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marsupials-of-mars · 5 years

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It Surfaces on the First Freeze of Winter (Pt 5)

Logan pulled under the lone roof covering the reserved parking spots at his complex. He paid extra for that spot, but it was something he was willing to treat himself to. His choice was validated further within the next minute, when tiny, sparse crystals of ice started fluttering down onto the pavement. Logan had hardly noticed that it had grown that cold during his drive, though he had noticed the bright grey cloud cover slowly moving overhead and blocking out the once dominating Florida sun. He normally would have been irritated by the snow, which was bound to make driving more difficult and was a signifier that the cold wasn't letting up anytime soon, but he couldn't help but be excited for Roman's reaction to such a phenomenon. He was sure to be bursting with childlike energy and whimsy.

Logan suddenly felt a fresh pang of guilt for leaving Remus in such a freeze, but at least it had its heater. He pushed the idea from his mind, locked his car, gathered his boots, and started toward the apartment.

Just as he passed the back tire, he felt a wet, familiar sensation wrap his ankle. He nearly screamed before he stopped himself, causing his outburst to sound more like a violent hiccup. He whipped around to lock eyes with Remus, curled and tangled into the underside of the car. It had forfeited its Roman disguise in order to fit its shape to the undercarriage. One tentacle had escaped its compact form, outstretched to greet Logan's socked foot.

"Remus?!" He whisper-shouted as to not alert his roommate, who was potentially just a parking lot, a window, and some blinds away. "You can't be here! It's not safe for either of us!"

"-live with- Logan." Remus looked almost smug, seemingly proud of his fantastic stealth skills, overriding his clear misery from being windblown consistently with freezing air. The reality of Logan's anger must have finally been apparent to the beast, who quickly recoiled its tentacle and regained it's Roman form in defense. "-Roman-" it made pleading puppy dog eyes, daring Logan to yell at his roommate.

"You clearly don't know how often I get mad at Roman. Now get in the backseat, I'm taking you back where you came from!"

"-live with-" The creature seemed confident, confusing Logan until it reached out once again and dropped the bright red end of a severed brake line at his feet. It's eyes gleamed with excitement at its brilliant solution. "-companionship. -priority."

Logan stared at the jagged end, riddled with beak marks that perfectly matched the sketches in Roman's book. That was a blow to his paycheck. At least it must have happened after he parked.

"You're insane!"

"-insane!" Remus beamed at what he must have thought was a compliment regarding his cleverness. Or he was legitimately proud of his insanity. Logan rubbed his eyes with a thumb and forefinger, thinking over his options.

"Well... I suppose you'll have to stay here until I can get it fixed. One night at most."

"-early Christmas gift-" It broke into a toothless grin.

"NOT a reward. Not fun. Just a necessity. You'll have to be quiet and out of the way. This is not okay."

"-okay." Remus pouted, finally realizing that his idea was not going to turn out as fun as he expected.

"Now, up the back of my coat. That should hide you while I get you... wherever I can put you."

Remus whined and wrapped Logan's legs to begin its slither up onto his back. The sensation wasn't pleasant, but Logan had gotten oddly used to it, and it helped that the creature had spent fifty minutes drying out at highway speeds, though that was just another spike in his anxiety at the same time. He had to get it some hydration, and fast. Whatever its species, it clearly wasn't built for that kind of journey, and Logan could feel it in the lethargic way it moved and how much weaker its tentacles gripped his body. He felt it nuzzle into the warmth of his back. He sighed and pulled his hood over its head, beginning his trudge to the door.

He fumbled with his key, more focused on the load on his back, but managed to get it open.

He slipped in, trying to move quick but casually to the stairs, until he noticed that Roman hadn't made a peep. He craned his neck to see into the living room and kitchen. No sign of Roman. He pulled his phone out of his pocket to text him.

"Just got home, where are you?" He waited quietly for a reply. He heard Remus grumble softly at the nape of his neck. He jostled a bit to quiet it down. A minute or so later he got a reply.

"A suprise. I'll tell you when I get back, idk how long, maybe a few hours tops. What, you miss me? ;)"

Logan let out a breath of relief.

"Not particularly. It's just really relaxing and quiet over here all of a sudden."

">:P"

Logan smiled and tucked his phone in his pocket. That made things at least a small bit easier, though nothing about hiding an intelligent, five foot, tentacled beast in a two bedroom apartment would be easy either way. He brainstormed how he would pull this off.

First things first, he hauled the miserable, dehydrated creature to the bathroom and let it slip off his back into the tub. He turned on the tap, mixing the water to an acceptable temperature. Remus trilled in delight and began rolling its gelatinous form in the small pool of inch high water that had accumulated at the bottom.

"No splashing! Just wait for it to fill up. You wont be able to move much but you'll be hydrated."

From what Logan could tell, Remus was amphibious, as it could seemingly breathe air, though did become lethargic and withdrawn if out of water too long. He helped Remus wet itself by cupping his hands under the faucet and draining them onto its head and shoulders. Remus tipped its face up into the trickle, its facial tentacles reaching upward and playing with the stream. It let out what sounded like a content sigh.

