Page 82 of Culture and Curiosities
“I don’t have to talk to cranky men, Daddy. You said so.” Wren’s headspace had not deviated much since the start of the meeting and he was rapidly descending into a more little variation as we walked toward the hotel…no…motel.
Why they had the word motel and hotel I would never understand.
“That’s right.” And the man had been very cranky toward the end of the day, making me wonder if he had some kind of anti-kink around him.
No.
“My mate, what is a word for being against kink. Is anti-kink a word?” They had endless combinations, but it didn’t surprise me when he shook his head. “We may need a new word to describe him.”
“Kenzie wondered if he was homophobic because he’d never seen that in person before and he was kind of hoping that was it so he could say he’d met one.” Wren swung our hands wider as he told me the confusing story. “I don’t know how he’s never met one before but I think he just doesn’t know he did.”
“He sees things in his own way, my mate.” He was an interesting dragon, but his mate loved him very much and he was a talented artist. “We must remember the differences with creative people. We even see that on my world.”
Earth had more of them to deal with, however.
“Yeah, they’ve got a lot of them around here. Writers and artists and really smart science people. They’re all kind of weird but that’s fun, so it’s okay.” Humming to himself with words echoing softly in his head about friends, my mate imagined a large purple creature singing to him. “I like all the people because they’re silly and nice and nosy.”
He liked some of the nosy people.
The woman who lived in front of the motel and peered out of the window was not one of his favorite people.
She seemed to have tattled about Wren going through the portal as well because his phone had been vibrating so much in the meeting he’d needed to turn it off.
That had not made my mate any happier or more grown-up.
“But we’re not going to worry about any of them or about anything tonight.” We had takeout from the diner because someone had explained to Miss Nancy that Wren had a long day and after we ate we were going to play. “What should we play first after dinner?”
Planning had gone longer than anyone liked but all of the last-minute details were organized. Nerves were still high, but those going seemed confident and those staying were pretending to be confident.
“Binkie.” His one-word answer was not as helpful as he thought, but I was lucky and my mate thought with pictures.
Evidently that was not a typical thing for people of Earth.
Wren having pictures for everything was amazing, however, and it was sad that some mates did not understand what they were missing.
“Binkie and a bottle with the milk Miss Nancy gave us?” As I wondered if someone had explained the different stages of being little to her, Wren nodded and continued to hum. “I think that is a wonderful plan.”
Especially since it seemed that the additional stress had him shifting into his most little headspace.
“I think I saw bubbles in that picture.” My teasing tone got a giggle from him but his free hand came up to plug his mouth with his thumb.
No.
To suck on his thumb.
“I’m glad we have our plan worked out.” It would be a relaxing way to fill up our time since my mate was wonderfully organized and had all of his possessions packed neatly.
With his Daddy’s help, of course.
Being able to provide him with spells that would help his storage requirements had made me the best Daddy ever according to my mate.
“You’ve done a very good job of getting organized, so I think a reward is in order.” That didn’t get his thumb out of his mouth but his mind was filled with the question mark that ended their written language.
“No more questions. Littles don’t worry like that.” As they floated around like balloons, I did my best to picture one and popped it like we were in a cartoon. Wren’s laughter at my poor attempt of imagination escaped around his thumb and had him crashing into me as he started popping bubbles in his imagination.
By the time we made it back to the motel, he’d cleared all the questions from his mind and had relaxed into a mostly nonverbal presentation that was much less anxious than his more grown-up one had been.
That had been exhausting to watch and it had not even been my stress.
