"Hey, where are you going?" I asked coming into the living room and seeing Quetz opening the front door. He turned to look at me and I was surprised to see his golden eyes glossy with the threat of tears.
"Home," he replied turning away. He hesitated at the front door and mumbled, "I'm sorry that we intruded on your territory. I knew we shouldn't have come, but when Barapha puts his mind to something there's really nothing anyone can do."
"Yeah, I gathered that," I responded looking at him carefully. He was extremely polite for a child eater, but I guess it's always the polite ones you have to look out for. He moved to leave again and hesitated again and then shut the door and turned all the way around to look at me.
"What I said about your human smelling better than her enchiladas...it really was just a joke," he said his accent flaring on the word 'enchilada.' He shook his head and continued, "I mean it was true but I didn't mean it like it sounded and then he made it worse by saying I met my allowance and that Amphithere's swallow their prey whole." He was babbling at this point.
"And then I made it even worse than that almost admitting she was older than my preferred prey. I mean yes, younger meat tastes better, every flesh eater knows that, but--"
"Okay, you need to get out of my house," I said cutting him off and moving towards him to open the door. He blocked the door with his body and stammered, "B-but the p-point is that I don't eat children anymore, n-not since the Accords came out and the laws were established. I r-rarely even meet my allowance anymore. Things were just kind of rough this month and I tend to eat my feelings."
I was silent for a moment and then I sighed and took a step back. I looked up at him and said, "I get that." He let out the breath he had been holding and his body seemed to relax minutely. I didn't understand why he was so desperate for my approval, but I did understand messing up and killing someone. Octavia's dad had been the first in years.
"So why have things been so rough this month?" I asked before hastily tacking on, "If you want to talk about it. I've been told I'm a pretty good listener." He shook his head and smiled nervously replying, "Just family stuff. We have a reunion thing in late spring every couple of years and you know how families are. Always questioning your life decisions and-and 'you're losing your heritage' and 'when are you going to find a nice lady Amphithere to start a nest with?' and 'Oye, nieto! You are skin and bones! Abuelita will find you a nice villager to eat.' Like you can just go around scooping up villagers like it's the 1200s!"
He stopped talking and cleared his throat self-consciously looking down as if suddenly interested in the pattern of the hardwood floor.
"Sorry for oversharing," he mumbled and I couldn't help but laugh. It made me kind of glad the only contact Sissy and I had with our mother were a few letters every year.
"It's fine, Quetz. Sometimes oversharing is good for you," I said and he looked up at me with a small smile.
"Then can I keep going? This is actually kind of therapeutic," he asked quietly and I nodded. Sometimes people just needed to talk. They didn't need someone to solve their problems they just needed someone to listen.
I could hear Sissy and Barapha arguing still though it seemed the topic of the hierarchy of sentience had played out and now they were discussing whether the law formed ethics or ethics formed the law so I took Quetz to the sofa and we sat down and I looked at him. He glanced at me and then looked away wringing his hands nervously. Finally he sighed and I saw smoke curl from his nostrils.
"I don't handle stress well and since I'm not really--you know--w-with my family and Barapha isn't really one for chit chat I don't really have anyone to talk with and things sort of build up inside and I just need a..."
He shook his head and mumbled, "I was raised on human flesh and then the Accords happened and it's like eating Premium Organic your whole life and then being downgraded to canned chicken and Fritos and if you don't follow the rules you get imprisoned or killed and it sucks and sometimes you feel like four a month isn't enough and you want something fresh and clean and tender and..."
He covered his face with his hands and took a deep breath. I could see small bluish green scales erupting on his fingers.