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So, despite the beast's increasingly annoyed grumbling, I stayed put, kneeling beside him with his hand in mine. If that was all he ever allowed me, it would still be more than enough.

Quinn didn't sleep long, not even quite an hour, before he stirred. My head rested on the mattress near our hands, and I didn't move when he started to wake up. My limbs had long since gone numb, the pain fading to a low thrum in the background, but once I finally did move, I knew it would all come back. None of that mattered, though; from this position it was much easier to watch Quinn. He'd curled onto his side while he napped, and I'd unashamedly spent the whole time memorizing his face.

He yawned himself awake, his pretty green eyes slitting open and meeting mine. He blinked once, then again, and the fog of sleep dissipated. For a moment, just a brief second, he smiled at me, and the rest of the world disappeared. When he looked at me like that, everything else just stopped. Nothing else mattered. It could all fade away, as long as he kept looking at me like that.

I felt the moment reality began to intrude. His grip on my hand tightened, then abruptly went slack just before he pulled away. A wince of pain marred his features, and his bruised throat bobbed as he tried to swallow.

"Water?" I asked, keeping my voice low. He hesitated, but the pain in his throat decided for him and he nodded.

Hiding my pain when I stood took drawing on the beast's strength, letting the predator take control for a moment. The blood on my leg had dried while Quinn slept, but the movement threatened to reopen the wound, and I moved slowly as I went to the kitchen. I didn't want to get blood on Quinn's floor.

I'd never been in the kitchen, other than passing through earlier, and if I'd ever known what any of the equipment in here did, I'd long since forgotten. Still, I'd seen Quinn through the window when he fed me, and the cup he used most often sat upside down on a rack beside the sink. The handles on the sink looked like the one on the hose he used to water the outdoor animals and, after a little trial and error, I filled the cup. Doing it with one hand made the task more difficult, but not impossible.

Getting it back to the bedroom without spilling any proved harder. I couldn't hide my limp when I moved, and it threatened to send the water sloshing over the rim. Several kittens had come running when I started moving around, and that made the task even more difficult as I tried to avoid stepping on them. I knew Quinn loved the little creatures and would be angry if I hurt them.

A fine layer of sweat coated my bare skin by the time I made it back safely. In my absence, Romulus had jumped onto the bed and now lay curled around Quinn in much the same way the beast had wanted to. He growled inside my head, angry at being usurped, but it faded to nothing when we had our eyes on Quinn again. I carefully handed him the cup and was rewarded with another of those shy, uncertain smiles.

"Thank you," he whispered, voice rough. A sip of water seemed to help, the little furrow in his brow easing a bit. "I'm sorry I fell asleep like that."

I shook my head. "You needed it." Shorter sentences were easier, but the words were still a struggle to get out. How long had it been since I'd spoken? Had I ever been human before this?

Quinn took another sip, staring across the room at the wall as the events of the day caught up to him. He didn't speak, and I didn't press him, letting him take as long as he needed. The beast was less patient, wanting to hunt down whoever had left those bruises on Quinn. I did, too, but he was safe now, and keeping him that way took higher priority than dishing out vengeance. For now, at least.

Frantic mewling interrupted Quinn's spiral as the kittens, apparently tired of waiting to be picked up, proceeded to climb the blanket and make their way onto the bed. Three of them made it easily enough, but the smallest of the four got his tiny claws stuck. Freeing him meant releasing Quinn's hand, but the surprised smile it earned me when I did was more than worth it.

"Um… I can try to find you some clothes," he whispered. His eyes flicked over my body before quickly looking away, and the flush on his cheeks made us nearly purr with satisfaction.

He likes this form.

Seeing as I didn't know how to change back, that was a good thing.

I just shrugged. Quinn's clothes would never fit me, but if it bothered him, I would cover myself. That wasn't my main concern right now, though.

"Are you okay?" Speaking slowly helped the words come a little easier, but shaping them with a human mouth and muscles still felt strange. I knew the words in my mind, more of them coming back as the beast and I found a tenuous balance. I could only hope speaking became easier, too.

It was Quinn's turn to shrug, his eyes going to the kittens wrestling in his lap. He started to raise his free hand to his throat, but changed his mind at the last minute and stroked one of the cats instead.

"I'm sorry I crashed so hard. I should have stayed awake and told you what was going on. I don't know what's wrong with me." Self-deprecation poisoned every word, and he refused to meet my gaze. Even with my senses dulled in this shape, I smelled his shame.

Moving slowly to avoid startling him, I took the cup from his hands and put it on the table beside the bed. That got his attention on me, and I held out my hand to him. To my relief, he took it with both of his, even if his eyes never quite reached mine.

"You needed it," I repeated firmly. "Needed to recover. I am not mad."

Quinn waited quietly while I worked out what I needed to say and how to say it, but he remained unconvinced.

"Maybe, but this is more important." He looked down at our hands, his fingers tracing my palm. It was a gentle touch, barely there, but it made my heart beat faster simply because it was him touching me.

"You are most important."

He scoffed, but he also blushed faintly. "Hardly," he mumbled. "Anyway, let me tell you the rest before I lose my nerve."

Standing beside the bed while he sat on it put us at an awkward angle, so I knelt beside him again. The pain was easier to ignore when he was holding my hand like that and with his head down, he couldn't see my slight wince at the pull in my leg. I'd deal with that later.

"There's more?"

Quinn nodded. "I didn't want to go into it until I'd had a chance to think." His voice caught, and he freed one hand to grab his cup again, taking a drink to soothe his throat. When he continued this time, he finally looked up at met my eyes. "So, you know I trust Lain, right?"

That wasn't quite the turn I'd expected the conversation to take, but I nodded anyway. Quinn wouldn't have let Lain see us if he didn't trust him. The human had taken good care of us, despite his obvious fear, so he'd earned our tentative trust as well.