Time seemed to pass and things seemed easier. Evan, as far as Airitech could tell, had gotten use to him. As use to him as Even could BE with youma, anyway.

Airi had even started spending his time with Evan, whenever they had both been in the rift. Airi had thought things were progressing nicely between them, until he was reminded that there was one truth that had yet to be addressed.

The collar.

He had forgotten about it, until Evan’s fingers had brushed against it. The smaller youma didn’t seem phased, or even notice it was there. But it weighed heavily against Airi.

What should he do? Tell him? Don’t? Airi didn’t want Evan to think he was tricking him, or lying. But, he also didn’t want to cause Evan more distress. With a sigh, he padded over to the smaller creature. “Evan…” Airi said softly. “Evan, we need to tal- Erm.. I.. I have something I need to tell you.”

Something I need to show you.

“Evan, I need you to trust me.”

I need you to trust in me

--

Evan was still terribly skittish around most youma, but when things got rough he'd long since learned he'd rather be with Airi than be on his own. Airi, at least, didn't try to step on him, or bite him, or scare him off.

Evan wasn't in the Rift often; he left it as much as he possibly could, which usually meant when he wound up there, he was absolutely exhausted. So the best thing to do was go find a cave to hide in, or go find Airi and then find a cave to hide in.

Sometimes, it was easy to talk with Evan. Sometimes he seemed to understand what was being said, and he'd chatter like he was trying to respond and knew what he was saying. But sometimes he just stared blankly, ear twitching or head cocking to the side slowly. Those days were far fewer than they used to be, but it was a clear sign that something in Evan's mind was changing.

He was who he used to be, sort of, but he was losing it. Piece by piece.

Today, though, was a good day. He seemed suspicious when Airi asked for his trust, but there was clear concern etched on the smaller youma's face. He flopped himself on the ground, sitting curiously in front of Airi. He chirped a few light notes, encouraging, by the sound of it, and then sat quietly as he waited.

--

Airi’s ears drooped slightly, watching as Evan tried to coax Airi into whatever he was doing. Evan’s chirps were reassuring, but they also added to the larger youma’s growing unease.

“Awhile ago… Fangite was given a tool by Laurelite to help with a mission…” He began slowly. “There’s a collar around my neck, hidden in my fur. It suppresses my signature when I’m out there. But it does something else too. It… It makes me look like something I’m not.”

Airi’s ears dropped completely, as if he were in trouble. “She never took it back afterwards. Either that was an accident or not, we don’t know and we didn’t bother to ask.”

“Please Evan…. I want you to slide my collar off. This… This is what I want to show you.”

I want to show you, me.

---

Evan made a face at Airi, a strange, almost human expression that looked like he was pursing his lips. His ears folded back and he watched with slightly lidded eyes. He had gotten a bit more brazen since they’d first met, and while he still seemed skittish whenever Airi moved too quickly, it didn’t stop Evan from rising up so he could reach the other youma’s neck.

He pressed his hands curiously into the forest of fur, combing his fingers through and pawing, looking for the collar he was talking about. When he found it, he wrapped his fingers around it, apparently surprised that Airi was telling the truth--and that he’d never noticed the collar before.

He let out an annoyed chirp of disbelief, gave the collar a little tug, and then scrambled back down so he could look up at Airi expectantly.

--

Airitech rolled his shoulders before shaking his head and whole body, almost as if he was settling back into his old fur. In a sense, he was. Spikes and horns revealed themselves. Airi was always curious just how the collar managed to hide those.

Airi frowned, sitting back on his haunches, afraid of how Evan was going to react. “I am not a dog.” He reminded him. “I am not suppose to look like that.” But he chose to. He chose to look like like a fake. “This is what I look like. This is what I’m suppose to look like.” Suppose to act like. But he didn’t. Airi realized that maybe he understood Evan’s plight a little more than he thought he did.

“I should have told you sooner. To be completely honest with you… I forgot. I’ve gotten so use to just wearing the damned thing, and splitting my time between the rift and Fangite’s house. And then you happened.” Airitech shifted awkwardly. “You were just so scared of me in the beginning, and that was with the collar.” Though, Evan was still scared of him to some degree. “What would you have been like if I hadn’t had it on?”

This was all just so stupid, Airi thought. Why did things have to further complicate themselves? Nothing had been the same since Natron’s disappearance.

