Nathan adjusted the bags hanging off of his shoulders as he stumbled through the dark. He was currently wandering the small part of London that was scattered with empty houses, hoping he'd find one where he could camp for the night. He grumbled under his breath as he tripped over a plastic bag. He would have been currently spending the night in the community center as he normally would. But of course their current prick of a probation worker had found his little alcove and threatened to call the cops if he didn't leave in fifteen minutes. So Nathan quickly packed his few belongings and ran outside in the cold, South London night air.
He looked around the current neighborhood he was in and noticed a house that seemed to be devoid of all life. A tall, faded white fence stood around it, separating it from the rest of the neighborhood. The lawn was unkempt and wild and the flower beds were long overrun with weeds. A large sign sat at the end of the driveway declaring the house for sale but spray painted underneath was the word "Haunted." Perfect.
He quickly found an unlatched window and threw his bags in before climbing in after. He landed heavily on top of them and rolled off them and onto the dust covered floor. Large clouds of dust flew up and directly into his face, causing him to hack and cough. He stumbled upright as he continued to cough and dust off his clothes. It begins to settle as his coughing eases and he takes in his surroundings. The room he climbed in was vacant and the walls were a light color. The door was open and the closet shut. Nathan picked up his bags and walked out of the room. He began to look for the master room. Cause only the best for him. Well. Except he was homeless. He went into what he assumed used to be a kitchen and found a smaller door. He opened it and found a set of stairs leading downwards. He crept down the stairs slowly, hoping that there wasn't a serial killer-slash-rapist hiding in the darkness. The last stair squeaked as he set his foot on it and he winced.
Something suddenly moved in the darkness and he saw a huge, four-legged figure move in the darkness. It swiftly moved from the corner directly across from the stairs to the corner farthest from the stairs. A pitiful whimper echoed in the black and the scuffling all but stopped. Nathan placed his bags on the stairs as he squatted near the last step. He began to inch towards the figure huddled in the corner. The whimpering started up again as he grew closer to it.
"Hey hey," he coaxed softly. "There's no need to be scared. I'm just gonna be stayin' here to keep warm and dry. Just like you. See? Ol' Nathan here isn't gonna be hurtin' nobody."
The whimpers grew a bit quieter and lessened slightly. The scuffling was replaced by a sniffling. Nathan took a larger step towards the form and the whimpering evolved into a quick yelp. He held up his hands, palms up and he stopped his moving. The figure started to crawl towards him and he felt his breath hitch. As it neared, whining still, he began to notice it- or her- as it turned out. She looked like she was almost human. But her face was covered in what appeared to be dark blue and black specks. Two horns were curling out of her forehead. Just above her temples. Her eyes glowed a bright blue in the darkness as her clawed hands slowly reached out towards him. A long, scaled tail curled between her legs. Legs that were bent weirdly and covered by the same dark blue and black spots. Except they covered her entire leg and feet that were clawed and extended far more than normal. She let out a small, sad chirp-like noise and she winced as Nathan fell back. Her eyes clenched shut as she sat on the balls of her feet. Revealing her to be wearing nothing but a ripped bra and what he assumes used to be jeans that were clinging desperately to her wide waist. Her long black hair parted around her horns and hung in her face as she began growl at herself as she began to pull on her locks.
Nathan snapped forward and grabbed her wrists. He held them away from her face and began to shout.
"NO! Don't do that! No need to hurt yerself!"
She responded by whimpering and shook her head.
He released her wrists and grabbed her face, forcing her to look at him. It was then he recognized her eyes. He only met one other person who had eyes that same shade of blue. She had been with them on the first day with the storm. She had stuck mostly to herself and never met the eye of anyone. Except for him. When they were painting benches he had asked her what she had been done for. Just like what he did with the rest. Get to know them. He had asked her what her name was and she had made some weird shapes with her hand. Sign language. He got the 'L' she made but the rest, the rest was just a big jumble of pish posh.
Then they played a weird alphabet game so he could guess what the rest of the letters were. She had the most lovely smile when he managed to complete her name. 'Lucy.' He started to call her Lucy-Goose. Then just 'Goose.' And for some reason she wasn't offended like the weird kid. She had smiled and laughed a strange silent, breathy laugh. It was the most beautiful things he hadn't heard. Then went back to painting her bench. Then the storm came and they ran together. She had clutched his hand as they ran, never letting go, even as the lightning struck them. Then they had all gone home. Split up. Went their separate ways for the night. But when they came back the next day and were almost killed by their first probation officer, she wasn't there. And she never did.
Nathan had almost forgotten about her too. He looked into her eyes as his brows narrowed.
"Goose?!" he gasped and her eyes widened and she nodded, rubbing at her face and hiding it with her hands. He tried to wrap his arms around her but found them to be apprehended by a large, leathery bump. "What?" he whispered more to himself than anything else.
She looked up at him with wide eyes as the bump began to move and turned into two large, bat-like wings as they spread to their full length. Which, to Nathan, were fucking huge. Like each wing could by itself could completely wrap him up like a burrito. He whistled appreciatively and grinned. He reached out to touch one but she winced and pulled it back. She realized that he must of looked hurt and reached her wing out so it touched his hand.
