Closed RP Mutualism

[Wendigo]

Sammy hadn’t been there when he went back.

Sure, Cryptid had taken a while to eat the kid – kicking and twitching dragged out the process just a little too long – but she’d been so badly wounded he’d forgotten that his little firebird could fly off. The anticipation had given way to concern. Not quite fear – he was somehow still high on the hunt. It should’ve worn off while he ate. Maybe he’d been starving himself too much over the last few years, halving the number of meals each month. Or maybe the way thinking about her excited his hunger was affecting him.

But she was gone, and he had a nervous energy about him in the place of real nerves.

He could hunt again, maybe. Maybe he could disappear, get in the Malibu and wake up somewhere else; but that would only result in confusion when he woke up. He could leave a note for himself, but he didn’t trust himself not to drive back and accept death. Plus, most of his stuff was at Sam’s apartment. And given her track record with Slate, once she’d healed, there was no way he was going to escape from her without a long hunt.

He hated the idea of being prey. He understood that there were forces he should be afraid of. Slate as a pack, even just Obsidian. He briefly considered going to the Diamond instead of a truck-stop shower. But his quail was the alpha’s little sister. Obsidian wouldn’t forgive him, and he wasn’t in the mood to try to play that to his advantage. Still, he had to do something if the shower didn’t bring him down. He could at least get the blood out of his skin, and use the recently replaced spare clothes from his kit until he could wash out his coat. He hadn’t bothered to change when he ate the little bug. It would’ve been a waste of time before he got back to his firebird.

But he had to do something. Driving usually helped. Even if he didn’t leave town, he could at least drive long enough to settle his spinning mind. Long enough for his hair to dry.

Long enough to realize he was parking outside of a familiar house.

It was late. Later than he’d ever been picking Adelyn up for anything. He didn’t bother looking at the time; late was good enough. He stared at the suburban home, with its clean front door and neat yard. Through the crack in his window as he finished his cigarette, he could smell her here. He could smell the similar scent that had to be her grandfather, and the other scent that had to be her grandmother. This was a home. This was something he’d never had.

In a better headspace, he would’ve turned the car back on and left before he could disrupt that. But the buzz of the hunt, combined with a memory of a scaled girl held close in his arms, sharing his limited body heat with the smaller predator. There was attraction there. Nothing like Sammy, not at all. If anything, the opposite. The way he’d caught her watching him once or twice when the facade slipped, when she got to see his predator. When she got to see this.

He flicked the cigarette to the ground, crushed it, then picked it up and dropped it into his cupholder before closing the door behind him. Maybe the tobacco smoke would hide the blood to the overly-observant. Hopefully.

Then he made his way up the driveway to the door, and rang the bell.

 

[Katpride]

From within the house, the quiet sound of the television shuts off. There’s a low murmuring and a creak as Adelyn’s grandfather stands from the couch and goes to the door. His wife and granddaughter are already in their beds, and he calls down the hallway to answer a groggy question from the former.

He checks the peephole before swinging the door open. Age has stamped lines in his face, and the milkiness that looks strange in Adelyn’s eyes suits him better, where it might be passed off as cataracts. There is that same sharpness of being seen, but he breathes a sigh like a warm cloud and stands tall in his housecoat and slippers.

There is something about him that is warm, like an old leather couch sitting in the summer sun. He looks at the young man on his doorstep, reeking of cigarettes and unease, and offers him a kindness. The door opens a little more, and he moves to one side. “Come on in, you’ll let the heating out.”

As the door shuts again, Adelyn pokes her head out from her room, still soft and rumpled with sleep. She blinks at the two men in the entryway, and a moment passes before her brain catches up. “Todd!”

She scuttles down the hallway with her claws clicking on the wood floors, all set to wrap her friend in a hug. She isn’t sure why he’s here, but it’s always nice to see him!

 

[Wendigo]

Cryptid nodded to the old man as he stepped into the home. It took deliberate self-control not to show off his teeth, but he managed. There was no weakness in his host’s body, outside of age. He stood with pride, and Cryptid did not challenge him in his own home, avoiding his eyes and keeping his body language relaxed despite the humming excitement that sank into his very bones.

“Thanks,” he said cheerfully as he crossed the threshold.

Inside, he turned his senses outward. The house was familiar to him by proxy, by the scents that Adelyn had carried with her since the first time they met. The house was exactly what one might expect from a suburban home; none of the sights in it interested him, no knicknacks or books or blankets caught his attention. He listened to what was happening in the far rooms, and it wasn’t long before he heard Adelyn’s footsteps tic, tic, ticking against the hard floor.

