"You're crazy. Love at first sight? Ha! No, I just haven't seen… a boy who was as delicate as a girl. Yeah, that's it." Griffin struggled to find what he thought were the right words.
[Hey, if you want to try and delude yourself go right ahead. I'm just saying.] Kael sounded smug. Griffin hated that. Especially since he knew there might be some truth to those words.
"Whatever." Griffin forced his thoughts in a new direction as he knelt down to grab a shirt off the floor. "Do you think this one would work?"
[It'd probably hang past his knees but at least he'd be covered,] Kael said before adding softly, almost as an afterthought, [especially if you're going to insist that you don't like him.]
Griffin groaned as he stood up. "Just stop. We need to figure out what's happened to him and what to do next. We'll discuss this later."
As Griffin walked back out to the main room he noticed that the boy, who was unknowingly starting to claim his heart, was still sitting in the same spot on the floor, just staring at his hands.
"Something wrong?" he asked.
The boy seemed to be considering his question carefully. "Not really. I just kinda forgot what it's like to have fingers."
As Griffin listened to his answer, he crossed the room to kneel before him again. "Here. Arms up."
The boy looked at him before slowly raising his arms. Griffin helped guide his hands through the sleeves before pulling the rest of the shirt down his body.
"There. That should work until we can get you something that actually fits. Do you want to move to the chair? It can't be comfortable sitting there."
"Umm," the boy hedged. "I'm not sure I'll be able to stand."
"Oh." Griffin cleared his throat. "Would it be okay if I picked you up then?"
**********
Nathan felt his face flush again at the question. "Uh, yeah, that's fine. Thank you," he said softly.
[Woooo! Go Nathan! Get that dragon!]
"Shut up! He's just helping me off the floor!"
[After helping you get dressed. I'm actually surprised that your old clothes didn't show up. Probably a good thing since they'd be way too small at this point.]
"They probably wouldn't be. I think they'd just be too short. I think I'm about the same size as I was when I was five."
[That's… somewhat depressing.]
During their brief conversation, the man in front of them helped Nathan straighten his legs before scooping him up, one arm under his legs, the other supporting his back. As he straightened up, Nathan realized just how tall the man was.
"Goddess! How tall is he? 6'4"? 6'5"?" He exclaimed in disbelief. He never noticed when he had been a wolf. Everything was always taller than him.
Nathan held his breath as the man gently set him down in the armchair. "There you go. I'll be right back, I'm just going to go grab the chair from my room."
As he moved back to the bedroom, Nathan puffed out a breath. "Think he's going to start asking us questions?"
[Duh. I'd be more surprised if he didn't. You need to answer any question he asks honestly. If you lie and he finds out later you're going to be in big trouble.]
"I'll try. But what if he asks a question I don't want to answer?" Nathan's hands started shaking at the thought of having to talk about the massacre of his pack.
[Then you let him know that you're not comfortable answering or that the memories are too painful to recount,] Axel gently advised the shaken boy.
"Okay. Let's do this."
As Nathan strengthened his resolve, the dragon returned, placing another chair across from him and sitting down before leaning forward, his arms resting on his legs. "We need to talk."
Nathan gulped, already uneasy. "Yes. I think we do."