Given how unusual Isaiah and I are, I guess our settling should have been dramatic. When my sister Kay and her Rose settled she was so overjoyed, I thought they were both going to burst. Kay was twelve when Rose settled. I still remember her running into the kitchen, Rose in her permanent tree gecko shape on her shoulder. "We're settled, Vlad! Forever!" she screamed, her voice so shrill with joy I though my eardrums would explode.

"How do you know?" I asked, looking up from my homework, spread out on the table. Isaiah is on the floor, leaning against the chair, a paperback novel in his pale hands.

"I can feel it! Wait till Ma gets home!" They danced off into the living room, and I looked up at Isaiah.

"Think you'll be settling any time soon?" I adjust my glasses out of nervous habit, and only see out of the corner of my eye as he shrugs and holds out his hands in a 'who knows?' gesture. Isaiah doesn't talk much, but that's never been a problem for us. "its been a while since you changed. Maybe we settled without knowing?" But he sprouts leathery wings, which knock against the table. "…guess not."

"We'll settle sooner or later. I just don't see why its so important." He doesn't look up from his book as he speaks to me. It's the most complete sentence I've heard from him all day.

I chew the end of my pencil and finally decide on a reason for him. "It shows you're grown up. That you know who you are."

"So Kay knows herself to be a lizard?" He says it disdainfully. Isaiah isn't overly fond of anything remotely reptilian. Even fish gross him out…but I'm the only one who knows that. As you can guess, it would be intensely rude to openly express dislike for an animal that could be someone's daemon.

"They stick to walls." I say more in my sister's defense than in her daemon's. I'm not too wild about lizards either. "Its more than you do."

"Spaghetti sticks to walls, too." He points out, smirking. "If I settle, I'll settle as a komodo dragon. Then I can bite people who annoy us and give them all sorts of weird diseases." He says it with false bravado…both of us know we'd never touch someone else's daemon. The idea makes me feel sort of makes my stomach flutter with apprehension.

I give him a small smile, which he doesn't see…its just as well. I know he feels the warmth of it. He's already pretty venomous, I think. He doesn't need any more poison. Besides, who would he use it on? But I don't say that, because deep down the idea of my Isaiah being an animal scares me. Not because it would put an end to our loving each other in an unconventional way, but just because I'm so used to him being a person that it would be like losing a friend. That sounds coarse, I know. I shouldn't be so prejudiced against animal-shaped daemons, but the truth is I like having a human-esque daemon. It makes me feel special. "Don't settle." I tell him, but he doesn't respond.

When Ma comes home that night, Kay practically bowls her over telling her about Rose's settling. Ma's happy for her, and congratulates her…but I notice the look she gives me and Isaiah. 'what about you two?' she's thinking. I can't hear it, but I see it in her face. 'what's up with you two?'

Much later that night, after homework and dinner and annoying Kay, Isaiah and I are in my bedroom alone. It's past time for us to have gone to sleep, especially considering tomorrow is a school day, but we're still awake. We lay cramped together on my twin-sized mattress. There isn't enough room for us to share the bed comfortably…I think the reason Ma hasn't bought us a larger bed is because she thinks the cramped sleeping arrangement will influence Isaiah to use a smaller, animal-ier shape. I've given up complaining, and would never tell her how good it feels to feel Isaiah pressed against me while we sleep.
"What do you think about these?" Isaiah whispers. We're half asleep, him with one arm over me and me with one leg thrown over his hip. Its not very comfortable but I want to be closer to him than our skin allows and this is the best I can do. It takes me a second to see what he's talking about: the sharp fangs that have replaced his canine teeth.

"you some kind of vampire?" I ask, teasingly.

He squirms so he's looming over me, smirks before biting down on my neck. It hurts at first, I flinch and gasp. But it isn't that bad, really. It almost feels good. "yeah," he says in a much different tone. "do you like it?"

"..do it again," I suggest. He bites into my neck again, and I can feel my blood rushing into his mouth. "yeah," I hear my voice constricting as I reach up and put my arms around him, clutching at his t-shirt. "I like it."

He pulls away, and I'm relieved to notice my blood stops flowing from the wound almost as soon as he does. Something still feels different. I look in question at Isaiah, who looms frozen over me. "whats wrong?"

"…think I settled." He looks at me with panic in his mismatched eyes.

"How can you tell?" I sit up, forcing him off of me. He kneels next to me and takes my hand in his.

"don't you feel it?" he asks, placing my hand over his heart. I don't feel it beating, but it feels warm. There's something else there, a secondary kind of unfamiliar glowing. It feels like coming home after a long, difficult trip. It's like being settled, I realize. "Is it bad?"
I examine him in the dark, giving the question the most serious consideration I can. This is what I will be spending the rest of my life with. This is my Isaiah, my daemon. I will wake up to see this face, I will fall into these arms when I need comfort, I will kiss these lips. I know in my heart there won't ever be anyone else for me but him, and this is how he will be forever. I had wanted that, hadn't I? The fangs hadn't been in my original desire…but I can get used to them. "I think it's okay…" But I'm hesitant to sound certain.
"Yeah?" My Isaiah smiles a little, the brightness returning to his eyes.
"yeah," I say. I lay back and pull him on top of me. He nips at my shoulder blade, and I feel blood rising to the surface.
Oh yeah. I can totally get used to this.