.

Not that she was fragile, just… special. She was good at magic, naturally talented as some teachers liked to point out, even if she didn’t use her magic that often.

She did. Just. She wasn’t a show off. She was subtle and quiet. He’d thought that already. Maybe he was the quiet one.

“Why are you moving here?” he asked, in desperation to figure out how to talk to her. She was moving in.

He opened his bedroom door. He wished the walk was longer. It wasn’t, so he walked in and set her bag in. “So this is my room, but you can have it until we figure out where I will go.”

Had he even let her answer the previous question? Was she avoiding it. Was she upset? He had no idea what to do so he sat on his bed, except he tripped on Cora who had decided to also be in his room and planted his face on his bed. He sorted out his clothes as he turned to face her, and tried to make it look like that didn’t suck. He smiled, instead, which probably looked stupid. At least she didn’t laugh. She was too busy looking around the room.

He’d never given much thought to how his room looked, it was just a place to keep things he needed to keep. Maybe it needed a change. I mean, if he was giving his room to her it was going to change, but his next room….

“Hi,” she said.

“Hi. So what kind of things do you like?”

“Books, reading, knowing things. You?”

“I like you too,” he said. She turned bright pink. “I like books,” he listed quickly Not to copy her, but because he had a ton of books in his room so it was clearly a passion. “I think,” he added, just in case he was wrong.

Why couldn’t he think?

“Movies, video games….”

She sat beside him and looked around his room, probably amused that he got his entire list from things he could see.

He had to like something more than just the things he had in his room.

The next thing he knew, instead of talking more, he could really see her. Her hair and her eyes were so close to him, and then his lips were warm and tingly and everything in him felt somewhere between lopsided and normal.

He kissed her back. He tasted her lips and then he felt her tongue against his and the bed against his back, then her hands were slipping up his shirt and touching his waistband and he knew he needed to be less dressed because everything felt too constricted.

He pushed against her so he’d have some space to unbutton them, then slid his hands against the back of her, skin filling each palm.

A deep voice cleared itself. The two of them froze.“Spaden, can I have a hand in the office?”

“Yeah,” he said against her lips. He pulled his hands out from her flowy pants…skirt? Maybe it was just her underwear and that’s why her skin was so easy to find. His hands felt cold without her. He looked at her, and her hot pink skin.

Wow.

It was all he could think, there was just nothing else there. He kept looking at her as he left the room, and he didn’t want to go. But it was his dad.

Spaden tripped over Cora again. His pants fell as he did and he struggled to get up. This time, Delaney giggled in the background. Spaden laughed too, and his dad’s face looked pained with his effort not to respond. Cora stood, so his legs fell off her back, and then his dad offered Spaden a hand. He pulled his pants up, making sure to push himself down so nothing showed (that obviously) and stood.

Cora nudged him toward the door and Delaney laughed again. He left the wooden door that framed and followed his dad down the hall toward purgatory and painting.

“Have you asked her if she’s on tea?” his dad asked.

“I….” Tea. That was a good idea. He hadn’t thought of that. Maybe he didn’t have good ideas anymore, since he somehow was here with his dad talking about sex. He hadn’t even had sex on his radar for things he would do until he was doing it.

“I was going to,” he lied. “Not need it,” he corrected. Not having sex was the right answer here.

“I was going to need it,” he confessed, because lying was useless.

“I think Spence had the same idea,” his mom said from the kitchen.

Spence, the guy who went from nothing to pregnant fiance in ten seconds. This was bad. Cora rubbed her head under his hand.

Spaden looked up at her. When had she found out? Did they have cameras in his room?

Why would they; this was the first time in his existence he could see a justification for them.

Sawyer needed cameras in his room. He caused all kinds of problems, and Spaden was almost certain someday the wall between their rooms was going to melt.

His parents were waiting for a reply. Spaden looked over at the plush white couches that filled the living room area and tried to think of way out of this. Nothing worked for his siblings.

If lying and swindling and debating didn’t work, maybe honesty would wrap this one up. He rocked on his heels. They had brought her here. “So, can you get her some tea?”

His dad laughed and wrapped his arm around his mom. “How about ask her on a date, take her to Babylon and get to know her as a person.”

What was wrong with doing both?

“Yeah, you’re right,” he conceded. “Do you think she likes pasta? I think she would like pasta… except she’s full.”

He’d tried the food thing. Maybe she just wanted sex. Maybe she had already had some tea and he didn’t even have to worry about it.

“It’s a shame she’ll never be hungry again,” his dad said.

