Chapter 7
Whistle was curled up against his chest, sound asleep. Shane held the blonde in his arms, marveling at the beauty and perfection of the creature currently sleeping against him. Of course, it was only his definition of perfection. But that was all that counted anyway. He watched the breath passing between those kiss-swollen pink lips, and kissed Whistle lightly on his forehead. The being didn’t stir, totally worn out from this new (but very nice) activity that Shane had taught him all about. He wondered if the being dreamed, and if so what kind of dreams he was having right now.
He closed his own eyes, feeling a bit tired himself. Whistle had a lot of energy. This was nice – in fact, it was perfect. It was his day off, so they didn’t need to go anywhere or do anything. They could cuddle together in bed like this all day. They could eat, sleep, and have sex at their own pace. A perfect day, in his opinion. He ran a hand down Whistle’s bare back lovingly before he curled up around the being and went to sleep himself.
The next few weeks were the best of Shane’s entire life - with one exception. Whistle HATED him having to go to work for eight hours a day. The being pouted, sulked, begged and even started sniffling a couple of times as he was going out the door. Shane was being driven crazy, especially since the blonde refused to try to eat while he was gone. He’d curl up on the couch like a beaten puppy, and not move for hours. Shane took to bringing food home with him, so that he could feed Whistle immediately after he walked in the door. He was frustrated and uncertain what to do; he couldn’t seem to get Whistle to understand that his going to work was the only way that they could eat and have a roof over their heads. The being was simply miserable when he was gone, and Shane was starting to become miserable too because he didn’t like making Whistle unhappy.
It finally came to a head one day when he returned home to find Whistle curled up on the bed looking pale and wan. Concerned, he sat down and put a hand to Whistle’s forehead. “Whistle? Are you all right? Are you getting sick?” he asked anxiously.
The being opened his big crystalline-blue eyes. “Shane,” he croaked. “You’re home.”
“Yeah. Whistle, what’s wrong?” he asked again.
“I…am not physically ill, Shane,” Whistle replied rather hoarsely. “But I…my energy is low.”
“Why?” Shane questioned.
The eyes flickered closed again. “It is because I am away from you, Shane,” he explained wearily. “You are my Lamhulae. I need your energy to help the Seeding. Mine is not enough. And I can’t channel your energy if I am not near you.”
Shane felt fear spurt through him. “Are you saying…that me being away at work is hurting the baby?!” he cried.
Whistle nodded. “I did not want to tell you, Shane, for I could see and feel that you were upset. I hoped that I could get enough energy while you’re home, but I cannot. If this continues, I fear that the Little One will not separate from me.”
“You could…could have a miscarriage?” Shane asked as his throat threatened to close up.
“The Little One will dissolve back into our combined energies,” Whistle agreed. “Oh, Shane, I do not want to lose our Little One.” He whimpered.
Shane gathered Whistle up in his arms. “Oh, God, Whistle, I don’t want to lose the baby either. But I don’t know what to do – I need to make money to take care of us,” he said miserably as he buried his face in the blonde curls.
“Money,” the being repeated. ‘What is money, Shane?”
“You must have seen it in my mind – it’s the green slips of paper that I trade for things. Food, clothes, and the house payment…without a way to make it we’re going to starve anyway.”
“Oh,” silence or a moment. Then: “Is there any other way for you to make this green paper, Shane?”
He shrugged helplessly. “Well, unless we win the lottery…” he began.
“Lottery? What is that?” the curiosity in Whistle’s voice relieved him. It was clear that the blonde was feeling better already.
He pulled the blonde up against his chest as he began to explain what the lottery was. Whistle listened, and when he’d finished the being said: “Well, we will simply have to win this lottery, Shane.”
He blinked. “How are we supposed to do that, Whistle? Do you know the odds against it?”
“It does not matter,” the being replied stubbornly. “Take me to the place that has these ‘lottery tickets’, Shane.”
