Chapter 9
Chapter nine
Dry clothes and a hot cup of tea could cure a lot of ills.
A hot shower worked wonders as well, and Morgan wasn’t shy about running the generator when it came to getting both him and Ty comfortable after the boat wreck and subsequent—well, surprise was maybe the kindest way he could put it right now.
Ty seemed alright; he’d already assured Morgan that he wasn’t badly injured. But once he emerged from the bathroom, his hair damp and a trickle of blood running down the cut on his forehead, Morgan took things into his own hands.
“Come here,” he said, pointing at the chair by the kitchen table. “Let me take care of that.”
“Take care of what?” Ty asked.
“Your head,” Morgan said through gritted teeth.
“No, it’s—” Ty reached up and felt his forehead, then frowned at the blood on his fingers. “Hmm. I’m sorry about that,” he said.
“You don’t have to be sorry,” Morgan said. “You just have to sit and let me take care of it.”
“I really don’t think—”
“Ty.” Morgan poured every ounce of desperation, hurt, and need into that one word, hoping it sent the message that he couldn’t quite bring himself to say out loud.
It worked. Ty sat down without another word, and Morgan went to work cleaning and bandaging the cut on his forehead. “Where else?” he asked.
“Mmm?”
“Where else are you injured?” he clarified. “The way you were flinching, I know that sea lion must have gotten you a couple times.”
“Oh.” Ty bit his lower lip, and as Morgan watched, a bright, familiar red color flushed over his face and vanished just as quickly.
It made so much sense now … if any of this made sense at all.
“Ah, he did bite me a few times,” Ty allowed, “but it’s fine.
I just removed one of my arms, and that distracted him long enough for us to get out of the water. ”
Morgan stared at him. “You did what?”
“I took off one of my arms,” Ty said. “I can do that without hurting myself,” he added as Morgan’s jaw dropped even further.
“Really, it’s all right. Look.” He lifted up the sweater and patted down low on his hip.
He revealed a patch of slightly raw-looking skin but no blood and no hint that it was causing him pain.
“I promise it’s all right,” Ty said with a little smile.
“It will grow back soon; I regenerate quickly.”
“Do you?” Morgan asked faintly. “Really, huh. Your limbs regenerate quickly. That’s …
that’s great.” He put his head in his hands and took a few deep breaths.
Ty sat perfectly still, but when Morgan looked up again, there was something pleading in Ty’s expression, like he wanted to speak but didn’t know what to say.
“So.” Morgan folded his hands on the table. “You’re an octopus.” Part of him wanted to laugh at the absolute absurdity of that statement, and yet … “Or I guess maybe I’m crazy.”
Ty shook his head. “You’re not crazy. It’s true. I have two forms, this one and the one you saw in the water. I can exist between them for a time, and some traits carry over no matter which form I’m in.”
Morgan nodded gamely. “The color changing.”
“Mmm, and my desire to cling a bit to the people I’m close to when I’m in my other form.” His hands twitched, and Morgan got the impression that it was harder than he knew for Ty to hold himself back right now.
“Phil knew,” Ty added. “He didn’t interact much with my other form, but he was the first person I told after almost fifty years of secrecy.”
Almost fifty years … “How old are you?” Morgan asked.
Ty blinked slowly. “I don’t exactly know,” he said after a moment. “Old by any measure, it feels like. Many of your generations old, innumerable octopus generations old. For most of my life, time wasn’t something I had to concern myself with, not until I had to interact with people more regularly.
“I chose Parrish Island to live on,” he went on, “because it was hard to reach and a place that seemed like a refuge. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t glad to be with people when I was with them.
I just …” He shrugged. “It’s usually been easier to be alone.
Very few people have ever learned the truth about me, and even fewer have been, mmm, close to me. ”
Morgan could only imagine. It made him wonder: so why not stay alone?
“You say you wanted Parrish Island to be a refuge, but it was less of a refuge for you with Phil here, and now with me …” He winced a little as he thought about what an incredible imposition he’d been on Ty over the past few weeks.
“No.” Ty reached out and took Morgan’s hand in both of his.
Another ripple of red flared across his face.
“I like your company,” he insisted. “It’s so much better than being alone.
It was Phil who reminded me that it was nice to have a friend, but you …
” The red deepened for a moment, darkening his cheeks from the bridge of his nose and all down his neck until it vanished into the sweater Morgan had once accidentally stolen from him.
