IncuBUST

Family

"That was...different," Barapha murmured as I ran a comb through his long white hair. 

"What was?" I asked parting his hair and running my fingers down his spine. His skin was flawless. He was silent for a moment and then he said, "I've never showered with another person and just...showered."

"I'm sorry," I mumbled and he turned to look at me the comb pulling through his damp hair. 

"Don't be sorry. I liked it. It was different but I liked it. It felt like we were doing something, but not doing something. Does that make sense?" he asked turning back around. I reached up and pulled his hair behind his ears. 

"It makes perfect sense," I said and he sighed.

"And thanks for doing my hair. It's a fucking pain to take care of. I hadn't washed it in like a week and a half," he said and I replied, "No problem, but if your hair is such a pain why don't you cut it?" He shrugged and muttered, "Tradition mostly. Also my kind has oddly sensitive hair. Cutting it is uncomfortable in a way that is physical and emotional at the same time. It's weird." He shook his head and I could swear he almost seemed self-conscious. 

"Your kind? There are more of you?" I asked setting the comb on my bedside table and running my fingers through his hair before twisting it and setting it over his shoulder.

"Of course there are more. What, did you think I just randomly popped up out of the ground?" he replied with a laugh. 

"Kind of. I thought that's how Elementals came about. Born of the Earth," I said pressing my palm against his back, feeling his cold, smooth skin like ice wrapped in silk. 

"The first of our kind sure, but they were given the ability to reproduce. I had parents, family...they're probably still out there somewhere," he mumbled. This was different. He seemed different. Barapha talked a lot but he never really said anything. I had never thought of him as having family or friends or feelings even. When he was dating Sissy I usually avoided him. He never seemed like someone I wanted to risk getting involved with. He was very old, very powerful, and kind of an asshole. Those factors combined meant he had accumulated many enemies. But underneath it all...he was just a person. Like all of us. 

"So you don't keep in touch with your family?" I asked leaning forward and pressing my forehead against his back. I had fed on him again in the shower, but I was still burning up. His frigid skin felt good against mine. 

"Do you?" he said reaching back and taking my hands placing them on top of his shoulders near his neck. Right, I was supposed to be giving him a massage. 

"We get letters two or three times a year from our mother, but we haven't actually seen her in nearly a century," I replied pressing my fingertips firmly into the muscles wrapping his neck. He sighed and leaned back into my hands.

"They used to do a family gathering thing every twenty-five years or so, but I stopped going a couple hundred years back. Reunions aren't really my thing," he muttered.

"That sounds nice. I always used to imagine what it might be like to have a big family," I said and he shrugged. 

"It's not that great. Then again my family are a bunch of hippies living in trees and fields of flowers and shit. I for one enjoy indoor plumbing," he said and I laughed. He turned slightly and I could see a smirk pulling at his lips, clever and arrogant. 

"Trees and flowers? So your kind aren't all...frosty?" I asked unsure of a better word to use. Now it was his turn to laugh. 

"No, we're not all frosty. I take after my mother, but my father is an earth Elemental like my younger sister and my older brother possesses the power of the sun like our paternal grandfather," he answered and I exclaimed, "You have siblings?!" For some reason the idea seemed even more shocking than the fact that he had parents. He chuckled and said, "Of course I have siblings. Most Elementals produce offspring throughout their entire lives. I probably have a few more siblings now but Surya and Jibana are the ones I grew up with." 

I thought for a moment digging my thumbs into his flesh in rhythmic circles. I wondered if Sissy knew these things about him. If she did she never told me and Sissy told me everything. TMI was not a phrase she knew the meaning of whether it was weird stories about her sexual encounters or bodily functions, she was impossible to embarrass. 

I stared at his back as I rubbed it. He was a lot more tense than he had been only moments ago. Maybe talking about his family made him uncomfortable, but if that was the case why didn't he just say so and talk about something else? I gently touched the bumps of his oddly prominent spine and asked, "Do you...have children?" I felt his back expand as he took a deep breath and contract as he exhaled. The room grew momentarily cooler. 

"No, I don't," he finally said and the knot in his lower back I had just worked out seemed to recoil.

"But you've been around so long," I mumbled unsure if I should continue with this topic.

"Yeah...guess I just never found the right person and now it's too late," he said softly.

"Too late?" I inquired curiously my hands hesitating on his back.

"I couldn't imagine bringing an Elemental child into a world this blackened with smog and soot. I'm used to it but most of my family would hardly be able to breathe in this city. And to be honest I'd probably make a shitty dad."

I didn't know how to respond so after a short moment of awkward silence I bent forward pressing my face into his back and wrapping my arms around his front passing just enough heat into him to relax his muscles without sending him spiraling down into a depraved sexual fantasy and I hugged him. 

After a moment I felt his hand on my right forearm holding onto it as if he were afraid I might disappear and he said, "Chase, can I sleep here tonight?" I blinked in surprise and straightened up trying to pull my arms away from him. He resisted for a second and then let me go.

"Here, like here? Like in my bed here?" I stammered suddenly embarrassed which was insane considering just twenty minutes ago we had been naked in the shower together. He turned to face me, but his eyes didn't quite meet mine as he said, "Yeah, in your bed." My face grew warm. I had a twin bed and he was a giant besides I hadn't slept in the same bed with someone since...

I shook my head to clear it and said, "I-I don't think Sissy or Octavia would be okay with that." He sighed and leaned toward me his gaze still not finding mine. 

"I thought you said this house was yours and you could have whoever you wanted," he murmured and my skin began to burn. He reached out and took one of my hands in his.

"It's almost morning anyway. Just let me sleep with you for a few hours, Chase...please." He finally looked at me and I could see it in his eyes, read it in his swirling white-blue aura. He was lonely. 

I smiled softly and said, "Yeah. Okay."