The being with Kroven made my breath catch in the back of my throat. I’d never seen anything like him. While I was very accustomed to seeing sangamar because of the nature of my job, that didn’t mean I came into contact with other Orbs very often. Sure, I’d seen some in passing, like the night that Thayer and I had gone to Gossamer. But seeing them up close andpersonal, really taking them in, was a completely different story.
This Orb was taller than me, taller than Kroven. While Kroven was toned but fairly slender, this other being was stocky and ripped.
And covering his entire body was a myriad of blue and green scales.
He was wearing a plain black t-shirt and matching shorts that must have been pants once, because the frayed ends were hanging down against his scaly legs. His eyes were a vibrant gold, and his hair was a tidy mess of chopped brown. How the hell someone that was clearly covered in scales could also produce hair beat me, but these were Orbs. Sometimes it didn’t need to make sense to be hot. And this guy wasreallyhot.
I really needed to reflect on why I was having raging hard-ons for Orbs after years of never giving it another thought.
“Bas,” Kroven squeaked, his voice faltering from it’s previous stoic confidence. I noticed the other Orb giving Kroven a wide smirk. “What are you doing here?”
“Sorry,” I immediately sputtered. “Stuff was happening at work and I got off early and thought I’d stop by.” I glanced at the silent Orb. “I’m sorry for interrupting.”
“Well this is interesting.” The Orb said.
Realizing a little too late, his husky warble tone was the one I’d heard earlier. The one that sounded like he was slightly fighting against water in his mouth. My eyes widened as I saw gills on the sides of his neck flare at the same time as his nostrils.
“Don’t you start,” Kroven chastised, gesturing from me to his friend. “Bas, this is Qwill. He’s a virces friend of mine.” Qwill gave me a smile that I tried to mimic. “Qwill, this is Bas. He’s my…he works down at the blood center I frequent.”
A shudder slithered down my spine at Kroven’s words, stirring my core.He’s my...what? I wanted to hear the end of thatsentence, but Qwill sauntering over to me and extending his hand distracted me.
I looked away from Qwill’s lopsided smile and down at his hand. He had the same five fingers humans had, and half expected for him to have some sort of webbing between his fingers, but he didn’t. While the back of his hands were covered in more of the blue and green scales, the underside was displayed in bare teal colored skin. I tensed, but put my hand in his with a nervous laugh.
“Nice to meet you, Bas.” Qwill shook my hand, and the smoothness of his skin met mine. “When did the blood centers start doinghome visits?”
Before I could protest, Kroven stepped closer. He rolled his eyes. “Enough. You know he’s…”
There it was again, Kroven stopping himself mid-sentence. I locked eyes with him, and felt myself blushing. Was he implying that Qwill was just messing with me because he’d already told him about me?
Kroven’s talked about me to his friends? That thought alone made the blood go rushing straight to my dick and I shifted uneasily as to conceal it as much as possible. Qwill let go of my hand and clasped a webbed hand on my shoulder.
“I’m only teasing,” Qwill insisted, looking away from Kroven and looking back down at me. “It’s nice to put a face to the name Kroven won’t shut up about.”
I glanced over at him then, and I could have sworn I saw the sangamar version of blushing settling upon his cheeks, a light rouge lighting up his skin. I smiled as Kroven ran a hand through his hair, huffing in defeat.
“He’s talked about me, huh?” I stated, giving Qwill a snicker.
“Talked my ear off this morning,” Qwill laughed. “Before I had to ruin his smitten antics with a heavier subject.”
The weight of their previous conversation was rearing its ugly head into the air around us, and I shifted on my feetnervously. I didn’t mean to interject myself into their business, but here I was.
While I was standing there wondering if I should leave, I felt Kroven snake a hand across my back comfortingly. I tried not to mewl into his touch too much, but judging by the smirk gliding across Qwill’s face, I had failed miserably.
“There’s some humans making a fuss down at the blood centers,” Kroven sighed as he traced a pattern across my back. “Qwill here is in contact with a mutual sangamar friend who wanted me to look into doing something about it.”
“Actually, I know more about it than you might think.” When Kroven and Qwill both gave me inquisitive looks, I added, “We saw the protestors across the street. And because of it, my manager is limiting our hours because the local sangamar are too fearful to come down to the blood center.”
Qwill sighed. “See, Kroven? This is really bad.”
“Dammit.” Kroven looked more disturbed than I expected, almost like he wished more than anything that someone other than him could take care of this. “I’m sorry, Bas. I have to deal with this. Exo, our friend, he’s more like family to me and I can’t…”
“You don’t have to explain, Kroven.” I nodded, feeling his hand retract, already missing his touch. “But I can help you. I have insider knowledge because of the blood center, so whatever you need, I’m here.”
“That’s not a bad idea, Kroven.” Qwill nodded, running a hand through his brown hair. “Bas here could give you vital intel about what the humans are planning to do about the protestors, if anything.”
“They are.” I explained. “I don’t know what just yet, but they said there’s a representative connected to the blood center that’s going to try and settle things.”
“Any chance that’s Watson?” Qwill’s interest piqued yet again as his voice dipped up and down expectantly.
