More Than Human

Chapter 78: Getting Together

Things had been really heating up in the moth and tree relationship.

Well, they weren't in an official relationship as Gaz was still unsure if Roach really was courting him or not. He didn't want to just take Alex's word. And even if he was correct, what would he even do? How did he accept?

They spent most of their time together. Walks in the garden, movie nights on a projector in the greenhouse, making flower chains, taking care of their newly cocooned caterpillar, and even fixing up the treehouse together. What else was there? How did people become, y'know, official?

Gaz decided to risk it and start doing some interviews with the other couples in the mansion. He started with Alex.

"How'd you and Farah end up getting together?"

"Well..." Alex considered it, scratching at the plumage of his arm, "it was mostly her. I sort of just follow her around, and she lets me. But she takes care of me too, so I guess at some point we mutually agreed upon a relationship."

Okay. To be honest, that was super unhelpful. He really didn't want the answer of, "it just sort of happened". That wasn't applicable advice.

He went to Soap next.

"How did you and the lieutenant make things official?"

Soap blushed hard, "Um, well... we sort of... um..." He took a deep breath drawing his hands together as if he were praying before pointing them forward slightly, "When a vampire and a werewolf love each other, very much-."

"Okay. Stop. Sorry I asked."

That was even less helpful. Gaz wasn't sure why he expected anything remotely noteworthy from Soap. Particularly because he had watched Soap and Ghost bumble around each other a bit.

He couldn't find Rudy or Alejandro separately, so he spoke to them together.

"How did you two make all of this happen exactly? Like how did it start?"

They both looked at each other fondly, the damn lovebirds.

"I fell in love when I saw him." They both said in unison. Then another pause, "And then we kissed."

Rudy made a little whistle and grabbed Alejandro's hand. Alejandro brought his hand up to press a kiss to each of his fingers.

"Guys." Gaz said, pulling them back in before they could get too distracted.

"Right." Alejandro laughed, "Sorry, hermano. I didn't even realize I was in love with him until Valeria told me."

"And I didn't want to get between him and Valeria." Rudy tacked on.

"But once she had left, and I knew..." Alejandro explained, "Then it all just feel into place."

"But..." Gaz scrunched up his nose, "how did you both know the other was interested?'

They both turned to look at each other and tilted their heads.

"Um, I honestly don't remember." Rudy admitted.

"Sí. We just kind of happened."

Gaz had left before they lost self control and started sucking face in the kitchen. They had been almost helpful. But then they just really weren't again. All three of the couples didn't seem to have the answers he was looking for. They all acted like it was this natural thing, but how was he supposed to know what to do?

And he didn't particularly want to be patient and wait for something to happen.

Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long.

On the day Price and König left for their assignment, they were gone for two full days. They left early in the morning, and had called to let them know that they were staying in Manchester another day to get their target treated at a nearby hospital.

Price wouldn't be needing him around the house at all, so he and Roach decided to spend the day at the treehouse. They spent their time working on further decorating the space. Books placed on shelves, flowers dried and hung all over the space, a little herb garden planted on the deck. The treehouse had a turret at the top of the roof that contained a circular loft. They had set up a bed inside. An old round bed from one of the unkempt spare rooms in the mattress and been placed against one of the walls.

Roach excitedly decorated the final room. Making the bed with silk sheets and pillows. Most importantly, Gary's favorite thing, string lights. All of the power in the treehouse was solar, and some would say that Roach had overdone it with all of the fairy lights, but he definitely didn't think so. When Roach had decorated the room to his standards, he gave Gaz a little nod, signaling the dryad to fill in the space with vines and plants to his liking.

As soon as it was done, Roach gave some happy chitters and grabbed Kyle and spun them around a bit. He took his hand in two of his own and began dragging him around the tiny house as if giving him a tour. Even if Gaz had already done half the work of the renovations and was already intimately aware of how the structure looked. From the little kitchen, to the compost toilet. But Roach was so excited. And Gaz was too, honestly.

"We did it! It's done!" He buzzed excitedly when they made it back out onto the little deck.

"We did." Gaz chuckled, "Thanks for doing this with me. I've been looking at this sad old treehouse since I first emerged from dormancy. I always thought there was so much potential, but with no one to really share it with..."

"I want to share everything with you!" Roach told him, making him blush.

"You do?"

Roach nodded. He spread his wings slightly and fluttered them around, his antenna wiggled back and forth. He was still holding onto Gaz's arm with two of his four hands and was rubbing it with his thumbs.

Alex's words echoed in his mind, "How many of those things are insect mating techniques?"

Gaz blinked at him, swallowing. He had no way to know for sure, but as the fairy lights all began to flick on above and around them in the low light of dusk, he realized how he could find out. He needed to reciprocate.

He gently started tilting his head back and forth so that his leaves and ever growing blossoms rocked with his motion, mimicking the wiggling of Gary's antenna.

Roach's pupil suddenly enveloped his eyes, leaving them entirely bug-like. He made a few more pleased buzzes that shifted in pitch. Gaz hummed his best imitation of a buzz back, following the tones that Roach let out.

Roach spread his wings further, and as if pulled by hypnosis, Kyle stepped closer to him. As soon as he did, Roach wrapped the rest of his arms around him and took off. Gaz tensed slightly, but let himself be flown higher up in the tree where he was gently placed on a branch. He looked up and saw Roach lying himself down on a slightly higher branch, continuing to spread and shake his wings.

Gaz continued to follow his lead and climbed up the branches until he was on the same one as Gary. Roach sat back up and crawled over to him, he was slowly shifting farther into the moth. He placed a set of hands on Kyle's thigh.

"You want this?" He inquired.

"What is this exactly?" Gaz asked, wanting to make sure they were on the same page.

Roach made a little chitter, "Want to have you like Farah has Alex. Like Ghost has Soap. Like Alejandro has Rudy." He paused, leaning closer so that he could wiggle his antenna against Gaz's antlers, "You are already perfect and you somehow keep getting better. Want to make you grow. Will you let me? Will you let me have you?"

Gaz's heart was about to burst out of his chest with its pounding. This was actually happening. He nodded faintly.

Roach took a spare hand and gently gripped the base of an antler, slightly moving his head around, "Tell me." he practically purred.

"I want this."