"Awesome…" he breathed as he held it with both hands. He turned his attention to her face to find her staring at him with her big blue eyes. "So this is what the storm did to ya?" She made a soft croon as her eyes grew sad. "Hey! Don't you worry. You're not the only one. I was turned immortal!" He smirked and began to lift his shirt. He pointed to the two large scars that now decorated the middle of his chest. "See?" Lucy suddenly moved closer to him as her hands gently caressed the lower scar. She crooned as she looked up at him questioningly. "What?" She crooned again, more forcefully this time and rubbed the other scar that was directly above it. "No, I'm serious here. What? I'm fine. I just died a couple times. No biggie."
She grew horrified and screeched loudly, eyes wide.
"Goose! I'm fine seriously! Look!" Nathan grabbed her hands and held them tightly. "See? I'm alive! I just don't stay dead." She whimpered softly and sat completely down on the floor. Legs out in front of her she scooted towards Nathan and made the same soft chirp as the first one. "Is that all ya can do?"
She tilted her head and took on the resemblance of a confused puppy. He smiled and made himself more comfortable next to her. "Ya know. Like make other noises? Talk? I know ya couldn't before which is why yer were doin' the weird hand seizures."
Lucy smiled at him, showing off her new extremely long and sharp teeth. She shook her head quickly and laid down.
"Don't lay on concrete. It's bad for yer back," Nathan stood up and brushed the back of his pants off. "Let's go on upstairs and find some carpet or somethin' else better to lay on." He grabbed his bags and was about to hoist the last on on his shoulder before Lucy grabbed the last two in his hands and gestured her head for him to lead the way. He grinned and began to march up the stairs and turned to walk backwards up them when he realized that when she stood on her hind legs she was now at least a good head taller than he was. And she was obviously slouching. "Well, that's just unfair!" She smiled her toothy grin at him and bumped him with one of the bags she was carrying. "Hey!" Lucy garbled at him and bumped him again. "Fine! I'm goin'! I'm also gonna assume that you're okay with me bunking here with ya?" She rolled her eyes and huffed as they made it into the kitchen. She began to slouch lower as the top of her head brushed the ceiling and her tail stuck straight out for balance. "Did you know you look a lot like a velociraptor but like way hotter?" She huffed indignantly and garbled something as she left the room. Hitting Nathan in the face with her tail on the way out.
Lucy lead him out of another room and up some other stairs leading to another floor. She knocked her head on the frame as she reached the top of the stairs and began grumbling at the piece of wood. "Hey, let's keep goin' shall we? I got to be up in the mornin' and I'd like to get some sleep."
She started walking and purposely whacked him with her tail again. They walked to the end of the hallway and she opened the door for him. This room for some reason had been completely furnished with a queen sized bed and a dresser. Thick black curtains covered the windows and had very little dust on them compared to the rest of the house. The reptilian woman set the bags down by the dresser and laid down on the floor next to the bed.
"You're giving me the bed?!" he exclaimed, surprised. "Thanks. I can't remember the last time I slept in an actual bed."
From her spot on the floor, Lucy crooned in his direction. "I don't understand why yer worryin' so much. I've just been homeless since we started our community service. When we were all done, I came home to find out that my mum changed the locks on the doors and kicked me out. Turns out she chose her boyfriend, Jeremy over me. Ain't that some bull."
Lucy growled softly from the ground as she curled up into a ball.
"Are you sure you don't want the bed? We could share?"
He didn't receive an answer as she was already breathing softly. "Long day fer both of us I take it." Nathan quickly undressed and put on some pajamas as he crawled under the warm comforter that covered the bed. He flipped the pillow over to the "not so dusty" side and snuggled deep into the bed, falling asleep almost instantly.
He snapped awake in the middle of the night, breathing heavily, and covered in sweat. The faint remnants of his nightmare tainting the edges of his mind. His eyesight focused and he became quite aware of Lucy half laying on the bed staring at him with an emotion that he couldn't quite place. She was whining and was holding his hand worriedly.
"'m okay. Just a bad dream," he tried to explain but couldn't get much farther as she slid onto the bed and wrapped him up in her wings. Her chin rested on top of his curls as she laid them down.
"Ya know, this is completely unnecessary," he mumbled through the smooth texture of her wing membrane. She growled at him and tightened her hold on him. Nathan grumbled as he tried to struggle but was met with solid, unrelenting muscle. He wanted to start up a fight. To start yelling that he was fine and he didn't need to be treated like a baby. That he didn't yearn to have this sort of comfort from his mother or 'friends'. Or anybody really. But he also didn't want her to let him go either. Despite what he told his friends, he was scared shitless while he was buried.
He really thought that he would be stuck there forever. And he still had nightmares of being back in his coffin and slowly suffocating over and over again. Of slowly dying of hunger. Or of how he could tell when each of his vital organs were shutting down. Of how he memorised the pattern in which they always shut down in.
But now, while he was wrapped up in the safest feeling cocoon ever, he couldn't bring himself to yell. Nathan felt his eyes drift shut as he was lulled back to sleep by the strong heartbeat under his ears.