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riptide_asylumTitle: And That's Why We Quit the Forest
Rating: PG
Summary: When glowworm!Cody decides to prove his mettle by undertaking a solo trek, there's no possible way things could go wrong. And those rumors of death-moths are surely only rumors...
"But Nick!" Cody's abdomen flashed white with irritation and he nettled his wings, two sets of arms folded across his chest.
Nick recognized the warnings signs but pressed on, regardless. Things always seemed to go wrong in unexpected and dangerous ways when Cody left their nest by himself. "No 'but Nick.' Cody, I'll just be a second, okay?"
The white glow returned to Cody's abdomen and stayed this time. "It's just to the trading post and back, what could possibly go wrong?"
Nick bit his tongue. He refused to bring up the time Cody had taken a shortcut through the cave and gotten wedged in a crack for three hours. He refused to bring up when he'd taken a different shortcut and taken a bad fall because his wings were too wet to open properly. Or when he'd had gotten lost on the way back from the bathing pool--which was much, much closer than the trading post. Or--
"Nick!" Cody stamped his foot with irritation.
"I'm almost done, baby. It'll be much more fun to go--"
"Ryder! Are you in there, Ryder! I wanna talk to you!" The two glowworms froze as a raspy, commanding voice invaded their peaceful nest. Quinlan, one of their colony's elders, never brought good news. Generally, he brought demands for the two of them to take some of his daughters into their sumptuous, well-built home. Given that Quinlan currently had 700 of them, the request wasn't unreasonable, but they both valued their privacy too much to consider taking on roommates. Especially female ones.
"Ryder! Where are you?" The older bug began pounding on the side of the wattle and daub construction, and pieces of bright silk and grasses woven into the walls shook under the onslaught. Nick spun in alarm as the opaque chitin window crackled in its soft mud frame. .
"Hold your antennae, Quinlan, I'll be right there!" Nick turned back to Cody.
But his partner was gone. Disappeared, no doubt, through the trapdoor they'd cleverly hidden behind a colorful ball of yarn the two of them had dragged home one day. Nick supposed he didn't blame him. Quinlan made no secret of his opinion that Cody needed to make more of a contribution to the colony, needed to, in his words, "straighten up and glow right". The elderly bug gave Cody a hard time at every turn. Sighing, Nick supposed he'd been overreacting about his partner's trip to the trading post. They weren't larvae anymore; Cody could take care of himself.
Nick wriggled out of the doortunnel and popped back onto his feet. "Quinlan! What brings you by this morning?"
The elder glowered. Well, Nick supposed he was glowering. With Quinlan it was hard to tell, but glowering was generally a safe bet. He was blind, and bent nearly double with age, and hobbled about the narrow pathways of the village by leaning heavily on a carved twig. His abdomen glowed an unchanging, weak, dyspeptic orange. "Ryder! I suppose you and your little beach-bug friend in there thought you'd have a good laugh at my expense! Leaving an old bug out here in the cold and damp--"
"It's a cave, Quinlan. It's always damp and always 52 degrees." Nick refused to rise to the bait. "Is there something I can help with?"
"More than one thing. We've had another incident with the emperors."
Nick gasped. "Anyone hurt?"
"We're still trying to get an accurate headcount. Most of the witnesses are pretty shaken up, so it's difficult to say how many we're missing."
"When'd this happen?"
"About an hour ago, while you and that no-good, lazy, stalacmite you call a partner--"
Nick shook his head. "That's terrible. Anything Cody and I can do to help?"
Quinlan leaned forwards, his voice dry and raspy. Nick could smell the gnat he'd had for breakfast. "You could get the new traps working is what you can do! How much longer until they're able to snare those big killer moths and keep our village safe?"
Nick toyed with his lip, nodding. "I'll go check on the latest model this morning. I think we've finally licked the problem with the retaining properties of the surface snare, and the main girders have much better tensile--"
Quinlan thumped his twig on the ground angrily. "Talk talk talk! What I wanna know, Ryder, is will it stop those moths from getting into the village and eating all our people?"
"I'll go check it this morning and let you know. Hopefully this version's the keeper, and we won't have any more problems."
Quinlan seemed slightly mollified by Nick's words. "It'd better be the keeper. Otherwise you're gonna be out of a job, mister. By the way, Byron Wingslinger's been talking about a few ideas he's had for some emperor traps, and they sound pretty good to me."
"You take Byron's advice on traps, you're gonna have a lot more to worry about than a few shaken-up witnesses. That guy doesn't know his thorax from a hole in the rock."
"Look, all I'm saying, Ryder, is that you and your partner are gonna need to step up your game if you wanna keep that fancy nest of yours all to your selves and avoid getting real jobs."
Nick felt his temper rising, and tried to keep it in check. He knew he was the best trapper in the colony, just as his grandmother had been before him. She'd taught him everything he knew about snares, and every huhu grub at every village feast had been caught in a Ryder trap. Every last one. "I'll check the trap this morning and get back to you."
"Good, you do that. You do just that." The old bug turned unsteadily on his feet and began tottering off down the corridor, leaning heavily on his twig. He stopped a few feet away and turned. Nick waited for the inevitable.
"Any chance you've changed your mind about any of my daughters?" Quinlan asked. "They're starting to pile up around the place, and you can't put off marriage forever."
Nick smirked. "Seems I'm doing pretty well so far."
"Same offer stands, Ryder: your choice of the top 25 prettiest ones whose eggs are in need of a little fertilization or take the 15 ugliest ones and teach 'em how you do this whole trapping thing. You've gotta pass on your secrets sometime."
"Cody knows how the traps work."
Nick and Quinlan regarded each other levelly for a moment. Neither of them said a word.
"As soon as I'm ready," Nick said finally, "I'll let you know."
Quinlan nodded, turning back down the corridor and resuming his labored shuffle. "Hell," he muttered, "take as many of the blasted girls as you want, not that that would do any good..."
Nick watched him go, hands on hips. He had no interest in any of Quinlan's daughters, or any other woman in the colony. He and Cody were doing just fine working together on the traps, keeping to themselves--
Cody.
Nick smiled as he crawled back up the doortunnel. He'd known the guy ever since they were larvae. They'd shared a chrysalis, a relatively rare event in the annals of the village, but even back then he and Nick hadn't been able to bear the thought of being separated for six whole months while they slept and ate and grew. The time they'd spent cocooned away together, far from the rest of the colony and the world, was the fondest of Nick's life. He could still feel the way Cody's wings had grown in next to his own, layered together until the two of them were a tangle of legs and feet and scales. They'd marveled at the way each of their wings had emerged, gently inflating with blood as the scales matured, and they gently stretched and wrapped around each other. They still slept in much the same way, and they still couldn't bear the thought of being parted for very long.