The water swirled with a brownish-green that escaped Remus's body in a thick cloud. It wasn't suprising, as it had lived its entire life in a swamp, but it still sent shivers of disgust up Logan's back as he realized how often he allowed this filthy creature to climb all over him.

As he washed, Remus's black pattern receded and new, bright green spots swelled on its flesh. If Logan could reliably connect this pattern change with the proceeding of its black pattern when the creature was in distress, he realized it might mean the creature was more relaxed then than it had been at any point since Logan met it. He smiled despite his situation and stroked his hand down its head, its tentacles more appreciative then than possessive.

He took a step back and pondered his options. He suddenly recalled Decan's kiddie pool that he used as a playpen to give his snakes enrichment. If he could come up with an excuse to take it, he could fill it and hide it somewhere, maybe under his bed. His heart beat anxiously as he realized this meant using a chunk out of his couple hours of preparation time for travel, but the house was relatively close, enough to take the bus and not lose too much time. He looked at Remus. He'd have to take it with him. He wasn't about to leave it home alone.

"Okay Remus. We're going on another little trip. I'm going to need you to be very quiet, because nobody can see you, got it? Still and quiet."

"-got it? Still and quiet." It didn't seem too focused, blowing bubbles in the water and sloshing itself back and forth up the sides of the bath.

"This is serious. We could both be in danger if someone saw you."

"-serious. Still and quiet." Remus stopped sloshing and squinted sneakily. It lost its Roman form and compacted in on itself until it was the size of a beach ball. Its eyes peeked out from between two tentacles. Logan blinked at the impressive feat of shrinking nearly four feet.

"Perfect! Is that uncomfortable...?"

"Yeah-" It loosened its grip, growing six inches or so in diameter as it decompressed

"If it's uncomfortable don't do it, you're going to be like that for a while. Wait here a moment." Logan ran out and grabbed his backpack.

He returned to the bathroom and opened the bag wide.

"It's waterproof. Usually that's to keep the contents dry from outside sources but it can work the other way around."

Remus whined and slid out of the tub to examine its new hiding spot. It tucked its head into the main pocket and explored the inner surface with its mustache of tentacles. It looked back up at Logan, curious.

"Logan. -my coat?"

Logan squinted, trying to interpret. "Oh! You'll still be with me, don't worry, this goes on my back so you can be right up against me for warmth, this just makes you easier to carry and hide. It's pretty big for a backpack, so it shouldn't be too uncomfortable."

Remus seemed satisfied and quickly curled into the bag. It poked its head out and chirped as if prompting Logan to hurry up. Logan nodded and zipped up the bag, after somewhat struggling to push Remus's head down. It let out a faint grumble as soon as he was out of its line of sight.

He slung the back over his shoulder, still suprised at how light Remus was despite its size. The lack of bones was helpful. Even still, it was about as heavy as a bag full of textbooks, so quite unpleasant. He hunched his back and felt Remus shift with him.

"Now hush. When I say 'safe', it's okay to come out and make noise okay? I'll check in on you sometimes but no sounds or getting out."

"-okay? -hush." It made a low humming sound as if it were considering something. "-make noise- -sounds- -sounds- -okay?"

"Right now?"

"-getting out."

"You want to get it out first? Okay, but not too loud, we still have neighbo-"

A loud, grating, horrific screech rang out from Logans bag, unlike any noise he'd heard Remus make thus far. He winced and nearly fell over, almost forgetting to stabilize his load weight.

"GOD- REMUS!" He let Remus down onto the ground to allow himself to check the state of his ears. "I said not too loud!"

"-get it out-" Remus wiggled innocently, seeming satisfied with its verbal purge.

Logan stuffed its head down into his bag and zipped it back up. He caught his breath. "Now shush. We're going to be around lots of people."

"-okay." He felt Remus resituate against his back. He pulled out his phone and googled the time of the next bus. He didn't bother relaying the time to his creature as he knew it wouldn't understand what times were.

"The bus should get here in just a bit, thankfully."

He smiled when he heard no response. Remus was taking his vow of silence seriously.

He pulled his sticky coat back on and found his way out to the bus stop at the corner of the apartment complex. Within ten minutes or so the bus pulled up to the stop. There was a hiss and the doors opened, inviting him onto the steep steps, wet from the snow on passenger's shoes. He was careful with each step, slow enough that the door hissed closed behind him before he summited the last step.

He paid and quietly slipped to the back of the bus, trying incredibly hard to not look suspicious. He huddled into the back corner and pulled off his back to unzip it only slightly. He put a finger to his lips as he caught Remus's neon green eyes.

"Logan." Remus echoed loudly, beaming. "-safe- -okay?"

Logan coughed and quickly pulled out his phone. "Yeah, you're safe? Yeah the snow is really coming down now..." He shot a death glare to Remus but let up when he noticed people turning to his scene. "Okay. Thank god. Yeah I'll see you soon." He hung up his fake call and put his phone back in his pocket. To his relief, people began to go back to what they were doing.

He unzipped his bag no more than an inch to catch remus with scolding eyes. The bright green eye blinked up at him, then squinted into a smiling crescent, amused. Logan wrinkled his nose at it before again zipping up his bag.

At the sixth stop, he slung his bag over his shoulder. He slinked up the aisle and out the door, again being careful on the way down.

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