Drabble Cascade #16 - hidden : Curiosity.
Jun. 25th, 2013 09:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charisstomaFB3X Drabble Cascade #16 - Hidden
Title: Curiosity (m/m, humor, implied m-preg - just to be safe)
Author: charisstoma
Word count: 1796
Prompt: Hidden
Phen, not Phenny or Stevie, took his 5 year old self stealthily away from the restriction of adults. He was a big djinn, well almost, he could act like one anyway. He’d never be as big as Faisal’s Varen, a Dragon Djinn, but he thought he’d mastered the confident way Varen walked and he was not cute doing it. Phen stuck his lip out petulantly.
Today he was going to go on an adventure; the Ancient and Honorable Djinn Archives was his for today. One benefit of having your father being Master Librarian was that you often got a tour through the archives on taller shoulders. And today he was going to explore those areas that the adults had taken detours around, those dark secret shelves that had been explained as containing books too old for a little djinn like Phen. Phen knew how to take care with old books. He’d be really super careful, he’d even brought along a pair of gloves so his hands wouldn’t make marks on the pages.
The shelves were noisier than usual, there were quiet whisperings just barely noticeable and there was a rhythmic slapping sound in some of the darker corners like came from his father’s office sometimes, though what his father and daddy was doing was never fully explained. Daddy’s face would go red when Phen asked and his grinning father would start off with the phrase, “when two djinn love each other.” Daddy Steve would give an, “ADNAN!” and make a dive to cover Phen’s ears. Phen knew better than to try shaking his head because Daddy Steve would dig his fingers in around Phen’s ears to hang on and that hurt.
Daddy Steve was visiting where he use to work today, someplace else where Phen wasn’t allowed to visit yet. Phen knew what Liaisons meant, he’d asked. Liaison was a person or way to communicate between people when they needed help talking to each other, that’s what Teasel, one of the djinn who did the book repairs, had said. Teasel had gotten palely quiet when Phen asked what lustful meant and told him to go ask his father AND THEN had hastily said, “no, don’t do that! Your father is a busy, busy important djinn. Learn to read and look it up for yourself. It’ll be good for you to learn to read, you live in a library.”
So Phen had asked to learn how to read. He still wasn’t good enough to figure out what lustful meant, even if he could catch it in the dictionary. It kept moving. He’d tried stabbing it with his finger to hold it down but that didn’t help. It shivered really hard and all the words of the def-in-i-tion had quivered so much that it was impossible to read them, not at all like the book he was tucked up into at night before being placed on the shelf. Neither Dick and Jane or Spot and Puff had any word like lustful included in their chapters’ stories. Well Phen was going to check the books in the area ‘too old for him to be in’ and maybe one of them would tell him.
A shiver of naughty delight traveled up Phen’s back. there was one more shelf to get past. Carefully he took out the gloves and slipped them over his small hands and up over his forearms, the fingers’ ends flopping because his small fingers barely reached to filled any part of them. It was more like mittens but he’d make them work.
Giggling in the dark made him pause, and he hunched over to sneak a peek around the corner. Two djinn were standing really close and one was tickling the other in places that he was always told needed to be kept very clean. Those were very ticklish places, Phen nodded knowingly, because when he scrubbed himself there it made him tingly. The two djinn were in his way. Phen’s lip pouted out, he was never going to get a chance to explore the ‘too old for him bookshelves’.
A largish book poked out on the shelf he was hiding behind, lying partially off and so invitingly friendly. There weren’t too many pages to it and in the dim lighting all he could see on the cover was two figures making the shape of a little H, one bent over with their hands on the ground and the other standing tall behind the first figure with their back arched so they could probably see the ceiling.
‘They made dictionaries for each of the letters of the alphabet, kinda like encyclopedias?’ Phen was suddenly hopeful, if there was a book for H then there was probably one of L and the book being largish big probably meant there were pictures. Well if he could read the H book then he might be able to read the letter L book. Daddy Steve couldn’t mind that. He was trying so hard in his learning to read. Phen reached out and grasped the H book and felt a swirling as he and the book were retrieved from the Archive’s stacks.
