Between Worlds

Chapter 2

It was nearly two in the afternoon when Tyla woke up, and for a while he just lay and watched Malyn sleep in the bed across from him. He was so charmingly graceless, light brown hair rumpled, limbs sprawled, blanket kicked almost entirely off. If you'd asked Tyla what kind of person he found attractive a year ago, this would not have been what he'd described. But now...

Tyla sighed. He should have seen these feelings coming. For too long, he'd told himself that he'd just found Malyn funny, or easy to be around, that he'd appreciated how Malyn could switch between intense focus and goofy humour with ease. He hadn't seen the seeds of attraction until they'd turned into something altogether inconvenient. You couldn't just 'shoot your shot' with someone, as Malyn would have put it, and then go back to sharing a room with them if they turned you down.

Eventually Malyn's eyes pinched and he brought a hand up to rub at them, and he was awake. Mostly, anyway. It took him a few more minutes of wriggling around and stretching out before he fully committed to wakefulness.

"Oh," Malyn said when he finally opened his eyes and noticed Tyla watching him. "Good morning."

"Afternoon, actually."

"Figures." Malyn swung his legs over the side of the bed. "Fuck, I'm hungry. Breakfast?"

"Sounds good to me."

Malyn slept in a T-shirt and boxers. Tyla slept in something Malyn had jokingly called a nightie for the first three months of them living together before finally admitting that, on his own world, men had also slept in something not all that dissimilar.

Malyn had mostly abandoned his past and his culture beyond the bow he fought with, but that was hardly surprising. He'd arrived here alone, thrust into a whole new world as a child. Of course he'd adapted, learnt to speak, dress, and act like a native of this world.

Tyla had been an adult when he'd come here, and an entire city, along with its occupants, had come with him. He still wondered what had become of the rest of his world, now presumably missing a city sized chunk. He doubted he would ever find out. This was a one way journey.

"Ah, you're up," Adin said as they entered the living room. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd see any daylight at all today."

Tyla glanced at the door to Finch's room, still shut. "Looks like Finch might sleep through it if he's not up soon."

"Finch ended up seeing dawn, so I'm not sure it would count," Adin said. "Luther called him last night, not long after you all went to bed."

"And he convinced Finch to get up?"

"He offered him a thousand dollars. Which, to be fair, he did pay."

"Nice," Malyn said. "What did Finch have to do?"

"Hm," Adin said. "Take a look in the bottom of the linen closet. Be quiet, though."

For some reason, that had Tyla expecting a kitten or a puppy. Why Luther would pay them so much to look after a baby animal or why he would even have one in the first place, Tyla didn't know, but that was what came to mind when he thought of things he'd encountered since arriving in this world that might hide in linen closets and be startled by loud noises.

He did not expect a man, curled up with his back to them under the bottom shelf, which is what they were faced with when Malyn opened the door to the linen closet.

"Uh..." Malyn said as he stared down at the unmoving body. "Is he alive?"

"Shh," Adin said. "Close the door. Yes, he's alive. He's sleeping."