More Than Human

Chapter 68: Chaining Flowers

The boys back at the estate were having a much more laid back day. They all had urges to hurt Makarov, but their respective partners and guardians weren't comfortable having them in the same room. Soap was a bit grumpy about it at first, but Simon had insisted, and Soap eventually relented. Gaz and Rudy had both been content to stay, however. Gaz wasn't ready to see the man again after what had happened, and Rodolfo had quite a lot of unpleasant history with him at this point. He was more than happy to differ the man's punishment to his very, very, angry partner.

Roach was mostly there for moral support. He was angry at Makarov, sure, but he also was never the biggest fan of interrogation and torture sessions. So, he was fine to sit this one out. Besides, the others had seemed pleased that he was staying so it all worked out.

The four of them had decided to spend some time in the actual outdoor garden that was adjacent to the grass. Rudy was laying on the edge of another decorative koi pond. He wasn't fully submerged so he didn't change fully, just enough to get his skin a bit extra scaly. A few of the fins on his legs trailed out behind him in the cool water.

Soap was sprawled out on his stomach in the grass, kicking his feet in the air like a schoolgirl while he worked in his journal. He hadn't been able to work on it much, and he had quite a few things he wanted to draw. He started out with the less fun stuff. Sketching some of the memories he had regained of his family, good and bad. It was bittersweet, but he felt like sketching them might make him feel a bit better and solidify those memories in his mind. After he had given them their proper due diligence, he moved onto the actual fun stuff.

He drew the team members, newly adding Roach and König. Since Rudy was beside him he asked him for help remembering the details of what Alejandro's full chupacabra form looked like. He had only seen it once and he had been so worried about Rudy's health at the time that he had forgotten some of the details. Rudy was happy to oblige. Frankly he was always happy to talk about his Alejandro.

Roach was also laid out on his stomach. He had his wings slightly raised and spread, enjoying the feeling of the warm breeze on the fuzz. It was strange that it was December. Within the bounds of Price's property it felt like late spring, just bordering on summer. He wondered if it had always been this way, or if the Captain had done the enchantments himself.

Gaz emerged from the garden path toting a large picnic basket. He settled down beside Roach on his knees and set the basket down before opening it. The dryad had gone around and very politely asked the plants if he could harvest from them. He collected an assortment of blossoms and berries. Roach's eyes widened letting out a little chitter to ask permission.

They had discovered that Kyle was able to understand his insect sounds. They were very similar to the language of plants. He didn't have to speak or sign to be understood by the dryad.

"Go for it, Bug." Gaz granted him, watching amused as Roach shoved a handful of blackberries into his mouth.

Gaz lowered himself to mirror the rest of the men on his stomach. He reached for a few of the flowers and began to chain them together. Roach paused his berry eating to look at what he was doing, so Gaz held it closer for him to see.

"I can show you how to do it if you want." He offered.

Roach nodded and reached for a small bunch of flowers. Gaz smiled and showed him how to gently wrap the stems around each other to hold them together. Gaz kept checking his progress, noticing that for every two blossoms strung together, one ended up in the moth's mouth.

One thing they had all learned about Gary since they had arrived here, since he was turned, he was fucking ravenous. He was always trying to get some sort of fruit, vegetable, or fiber in his mouth. It made sense that he was so much smaller than the rest of them. Makarov had clearly not been feeding him nearly enough to be healthy.

Gaz finished off a long chain that he would hang to dry for some of Price's spellwork. He fiddled with some extra sprigs of leaves for a moment before Roach was draping his own length of chain beside his. Gaz snorted at the sight of his fingers stained yellow. Pollen seemed to stick to him like a magnet.

Gaz watched him shove a thumb into his own mouth to try and clean it off. He only succeeded in getting a load of pollen on his face. Roach huffed in frustration. Before glancing at Gaz, and then slightly above Gaz.

Gaz startled as Roach suddenly crawled onto his back. He straddled Gaz's waist, bracing himself with two hands on his shoulders, and another set of hands began to rub into his hair.

"G-Gary?" Gaz swallowed, feeling himself blush. Roach had sprinkled bits of stray pollen from his meals onto his head in the past, but he had never just fully rubbed at his hair, still green from the extra chlorophyll supplements that Price had been making him take.

He sucked in a sharp breath when the hands stopped their movement and pushed his head down, forcing him to rest his chin on his arms, holding it in place. Roach began to wipe his cheeks and mouth off on his hair. Then, in a mortifying turn of events, Gaz felt himself starting to rumble in his chest lightly.

Was he... purring?

He could purr?

Since when?

This was an embarrassing new development to be discovering with a giant mothman on back.

After a few more minutes Roach pulled away and ruffled his hair a bit. Gaz felt and saw some of the pollen rain down in front of his eyes. Some of the yellow powder landed on his lips, he licked it off and was shocked with how good it tasted.

"Much better!" Roach chittered, and Gaz wasn't sure if he meant the fact that he was clean or that Kyle was more properly pollinated.

Gaz's heart fluttered a bit and he wasn't sure why. He couldn't think on it for too long as Alejandro's voice drew both he and Roach's attention. Except Alejandro still wasn't there, still just Rudy and Soap.

Rudy was letting out slightly clicky giggles and Soap had rolled onto his back, kicking his feet in the air and clutching his stomach while he howled with laughter.

"That was so good!" Soap wheezed.

"Gracias, Perrito." Rudy laughed again. He was apparently showing off some of the uses for his voice, one being impressions.

"Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Do me! Do me! Me next!" Soap rolled back over and shook Rudy by his forearm with his two hands.

"Oh... I, uh, can't." Rudy admitted.

"What? Why not?" He asked. "Can you only do people you've smooched?"

"No, no, no! Nothing like that!" Rudy laughed, blushing slightly.

"Then how come?"

"I can't do accents." He admitted bashfully.

Soap gasped, sitting up, "Are you serious? Well, not to worry, Bubbles! Ol' Soap'll teach ya how!"

"You really don't have to do that." Rodolfo giggled again.

Soap shook his head, "Oh, I'm doin that! We'll have ya talking like a true Scot in no time!"

While the two joked, neither seemed to notice Gaz who still had Roach sitting on his back, rubbing his nose into his hair.

Kyle had a feeling that their vibes today were vastly different than that of the other half of the team.