There was a buzzing in the background with flashing lights and his father threw open the door at the same time as Faisal eeped. A bent over Faisal had his robe rucked up in back so you could see his bare bottom and Varen’s hands were hidden as he stood behind hugging him. Phen was sure he was going to get into trouble and his book was going to be taken away.
Varen said a word that was very, very bad.
Adnan took in the situation at a glance, moving to intercept the view of what Faisal and Varen had been engaging in. With a roll of his eyes he wondered how the sands he was going to explain this to Steve. Deftly plucking the book, that had set off the ‘book child-proofing alarm’ app, from his wide eyed son’s grasp, he shepherded the little djinn into his office calling over his shoulder, “Faisal could you um show Varen how to do that particular exercise in your own rooms please.” Grinning as he heard twin groans. Oh yes, being stopped in the middle of that kind of exercise could be painful.
His son was cute; his arms were swallowed up by the white gloves usually employed while dealing with the fragile older books, and his face was turned down to study his toes. Adnan glanced at the spine of the book and then quickly at the cover and felt like groaning himself.
“Was it very dark down in the stacks?” He watched in relief as the small head nodded. Curious, “Why did you choose this book?”
Teary glazed defiant eyes dragged themselves up, “I wanted to read an alphabet book.”
Startled and holding up the green sex manual, “You think this is an alphabet book?”
Hopeful eyes now looked at him, “It’s the letter H. Though it’s a little h,” was said proudly.
Adnan considered the cover and yes to an uneducated mind it could look like that. “Was it out of place on the shelves by any chance?”, for his son would have been retrieved sooner by the app if he’d stepped into the adult section of the archives.
“It was lying down on a shelf. I saw it when I was trying not to be seen by the two djinn tickling.”
“Tickling.”
“Well one of them was tickling the other down there where,” Phen’s voice took on the deeper tone of quoting an adult, “’his male organs’ are.” The little djinn shrugged, “he liked it ‘cause he was giggling.”
“Did Daddy Steve read you the book about flowers yet?”
The disdainful scrunched up face told Adnan the answer before Phen said anything.
“O-kay. Why were you looking for an alphabet book down in the bookshelves when you’ve alphabet books in your room?”
“The words won’t stay still and they hide.”
Suppressing a grin Adnan asked, “any particular word?”
Tipping his head to the side in consideration, Teasel had said to ask his father then said his father was too busy. Father didn’t look too busy now if he was asking questions and listening to Phen’s answers.
“Lustful,” was enunciated carefully with bright shiny interest.
“Do you know what the full part means if you add it to another word?”
“Filled?”
“Yes, that’s correct. So if you are helpful what does that mean?”
There was confusion in the answer, “Filled with help?”
“Close,” Adnan grinned. “How about needful?”
That one was clearer, “Filled with need.”
“To passionately need something is what lustful means. It means you want it a whole lot.”
“Oh.” Adnan watched his son put the pieces together. “Then why does someone really, really want to be a person or way to com-mun-i-cate,” it was a bigger word then he normally said but he knew what it meant, “between people when they need help talking to each other?
The outside door opened as Steve cheerily walked in, “Why is Faisal not at his desk?” kissing his Librarian cum ‘in all the best ways bed warmer’.
“Phenny was investigating the shelves near the adult section today and caught Faisal and Varen doing this particular exercise.” Adnan held the spine out for viewing and then tilted the front towards Steve in a way that obscured the cover from little eyes. “He found the book of the letter H, though it’s the little one, not the big one before the app whisked him into Faisal’s office.”
“Ah.”
“Tell Daddy Steve what word you learned today,” Adnan grinned.
Phen looked doubtful, “The one that Varen said when I showed up and he was hugging Faisal from behind?”
Shaking his head, Adnan tried again his voice only slightly holding a hint of his laughter, “The other one that we talked about.”
“Lustful, which means wanting something really, really bad.” Taking a distrustful look at his father who still hadn’t answered his question, Phen focused his attention on his other father. “Why does someone really, really want to be a person or way to com-mun-i-cate between people when they need help talking to each other?”
Perplexedly frowning Steve looked at Adnan and then his son, “I don’t understand.”
