Skye wasn’t usually a participant in large groups, but when free food was on offer, he wasn’t about to be left out. He walked next to Duran because Mirriam was busy talking to the green lady. Duran kept brushing his hands over Skye’s body and hair, which felt nice and also seemed to somehow be making him warmer and drier.

Slone had run ahead, and by the time they all arrived at The Wave Watcher, the workers were already setting up tables for them. Skye claimed a seat between Duran and Hamish because it was the closest one to a large bowl of grapes. He immediately started cramming his mouth full of them and chewing quickly in an attempt to eat them all before anyone else could take any.

Skye sat sideways on his chair, leaning back against Hamish’s arm as he watched Duran have a conversation with the man whose head was a skull. Everyone changed the tone of their voice and their mannerisms a little when talking to different people, but Duran took it to an extreme. It was like someone else was wearing his face. Skye didn’t like it. 

Every now and then, Duran would turn and give Skye a quizzical look, and in that moment he would look a little more like himself. After a while, Skye started smiling at him every time he looked his way. Duran was already smiling, for the most part, but each time he saw Skye, it would soften out a little and become more genuine.

Hamish wrapped an arm around Skye’s shoulders and rocked him back and forth. “You weigh about as much as a sack of feathers. I thought I must have misunderstood something about you holding that vampire down, but after seeing you pin Declan, I’m even more confused. No matter how strong you are, you can’t pin someone down by sitting on them if you weigh less than they can lift.”

Skye increased his weight for a moment just enough that it made Hamish startle and jerk forward so that he didn’t fall back in his chair.

“What was that?” Hamish asked.

“He can change his weight at will,” Mirriam explained. “Don’t ask how it works. He either doesn’t know or can’t be bothered to explain.”

Skye didn’t know how he did it, but he also didn’t know much about how bodies worked in general, and he’d never let it worry him.

The metal robot thing had come along with the group to the inn and had somehow ended up with the job of taking everyone’s food orders. There was a menu and Skye stared at it as he chewed his grapes, but it wasn’t very helpful because he still couldn’t read.

“What would you like to eat?” the robot asked Skye when it made its way around to him, the exact same question it had been asking everyone else.

“A big fish,” Skye told it.

A light spun on the side of the robot’s head. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand your request. Can you read the name of the menu item you would like to order?”

Skye reached his hand out and batted his fingers against the light. “No.”

“Please be careful. I have exposed joints that may pinch skin or crush digits.”

Skye kept prodding at the light.

“Hey, listen to the robot,” the small, colourful haired man said. “If you get hurt, I’m not paying your medical bills.”

“Everett, be nice,” the green woman scolded. “He’s the only reason we’re not still in chains.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Everett said. “Please, go ahead, poke your fingers wherever you like. Might I recommend the knees or the elbows? If you jam them in there just right, you might be able to slice them clean off.”

Skye pointedly bapped his fingers against the light a few more times before dropping his hand back down. “I saved everyone. I deserve a big fish.”

“I’m sorry,” the robot said, “‘a big fish’ is not the name of a menu item. Could you please—”

“I can see the ocean through the door,” Skye interrupted. “Everyone has fish. I want a big fish.”

“There are multiple items on the menu which include fish. Please specify which you would prefer.”

Skye let out a loud groan. “Big. Fish.”

“For goodness sakes,” the green woman said. “Robot, just ask the people in the kitchen to prepare a plain fish. If they can’t do it, go out and buy him one from somewhere else. I’ll pay for it.”

“No, no, Sera, it’s on me,” Mirriam insisted. “We’ll get you the fish, Skye. You’ve done well tonight.”

Skye made a satisfied sound in the back of his throat and rested back against Hamish, who was gently rocking him back and forth. 

It was nice, being close to someone. Skye didn’t really have friends, except for Mirriam he supposed, but they didn’t have a touchy kind of relationship. He liked to be touched as long as it was on his terms, but he’d never really known how to express that. He wasn’t really an expressing things kind of person.

He’d had friends in the past who he’d had more physical relationships with, but everything kind of blurred together when he tried to pluck out specific memories. Maybe he’d been too young to remember. He was an adult now — he was sure of that — but he didn’t know his exact age and time confused him sometimes. What was here and now was all that really mattered, anyway.

Duran, Hamish, and Slone had all ordered bowls of stew, which was delivered to them quickly. This meant Skye could no longer lean back against Hamish because Hamish was too busy eating. Also, Skye was out of grapes.

Skye opened his mouth and leant his head towards Duran and Duran gave him a smile and a shake of his head and fed him the stew he’d scooped up in his spoon. Skye turned to Hamish and repeated the gesture and was fed more stew.

“You’ll be all full up before your food even gets here,” Hamish said as Skye leant across the table to be fed by Slone.

“He eats a lot,” Mirriam told Hamish. “Though he also hoards food, so don’t ever let him convince you he’s starving. He always has a stash.”

Skye patted his rucksack. Half of what was in there was food, and he had more hidden away in a sheltered nook on a rooftop somewhere nobody would ever look. A lot of his childhood blurred together, but he remembered the hunger. That had been a common theme for a while, or for periods of time, or… he didn’t really know. Sometimes the order of his memories confused him.

Finally, the robot brought Skye his fish. It was more of an average sized fish than a big fish, but Skye couldn’t be bothered to complain. He probably couldn’t actually fit a big fish in his stomach after everything else he’d eaten, and cooked fish wasn’t easy to keep for later. He ignored the knife and fork he’d been given and ate it with his bare hands.

As Skye was finishing off his fish, Hamish stretched out and pushed his empty bowl away from himself. “The bad thing about sleeping all day is that now I’m not tired.”