Nick moved around their nest efficiently, collecting a few supplies for the day and tossing them in his worn knapsack. He'd do as he told Quinlan, getting out and checking their traps for the day. Not just the experimental one, meant to guard against the deadly emperors, but also their hunting snares. Nick had been trying to teach Cody how to weave the delicate patterns needed to trap the smaller everyday prey that sustained them. They'd been at it a couple months, and Nick thought Cody might be starting to get the hang of it.
At least, Nick thought, emerging from the nest, I hope he'll get it eventually.
---
Their colony was not a small one, so Nick and Cody had taken to laying out their traps farther from their nest than was customary. Yet another thing we do that's different, Nick thought, hauling the sticky snareline hand over hand.
It had caused a flutter of talk around the village when they'd begun striking out on their own, trekking down to the lower elevations to stagger the snares and bring in a more bountiful catch. Most of the talk had been straight from the mouth of Byron Wingslinger, who considered himself an expert on all things hunting and trapping, and who, Nick suspected, didn't really like them that much to begin with. When they were all larvae together, food had suddenly run scarce, and Byron had tried to drag Cody off on a snareline, claiming survival of the fittest. At which point, Nick remembered, he'd had to fit his foot up Byron's ass to get him to let go.
But despite Byron's naysaying, their unorthodox hunting strategy had paid off, and the two of them were able to supplement the colony's food supply with their own hard work.
This morning, though, Nick was checking a set of snares Cody had set last night, under supervision. He'd thought the lines had been solid and sticky, but he'd also been exhausted from concentrating so hard on setting up the latest version of the emperor trap.
Two small moths and a midge. Well, Nick thought, it's a start.
He wrapped the catches tightly, so they wouldn't be crushed to powder in transport, and tied them carefully to the outside of his backpack. Moving on to the next line, he noticed a tear in the main netting. Nick peered closer as he hauled up the nearby snareline. It wasn't a tear, he realized, but a rift in the weave, where a dropped stitch in the fabric had spread to the nearby lines.
Oh Cody.
Nick sighed as he came to the end of the trapline. One midge.
And a dropped stitch.
Well, it was better than last week, he thought, wrapping the midge and adding it to the rest of the catch. Last week Cody had managed to weave one of his feet into the main netting, and had subsequently fallen over the side and remained suspended upside down until Nick had worked out how he'd managed such a thing in the first place.
Taking out his repair kit, Nick frowned. He had no idea why, but trouble followed Cody Allen like a fruit bat tracking a particularly succulent frangipani blossom. Given any perfectly safe situation, Cody would inevitably find a way to make it death-defying. No other bug in the colony had fallen off, over, into or through so many objects, nor had anyone else been stolen by predators even a tenth of the number of times his partner had.
Just goes to show, Nick thought, weaving the slender silk fibers back into formation, I'm not the only one who thinks he's special. No way Mother Nature goes out of her way to throw so many obstacles at a guy unless she's trying to make sure he's got someone watching out for him. Someone who appreciates him.
Nick finished, biting off the tieline neatly near the knot and stared at it for a minute. Someone who can't live without him.
And someone, Nick thought wryly, getting to his feet, who should never have let him out of his sight this morning with another emperor flapping around snarfing innocent worms off the rocks as it pleased. A shiver ran through Nick as he climbed down off the trap's surface. Repairing the snare had taken longer than he'd thought, but it was just off the path that ran to the trading post, and from the high vantage point, he would have seen Cody returning from his journey.
Which meant he hadn't returned yet.
Nick used his wings to finish his descent to the sandy cave floor. He hurried along the rock corridor, senses on full alert. Maybe he was overreacting, but then again...
Nick picked up the pace. The emperor trap was just up ahead, where the path split off and wound between a series of gently ridged cliffs, slick with water from a nearby pool that overflowed, constantly. Nick vowed to check the trap on his return, just as soon as he made sure Cody was safe and--
He stopped dead in the middle of the path.
The tiny obsidian pebble he'd used to anchor the trap lay at his feet in the middle of the corridor.
The trap had been sprung.
Nick hopped from one foot to the other, wings fluttering with indecision. Curiosity gnawed at him. If he'd finally been able to capture one of the killer moths that were decimating their colony...Nick shivered. But his visions of grandeur were quickly replaced by different ones: Cody's sweet, shy smile, the look of adoration and relief in his eyes every time Nick rescued him. The fear his wide, pale eyes displayed at the mere mention of the deadly predators. The look of lust he knew well from the long nights they'd spent holed up together in their private domain, exploring each other's bodies tenderly, watching as both their lights turned a deep, hearty pink.
One look. One look wouldn't hurt, just to see if there was anything in the trap, and then back on the road. If he flew, he would only be off the path for a few seconds, a minute tops.
Nick focused on his wing spiracles and rose gracefully into the air. As he ascended, the air became thicker and wetter, and every glowworm knew to be careful of how high they flew, as their delicate wing scales were quick to collect moisture from the atmosphere, becoming waterlogged and useless.
Well, Nick thought, every glowworm except Cody.
The thought returned him to the urgency of making his errand as quick as possible, so as to return to the hunt for his friend. Nick flapped gently to the top of the rise, peering into the valley below, where the trap lay stretched across a deep chasm. He was near one of the cave's many openings now, and the thick, cloying scent of plumeria hung heavy on the air. The foreign, startling sounds of the rainforest surrounded Nick with a panoply of hostile noises. Falcons and fernbirds trilled and shrieked in the twilight, while unseen critters caused the underbrush to rustle alarmingly.
And out in the middle of the trap, the one they'd spent the better part of yesterday measuring and spinning and stickying, Cody lay trussed from head to toe, staring up at the rocky ceiling. He turned and met Nick's eyes with a nervous smile. "Hi, pal." He wiggled a foot in greeting.
Nick was so surprised, he stopped flapping and dropped heavily on the lip of the valley in a startled heap.
---
"And you thought what again, exactly? Because I'm not sure I completely follow your thought process on this one, Cody."
Nick crawled gingerly over the surface of the silk webbing, stepping carefully with each of his six feet, so as to avoid the lines that had been coated in their thick, sticky mucus.
"Nick," Cody began. "I can explain..."
"Which I'm really looking forward to, Cody. Because last time I checked, this was an experimental, potentially deadly moth trap, and not actually a trading post. I mean, even if I squint, it still doesn't look like a trading post. Even if I actually close my eyes and listen for oh, I don't know, the sounds of trading perhaps, this doesn't seem remotely like a trading post, so much as it seems like a deadly moth trap!" Nick narrowly avoided stepping on a thin but dangerous snareline woven into his telltale clover shape, and he stopped for a minute, resting on a safe patch while he tried to regain control of his temper.
"Nick, I'm sorry...I just..."
"You just what, Cody? What did you just?"
Cody stared unhappily up at the ceiling, struggling against the lines that held him fast. "It was so exciting, yesterday, buddy, helping you lay out the trap. Helping you set the whirlpools and the dropzones." He sighed. "The whole thing's been exciting, the plotting and the planning and revising. The designs and--and the plans--"
"You said that, earlier. When you said 'the planning'."