Phen with great care explained, “Some of the djinn were saying that you were going to Lustful Liaisons to visit.” Smiling brightly, “Were you helping someone do that today?”
Steve swallowed his lips and threw a beseeching look at Adnan to rescue him, who gave him a wide closed mouth smile. They knew children were inquisitive that’s why there was and why they’d downloaded the ‘book child-proofing alarm’ app linked into Phenny’s barcode. Because really the letter H, in its little form, was not for little djinn to read.
Title: Curiosity (m/m, humor, implied m-preg - just to be safe)
Author: charisstoma
Word count: 1796
Prompt: Hidden
Phen, not Phenny or Stevie, took his 5 year old self stealthily away from the restriction of adults. He was a big djinn, well almost, he could act like one anyway. He’d never be as big as Faisal’s Varen, a Dragon Djinn, but he thought he’d mastered the confident way Varen walked and he was not cute doing it. Phen stuck his lip out petulantly.
Today he was going to go on an adventure; the Ancient and Honorable Djinn Archives was his for today. One benefit of having your father being Master Librarian was that you often got a tour through the archives on taller shoulders. And today he was going to explore those areas that the adults had taken detours around, those dark secret shelves that had been explained as containing books too old for a little djinn like Phen. Phen knew how to take care with old books. He’d be really super careful, he’d even brought along a pair of gloves so his hands wouldn’t make marks on the pages.
The shelves were noisier than usual, there were quiet whisperings just barely noticeable and there was a rhythmic slapping sound in some of the darker corners like came from his father’s office sometimes, though what his father and daddy was doing was never fully explained. Daddy’s face would go red when Phen asked and his grinning father would start off with the phrase, “when two djinn love each other.” Daddy Steve would give an, “ADNAN!” and make a dive to cover Phen’s ears. Phen knew better than to try shaking his head because Daddy Steve would dig his fingers in around Phen’s ears to hang on and that hurt.
Daddy Steve was visiting where he use to work today, someplace else where Phen wasn’t allowed to visit yet. Phen knew what Liaisons meant, he’d asked. Liaison was a person or way to communicate between people when they needed help talking to each other, that’s what Teasel, one of the djinn who did the book repairs, had said. Teasel had gotten palely quiet when Phen asked what lustful meant and told him to go ask his father AND THEN had hastily said, “no, don’t do that! Your father is a busy, busy important djinn. Learn to read and look it up for yourself. It’ll be good for you to learn to read, you live in a library.”
So Phen had asked to learn how to read. He still wasn’t good enough to figure out what lustful meant, even if he could catch it in the dictionary. It kept moving. He’d tried stabbing it with his finger to hold it down but that didn’t help. It shivered really hard and all the words of the def-in-i-tion had quivered so much that it was impossible to read them, not at all like the book he was tucked up into at night before being placed on the shelf. Neither Dick and Jane or Spot and Puff had any word like lustful included in their chapters’ stories. Well Phen was going to check the books in the area ‘too old for him to be in’ and maybe one of them would tell him.
A shiver of naughty delight traveled up Phen’s back. there was one more shelf to get past. Carefully he took out the gloves and slipped them over his small hands and up over his forearms, the fingers’ ends flopping because his small fingers barely reached to filled any part of them. It was more like mittens but he’d make them work.
Giggling in the dark made him pause, and he hunched over to sneak a peek around the corner. Two djinn were standing really close and one was tickling the other in places that he was always told needed to be kept very clean. Those were very ticklish places, Phen nodded knowingly, because when he scrubbed himself there it made him tingly. The two djinn were in his way. Phen’s lip pouted out, he was never going to get a chance to explore the ‘too old for him bookshelves’.
A largish book poked out on the shelf he was hiding behind, lying partially off and so invitingly friendly. There weren’t too many pages to it and in the dim lighting all he could see on the cover was two figures making the shape of a little H, one bent over with their hands on the ground and the other standing tall behind the first figure with their back arched so they could probably see the ceiling.