Baffled, he did as the being asked. He drove them to a convenience store in town to purchase some lottery tickets. Whistle walked beside him up to the counter. The blonde whispered in his ear: “Talk to the lady, Shane. Which device is it that makes these tickets?”
Still puzzled, he nodded at the red machine sitting on the counter that spit out the lottery tickets. Shane talked to the clerk, and while he did so Whistle sidled over to the machine and set his hand atop it lightly. Shane saw a glimmer of light or something on the ends of Whistle’s fingertips. Then the being left it and came over to him. He nodded at Shane, who bought a couple of lottery tickets from the clerk. They left the convenience store, and he turned to confront the blonde in the parking lot.
“What was that about, Whistle? What did you do?” he demanded.
Whistle looked innocent, an expression he had definitely perfected. “I did not do much, Shane. I simply used a tiny bit of energy to tell the device to give us a winning ticket. That is all. It is that one,” he pointed to the first ticket that had come out of the machine.
Shane gaped at him. “This is a winning lottery ticket?” he demanded weakly.
The blonde nodded, smiling widely. “Now we shall have enough green paper so you will not have to go away all the time, Shane!” he enthused happily.
He might have protested except for two things – one was the fact that he really did want to stay home with Whistle all the time. This money would give him a way to do so. And the other was the fact that if they didn’t get some money, Whistle was going to lose the baby because Shane couldn’t be around him all the time. He couldn’t allow that to happen. So even though this was sort of cheating, he simply accepted it and stowed the winning ticket away in his wallet. “Okay, Whistle,” he said. “Let’s go home.”
That evening he watched in silent amazement as the numbers were called on the t.v. – and every one of them was the same as the numbers on the ticket he held in his hand. While he’d believed Whistle this afternoon, some part of him had still not quite accepted the idea that this was possible. But it was. They’d won…Christ, half a million dollars! He stared down at the blonde snuggled up against his side, marveling once again at the magic that was Whistle. “We won,” he said aloud. “We won a ton of money, Whistle.”
The being looked pleased. “So you will not have to leave me anymore, Shane?” he asked hopefully.
“No. I can stay home for as long as you need me to. And you can go with me whenever I have to leave the house. So we’ll never be apart from now on, Whistle. Not until its safe for us to be, anyway. Not until after the baby’s born.”
“Oh, Shane, I am so glad!” Whistle cried, throwing his arms around the human’s neck enthusiastically.
“Me too, Whistle,” he replied, patting his lover’s back tenderly. “Me too.”
Amanda and Matt were astonished and amazed that Shane had won the lottery! His nephew declared it to be the coolest thing ever, and didn’t even change his mind when Shane told him that his share of the money was going into a college fund for him. He pouted a little, until he realized that he could get Whistle to change his uncle’s mind and buy him a new motorbike to replace the one he’d crashed. He’d early on noticed the blonde’s hold on his relative. Whistle could talk Shane into just about anything. So he got to work on the blonde, trying to convince Whistle that it would be a good thing if he had a racing motorcycle.
Shane got exasperated at him for trying to manipulate him through Whistle, and told Matt if he didn’t stop it he wouldn’t get anything at all from the money. The boy was rather cross about this, until his uncle presented him with a brand new Playstation 3 and a dozen games for his convalescence. That was ALMOST as good as having a motorcycle. He at least got to drive a motocross bike in one of the games, which was pretty cool.
Shane paid off his sister’s mortgage as well as his own, leaving her a tearful wreck. He wanted her to be able to stay at home and pursue her dream of getting a small business degree from an on-line college before she started a crafts business. She’d always been very talented, but like many a working mother simply hadn’t had the time to pursue her dream. Now she could, thanks to Whistle. And even though he couldn’t tell her that was the case, that the blonde had made her dream come true, she still sensed it. She told ‘Wes’ that he was a good luck charm for Shane, and that she was fervently glad that he’d come.