He smiled when he saw her, opening his arms to receive her hug. There was the briefest flash of teeth before he remembered his manners. “Hey, Addy! Sorry to wake you up.”

Though his voice was familiar, his tone carried the strange notes that came with the song in his bones. He wasn’t dangerous, not to the little creature that threw herself into his waiting jaws. Something about her made her safe. Her smallness, maybe, or her own teeth.

Well, whatever it was, he’d find out soon enough. He knew, without really thinking about it, that that’s why he was here. To find out.

 

[Katpride]

Adelyn’s momentum sends her into Todd’s arms and then some, but she just giggles sleepily and tries not to scratch the floor too badly as she finds her footing again.

“’s okay! ’m awake.” She can hear her grandpa shuffling off into the kitchen, can feel his eyes on her through the doorway. As though he needs to worry about her, when it’s just Todd.

Todd who is here past dark, who smells so strongly of not-fire smoke that she wrinkles her nose a little, who feels warm for once rather than freezer-cold.

She isn’t sure what she notices first. Maybe it’s when she takes a deep breath and the sharp sting of smoke doesn’t quite mask the coppery scent of blood. Maybe it’s the edge of something like a growl in his voice. Whatever it is, she suddenly feels very awake.

When she draws back from the embrace, there’s a wrinkle in Adelyn’s brow. She sniffs again, not put off by what she’s sensing as much as… confused. “Were you out hunting?”

It’s the only explanation that makes sense, to her mind. It’s not too unusual to get some blood and stuff on you when you kill an animal, after all. But she’s seen Todd on the prowl before, and knows he has the stealth to catch whatever he likes without too much of a mess.

“Did something go wrong?” She asks next. “Do you need help?”

Maybe he got in over his head. Everyone does that, sometimes. She’s been practicing her hunting skills when she can, so maybe she can go back with him and together they can catch whatever… got away from him? Or maybe he needs someone to keep other predators off his back while he carries his find. Whatever it is, they’ll figure it out.

 

[Wendigo]

He felt the old man’s eyes on him as he caught Adelyn. He helped her find her balance with a laugh that flowed freely out of him, in tune with her own. Genuine and untainted by sadness he’d forgotten when the hunt began. Her grandfather wasn’t a threat, and as soon as he was in the kitchen, he slipped out of Cryptid’s mind.

There was a moment, just a moment, when he had her in his hands. Where he remembered the last time they met like this, the first time they met like this. She’d run. The chase stirred up the other memories of that hunt, the long hunt where time had stood still. He could have hunted there forever. But he hadn’t. He had stopped because of her. Self-control was so much harder with the high singing in his veins, but he managed it, the danger passing as if it had never existed. He put his hand on her head and ruffled her hair.

Whatever he’d been about to say faded out of view, however, when she asked her questions. He had never told her what he hunted, but she knew they were close. He knew she didn’t eat what he ate, but she didn’t know he ate what he did. He let her naivety lie, though. Now wasn’t the time. Maybe someday, when he could show her the beauty he found in the kill and the chase, but not now. Now he was satisfied, a little tired himself. Not enough to come down yet, though.

“Yeah. Yeah, Addy, I was hunting. I’m done now, though. It’s all taken care of, don’t worry. I was just coming around to say hi.”

He didn’t find anything wrong with visiting a friend right after eating – though, that might just be inexperience. He’d never had a friend before. Not a real friend, not someone who might understand, who’d see this and wouldn’t run. Or – or like Sammy, who would kill him when he went home. Like Arlo, who’d tried.

But Addy wouldn’t try. She’d understand, wouldn’t she? He hoped so. Or at least, she wouldn’t judge him. Not for hunting. Not for surviving.

 

[Katpride]

“Oh.” Adelyn’s shoulders relax a little, and she finds her smile again. She feels silly because, really, why was she so worried? Todd is a capable hunter, of course he wouldn’t need her help. Not with something he could walk away from unhurt, anyways. “If you’re sure. I’m glad it’s all worked out.”

“Well, I know we’ve already said hi, but you could stay a while if you want.” She angles to look around her friend and into the kitchen. It’s difficult for her now, focusing on things that aren’t right in front of her, but she manages. “Is that alright, Gramps?”

