57- A Moment Together

When Quayleigh and Tau arrived at Dylan's condo, she was pleased to see it looked exactly as they had left it. It still smelt of bleach, with a hint of lemon freshness. They had been given another small stack of mail when they arrived, which reminded Quayleigh of the bag they had taken back to her apartment the last time. It had ended up in the backpack with Dylan's research notes, which had been stuffed into the bottom of her closet.

"When we get home, you're going to have to go through his… your, mail," she said as she slipped off her shoes and headed over to the couch in the living room. "Seriously, if it wasn't so far from work, I would totally move in here with you."

"You have the car. Doesn't that make it easier?"

"Only if you could drive me and pick me up at night. Garren has a single spot behind the store for his car, and there is no way I could leave yours parked out on the street all day. I would be an absolute wreck worrying about it. I don't think you understand how rare and expensive your car actually is. Normal people, they don't get to drive cars like that. Hell, most people couldn't afford to own one in their lifetime, especially people from Rosemont. Stealing the rims alone, could make someone more money than working minimum wage for a year."

"Perhaps we could get you a car that you wouldn't mind using?"

"Sure, but then I'd be super embarrassed to show up here driving it." She laughed as he pried his shoes from his feet and then joined her on the couch.

"Then what would you like to do?"

"In a perfect world, I would quit my job, without feeling horrendously guilty about it, and move in here, and enjoy how this half of society lives," she replied as she looked at him. "I wasn't always broke. I wasn't from a super-rich family, like yours," she playfully nudged him, "but we were pretty well off. Before my father died and my mother turned into a complete waste of oxygen, we lived in Clairemont Heights. It was this big, red-brick house with a large back yard. And there was this massive red maple tree in the middle of it. My bedroom was almost twice the size of my apartment."

"Do you remember what your father was like?"

"I wish I did," she replied as she turned and laid down, using his lap as a pillow. "I don't remember much about him anymore, and I'm sure that what I do recall is an idolized version of the truth. I was just a little kid, and he was my hero. I can't remember what his face looked like anymore, but I will never forget the way it felt when he would come home from work and place his hand on the top of my head. I can vaguely remember a moment from the last fall before he died. He had raked all the leaves from the tree into a pile and bundled me up in this champagne pink coat to take me outside. I jumped into the pile, and he would toss the leaves into the air and then he would fall back into the pile next to me and we would watch them float down. The summer before that, I remember him taking me outside at dusk and showing me how to catch the fireflies. I never remember hearing him raise his voice or get angry. I know he loved watching nature shows and reading books with me. He even set up a small desk for me in his office, so I could spend time with him when he had to work. It never felt like he didn't have time for me. In my memories he feels kind and warm, and even now, I know, that he loved me."

"I'm sorry you lost him so young," Tau whispered as he ran his hand over the top of her head and through her hair. "Do you know how he died?"

"No, not really. I know it was in the winter, and it had been snowing the entire day. And I can remember waiting at the door and my mother telling me that he was going to be home late, but he never came home at all. I asked her a few times as I got older, but all she would say is that he was in an accident, and never gave me the details. If I ever managed to find a way to talk to Death, do you think he'd be able to tell me the truth of what happened to him?"

"If you know his name, he'll be able to."

"His name was Sebastien. Sebastien Aodhan Vershinin. I used to wonder what my life would have been like if he hadn't have died, but even if he had lived, I doubt I would have ever ended up in a place like this," she remarked smiling up at him. "You know, your parents are probably going to hate me, right?"

"They are Dylan's parents, not mine."

"They're yours now. As is all of this. So, I fully expect they're going to accuse me of being responsible for your memory loss and or, being a gold-digger. And you should fully expect them to encourage you to break up with me."

"Why would they do that?"

"Because I'm poor, an orphan, I live in the Downs, have no education beyond a GED, work for minimum wage at a convenience store, oh, and in case you forgot, I look like this."

"Humans truly are so foolish," he muttered as he delicately took hold of her eyepatch and pulled it off. "Compared to me, you rival the most beautiful goddesses to ever have graced the mortal realms."

She blushed to his honeyed words even though she knew them to be just that. To most, compared to his true self, just being alive would be an improvement, leaving the comparative bar of beauty standards incredibly low. Still, the sentiment he was trying to convey had come from a sincere place, and that managed to reach her, touching her in a romantic way.

"That's really sweet of you to say, but the reality is, scars like mine, make people nervous. And rich people will want to know why I've never gotten mine fixed."

"If they could be fixed would you do it?"

"Now that I have a boyfriend who could afford to pay for it, maybe. If it were possible. But thanks to Cole and that ritual last night, I know it's not, and trying would only give away my secret. Magic is the only way to fix this kind of damage, and it simply will not work on me," she remarked as she sat up and turned into him, closing her eyes as she placed her brow against his. "Would you want me to get them fixed if I could?"

"No. Not even one. They remind me of how lucky I am to have this time here with you."

"You really are so very charming," she whispered before she kissed him.

Opening her gifted eye, she peaked the sight of him and felt his arms wrap around her as he pulled her up onto his lap. Closing her eye, she melted to the warmth of his body, the weight of his hands, subtlety of his breath, and the heavy pressure of his lips pressed to hers. She could have wasted the day away engulfed in that moment with him, but time was limited and there would be plenty of time for the romantic stuff later.

She moaned as she leaned back causing their lips to part ways. "Hate to be the barer of bad news but times ticking, and this is a lot of house to search for clues."

"Where should we begin?" he asked as he slowly ran his hands down the length of her spine applying just enough pressure against his fingertips to force her to arch her back.

"Oh, don't do that," she remarked as she twisted and stretched her back against his hands.

"And yet you seem to be enjoying it, but I'll stop if you want me to," he said as he removed his hands.

Grabbing his arms, she pulled them back up against her, "No, no, no, don't be hasty. Five more minutes. We have lots of time."

Even though his true self had faded, she could still clearly see the broad smile on his face as he walked his fingers up her back and ran them down again.

"Oh, yeah, that's the stuff," she said with a grin.

Twice more he walked his hands up and raked them down, and halfway through his upward motions, she felt him flatten his hands before pulling her forward, resting her head against his shoulder.

"Worth it," she muttered as she snuggled against him, feeling like putty.

"Agreed," he replied with a wispy tone.

"We still have more than enough time to search this place. You aren't getting out of it that easily."

"I know, and I wasn't trying to get out of it. Just delaying it for a bit longer. No offence to Dylan, but I much prefer to remain myself, and I fear the more I know about his life, the more I will assume the role of being him. As it is, when someone now calls me Dylan, I find myself becoming less bothered by it. I suppose it is inevitable though, considering his body is now mine. And as bodies go, it isn't all that bad, just a bit smaller than I'm used to. And I really do miss having a tail, and a wider range of vision. I know it isn't the same as the position you're in, but for me, it's like I'm half blind too."

"Hey now, it is the same, comparably. Which means, that normally I see with a quarter of the vision you're used to, so I can sympathize. At least on that. As for your tail, I've no idea what it would be like to have one, but I'm sorry you miss it. It really is quite sexy on you."

Tau chuckled as he hugged her. "Alright, time to get to work. Where do you think we should start?"

"Well, if I had to guess, just from looking around this place, I would assume he keeps his more personal items in his bedroom."

"Then we shall start there," Tau replied as Quayleigh climbed off him and stood up offering her hand to him. Taking her hand, he stood beside her as she told him, "Lead the way."