Jamie laid down still and silent on the hardwood floor of his bedroom, his eyes closed listening to all the quiet sounds that filled the hollow mountain. He could hear the soft sounds of others sleeping through the walls and the soft clicking and humming of the scarab in this head. Everything seemed so quiet and simultaneously so loud.
In front of his eyes, he could see the scarabs screen even though he wasn't armoured up. These days he almost always viewed the world through the slightly yellow tinged lens rather than his own vision. On the screen, he could see texts in reach that he didn't know how to read but always somehow understood. It wasn't a language that he had actively learned but as their two minds slowly became one and their walls between each other slowly crumbled into nothingness he began to understand the alien languages without needing a direct translation of them.
"Jamie?" Khaji chirped in his mind asking. The scarab had started sounding more and more like his own voice if you were to strip him of his accent
"Go head" He spoke softly but out loud to the creature that was attached to his back. A few seconds and a few clicking sounds later he could feel the Scarabs legs extending out under his skin. He knew if he were to look at his back he would see blue legs under the skin like veins. This was just the state of his skin now even when he wasn't blue beetle and even when Khaji was just resting inside the scarab. The legs that he grew and manoeuvred into Jamie's body stayed permanently where he put them, becoming part of his natural anatomy. Some were larger and intertwined with his muscle fibres making them stronger and other so small they ran against his nerves in every part of his body so that he could feel everything Jamie felt. Jamie was sure there was nowhere in this body where the leg extensions in his skin hadn't touched and settled. Feeling the Scarab move and crawl under his skin should have been uncomfortable but he found it peaceful and intimate.
It was such an intimate thing that the two of them could only experience. Something he only let happen when he was alone in the dark quiet of his room with the lights off and windows were drawn. It felt so intimate and private it wasn't even something that he let his other boyfriend see and after some explaining, Bart was okay with that, though from the outside it just appeared that he was laying on the floor in a prone position with his armour shifting on and off his body.
Five years, it had been five years since he had gotten the scarab and it seemed that every part of him had changed in that time. With extensions of the scarab intertwined with his muscles, he was larger and stronger than he had ever been. He was also different as a person. He was more patient, more kind, more intelligent, and more confident then he had ever been in the past.
Khaji Da had changed too, he had become almost human in the last several years. Five years ago when he first became connected to Jamie he was a machine and nothing more but after being on mode and then off it again he began to recognize emotions in himself. He began to have dreams than nightmares, he fell in love with his host and then his host's boyfriend. He was completely different in every way, no longer hell bent of killing for the sake of protecting his host. He understood the concepts of teamwork, family, compassion, love, and the idea that fighting with friends could be healthy.
"Jamies eyes were half-lidded and he just listened to the sound of the scarab in his brain, occasionally Khaji would hit a nerve in his explorations that sent shots of pain but it was always followed by waves of pleasure. Occasionally he thought of what he would tell someone if they were to ever walk in on this situation. Maybe they were having sex which wasn't a completely wrong description for what was happening, maybe lie and tell them that he was recalibrating the sensory systems, maybe just tell them to not worry about it and close the door in their face. He wasn't sure.
He gasped and moaned softly as Khaji struck something that flooded his body with a muscle. What would happen to the scarab after he died was another thing he often thought of but was always cut short. "You are strong my love you will not die soon no need to think of those things." He knew there was really only two options, either the Scarab would short circus his systems essentially killing himself or he would move to a new host. A heavy sigh fell from his lips, it was contentment and peace, he had been there all night of the cold floor.
The sun was slowly filtering into the room through the closed blinds and his alarm for school would be sounding soon. He really didn't know what would happen next, in life or in their unusual relationship. In a way he didn't want to know, the day by day hero life was one he was more than happy with for now.