“I miss them too. Their holiday postcard arrived last week. I sent mine before you came too, so they should get it soon. I loved spending weekends at your family home.” They lived a few hours’ drive from Berlin and Kert used to take me with him on visits every few weeks for five years. Sam’s telekinesis was fun to see. And Fenix’s sandman-red complexion and tail fooled me enough that I thought he was Kert’s biological dad. But they’d adopted him when he was a baby.
“Maybe you’ll visit someday.” Kert patted my thigh with his foot, then left it there, remaining perched on the armrest.
“Or I’ll invite them here, like I did you.” I held his cold toes in my free hand, warming them.
Kert flicked his lip ring with his tongue. “I sort of invited myself.”
“That’s because no one can tell you what to do. I could only gently suggest it so your bratty ass would come on over.”
“Oh, so I’m a brat now?” Kert crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows in the most bratty way I’ve ever seen.
“You’ve always been.” I chuckled, poking him with my tentacle in the ribs.
“And what makes you an expert?” He frowned, looking at me with confusion painted on his face.
He couldn’t know. Not about the clubs or my extracurricular activities. It would ruin everything.
“I babysit, remember?” I hid my face behind my mug.
He laughed nervously and set his coffee aside. “Right.”
I slapped my thigh and stood up. “I’m awake now. So let’s get moving. I’ll just have to drop something off for the neighbors on our way out.”
“Would you leave your tentacles out?” Kert stroked one, and all four moved his way. I could control them most of the time, but sometimes they moved faster than I could think. The warmth of his hand where he’d held the mug permeated my tentacle, and I tasted his skin through the sucker he touched.
“Sure. But not for free.” I wrapped one around his waist and poked under his ribs.
Kert’s squeal turned into laughter as he wiggled out of my grip. Then he grabbed two tentacles and hugged them to his chest. “What else do I need to do for payment?”
All three of my hearts pumped more blood to my groin than to my brain when my head filled with images of what else I could do to him with my tentacles. “Your laugh is enough.”
“You’re easy to please.” Kert smirked and sashayed to the bedroom.
My tentacles remained in the air, as if reaching for him on their own. They acted on instinct before my conscious mind could catch up to what I wanted. Thankfully, Kert didn’t mind.
In a whoosh of warm air and the squelch of tentacles, I shifted my bottom half back to two legs. The process was akin to meditation—I had to be aware of my body and in full control of it as I told it what to do.
Due to cross-cryptid relationships and evolution, each generation had varying features or abilities. My human dad and tentacle shifter mom had three sons, each with different coloring and slight variation in build. I could partially hide my second pair of upper tentacles on top of shifting the two lower ones into legs, while my older brother Ner could partially shift only from the waist down with only two tentacles above the waist, and Spiros, the youngest, had a different combination altogether. Neither of us three could look fully human, which hadn’t always been fun as a kid in a mixed human and cryptid school.
For the first time in weeks, I put on the hoodie with cut outs for all four of my upper tentacles. Setting the limbs free was like stretching arms after being asleep for hours.
A pair of jeans and a black hoodie were enough for me, but Kert bundled up in a parka and shoved a pair of gloves in his pockets, both the shade of purple matching my skin.
Lana opened the door with a smile on her face. The loose bun on the top of her head added a bohemian vibe to her shirt and jeans with turn-ups casual look.
“Oh Marin, this must be your friend you’ve been waiting for.” She shook Kert’s hand with both of hers.
“Whatever he told you is not true.” Kert took a step away from me to the side, and offered her a grin.
She chortled. “Lovely to meet you. You’re in great hands here. Marin is the best host.” She turned to me. “The boys are so happy with the art materials you gave them when they visited you. They’ve been practicing for hours a day and they’re getting so good. Thanks so much.”
“Oh pfft. It was just something I had laying around and needed to get rid of.”
“Right. In unopened packaging.” She cocked her hip.
I shrugged. She got me there. I’d been getting art supplies for them since they’d shown interest and didn’t have the funds to pursue it. The two boys were into art, but the school didn’t provide what they needed and the parents couldn’t afford the materials to practice, let alone extra art classes.
“Talent is one thing, but practicing every day is what will make them great,” I said, drawing on the wisdom my mom passed down on me.
