Fourteen
Dustin
To make moving easier—and to cash in some of my vacation days—I'd taken a week off from work, and it was the best decision I could've made. It gave me the chance to unpack and settle in, to make sure Scrappy liked her new home, and to explore the wonderful oasis that was the Sanctuary.
I'd been here for three days now, and I'd gotten a peek at almost all of the areas. Our home turf was obviously the Forest, but I'd also visited the Lakes more than once because it was where Bellamy and his kelpie mate, Alaric, lived. While Bellamy had seemed a little scary at first—what with the scar on his face and his general quiet-dude vibe—five minutes of watching him interact with his mate had dissuaded me of any such notions.
I'd also met some of the other supes, like Jacinta, the genderqueer cecaelia—apparently, all cecaelia had sexual organs of both the male and female type, and they could pick (or not pick) the gender they wanted to identify as—Haruto, the jorogumo, a sort of spider-human hybrid, as far as I could tell, and Zamir, who looked human but was a shtriga, who, according to Google, fed on human life forces. It made sense why he kept his distance.
Most supes were a bit hesitant to interact with me, but Touya and Bellamy assured me it wasn't personal. They just cared about Khush too much to risk taking a bite out of his mate. Fun times.
Still, despite the human-eating neighbors, I was growing more and more fond of the Sanctuary with every passing day.
Magic was a wonderful thing, but it wasn't the only thing that made this place so wonderful. It was also the people. They were flawed, and different from the rest of their kind, and yet they'd found a place to belong. I could relate to that.
"Hey," Khush said as he came in through the doorway, a smile lighting up his face as soon as our eyes met. He'd left to do his daily chores—I'd been granted a week to get used to the place before I had to start contributing—so I'd used the time he was gone to put up the last of my things, feed Scrappy, and make sure the place looked perfectly presentable.
"Hey," I greeted, shooting to my feet to pull him into a kiss. He kissed me back just as enthusiastically, wrapping the end of his tail around my legs as he'd gotten into a habit of doing. His scales were cool under my palm where I held on to him, and I ran my thumbs over the smooth surface as he deepened the kiss, making me hum.
When I had to pull back to catch my breath, Khush ran his hands up and down my hips, sending sparks shooting through my skin despite the fact that he was touching me over my very thick hoodie.
"What were you up to?" he asked, glancing around the place. "Oh, the room looks amazing. What did you do?"
I shrugged, feeling pleased that he'd noticed. "Just rearranged a few things. Added some of my trinkets and things to the decor. You really like it?"
"I love it!" He grinned at me, then glanced at the table where I'd made my tiny little nail-care setup. My nail polish was all chipped, and since I'd had time, I'd figured I might as well take care of it. I'd only just finished removing the old polish when Khush had arrived. "Are you painting your nails?"
"Uh, yeah," I answered a touch hesitantly, glancing down at my nails.
"Can I do it?"
"Huh?"
"Can I paint your nails? Though I don't know if I'll be any good at it."
Khush frowned adorably, and I shook my head at him. There was no way this man was real. Right?
"Come here," I said, grabbing his hand and leading him to the couch. Once he'd sat down, I settled in beside him, then grabbed the nail polish bottles. "Pick a color."
His excitement was unreal, and he looked so very different from the grumpy Khush I'd met that day in the coffee shop, though even then he hadn't completely succeeded in hiding this side of himself.
"This one." He settled on a sunset orange, and I returned the other two to the table before applying the nail polish on my thumbnail to show him how it's done. He watched me avidly, as if determined to learn all there was to know about the art of painting nails.
When I was done, I handed the cap to him, and held out my hand. He took my hand in his, maintaining a light hold as he started.
Khush was completely focused on what he was doing, the tip of his tongue sticking out of his mouth as he tried his best not to smear the nail polish on my skin. He failed a few times, but it didn't deter him, and by the time he finished both hands, he'd almost mastered it.
"Want me to do your feet too?" he asked, and my brows shot up.
"You want to?"
"Why not? They're a part of you too. And you had nail polish on your toenails before, which means you do paint them," he pointed out, and I couldn't argue with that.
Shaking my head, I pulled my feet onto the couch, and watched in awe as he painted my toenails one by one.
Maybe I'd died and gone to heaven, and this was my reward for spending a life dealing with all kinds of bigots and assholes. Maybe somewhere on Planet Earth, Scrappy was munching on my dead body (if I was dead, I'd want her to do it. Only monsters wouldn't want their furbaby to survive by any means necessary) as it lay in my locked apartment. That was the sole explanation for how this was happening, because men like Khush didn't actually exist in real life. Right?
Khush
The smile Dustin gave me when I finished painting his nails was exactly why I'd done it. It hadn't taken me long after we started dating to realize that I would do a lot for one of those smiles. Actually, there wasn't much I wouldn't do to make Dustin smile.
"Okay, so I could've done that a bit better," I said, eyeing the uneven paint on his fingernails.
