HORNS (BoyXBoy)

Chapter 167

Author's Note: SURPRISE! Another chapter! And its longer than usual, too!

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Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Seven

I don't like being startled.

I don't think anyone does, realistically speaking, but for me that moment when something scares me is like having a million icy sparks zapping my heart--sparks which then flood through the chest and rapidly descend through my legs. It's borderline painful and it sucks, hard.

Dari, unfortunately, made the mistake of doing just that and scaring the shit out of me.

"HOLY SHIT!" I screamed, leaping back only to slip in the shower; I tried to grab the curtain bar and it broke, and I fell backwards, landing with a painful crash in the tub. Dari gasped and I heard a clatter from where I lay under the cheap, paisley shower curtains.

"Cousin! Cousin! Oh, oh! Ame took?! Ame di sempri?!" he babbled, panicked; the curtains were lifted off me, but I couldn't really see since my hair was in my face. I wasn't hurt too bad, more disgruntled and stunned than anything, but still, when I lifted my fingers and pushed away just enough hair to stare at him with my left eye, I saw that he'd gone fearfully pale.

"I'm all right," I muttered, lifting my leg from the bathtub's edge and drawing it in so I could try to stand up more carefully. "You scared the crap out of me, man! Why were you sitting on the toilet without saying anything?"

Frankly, I hadn't even heard him come in during the twenty minutes I'd been washing up. I'd just turned the shower off--hair hanging in my face, fur plastered down against my legs, dripping hot water--and after grabbing the towel off the shower's curtain bar to dab my face dry I'd pushed the shower curtain aside with every intention of getting out, but, BOOM, there he'd been, sitting on the toilet seat and happily waiting for me with a smile. He'd effectively given me a miniature heart attack.

"Dari waiting to show Cousin good grooming for legs," he worriedly bleated, dropping the curtain and reaching out to help me over the lip of the tub. He fretted over my head and my shoulders, biting his lower lip, then stared at me with his ears all a-droop. "Much sorry."

I glanced at the broken shower bar, then at the crumpled curtains.

"I'm not hurt so I guess it's okay," I sighed, slumping for a bit before glancing down at my soaked fur with roving eyes. "I need to start drying myself off, though. Wanna help?"

His eyes lit up, furry ears snapping higher with delight, and just like that he was nodding. I poked around the sink area for a blow dryer, hoping that Echo might have put mine there, but when I found nothing, I frowned. Dari followed me like a puppy when I trotted out of the bathroom.

"Hey, Echo?" I called.

"Yes?" he called back.

"Did you pack my blow dryer and grooming supplies?" 

"Yes! They're all in the black suitcase with the yellow trim!"

"Thank god," I sighed in relief; wasting little time, I loped down the hall towards the first room on the left and opened the door, sliding inside and peering around. There were four cases of luggage by the bed, but only one was black. Jackpot. Dari curiously poked his head in and watched me as I unzipped it to dig around the neatly folded clothes within. My fingers soon landed on the worn leather holding my hygiene supplies, then the sleek black hair dryer.

I pulled them all out, then made my way over to the door and slid past Dari, dripping water on the carpet along the way back to the bathroom. He followed me closely, sidling into the tile-laden room and closing the door as I moved over to the wall and plugged the dryer in.