Becoming Monsters: I'm Blue 26

Becoming Monsters is the creation of AiLovesToGrow, setting used with permission.

I also want to specifically thank JustAGuy, my longtime editor and AiLoves's before me, for a couple of suggestions that really helped this chapter happen. Oh, and for putting up with my shenanigans for two and a half years now.

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Chapter 26: Black and White

Justin was once again sharpening knives for profit. The novelty was beginning to wear off a bit, to be honest. He hadn't exactly been working here long enough to know everyone on sight, nor had he heard enough to really be able to track the Camp drama, and despite both of the above he had managed to help most of those who were the type to need someone to sharpen their knives. All this to say, his work flow wasn't nothing, but it was way less than before and the fun of it was starting to wear thin.

Next to him at the table was an unusual character. A Ghost, or some other kind of mostly-incorporeal Undead. Her body was vaguely feminine, but not really defined. Her pale and glowing white form against the dimness of the tent cut a fairly dramatic figure. She wasn't doing anything particularly magical, nor Delver-focused. No, in her hand was a bright silver calligraphy pen, and she was elegantly writing out messages for people who paid her to do so.

"I have a hard time recovering, so I needed a way to kill time between runs." Her present paper, just as elegant as the others, read "Jeef Berkey."

Justin was working on the only blade he'd gotten in the last thirty minutes. "And... I can appreciate the artistry, but I have to admit to being confused about the text."

She smiled a bit gently. "Not everything needs to be serious. Sometimes? Well, a fine and elegantly crafted inside joke is enough to bring some smiles."

"I guess." Justin finished up the knife he was working on. With no more customers immediately in line, he pulled out his sketch pad. This piece would be white on black in order to be dramatic, but his first few ideas just were not working out. "Maybe I'll find time for that kind of thing later. Too many balls in the air right now for it."

The Ghost shrugged. "Suit yourself. Just take it from me, if you don't take breaks your body will do it for you. It won't choose times that are convenient."

"Aren't you the one with a body that has no fleshy demands or need to sleep?"

"I lived for 34 years before the Change hit. Trust me when I say that there was plenty of time to make mistakes." She leaned over to start working on the next card, it looked like a much longer one. The ink flowed from her pen in flowery and precise lines, the process fascinating for Justin.

Then it hit him. "Hey, you mind if I draw you? I'm trying to finish my portfolio for school, and you're kind of perfect for white-on-black."

The Ghost smiled again, and it looked like if she could blush she would have. "I don't mind. Just one request?"

Justin was already pulling out the black paper. "What is it?"

"My pen. Make sure it is in the picture, and that it stands out. It might not seem like much, but it's important to me."

Justin thought for a moment. The only pencils he had on him were his white one and his normal graphite one... but he could work with that. "I got you. Thanks for this!"

He laid down a rough outline in white, the wispy shapes more suggesting the shapes of her body than precisely describing them. The bend of her arm, the lean of her neck, the head peering down where her hands went. Each line trailed off into the blackness of the background instead of ending precisely, and he did not bother to erase the extras. This time, what was needed wasn't bold and clean edges. Her hand curled around to hold the precious pen, and that instrument was rendered in the silver-gray of his pencil instead of the white he used for her body, the lines of it much more solid and clear. One line of silver trailed from the tip, suggesting the writing.

Justin was so engrossed in it that he barely noticed when someone slapped a couple of silvers onto the counter, thinking the show of artwork was why he was there and not sharpening knives. He noticed enough to pocket the coins and thank the man, though. He was focused, not stupid.

Before he quite realized it, his alarm beeped at him. It was ten thirty in the evening. Time to get home. Time to get back to Abbey, get prepared for the next day, and go to sleep. His school schedule didn't change even though he didn't have steady employment anymore. That meant that even though he might be able to stay up late, he definitely needed to maintain something vaguely resembling a sleep schedule. Justin glanced into his pouch. Including the guy who tipped for entertainment, his grand total was enough Silver for one more Gold piece, his art mostly done, and the required three chapters of reading completed along with proper notes taken. In all, not too bad. He was still ahead of pace.

Packing up took two minutes, most of which was making sure his homework was in a binder properly so that he wouldn't lose it. There was an embarrassing memory that was on both the wish-implanted and the real side of his skull. A couple of minutes of walking brought him to the doorway home, two more steps and he was back in the Seaside Manor. It was dark in the hallway without sunlight coming through the windows, but he didn't need the light that badly. It was enough to pause and breathe in the sea air for a moment. After one or two of those, though, he started walking towards the stairs

The guests are probably already asleep, both Abbey's parents and Todd's crew. I might get a few moments alone with Abbey, that would be nice... what the?

