Shadow pushed attention away from himself as he crawled out from the closet, squinting his eyes against the late afternoon sunlight streaming in through the windows. At home, they had thick, black curtains covering all of the windows. Shadow had grown used to not having to tolerate any amount of sunlight.
The bathroom was better. He left the light off while he went to the toilet and brushed his teeth.
When Shadow left the bathroom, he found Finch sitting at the kitchen table, looking at something on his phone. He was faced towards Shadow and definitely would have seen him if not for Shadow’s gentle mental encouragement to keep his attention focussed in on the screen in front of him.
Adin had stuck the list of house rules to the fridge with a magnet that looked like a little ice cream cone last night, so Shadow went to read it now.
No parties.
No guests without prior permission from Adin and Finch. Appointments with plumbers, electricians, etc. to be made by Adin.
No TV shows with audible live audiences (sports, game shows, etc.) in communal spaces.
Do not ask about anyone’s life before coming to this world without permission.
Groceries are ordered Friday mornings. Add anything you want to the shopping list before then.
Bins go out on Tuesday.
Shadow glanced back at Finch, who was still staring down at his phone, and then slipped out through the back door.
#
Finch turned in his chair to talk to Adin where he sat at his desk in the corner of the large, open plan room that managed to be a kitchen, study, and living room all in one. “Mal just texted me. Turns out there were two dogs. He got a minor bite, but they managed to bag both the dogs.”
“Did he send you a picture, or was ‘minor’ his own description?” Adin asked. “He’ll try to walk off any injury if it means he doesn’t have to go to the hospital.”
“Don’t I know it. We have some antibiotics he can take. Which, you know, normally bad to self-prescribe, but I think we can be pretty fucking sure that if he rocked up to a hospital with a bite from a mystery monster, they’d give him some antibiotics.”
Adin idly rubbed the velvet on one of his antlers. “I suppose. I just wish he’d be a little less reckless. He’s only human.”
“He’ll be fine. These days he has Tyla both backing him up and fussing over him if he gets an ouchie. He won’t let him get away with dying from wound infection.”
“That’s very true.”
Finch turned to look at the linen closet door where it sat next to the bathroom. “Should we wake Shadow up? Or at least check on him? He’s been sleeping for a long time…”
“I’m not sure how long he’s slept. As I said, he tried sleeping under my desk for a while and only moved to the closet later. But yes, I think it’s been long enough that a check in is warranted.”
Finch approached the linen closet, opened the door, and… Shadow wasn’t in there. The futon mat was crammed in there, but Shadow was gone. “Okay, cool.”
Adin ducked down as though to check that he wasn’t just really deep under the shelf. “He was still there just before you got up. Malyn opened the door for a second and he was there.”
“And I’ve been here pretty much the whole time since, and I didn’t see him leave.”
“Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves and start worrying. His belongings are still here, so I don’t think he’s left. He’s probably just hiding somewhere else.”
“He’s not a kitten, Adin. He’s a grown man.”
“A grown man with a history of sneaking into small spaces and hiding himself away.”
Finch sighed. “I’ll go check my wardrobe.”
Shadow was not in Finch’s wardrobe, or the one in Malyn and Tyla’s room, or in the bathroom, or under Adin’s desk, or anywhere in the garage. This wasn’t a big house. There weren’t many places to hide. Had he just… left? Had he been taken without them even noticing?
Finch walked out into the backyard, but there wasn’t really anywhere for Shadow to hide out there. Finch walked to the back fence anyway, looking around carefully in case Shadow was just crouched in the darkness somewhere, then jumped when he turned around and saw two glowing eyes watching him from the roof of the house.
Finch took a cautious step forward, wishing for his body armour or a weapon of some kind. He could fight with his hands if he needed to, though, and his body could take a decent amount of punishment all on its own.
The figure shifted and Finch’s eyes caught the shape of pale limbs. Oh. “What the fuck, Shadow?”
Shadow hunched down where he sat on the point of the roof.
Finch sighed. “Okay. I’m coming up.”
Finch planted his foot on the railing of the small deck surrounding the back door and then hauled himself up onto the roof. He climbed carefully as he made his way up to Shadow, mostly because he didn’t want to pay for roof repairs.
“So,” Finch said as he sat next to Shadow. “Is this a safe thing for you to be doing, given whatever your deal is, or are you just being an idiot? That’s the thing with weirdos like us. You never really know. Normal twenty-something dudes do stupid shit all the time and they really might just get themselves killed, so who’s to say that we’re smarter and only do things we know are safe?”
