Souvenirs From Dead Worlds | ✓

Chapter 12

Sam had fallen asleep, his legs dangling over the end of the bed, while Kias lay with his head on Sam's chest, listening to Sam's heart beat. When the silk of Sam's shirt started sticking uncomfortably to Kias' face, Kias sat up and stretched.

Kias wasn't as confident about his new role as he'd let Sam believe, but he had known if he'd shown any hesitation Sam wouldn't have gone along with it. Sam was so careful it was infuriating sometimes. Kias glanced down at Sam's sleeping form and sighed, then went to the window. Outside, people were bustling down the road on their way to or from one place or another. Likely on their way home from wherever they worked, as it would be getting dark soon.

The one little niggling worry Kias did have about this whole new role was how blind Sam could be to certain things. Sam had spent so much time trying to see only the good in societies so that he could record their more positive aspects that he’d been left with some rather large gaps in his understanding of cultures like Kias'.

Kias understood Sam's position on the matter, but he didn't agree that the experiences of all but a few wealthy and powerful individuals should be erased for the sake of a pretty picture. Sam would see just how terrible those with the most power could be and, if Kias had a bit of fun in showing him, that was good too.

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When Sam woke up his head no longer felt like a war zone. Although the chip provided him with a place to store new information, his own brain had to work out the connections to integrate it. With two extra languages muddling around in there, it had been an awful tangle. Sam wasn't sure he would have been able to sort them apart at all if he hadn't already gotten Kias' language fixed in his mind beforehand.

Kias was kneeling on the floor next to the bed, his back to Sam, moving around awkwardly, and Sam couldn't figure out what he was doing.

"Hey," Sam said, and Kias twisted around to look at him.

Kias gave Sam a lopsided smile. "One moment. I know how prudish you are."

Sam, unable to see Kias' lower half, still couldn't figure out what Kias was doing. Not until Kias stood, giving Sam an eyeful of bare ass, and then pulled up his pants and tossed the tube of scar lotion onto the bed. That was twice he'd seen Kias' naked buttocks in one day now. If it hadn’t made him feel so awkward, Sam would have considered himself lucky.

Kias turned and grinned at Sam, completely at ease. "We don't exactly have our own private bathroom here. I intended to protect your virgin eyes by doing it while you were asleep."

Sam aimed one of the cushions from the bed at Kias' head and missed. "Nothing about me is virginal."

"Nothing?" Kias smiled, his eyebrow quirking up challengingly. "I bet I could find something you're a virgin to. Plenty of things."

"Okay, challenged denied." Sam shoved at Kias with his foot as Kias crawled onto the bed, causing him to laugh.

"I'm huuungry," Kias whined, rolling onto his back. "There have been food smells coming from downstairs for ages. Delicious food smells."

Sam glanced at the window and saw that it was, indeed, full dark out, though he had no way of determining how late it was exactly without going outside and taking a look at the moon. Not so late that food had stopped being served, though, and Sam knew that was all Kias would care about.

"All right," Sam said, sitting up and combing his fingers through his hair to get it to fall back into place. He stretched and yawned. "Okay. Where's your pretty hair thing?"

Kias let Sam tie his hair back up in the ridiculous beaded silk ribbon. It had been quite expensive for something so pointless, but as they had virtually unlimited funds Sam had bought it anyway when the shopkeeper had offered it to him. Now that Sam's brain was a bit more ordered, he could see just how obvious a sign it had been to everyone that Kias was more to Sam than a regular servant. Oh well. What was done was done, and at least Kias seemed happy enough with the change in role. Sam wasn't sure he was.