Chapter 4
Shane drove up to a McDonald’s drive-thru and ordered them both some breakfast. Whistle watched him curiously, the crystalline-blue eyes taking in everything that Shane said and did. The being was trying to learn as much as he could about this strange new world, because it was to be his home from now on. Besides, he just liked to watch Shane. His Lamhulae was endlessly fascinating to him. As the other half of his soul, Shane Cutler was perfection to Whistle. He was drawn inexorably to the human, and always would be.
They pulled around to the window, and Shane handed over some money and took a white sack with the golden arches logo on it. He also accepted two Styrofoam cups of orange juice, handing all of this to Whistle while he drove away from the restaurant and found a place to park nearby so that they could eat. Then he took the bag back from Whistle and began to pull out food. He handed the trans-dimensional being an egg, sausage, and cheese breakfast sandwich and a yogurt. “Since you haven’t ever eaten anything, just do what I do and you’ll be fine,” he assured the blonde.
Whistle nodded slightly, and then unwrapped the sandwich a bit awkwardly in imitation of Shane. He cautiously lifted it to his mouth, and used his teeth to take a bite of it. He saw how to chew from Shane, and the food rolling around in his mouth made his eyes widen with innocent wonder. Taste buds were something new to him. He made appreciative sounds unconsciously; sounds that made Shane shudder in his seat and struggle not to have an accident right then and there. He deliberately looked away so that he didn’t have to watch Whistle chew.
“Shane, this is…” the being had no words for what he was experiencing.
“It’s good. It tastes good,” Shane told him hoarsely.
“Good. Yes. Good.”
“Here, do this,” he opened his orange juice container and showed Whistle how to drink.
The being did as he did, then actually moaned in pleasure at the taste of the juice.
Shane began to breathe heavily, his hands spasming a little. Christ, this was awful! Whistle turned him on effortlessly with everything he did. He wanted to bang his head against the steering wheel in frustration. Although it wasn’t as though he could have had sex with Whistle right now anyway; they were due at the hospital to see his nephew. So he took deep breaths and tried to control himself, and after awhile he succeeded and managed to finish his breakfast.
Whistle had already eaten and drank everything. Of course; he wasn’t feeling all of the frustrated lust that Shane was. He was just so damned innocent…Shane sighed. The combination of sexy and innocent was a huge turn-on, but also dichotomous enough that he hesitated to do what he really wanted to do to Whistle. “We should get going. We need to get to the hospital before visiting hours are over,” he said as he started the car.
He drove through the streets, startling Whistle when he turned on the radio. The being jumped and stared wide-eyed at the sounds coming out of the dashboard. “It’s a radio, Whistle,” Shane explained. “Did you see anything about those in my mind?”
“Yes. It makes…music,” the trans-dimensional being said slowly.
“That’s right. You can play with it if you want to – stop if you find any sounds that you like,” he added.
Whistle reached forward and began to play with the buttons with child-like glee. Shane smiled indulgently at him before returning his eyes to the road. Channels changed for a bit, and then he heard the strains of a violin concerto start to wend through the car. Silence from the passenger seat, and when he glanced over he was startled to see moisture gathering at the corners of the crystalline-blue eyes. Whistle was crying!
“What’s the matter?” he asked urgently. “Whistle? Are you okay?”
The being looked over at him, seemingly surprised at his question. “I am well, Shane.” He said.
“But you’re crying!” he protested as he stopped at a light.
“Crying? What is crying?” Whistle asked in puzzlement.
Oh. “Crying is when moisture falls from your eyes. Most people cry when they’re sad, and sometimes when they’re very happy,” Shane told him.
Whistle reached up to his eyes with his fingers, looking even more startled to feel the moisture of his tears on his fingertips. “Why is it doing that, Shane?” he questioned.
“Are you sad about something, Whistle?” Shane asked.
“I…yes. The music…” there was grief in his voice now. “It reminded me of my world. Sometimes my folk would use our energy to make something like your music. It was so beautiful…and this reminded me of it. That is all.”
“I see. You’re homesick,” Shane said compassionately. “I’m sorry that you can’t go home, Whistle.”
The blonde shook his head. “I was sad to leave it, but happier to know that I would soon be with my Lamhulae. And now I AM with you, Shane, and while I might feel sadness sometimes I will never pine for my former home. You are all that I need.”
He felt a surge of warmth, and reached over to capture Whistle’s hand in one of his own. “I’m glad that you’re here too,” he said sincerely. “I was weirded out at first, but now I’m just happy to be with you.”
Whistle clasped his hand and smiled at him through the tears. Shane had to force himself to turn back to his driving, wanting nothing more than to stop the car and whisk the lovely being up in his arms. Not for anything more than a hug, though; he simply wanted to hold Whistle. But there would be time enough for that in a bit. After they’d seen Matt.
They finally arrived at the hospital again. Shane pulled into the parking lot and stopped the car. Whistle removed his seatbelt, already learning to be deft about it. Shane got out from his side as the being opened the door. He led Whistle across the parking lot and into the main entrance. “We have to go up to the second floor,” he told Whistle. “In an elevator,” he added.
Whistle tensed up and crowded close to him. Shane put an arm around his waist, loving being able to hold onto the lovely being. “Just stay close to me, it’ll be okay,” he said.
Whistle was happy to do so, clinging to him in terror as they rode the elevator up to the second floor. Fortunately the journey was short, and the blonde darted out of it and stood there breathing heavily out in the hallway. “I do NOT like those devices, Shane,” he panted as the human came up beside him.
