Sunlight filled the room, illuminating walls that were painted blue and covered in bright yellow sunflowers. He was buried in quilts almost up to his nose. He was very sure he had never seen this room before.
But Max was there.
She was lying with her back to him, curled on her side and also buried in quilts. From his perspective, she was little more than a spill of dark hair across the pillow and an elegant shoulder half covered with an embroidered sleeve. Still, he would have known her anywhere.
Gio pushed himself cautiously up on his elbow. His head throbbed, and he felt tired, though not the devastating exhaustion he had experienced before he collapsed.
Taking care not to wake Max, he carefully extracted himself from the bed, discovering in the process that he was still wearing the clothes he had been wearing last night. (Was it only last night?)
He limped over to the window and discovered that it looked out on a stunning view of incredibly tall mountains, crested with snow, and a valley so far below that it was misty blue with distance. The mountainside flamed with color, which disoriented him thoroughly. It looked like autumn, and the snow reached almost all the way down the slopes.
How long have I been asleep?
Then he recalled Max had said she was from Argentina. As it was in the southern hemisphere, the seasons were reversed. It was fall here.
He now remembered the way that it had seemed as if his animal and Max's were talking to each other while they were underground. She had given him a destination, perhaps without meaning to. And now here they were.
Wherever here was.
Max groaned softly and stirred. Gio went to sit on the edge of the bed as she rolled over and opened her eyes.
"Morning," he said.
"Ugh," was her response. She rubbed her eyes and pushed herself upright. It was clear by the way she moved that there was no bra under the loose robe she was wearing. Gio tried not to be too obviously taken with it, but it was impossible not to notice, and he saw a quick flicker of a smile on her expressive mouth.
"We appear to have slept together." She yawned and stretched, then grinned broadly at the effect this had on him. "What a scandal."
"Where are we?"
Max's humor faded. "This is my clan homeland in Argentina. We're in the Andes Mountains."
"It's beautiful."
"We'll see if you still say that when my clan alpha shows up and tries to murder us."
She didn't sound like she was joking, but Gio was distracted completely when she got out of bed and he discovered she was wearing a loose, embroidered nightgown. It fell just past her knees. Rather than being shapeless, it draped delicately across her curves, concealing and revealing at the same time.
Gio felt himself starting to have an embarrassing hard-on that only got worse when Max reached for her jeans, draped over the back of a chair, and he realized she was going to take it off. "Bathroom?" he asked hastily.
"Down the hall," Max said.
He took care of necessaries, washed his face, and drank some water from his cupped hands. When he returned to the bedroom, Max was wearing her regular jeans with a loose, borrowed top with long sleeves and a brightly embroidered hem.
"My sister's," she explained, when he saw it. "This is her house. Let's go see about getting some breakfast."
They went downstairs. In the kitchen, they found a curvaceous, pretty woman with a strong resemblance to Max. She was cooking eggs, and there were two little girls at the table, as well as Elina, who was wearing a long dress in the same bright colors and embroidered style as Max's borrowed blouse.
"My sister, Sofia," Max told Gio. "Sofia, this is Gio. You hardly had a chance to meet properly last night."
"Good morning," Sofia said. "Sit, eat. I have to run the girls to school in a few minutes. It's down the mountain a little way, since the village isn't big enough to support a full-time school."
She piled their plates with eggs and sausage. There was a bowl of fruit on the table. The little girls giggled shyly and moved closer to Elina. They already seemed to have adopted her as a sort of honorary big sister, and it was clear that Sofia was treating her with the same warmth as if Elina was one of her own kids.
"Hi, kids," Max said, to more shy giggling. "I'm your aunt Max. You've only ever talked to me on a tiny screen, but I've come to visit in person."
"Did you bring me anything?" the oldest of the girls asked. "Mama said you had birthday presents for me."
Max's mouth rounded in a shocked O. "I—oh honey, I'm so sorry. I completely forgot."
