Banks chuckles at my readiness to get my training started.
"Eager, are we?" I shrug. I had been laying around for way too long; I was anxious to get moving and doing something. "We'll start tomorrow. Tonight, you'll relax for a little longer and meet some of the other Reapers who have come to see you."
"Can I have some clothes?" I ask as I run my hands down my bare stomach. I had been in nothing but underwear for a while.
"Oh!" Aster exclaims, and quickly he jumps into action, grabbing a pile of clothes from the desk. "Here. They're pretty basic, you can always get different ones. But your other ones won't fit you anymore, so I had to toss them. I nod a little, taking the bundle from his outstretched hand.
I turn around and throw the giant black hoodie on the bed so I can pull the black jeans on.
"How long was I out?" I ask as I button the pants up.
"Only four days. Usually, it takes between eight and ten, so your transition has been especially unique. I'm hoping this means your body is adapting quickly to the changes." Aster is in front of me as I pull the hoodie on, his eyes seemingly scanning my body for injuries.
I could still remember the pain of them breaking my ribs to get to my lungs and pulling my kneecaps off. I could still feel the saw working its way through the nerves in my legs as they cut my feet off.
But right now, I feel physically fine. Ready to go, for sure.
I glanced at myself in the mirror again once I was dressed. I mess with my hair a little for a moment.
"Jaskier is quite good at cutting hair." Banks offers as he stands and pushes his chair back to its corner. "Let's go see if he's free now. He's been waiting around for you to wake up with the others."
"Who else is here?" I ask as I follow Banks out of the room. Aster only gave me socks, so I'm walking around barefoot which is kind of weird. Maybe they didn't have shoes laying around that fit me.
"There's Nico, Gale, Vito, Peter, Dylan, and Ivan. And of course, me, Aster and York." I suddenly realize as we're walking down the hallway from Aster's room to the main one, that I can see perfectly fine. I no longer have to hold a hand out to make sure I don't fall into a hole or run into something, because what was once a dimly lit hallway, is no more.
"Wow." I breathe, shocked at the difference in vision I'm already seeing. I can hear voices, too. Some close by, most likely in the main room, a couple farther away, probably in one of the rooms down one of the hallways. "I can already see a difference." I say to Aster, who I can feel behind me. He's holding his breath; I can hear even that.
"You're happy so far?" I laugh a little. Happy still feels like a weird word, but I don't want to hurt his feelings.
"Yeah, it's cool." I say instead. I feel his boney hands on my shoulders, and I tense for a moment, but then relax.
These guys are my family now. I had to try and make the best out of this.
"You're awake already?!" I let out an oomph of surprise when we reach the end of the hallway, and a body is suddenly barreling into me.
"Geez York, give the guy a minute." I freeze a little in the middle of the entryway to the main room when I realize York is climbing on me like he does Aster and Banks.
"Why are you slithering all over me like a lizard?" I growl, cocking my head to the side to try and glare at him.
"I was worried about you, friend. Aster told me you were conscious for a lot more of your operation than the rest of us." He falls down a little so he can hang off my arm and look me in the eye. I shrug.
"I guess I was just unlucky."
"Or you're very strong willed." I glance up at the new voice, shaking my shoulder a little as I do to try and get York to fall off.
"This is Nico." Aster says from behind me. I scootch forward so he can come into the room, still trying to get York off. He seemed content on clinging to me though and had moved back to hanging onto my back. Whatever, I guess. Was this how Aster and Banks ended up acting so casual about it? They hadn't even stopped talking when York did it to them. He was surprisingly light, I will admit. It was like a mouse was crawling around on me.
"Nice to meet you." I offer, meeting the deep purple eyes of Nico.
I remember then York saying he was handsome, and I could see why he had said that. He looked like a K-Pop star, straight up.
He had Korean features; double lidded, slanted eyes, an oval shaped face with a sharp jawline, a techno styled haircut that was a dark plum color, and wide shoulders.
"Why does he get to look so human?" I shoot at Banks, who has moved to crash into one of the chairs around the giant table. He snorts, and Nico laughs too.
"How could I ruin a face that pretty?" I sneer at Banks, but shrug at Nico.
"You're kind of badass looking, though." Nico says, moving forward a little and circling around me, sizing me up. "I can tell you worked out a lot as a human. It's translated well." He nods in approval at my now much larger stature. We were both what society would call attractive men, but I suspect even as humans we were different kinds of attractive. And now that I looked like a slutty demon, we were definitely in different classes.
"I've been in boxing classes since I was twelve." I nod in confirmation at him.
"And the ears with the eyes." He stands in front of me and grins. "Get Jaskier to clean your hair up and you'll be a walking dark elf fantasy." I roll my eyes.
I still don't want to be anyone's fantasy.