"--well it is exciting, Nick. And on my way, I passed right by here, and I just wanted a closer look, that's all."
"A closer look."
"Yeah, Nick."
"You feel like you're looking at it closely enough now, Cody?"
Cody pouted. "That's not fair, Nick. I just wanted to know more about it. I wanted to see how it works. See, you're the one who knows how to build these things, you're the one who knows everything about them. I'm just--I'm just the guy who makes the string. And spits on things."
Nick looked up sharply, his heart catching in his throat. "Baby," he said slowly. "That's not true. You're way more than that to me. Cody, I couldn't have done any of this without your help."
Cody brightened. "Really, Nick?"
"Yeah, man. You know you're everything to me, Cody. Without you, I..." Nick stopped. "Man, I can't even imagine life without you, babe. Can't do it."
"Really?"
"Really." Nick started moving again, his attention returned to the complicated weft of silk beneath his feet.
Cody wriggled again, waggling his free foot. "I love you, Nick."
"Love you too, baby. Now quit wiggling. You're bumping the trap around, and it's hard enough to get across this thing as it is." Nick took a few more steps. "As I see you've noticed," he added under his breath.
Cody took a deep breath, and through the lines of silk, his abdomen began to glow white again. "Nick, I just wanted to see if I could make one myself. I just wanted to show you I can be smart too."
"I can see that, Cody. I can see how smart you are from here."
Cody shot Nick a look that indicated he might not be feeling the tender touch of a loving antenna anytime soon. Nick chuckled. "Well, one good thing's come out of this, Cody. At least we know the damn thing works on glowworms."
"Yeah, now if only we could get Byron out here," Cody responded, "lay him out like bait. That'd stop him from running his mouth."
"Tell me about it. Plus, we also know those new barrel-drop knots you suggested work like a charm. You can't move a thing, can you?"
Cody looked pleased. "Nope. Well, except for my foot. But I think I might have broken it when I rolled down the rock."
Nick rolled his eyes, but started gnawing on the lines that held Cody to the body of the webbing. He managed something that sounded like "Muff norse chew toke more soot."
"What was that?"
Nick stopped gnawing. "I said 'of course you broke your foot'. It's not enough that you're stuck in the web..." He stopped and kissed Cody lightly on the cheek. "Sorry babe. I'm just nervous. I've gotta get you out of here as quick as possible, you know? Quinlan said they had another moth attack this morning. Let's get you out of here and home, and I'll look at that foot, okay?"
Mollified, Cody said, "Sounds good to me, buddy. But it's not like I don't have five others..."
Nick chuckled around a mouthful of snareline. With a triumphant chomp, he brushed the standard lines away from Cody's body, and swung his knapsack off his back, and pulled a tiny, sharpened flint from it. "Stay still, okay baby? I've just gotta do the sticky lines and we're home-free."
Cody watched Nick saw at the lines with a worried expression.
Suddenly the cave fell unnaturally silent, and Nick looked up, alarmed. He met Cody's eyes, and knew his partner noticed it too.
"Nick..."
Nick resumed his sawing with renewed intensity.
Both of them heard it simultaneously. The slow, wet-soft flap of wings too big for an insect, too small for a bird, coming steadily closer through the nighttime sky. Nick, spun, flint in hand.
The emperor moth landed with a delicate bounce on the edge of the trap and Cody gave a squeak of fear, his terrified trembling thrumming through the lines and setting them to dancing. Nick laid a reassuring foot on his partner's chest and the shaking gradually died away.
Nick had never seen a famed "death moth" up close before. The creature's wings were a pale, unhealthy brown, the same color as a species of deadly fungi that grew in the wet, unwholesome places between the roots of dying trees. Each wing had two dots, one in the upper, and the other in the lower halves, right in the center of each. The dots glowed orange against the musty brown wing-fabric. Its head was long and narrow, with a jutting chin and two rows of sharp, pointy teeth. Atop the crown were two long, sharp horns, each easily half again as long as its body and bright orange.
The moth tilted its head to one side, and Nick felt the weight of its gaze. "How thoughtful of you to get me takeout," it said. Its voice was the sound of dead leaves, crisping in the sun, the sound of dessication and decay, the death of hope. And its voice was female.
Cody started trembling again, and Nick rubbed his chest idly. "We've gotten you nothing," he called to the creature. "So why don't you leave while you still can." He brandished the flint menacingly, and Cody, picking up on Nick's lead managed a vaguely aggressive foot wiggle.
"I think not," said the moth. She swiveled her head from side to side, taking in the whole trap. "Nice work with the trap, though. Had I not seen the two of you sitting flush and plump in the middle of it, I might have flown right in." She tested a strand gingerly with one foot. "And likely been entangled. So I thank you for sparing me that experience."
"The only thanks you'll get from me is the bite of my knife, bitch."
The moth threw her head back and emitted a sound like a bird choking to death. Nick shivered despite himself. The creature was laughing.
"How bold for someone so small and defenseless as you, to think I'd be afraid of your puny...weapon."
Nick colored.
"I'm sure your colony will miss your talents very much."
Nick looked down at Cody, still trussed in the stickylines. "Okay, new plan," he muttered. Holding four of his legs up in surrender, Nick faced the moth head-on. "You win," he told her bitterly. "We'll trade."
"Trade?" the moth chittered.
"Trade. Let me finish freeing my friend, and I'll stay for dinner. But you have to let him go."
"Nick!" Cody hissed. He renewed his attempts to break free of the webbing. "Don't do this, Nick! No!"
Nick nodded. "It's the only way, baby," he said softly.
Cody redoubled his efforts. "Don't you dare do this, Nick Ryder!"
"And why, pray tell, would I bother trading with you? My inclination is to simply eat you both in a few quick gulps." The moth snapped her jaw a few times, by way of demonstration.
"Because when you let him go, he'll return to our village and tell everyone how merciful and kind you are. How our people villify yours unnecessarily. How you should be revered for your wisdom."
"Laying it on a bit thick there, don't you think, Nick?" Cody muttered. Nick gave him a quick pinch and he squeaked and then fell silent. "You let me untie him and get him out of here," Nick continued. "I'll make sure you get dinner."
The moth appeared to be considering his offer. "I like this plan," she said finally. "This is a good plan."
"This plan sucks, Nick!" Cody hissed, and Nick gave him a look of consternation.
"It's a deal," the moth said. "Finish untying him."
Nick hurried to comply, severing the remaining strands of mucus-coated snareline that had held Cody to the body of the webbing. Cody stretched happily, wriggling his limbs with excitement.
"Hey, what happened to your wing?" Nick asked.
One of Cody's wings lay forlornly on his shoulder, a sharp contrast to its proud partner, jutting from the other side. "I must have injured it in the fall," Cody said sadly.
"Of course you did," Nick replied. He resisted the urge to put his face in no less than three of his palms.
"Doesn't matter, though," Cody continued. "I'm not leaving you here to be eaten, Nick. No way."
"Sure you are."