All of the lights were on downstairs. That was the first surprise, though notably his own shock didn't so much come from that as the fact that he almost got bowled over by Ghata. By the time his brain caught up she had turned the corner, the tip of a broom trailing behind her as she vanished down a hallway. The smell down here wasn't so much of the sea air, more like pine oil. None of this made any sense. Or, rather, it did, just not the kind of sense he'd had to worry about for weeks. There was a commotion coming from the kitchen area, and since that was on the way to the bedroom he figured he should check there next.

There he found more of the same. Todd was holding a mop, apparently just now rinsing off the head in a bucket of water. One that seemed to be the source of the pine oil scent. Abbey and Song had cleaning cloths out and were wiping down various surfaces. Justin took a second to take in the scene. "Abbey? What's going on?"

She jumped a bit and looked over. "Oh! You're home! Welcome back. Uh, kind of a long story."

Justin looked at Song and Todd, then back over his shoulder towards the other hall. "I don't think I'm going to be able to go to sleep until the curiosity is satisfied."

Abbey looked off in the same direction. "You know, I don't blame you. It started a couple of hours back, all of us were having dinner on the beach. I sent you some pictures."

"Yeah, they looked cute. Especially the one of little Alex covered in sand."

"Yeah... so that's an unfortunately good segue." Abbey managed to look a bit sheepish.

"I can explain this next bit," Todd inserted. "We were kind of sloppy when we came back inside. Clouds rolled in and it looked like it was gonna rain, so we were in a hurry. Tracked in a bunch of sand, a lot of it wet, dropped a greasy pan. This room was messy. May got to the nursery to take care of Alex, but then the weirdness started."

Abbey nodded. "I saw some of the sand start to shift and felt a tug on the mana pool, but then it stopped. A broom and mop kind of budded out of the wall." She gestured vaguely at the mop that Todd was holding. "I think the house has been using up a lot of excess mana keeping the place clean and stocked. We can't really stop using the portals, but the rest? As soon as we realized that keeping up with us was straining the house, we got to work cleaning up. Mom and Dad ran around the second floor and got the hallways done before heading off to their RV to sleep. We were just finishing up down here, and tomorrow's going to be the grocery run. Not sure if the gas, electricity, and water is costing us mana, but I wouldn't be surprised either way."

Justin closed his eyes. "So that means we need to try to conserve a bit better on top of keeping the place clean ourselves. Sorry, house, I didn't even think about how much it was costing you to keep up with us." He thought he could feel a vague pulse of something from the house. Half frustration, half gratitude. A few days ago he might have thought he was imagining it, but after getting a mana tutorial from the place that didn't seem logical. "I guess the next question would be what I can do to help?"

There wasn't too much left to do. Abbey sent him up to the third floor to check if there were any new rooms and give a quick sweep... after making sure he took off his shoes. No sense making the problem worse, and the dirt of the Guild Hall wasn't any better than the sand of the beaches. He grabbed the broom he'd brought from his own dorm room when they moved here a lifetime ago and got moving.

Abbey had to laugh. It wasn't exactly a secret that Justin could be a bit of a slob when he wasn't on the clock. Better than most college guys, sure, but apparently the house's standards were closer to her own. Despite the fact that she'd lived in a magically-reinforced forest clearing for a while, this was quite a bit higher than Justin's. She shrugged and got back to cleaning off the table, not that it needed particularly much more effort. Song and Ghata were wrapping up the downstairs areas they didn't use as much as this little corner, Justin was verifying the upstairs. Teamwork was, in fact, making the dream work.

She straightened out and stretched. The scrubbing had her sore across the arms and upper back, but it felt good to focus in and do something like this. The house really did look cleaner. It felt... happier, in a way. Like it wasn't fighting them. Or like they weren't fighting it. One of those.

They all finished, eventually. Even May, who had taken a while to settle a rather fussy baby, got back and helped a bit at the end. Everyone said a few words goodnight then headed for their rooms. It was late, and everyone had things to do in the morning. As Abbey and Justin got changed into pajamas for bed, though, he noticed something. "Abs? You okay? Looks like you're hurting."

"Just sore. We were cleaning for a little while before you got back, and despite shapeshifting I do still have muscles in me that can feel that."

"I can at least help with this one. Come on, if you'd like a massage just lay down on the bed with your shirt off."

"Massage? Since when do you..." her voice drifted off. Not only was there an entire Wish putting knowledge into his head, when she thought about the false memories of the last couple of years she could remember him talking about specific stretches and putting pressure on particular parts to help with fatigued muscles. Granted, when he mentioned it in the past it was mostly his hands, arms, and wrists, but still.

