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“Oh, look at that monarch over there!"
Scott pointed towards the left of the butterfly garden. Nom looked over, smiling when he saw the large orange butterfly. He walked over to it, stretching out a finger.
The butterfly flitted its wings, fluttering down to the hand.
"Wow," Scott breathed, gliding over. The monarch had large, impressive wings, with intracite black swirls displayed across them. Scott noticed that Nom was very pointedly not touching the wings, or any part of the body.
"Don't you want to feel it's wings?" He asked. Nom looked at him suddenly, with an expression one could only describe as aghast. "No! No, if you touch a butterfly's wings it damages the soft membrane."
Scott's eyes widened. "Oh, no! Oh, goodness, how many wings have I damaged?!"
Nom grimaced. "Too many. But uh—most people do. At least now you know." Scott nodded, still feeling like a terrible person. He sighed. Nom looked at him for a moment before clearing his throat.
"Um, over there is a Lady. Do you want to go catch it?" Scott peered around, looking for the butterfly.
He spotted it, taking a step closer. "How did you catch it so easily?" Nom shrugged. "I don't know. I've always liked butterflies. But the more common way of catching them is using nectar. I think I saw some—" he scanned the room. "Over there!"
He pointed, and Scott grinned appreciatively. He strode over, picked one up, and gingerly held it out to the butterfly.
"Hi..do you want some food?" It seemed as though it was reading his soul for a moment, and apparently he was good, because the butterfly in question fluttered down to his hand. Scott grinned, resisting the urge valiantly to pet its wings.
“There you go," he whispered. "Aren't you pretty?" He heard a hearty chuckle from across the room. "You and you're talking to non-sentient things," he said. "Don't be knock it till you try it!" Scott snapped back.
He turned around, softly walking back over to the man, but carefully holding the nectar as to not jostle the lady. "Okay," Scott said, a hand on his hip. "Teach me something else about butterflies, smart guy." Nom laughed, then looked in thought.
"Hmm.. well, do you know how butterflies kiss?"
Scott froze. "Uh." He was blushing furiously. "Uhm, uh, no, no, how do they?"
Nom wasn't looking at him, thankfully, rather focusing on the monarch in his finger. "They brush noses," he said fondly.
Scott was no longer a functioning human.
Nope.
No one home.
No brain.
Brain left a long time ago.
Did nom have ANY idea what he was doing?
Scott had a very, very bad idea. ..so why was he about to act on it? "But uh.." Scott cleared his throat. "Humans don't kiss like that."
Nom looked over, confused. "No, of course not." Scott took a breath, quickly. "Right.. because they kiss like this."
He took a quick step forward, planting a peck to the man's lips.
He didn't have much time to savor it, but he noticed that Nom’s lips were chapped, clearly devoid of any lip balm, despite Scott's pepperminty one. He pulled back, setting down the nectar, and backing away to the door.
"Heh, okay bye!" He raced out the door, not stopping until he was far away.
If he had stayed just a little longer, he would've seen Nom’s hand move up to his lips, gingerly grazing the bottom lip.