It is his house after all, his and Grammy’s. He has his back to her for the moment, but he waves his hand in an agreeable sort of way. “Sure, sure.”

He mumbles something else, but all she catches is ‘strays’. It doesn’t matter, because she has permission to have a friend in the house! It’s not that she hasn’t been allowed to do that before, but she’s never had the opportunity.

Trying her darndest to remember good hosting manners, Adelyn gestures towards Todd’s coat. “Can I put that on the coat-rack for you?”

The coat rack is right there beside her, but she thinks this is the polite thing to offer. She’s sure she’s heard of it somewhere, in one of her Grammy’s stories, maybe. She ruins her presentation by shivering, reminded of her reptilian nature by an errant draft. Her grandparents have been doing their best to make sure the house is warm enough for her, but she was supposed to be asleep and bundled in covers by now. The fire is burning low, more embers than flame, and the pile of blankets on the couch is looking more appealing by the second.

 

[Wendigo]

“Maybe you should put it on instead, little drag-alyn.” He smiled at his own dragon pun, encouraging, warm, trying to maintain the tone they’d set. Or maybe something friendlier than what had been on his mind. “As long as you don’t mind the smell, it should be nice and warm.”

The smell of cigarettes would be thickest outside the coat, since he’d been wearing it. Blood would be thickest on it, too, but under something as strong as smoke the copper shouldn’t be too concerning, as long as she didn’t recognize it. Well– as long as she didn’t recognize it as human. But she had no way to know the difference. She should just assume he’d hunted a deer, or something else that big – was there anything else that big in Pittsburgh? Would Adelyn know if there was?

He caught his mind wandering as he shrugged the coat off and passed it to her, either for her to wear and share in the warmth of his kill or to hang up and satisfy her need to be a good host. Giving over his coat meant he intended to stay for at least a little while. If she wore it, maybe he’d have an excuse not to go home to a dessert that would just as soon burn his tongue as let him enjoy it.

 

[Katpride]

Adelyn takes the coat as it’s passed to her, holding it with one hand on each shoulder like she’s preparing to give it a stern talking-to. Curious, and granted the invitation, she holds it up to her face and gives the inner lining of the back of the jacket a closer sniff. Todd is right - it is very warm, and if she ignores the sour tang she can almost pretend the smoky smell is from a campfire. It reminds her of her father, distantly, of learning to tend to a fire and skin rabbits. Her heart gives a little pang, remembering her father and her forest. Focusing again, there’s the smell of some kind of soap under that, and the scent she associates with Todd’s car.

“It doesn’t smell that bad. We can wash it later, if you want. I have to clean my gloves soon, too.” Rather than put the jacket on normally, she slides her arms through the sleeves but keeps the back of the jacket at her front. It’s much too big for her, in width if not in length, and it’s going to look silly any way she wears it. She has long arms and legs, she knows. Long-sleeves and leggings from the store always fell too short. Even so, Todd is much taller than her and, as such, the hem pools around her feet and the sleeves hang past her hands.

Gramps shuffles back into the room, takes one look at her, and laughs in that rumbly sort of way that seems to come with age. Adelyn frowns at him, but he just continues on his way to set a tray down on the coffee table, still laughing. Gathering the excess material like she might a skirt, Adelyn takes a few eager steps to join him in the living room, enticed by the steaming mugs she spies on the tray. “Oooh, is that cocoa?”

She tumbles over the back of the couch in a practiced sort of way, landing in the pile of blankets. Her grandparents don’t mind her doing that, so long as she doesn’t scratch the couch with her claws, and it’s really just the fastest way to get into the living room without having to go around. After tugging the back of the jacket away from her neck and adjusting it around her some, she blinks over the back of the couch and waves her guest along, because hot cocoa is a treat to be shared. That, and-

“You didn’t tell me the banana bread was ready!” She’s already reaching for a slice. Gramps doesn’t stop her, just settles into his armchair and sips at his own mug.

“It wasn’t, when you went to bed, but it’s sat long enough by now.”

 

[Wendigo]

As Adelyn put it on, Cryptid laughed fondly at how badly it fit her. Her choice to lean into the comedy and wear it backwards wasn’t lost on him at all. But he also knew she was accepting it for the warmth. For once, he had more than enough to spare. When her grandpa came back in and laugh, Cryptid laughed again, too. It was nice to laugh. It felt freeing. He didn’t do it often enough – genuinely enough – when he was sober. He laughed a little more at Adelyn’s disapproving frown, and then followed the two of them into the living room.