Shane felt the same way. Now he could stay home and finish fixing up the house, something he really liked doing anyway. Whistle was always at his heels, but he found that he never got tired of the being’s presence and company. Whistle was just so wide-eyed innocent, so curious about everything – like a little kid. Well, except for in the bedroom. While his responses to Shane’s touches might be a little naïve, they were also immensely sensual. Whistle enjoyed using his newly-created body in this way, to join together physically with his Lamhulae in imitation of the way that their souls were already merged.
To Shane’s amusement, the blonde had a thriving weed garden down at the end of the drive. He would crouch beside the plants, talk to them, water them…it was the funniest thing to watch. But also very cute. Whistle cherished life, even the life of something as lowly as a weed. He also made Shane put spiders outside without squashing them, and wouldn’t even let him slap mosquitoes. He sometimes felt like he’d become one of those fanatical Buddhists who’d brush the ground with brooms in front of their feet so that they wouldn’t step on any insects. But he was willing to change his habits for Whistle, the being who’d made his life so much better in so many ways.
He loved to make food for Whistle, to see his innocent glee over the taste and texture of it. He liked to snuggle with him in the evenings watching television. The blonde was learning a lot about humans from the boob tube. He also adored snuggling in the big bath tub with Whistle, washing all of that glorious skin with a sponge. And of course he loved having sex with Whistle, getting to touch and taste every bit of that beautiful skin and explore the lovely body with his lips and tongue and fingers.
Shane also liked buying things for Whistle. The being was always so interested in everything that Shane got for him, from an IPod to (of all things) a ball of fuzzy wool that the being had taken a liking to in a store. He liked to rub it against his cheek and play with the string like a kitten. It made the human smother his laughter as he watched Whistle and that ball of wool, although it also made him rather mushy around the heart. God, how he loved Whistle! Shane couldn’t even imagine a life without him anymore. And eventually they’d have their baby with them as well.
He’d questioned Whistle about the baby, asking him if it would have a physical form. The being had replied that it would, although he’d have to form it after the baby’s energy had separated from his. Knowing this, Shane had begun to put together a nursery. Amanda helped him with that, thinking that her brother and his lover were going to adopt a baby. Whistle played with all of the little toys, and especially liked the mobile that Shane put above the crib he’d bought. It played music and had blinking lights on it. Whistle was fascinated by it, and would spend hours turning it with his fingers to make it play the tune and the colored lights flash.
Eventually Shane had a nursery put together, and he asked Whistle when he thought that the baby might be ‘born’. The being replied that he had no real idea when the little one’s energy would separate from his own, as the Earth’s energy fields were affecting the gestation period. It would simply happen when it was time, and the energy field was fully formed. Shane tried not to be impatient, but he was really looking forward to seeing their child. Now that he was accustomed to the idea of being a father, he was really excited about the prospect.
Shane walked into the house one day in the fall, wiping at his forehead where sweat had gathered. It was still kind of hot even though it was October. He’d been getting the flowerbeds ready for winter, and while Whistle would normally have been dogging his heels the being had chosen to take a nap instead. He was getting tired now that it was close to the time for the little one to be ‘born’. Shane thought that he’d start lunch soon, and take a tray into Whistle in the bedroom.
Suddenly, he heard a cry that made the hair try to stand up on the back of his neck. It was a wail of sheer terror, and it made his heart lurch in his chest as he ran toward the bedroom. Whistle! Why was the blonde making a noise like that - had something happened to the baby? Fear enveloped him as he dashed into the bedroom.
He saw the blonde sitting up in bed, his face white and his body trembling. The pupils in his blue eyes were huge and dilated. “Whistle! What is it?!” he cried as he circled the bed and grabbed the blonde’s upper arms. “What is it? Tell me!”
The being’s eyes focused on him. "Shane,” he whimpered. “Shane, they’re here. They’ve found me.”
“Who? Who’s found you, Whistle?” he demanded in growing fear and puzzlement.
Whistle simply looked up at him with despair in the crystalline-blue eyes. “Darklings,” he whispered.
