How to Start a Fire

CH7 [Rise and Shine]

It was a calm, starless night when I was sitting in the kitchen, reading something on my phone while eating snacks I found in the fridge. Technology was a blessing, back then when I wanted to get a comic for free I had to steal it with my own two hands, now I just had to click a link. Call me a weird dad, but I loved technology for making illegal actions easily accessible. It would have been a fun night of comics and crackers if it hadn't been for Mold-man, who stormed into the room. He looked terrible. His hair was a terrible mess, blending into a beard that made him look rather wild and the circles below his eyes were quite some competition for mine. In fact, he looked more like a werewolf than most werewolves I had encountered so far.

"I- I think he's waking up!" He said, mumbling a bit. I guessed that he hadn't slept in two days, maybe more- so he wasn't quite fit.

I put down my phone. My first thought was to get Millicent, but I remembered that she left earlier... with Selem. So technically, we were alone.

Cursing under my breath I remembered that back then, the first thing they did was to give me blood. I got up, went to the fridge and took out a bottle, then got a glass from the cupboard. Turning back to Aleksander, I tried to give him an encouraging smile, hoping I'd seem like I knew exactly like I was doing, but I saw him shiver a little.

"Let's hope this goes smoothly..." He said, before running back upstairs. I followed him, clinging to the bottle and the glass in my hands, and when I entered Mamoru's room, I could see him stirring a little. The blanket was pulled over his head and I turned off the already dim lights, believing that they had been off back at the gas station, too. I came inside and sat down next to Aleksander on the floor, to open the bottle and pour some of its content into the glass.

For a moment, nothing happened, but then the blanket-ball stirred a bit and noises came from the inside. It didn't sound like distress or pain, rather like you sound when your alarm goes off in the morning and you REALLY don't want to get up.

I had no idea if it was appropriate to pull away the blanket or touch him in any way, so I just sat there- until Aleksander got up about half a minute later, to pull Mamoru's blanket away.

The boy below was rolled up and made an upset noise at his blanket taken away. He also showed signs of a slight beard and his undercut was grown out a bit- and to my surprise, he also had thicker eyebrows than usual. I always thought only females did that In order to fit into the utopian image society has of women, but apparently that was just me talking again.

He was wearing a shirt Aleksander had given to him and surprisingly it fit- even though it rode up a little. When Mold-man put it on him he described it as 'sweet' and everyone else just agreed, but I wished I'd have had the chance to get him a proper fitting shirt- because he deserves one.

Mamoru slowly opened his eyes and stared for a moment before he sat up and rubbed his eyes with one hand, yawning. When he took down his hand he just looked around. His eyes also had turned red, and he sniffed the air a little.

I held up the glass I had filled earlier and he stared at it, then at me and he seemed like he tried to say something, but nothing came out. I just reached out to him and he grabbed it wish slightly shaky hands before emptying it greedily. After licking out the glass for a while he put it down and looked at the two of us again. While he just gave me a gentle, but confused smile, he actually laughed about Aleksander.

"You look like a bear..." He said, reaching out to ruffle Mold-man's beard roughly.

"You're one to talk." Aleksander responded and pointed at Mamoru's face. The boy reached up to touch it and made some disgusted noises.

"OH my GOD." He exclaimed. "Wow, shit, what even happened?"

Before we could respond Aleksander sat down next to Mamoru and gave him a hug. The hug grew tighter with every second and I could see how Aleksander started to tremble before he also started sobbing. Mamoru looked terribly confused but petted him caringly, making calming noises.