Nothing

Now here he was freaking out over what another youma thought of him.

What was going on with him?

What was wrong with him?

--

The spike and horns seemed to be the most alarming to Evan, who visible shrank a little lower to the ground. It looked like he was torn between cowering and running away, but he was trying to show some spec of bravery.

Airi had been his friend—or, at least, as close of a friend as any youma could be to another. It was like friendship, at least. Like how Evan remembered it, when he had a burst of clarity to his thoughts.

He didn't seem to blame Airi for the artificial appearance; it wasn't deceitful, so far as he was concerned. Not that he could think about anything more than spikes and horns. Evan watched in rapt fascination—and horror. If he had still been a human when he'd first seen this form, Airi might have given him a heart attack .

But he didn't, now, and Evan wasn't any braver for having seen this form. He just took it in and—although he cowered—didn't seem to know what to do.

He couldn't even chirp; instead, a small, pathetic squeak slipped from his lips.

--

Evan’s little squeak caused him to flinch. That didn’t bode well. But at least Evan hadn’t run for the hills. Yet.

Airi whined, sounding a lot like the creature most people saw him as. He wanted nothing more right now then to make himself seem small, to match how he felt inside at the moment. Instead, he chose to do something else. The large youma crawled on his belly over to Evan, where he tentatively licked at the smaller youma’s hand. When Evan didn’t respond negatively, Airi took as a sign to move forward. With a small, but eager whimper he crawled closer, licking at Evan’s hands and face, giving him gentle nuzzles to both. Airi curled his body around Evan, dropping his head in his lap. The large youma gave a huff, ears drooping, as he settled for a moment before resuming his earlier actions.

“I’m sorry.” He murmured. Airi repeated the phrase several times over, unsure of what else to say. “I know none of this has been easy for you.” Airi scaring him in the beginning wasn’t exactly helpful either. “I’m trying to help where I can. How I can. I just…” The youma huffed. Maybe this wasn’t the smartest move after all.

--

Evan seemed tense, but he usually was when he was met with things that he couldn't explain. He didn’t try to run from Airi, and the fact that the youma was much bigger than him (and probably much faster) probably had something to do with it.

Something, but not everything.

Things hadn’t been easy for Evan, but the longer he was like this, the easier it was starting to be, living with youma. Having Airi around.

The whine that came out of the other youma’s mouth made his ears perk up, and it was instinctive to retract his hand when Airi licked him.

But he didn’t run.

Instead, he looked at the exposed belly for a long moment. His brows furrowed underneath his bushy black fur, and he drew back--just a step.

And then he sprung up and pounced, aiming exactly for Airi’s stomach.

It wasn’t an attack; there was no violence. It was just Evan doing weird, youma things, like he’d learned was apparently the norm around here. When he landed, he tried to curl up immediately, before Airi could move or try to dislodge him.

--

There was an initial yelp of surprise when Evan pounced. A winded oof when Evan hit his mark. Airi’s tail wagged sheepishly as he laid there. The creature took a few deep breaths, relaxing under the weight (albeit, light) against his chest. He wondered what Evan thought about, about this. About everything.

Airi stretched out his back legs as he kept his front tucked in close. He sighed, releasing a long breathe. Evan didn’t seem to mind, but that didn’t mean that Evan wasn’t cross at him. But what was he expecting? It wasn’t like Evan could talk back to him.

Thought he was getting use to that. He tried to remember chirps. The tone, pitch, if Evan was happy or sad. Key word being tried. It still took Airi a few attempts before he understood Evan sometimes.

“Are… are you, I mean, does it, what do you-” Words were hard.

Airi huffed

--

Evan huffed similarly only a moment later, as though he were having difficulty trying to figure out how he should be laying on this new form. It was different, and no matter how he tried to hide it, he was trembling. It was faint, but he found comfort in Airi's smell—in his warmth.

And when he closed his eyes, it was like nothing was different.

But that seemed to be how he was handling his issues lately—with his eyes closed and his face pressed against Airi's fur.

When Sanidine was around, Evan as clinging to him, though given the hour, Sanidine was probably sleeping or trying to pretend like he was in his right mind and putting on the façade of a smile at work.

But he'd be back, and same as always, Evan would probably run to him, as eager for good news as he was to see a friendly face.

