“How’s all of that going? Still tearing each other’s throats out?”

“His connection to this place collapsed much like mine did the first time. He’s had to cut off a lot of his body to stop the reaction.”

“Which means you’re not nearly as cool with this as you pretend to be either. Strop trying to show off. I’m fine now.”

“I am too. Again, I’ve much spare tissue.”

I didn’t buy it, and most importantly, had other business to take care of. I squirmed free of the jagged arms around me and stepped out of the nest around my legs to bang on the flesh wall, “Hey, open the window.”

He did without hesitation and cold fresh air tickled my skin and lungs. The horizontal slash was big enough for me to climb out of if I deemed so. I suppose the worry over puny human skedaddling away didn’t even cross monster’s mind.

I leaned forward and spat out the shard as well as all the blood I’ve been trying to hold in, unsuccessfully. Drooling all over myself was not a good look. “Can you do something about my mouth?” I asked.

Disembodied voice cooed, “I know this will be very hard for you, but you’ll have to keep quiet for a minute.”

I rolled the eyes as something slithered in and settled on my tongue, spreading to press on every leaky booboo. I hissed and moaned my distress. After that was ignored, I tried to express how nice it must be to materialise additional mouths upon demand and it was utterly lost in translation.

“You need to eat and drink,” monster informed me out of blue.

“Oh! Oh yea, can we get back where we were? I must retrieve the pears I scattered. And the other jars,” I mumbled through the sentence almost legibly. However, once I moved the jaw around more liberally, I found that nothing was sticking. Squirted out all the odd liquids from my mouth and saw snow dyed by blood, pus and chunks. I vaguely heard a reply, but my thoughts have since moved on. Saliva and blood mix must have had a new kick to it too. He really shouldn’t be anywhere near me, not when he was falling apart all on his own.

There had to have been abandoned lone cabins somewhere out here. I could sit there until my scrapes have all scabbed up and monster took care of his wounds Perhaps also finished dealing with his volatile twin. Too bad there was an absolute zero chance of it happening. This paranoid being would not let me out of his reach again.

A new formation prodded at my lips, but I took hold of it and pulled away. “Don’t worry about it. Mouth never bleeds long.”

There was low reverberation to the side and I saw ivory-haired man staring. He was close. I could touch that form of him. I pointedly turned away from the mirage, threw myself over the sill of lumpy snakelike body in an awkward full-body hug and absentmindedly patted it. The position was the furthest thing from comfortable. Head tilt didn’t particularly endear the dizziness to me either.

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I spat out some more pink slime onto disturbed snow.

I hadn’t noticed when it came to be exactly, but my back wasn’t cold. Strange for this weather.

“You must eat,” he demanded again with outstretched hand in my field of vision. It had several halves of fruit I so carelessly left behind. I knew these were the same because one was clearly splashed with unbecoming touch of colour. I reached for food automatically, but retracted. One good belch and I’d probably be alone in a field of carrion.

“I’m not that hungry,” I lied far too obviously. Couldn’t really think straight.

“You seem to harbour misgivings about swallowing after all,” monster quipped.

“Oh, baby. I’m all about it,” I exclaimed jovially. After all, some days that’s all I’d have in my stomach. I might have heard hints of answering growl. Did I say that out loud?

The irritation transformed into apathetic words, “So consuming others is fine, just not me.”

I shot up and held on for dear life to stay upright. “Whoah. That’s way different!”

“How?”

“It…” I started and piped down. Monster flesh was raw? But so was the man juice. That yoghurt wasn’t alive? It kind of was. That was sex and this was just weird? But, why? And why not the other way around? My head was a bit too muddled to figure this one out.

Monster took mercy upon my confused ass and woke me up from this deep philosophical trip I embarked upon without telling anybody by saying, “You seem to be aware how poisonous you could really become.”

So he caught on too. Little wonder, really. I didn’t quite gulp, but he must have gotten the information he was after with that prompt anyway. “Let me feed you. Directly.”

I hacked out a reddish loogie. Situation was hardly improving.

He obviously knew what he was doing but I couldn’t contain the worry, “Will you be alright?”

“Very,” monster assured rather fervently, which just seemed alarming but perhaps for different reasons.

He had asked.

“A’ight,” I muttered feeling oddly shy for no reason at all. I didn’t even know how this would look like. This would be new and strange, sure. And somewhat intimate. But it didn’t mean anything. It was just eating, just tad differently. And yet the air felt electric and filled with anticipation as the walls around me disappeared by gradually slithering whence they came from. There was just me and neatly combed, underdressed man in front of me.

“You didn’t need to hide everything else,” I huffed trying to dispel this thickening ambiance.

“I did. I need you to see me as potential partner, not a thing of completely different species,” he said with straight face. My palms got damp with most malicious liquid of all. Nervous sweat. Which, coincidentally, was likely just as deadly to him as the rest of me. I couldn’t even wipe it off on my pants because he redressed me somewhere along the way.

I almost stammered out that I already do and he can stop underplaying his grandiosity, but my throat locked up as if this was my first time in similar situation. Just in time. My brain woke up and saucy distrust made an appearance instead, “Why, so I can develop attachment? You think something so juvenile will stop me from splitting whenever I want?”

“So you can see me the same way I see you when I give you part of myself,” that bold mouth said from very, very close and pressed to my slightly agape lips. The embrace that followed was to die for. Sure, perhaps he was just holding me so I wouldn’t squirm as that all too long tongue slid down places it had no business being, but it still felt like coming home. I clung to his clothes back. Really wanted to dip my clammy fingers beneath them, but this rough texture was also him.

“Thanks for not forcing yourself on me,” I expressed after he withdrew the tapering organ with small departing lick to my lip. Sure, upon refusal he might have resorted to this anyway, but almighty being such as him was used to just heedlessly executing everything that came to its mind. He asked. And haven’t employed force to get the glass out either. He could have. That meant so much to me.

“Thank you for not insisting on killing me,” laughing red eyes responded in kind.

I scoffed due to the absurdity of the statement, “Right.”

His fingers brushed the hair off my forehead. “You’re created to kill me. If anything bites through your flesh and gets all those compounds mixing, the place of your demise will become ground zero. Limping ecosystem of this world might disappear entirely.”

“Oh. Wow. Um. That’s really bad. Everyone’s majorly fucked, aren’t they?”

“How terrible. You might need to stop actively trying to perish.”

I was so unimpressed my face expressed it with all-engulfing disgusted frown, “Yea this doesn’t sound overfly shifty at all. I definitely won’t try the opposite now. Buddy, you need to work on your manipulation skills.”

“I don’t. I’ll keep you safe,” he promised with a glint in his wide maniacal eyes.

“Okay,” I agreed settling my face onto his warm shoulder.