Five
Diego
Finding the 'monster' that used to live under my bed and was once upon a time my best friend again, and then discovering he's my soulmate was a big deal.
Like change-your-whole-life big. And yet, on Monday, I went to school like usual, taught my kids like usual, and the longer I spent following my routine, the more the weekend started to feel like an extremely realistic dream.
I knew it was real—I knew I hadn't imagined the whole thing—but it was still so hard to believe.
I'd kissed him. I'd kissed Shade, and he'd kissed me back.
When he'd said I was his soulmate, the person that was most important to him in the whole world? I'd just reacted.
I knew I'd rushed things. We'd just met after more than a decade apart. I wasn't the same person I'd been the last time Shade saw me .
What if we got to know each other and Shade didn't like me?
He'd seemed a little hung up on my blindness. It wasn't the first time that'd happened, but I would be heartbroken if Shade changed his mind because of it.
While I'd given him that whole speech about accepting my blindness, I knew I would kill to be able to see him again.
But I also knew that wasting time wishing I could was useless, and I'd already done quite a lot of that over the years.
I supposed I shouldn't expect Shade to be okay with it when it'd taken me a while to do the same.
"Diego? Hello?"
I jumped, then turned my head toward the voice of my coworker, Jess. She also taught third grade, and was my only friend at work, mostly because we spent a lot of time together.
"Hey, Jess," I greeted as I heard her take a seat across from me. I'd been in the middle of my lunch in the teacher's room when I got lost in thought, and I made myself take another bite as I felt Jess's gaze on me.
"You were deep in thought. Thinking about something special?"
I chewed furiously, shrugging my shoulders. It wasn't like I could tell her about Shade. What if she asked to meet him? What would I say? "Sorry, my partner is a shadow-being who can't come out in light." She'd think I was making shit up, and I'd look pathetic.
"Some one special?" she pushed, and I wondered if she wasn't all human. She made strangely accurate guesses.
"There's no one. I was just thinking about this week's lesson plan. Then I remembered I left my notes at home, and I was praying Pixie stays far away from them, because she chewed on them last time and I couldn't read them at all. "
All of this had happened before, so I was hoping Jess wouldn't think I was lying. My cat, Pixie, did tend to chew on any piece of paper she could find, and she'd more than once messed up my notes.
"Mm-hmm," was all Jess said, but she didn't push, and we ate our lunches in companionable silence before returning to our classes.
The rest of the day went by in a blur of answering questions and talking with my kids—my favorite part of the job—and by the time I went home, I was utterly exhausted.
I ditched my keys and wallet in their usual spot near the door, then leaned my cane against the wall before taking off my shoes and heading deeper into the apartment.
Pixie meowed loudly as she raced over to me, something she'd learned to do after the first few times I'd tripped over her when she came to greet me silently.
I'd tried putting a bell on her collar, but she hated those things for some reason and would refuse to move anytime I put one on.
In the end, we'd come to a compromise: I wouldn't put bells on her if she agreed to always verbally greet me first before body-checking my legs. So far, it was working for us.
Leaning down, I picked her up, nuzzling her soft fur. The pet shelter had told me her fur was gray and white, but I'd mainly picked her because of her loud purrs and long fur. She was a great cuddle-buddy, and I loved holding her fluffy body.
"Hey, Pixie. Did you miss me?"
She started purring, and I grinned, then smacked a kiss on her face, falling just shy of her nose and hitting her eye instead. Thankfully, she'd closed it before my lips hit, but she still gave me a smack on my cheek for my folly.
"Sorry, sorry," I murmured, then placed her back on the ground .
I made my way to my bedroom, grabbing some comfy clothes to change into after my shower. Then, I'd make myself some dinner and put on an audiobook while I ate and try not to think about Shade.
As I was about to head into the bathroom, Pixie gave a loud yowl, a sound I'd never heard her make. I turned around, almost tripping over my own feet in my haste.
"What's wrong?"
When she kept making that scary noise, I slowly approached her, squinting at her in a desperate attempt to see something more than a blob of darkness against the pale floor.
I'd liked this place because of the off-white carpets, because in full light, I could at least see the darkened blobs of stuff against it and avoid tripping or hurting myself too much.
It looked like Pixie was smacking something at the edge of the bed, but when I leaned down and carefully touched the spot, there was nothing there.
It was still darker than the other areas, though.
It took me a moment to puzzle out that it was the bed's shadow, and another to figure out why Pixie was reacting the way she was.
"Shade? Are you in there?"
I didn't think he could reply even if he was.
He'd never been able to talk to me unless he was in a completely dark area—like under my bed—and could come out of the shadow he was hiding in.
Instead, I felt something brush against my fingers, soft tendrils like I'd felt yesterday when his shadows had enveloped me.
It really was him, and he was here. Had he come to see me? How had he even found me ?
Shade
I'd spent the whole day debating with myself over whether or not I should give Diego some space to deal with everything I'd told him.
Yes, he'd kissed me when I'd told him we were mates, but he could change his mind once he'd had some time to think, and if he had, I needed to respect that, no matter how much I needed him back in my life.