“I know, and I’m sorry. But there aren’t any really tall buildings in town so you won’t ever have to ride one for long. Come on, we go this way.”
Shane took him to the children’s ward where his nephew was recuperating. The nurses at the desk greeted him with a smile, remembering the concerned uncle from yesterday. They waved him and his companion through, and they went to the door of the room that Matt was in. Shane knocked on the doorframe to get his sister’s attention. She was sitting in a chair next to the bed, reading. But she looked up with a smile at her brother. “Hi, Shane. Err…” she said as her eyes came to rest on Whistle.
“Amanda, I’d like you to meet Wesley Johnson. Wes, this is my sister Amanda. Wes just got into town yesterday. He didn’t tell me he was coming as a surprise for me. We met on the internet,” he explained to his sister. “We’ve been talking for awhile, but we wanted to meet face-to-face. When I told him that I needed to come see my nephew in the hospital, he wanted to come with me to meet you and Matt.”
“Oh. It’s really nice to meet you, Wes,” Amanda said as she got up from her chair and came to shake the trans-dimensional being’s hand.
“It is good to meet Shane’s sister,” Whistle agreed earnestly, making Shane want to laugh. He almost sounded foreign with his slightly odd phrasing.
“How’s Matt?” he asked quietly to draw Amanda’s attention away from Whistle.
“Sleeping. His arm hurts, but he was in much better spirits this morning,” she replied.
“Great. His arm is bound to hurt, since they had to put those pins in his elbow. Poor kid. It’ll be a long time before he can do any sports,” Shane said regretfully. Matt loved doing sports, and was going to be restless and unhappy as he started to feel better.
“Yes. And he won’t be able to hold a video game controller either,” Amanda said with a half moue.
Shane chuckled. “That’ll make you happy, since he spends so much time playing them. Still, when he starts to get restless you might WISH that he could still play them to combat his boredom.”
“True. Please come in, both of you. He might wake up soon.” Amanda waved them into the room, and they pulled up chairs near hers.
“So you two met on the internet,” she said, staring at Whistle keenly.
Shane winced. His sister’s curiosity was activated, which was bad. She’d want to know everything about their fictitious relationship, and he was going to hope that he could answer her questions without tripping himself up. “Yeah, we did,” he replied before Whistle could say anything. “In a gay men’s chat room. We hit it off right away, and we talked for hours.”
Amanda’s brows lifted. “So how come you’ve never mentioned him to me before?” she demanded.
“Uhm...I didn’t want to say anything in case it didn’t work out with him. He lives out of state, after all. We were in as long-distance relationship, and you know how well those work out usually. But we found we had a ton in common, and after awhile we decided to meet. Wh – Wes told me that he was coming to see me soon, but he never specified when exactly. Which is why I had such a shock yesterday, on top of Matt being hurt. He was waiting for me at home,” he lied, although it had been close enough to his house that Whistle might as well have been waiting there for him.
“Oh. That sounds exciting. I do have to ask, however – aren’t those the same clothes you were wearing yesterday, brother dear?” she asked with a twinkle in her eyes.
“Uhh…yeah,” he said. “I was in kind of a hurry this morning, so I just pulled them back on…”
“I see. I can understand why you’d be in a hurry,” Amada said with a smirk. Shane sighed, but that’s what big sisters were for. To torture you about your love life (and other things) whenever they possibly could.
“So tell me about yourself, Wes,” she said, turning to the blonde.
Shane wanted to interrupt, but to his surprise Whistle said: “I left my home to come and find Shane,” he began. “I knew I had to be here with him. I couldn’t wait any longer,” he added.
She was smiling at Whistle tenderly. Anyone who loved her brother as much as Whistle clearly did was good in Amanda’s book. “Well I’m glad that you’re here. And I’m sure that Matt will be happy to meet you once he wakes up,” she said.
“Matt is your little one?” Whistle asked.
“Well, yes, although he’s not so little anymore. They grow up so fast,” she remarked with a sigh.
“Yes, our little one will grow up swiftly as well,” the blonde said.
Shane wanted to groan and bury his face in his hands. It had been going so well!
Amanda was staring at the being in surprise. “Little one? Your little one? I don’t understand.”
“Shane and I. We will have a little one,” Whistle explained. Shane wondered if beating his head against the frame of Matt’s hospital bed would help.
“Shane? What is he talking about?” his sister asked suspiciously.
Shane sighed and hurried to improvise. “It was supposed to be a surprise for you, sis. If Wes and I hit it off like we thought we might, after awhile we intend to adopt a baby together. He’s going to move here to be with me,” he told her. “And we really want to have a kid together. We talked about it a lot.”
She stared at Shane. “You mean…you might have a baby?” she asked. Then she surged forward and hugged him. “Oh, Shane, that’s wonderful! I’ve always known that you’d make a great father! Look at the way you are with Matt. You’ve been his father ever since Dave died. This is so exciting! I’m so glad that you’re here, Wes,” she said eagerly to the lovely being.
“I am glad to be here as well,” he told her. “I came a long way to find Shane. I just had to be with him.”
“I know what you’re saying. He’s a really great guy,” she gushed. “I’m glad to see someone else who realizes that. You got lucky, Shane,” she told her brother. “I hope you appreciate that.”
“I do,” he replied simply, looking into those crystalline-blue eyes. “I really, really do.”
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