9. Milo
Milo
Rowan was a loud breather. His exhales were heavy enough to rustle my hair as I stirred from a delightful sleep. The moment my arm moved from where it lay on top of his, he retracted it, and the warmth at my back quickly disappeared as he rolled away from me and stood up.
Was he still planning to be difficult about this?
I turned over with a scowl ready for him, only to find him frantically shedding his clothes onto a pile on the floor, until only the ones on his lower half remained.
A grin quickly replaced the pout on my lips as I drank in the muscle over his back.
His skin was pink and coated in a sweat sheen, visible even in the darkness.
As he turned to scoop up the clothing from the ground, I also noticed his face was flushed, his hair damp, and his dick clearly hard beneath the fabric he’d kept on.
A thrill of excitement echoed from my core, my slit tingling in response to him. Was he in heat? Is that why he was a sweating, heated, hard mess? If so, I’d be more than happy to assist him through it.
Before I could ask, he was storming out of the room.
I frowned, throwing off the blanket and following after him in time to see him picking up a chair and taking it into the shower room.
“What are you doing?” I asked as he closed the door between us. “Rowan?” I attempted to open it just like I had yesterday. The knob turned, but this time it was jammed closed.
What the fuck?
He was so frustrating.
After stomping my foot on the ground and grunting to no avail, I decided to leave him to his stupid shower alone, then.
He had to talk to me, though, about whatever it was that was truly bothering him.
Yesterday, when I hadn’t wanted to speak with him, he’d made me food as a peace offering. Maybe I could do the same for him today.
I opened the cold metal box to look at what was left. I hadn’t prepared food before like humans did, but it couldn’t possibly be that difficult.
It took a couple of attempts to make the fire come out of the weird holes in the uneven metal surface. Then I found the pan I’d seen him use to make us yummy food yesterday.
I put in all the things I’d found: a whole halibut, some eggs, some tasty thick liquids in glass jars, and the white liquid in the bottle I’d stashed in my nest. Then I wondered how long it would take for it to get hot enough to taste good.
“What are you doing?”
I spun as I heard Rowan behind me and smiled proudly at him. “Making food.”
He was still damp from his shower, wearing only the leg clothing he’d gone in there with and one of those scratchy blankets over his shoulders.
His skin was still a little flushed, but he wasn’t sweating anymore, and to my disappointment, his dick was no longer hard. Perhaps he wasn’t in heat, then.
Rowan came over to inspect, and I stepped aside so he could see what a good job I was doing.
He sighed, and my chest ached as he looked disappointed in me. Had I done something wrong?
“Thanks, Milo,” he said, but his words still sounded flat. “I’ll handle the cooking from now on, okay?”
I crossed my arms. “Why can’t I do it?”
“Because there are just… certain ways to do it, and certain things that aren’t supposed to go together. But I appreciate the effort.”
I frowned, looking over the food. I’d tasted all those things before and they were all yummy. So why wouldn’t they taste good together?
“Are all humans so fussy?” I asked.
I didn’t expect the way his lips curved up in a soft smile. “Yes. I guess we are.”
Suddenly, I didn’t feel so offended, not if I got him to smile like that. “Will you show me how to do it the way you want?”
He sighed, pondering over it for a moment before he nodded.
Rowan agreeing to teach me meant he must be willing to let me stick around long enough to do that. It was a victory I’d gladly claim.
“I need to go to the store,” he told me, and I frowned again at hearing that he wanted to go outside today too.
“What’s a store?”
“It’s a place to get food.”
I smiled, very much wanting to see that. “I’ll come with you.”
Rowan side-eyed me, his lips pulling down in a frown. “You should stay—”
“I’m coming with you,” I interrupted him, my decision final.
He sighed. “You’ll have to wear clothes.”
It was my turn to frown.
“I’m serious, Milo. No other humans can know what you are. You have to blend in.”
Unfortunately, I had to agree with him. Just because Rowan was safe, it didn’t mean other humans would be. But I really didn’t want to wear clothes.
“I don’t like them.” I pouted. “What if they don’t come off and I get stuck?”
“You won’t get stuck.”
“I might.” My fingers found the wound on the tail of my coat, the one Rowan had mended for me. It would slowly heal itself, but it was a reminder of the danger of human things, like clothes.
His eyes tracked the movement, and his frown deepened. “Come with me.”
Rowan led me to a door, opening it to reveal clothes hanging from a metal bar.
After sorting through them for a moment, he selected one and pulled it out.
“This is a coat. You just put your arms in the sleeves, and the front does up with these buttons.” He gestured to them.
“It’s very easy for you to take off when you want to. ”
I eyed the “coat” suspiciously. “What if it gets stuck or tighter?”
“Then just tell me and I’ll help you.”
I thought about it, deciding I trusted him to help me escape the clothes if I needed to before nodding.
Rowan reached for my seal coat, and I took a quick step backward.
“You have to take that off to put this on,” he explained.
I shook my head.
“Milo, if we want you to blend in, you should leave it here.”
“No!” I answered quickly. Far more against that idea than having to wear clothes. I couldn’t go anywhere without my coat. “I can’t talk without my coat.”
Thick brows furrowed together. “What do you mean?”
“A selkie’s coat is their magic, and their voice. They can’t be without them.”
He frowned but nodded. “Alright, then we’ll just try to cover it up. Okay?”
I nodded. “Okay.”
Rowan helped me get the coat on. It was his size, not mine, so it meant there was plenty of room for my coat inside it.
The sleeves were also really long and covered my hands.
It was soft on the inside and felt more like a blanket than the clothes he’d tried to make me wear yesterday.
I didn’t hate it, especially considering the fact that it smelled just like him.
He also tried to get me to wear “pants,” but I quickly decided I didn’t like those at all. The coat was long enough that it almost reached my knees, so while he wasn’t happy about it, he reluctantly decided it would be okay to not wear pants.
I didn’t like the “boots” with the strings either. So he found me some that pulled on easily, without any strings or ways to make them tighter. Rowan told me they were called rain boots, because humans wore them when it had been raining so their feet didn’t get wet. Humans were so weird.
The final step was to cover my ears. Rowan pulled a soft fabric covering over my head, careful of the small bump that was still a little tender.
Then I was “dressed” and ready to go to the store.
It didn’t take Rowan long to put more clothes on too, and after he’d placed the ones he’d slept in into a basket, I pulled them back out to take them over to my nest. They smelled so strongly like Rowan, and I stored them safely under another blanket to best preserve the scent.
I knew Rowan wasn’t my mate yet, but I still wanted my nest to smell like him, so it would be ready for me when I needed it to be.
“Alright,” he sighed. “Just stay close to me, Milo, and let me do the talking if needed.”
I nodded quickly, excitedly following him to the door and outside.
Rowan’s home was higher up than the rest of the houses. They were all brightly colored, yellows, blues, reds, standing out proudly in the snow. The windows all emitted soft glows. It was so beautiful.
And I would get to live here, with him, and experience it all for myself. I couldn’t help but bounce excitedly for a moment before I rushed to catch up with him.