I Am Not Your Master; I'm Your Partner Book Three

Daffodils

Phil dreamed of the baby again. It had been happening a lot.

Last night, he imagined that the newborn child cradled in his arms, had been wrapped snuggly in a quilted blanket the color of a fresh new Daffodil. The baby slowly opened his eyes to reveal two brilliantly-colored blue irises (a striking reflection of Phil's own). Within them, there were two vertical, cat-like pupils, just as he seen in Dan's eyes during their lovemaking. He gasped, possibly out loud (though his partner did not stir). He admired the newborn's skin; it was pure, and soft, and wrinkled in all the proper places. He woke before he could return to the baby's remarkable eyes.

Phil didn't know, as he lay awake in the sun's first light, if Dan had been aware of the shift in his pupils. Had it ever happened before? No, he didn't believe that it had. He would have remembered something so spectacular. Was it part of Neko pregnancy? A common occurrence? Perhaps Dr. Brown could shed some light on the matter. He reached for his glasses and his notebook on the bedside table.

It didn't worry him as much as it impressed him. Dan's eyes, after all, had been incredibly beautiful in the moon's light. It may have frightened another, but it excited Phil. Dan's Neko characteristics and abilities had unfolded over the years, and exploded since becoming pregnant. Then, there was the new, salubrious environment to consider. Phil hoped to see even more of his husband here. He expected that their children would thrive here as well. The thought brought a sleepy smile to his face. He removed his glasses and returned them to the side table along with his notebook.

Maybe their sons could be carriers too.

* * *

"Colette, my son's invited me to join him and his family for dinner in their new home." It felt foreign in her mouth, but lovely, nonetheless. She applied perfume to her wrists and rubbed them together in brisk circles.

The younger woman smiled and placed a hand over her own heart. "How wonderful."

Colette's perspective had changed considerably since hearing the headmistress's story. She had so many feelings over the years, having devoted her adult life to caring for abandoned Nekos. Others had acted purely out of duty, and nothing more. Colette always cared for the babies as if they were her own, and in so many ways she felt that they were.

She had been especially fond of young Daniel and found herself with an incomprehensible ache when the infant wailed. He cried no more than the others, yet she felt herself responding to his hollow sounds with greater sympathy.

Dan responded differently than the others as well. He would soften his tense little body in her arms and snuggle up to her warm breast, presumably seeking nutrition, comfort, or both. It hurt her to deny him. Still, she held him close - this being an overtly defiant act towards the former headmistress, who routinely warned her to "leave him be."

"He is not the only infant in the nursery, Miss Rose. Surely, you can see that. We've been overrun. You are to attend to each charge in order. Change them, feed them, wrap them back up. Nothing more." The woman's tone was stony and without empathy. "If you cannot do this job, I know an entire agency of nursemaids who will. Leave him be."

Colette felt a shiver sweep up her spine.

The Neko Home for Boys was a very different place then. Diana Cartwright turned it over in a matter of six years. Her predecessor, a true harridan of a woman, retired never having married or bore children of her own. Her name had not been spoken in years, nor had it been remembered by the youngers.

"I'm pleased that you shared your story with me," Colette began. "I used to wonder how anyone could leave their child here. I used to, well, I suppose it doesn't matter any longer... I understand now that it's doesn't always seem a matter of choice. I have great sympathy Ms. Cart-"