"No," Cody answered. "No way I'm gonna--"
Nick took a deep breath, bent at the thorax and hoisted his partner overhead, ignoring the startled shriek. Shuffling him about until he grasped a top leg and a bottom leg (not the broken one), Nick began to spin. Cody continued to wail as Nick spun in a circle, faster and faster, until finally, with a grunt of effort, he launched Cody across the trap. Cody soared through the darkness with a hoarse cry, falling back towards the surface of the webbing. He landed in a dense thicket of silk and bounced, launched up the cliff-face, to land neatly on the rocks. Whereupon he promptly fell over and lay still.
The moth folded her arms.
Nick shrugged. "Escape hatch."
"You foresaw you might have need of one at the time of building?"
"Well, I've known that guy a long time."
"Oh how touching," the moth said. "Too bad you didn't get to say your goodbyes. It's time now, for my dinnah!"
Nick nodded, pulling the backpack close. "What're you in the mood for, lady? I've got two midges and two moths. Although that might be cannibalism and all."
The moth howled with outrage, and Nick quickly got to his feet, whirling the backpack over his head, in much the same way he'd wound up Cody. He let the package fly with a mighty yell.
His pack soared through the air and fetched the moth a mighty wallop. With a shriek, she fell to her knees, clutching her jaw. As her anguished cries rent the air, Nick summoned his strength and flapped, rising above the trap, headed for the top of the rocks at speed. He landed lightly next to Cody and shook his partner gently awake. "Baby? Get up now, we've gotta get going. Now. Come on!"
Cody fought to open his eyes, his head lolling on his shoulders as he regained consciousness. "Nick?" he asked weakly. "Where are we, Nick?"
"In danger, that's where. Can you walk?" He hoisted Cody to his feet, brushing the dirt from his back and shoulders. Cody took a few wobbling steps and fell over again. "Kind of?"
Nick sighed.
Over his shoulder came an awful wail. "Neeeeeck Ryder! You have made a mortal enemy, Neeeeeck Ryderrrrrrrr! And enemies of all in my kingdom! I will get you, Ryderrrr!"
"And I gave her dinner, too. There's just no pleasing some people," Nick muttered. And, taking a deep breath, he hoisted Cody onto his shoulders and began the long climb back down to the main path below, and the longer journey back to their nest.
---
"Ow! Ow ow stop!"
Cody grabbed his injured foot away from Nick with a hurt expression. He was seated on the soft thick moss they used for bedding, and his abdomen glowed a bright white, providing plenty of illumination for Nick to check over his wounds. Nick's own stomach glowed a soft blue. He was worried. Cody's foot was fine, sprained rather than broken, but his wing was another story altogether. He didn't like the look of that wing at all.
"Sorry, sorry," he said gently. He put an arm around Cody, maneuvering around his good wing, and kissed him tenderly. "You had me worried, baby. I just want to make sure you're okay, you know?"
Cody kissed him back, nuzzling his proboscis against Nick's cheek. He was quiet. Nick rubbed Cody's jaw, enjoying the weight of Cody leaning against him on the edge of the moss. Enjoying the sight of Cody so alive and uneaten. He reached for Cody's injured wing and his partner gave a soft, anxious cry, wriggling away from Nick's touch. "Easy baby," Nick said. "Easy. I think your wing is definitely broken, so you've gotta be careful with it, okay?"
Cody nodded, miserable.
Nick looked at his face. The face he'd known and loved forever. He kissed Cody's temple. "What is it, baby?"
Cody turned his eyes to Nick. They brimmed with unshed tears. "Please don't be mad at me. I just wanted to show you I could work on the trap just as well as you can, and I nearly got us both killed. I just wanted to prove to you I'm worth something, but--"
Nick stopped Cody's mouth with a kiss, long and gentle. He pulled him closer, laying Cody's head on his shoulder. When they broke apart, Nick said, "Cody, you're worth everything to me, baby. Everything." He leaned in for another kiss, watching the fear recede from Cody's eyes. "And if you hadn't gone out there today, we might not have found out the trap works. You heard the moth: if you hadn't been out there in the middle, she'd have flown right in. You did it, Cody. You tested the trap successfully."
Cody brightened a little, and the light in his stomach began to turn pink around the edges.
Nick loved that color on him.
He kissed Cody some more, gently pushing him back into the bed of moss and crawling in after him. Cody made a soft contented noise as Nick pulled the moss around them. He bunched it gently against the sides of Cody's body, and Cody happily tucked his legs in, folding them around Nick as he went. The light in his stomach continued to redden, and Nick knew his own stomach was responding similarly, the light of their combined happiness casting a soft pink glow over the nest. Cody's legs caressed the sides of Nick's abdomen and both their lights deepened, heading towards red. Nick raised his eyebrows, and Cody beamed back.
There was a knock at the edge of the doortunnel, light and tentative.
Nick let his head drop onto Cody's shoulder in frustration. Cody snorted.
The knock was repeated.
"One minute, okay?" Nick whispered. "You stay here." He kissed Cody, hard and full of promise, then reluctantly dragged himself from the moss and crept down the doortunnel, his light fading as he went. He emerged to find himself face to fang with Max, a cricket spider and the proprietor of Snugaways, the local tavern.
"I come at a bad time?" she asked innocently.
Nick finished pulling himself from the tunnel. "Not at all," he said. "What's up?"
"Well I heard about you guys fighting off a death moth out in the south quadrant. Sounds mighty brave to me."
Nick shrugged. "S'no big deal."
"Maybe, but I think the bigger deal is the progress on the traps. You guys get her?"
"I think so, but I can't say for sure. Tell you the truth Max, I was pretty scared. That was a close call. Too close, you know?"
Max nodded. "It sounded like quite an adventure. Anyway, I thought you guys might like these." She handed him a basket. Nick dug through it happily. Red ants. Deep fried. His favorite.
He grinned. "Thanks, Max. You didn't have to do that."
"I know, but I wanted to. You're doing a helluva job with those traps, no matter what anybody else might say."
Nick smiled, heading back towards the entrance to the nest. He turned, suddenly. "Hey, you know what, Max? It was Cody who did most of the work on testing that trap. He had the hard job."
Max blinked, and the two of them regarded each other in silence.
"Right," said Max finally. "Cody. I'll be sure to let folks know. You enjoy those ants, now."
"We will, Max," Nick answered. "We sure will."
Back inside the safety of their nest, Nick brought the basket over to the bed, where Cody lay staring up at the ceiling. "Ant?" Nick offered.
Cody raised an eyebrow. "Maybe after."
Nick quickly put the ant back in the basket and crawled back into the moss, settling atop Cody happily. "Oh yeah," he murmured against Cody's exoskeleton. "You are worth fighting off a dozen death moths, anyday."
Cody pulled back. "Only a dozen?"
Nick grinned and pulled him close. The nest filled with a deep red glow.
Rating: PG
Summary: When glowworm!Cody decides to prove his mettle by undertaking a solo trek, there's no possible way things could go wrong. And those rumors of death-moths are surely only rumors...
