It took him a full minute of looking at the vine covered ceiling above him before his breathing settled down into something more manageable and less panicked than it had been upon waking. Despite the heavy blankets that lay over him, Percy was shivering. The dream, nightmare really, had been as vividly colored as he remembered from when he had first experienced it in life, though thank the Eldan that the faces in it were starting to blur into nonrecognition. Even the vitalus tanks that had been joined to his shoulders and lower arms were starting to appear in it where once he had just been his normal, space-zombie-less self.
He sighed and closed his eyes as he pushed a hand through his sweaty white hair and took in a deep breath of the bunkers warm air. The familiar smells of fur, flowers and old books were a comfort as well as a reminder he really needed to dust more often as always. Percy sat up and let the blankets puddle around his waist as he looked around the room. “Scraps?”
The pumeras weight on the bed next to him had not gone unnoticed. Despite having plenty of spaces to sleep (and his own bed for flora’s sake), the great blue cat had always preferred shoving Percy over and claiming half of the Mordesh’s bed for himself. Percy complained sure, messing with the cats ears and ruffling his fur and shoving back, but the animals presence was more of a comfort than he would ever admit. Shoving the blankets away, he slid out of bed to pad to either side of the room to look into both kitchen and bathroom alike. He found pumera fur to be sure, on his reading chair, on the floor, on the dinning room table that Scraps knew he wasn’t supposed to be on, but no pumera.
“Fat cat.” Scraps lifted his head to give Percy one quick look before he lay it back down and rolled over to his stomach, his front legs stretching out over his head as he kneaded the air. Percy knew this was a trap, but it didn’t stop him from sitting down next to Scraps and running both hands through the thick fur of the pumera’s belly. Instantly Scraps curled around him with a growl, rubbing his large head against Percys own. “Yeah, you’re an asshole. My favorite asshole, but an asshole. An UNGRATEFUL ASSHOLE!” HE sputtered as he felt the pumera’s claws knead into his bare back before he disentangled himself from their grip. “I could have left you in that trap, you know.”
No, he couldn’t have and he knew it. Even if it hadn’t been something large and willing to claw his eyes out, a dying animal with a bloody neck caught in a trap would have been rescued. The wheezing the pumera had been making had hit too close to home that Percy could almost feel the breathing tubes in his nose again, the heavy weight of an oxygen tank behind him. The pumera had offered up no resistance, his nearly dead weight hard on the Mordesh to carry.
“Good thing we had Aurin nearby, huh?” His rubbed a hand under the cat’s large, low hanging jaw, a purr rumbling from Scraps’ body as the long blue tail began to sway back and forth. The trap was Dominion, they had explained, something to do with the Chua intelligence (Chua intelligence, had to be an oxymoron) division called S.C.R.A.P.S. What it meant no one knew, but it was pretty self explanatory to him. Catch something and if it wasn’t useful, toss it aside. Scrap it. It had become the pumera’s name, his background and identity. It had taken weeks for them to get comfortable and trusting around each others company, but it chased away the loneliness for Percy and the uncertainty of life for the pumera.
Percy ran his hand through the thick fur of Scrap’s neck, the long coat blue and white and almost clear underneath, a perfect contrast to the Mordesh’s dark skin. The animal was wild and alive and warm, a fit companion for one who felt like he wasn’t. “Move over, fat ass.” He pushed the pumera closer to the fire, the large body a growling dead weight save the long twitching tail. Percy lay down behind the animal, the hand not curled under his head like a pillow running back through Scraps’ fur. It would be hours before daylight if the clock was any measure of time above ground. Might as well catch a few more hours of sleep before the day started. “You’re my buddy.” Only purring and the sound of the pumera’s steady breathing was his answer as both friend and flame lulled him back to sleep which was, for a nice change, dreamless.
tonight we drink to youth and holding fast the truth don't want to lose what i had as a girl my heart still has a beat but love is now a feat as common as a cold day in TC sometimes when I'm alone I wonder is this a spell that I am under keeping me from seeing the real thing
"love hurts but sometimes it's a good hurt and it feels like I'm alive love sings when it transcends the bad things out of heartache, try me cause without love I won't survive "
tethered and abused stand naked and accused should I surface, this one man submarine I only want the truth so tonight we drink to youth Don't wanna lose what I had as a girlsometimes when I'm alone I wonder is this a spell that I am under keeping me from seeing the real thing
--incubus