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Whistle was curled up against his chest, sound asleep. Shane held the blonde in his arms, marveling at the beauty and perfection of the creature currently sleeping against him. Of course, it was only his definition of perfection. But that was all that counted anyway. He watched the breath passing between those kiss-swollen pink lips, and kissed Whistle lightly on his forehead. The being didn’t stir, totally worn out from this new (but very nice) activity that Shane had taught him all about. He wondered if the being dreamed, and if so what kind of dreams he was having right now.
He closed his own eyes, feeling a bit tired himself. Whistle had a lot of energy. This was nice – in fact, it was perfect. It was his day off, so they didn’t need to go anywhere or do anything. They could cuddle together in bed like this all day. They could eat, sleep, and have sex at their own pace. A perfect day, in his opinion. He ran a hand down Whistle’s bare back lovingly before he curled up around the being and went to sleep himself.
The next few weeks were the best of Shane’s entire life - with one exception. Whistle HATED him having to go to work for eight hours a day. The being pouted, sulked, begged and even started sniffling a couple of times as he was going out the door. Shane was being driven crazy, especially since the blonde refused to try to eat while he was gone. He’d curl up on the couch like a beaten puppy, and not move for hours. Shane took to bringing food home with him, so that he could feed Whistle immediately after he walked in the door. He was frustrated and uncertain what to do; he couldn’t seem to get Whistle to understand that his going to work was the only way that they could eat and have a roof over their heads. The being was simply miserable when he was gone, and Shane was starting to become miserable too because he didn’t like making Whistle unhappy.
It finally came to a head one day when he returned home to find Whistle curled up on the bed looking pale and wan. Concerned, he sat down and put a hand to Whistle’s forehead. “Whistle? Are you all right? Are you getting sick?” he asked anxiously.
The being opened his big crystalline-blue eyes. “Shane,” he croaked. “You’re home.”
“Yeah. Whistle, what’s wrong?” he asked again.
“I…am not physically ill, Shane,” Whistle replied rather hoarsely. “But I…my energy is low.”
“Why?” Shane questioned.
The eyes flickered closed again. “It is because I am away from you, Shane,” he explained wearily. “You are my Lamhulae. I need your energy to help the Seeding. Mine is not enough. And I can’t channel your energy if I am not near you.”
Shane felt fear spurt through him. “Are you saying…that me being away at work is hurting the baby?!” he cried.
Whistle nodded. “I did not want to tell you, Shane, for I could see and feel that you were upset. I hoped that I could get enough energy while you’re home, but I cannot. If this continues, I fear that the Little One will not separate from me.”
“You could…could have a miscarriage?” Shane asked as his throat threatened to close up.
“The Little One will dissolve back into our combined energies,” Whistle agreed. “Oh, Shane, I do not want to lose our Little One.” He whimpered.
Shane gathered Whistle up in his arms. “Oh, God, Whistle, I don’t want to lose the baby either. But I don’t know what to do – I need to make money to take care of us,” he said miserably as he buried his face in the blonde curls.
“Money,” the being repeated. ‘What is money, Shane?”
“You must have seen it in my mind – it’s the green slips of paper that I trade for things. Food, clothes, and the house payment…without a way to make it we’re going to starve anyway.”
“Oh,” silence or a moment. Then: “Is there any other way for you to make this green paper, Shane?”
He shrugged helplessly. “Well, unless we win the lottery…” he began.
“Lottery? What is that?” the curiosity in Whistle’s voice relieved him. It was clear that the blonde was feeling better already.
He pulled the blonde up against his chest as he began to explain what the lottery was. Whistle listened, and when he’d finished the being said: “Well, we will simply have to win this lottery, Shane.”
He blinked. “How are we supposed to do that, Whistle? Do you know the odds against it?”
“It does not matter,” the being replied stubbornly. “Take me to the place that has these ‘lottery tickets’, Shane.”
