Trisha
Not that I asked for it—I’m still shocked to have woken up that way—but I’m not dismayed, either. I think it means something. Does Selvanar… like me? Is that why he did it?
“What was that all about, anyway?” I ask the little fairy where he sits on my abdomen, his mouth wet and his cock fully alert. He casually plays with it while looking up at me.
“Hmm.” Even Selvanar looks a tad mystified by my question. “I’m not sure. It just called to me.” He licks his lips, like the memory makes him hungry. “I wanted to taste you. And you tasted marvelous.”
Marvelous?
“Oh. I see.” I’m not sure what to say to that. “Well, thank you. But next time we should talk about, like, boundaries first.”
Selvanar shrugs like such a discussion hardly interests him. “Whatever you wish. I will ask in the future.”
I guess that works.
When I sit up in bed, Selvanar flits over to the windowsill, and once again I have to catch him when he falls out of the air. He curses at his wing. Clearly, he’s accustomed to his body behaving a certain way, and this injury frustrates him.
I have to go to work this morning, but Selvanar woke me up before my alarm so I have a little more time to get ready than usual. I take a luxurious shower, but before I’ve even soaped my hair, Selvanar peeks in through the shower curtain.
Reflexively, I cover my chest.
“May I?” he asks. “I haven’t bathed since I left the city fairies.”
I’m totally naked in here and he didn’t knock first, but okay, I don’t mind sharing the shower. I sure have learned a lot about fairy culture these last few days. They definitely don’t care about modesty.
I pick up Selvanar off the floor and bring him into the enclosure of the shower curtain. He hums with pleasure as hot water runs over him, flattening his wild hair. Then he stands up on my palm and turns, washing himself under the water.
“Would you like body wash?” I ask, holding out a bottle. Selvanar eyes it suspiciously.
“I don’t mind soap, I suppose. Just a little.”
I give him a dollop of the body wash and he scrubs himself down with it, then rinses. When he’s finished, I set him on the soap holder and wash myself, too. When we’re both finished, I step out and dry off, then give Selvanar a hand towel with which to do the same.
It isn’t long after drying, though, that he starts itching himself. I’m getting ready for work when he lets out a little whine of pain. When I head into the bedroom to ask what’s wrong, I find Selvanar’s green skin is covered in a reddened rash.
“Oh, no!” I run closer and inspect him. “What’s happened?”
“The soap.” He scowls. “Human things. I told you that it’s like poison.”
Fuck. I did this by offering him the body wash. I thought soap would be fine, but apparently it wasn’t. This is all my fault, and now he looks painfully uncomfortable.
“I’m so sorry,” I say, running to the bathroom again to find my anti-itch cream. When I return with it, though, Selvanar glares down at my hands.
“I am not putting any more human things on my skin!” He may be small, but right now, his voice is big. I stand back and set down the cream.
“Sorry. That makes sense. But… what do we do?” I glance at my watch. I need to be at work soon. “I have to go.”
He simply scowls. “Then go. There’s nothing we can do but wait for the poison to leave my body.” He walks across the carpet to the table where I keep the Babez house, and manages to fly up onto it. Then he steps inside the dollhouse and closes the door behind him.
I sigh, fully chastised, and leave the room. It’s probably better I don’t keep trying to help or I’ll only make things worse.
I spend all day at the office thinking about poor Selvanar and those angry red bumps all over his soft skin, even when I’m supposed to be checking in patients.
I complete a little admin work, wondering if there’s anything I can do to help him.
I hope he’s not in pain while he’s home alone. I wish I could have stayed behind.
Well, maybe there’s one small thing I can do. After clocking out, I swing by the garden store, which is going wild this time of year. In the greenhouse, I search and search until I find exactly the succulent I was looking for: an aloe plant.
I pay for it at the front and then drive back home, hoping Selvanar will trust the aloe plant enough to give it a try. If I can do anything for him, perhaps it will assuage my guilt.
When I get home, the house is dark. I have a text message from Lizzie asking me to feed her cat because she’s gone out to dinner with her boyfriend.
I’m glad I left the door to my room closed because I’d hate to see what the cat, Merkie, would do with a fairy.
Inside the bedroom, the lights are off as I bring the aloe plant inside. When I flip on the light, I hear a quiet groan coming from the dollhouse, so I kneel down beside it and peer in the second-floor window.
Selvanar is curled up in one of my socks, his skin still red. His breathing is coming fast, his chest rising and falling with each labored exhale.
“Selvanar?” I whisper, opening the door that leads in from the balcony. I pause there, not sure what I should do. “Are you okay?”
“Not particularly,” he groans in response.
“Have you eaten anything?”
“I have not moved.” His voice is tired. “I don’t feel particularly hungry, either.”
This isn’t good. But I can’t really call a doctor, can I? What doctor could possibly help me with a fairy who has an allergy to everything human, especially medicine?
“Who can help you?” I ask, reaching out to take his tiny hand between my thumb and forefinger. “What can I do?”
Selvanar looks up at me with his brilliant, glittering eyes, and smirks. He still manages to have a little arrogance, even when he’s sick as a dog.
“Are you worried about me, Trisha?” he asks in a self-satisfied voice.
“I am! Tell me how to make it better.”
“I thought time would be enough, but it only seems to be getting worse,” Selvanar says. “It feels as if my skin is coming off.”
Oh, that sounds terrible.
Finally, annoyed at the distance between us, I lift the roof off the dollhouse and set it on the floor to one side.
“Can I pick you up?” I ask, and all Selvanar can do is nod. I scoop him into my hands and carry him over to the bed, where I put a pillow on my lap and set him on it. The red bumps cover every square inch of his body, and I have never felt so miserable.
I did this to him. I need to fix it.
“Here,” I say, bringing over the chunks of aloe plant I’ve let sit for a few minutes. “This should be safe for you. Aloe will at least help with the pain and the itching until we can do something else.”
Selvanar casts me a wary look, but I break off a piece anyway and squeeze the thick leaf, which squirts some aloe gel on my hand. I offer it to him, and cautiously he takes some in his tiny fingers, then rubs it on his arm.
His eyes close and he sighs with relief. I suppose it’s helping.
I break off more pieces of the aloe to replenish, and Selvanar rubs it all over his body. After a few minutes, the rash looks less angry, but it hasn’t gone away.
“Thank you,” he says, lying back on the pillow. “That feels a little better.”
“Good. But it’s not a long-term solution if the rash doesn’t go away.”
Selvanar sighs. “There is someone who may be able to help. Back at my hive, we have a healer who has some experience with human poisons.”
I sit up abruptly. “Why didn’t you say something sooner?”
“I can’t return to my hive right now.” His injured wing flutters as if to emphasize his point.
My brain works quickly. If he can’t get back to his hive on his own… then there’s just one answer.
“I’ll take you.” I fish my car keys out of my pocket. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. I can drive you home, right?”
Selvanar gives me a pitying look. “The hive is not simply a place a human can go. It’s hidden by magic.”
“Magic? Then how do you get there?”
“Well, I’m a fairy. The spell will let me in.”
I puzzle over this. There must be a way.
“What if I got you close?” I ask, feeling desperate. I can’t watch him suffer. “Could you get back then?”
He thinks for a moment. “I suppose that might work. Somehow.”
“I want to try. Can you show me the way?”
“I’ll do my best,” Selvanar says. “I only know it by wing.”
“That will just have to do.” I stuff the car keys back in my pocket and fetch my purse, loading it with soft things to create a makeshift bed for him. Once Selvanar is inside, I put the purse over my shoulder and head for the car.
I’ll do whatever I have to do to save my little fairy.