“I’m gonna take some food to Cookie and then go for a run,” Slone said. “Prob’ly be gone for a few hours if you an’ Duran want the room to yourselves for a bit.”

“Hm,” Hamish said. “You know, that changes my whole perspective on the situation and I am now very much okay with it. Thank you.”

Slone laughed. “I’ll make sure to knock when I get back.”

Skye felt like bothering someone and Mirriam was deep in a conversation with Sera with no end in sight and Hamish and Duran sounded like they had plans with one another, so when Slone got up from the table, Skye followed him.  Slone went to the kitchen and convinced them to empty their bin full of food scraps into a sack, and then he headed out of the inn.

“You coming with me, then?” Slone asked as he turned onto the road that led up the hill.

Skye nodded.

“I won’t say no to the company. It’s been an interesting night, huh?”

Skye shrugged.

“Guess the one before this was pretty interesting, too. Y’know, with the vampires and all.”

“Yes.”

“You ever run into a vampire before?”

“Mm…” Skye stared up at the stars as he thought. “I don’t remember.”

“Seems kinda memorable.”

Skye shrugged.

“There used to be a nest of ‘em near where we lived until a couple years back, so I’m pretty familiar. Nasty things. Y’know, the fae make a decent amount of predatory things, and there’s a good bit of brutality in the heart of even a housecat, but vampires… vampires got a real human kind of malice in ‘em. Funny how something can eat your intestines while you’re still breathing, but it don’t feel evil without that bit of human in the mix.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s never happened to me.”

Slone laughed. “Well, me neither, but y’know. Point is, predatory animals ain’t got the smallest slither of empathy for their prey, but that ain’t evil, right?”

“No,” Skye said, because he thought that was probably the right answer, but he didn’t really understand the point of any of this. Having your intestines eaten seemed pretty bad no matter who was doing it or why.

“Maybe even vampires ain’t that bad when you look at things like that. A vampire ain’t making a choice. They can’t be anything but what they are any more than a bear can, right? We both dealt with Declan and he was like a kitten compared to those vampires, but it kinda leaves you thinking in a different way. Makes you wonder about how someone could go out and be like that when they coulda chosen not to.”

Skye nodded. They were nearly to the edge of town now.

“Seems like you choose to be good, even when it might cost you. Why? Doesn’t seem like you care all that much about being seen as a hero.”

“Oh,” Skye said. “I don’t know.”

“Yeah?”

“My memory gets pretty foggy if I try to think back more than a few years, so I just do whatever feels right.”

“Damn. Sounds rough.”

Skye shrugged. “No. I’m fine.”

They’d reached the top of the hill now and they continued to follow the cobbled road out of town. Once they were far enough away that the sounds and lights of the town had faded into the distance, Cookie leapt down from a nearby tree and made a chittering sound at them.

“Ah, there you are,” Slone said. “Got some dinner for ya.”

Cookie took the sack from Slone and shoved her face deep into it. Sloppy eating sounds followed.

Skye crouched down and watched her eat. “What is she?”

“Cookie?” Slone asked. “Just her own thing, I guess. There’s a whole long story about how she came about, but I dunno if she wants me sharing that around.”

“Hm,” Skye said. There was something about her, like a forgotten word on the tip of his tongue. It felt important, but the harder he tried to focus on it, the sadder he felt, so he stopped.

“You wanna go for a run in the woods or something?” Slone asked. “You seemed pretty agile when you were chasing Duran’s magelight around.”

Skye nodded. He usually did his running around alone, but maybe doing it with someone else could be fun. Until now, Mirriam had been the only person he’d gotten along with well enough to hang around with, and she couldn’t even walk, let alone run. She tried to get him to come swimming with her sometimes, but Skye wasn’t a big fan of being in the water.

Skye watched as Slone stripped out of his clothes like it was no big deal. It seemed like he did that a lot. It had been so long since Skye had seen anyone naked that the memories were starting to slip into the fog and he hadn’t really let the absence of such things bother him, but it certainly perked his interest and stirred something inside of him. Maybe he should have stayed back at the inn and seen if he could find some way to be in the middle of whatever Hamish and Duran had planned.

Or maybe not. He wasn’t sure sex was truly what he was craving. Maybe just a warm chest to lay his head on and someone to stroke his hair. Mirriam never stroked his hair. He had never asked, but she hadn’t offered, either.

As Slone got down on all fours and started to turn into a wolf, Skye dropped his weight and dashed up the nearest tree. He wasn’t necessarily quicker in the trees than he was on the ground, but he liked the way it felt. To be hidden, to move with ease through terrain that most found challenging. Slone was fast on the ground — so fast that once he started running, he was clearly moderating his speed so that Skye could keep up — but he couldn’t follow Skye up into the trees. Not in his wolf form, anyway.

Skye tracked Slone through the woods, staying above him, and then when the moment was right he leapt down on top of him and sent them both tumbling to the ground. Before Slone could retaliate, Skye was already scrabbling up the nearest tree.

Slone circled the bottom of the tree a few times, but when it became clear Skye wasn’t coming down, he continued his run. A few minutes later, Skye ambushed him again.

Slone was ready this time. The second Skye hit his back, Slone rolled, ending up on top of Skye with his weight pinning him down. Skye could make himself heavy, but he really wasn’t very strong. Slone gave Skye’s cheek a big, wet lick and then got off of him. Skye leapt back up into the tree and resumed his hunt.

Skye couldn’t remember ever playing with someone like this before, but it felt familiar. How many friends had he forgotten? Did he have family out there that he just didn’t remember?

But maybe it was better not to start digging. He didn’t know if he’d like what he might find.