Baffled, he did as the being asked. He drove them to a convenience store in town to purchase some lottery tickets. Whistle walked beside him up to the counter. The blonde whispered in his ear: “Talk to the lady, Shane. Which device is it that makes these tickets?”
Still puzzled, he nodded at the red machine sitting on the counter that spit out the lottery tickets. Shane talked to the clerk, and while he did so Whistle sidled over to the machine and set his hand atop it lightly. Shane saw a glimmer of light or something on the ends of Whistle’s fingertips. Then the being left it and came over to him. He nodded at Shane, who bought a couple of lottery tickets from the clerk. They left the convenience store, and he turned to confront the blonde in the parking lot.
“What was that about, Whistle? What did you do?” he demanded.
Whistle looked innocent, an expression he had definitely perfected. “I did not do much, Shane. I simply used a tiny bit of energy to tell the device to give us a winning ticket. That is all. It is that one,” he pointed to the first ticket that had come out of the machine.
Shane gaped at him. “This is a winning lottery ticket?” he demanded weakly.
The blonde nodded, smiling widely. “Now we shall have enough green paper so you will not have to go away all the time, Shane!” he enthused happily.
He might have protested except for two things – one was the fact that he really did want to stay home with Whistle all the time. This money would give him a way to do so. And the other was the fact that if they didn’t get some money, Whistle was going to lose the baby because Shane couldn’t be around him all the time. He couldn’t allow that to happen. So even though this was sort of cheating, he simply accepted it and stowed the winning ticket away in his wallet. “Okay, Whistle,” he said. “Let’s go home.”
That evening he watched in silent amazement as the numbers were called on the t.v. – and every one of them was the same as the numbers on the ticket he held in his hand. While he’d believed Whistle this afternoon, some part of him had still not quite accepted the idea that this was possible. But it was. They’d won…Christ, half a million dollars! He stared down at the blonde snuggled up against his side, marveling once again at the magic that was Whistle. “We won,” he said aloud. “We won a ton of money, Whistle.”
The being looked pleased. “So you will not have to leave me anymore, Shane?” he asked hopefully.
“No. I can stay home for as long as you need me to. And you can go with me whenever I have to leave the house. So we’ll never be apart from now on, Whistle. Not until its safe for us to be, anyway. Not until after the baby’s born.”
“Oh, Shane, I am so glad!” Whistle cried, throwing his arms around the human’s neck enthusiastically.
“Me too, Whistle,” he replied, patting his lover’s back tenderly. “Me too.”
Amanda and Matt were astonished and amazed that Shane had won the lottery! His nephew declared it to be the coolest thing ever, and didn’t even change his mind when Shane told him that his share of the money was going into a college fund for him. He pouted a little, until he realized that he could get Whistle to change his uncle’s mind and buy him a new motorbike to replace the one he’d crashed. He’d early on noticed the blonde’s hold on his relative. Whistle could talk Shane into just about anything. So he got to work on the blonde, trying to convince Whistle that it would be a good thing if he had a racing motorcycle.
Shane got exasperated at him for trying to manipulate him through Whistle, and told Matt if he didn’t stop it he wouldn’t get anything at all from the money. The boy was rather cross about this, until his uncle presented him with a brand new Playstation 3 and a dozen games for his convalescence. That was ALMOST as good as having a motorcycle. He at least got to drive a motocross bike in one of the games, which was pretty cool.
Shane paid off his sister’s mortgage as well as his own, leaving her a tearful wreck. He wanted her to be able to stay at home and pursue her dream of getting a small business degree from an on-line college before she started a crafts business. She’d always been very talented, but like many a working mother simply hadn’t had the time to pursue her dream. Now she could, thanks to Whistle. And even though he couldn’t tell her that was the case, that the blonde had made her dream come true, she still sensed it. She told ‘Wes’ that he was a good luck charm for Shane, and that she was fervently glad that he’d come.