Shadow didn’t respond.
Finch sighed. “So, is Luther actually your dad?”
Shadow glanced at Finch, the glowing circles of his eyes lingering on him uncomfortably. “Actually?”
“Well, obviously not actually actually, but did he raise you?”
Shadow nodded.
“For how long?”
“Ten years.”
“So, since you were ten?”
Shadow nodded again.
“I’m sorry. I mean, I’m guessing he wasn’t a great father.”
Shadow didn’t respond.
“Do you think he’s a good dad?”
Shadow shrugged.
“Well, I guess you’d know better than I do about that. I don’t know jackshit about shit, honestly. Never really had parents, before or after I ended up in this world. Which is fine, honestly. When you’re a kid with a parent, it’s like someone owns you. They get to run your whole life. Kinda weird.”
Shadow lifted his legs so that he was perched precariously on the rooftop, folded his arms on top of them, and watched Finch, as though signalling his willingness to listen.
So Finch kept talking. “Malyn had foster parents. Awful. They were constantly on his ass about his grades. Took his stuff away, shouted at him, grounded him, as though he was doing shitty at school because he just wasn’t trying hard enough. Nah. Man came here when he was twelve, and he didn’t even go to school on his own world. They should’ve just been happy he could read and write and left him alone.”
Shadow nodded.
“Hey, you’re not going to go back to your dad and tell him everything we tell you, are you? All this personal shit?”
Shadow shook his head. “He wouldn’t care anyway.”
“Maybe he’s less of a jackass now. Maybe I’m just holding onto a grudge. Haven’t heard much from him lately, honestly. But man, when I was seventeen, his favourite game was trying to bite my throat until I punched him in his, and I find that one a little hard to forgive and forget. He thought it was funny. He ever bite you?”
Shadow shook his head.
“That’s good. I’m genuinely kinda relieved. But, you know, that thing I said did happen, so if he was good with you and you were wondering why everyone thinks he fucking sucks… that’s why.”
Shadow nodded.
“Hey, can we go inside now? Adin’s going to be wondering where we both are at this point, and you could probably do with some… breakfast? Dinner? Well, whatever you want.”
“Okay.”
Finch had been prepared to watch with great anxiety as Shadow climbed down from the roof, ready to grab him at the slightest sign of lost balance, but he climbed backwards down the roof tiles like it was nothing and then dropped himself effortlessly onto the railing before hopping the rest of the way to the ground.
Finch had to go far more slowly and carefully. He wasn’t too concerned about what would happen if he fell off the roof, but he still didn’t want to. Shadow waited for him by the door, and once Finch was down, they went inside together.
“Ah!” Adin said when he saw them. “You found him. Where was he?”
“On the roof,” Finch said.
“Oh,” Adin said. “I wish you wouldn’t do that, Shadow. I don’t mind giving you as much space as you need, but you’re here because someone wants to kill you. It worries me when you go missing.”
Shadow nodded, though what that meant, Finch didn’t know.
“I’d set rules, but I compared having parents to being a slave five fucking minutes ago, so that might be a little hypocritical,” Finch said as he walked over and opened the fridge. “What do you want to eat, Shadow? We’ve got… I don’t know. I haven’t opened the fridge in like a week because I just eat whatever Adin puts in front of me.”
“I’ll make you something,” Adin told Shadow. “What do you like? We have fruit, eggs, I can make sandwiches, noodles, soup…”
Shadow went to his bag, retrieved a moderately smooshed loaf of bread, and brought it to Adin. “Sandwiches.”
Adin’s smile faltered as he held up the loaf of bread, but only momentarily. “No problem. What would you like on your sandwiches?”
“Cheese?”
“I can do that. Why don’t you sit down at the table while I make that for you?”
Shadow sat. Finch sat next to him.
Shadow’s eyes were sensitive to the light. He didn’t make a big deal about it, but it was obvious from the way he kept his gaze downcast and kept blinking and squinting his eyes that he’d been more comfortable outside, in the darkness of night.
“Your eyes are, uh…” Finch waved his hand vaguely as he searched for the word.
“Photosensitive?” Shadow volunteered.
Finch didn’t know what that meant and he never would have come up with it on his own, but Shadow sounded confident. “Yeah. Seems like the light is bothering you.”
“It’s dark where I’m from.”
It was technically against house rules, but Finch risked a question. “You miss it?”
“The dark…” Shadow said.
“You miss the part where the light didn’t hurt your fucking eyes?”