What was it about Adelyn, he asked himself, not for the first time. The way she tumbled, the way she seemed so carefree? The childishness she hadn’t lost? He remembered someone else about her age, right around that childishness-without-immaturity, and decided no. No, that wasn’t it. He sat down on the couch beside her, careful not to sit on the edge of her blankets. He did relax into the seat, though he didn’t copy Adelyn’s little flop-over-the-couch trick. The banana bread filled the room with some sweet, fruity scent, but he only picked up the hot chocolate out of good manners. Adelyn wanted him to participate. But he wasn’t quite ready to forget the taste of his last meal.

“I’d like to apologize,” he said, as he settled. Not I’m sorry – he wasn’t, and he was pretty sure that just wasn’t possible for him right now. “For disrupting, I mean. It’s late, I wasn’t really thinking, I could’ve come back another time.”

Except he couldn’t, could he? Who knew when he’d get the chance to be himself again. There was so much stopping him, most of the time. He had no idea when he’d be able to genuinely – what, exactly? He wasn’t really here to talk to the littler predator here beside him. He just wanted to be around her. Didn’t he want to be around her when he wasn’t hunting, too?

Sure, but when he wasn’t hunting, he was scared. Which, upon reflection, was stupid. He might not remember that moment they’d never shared in the dreamscape on Halloween, but – come on, Adelyn? He was pretty sure she wasn’t actually edible. And she wasn’t big enough, either. The only reason he’d even been tempted was because he’d been starving himself like an idiot. If he just took better care of himself without the song…

But he could still feel it, buzzing in his veins. Sammy was waiting at home, and the tiredness was starting to weigh him down. Maybe he could ask to stay here tonight, or find a motel somewhere.

He sighed a little, without thinking and turned his attention back outward to smile at Adelyn with all his teeth. Not threatening – a pretense at being human with a full grin that was too tight to be human at all. “But thanks.”

 

[Katpride]

The cocoa is on the comfortable side of hot, and Adelyn can tell just from the smell that it’s the good kind, the kind made over the stove with milk instead of water. When she takes a big sip, she can feel the warmth travel down her throat and into her chest, settling there like a molten core. The banana bread is yummy too, and she attempts to avoid getting crumbs on Todd’s jacket by shoving the whole piece into her mouth all at once.

When he talks, she’s still chewing. She glances at her grandfather, and finds that he’s already looking her way. The lamp that lights the living room is behind his chair, but the firelight casts his face in soft relief, smoothing out some of the lines that have taken up residence there.

His head doesn’t move, but she can tell his attention is moving between her and Todd, before it settles back on her and he raises his eyebrows slightly. She can’t read exactly what that look is supposed to mean, but he doesn’t say anything so she guesses it’s up to her. She swallows, the bread feeling suddenly a little dry in her mouth.

When she looks back at Todd, the low light catches in her eyes like a cat’s, and for a moment the unearthly white seems almost to glow. She takes in his smile and reaches out to poke gently at his cheek with the carefully bent knuckle of her claw, her expression one of utmost concentration.

“That’s alright,” she says, delicately trying to nudge away the forced grin. Something in her stomach feels tight, looking at it. She knows the feeling of pretending to be something she would never quite pass as, and even if Todd usually looks a lot more human than her, she still doesn’t want him to have to do that. At least not around her. “We’ve gotta look out for each other, right?”

Without turning her head, she shifts her gaze to Gramps. He’s smiling, though something about it seems almost sad. He clears his throat with a little rumble, and the sadness seems to fade. “It wouldn’t be the first time Genevieve and I have had a meta crash on that couch, son.”

 

[Wendigo]

Cryptid felt the old man’s eyes on him, but didn’t acknowledge them as he swirled his warm drink around in the mug. The flash of Adelyn’s eyes didn’t go unnoticed, but he didn’t comment on that, either. Those were incidental things, things happening around him. Instead, he focused on Adelyn’s face as she started to push the smile away. Was it making her uncomfortable? After a few seconds of poking, he let it fade out. That many teeth showing is probably making her nervous, without realizing it. She wasn’t used to him, the real him.

She probably wouldn’t have the chance, after this.

His eyes shifted to her grandfather, though. The offer that was really more an opening to ask. Could he sleep here? Sam wouldn’t kill him here. She wouldn’t do that to Adelyn. Really, it was the safest option. It was a good offer. And he wouldn’t hurt them – he didn’t have to. He was satisfied, and getting tired with the weight of the meal. He’d need to rest, either way.