Shane felt the same way. Now he could stay home and finish fixing up the house, something he really liked doing anyway. Whistle was always at his heels, but he found that he never got tired of the being’s presence and company. Whistle was just so wide-eyed innocent, so curious about everything – like a little kid. Well, except for in the bedroom. While his responses to Shane’s touches might be a little naïve, they were also immensely sensual. Whistle enjoyed using his newly-created body in this way, to join together physically with his Lamhulae in imitation of the way that their souls were already merged.
To Shane’s amusement, the blonde had a thriving weed garden down at the end of the drive. He would crouch beside the plants, talk to them, water them…it was the funniest thing to watch. But also very cute. Whistle cherished life, even the life of something as lowly as a weed. He also made Shane put spiders outside without squashing them, and wouldn’t even let him slap mosquitoes. He sometimes felt like he’d become one of those fanatical Buddhists who’d brush the ground with brooms in front of their feet so that they wouldn’t step on any insects. But he was willing to change his habits for Whistle, the being who’d made his life so much better in so many ways.
He loved to make food for Whistle, to see his innocent glee over the taste and texture of it. He liked to snuggle with him in the evenings watching television. The blonde was learning a lot about humans from the boob tube. He also adored snuggling in the big bath tub with Whistle, washing all of that glorious skin with a sponge. And of course he loved having sex with Whistle, getting to touch and taste every bit of that beautiful skin and explore the lovely body with his lips and tongue and fingers.
Shane also liked buying things for Whistle. The being was always so interested in everything that Shane got for him, from an IPod to (of all things) a ball of fuzzy wool that the being had taken a liking to in a store. He liked to rub it against his cheek and play with the string like a kitten. It made the human smother his laughter as he watched Whistle and that ball of wool, although it also made him rather mushy around the heart. God, how he loved Whistle! Shane couldn’t even imagine a life without him anymore. And eventually they’d have their baby with them as well.
He’d questioned Whistle about the baby, asking him if it would have a physical form. The being had replied that it would, although he’d have to form it after the baby’s energy had separated from his. Knowing this, Shane had begun to put together a nursery. Amanda helped him with that, thinking that her brother and his lover were going to adopt a baby. Whistle played with all of the little toys, and especially liked the mobile that Shane put above the crib he’d bought. It played music and had blinking lights on it. Whistle was fascinated by it, and would spend hours turning it with his fingers to make it play the tune and the colored lights flash.
Eventually Shane had a nursery put together, and he asked Whistle when he thought that the baby might be ‘born’. The being replied that he had no real idea when the little one’s energy would separate from his own, as the Earth’s energy fields were affecting the gestation period. It would simply happen when it was time, and the energy field was fully formed. Shane tried not to be impatient, but he was really looking forward to seeing their child. Now that he was accustomed to the idea of being a father, he was really excited about the prospect.
Shane walked into the house one day in the fall, wiping at his forehead where sweat had gathered. It was still kind of hot even though it was October. He’d been getting the flowerbeds ready for winter, and while Whistle would normally have been dogging his heels the being had chosen to take a nap instead. He was getting tired now that it was close to the time for the little one to be ‘born’. Shane thought that he’d start lunch soon, and take a tray into Whistle in the bedroom.
Suddenly, he heard a cry that made the hair try to stand up on the back of his neck. It was a wail of sheer terror, and it made his heart lurch in his chest as he ran toward the bedroom. Whistle! Why was the blonde making a noise like that - had something happened to the baby? Fear enveloped him as he dashed into the bedroom.
He saw the blonde sitting up in bed, his face white and his body trembling. The pupils in his blue eyes were huge and dilated. “Whistle! What is it?!” he cried as he circled the bed and grabbed the blonde’s upper arms. “What is it? Tell me!”
The being’s eyes focused on him. "Shane,” he whimpered. “Shane, they’re here. They’ve found me.”
“Who? Who’s found you, Whistle?” he demanded in growing fear and puzzlement.
Whistle simply looked up at him with despair in the crystalline-blue eyes. “Darklings,” he whispered.
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