Of course, in the end, I'd found myself searching for the shadows that I now knew were looking after him, and once I'd found them, I'd used my shadow travel to go to them, to go to Diego .
I'd stayed with him as he took the bus home, then followed him inside. I'd watched him cuddle his cat, appreciated the delight on his face when she started purring, and then followed him all the way to his bedroom.
When he started heading toward his shower, though, I'd pulled back, moving to the shadow of his bed. The first time I saw him naked would be when he wanted me to, not like this.
Of course, his cat somehow noticed my presence once she wasn't distracted by him anymore—cats tended to be highly aware of me, for some reason—which pulled his attention to me as well.
I couldn't not tell him I wasn't there, and since I couldn't speak, I extended some of my shadows up to greet him, glad he was leaning over so his body shielded my shadows from direct light.
"It's really you. You're here!" Diego exclaimed, and a wide grin spread across his lips.
Shooting to his feet, he carefully made his way to the windows and pulled the blinds closed, then shut the bathroom door and flipped the lights off, dousing the room in almost complete darkness.
There was still some light sneaking in from under the blinds, but I could easily avoid it if I stayed on this side of the bed.
I imagined there would be more light if the sun hadn't set, but for now, I was safe, and I didn't waste a moment before rising out of the shadow.
"Diego?"
"It worked," he said, then grinned as he stepped closer to me. I wrapped my arms around him, and he immediately snuggled in. I breathed him in, smelling sweat, Diego, and, strangely enough, ketchup?
"Oof, I must stink," he said, trying to pull back as if he'd just remembered he'd been on his way to the shower. I held on, not letting him go,
"You smell just fine," I assured him with a chuckle. "Though I am curious about the ketchup."
Diego groaned, then smacked his forehead against my shoulder as if it was somehow my fault.
"A student had one of those little ketchup packets you get with your fries, and he needed help tearing it open. I tore it a little too much and spilled some on my shirt."
I pulled back to peer at his shirt, and there was a spot of faded red on his stomach. "Ah, there it is."
"Does it look bad? Jess kept insisting it was fine, but her voice said she was lying," Diego grumbled, making me chuckle. He looked so cute with his nose all scrunched up like that.
"It's not good, but I'm sure it will wash off."
"I hope so," he mumbled, then hugged me again. "Are you going to stay?"
"If you'd like me to," I said, and he squeezed me tighter.
"If it were up to me, I'd never let you leave," he confessed, and my shadows clung tighter to him in reaction because I felt the same .
"It is up to you, Diego."
He pulled back, tilting his head up. "You mean it?"
"I do. Last time, I made the decision to leave, and I've regretted it every day since. I have a second chance now, and I'm not going to waste it."
Diego smiled widely, then leaned up to press a chaste kiss on my lips before moving back and stepping out of my hold.
"First, I'm going to take a shower. Why don't you try to make friends with Pixie while I'm gone? Then I can make us some dinner and we can eat in bed."
I glanced at the cat who'd been eyeing me warily from her perch on the other side of the bed, and felt like my chances weren't good.
But she was Diego's cat, and he clearly loved her, which meant that when he moved in with me, she'd come with him too.
It would be best if I won her over before that happened.
"Okay," I agreed, and Diego smiled, then patted the bed until he found the clothes he'd dropped there when his cat started making dying sounds. I ducked into the shadows when he flicked the switch and opened the bathroom door, spilling light out into the bedroom.
"Sorry!" he called out, then quickly closed the door. There was still some light seeping out from under the door, so I moved to the other side of the bed before stepping out of the shadows again.
Diego's bed separated the two sides of his room.
On the other side was the bathroom door and the window, along with a desk with what looked like a typewriter on it.
There was also a stack of thick paper beside it, but there was a shaft of light on it from the space between the blinds, so I didn't go closer to examine it .
Instead, I focused on this side of the room, which had a comfortable-looking beanbag chair covered in a soft blanket, and a bookshelf.
I stepped closer to the bookshelf, eyeing the thick books filling it from top to bottom.
I took a book out, paging through it and running my fingers over the raised dots.
Even though I lived in complete darkness, it was the norm for me, and my eyes were therefore able to see in it, while I struggled to see if it was too bright.
Well, I struggled to live if it was too bright, so seeing wasn't really a priority at that point.
But Diego couldn't see, and yet he'd still built a life for himself. He had a job he clearly loved, he had hobbies, he had a pet who clearly loved him. He wasn't lacking for anything, just like he'd tried to tell me yesterday.
Putting the book back on the shelf, I turned to the bed and eyed the cat, whose gaze roamed over me right back, as if she was trying to decide if I was friend or foe.
My eyes slid to the nightstand, and I noticed the small box of treats.
Picking it up, I poured a few onto my palm, then picked one up and held it out to her.
She eyed me warily, so I placed the treat on the nightstand, and she jumped right on it, quickly eating it up.
I held out the second treat, this time determined to get her to eat from my hand. Befriending her was an important part of winning Diego's heart, and I wasn't going to fail.