But he wouldn’t like waking up in Adelyn’s house when he remembered what happened. When he tasted the blood on the back of his tongue, when he felt the warm buzz. And what would Adelyn think, when he slept for three days? He wasn’t worried about her thinking he was weak, exactly, but she might worry. He was aware he didn’t want her to worry. Was that him, or just some remnant of the human concerns he usually buried himself in?

The smile faded for real, this time, and he relaxed against the couch. He turned his face away from her to take a sip of the hot chocolate. It was warm, hotter than the blood, but in a way that was… nice. The sweetness didn’t completely get rid of the bitter salt from his prey. That was good, too. He sighed softly, and then looked back at Adelyn, then her grandpa.

“We’ve gotta look out for each other,” he agreed with her. Then he glanced at the old man. “There’s no need. Sam’s… Sam’s expecting me back tonight. I just needed a place to rest up for a little while before heading home.”

Sam. Sam was waiting, Sam who knew what he was. He couldn’t bring himself to worry about that, beyond knowing that when she knew he’d gotten home, she was…what? Would she wait, would she ask him, would she talk to him? Or would she put him down quietly, injured as she was, to try to avoid his teeth?

No. She’d wait. She’d wait to ask what happened. She’d want an excuse not to kill him. Despite the rage, despite the fear, she’d do that. Make an exception. For him.

She’d even offer herself to his teeth, if she thought that was what he wanted. The smile edged back in at that thought. That’d be nice. Almost nice enough to make him hope she’d be waiting for him, when he got back to the gym, even if he was tiring out fast.

Gently as he could, he caught her hand were it was poking at his face. “I’m fine, really. Or I will be. I really just wanted to check in on you, kiddo. It’s been a while since I’ve asked how you’re doing. Being a lizard in December isn’t ideal.”

 

[Katpride]

Gramps only nods when Todd declines his offer. He doesn’t seem to take any offense to it, though he gives the man a long look that Adelyn can’t make heads or tails of. After a minute, he goes to take a sip of his drink, realizes he’s drained it, and levers himself out of his chair, shuffling off to the kitchen once more.

Just in time to miss Todd’s inquiries. Adelyn glances quickly at the door to the kitchen, but turns just as quickly back to Todd. For the first time, she looks slightly uncomfortable. One side of her mouth tugs to the side, and she looks away too quickly, drawing her claw back and clutching tightly to her mug. “Oh, it’s- I’m, uh, fine. It’s not that bad.”

She’s a terrible liar. But she can’t help it! It’s not like she can just tell him the truth. What if he tries to tell her to change? Gramps had already told her that he thought she should try to find something more fitting, but she can’t stop thinking about what might happen if she needs this form again. What if there was a fire, and someone got hurt because she couldn’t get them out? Just because she wanted to be more comfortable?

That would be inexcusable. Her parents raised her better than that.

(She tries very hard not to think about what her parents might say when she tells them. She also tries not to think about how she hasn’t told them yet, and the only reason they don’t know is because she asked her grandparents not to tell them either. Her poor parents have already been through enough because of her Shifts.)

Her eyes cast around the room, searching for an out. “Luckily we have a fireplace, so the heating bill won’t get too high! Haha!”

Her laugh comes out stiff, instead of lighthearted like she means it to. She takes another sip of her cocoa, just to stall, and hardly tastes it.

 

[Wendigo]

Cryptid didn’t need his extra senses to tell him she was lying to him about being fine. He could tell she was putting on a brave face, not be an inconvenience to anyone. He kind of wanted someone to be angry at for that – her parents, her doddering grandfather, the world. But he remembered the way she’d sat still in the tree in a world painted white, and knew it was just because she didn’t know what she was. Or just hadn’t accepted it.

Or wound up in the wrong environment.

“Yeah, and imagine summertime!” he bounced back, laughing with her. His laugh wasn’t as harsh now, his voice warm and his smile deceptively wide. “Basking in the sun, not sweating. Your sweaters won’t bother you at all anymore, if you keep wearing them.”

He said the last part casually, without hesitation, like he took it for granted that she might choose to stop. After all, patches of scales got fewer glances than an arm coated in fur. Easier to write off, easier to camouflage, easier to blend in.