This whole time Finch had felt like there was a disconnect between himself and Shadow, like his words weren’t quite getting through, but when Shadow lifted his head just slightly and offered Finch a hint of a smile, he realised that wasn’t the case. “Yeah.”
Once Adin had finished making the sandwiches and set the plate down in front of Shadow, Finch got up and turned off the kitchen lights. The lamp on Adin’s desk was still on, so there was still enough light to see by, but Shadow immediately seemed more comfortable with casting his eyes around the room.
Finch sat back down, across from Shadow this time, and immediately noticed Shadow’s gaze land on the brand that marred the inside of Finch’s wrist. Finch gave him a shake of his head. If Shadow asked, he wasn’t answering.
Tyla had asked about it on his first day living in the house, and Finch had felt so bad for him that he’d actually answered. Tyla, recently introduced to the concept of tattoos, had innocently assumed that it was just another form of body art. It had taken everyone else in Finch’s life years to get to the point where he’d felt comfortable talking about it, and someone so close to Luther wouldn’t be an exception like Tyla had been.
That was an issue of personal boundaries, though. When it came to how they dealt with Shadow in a more general sense, it really wasn’t going to work to treat him like an extension of Luther. He might be a part of their lives for months. He had to be able to live here comfortably.
Finch’s phone rang and he pulled it out of his pocket and glanced at the screen. Unknown caller. He answered anyway. “Yeah?”
“Ah, Finch,” Luther’s voice said from the other end of the line. “How is Shadow settling in?”
“Well, I just had to get him down off the roof, so, y’know…”
“Why did you need to get him down from the roof?”
“I don’t know why he was on the roof.”
“Because he wanted to be on the roof, obviously. Why did you need to get him down?”
Finch was silent for a moment. “That’s not a good question, but I still don’t know how to fucking answer it.”
“Mm. Can I speak to Shadow, since he is no longer on the roof?”
“Sure.” Finch set his phone on the table and slid it across to Shadow. “Talk to your dad.”
Shadow picked the phone up and placed it against his ear. Finch had been preparing to eavesdrop, but as soon as Shadow started talking, it became clear that would be impossible. He had the ability to talk so quietly that Finch couldn’t make out a single word he was saying from just across the table. He wasn’t even really whispering. Not muttering. Just… talking quietly.
It sure as fuck put to rest any ideas that Shadow was incapable of putting a sentence together. He was saying plenty, and he seemed agitated about it. Finally, he sighed and slid the phone back to Finch.
Finch picked it up and put it to his ear. “He been telling you all about what terrible hosts we are?”
“No, Finch,” Luther said. “He was worried for my safety. Why? Have you been bad hosts?”
“Well, apparently not letting him be on the roof is being a bad host. Who knew.”
“Just let him be. He can take care of himself. If you insist on doing something other than leaving him alone, try sparring with him. It might help you take him a bit more seriously.”
“Are you suggesting I wouldn’t just kill him in a fight?”
“That’s why I said spar, not fight. Do you have no ability to moderate your strength? I could kill him easily, but that doesn’t mean we can’t spar. I just show a modicum of self restraint and don’t cave his face in with my fist.”
“I was just asking because I don’t know what the fuck he can and can’t do, you dipshit.”
“Go find out,” Luther said, and then he hung up.
Finch set his phone down on the table and looked at Shadow, who was eating the last of his sandwich. “Your dad thinks I should spar with you.”
Shadow nodded. “I heard.”
“Do you want to spar?”
Shadow nodded.
They went outside and turned the lights on in the backyard. It wasn’t exactly well lit, but Finch suspected that wouldn’t be a problem for Shadow.
“Okay, ground rules,” Finch said. “I can take a hit, so unless you secretly have crazy super strength, go nuts. I’m going to be holding back on how hard I hit you, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be willing to knock you down.”
Shadow nodded.
It started out casually enough. Finch deliberately let a couple of Shadow’s hits land just to show him that they wouldn’t phase him, though if Shadow was used to sparring with Luther, that would be nothing new for him.
Finch tried to get a gentle hit in on Shadow to test his limits, but he found that Shadow could dodge more quickly than he’d expected.
Finally Finch swung and then, as Shadow leant back, tried to push forward to take advantage of Shadow being momentarily off balance. Shadow twisted around and sprung forward, a hand pressing down on Finch’s shoulder, and then suddenly Shadow was behind him and Finch’s foot was being swept out from underneath him and he was on the ground.
“Huh,” Finch said as Shadow offered him a hand up. “Okay. You can sit on the roof as much as you want.”
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