"But Nick!" Cody's abdomen flashed white with irritation and he nettled his wings, two sets of arms folded across his chest.
Nick recognized the warnings signs but pressed on, regardless. Things always seemed to go wrong in unexpected and dangerous ways when Cody left their nest by himself. "No 'but Nick.' Cody, I'll just be a second, okay?"
The white glow returned to Cody's abdomen and stayed this time. "It's just to the trading post and back, what could possibly go wrong?"
Nick bit his tongue. He refused to bring up the time Cody had taken a shortcut through the cave and gotten wedged in a crack for three hours. He refused to bring up when he'd taken a different shortcut and taken a bad fall because his wings were too wet to open properly. Or when he'd had gotten lost on the way back from the bathing pool--which was much, much closer than the trading post. Or--
"Nick!" Cody stamped his foot with irritation.
"I'm almost done, baby. It'll be much more fun to go--"
"Ryder! Are you in there, Ryder! I wanna talk to you!" The two glowworms froze as a raspy, commanding voice invaded their peaceful nest. Quinlan, one of their colony's elders, never brought good news. Generally, he brought demands for the two of them to take some of his daughters into their sumptuous, well-built home. Given that Quinlan currently had 700 of them, the request wasn't unreasonable, but they both valued their privacy too much to consider taking on roommates. Especially female ones.
"Ryder! Where are you?" The older bug began pounding on the side of the wattle and daub construction, and pieces of bright silk and grasses woven into the walls shook under the onslaught. Nick spun in alarm as the opaque chitin window crackled in its soft mud frame. .
"Hold your antennae, Quinlan, I'll be right there!" Nick turned back to Cody.
But his partner was gone. Disappeared, no doubt, through the trapdoor they'd cleverly hidden behind a colorful ball of yarn the two of them had dragged home one day. Nick supposed he didn't blame him. Quinlan made no secret of his opinion that Cody needed to make more of a contribution to the colony, needed to, in his words, "straighten up and glow right". The elderly bug gave Cody a hard time at every turn. Sighing, Nick supposed he'd been overreacting about his partner's trip to the trading post. They weren't larvae anymore; Cody could take care of himself.
Nick wriggled out of the doortunnel and popped back onto his feet. "Quinlan! What brings you by this morning?"
The elder glowered. Well, Nick supposed he was glowering. With Quinlan it was hard to tell, but glowering was generally a safe bet. He was blind, and bent nearly double with age, and hobbled about the narrow pathways of the village by leaning heavily on a carved twig. His abdomen glowed an unchanging, weak, dyspeptic orange. "Ryder! I suppose you and your little beach-bug friend in there thought you'd have a good laugh at my expense! Leaving an old bug out here in the cold and damp--"
"It's a cave, Quinlan. It's always damp and always 52 degrees." Nick refused to rise to the bait. "Is there something I can help with?"
"More than one thing. We've had another incident with the emperors."
Nick gasped. "Anyone hurt?"
"We're still trying to get an accurate headcount. Most of the witnesses are pretty shaken up, so it's difficult to say how many we're missing."
"When'd this happen?"
"About an hour ago, while you and that no-good, lazy, stalacmite you call a partner--"
Nick shook his head. "That's terrible. Anything Cody and I can do to help?"
Quinlan leaned forwards, his voice dry and raspy. Nick could smell the gnat he'd had for breakfast. "You could get the new traps working is what you can do! How much longer until they're able to snare those big killer moths and keep our village safe?"
Nick toyed with his lip, nodding. "I'll go check on the latest model this morning. I think we've finally licked the problem with the retaining properties of the surface snare, and the main girders have much better tensile--"
Quinlan thumped his twig on the ground angrily. "Talk talk talk! What I wanna know, Ryder, is will it stop those moths from getting into the village and eating all our people?"
"I'll go check it this morning and let you know. Hopefully this version's the keeper, and we won't have any more problems."
Quinlan seemed slightly mollified by Nick's words. "It'd better be the keeper. Otherwise you're gonna be out of a job, mister. By the way, Byron Wingslinger's been talking about a few ideas he's had for some emperor traps, and they sound pretty good to me."
"You take Byron's advice on traps, you're gonna have a lot more to worry about than a few shaken-up witnesses. That guy doesn't know his thorax from a hole in the rock."
"Look, all I'm saying, Ryder, is that you and your partner are gonna need to step up your game if you wanna keep that fancy nest of yours all to your selves and avoid getting real jobs."
Nick felt his temper rising, and tried to keep it in check. He knew he was the best trapper in the colony, just as his grandmother had been before him. She'd taught him everything he knew about snares, and every huhu grub at every village feast had been caught in a Ryder trap. Every last one. "I'll check the trap this morning and get back to you."
"Good, you do that. You do just that." The old bug turned unsteadily on his feet and began tottering off down the corridor, leaning heavily on his twig. He stopped a few feet away and turned. Nick waited for the inevitable.
"Any chance you've changed your mind about any of my daughters?" Quinlan asked. "They're starting to pile up around the place, and you can't put off marriage forever."
Nick smirked. "Seems I'm doing pretty well so far."
"Same offer stands, Ryder: your choice of the top 25 prettiest ones whose eggs are in need of a little fertilization or take the 15 ugliest ones and teach 'em how you do this whole trapping thing. You've gotta pass on your secrets sometime."
"Cody knows how the traps work."
Nick and Quinlan regarded each other levelly for a moment. Neither of them said a word.
"As soon as I'm ready," Nick said finally, "I'll let you know."
Quinlan nodded, turning back down the corridor and resuming his labored shuffle. "Hell," he muttered, "take as many of the blasted girls as you want, not that that would do any good..."
Nick watched him go, hands on hips. He had no interest in any of Quinlan's daughters, or any other woman in the colony. He and Cody were doing just fine working together on the traps, keeping to themselves--
Cody.
Nick smiled as he crawled back up the doortunnel. He'd known the guy ever since they were larvae. They'd shared a chrysalis, a relatively rare event in the annals of the village, but even back then he and Nick hadn't been able to bear the thought of being separated for six whole months while they slept and ate and grew. The time they'd spent cocooned away together, far from the rest of the colony and the world, was the fondest of Nick's life. He could still feel the way Cody's wings had grown in next to his own, layered together until the two of them were a tangle of legs and feet and scales. They'd marveled at the way each of their wings had emerged, gently inflating with blood as the scales matured, and they gently stretched and wrapped around each other. They still slept in much the same way, and they still couldn't bear the thought of being parted for very long.
Nick moved around their nest efficiently, collecting a few supplies for the day and tossing them in his worn knapsack. He'd do as he told Quinlan, getting out and checking their traps for the day. Not just the experimental one, meant to guard against the deadly emperors, but also their hunting snares. Nick had been trying to teach Cody how to weave the delicate patterns needed to trap the smaller everyday prey that sustained them. They'd been at it a couple months, and Nick thought Cody might be starting to get the hang of it.