“And, listen, I love wintertime myself, but there’s not as much snow here as there was in Montana. You don’t get that – kinda cold stillness you did out there, where the moon makes the snow glow…” A moment, a pause, as if he was drifting into memory, before he shook it off. “I’ve heard the trails around here get so green during the summer, too. I’ll take you, sometime. You’d probably be able to outpace me!”

If I live that long, he didn’t say, though the smile nearly faltered. His breath might’ve caught a little, or it could’ve been a simple hiccup from the cold outside. The cold that didn’t feel cold enough, deep enough. Nothing around here was enough. And, he reasoned, if Sam was enough to kill him – why wait? She should’ve done it weeks ago.

She’d be enough, at least, when he slipped again. No saving her for later next time. No space for new doubts.

 

[Katpride]

Oh good, he fell for it. Adelyn just barely resists letting out a sigh, though she does sink further into her nest, falling out of her rigid posture. She readjusts how her legs are tucked under herself, snagging the hem of Todd’s jacket on a claw to tug it under her knees and further insulate herself. “Yeah, summer will be real nice.”

She smiles over her drink, gazing down at her reflection in the still brown liquid. The black hair is still so strange, after having white hair for so long. Neither are her natural color, a mousy brown that vanished with her second shift, but she’d gotten used to it over the months. It looks more normal this way, at least. From what she’s seen of the city, most people have black or brown hair, with only a few having yellow or orange and only really old people’s being white.

She shakes herself before her mind can keep drifting and refocuses on her houseguest. “Isn’t it weird how the snow melts so quickly here? Back in Oregon, momma would already have me out shoveling the paths by this time of year.”

A fond smile graces her face at the memory, and she resolves to call her parents soon. Maybe she can go see how the new house is coming along! Cheered by the thought, she finishes her cocoa and stretches to set her mug on the table.

“Do you wanna play a board game before you get going?” she asks, unfolding from her seat and drifting towards the shelf where her grandparents keep their games. She keeps one of the blankets around her hips like a skirt, the ends bunched up in her fist to keep it in place. “I’m sure we have something that’s quick!”

 

[Wendigo]

“It’s different, that’s for sure. Like it can’t actually commit to being winter.”

Oregon. He remembered she’d told him that, at some point. The meetings were kind of blurry now; he could feel himself getting a little drowsy. Maybe he’d have to come visit her next time, when things cleared up. If there was a next time.

Right, no time for that. A board game sounded… different, at least. He realized he’d never tried to do anything like that when he was his real self, when he felt the world pulsing around and through him. Him, just him! And Adelyn here. Adelyn, here, trying to hide her discomfort. She was still wrapped in his big coat, and wrapped in blankets. Lying about how she was. Why wasn’t that upsetting him? Could he get upset about things like that? Or was there nothing to be upset over?

She was definitely making him ask more questions than he usually did. He couldn’t say that was a bad change. He sipped the hot chocolate again, as if thinking, and then nodded with another free smile.

“Hell yeah. You go ahead and pick. I’m down for anything.”

 

[Katpride]

Adelyn cheers, not too loudly because her grandmother is still sleeping in the other room, and turns her attention fully to the stack of games. It isn’t a very large stack, all things considered, but she’d added a few of her favorites upon moving in so it wasn’t slim pickings either.

“Let’s play…” She begins, her human hand trailing down the sides of the boxes as she considers them in turn, “This one!”

From the shelf she carefully extricates a carved wooden box, which she carries over to the table. There’s the clink of many solid objects jostling against each other as she sets it down. The box, which on further inspection is more like a piece of wood cut in half and folded over itself, a rubber band keeping the sides together and a hinge nailed into one side, is quickly opened to reveal a hand-carved mancala board.

“Pa carved this ages ago, as a gift for my Momma,” she explains, beginning the process of distributing the small, polished stones into their proper places. Four to a cup, with six cups on each side. The stones make a delightful clink against the wood, a sound she can appreciate even with her hearing as it is. “It’s one of my favorites, so he said I could take it. Not much opportunity to play while they’re busy building the new cabin, anyways.”

The motions are familiar, and settled as she is on the floor with the fire at her back she feels almost normal again. Like if she looked to her left or right, she might see her parents there playing rock-paper-scissors to decide who’d get to play her first.

But she isn’t back in those times, not really, and when she catches sight of her claw she remembers all over again. She sets the last stone down with a kind of wistful melancholy, then shakes herself and turns to smile up at Todd. “Do you know how to play?”