The Returnee

Chapter 7

"Morning," Devon purred, kissing Lee on the cheek as he wriggled next to him in the bed. Devon's relaxed body pressed against Lee, loose and undaunted to have a third in his bed. The softness of the scene relaxed Lee's tense muscles too.

Nothing bad happened. Everyone had their clothes on, and no parts of him sung of being touched while he'd been sleeping peacefully. Well, almost all of them had clothes on. Joey wore only his boxers, but Devon and Lee were in t-shirts and slacks. Lee's fragmented memories revealed Joey helping him into them, and from their size, he assumed they were, in fact, Joey's old things. His head let out a raspy cry of pain as the lack of water after drinking beer set in. He groaned and buried his face in the pillow. Devon chuckled, legs tangling together as he got comfortable and stopped moving. Joey's heat burned behind him, but no movement hinted that the man remained asleep.

They'd talked about it last night. Devon's unfazed air of having people in his bed stemmed from a combination of being married to an Enforcer and a side effect from his time in the sky. As an Enforcer, Joey often brought people home who needed more support than a phone call. Some, like Devon, preferred sleeping in the groups due to their trauma. Others weren't trusted to sleep alone. Addictions buried deep under the skin and refused to let go, tearing through the skin when everything boiled up to the surface.

Lee's scientists were far from the only group that experimented on humans. They didn't know much about them as a whole. Most didn't talk to their subjects beyond fundamental orders; Lee's group fell in this group. Every group treated their subjects with varying degrees of kindness or decency. His group had allowed some human traits in his day to day, allowing him to shower in private etc.

Devon's group preferred to have the humans mimics their day to day life rather than keep human traits which included communal sleeping. Devon and others like him had to be trained to be human again. The preferring not to sleep alone lingered with most of them. Not sleeping surrounded by soft breathing and solid muscles left Devon feeling lonely and missing the heat that engulfed people in that state.

"The hotel was expensive, you know?" Lee said, but he wrapped an arm around Devon and held him close, sinking into the soft mattress and smooth sheets. Devon smelled nice. The bed mixed with the musk of Joey, his aftershave and the more vanilla scent of Devon. He couldn't deny that something in his chest had settled after sleep between the two.

"Better here," Devon stuffed his cold nose against Lee's collar bone. "I don't understand how any of you can sleep alone. It's so cold, and they could come back if you're alone."

The innocent statement squeezed Lee's stomach. He held tighter to Devon. That was said with the haunted voice of experience rather than anything else.

"Mine won't. Mine don't make recalls."

Some did. For all Lee hated his nightmares and the fact he hadn't yet been able to say what had happened to him out loud, for some, the nightmares could come true. One night, the nightmare manifested in reality, and all that they'd regained of themselves would drain away. The farm coached people in it. There was a whole thing about what to do in that situation. Most scientists who did recalls as checkups expected their behaviour to be better than good. A few even dropped them off right back on the farm to help them recover faster. Lee didn't like the knowledge that they knew about the farm.

"There's always a first. You should stay with us and be safe." The cold nose buried deeper.

Lee stifled his laughter as Devon's pitch-black hair tickled his nose. Peppermint was the distinct scent that Devon had, peppermint mixed in with vanilla with a hint of leather. Lee couldn't remember what Devon did for a living. Something that made sense with the leather smell? "If so, being alone wouldn't stop mine."