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There was that damn music again.
Jojen ripped the sheets off his body and stalked to the open window. It was summer and his air conditioning was busted so like a sensible human being, Jojen left the window open in hopes to catch a small breeze and cool off. But like an insensible human being, some asshole kept playing their music every goddamn night. And it wasn’t that they were awful, because they were actual amazing and Jojen probably would have appreciated it if it were any other time than three in the morning. Not when he had his morning classes starting at seven and not when he was getting home from his part time job at midnight. His schedule was already unhealthy enough; he didn’t need this on top of.
Tonight, Jojen was going to do something about it. Who cares if he missed his morning class? It wouldn’t matter if he passed out in the middle of it because he wasn’t ever going to get a full night’s sleep with someone playing their pipes. Tugging on his sneakers and throwing on his shirt, Jojen didn’t even think twice about changing into sensible pants and left his pajamas on. Tonight was the opposite of sensible so he might as well follow the flow.
The music wasn’t coming from his apartment building, Jojen was certain of that. So he climbed the fire escape and followed the music. The music took him down to the main street. Jojen followed and it didn’t even hit him that as he walked, the music continued to remain at the same volume. His sleep-laden mind wasn’t catching the fact that the distance shouldn’t have allowed for the music to travel this far and his brain definitely wasn’t catching the fact that the music brought him into the middle of the park. It only hit him when he began walking off the beaten path that something was stranger than a weirdo playing music in the middle of the night. He was about a mile away from home and the music hadn’t grown any louder or quieter, yet Jojen was absolutely sure that this was where the music was coming from.
And sure enough, as he bypassed a low hanging branch, Jojen came face to face with a young man seated beneath a vast oak. His eyes were closed as he brought the pipes to his lips, sending off the sweet songs without even thinking twice. He looked peaceful and Jojen was almost envious of it since his life only ever seemed to be chaotic stress. It didn’t even hit him that other man had hooves instead of feet. Or at least it didn’t hit him immediately, but once he got over the entrancing music, it hit him like a ton of bricks and Jojen stumbled backwards, wide eyed and gasping.
The man…goat…hybrid thing stopped playing immediately as he realized he wasn’t alone. His own eyes were wide and Jojen thought he could see galaxies behind them.
“Y-You!” Jojen choked, walking backwards until his back smacked into a tree and he sunk to the ground, legs splayed out in defeat.
“You can see me?” the other man spoke, his voice quiet and curious. “You can see these?” he gestured to his…goat legs…
“I’m dreaming!” Jojen proclaimed, clenching his eyes shut and hoping he would wake up to the asshole playing music and that his stressful mind made all of this up. It would be easier to deal with. He hoped.
“’Afraid not,” the other man spoke and Jojen winced at it. “I can’t believe you can see me.”
“Well,” Jojen snapped his eyes open, “if you didn’t want to be seen, you shouldn’t have been playing your music so loud.”
The other cocked his head to the side, looked at his pipes and then back up at Jojen, confusion riddling his unusually calm features. “You can hear it?”
Jojen was going to lose it. “Am I not supposed to?”
The other kept staring at Jojen in wonder. “No one ever does.”
Well, that sounded ominous as fuck. “Why?” Jojen asked carefully.
The other frowned and stared at his pipes. “Only special people can hear them.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Jojen narrowed his eyes skeptically.
“What do you mean by special?” Jojen hissed, not quite sure if the other was talking about special as in wonderful and unique or special as you need mental help because you are seeing a man with goat legs in the park.
The other man assessed Jojen for a moment before shrugging helpless me. “I don’t know what the hell you are. You gotta have something mystic in you. Fairy, if I had to guess.”
“I am a human.” Jojen was stunned he even had to clarify that. “What are you?”
The other snorted. “Yeah, human, okay. I’m a satyr.” He moved his legs in response, his little hooves bouncing in the grass.
“…a satyr?” Jojen deadpanned although the evidence was right in front of him. It was then he caught the satyr’s other statement. “Wait, what do you mean by that? I am a human being.” Jojen waved his hands down his body. “Obviously.”
“If you’re a human being, how can you see me?” the satyr asked with a smirk that said check-mate.
