dot.

27: Permission Granted

  Nimue was just finishing cleaning up the area and all her tools, mind stuck in the future of what would be her second attempt at an adult hybrid conversion.

  Tiro was just behind her, watching her as confliction ruled his mind with an iron fist. On one hand, this was wrong, he knew it was. To strip someone of their humanity in such a mutilating way, as they were planning to do with the finger, was evil. But on the other... now there would be someone else like him, someone who could understand what it felt like. Well, not completely- Tiro had consented to the procedure, while Felix hadn't been given a choice in the matter. But still.

  "Tiro, can you come over here please?"

  He speedwalked over and stood next to her now, questioning why she wanted him.

  "Take off your shirt, I need to check something."

  Although he knew she meant nothing by it, he couldn't help but blush as he obeyed.

  She ran her hand over the rough scales on his chest, paying special attention to the edges, which were dry and had been rubbed to a raw pink.

  "You haven't been moisturising it? It looks painful."

  "It's not that bad," he answered, "I've just been forgetting to put the cream on recently."

  "Hmm." She drew her nail over it, smirking at the scaley proof of a semi-successful experiment. "You don't have any problems with it?"

  "Not really." He patted the snakeskin and pushed her had off of it, putting his shirt back on. "It's cold in here."

  Nimue was disappointed, but tried not to let it show too much. How would her second attempt go? Would it fail? What if the finger changed so much between when it was originally attached and when it was reattached that Felix's body rejected it? She was excited both to see what would happen and to gain another... pet, of sorts. But Dot would always be her favourite: that was for certain.

  Her phone lit up and began to ring, the bold words reading 'Boss' shining across the screen like some fateful omen. She snatched it up and answered the call with a tentative "Hello?", knowing he didn't like to be kept waiting.

  'Hello, dearest.' The voice made her grimace in disgust, the want to hang up and block him forever consumed her. 'I have decided to grant you a week off, to visit your mother, if you wish.'

  " Really?" She struggled to contain her excitement as she stood up from the seat, shedding her lab coat at once and hanging it over the backrest. "When am I off?"

  'You can go home now and stay off until this time next week. I have organised a flight home for you in four hours. Someone will be picking you up in an hour to drive you to the airport, so be ready.'

  "Yes, sir. Thank you sir." Tiro was staring at her in confusion and miming questions at her, all of which she brushed off as she scrambled to get back to her room and start packing.

  'This was granted to you on one condition.' His tone changed in a way that made her heart freeze, blood turning to ice as she could almost hear him smirking through the phone.

  "What... what is it?" She asked. Tiro had caught up to her in her room and sat down on her bed, waiting impatiently for her to get off of the call so he could interrogate her.

  'While you are gone, I shall be in charge of Project M and everything surrounding it.'

  Nimue chewed on her lip, carefully making a difficult decision. "I will stay here then."

  'Ah, but I've already told your mother that you will be coming to visit her this week. Are you sure you want to disappoint her? She'll never understand why you want to stay so much, unless... unless you wish to tell her the truth?'

  She clenched her free hand into a fist and felt blood flow freely into her mouth when she bit down on it too hard. "Fine. But Tiro will still have some authority."

  'I'm afraid that isn't your choice to make. What will it be, Nimue? Will you stay with the one that hates you or visit the one that loves you most? Decisions, decisions.'

  He was mocking her, and she knew it. There was no way she could back out now- the news that she had refused to go and see Eirene would tear the kindly woman apart. And besides, she genuinely really wanted to see her mother again. It had been a while. "I'll go." She said, and in doing so admitted defeat.

  'Good girl.' He jeered, and hung up with a click.

  Nimue flopped down onto the bed next to Tiro, groaning heavily as he patted her back. "That was the boss," she answered his question before he even had the chance to ask it, "He's giving me the week off to go and stay with my family."

  "Well, that's good, right? I won't hurt Dot or do anything bad while you're gone, I promise-"

  "That's not the bad bit." She turned her head towards him and moved his hand from her back to her head so he could stroke her hair. "He wants to be in charge of everything when I'm away."

  "Oh no."

  "Oh no indeed."

  "I mean he can't be that bad, right?"

  "No- Tiro, you don't understand." Nimue turned again so she was face down once more and repeated the statement in a hateful mutter. "You don't understand."

  "Can you make me understand?" He rested down next to her, booping his nose against her ear to make her snort. "I won't be able to get what you're trying to say unless you tell me what's so bad about him."

  She faced him now and hugged her arms around him, looking into his eyes momentarily before failing and touching the crown of her head to his chin. "I can't explain. It makes me feel all icky inside. But what you need to know now is that he is an evil, evil man."

  "Did he do something to you?" Tiro swallowed thickly as she squirmed in discomfort at the question, refusing to answer him. "Nimue?"

  She gave an exasperated sigh and stared up at the ceiling, throat cutting off as her lip trembled. "Bad man." She managed to get out, before she sniffed and grabbed Tiro into a tight hug. "Bad, bad man."