Souvenirs From Dead Worlds | ✓

Chapter 4

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The feeling of someone's hand on his shoulder gently shaking him awake had Kias reflexively curling tighter into a defensive ball. Memory of where he was quickly returned, however, as the odd smell of the liquid he'd been washed with drowned his senses. Kias twisted his neck to see Sam standing behind him, leaning against the bed.

"Hey." Sam smiled down at Kias. "Time to get going."

With Sam's help Kias climbed down off the bed and immediately found that his legs didn't quite seem to be working as they should. His head, too, still felt foggy with sleep even though the alarm of being in a strange place should have had him on high alert. He almost fell over before Sam quickly grabbed his arm and pulled him upright. After a few moments Kias managed to steady himself and Sam cautiously released his grip.

Sam seemed calmer now, so Kias, leaning his weight against the bed, risked asking a question. "Where are we going?"

"To my place. We can take nice warm showers, get something to eat, and then go to bed."

"Shower," Kias repeated, confused. Kias only understood a shower as being a kind of rain. He didn't bother asking, though. It was just one more thing Kias didn't understand, and his thoughts were currently about as confused and groggy as his legs were. He wondered if it was because of his injury. Maybe he was getting ill.

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Sam was glad to find nobody in the common area of the apartment when he brought Kias in. He could answer their questions and deal with them pointing out what an idiot he was later. For now, Sam just wanted to get both of them clean, fed, and settled in for the night.

New problems, however, quickly became apparent.

It was easy enough to stick some protective plastic over Kias' bandage to keep it from getting wet, but the fact that Kias didn't even know what a shower was complicated things. That Kias was still quite groggy from the pain killers and needed Sam's help just to stay on his feet most of the time didn't help matters either.

Eventually, Sam gave up. "You're doing this yourself next time."

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Kias had never seen a shower before, but once Sam explained what it was for Kias appreciated how useful such a thing could be. It could make warm water pour down from it like rain any time you wanted, without needing to start a fire to heat it first or anything. Kias didn't understand how it worked, but he was happy that at least he understood the purpose of it.

Another thing Kias had never seen before was a man with Sam's skin tone naked. The Northerners had skin only a little darker than Sam's, but as they rarely lived in Kias' city, only visited it, he'd never ended up working alongside one.

The Northerners had laws barring sex between anyone but a man and a woman, so they only rarely received Northern customers who sought to fulfil their desires discreetly. None of them had ever chosen Kias, which had probably been a good thing; they had bulky, powerful bodies, and looked like they could easily break someone if they unleashed their full strength. Sam was certainly in shape, but his body was lithe and beautiful, designed for precision and speed rather than brute force. Kias stumbled and Sam caught him and propped him back up before he could fall.

Belonging to Sam wouldn't be so bad, Kias thought as Sam led him under the shower's spray. Although Sam got angry sometimes, and although he'd seen Sam hit that other man before they'd gone through the strange blackness, Sam had yet to be violent towards Kias. And if Sam wanted something from him... well, at least Sam was young and good looking and clean. Kias still hated the idea of Sam doing that to him, though. He hated it because he was starting to like Sam. He wanted to like Sam.