“With you, it’s a different feeling,” Ty said. “One I haven’t had for a long time.”
There were so many questions Morgan wanted to ask. What was a long time? Had Ty felt this way about another human? Had he felt this way about an octopus? How did that even work? Male and female octopuses died shortly after mating, didn’t they? Was it something he even wanted to know?
“I don’t—” he began, then stopped. “This is. Um.”
Ty nodded, staring down at the tabletop. “It’s a lot,” he said. “It’s too much, I’m sure, but.” He shrugged. “It’s how I feel.” His thumb stroked over the back of Morgan’s hand, and because his eyes were still averted, Ty likely had no idea just how strongly his words had hit home.
“I’ve always known what love is,” Ty continued. “I’ve felt it before but never like this. You came into my life so suddenly, but from the moment I first saw you, I felt at ease with you.”
Love? There was no way he meant that. Loving someone else was a long process, drawn-out and tenuous if you weren’t born family.
It had taken Bentley over two years of dating to actually say he thought he was in love.
Perhaps love didn’t mean the same thing to Ty that it did to a regular person.
“Maybe you felt at ease because you were hauling me unconscious out of the ocean,” Morgan said in an effort to lighten the serious turn things had taken.
Ty just shook his head. “No,” he said simply.
“No, but thank goodness I did. To see you and lose you in the same moment would have been too much to bear. And now,” he forged bravely ahead, “although I might still lose you, at least I have ...” He swallowed.
“At least I’ve had the pleasure of your company.
I know the warmth of your spirit and the feel of your body next to mine, and I’ve felt the courage inside your heart. ”
He finally raised his eyes to look directly at Morgan. “You saved my life today. There’s no debt between us, and there never was, but if the thought of possibly imposing on me made you uncomfortable, know that you have repaid me with that act a hundredfold.”
“Not a hundredfold,” Morgan said. After a moment, he turned his hand palm up so he could interlace his fingers with Ty’s. “We saved each other, didn’t we?”
Ty smiled. It was like the clouds parting for a brief moment and letting a beam of sunlight turn the sea into sparkles. “We did.” He paused, then said slowly, “Does knowing who I am make you want to run away?”
Morgan shook his head slowly. He didn’t want to run, and yet … he wasn’t sure how comfortable he was with this situation, with living with someone he didn’t understand. It had been enough of a challenge when he figured Ty was another human being. But now?
What could he make of any of this? What did it mean, to be loved by someone like Ty?
“I don’t want to run away,” Morgan said, “but I’m honestly not sure where to go next. I kind of thought we were—I mean—” He used his free hand to scratch the back of his neck awkwardly. “When we were on the couch before, and you touched me, and I, you know, kind of, um …”
“Released your seed,” Ty supplied.
Now it was Morgan’s turn to have a red face. “Yeah, you could call it that.”
“Do you prefer orgasmed?”
“I prefer not to refer to it in quite such clinical terms,” Morgan said, “or honestly at all. It’s …
well, sex is a complex topic for a lot of humans.
It’s a little taboo, and I can genuinely state that I’ve never even approached this level of taboo with anything I’ve done before.
” Complete understatement. “I mean, you’re not human. Do you actually want me like that?”
Ty smiled. “I’m human enough. As for whether or not I want you, would you like to find out?”
Hell, yes. He wanted nothing more than to pull Ty right back down with him on the couch and pick up where they’d left off, but …
“Maybe in the bed this time,” he suggested, and Ty smiled brightly.
“Take me there,” he said. His eyes were shining, shining for Morgan because he—no.
Morgan wasn’t ready to think about love.
He could barely face talking to the family he loved without feeling like he might not really deserve their affection.
There was no way he could confront the same emotions coming from someone he was so enamored with, who’d been stuck with him for so long.
How much of what Ty felt was just proximity?
Probably more than Morgan wanted to admit.
“Come on.” He took Ty by the hand and pulled him up to the bedroom. Rather than laying him down on the bed immediately, Morgan held Ty at arm’s length, inspecting him for more bruises, gashes, or cuts.
Ty gently covered both of Morgan’s hands. “I’m all right,” he assured him. “I heal very quickly.”
“I just have to make sure,” Morgan said.