Banks chuckled at my readiness to get my training started.
"Eager, are we?" I shrugged. 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 asked as I ran my hands down my bare stomach. I had been in nothing but underwear for a while.
"Oh!" Aster exclaimed, and quickly he jumped 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 nodded a little, taking the bundle from his outstretched hand.
I turned around and threw the giant black hoodie on the bed so I could pull the black jeans on. "How long was I out?" I asked as I buttoned 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 was in front of me as I pulled 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 felt physically fine. Ready to go, for sure.
I glanced at myself in the mirror again once I was dressed. I messed with my hair a little for a moment. "Jaskier is quite good at cutting hair." Banks offered as he stood and pushed 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 asked as I followed Banks out of the room. Aster only gave me socks, so I'm walking around barefoot which was 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 realized as we're walking down the hallway from Aster's room to the main one, that I could see perfectly fine. I no longer had to hold a hand out to make sure I didn't fall into a hole or run into something, because what was once a dimly lit hallway, was no more to me.
"Wow." I gasped, shocked at the difference in vision I was already seeing. I could 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 said to Aster, who I could feel behind me. He was holding his breath; I could hear even that.
"You're happy so far?" I laughed a little. Happy still felt like a weird word, but I didn't want to hurt his feelings.
"Yeah, it's cool." I said instead. I felt his boney hands on my shoulders, and I tensed for a moment, but then relaxed.
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 reached the end of the hallway, and a body is suddenly barreling into me.
"Geez York, give the guy a minute." I froze a little in the middle of the entryway to the main room when I realized York is climbing on me like he did with Aster and Banks.
"Why are you slithering all over me like a lizard?" I growled, 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 fell down a little so he could hang off my arm and look me in the eye. I shrugged.
"I guess I was just unlucky."
"Or you're very strong willed." I glanced 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 said from behind me. I scootched forward so he could 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 would admit. It was like a mouse was crawling around on me.
"Nice to meet you." I offered, meeting the deep purple eyes of Nico.
I remembered 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 shot at Banks, who has moved to crash into one of the chairs around the giant table. He snorted, and Nico laughed too.
"How could I ruin a face that pretty?" I sneered at Banks, but shrugged at Nico.
"You're kind of badass looking, though." Nico said, 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 nodded in approval at my now much larger stature. We were both what society would call attractive men now, but I suspected 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 nodded in confirmation at him.
"And the ears with the eyes." He stood in front of me and grinned. "Get Jaskier to clean your hair up and you'll be a walking dark elf fantasy." I rolled my eyes.
I still didn't want to be anyone's fantasy.