At least, Nick thought, emerging from the nest, I hope he'll get it eventually.
---
Their colony was not a small one, so Nick and Cody had taken to laying out their traps farther from their nest than was customary. Yet another thing we do that's different, Nick thought, hauling the sticky snareline hand over hand.
It had caused a flutter of talk around the village when they'd begun striking out on their own, trekking down to the lower elevations to stagger the snares and bring in a more bountiful catch. Most of the talk had been straight from the mouth of Byron Wingslinger, who considered himself an expert on all things hunting and trapping, and who, Nick suspected, didn't really like them that much to begin with. When they were all larvae together, food had suddenly run scarce, and Byron had tried to drag Cody off on a snareline, claiming survival of the fittest. At which point, Nick remembered, he'd had to fit his foot up Byron's ass to get him to let go.
But despite Byron's naysaying, their unorthodox hunting strategy had paid off, and the two of them were able to supplement the colony's food supply with their own hard work.
This morning, though, Nick was checking a set of snares Cody had set last night, under supervision. He'd thought the lines had been solid and sticky, but he'd also been exhausted from concentrating so hard on setting up the latest version of the emperor trap.
Two small moths and a midge. Well, Nick thought, it's a start.
He wrapped the catches tightly, so they wouldn't be crushed to powder in transport, and tied them carefully to the outside of his backpack. Moving on to the next line, he noticed a tear in the main netting. Nick peered closer as he hauled up the nearby snareline. It wasn't a tear, he realized, but a rift in the weave, where a dropped stitch in the fabric had spread to the nearby lines.
Oh Cody.
Nick sighed as he came to the end of the trapline. One midge.
And a dropped stitch.
Well, it was better than last week, he thought, wrapping the midge and adding it to the rest of the catch. Last week Cody had managed to weave one of his feet into the main netting, and had subsequently fallen over the side and remained suspended upside down until Nick had worked out how he'd managed such a thing in the first place.
Taking out his repair kit, Nick frowned. He had no idea why, but trouble followed Cody Allen like a fruit bat tracking a particularly succulent frangipani blossom. Given any perfectly safe situation, Cody would inevitably find a way to make it death-defying. No other bug in the colony had fallen off, over, into or through so many objects, nor had anyone else been stolen by predators even a tenth of the number of times his partner had.
Just goes to show, Nick thought, weaving the slender silk fibers back into formation, I'm not the only one who thinks he's special. No way Mother Nature goes out of her way to throw so many obstacles at a guy unless she's trying to make sure he's got someone watching out for him. Someone who appreciates him.
Nick finished, biting off the tieline neatly near the knot and stared at it for a minute. Someone who can't live without him.
And someone, Nick thought wryly, getting to his feet, who should never have let him out of his sight this morning with another emperor flapping around snarfing innocent worms off the rocks as it pleased. A shiver ran through Nick as he climbed down off the trap's surface. Repairing the snare had taken longer than he'd thought, but it was just off the path that ran to the trading post, and from the high vantage point, he would have seen Cody returning from his journey.
Which meant he hadn't returned yet.
Nick used his wings to finish his descent to the sandy cave floor. He hurried along the rock corridor, senses on full alert. Maybe he was overreacting, but then again...
Nick picked up the pace. The emperor trap was just up ahead, where the path split off and wound between a series of gently ridged cliffs, slick with water from a nearby pool that overflowed, constantly. Nick vowed to check the trap on his return, just as soon as he made sure Cody was safe and--
He stopped dead in the middle of the path.
The tiny obsidian pebble he'd used to anchor the trap lay at his feet in the middle of the corridor.
The trap had been sprung.
Nick hopped from one foot to the other, wings fluttering with indecision. Curiosity gnawed at him. If he'd finally been able to capture one of the killer moths that were decimating their colony...Nick shivered. But his visions of grandeur were quickly replaced by different ones: Cody's sweet, shy smile, the look of adoration and relief in his eyes every time Nick rescued him. The fear his wide, pale eyes displayed at the mere mention of the deadly predators. The look of lust he knew well from the long nights they'd spent holed up together in their private domain, exploring each other's bodies tenderly, watching as both their lights turned a deep, hearty pink.
One look. One look wouldn't hurt, just to see if there was anything in the trap, and then back on the road. If he flew, he would only be off the path for a few seconds, a minute tops.
Nick focused on his wing spiracles and rose gracefully into the air. As he ascended, the air became thicker and wetter, and every glowworm knew to be careful of how high they flew, as their delicate wing scales were quick to collect moisture from the atmosphere, becoming waterlogged and useless.
Well, Nick thought, every glowworm except Cody.
The thought returned him to the urgency of making his errand as quick as possible, so as to return to the hunt for his friend. Nick flapped gently to the top of the rise, peering into the valley below, where the trap lay stretched across a deep chasm. He was near one of the cave's many openings now, and the thick, cloying scent of plumeria hung heavy on the air. The foreign, startling sounds of the rainforest surrounded Nick with a panoply of hostile noises. Falcons and fernbirds trilled and shrieked in the twilight, while unseen critters caused the underbrush to rustle alarmingly.
And out in the middle of the trap, the one they'd spent the better part of yesterday measuring and spinning and stickying, Cody lay trussed from head to toe, staring up at the rocky ceiling. He turned and met Nick's eyes with a nervous smile. "Hi, pal." He wiggled a foot in greeting.
Nick was so surprised, he stopped flapping and dropped heavily on the lip of the valley in a startled heap.
---
"And you thought what again, exactly? Because I'm not sure I completely follow your thought process on this one, Cody."
Nick crawled gingerly over the surface of the silk webbing, stepping carefully with each of his six feet, so as to avoid the lines that had been coated in their thick, sticky mucus.
"Nick," Cody began. "I can explain..."
"Which I'm really looking forward to, Cody. Because last time I checked, this was an experimental, potentially deadly moth trap, and not actually a trading post. I mean, even if I squint, it still doesn't look like a trading post. Even if I actually close my eyes and listen for oh, I don't know, the sounds of trading perhaps, this doesn't seem remotely like a trading post, so much as it seems like a deadly moth trap!" Nick narrowly avoided stepping on a thin but dangerous snareline woven into his telltale clover shape, and he stopped for a minute, resting on a safe patch while he tried to regain control of his temper.
"Nick, I'm sorry...I just..."
"You just what, Cody? What did you just?"
Cody stared unhappily up at the ceiling, struggling against the lines that held him fast. "It was so exciting, yesterday, buddy, helping you lay out the trap. Helping you set the whirlpools and the dropzones." He sighed. "The whole thing's been exciting, the plotting and the planning and revising. The designs and--and the plans--"
"You said that, earlier. When you said 'the planning'."
"--well it is exciting, Nick. And on my way, I passed right by here, and I just wanted a closer look, that's all."
"A closer look."
"Yeah, Nick."
"You feel like you're looking at it closely enough now, Cody?"
