Between Worlds

Chapter 5

The people who lived in the town did give them double the bounty money, and a cake, and a firm handshake from the mayor. Tyla looked a little uncomfortable with the attention, and if Finch had been there he probably would have just about had a panic attack from the loud, enthusiastic crowd that had gathered to celebrate their triumph, but Malyn thought it was nice. Most of the time, there was no one waiting to thank them for risking their lives. Malyn didn't do it for the glory and babes, so that was fine, but it was still good to be appreciated from time to time.

Still, there was something nice about being done with it all, about walking back out to the bike and helping Tyla with his jacket. To have it just be the two of them outside where it was quiet and still, getting ready to go home.

"How's your arm?" Tyla asked, his voice even softer than usual.

Malyn moved his arm around, testing it. "Fine, actually. Painkillers must have kicked in."

"It will scar."

"Yeah, but it'll be a badass scar. Besides, apart from the getting bitten part, this was a nice night. We had a good chat, got a free cake, shook a mayor's hand. Having something to remember it by isn't so bad."

Tyla smiled. "Ah. I don't scar. I suppose I'll just have to keep you around to remember days like this by."

"And make sure all your best days involve me getting hurt bad enough to scar."

"A shocking number of them do, though mostly incidentally."

"You know, same," Malyn said. "I guess it's like that when you work with your friends and that work is dangerous a good chunk of the time. And, let's be honest, sometimes the dangerous stuff is more fun. This was a way better day than yesterday's seed collection adventure."

"I agree, although mostly only because that lasted an actual full day. If it had also only taken us two hours, I would have had no complaints."

"Yeah, I suppose."

It would have felt so right to just lean forward and press a gentle kiss to Tyla's lips, but Malyn wasn't sure he was reading the mood correctly. Tyla was soft and sincere with everyone, all of the time. It didn't mean anything.

Malyn helped Tyla put his helmet on to put an end to the temptation.

Though he'd reassured Tyla, Malyn had been a little worried about the bite on his arm making the ride home more difficult, but it really wasn't too bad. Maybe it would be tomorrow, or for a full two weeks to come. Some injuries were like that. You'd think you were fine, but then you'd wake up aching.

Malyn opened the garage door with the remote on his keychain, drove his bike slowly in, and then almost fell off when his headlines lit up two reflective eyes in the corner of the room. The light flooded the figure properly, it lifted an arm to cover its face, and Malyn realised it was the man from the linen closet. Shadow.

Malyn properly parked his bike and pulled off his helmet. "Fuck, you scared me. Were you just in here, in the dark?"

Shadow nodded.

"But you can see in the dark, right? Your eyes reflect."

Shadow nodded again.

"Yeah. See, I may have failed every single class in high school except for drama, but you don't need school for the important things. John, my foster dad, was always like, if you don't do well in school, you're going to have to become a male prostitute, and I was like, well, yeah, I'm not gonna become a female prostitute, am I? But he didn't foresee this career path, which is kinda weird since I was already sneaking out to do this stuff and I'd never shown any interest in prostitution." Malyn took a deep breath. "Anyway, I'm Malyn and this is Tyla. You're Shadow, right?"