Limitless Evolution As a Snake

I can feel her breathing against my coils, slow and even, and I am not about to let a drunk koala ruin this moment with whatever he’s about to suggest.

[System: YOU’RE NO FUN. ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT. SHED TIME THEN. GET THAT MANKY OLD SKIN OFF YA, LOOKS LIKE SOMETHING THE CAT DRAGGED IN AND THEN COUGHED BACK UP.]

That I can agree with: the cracked scales itch now that the remedy’s done its work, a deep under-the-surface itch that means only one thing.

I shift, slow and careful, and the process takes over.

It starts at my head. The old scales loosen, catch, then split along a seam that runs the length of my body.

I ease myself out of it like peeling off a wetsuit a size too small. Coil by coil, until the ruined skin lies pooled on the blanket beside me, a shed layer of bad decisions.

The new scales underneath catch what little light there is in the shack, dark and iridescent, whole. No cracks and no exposed tissue. My wing settles clean into its pocket, no click, no hesitation, just perfect alignment like it was never broken in the first place.

I look good. I look really good, actually, and there’s nobody awake to appreciate it, which feels like a joke specifically engineered to annoy me.

Now I’ve just got a pile of old snake skin taking up half the bed and nowhere to put it.

Old mate. What do I do with this?

[System: Dunno, try eating it.]

Why the hell would I eat it?

[System: I thought it’d be a good laugh.]

It would not be funny. It would be deeply upsetting for everyone involved, including me. I nudge the shed skin with the tip of my tail, like that’s going to solve anything, like it’s going to spontaneously combust out of embarrassment.

Old mate. Can you just make it disappear, please?

Silence hangs in my head. The kind that means he’s about to drop a bomb that will ruin my whole night.

[System: Yeah nah yeah, sure if you bone her with both ya cocks.]

.....okay.

[System: STRUTH. GOOD SHIT YA WEAPON, HAHAHAHA.]

I can practically hear him cracking open a beer to celebrate.

I look down at Lyra, asleep against my coils, hand still loose in my scales, chest rising and falling slow and even. She looks so peaceful it feels criminal to even be having this conversation while she’s unconscious three feet away.

This can’t be how it works, right? There’s no cooldown timer flashing in my vision, no expiration date on our bond like some biological gym membership. It’s not a transaction.

Then again. Why complain?

She’s warm. Soft. She trusts me this much, wrapped in coils that could end her in seconds.

Under all the noise in my head, a simple, stupid thought cuts through. Yeah, okay. That sounds good, actually.

Old mate. You’re a menace.

[System: YEAH, BUT I’M YOUR MENACE, MATE. NOW GO ON. WAKE HER UP NICE, DO. IT WITH YOUR TWIN TURBO COCKS HAHAHHAA]

The voice in my head vanishes. No static, no parting swearing. Just gone.

I hold perfectly still, listening. The silence is absolute. He can’t see this, I’m alone with her. Finally.

I slither up along the blanket, careful not to jostle her too much, and press my nose right up against her cheek. I give her a slow lick, just a taste of her skin, warm and a little salty, and I whisper her name right into her long pointed ear.

"Lyrraaa."

Her eyes flutter open slowly, all sleepy and soft, and then they go wide the second she actually sees me. She sits up a little, blinking hard like she’s not sure if she’s dreaming.

"Matt? Oh my- your scales, you’re?"

I do a little spin for her, rolling over like some show-off gator at a zoo park, showing off every inch of the new me.

"You like it?"

She runs her hand down my side, slow, her fingers catching on the ridges where the plates overlap. Her mouth’s hanging open a little.

"How did this happen?"

"The ointment. Made me shed, fixed the wing right up too, look."

I flex it out of the little scale pocket just to show her, then tuck it back in nice and smooth.

"Oh, wow. Okay."

Her gaze traces the new pattern of my scales, memorising it. The awe on her face hardens into something more serious.

"Matt, what’s with the whole changing thing? Every time I see you, you’re a little different. You said before you’re evolving, but I don’t know anyone who can just do that."

I don’t really have a good answer for her. Not one I’m allowed to give anyway.

"There are things I can’t explain, Ly. Rules I have to follow. But look at me. I’m still me. I’m still the snake who’s going to keep you safe, no matter what I look like tomorrow. All you have to do is trust me."

Her chest rises and falls, a slow, deep breath. Then her hands come up to cradle my head, thumbs stroking the plates beside my eyes. She holds me like I’m made of glass, even though I could bench press a car.

"It’s okay. Whatever you look like, I love you. As long as you can love someone as useless as me."

That word sets something off in my chest, hot and sudden, and I have to swallow it down before it turns into something ugly. Useless. Who told her that? What asshole made her believe that?

I rub my head against her palm instead, slow, trying to push the feeling into her through touch since I can’t say it right.

"I trust you," she whispers, and the way she says it settles somewhere deep in my chest, warm and heavy.

"Good. Because I’m not going anywhere. Don’t worry, I’ll never leave you."

I mean it. I mean it more than I’ve meant anything in my whole stupid new life, and before either of us can say another word I’m already moving, coiling around her nice and slow, working my way up her sides until I find the clasp of her bra. I get it undone with more grace than I honestly expected from myself, and her top comes off next, sliding away easy as anything.

She gasps, a soft little sound that turns into a moan halfway through, and her hands come up to grab at my scales like she needs something to hold onto.