Cody pouted. "That's not fair, Nick. I just wanted to know more about it. I wanted to see how it works. See, you're the one who knows how to build these things, you're the one who knows everything about them. I'm just--I'm just the guy who makes the string. And spits on things."
Nick looked up sharply, his heart catching in his throat. "Baby," he said slowly. "That's not true. You're way more than that to me. Cody, I couldn't have done any of this without your help."
Cody brightened. "Really, Nick?"
"Yeah, man. You know you're everything to me, Cody. Without you, I..." Nick stopped. "Man, I can't even imagine life without you, babe. Can't do it."
"Really?"
"Really." Nick started moving again, his attention returned to the complicated weft of silk beneath his feet.
Cody wriggled again, waggling his free foot. "I love you, Nick."
"Love you too, baby. Now quit wiggling. You're bumping the trap around, and it's hard enough to get across this thing as it is." Nick took a few more steps. "As I see you've noticed," he added under his breath.
Cody took a deep breath, and through the lines of silk, his abdomen began to glow white again. "Nick, I just wanted to see if I could make one myself. I just wanted to show you I can be smart too."
"I can see that, Cody. I can see how smart you are from here."
Cody shot Nick a look that indicated he might not be feeling the tender touch of a loving antenna anytime soon. Nick chuckled. "Well, one good thing's come out of this, Cody. At least we know the damn thing works on glowworms."
"Yeah, now if only we could get Byron out here," Cody responded, "lay him out like bait. That'd stop him from running his mouth."
"Tell me about it. Plus, we also know those new barrel-drop knots you suggested work like a charm. You can't move a thing, can you?"
Cody looked pleased. "Nope. Well, except for my foot. But I think I might have broken it when I rolled down the rock."
Nick rolled his eyes, but started gnawing on the lines that held Cody to the body of the webbing. He managed something that sounded like "Muff norse chew toke more soot."
"What was that?"
Nick stopped gnawing. "I said 'of course you broke your foot'. It's not enough that you're stuck in the web..." He stopped and kissed Cody lightly on the cheek. "Sorry babe. I'm just nervous. I've gotta get you out of here as quick as possible, you know? Quinlan said they had another moth attack this morning. Let's get you out of here and home, and I'll look at that foot, okay?"
Mollified, Cody said, "Sounds good to me, buddy. But it's not like I don't have five others..."
Nick chuckled around a mouthful of snareline. With a triumphant chomp, he brushed the standard lines away from Cody's body, and swung his knapsack off his back, and pulled a tiny, sharpened flint from it. "Stay still, okay baby? I've just gotta do the sticky lines and we're home-free."
Cody watched Nick saw at the lines with a worried expression.
Suddenly the cave fell unnaturally silent, and Nick looked up, alarmed. He met Cody's eyes, and knew his partner noticed it too.
"Nick..."
Nick resumed his sawing with renewed intensity.
Both of them heard it simultaneously. The slow, wet-soft flap of wings too big for an insect, too small for a bird, coming steadily closer through the nighttime sky. Nick, spun, flint in hand.
The emperor moth landed with a delicate bounce on the edge of the trap and Cody gave a squeak of fear, his terrified trembling thrumming through the lines and setting them to dancing. Nick laid a reassuring foot on his partner's chest and the shaking gradually died away.
Nick had never seen a famed "death moth" up close before. The creature's wings were a pale, unhealthy brown, the same color as a species of deadly fungi that grew in the wet, unwholesome places between the roots of dying trees. Each wing had two dots, one in the upper, and the other in the lower halves, right in the center of each. The dots glowed orange against the musty brown wing-fabric. Its head was long and narrow, with a jutting chin and two rows of sharp, pointy teeth. Atop the crown were two long, sharp horns, each easily half again as long as its body and bright orange.
The moth tilted its head to one side, and Nick felt the weight of its gaze. "How thoughtful of you to get me takeout," it said. Its voice was the sound of dead leaves, crisping in the sun, the sound of dessication and decay, the death of hope. And its voice was female.
Cody started trembling again, and Nick rubbed his chest idly. "We've gotten you nothing," he called to the creature. "So why don't you leave while you still can." He brandished the flint menacingly, and Cody, picking up on Nick's lead managed a vaguely aggressive foot wiggle.
"I think not," said the moth. She swiveled her head from side to side, taking in the whole trap. "Nice work with the trap, though. Had I not seen the two of you sitting flush and plump in the middle of it, I might have flown right in." She tested a strand gingerly with one foot. "And likely been entangled. So I thank you for sparing me that experience."
"The only thanks you'll get from me is the bite of my knife, bitch."
The moth threw her head back and emitted a sound like a bird choking to death. Nick shivered despite himself. The creature was laughing.
"How bold for someone so small and defenseless as you, to think I'd be afraid of your puny...weapon."
Nick colored.
"I'm sure your colony will miss your talents very much."
Nick looked down at Cody, still trussed in the stickylines. "Okay, new plan," he muttered. Holding four of his legs up in surrender, Nick faced the moth head-on. "You win," he told her bitterly. "We'll trade."
"Trade?" the moth chittered.
"Trade. Let me finish freeing my friend, and I'll stay for dinner. But you have to let him go."
"Nick!" Cody hissed. He renewed his attempts to break free of the webbing. "Don't do this, Nick! No!"
Nick nodded. "It's the only way, baby," he said softly.
Cody redoubled his efforts. "Don't you dare do this, Nick Ryder!"
"And why, pray tell, would I bother trading with you? My inclination is to simply eat you both in a few quick gulps." The moth snapped her jaw a few times, by way of demonstration.
"Because when you let him go, he'll return to our village and tell everyone how merciful and kind you are. How our people villify yours unnecessarily. How you should be revered for your wisdom."
"Laying it on a bit thick there, don't you think, Nick?" Cody muttered. Nick gave him a quick pinch and he squeaked and then fell silent. "You let me untie him and get him out of here," Nick continued. "I'll make sure you get dinner."
The moth appeared to be considering his offer. "I like this plan," she said finally. "This is a good plan."
"This plan sucks, Nick!" Cody hissed, and Nick gave him a look of consternation.
"It's a deal," the moth said. "Finish untying him."
Nick hurried to comply, severing the remaining strands of mucus-coated snareline that had held Cody to the body of the webbing. Cody stretched happily, wriggling his limbs with excitement.
"Hey, what happened to your wing?" Nick asked.
One of Cody's wings lay forlornly on his shoulder, a sharp contrast to its proud partner, jutting from the other side. "I must have injured it in the fall," Cody said sadly.
"Of course you did," Nick replied. He resisted the urge to put his face in no less than three of his palms.
"Doesn't matter, though," Cody continued. "I'm not leaving you here to be eaten, Nick. No way."
"Sure you are."