"Had to learn some of it as an artist. Even before you gave me the coin my program recommended an elective on it to help keep ourselves from ruining our hands."

"I guess that makes sense." She started to take her shirt back off, but was suddenly struck by a certain uncharacteristic shyness. Come on, he's seen me naked enough times by now and could have demanded it any number of times. She took a breath, and let go of the shirt. It dropped, fluttering down to the ground, leaving her in her panties and nothing else. It stood out, white against her blue skin, and she turned to face him. "Is... is there any particular form you want me in?"

He paused for a moment to look at her. Really look at her. At the smooth curves of her arms and hips and breasts, at her firm abs, her bright eyes and long hair. He had in fact seen her naked more than once. They showered together whenever they could, and often changed in front of each other. This was different. Abbey looked curiously vulnerable, her demeanor wildly different from her usual take-charge attitude. It was a side of her even he almost never got to see. It was an effort of will to even continue his instructions. "Whatever is comfortable for you to lay down in, love. I just need to be able to reach everything, so one that fits on the bed. And I hate to cheat like this, but if you can create an oil or lotion of some kind for me to use it will help."

Doing so cost Abbey barely a wisp of her mana as she slowly laid face down on her bed. Their bed. The one she had created when he Wished for a home together. Justin stepped forward, taking the moment to admire the lines of her back, the slightly lighter blue of the skin that rarely saw the sun. He glanced briefly over at the bedside table, at the wooden bowl that had appeared there. He dipped his hand in to scoop a little bit of the odd gel out and found it both slick and perfectly at air temperature. Perfect for what he was about to do.

The first touch of his hand on her back made her twitch, just a bit. It was natural, but once she settled down he began to apply some light pressure up and down her back. Whatever the gel was, it was certainly slick (though it evaporated a bit quickly), which let him get some good glide on his palms as he worked her tense muscles. Up and down the spine, behind the shoulder blades, near where the neck met the rest of the spine, her upper shoulders, then down near her hips. Each arm followed one by one, focusing first on the biceps, then down along the tender tendons there, then into her hands.

Abbey wasn't giving too much feedback directly, but he could tell what he was doing was effective. The occasional twitches as he found a sore spot or a knot, the gasps and deeper breaths. Then again on her other arm. With a deep breath to steady himself, Justin then moved on to her hips, her shapely rear, her strong legs, her feet. She didn't like to sit down, there was a lot there to find. He stood straight, stretching out his own arms. "Alright, love, if you want me to do the rest I need you to roll over."

Only the gentlest of snores came in response.

Justin smiled warmly. His fiancée had gone from pain to peaceful rest at his hands, and incidentally he'd gotten to have his hands all over her. It felt good. Pleasure and healing. He could do this for her, and would happily do so forever. Only one thing remained. He stripped himself down to his own underwear, turned off the lights, gently crawled into bed with her, and pulled the blanket up over them. As soon as he was close, Abbey reflexively snuggled into him. Justin, in turn, held her closely against his body.

"I love you, Abbey."

Some time later, she opened her eyes. The sun was barely starting to come up, and given the warmth of her significant other spooning up with her she did need to get up soon. It felt like she had proceeded directly from body-wide bliss to opening her eyes again in the most comfortable position she'd ever had. His arms were around her, one hand cupping her breast in his sleep, his body following the curve of hers. She realized with a bit of shock that the position was unusual for more than just the comfort. She usually kept herself in a form that was a bit taller than him. Justin didn't mind, after all, and both the strength and presence of it helped her. But now? After he'd asked her to take a form comfortable to her? The one she was in had to be smaller than him by at least a couple of inches in order for him to be able to fully spoon her like this. She was smaller and weaker than him, entirely by choice. A look through her own mind confirmed it, this wasn't a compulsion to be a good girlfriend that made her do it. She wanted to.

It was a new feeling, that. She decided she liked it.

The problem was, of course, that she still had a bladder. One that was, after last night's fun dinner on the beach followed by hours asleep, rather full. Quite regretfully, she slipped out of Justin's arms, sneaking a large pillow in her place to help him keep sleeping. A quick trip to the bathroom was next, followed by putting her pajamas back on, followed by getting out to the kitchen. This time, she could be the one to put something together for him.

Or maybe not. The smell of coffee struck first as she got to the kitchen, followed by the sight of her parents moving around. Mom was at the stove cooking something that smelled amazing and probably involved about a hundred eggs if Abbey knew her. Dad was doing dishes as they went, setting up the table, and fetching things at his wife's instructions. He was the one to notice her, first. "Abbey! Good, you're up, and not too much later than usual. We figured we'd do the groceries and get the day started. Where's Justin?"