“Yeah it really… oh.” Cora nudged him again, trying to help him keep his cool while his idiot took over. He was training to be a doctor, this shouldn’t even be an issue. He just couldn’t think. His mom laughed and his dad kissed her head, which he suspected meant he was laughing again too.

“So, tonight?” he asked. It couldn’t get any worse than all this laughing at him being a mindless idiot stuff.

He made a mental note to sort out something he liked that wasn’t in his room before he saw her again.

“I’ll get you some cash,” his mom said. “I need to talk to Aadya anyway.”

Honesty was working out.

“Thanks,” Spaden said. “And tea?”

“Why don’t you give her a tour of the palace for now?”

The palace had tons of vacant rooms. A tour would be perfect, as long as she had tea first. He was the responsible kid and he would act it.

“Her and….” his dad looked over at a huge leopard. Why was there a huge leopard. Delane had a mouse. Spaden stumbled back, but Cora pushed him so he wouldn’t fall.

He wasn’t afraid of the cat, he was just terrified it existed.

“What is your name,” his dad asked, like this was a social visit.

“Yeah, I can chaperone. Kyori.”

More alarming than her talking was that cat vocal cords were entirely different than human vocal cords. Magical alone wasn’t enough – she was a hybrid. She had to be.

Spaden looked at her again.

Chaperone? Maybe she wasn’t a cool cat.

“Before you go, can Spaden take a few hairs, a nail clipping, and a sample of your blood,” his dad listed off. “For finding your mate?”

The cat growled, and Cora moved ahead of Spaden and made a huge yowling sound. Kyori’s hair stood on end and her back arched, then fell back. As she backed down, Cora did too.

“Sure,” Kyori said.

His dad looked at him. “Welcome to vet school.”

“Hey, I’m Spaden,” he introduced himself. He put his hand out to shake her … paw. Then he rescinded it because that seemed weird.

“How offensive is being pet?” he wondered aloud. Too aloud. Maybe she would maul him. It was just that he pet Jinx all the time; she loved a good ear massage. If Kyori was part human, perhaps she didn’t enjoy that. He would have to be on guard.

“It’s a lot more sexy than being a person.”

“So…,” he said trying to think of the least offensive way to continue talking. He pulled a few hairs out and set them in a bag his dad was holding out for him. “You like when people touch you or is sexy not ideal?” he asked.

Kyori laughed. “I’m a leopard, not a kitten.”

Spaden took a few clippings of her nails. He was almost done and he could go see Laney again. He could tell her that he liked medical stuff. Patient care, with a cat human hybrid, was a cool concept.

He clipped her toes. If he was going to do one, he figured he should do them all, but he wasn’t sure what was insulting so he settled for as many as she didn’t complain about. “And Jinx is a leopard, and I .. nevermind. I just won’t do that stuff to you.” He set her foot down and made sure the clippings had made it. She’d let him clip all her toes, and he hoped his mom would appreciate it. She hated claw marks on the floor or furniture.

Spaden stood. He needed a needle for the blood sample.

“He wants to know if you enjoy having your ears rubbed,” his dad stated. “Like Jinx.”’

Kyori growled as he walked toward the medical office.

“Maybe I’ll just start wearing gloves,” he announced. A barrier would stop him from insulting her with casual rubs.

“Especially around Delaney,” his dad said.

Very funny.

He slipped into the office and found a small bag in a drawer. In that, he put some tea from a cabinet. He tucked that into his back pocket and found a fresh needle and a container to store the blood in. He washed his hands, then grabbed a pair of gloves and slipped them on. He went back to the apartment, and Delaney was there.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hi,” she replied, with a deep blush.

His mom was gone, but his dad was still there and so was his chaperone.

“So,” he began, as he walked toward Kyori. “I’m training with my dad to be a doctor.”

Delaney’s hand found Cora’s head and she started rubbing it.

So the Kyori cat was a liar, or Delaney was privileged. Either way, he doubted she didn’t casually pet Kyori. That was a habit.

Not that it mattered.

He bent down beside Kyori and drew her blood. Once it was distributed he looked to his dad. “Can we go on the tour now?”

His dad took the needle and nodded. “Don’t ditch the cat,” he said.

Delaney was blushing again, so he set aside the humility and took her hand. “We won’t,” he said. He did want to get to know her, and he wanted to know why she was here and not at home. He had tea, but it could wait. He just wanted her right now.

Kyori and Cora followed them, like a weird pair of predators with a truce.

“I’m sorry about whatever happened,” he said. And he was. No matter how excited he was to have her there, to have kissed her (which was a bit beyond amazing), he didn’t want her life to suck. He wasn’t Spence, he would take her to dinner and get to know her and be whatever it was that she needed.

Unless she ditched the cat first.

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