“I don’t even know what that’s supposed to mean!” Jojen’s hands flew to his hair in dismay. “Who is to say any of this is real? I haven’t slept in god knows how long and I’m seeing goat people-”
“Satyrs.”
“-in the middle of the park because they are playing pipes. I’m probably hallucinating from sleep exhaustion!”
The satyr looked at Jojen appraisingly. “Do you always have trouble sleeping?”
The answer was yes, but the satyr’s music was probably the main reason as of the late. “Sometimes,” Jojen decided on.
“I know a song for that,” the satyr said but his eyes were shining with the offer.
Jojen didn’t know exactly why he nodded his head but maybe the promise of sleep (or the hope that the satyr’s song would work) made him act without thinking. What did it even matter? This was a dream and if it would promise him a more peaceful sleep then fine.
Together they walked out of the park and Jojen wondered what the hell they looked like. There was Jojen who was walking the streets of the city in his pajamas next to a half man, half goat hybrid.
As if reading his mind, the satyr said, “Usually, there is a glamour around me so people can’t see the legs for what they are.”
The thought amused Jojen the same way absurd dreams do. “So what? They see a really short guy?”
“No,” the satyr hummed. “My glamour doesn’t work as well as my brothers and sisters. I can’t figure out how to get the legs longer or the knee caps right.”
“So…what do people see?” Jojen asked carefully, wondering if it looked like he was walking around with strange-legged human being.
“A wheelchair,” the satyr shrugged. “I can’t glamour organic material nearly as easy as mechanical.”
“Huh,” Jojen said but now that he thought about it, the height different did make it more believable.
“Don’t worry,” the satyr waved off as they approached Jojen’s building. “The glamour only comes up with humans are around to see it.”
Jojen laid in his bed, staring at the satyr siting on his window silt, swinging his goat legs back in forth.
“Are you ready?”
No. “Yeah…satyrs aren’t known for stealing, right?”
The satyr grinned. “No, but would a thief really tell you the truth one way or the other?”
Jojen was beginning to regret bringing the satyr into his home but before he could protest the satyr began to play his pipes and a soft lullaby began to play. With miraculous speed, Jojen felt his eye lids tug close.
Jojen woke up the next morning the most well-rested he had ever been in his life. He couldn’t quite remember the night before and wondered if maybe he had at conjured up the whole satyr experience. He would be surprised. He also knew that he overslept and there was no way of him getting to his morning class at this point.
As he climbed out of the bed, Jojen could idly hear conversation going on in the kitchen. He tried to remember if Meera had stopped by last night but the satyr still sat on the forethought. Quickly, Jojen raced out to the main living area surprised to see his sister, his father and the satyr sitting there. Except the satyr wasn’t a fucking satyr but a normal guy in a wheel chair. The face was the same though.
Jojen coughed as he announced his arrival and everyone turned to look at him.
Meera was the first to speak, grinning widely. “How come you never told us about your boyfriend?”
Jojen was at a loss for words, looking at the man in the wheelchair in question.
“They came for breakfast and I didn’t want to wake you,” he smirked and winked. Jojen watched as he fiddled with the wheelchair and it didn’t look like some illusion. He began to wonder if Jojen was so tired he had actually just picked up a guy in the wheelchair at a bar or something and dreamt the whole satyr thing with his face.
Jojen was about to die from panic but his father was already turning to his supposed boyfriend. “So, Bran, tell me…”
Jojen didn’t hear the rest of the sentence, too stunned to hear much of anything other than his sister yanking on his arm and hissing in his ear as she led him back into the bedroom. As soon as the window closed, Meera rounded on him.
“You’re dating a satyr?”
“You know about satyrs?” Jojen countered, his stomach flipping at the confirmation. Jojen probably would have gone his whole life thinking he was insane but at Meera’s confirmation, he knew it had to be true.
“Yeah, have for a while,” she waved off carelessly, much more focused on the other half. “You’re dating him?”
“No! I mean, not really. I just met him a few nights ago.”
“You’re having casual sex with a satyr?” Meera’s eyebrows rose greatly and Jojen flushed.
“Oh my god, no! He was just playing music for me so I could get some sleep,” Jojen buried his face into his hands and tried to breathe steadily. “Good god.”
“Oh,” Meera contemplated before sending Jojen an evil smirk. “So, are you going to actually date the satyr?”
God help me.