"It was your first try, Khush. You actually did very good," Dustin said, sounding completely sincere, and I allowed myself to feel a moment of satisfaction. If such small things could make your partner happy, why would anyone not want to do them?
"Thanks. You think I'll get better with practice?"
"Oh, I'm sure you will. I was so much worse the first time I tried to do it. I ended up somehow knocking over the bottle and getting nail polish everywhere." He shook his head with wide, exaggerated eyes, and I laughed softly. "And that's not even the worst part! I'd just gotten Scrappy, and she was a hellion back then, and she managed to run right through the spill and leave bright blue pawprints literally everywhere!"
I could just imagine a kitten version of the ginger cat running all over the house with Dustin chasing after her, and the mess they'd have created, but also the fun they must've had.
"I guess I did do better than that," I said with a laugh, and Dustin grinned before blowing on his nails. "Want me to do that too?" I teased, and he rolled his eyes at me.
"I can do it, thank you very much," he said with a sassy look, then made a face. "I am feeling a little snacky, though."
Chuckling, I rose up from the couch, patting his head. "I'll get you some snacks, Your Highness."
I raided the newly minted snack cabinet in the kitchenette, finding a packet of Dustin's favorite cheese puffs. Bringing them back to him, I resumed my seat as I opened the packet.
"Did you mean it about snacks not being allowed at the Sanctuary?" Dustin asked, and I popped a cheese puff into his mouth before answering.
"There's no official ban on it or anything, but Silas and Touya are health nuts, so they don't usually buy any. If you want to keep your cabinet stocked, you'll have to go shopping with Bellamy," I said, and Dustin nodded seriously.
"I like Bellamy. He's very no-nonsense," Dustin said, and I hummed in agreement. I'd been a little wary of the human when he first moved to the Sanctuary, but I'd grown to like him, just like I'd grown to like Touya before him.
"More," Dustin asked, opening his mouth, and I reached into the packet, fetching another cheese puff and bringing it to his mouth before quickly plopping it into mine. "Hey!"
Grinning, I offered him a second one, then ate it too before he could.
Dustin narrowed his eyes at me, and when I offered him a third one, he snapped up like a shark, biting the cheese puff and my fingers at the same time.
"Ow!" I protested, though it didn't really hurt. It felt more like when Scrappy playfully tried to nip me.
Before I could pull my hand away, Dustin pulled back his teeth, instead wrapping his lips around me. Then, he licked the pads of my finger and thumb, his tongue thorough.
"Had to get all that yummy cheese dust," he said with a wink when he pulled away, and I bit back a groan. How did he always manage to get one over on me?
Not ready to give up just yet, I grabbed another piece and offered it to him, raising a brow challengingly. He narrowed his eyes at me, then reached for the piece. His lips wrapped around the puff, and when I refused to let go, he sucked my fingers in again. This time, he grabbed my wrist, holding my hand in place as he lavished my fingers with attention, his eyes never leaving mine.
I could feel myself getting turned on, and I was almost surprised by it. It wasn't something that happened often, since I had a pretty low sexual drive, and I realized I might have to explain a few things to Dustin. Like the whole snake physiology of my lower half.
"Uh, maybe you should stop," I mumbled, and Dustin paused instantly. He straightened up, though he didn't loosen his grip around my wrist just yet.
"Do you wanna?"
I bit my lower lip, unsure how to answer. While I didn't mind where this was going, I felt like we needed to have a conversation about certain things before we went any further.
"I don't want to stop, but maybe we can take a short pause?" I said, and Dustin smiled.
"Sure. We have all the time in the world," he said, then pressed a kiss on my knuckles before letting go of my hand.
I straightened up, and tried to figure out what I was supposed to say. So far, I'd only ever been with other supes, and while they also didn't have much idea about how my body worked, they had their own quirks, so I didn't feel so awkward explaining myself to them.
"What's on your mind?" Dustin asked, shifting closer to me, and I sighed.
"I... well, you know my body is different from yours," I started, and his brows shot up.
"Really? I hadn't noticed," he joked, then shook his head. "Sorry, I shouldn't be joking about that. Wait, are you trying to say that your body works differently, sexually speaking? Because I do know that."
"You do?"
"Is it similar to a male snake's body?"
I nodded mutely, and he smiled. "Well, then yes, I know. I told you I like snakes. I've read up a lot on them. I was hoping to adopt one, but I didn't have enough space for the enclosure."
I blinked, a little bit stunned at the sudden influx of information, but then Dustin took my hand again. and his eyes met mine. "Is there anything specific you're worried about?"
"Freaking you out," I said without hesitation, and Dustin's expression softened.
"That won't happen. I promise," he said, and I sucked in a breath as his other hand pressed against my hip, then slid down my side, his palm hot against my scales. "And you wanna know why?"
My voice was barely audible when I asked him, "Why?"
"Because I think you're the sexiest man I've ever met."