Slide To Open

Part Twenty-Five

   "My nest is over by that corner and it has a lot of really comfortable fabrics. If you want, you can try it out tonight. It's supposed to be really cold later on, so if you don't have any blankets, you can use mine."

   Axel nodded along, his eyes speaking for themselves with fireworks of gratitude. Sam decided to say something.

   "Why Dont you say anything?"

   "Um...I tal-k-k...funny," Axel replied, his voice hoarse and high pitched.

   "I don't think so. I think it's kinda neat."

   Axel smiled down at the floor, which by now had been infested with dust from Sam's abandonment.

   "Oh! Do you wanna see the phone I have?"

   "Phone?"

   "Yeah, the things humans use to talk to each other. I borrowed one a while ago and talked to Leo on it, and we became friends like that." Sam dragged Axel over to the hallway holding the cellphone, still upright and facing the wall as if it hadn't been touched in years. Sam reveled in the machine, nearly hugging it with relief that it hadn't been damaged since he left, and now he had the opportunity to talk to his friends again. And if things went his way, this could be the very start to getting Axel used to the humans. "Watch this."

   Axel watched with curious eyes as Sam hit the bottom button twice, and the whole hallway lit up with a bright white light that temporarily blinded them both within the dark walls.
 
   Once their eyes adjusted, Axel could make out a single line on the bottom of the screen that read "Slide To Open," and his head tilted a bit at the phrasing.

   "Do you wanna open it?" Sam took the initiative, and let go of Axel's hand to give him a chance. "Just put your hand on the side and slide it."

   "...ok"

   Axel did as instructed, and his face lit up with wonder as the phone unlocked. To Sam, it revealed a conversation with Leo that he never exited, but to Axel and anyone else who had never been in contact with the machine before, it was indescribable. The countless colors and words on the screen, all put into round boxes delicately carved to perfection, and the bottom dedicated solely to a keyboard of letters that Axel could hardly read all at once.

   And then he saw what the conversation entailed, and he took a step back.

   "This is from when I last texted Leo. We both couldn't sleep so I went back to him and we sort of cuddled until I passed out, but he stayed awake the whole time because I was there and he didn't want to accidentally forget about me in his sleep. And when I woke up the next morning, he fell asleep at the dining room table sitting up," Sam laughed at the memory, and then reminisced when he remembered how his humans treated him from the start. Not like an animal, but like a friend.

   "How do y-y-you do it-t?"

   "Do what?"

   "Friends with-th humans?"

   "Oh. It was scary at first," Sam admitted, sitting with cross legs on the cold floor and motioning for Axel to join him as they watched the screen together. This was his chance to put his plan into action. "But they're really good people. I love them."

   "But they're humans."

   "Not all humans are the same," Sam told him, intertwining their fingers together once again. "These ones are really special to me."

   "W-why?"

   "You wanna see?" Sam said. "Let me show you."

   Sam got up, still hand in hand with Axel, and reached up with outstretched fingers to punch in a few letters into the phone. When the screen changed, and a new conversation was brought up, Axel nearly fainted with the overwhelming energy.

   On the screen lay the group chat that the boys started from the very beginning. From the moment Sam introduced himself, to making distinctive plans about meeting up, and everything in between. It was incredible to see how far they had come, and Sam knew it was necessary to convince Axel as much as he could about how good his humans could be.

   "So, if you want, I'll let you read through our conversations. You can tell me if it gets to be too much, though," Sam explained, stepping away from the bright screen to give Axel all the access he could. Axel, in turn, was brave enough to take a step forward.

   "Um...what do th-the-the names-s mean?"

   "Which names?"

   "E_J_K, and the other ones."

   "Oh, those are usernames. It's like a nickname for talking with people online. E_J_K stands for Elijah King, because that's Eli's username."

   "Eli..." Axel pondered, his mind running back to the table, and to the terrifying encounter he faced with the human. "He w-was scary..."

   "Elijah is the least scary human I've ever met!" Sam exclaimed, taking a moment to think of a way to prove it. Using his empty hand, he spun Axel around to face him, and began recalling the moments of first encountering his friend.

   "When I first got caught, I was so scared I started crying," Sam reluctantly admitted, smile widening at the sight of Axel's shocked reaction. "And Eli came up to me and made sure, before anything else, that I was okay. He didn't even ask what I was until he knew I was done crying!"

   "That's...it doesnt m-ma-ke sense," Axel stuttered out, his grip on the story fading.

   "Why not?"

   "Wh-why would Eli care...?"

   "That's just the kind of person that he is. And he makes jokes to make you feel better if you ever feel upset, and he loves the fact that we're all a little different. Elijah was the first human I've ever come in contact with, and I think he's really cool."

   Axel, who was shocked beyond comparison at this confession, turned his tiny head back to the screen. It seemed Sam was excited to talk about the humans, no matter how scary they were or how biased he should've been towards them, and for some unknown reason, Axel actually wanted to hear more. It might've been the way he wanted to get along with Sam, or the way he Told his stories like they were the best things in the world, but Axel felt consumed with the desire to ask for more.

   And as for Sam, whose plan was going exactly as he wished...well, he was just as compelled to deliver.

   Meanwhile, unbeknownst to their sons, Drizzle and Jack watched them from the end of the dark hallway. They listened in on the conversation, and how Axel was starting to speak to Sam like he did with them. It made both of their hearts swell up, only to shatter into a million pieces when Sam brought the humans back up into focus.

   "We need to keep an eye on them," Jack suggested, planning for the worst.

   "They're just boys; there's bound to be some curiosity."

   "Not about humans."

   "A human saved us," Drizzle pointed out, and Jack clenched his jaw.

   "You saved us," He told her, his gaze hard. "The human was a tool to getting there."

   "Always so traditional," She muttered, giving Jack's hand a squeeze and leaning against his shoulder. It could've just been the sight of her sons at the end of the hallway, but she was suddenly feeling a very cold pit being filled in her chest.

   "I'd be dead if I wasn't."

   "I never said it was a bad thing," Drizzle tilted her chin to meet his eyes. "But maybe it's time for a change."
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A/N: This is a relatively short update, because College decided to drown me in essays this week haha. More updates coming soon!
As always, make sure to leave a comment to let me know what you think! Thank you for reading! ❤️