"Still asleep, Daddy. He didn't get to sleep until after I did."

The Goblin grinned, showing an unholy amount of crooked teeth. "Can't have that! The boy's gotta go be a man. Honey, you got long on breakfast?"

Mom looked back at him and thought for a moment. "Call it ten minutes, maybe fifteen."

"Perfect. Excuse me, ladies, I have some work to do." He wandered over to the corner where he'd unobtrusively leaned two pieces of bamboo.

It took a second for Abbey to recognize them. Bamboo swords. Bokken? Shinai? One of those. They were both about the same size, one that would be full-length for the Goblin but a short sword for Justin. As he walked into their bedroom, Abbey got a bit of a bad feeling about it, one that was confirmed by the sudden noise and flurry of motion coming from that general direction. Moments later, Justin (still in pajamas but holding one of the two weapons) sprinted through the kitchen and out the beach door. He was chased by a certain wildly smiling Goblin who was getting ready to become his father-in-law, much more dressed and carrying his own bamboo sword. Abbey looked at her mother, who shrugged back, then felt it might be prudent to go and at least try to observe the proceedings.

And she apparently wasn't alone. As Abbey walked out, a pigeon flew through the open door... heading out of the home. Ghata. A brush against her calf and a blur of red-orange fur revealed a fox left the house as well, presumably Song. Good, she'd have backup if it was needed.

In the few moments that took, her father had traced a large circle into the sandy ground. "Alright, Justin, Gina says we've got about ten minutes. I ain't gonna have a son of mine out there making weapons and not knowing how to use 'em." That was the sum of the warning he gave before charging forward, winding up a powerful-looking overhand chop.

Justin thankfully saw it coming and dodged off to the side, letting the weapon strike sand. He barely had a decent grip on the short bamboo sword before he had to dodge again. This time he managed to strike back at his opponent. Somewhat, anyway, the flailing didn't come anywhere close to hitting but it was enough to make the man pay attention. "I'm not making weapons, sir! Just artwork in its form!"

A second or two later and Mr. Williams was once again diving in. Faster this time. Abbey winced as his weapon caught Justin on the foot. But her father didn't give him time to recover before pressing the attack. "You absolutely are. That 'art project' of yours got an edge, it's gonna be able to be enchanted, it'll be able to be carried and used. You're making it as an apprentice project for the most famous WEAPONSMITH in the state. That's a weapon."

Three more swipes only hit air, the fourth one met Justin's raised defense for the first time. Justin didn't exactly hold firm, the crack of collision pushing him away from the smaller aggressor, but it kept the attack from striking flesh. Abbey saw him make the decision. Just defending wasn't going to work. His opponent was too good, too strong, so his only hope was to make him have to defend himself. Justin set his feet and charged forward. His own swing hit nothing, making it right about as effective as that one time he tried it on a Dragon.

Daniel Williams, Goblin monster hunter and prospective father-in-law, hopped back lightly. He casually blocked the next couple of strikes as well. "Good, so you do know which end of it goes towards the enemy. You ain't exactly dangerous, but brave enough." His stance shifted again, obviously getting ready to go on the attack once more.

Abbey nearly jumped out of her skin as her mother started ringing a bell VERY loudly about three feet away from her. "Breakfast is up! You can stay out here if you want but Justin's gotta eat!"

Just like that, Mr. Williams was standing casually instead of looking ready to charge, his bamboo sword stabbed point-first into the sand. "You need to find a teacher, son. Badly. Might wanna look around the Hall tonight after class. I ain't missin' breakfast, though, and I recommend you don't either." He picked up his weapon and strode back into the house, stomping his feet to knock off the dry sand before stepping in.

Song and Ghata did the same, both shifting back to Human forms after cleaning their feet off. No sense making things harder than they had to be.

Finally, Abbey stepped forward to give Justin a huge hug. "Thank you for last night. I didn't get a chance to say it yet, but thank you."

Justin hugged her right back. "For the massage or the cuddles?"

"Both!"

"Good, because I want to keep doing both for a very long time." He laughed a bit. "Sorry for getting you all sweaty."

Abbey smiled as they slowly separated. "I started it, remember? Good job with the whole fighting thing, too. I know you don't like that."

Justin stretched a bit. "I'm pretty sure he could have stomped me into the sand so hard it would have made enough glass for my NEXT project."

"Of course he could. He hunts monsters for a living."

"You didn't have to agree that fast."

"Only the truth, love." She looked back towards their home. "Come on, let's get breakfast. After that, I think we could use a shower. Together."

"I think I like the sound of that. A lot." The two reached out for each other's hand. As one, they turned and walked towards the sounds of the happy breakfast they could hear coming from inside.