But he wasn't so desperate these days—not when he had Airi to keep him company between the hours when Sanidine could be there.

Even now, he just let out a soft little sigh, and an even softer chirp.

He wasn't mad. Confused, and afraid of the new appearance, but not mad.

It was still Airi, beneath it all, and even in this form he still made a great pillow.

--

Okay…. Well he wasn’t getting chirped and clicked at by an angry little puff ball… So that was a good thing… right? Right. Airi was gonna take it as a victory.

Airi rolled back onto his belly slowly, carefully, so Evan could move and not end up a youma pancake. The youma was still for a moment before leaning over and licking Evan’s cheek. Nuzzles came next. These actions weren’t like the ones earlier, where Airi was trying to beg forgiveness for something he hadn’t meant to hide. No… These were… different.

“Thank you…” Airi said with a sigh, pressing as close to Evan as he dared. He wasn’t sure what he was thanking Evan for. There was nothing to say that Evan wouldn’t tear into him for this later. But that didn’t matter at the moment. All that mattered to Airi was that Evan had accepted him all the same. Sure, Evan was a little skittish, but he stayed.

“You ah… You can put the collar back on me, if it makes you feel better.” Airi wasn’t ready to part with it just yet. He wasn’t sure if Fangite needed it for anything after all. The youma continued to nuzzle and rub his head against Evan before eventually setting it in the smaller youma’s lap.

--

Evan made himself more comfortable atop of Airi, kneading his fingers and toes into the fluff beneath him. He was gentle, but the actions were somewhat desperate—like a compulsion. His ears folded back when Airi licked at his cheek; he squirmed a bit but it seemed more like one of Evan's strange youma quirks than some attempt to actually put distance between the two of them.

He flopped down on top of Airi for a moment and just looked at him, just stared at him, and then stretched out an arm to reach for the collar. He poked it and prodded it and seemed to try and understand how it worked. Curiously he chirped at it but took great effort to keep his voice soft, as if he feared being too loud would trigger some hidden weapon in it. Eventually, when the collar wasn't doing anything, he just shrugged and dropped it on the ground next to them before face planting against Airi.

He seemed to have made up his mind; he was a lump of fluff and had no intention of getting up. Some youma might not have needed sleep, but Evan pushed himself until his body couldn't go any more. He probably wasted more energy trembling and running than he did doing everything else, and maybe it was the fact that he had still been a human not so long ago that sleeping just seemed a habit. When he was overwhelmed, sleeping was a good thing.

And Airi was a safety net, bed, blanket and pillow, all in one.

It was all he could ask for, and more.

--

Airi seemed to relax as Evan kneaded his fingers through his fur. “I don’t understand or really know how it works either.” He offered at the chirp. “However, when you’re handed something by Laurelite… It’s probably best not to question it you know?” He still didn’t know why the woman hadn’t taken it back but, again, probably best not to question her on it.

However when Evan simply dropped it to the ground without so much as a second thought, Airi blinked, ears perking up. Guess that was a no. Airi blinked at the collar a few more times before his gaze shifted back to Evan. A sigh escaped him, but a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “You…”

Confuse me.

Intrigue me.

Astound me.

You trust me.

“You… should probably sleep. You’re probably tired.” Evan had just been through a bit of an ordeal. It may not have seemed much, but it was still something Evan was not used to, or expecting. “Sleep… Or at the very least, take a nap.” It would help relax Evan, if nothing else. “I won’t go anywhere.” He promised. Airi always stayed, just as he promised. The youma always kept Evan close. Warm. Safe. “Sleep.” He prodded gently, giving Evan a small nuzzle. “I will keep watch.”

---

Evan certainly wasn't going to debate such a clever assertion; he was incredibly tired and the waves of emotions he was constantly swimming through were absolutely to blame. Coupled with the fact that he was almost always moving, afraid to stay in one place for too long?

Yeah, he was tired. Most days ended with him too exhausted to move.

He nodded somewhat absentmindedly and then suddenly, as if agitated, shifted positions. He slid off of Airi and landed on the ground, scrambled closer to his head, and gave him a quick lick on the cheek.

He didn't stay for long; as soon as he licked his cheek he turned around and was climbing up onto his stomach again. He curled up and let out a tiny, exasperated sigh before he buried his head once more. Eyes closed and snuggled in, a soft purr rumbled in his throat for a good few moments until he fell asleep.