"No," Cody answered. "No way I'm gonna--"
Nick took a deep breath, bent at the thorax and hoisted his partner overhead, ignoring the startled shriek. Shuffling him about until he grasped a top leg and a bottom leg (not the broken one), Nick began to spin. Cody continued to wail as Nick spun in a circle, faster and faster, until finally, with a grunt of effort, he launched Cody across the trap. Cody soared through the darkness with a hoarse cry, falling back towards the surface of the webbing. He landed in a dense thicket of silk and bounced, launched up the cliff-face, to land neatly on the rocks. Whereupon he promptly fell over and lay still.
The moth folded her arms.
Nick shrugged. "Escape hatch."
"You foresaw you might have need of one at the time of building?"
"Well, I've known that guy a long time."
"Oh how touching," the moth said. "Too bad you didn't get to say your goodbyes. It's time now, for my dinnah!"
Nick nodded, pulling the backpack close. "What're you in the mood for, lady? I've got two midges and two moths. Although that might be cannibalism and all."
The moth howled with outrage, and Nick quickly got to his feet, whirling the backpack over his head, in much the same way he'd wound up Cody. He let the package fly with a mighty yell.
His pack soared through the air and fetched the moth a mighty wallop. With a shriek, she fell to her knees, clutching her jaw. As her anguished cries rent the air, Nick summoned his strength and flapped, rising above the trap, headed for the top of the rocks at speed. He landed lightly next to Cody and shook his partner gently awake. "Baby? Get up now, we've gotta get going. Now. Come on!"
Cody fought to open his eyes, his head lolling on his shoulders as he regained consciousness. "Nick?" he asked weakly. "Where are we, Nick?"
"In danger, that's where. Can you walk?" He hoisted Cody to his feet, brushing the dirt from his back and shoulders. Cody took a few wobbling steps and fell over again. "Kind of?"
Nick sighed.
Over his shoulder came an awful wail. "Neeeeeck Ryder! You have made a mortal enemy, Neeeeeck Ryderrrrrrrr! And enemies of all in my kingdom! I will get you, Ryderrrr!"
"And I gave her dinner, too. There's just no pleasing some people," Nick muttered. And, taking a deep breath, he hoisted Cody onto his shoulders and began the long climb back down to the main path below, and the longer journey back to their nest.
---
"Ow! Ow ow stop!"
Cody grabbed his injured foot away from Nick with a hurt expression. He was seated on the soft thick moss they used for bedding, and his abdomen glowed a bright white, providing plenty of illumination for Nick to check over his wounds. Nick's own stomach glowed a soft blue. He was worried. Cody's foot was fine, sprained rather than broken, but his wing was another story altogether. He didn't like the look of that wing at all.
"Sorry, sorry," he said gently. He put an arm around Cody, maneuvering around his good wing, and kissed him tenderly. "You had me worried, baby. I just want to make sure you're okay, you know?"
Cody kissed him back, nuzzling his proboscis against Nick's cheek. He was quiet. Nick rubbed Cody's jaw, enjoying the weight of Cody leaning against him on the edge of the moss. Enjoying the sight of Cody so alive and uneaten. He reached for Cody's injured wing and his partner gave a soft, anxious cry, wriggling away from Nick's touch. "Easy baby," Nick said. "Easy. I think your wing is definitely broken, so you've gotta be careful with it, okay?"
Cody nodded, miserable.
Nick looked at his face. The face he'd known and loved forever. He kissed Cody's temple. "What is it, baby?"
Cody turned his eyes to Nick. They brimmed with unshed tears. "Please don't be mad at me. I just wanted to show you I could work on the trap just as well as you can, and I nearly got us both killed. I just wanted to prove to you I'm worth something, but--"
Nick stopped Cody's mouth with a kiss, long and gentle. He pulled him closer, laying Cody's head on his shoulder. When they broke apart, Nick said, "Cody, you're worth everything to me, baby. Everything." He leaned in for another kiss, watching the fear recede from Cody's eyes. "And if you hadn't gone out there today, we might not have found out the trap works. You heard the moth: if you hadn't been out there in the middle, she'd have flown right in. You did it, Cody. You tested the trap successfully."
Cody brightened a little, and the light in his stomach began to turn pink around the edges.
Nick loved that color on him.
He kissed Cody some more, gently pushing him back into the bed of moss and crawling in after him. Cody made a soft contented noise as Nick pulled the moss around them. He bunched it gently against the sides of Cody's body, and Cody happily tucked his legs in, folding them around Nick as he went. The light in his stomach continued to redden, and Nick knew his own stomach was responding similarly, the light of their combined happiness casting a soft pink glow over the nest. Cody's legs caressed the sides of Nick's abdomen and both their lights deepened, heading towards red. Nick raised his eyebrows, and Cody beamed back.
There was a knock at the edge of the doortunnel, light and tentative.
Nick let his head drop onto Cody's shoulder in frustration. Cody snorted.
The knock was repeated.
"One minute, okay?" Nick whispered. "You stay here." He kissed Cody, hard and full of promise, then reluctantly dragged himself from the moss and crept down the doortunnel, his light fading as he went. He emerged to find himself face to fang with Max, a cricket spider and the proprietor of Snugaways, the local tavern.
"I come at a bad time?" she asked innocently.
Nick finished pulling himself from the tunnel. "Not at all," he said. "What's up?"
"Well I heard about you guys fighting off a death moth out in the south quadrant. Sounds mighty brave to me."
Nick shrugged. "S'no big deal."
"Maybe, but I think the bigger deal is the progress on the traps. You guys get her?"
"I think so, but I can't say for sure. Tell you the truth Max, I was pretty scared. That was a close call. Too close, you know?"
Max nodded. "It sounded like quite an adventure. Anyway, I thought you guys might like these." She handed him a basket. Nick dug through it happily. Red ants. Deep fried. His favorite.
He grinned. "Thanks, Max. You didn't have to do that."
"I know, but I wanted to. You're doing a helluva job with those traps, no matter what anybody else might say."
Nick smiled, heading back towards the entrance to the nest. He turned, suddenly. "Hey, you know what, Max? It was Cody who did most of the work on testing that trap. He had the hard job."
Max blinked, and the two of them regarded each other in silence.
"Right," said Max finally. "Cody. I'll be sure to let folks know. You enjoy those ants, now."
"We will, Max," Nick answered. "We sure will."
Back inside the safety of their nest, Nick brought the basket over to the bed, where Cody lay staring up at the ceiling. "Ant?" Nick offered.
Cody raised an eyebrow. "Maybe after."
Nick quickly put the ant back in the basket and crawled back into the moss, settling atop Cody happily. "Oh yeah," he murmured against Cody's exoskeleton. "You are worth fighting off a dozen death moths, anyday."
Cody pulled back. "Only a dozen?"
Nick grinned and pulled him close. The nest filled with a deep red glow.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2010-04-08 02:14 am (UTC)Awesomesauce. Dude, this was soooo much fun. The boys are fabulous in any form!
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Date: 2010-04-16 01:07 pm (UTC)Thanks for the comment!
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Date: 2010-04-27 08:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-28 12:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-28 01:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-28 01:18 pm (UTC)