HORNS (BoyXBoy)

Chapter 108

Updated Author's Note: For whatever reason, the fanart by animelover62225 of "Cow Horst" was suddenly deemed 'unsafe' by wattpad and became invisible to everybody but me. I'm eye-rolling but it is what it is.

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Chapter One Hundred and Eight

I couldn't look away from the mirror. Believe me, I tried to, but it was pretty much impossible because I didn't recognize my own reflection, even with my hair and ears soaking wet with black hair dye and copious amounts of it being slathered across my eyebrows by Aerin.

Only an hour and a half had passed since the collective set of apologies.

Yes, I knew I'd been forgiven, I'd heard and accepted the apologies and I'd had my own apologies accepted, too... but I still didn't feel right, there was a lingering buzzing sensation in my head, and now and again my ears would ring and things would grey out a little, but every time they did, Luka--who had stuck to my side like a burr and followed me, even when Aerin ushered me into the huge bathroom beside the entry hall sitting room--would look up.

Ears flicking. Head cocking. As if he could somehow sense it.

Then, without fail, he would scoot closer on the fold-up chair he'd been given to reach out and touch the back of my neck. He got dye on his fingers every time, but he still rubbed the same spot over and over. Of course, the first time, Aerin freaked out and frantically tried to tell him that he'd stain his fingers if he got the dye on them, but Luka had just grinned at me.

"Luka still do," was all he'd said, and with one wiggle of his ears, Aerin let it go.

I hadn't really thought much of it at first, but it hit me without warning after the seventh time he touched me that he was actually massaging my birthmark. I didn't really understand the significance of his actions even though I mentally took note of them. Moreover, whatever he was doing actually worked every single time. With physical contact from him... all the strange, awful sensations that had been making me so tired were pushed back and out of my body, almost as if something was battling inside me, a force waging a ferocious war against the yawning black hole, a force that had reached out like a powerful hand through the tips of his fingers, a hand that was struggling mightily to pull me out of its reach.

With just a single touch, my half brother was keeping a very physical reaction to something that was clearly dangerous to my life at bay, and I knew for a fact that I needed to ask him about it later.

Still... it was hard to look away from the mirror. My hair had gone almost completely white, with only a few streaks and patches of black. My eyebrows had suffered similarly, with the left one being completely white and the right one being mostly dark with wide streaks of white in some places. My eyelashes had the same problem.

It was weird to see.

Aerin dragged me out of my head by tipping it back and gently petting my soaked, gunk-covered ears, and I blinked as my eyes were torn from my reflection. His pretty blues came into view and he grinned, glittery irises peeking at me from behind lowered lashes the color of snow.

"Hi," I greeted, momentarily taken aback, and to my dismay my ears flapped at him. He simply giggled and grinned at me. "So, we done?"

"Nope, not even close," he chirped, and I had to fight not to flick my ears again and risk getting dye all over him a second time. "Just, keep your head tilted back so it doesn't run into your eyes, okay? It'll take about thirty minutes for it to start setting in your hair, but your fur is thicker and a bit different than your body hair... so the dye on your ears might need to set a bit longer."