‘They made dictionaries for each of the letters of the alphabet, kinda like encyclopedias?’ Phen was suddenly hopeful, if there was a book for H then there was probably one of L and the book being largish big probably meant there were pictures. Well if he could read the H book then he might be able to read the letter L book. Daddy Steve couldn’t mind that. He was trying so hard in his learning to read. Phen reached out and grasped the H book and felt a swirling as he and the book were retrieved from the Archive’s stacks.
There was a buzzing in the background with flashing lights and his father threw open the door at the same time as Faisal eeped. A bent over Faisal had his robe rucked up in back so you could see his bare bottom and Varen’s hands were hidden as he stood behind hugging him. Phen was sure he was going to get into trouble and his book was going to be taken away.
Varen said a word that was very, very bad.
Adnan took in the situation at a glance, moving to intercept the view of what Faisal and Varen had been engaging in. With a roll of his eyes he wondered how the sands he was going to explain this to Steve. Deftly plucking the book, that had set off the ‘book child-proofing alarm’ app, from his wide eyed son’s grasp, he shepherded the little djinn into his office calling over his shoulder, “Faisal could you um show Varen how to do that particular exercise in your own rooms please.” Grinning as he heard twin groans. Oh yes, being stopped in the middle of that kind of exercise could be painful.
His son was cute; his arms were swallowed up by the white gloves usually employed while dealing with the fragile older books, and his face was turned down to study his toes. Adnan glanced at the spine of the book and then quickly at the cover and felt like groaning himself.
“Was it very dark down in the stacks?” He watched in relief as the small head nodded. Curious, “Why did you choose this book?”
Teary glazed defiant eyes dragged themselves up, “I wanted to read an alphabet book.”
Startled and holding up the green sex manual, “You think this is an alphabet book?”
Hopeful eyes now looked at him, “It’s the letter H. Though it’s a little h,” was said proudly.
Adnan considered the cover and yes to an uneducated mind it could look like that. “Was it out of place on the shelves by any chance?”, for his son would have been retrieved sooner by the app if he’d stepped into the adult section of the archives.
“It was lying down on a shelf. I saw it when I was trying not to be seen by the two djinn tickling.”
“Tickling.”
“Well one of them was tickling the other down there where,” Phen’s voice took on the deeper tone of quoting an adult, “’his male organs’ are.” The little djinn shrugged, “he liked it ‘cause he was giggling.”
“Did Daddy Steve read you the book about flowers yet?”
The disdainful scrunched up face told Adnan the answer before Phen said anything.
“O-kay. Why were you looking for an alphabet book down in the bookshelves when you’ve alphabet books in your room?”
“The words won’t stay still and they hide.”
Suppressing a grin Adnan asked, “any particular word?”
Tipping his head to the side in consideration, Teasel had said to ask his father then said his father was too busy. Father didn’t look too busy now if he was asking questions and listening to Phen’s answers.
“Lustful,” was enunciated carefully with bright shiny interest.
“Do you know what the full part means if you add it to another word?”
“Filled?”
“Yes, that’s correct. So if you are helpful what does that mean?”
There was confusion in the answer, “Filled with help?”
“Close,” Adnan grinned. “How about needful?”
That one was clearer, “Filled with need.”
“To passionately need something is what lustful means. It means you want it a whole lot.”
“Oh.” Adnan watched his son put the pieces together. “Then why does someone really, really want to be a person or way to com-mun-i-cate,” it was a bigger word then he normally said but he knew what it meant, “between people when they need help talking to each other?
The outside door opened as Steve cheerily walked in, “Why is Faisal not at his desk?” kissing his Librarian cum ‘in all the best ways bed warmer’.
“Phenny was investigating the shelves near the adult section today and caught Faisal and Varen doing this particular exercise.” Adnan held the spine out for viewing and then tilted the front towards Steve in a way that obscured the cover from little eyes. “He found the book of the letter H, though it’s the little one, not the big one before the app whisked him into Faisal’s office.”
“Ah.”
“Tell Daddy Steve what word you learned today,” Adnan grinned.
Phen looked doubtful, “The one that Varen said when I showed up and he was hugging Faisal from behind?”
Shaking his head, Adnan tried again his voice only slightly holding a hint of his laughter, “The other one that we talked about.”
“Lustful, which means wanting something really, really bad.” Taking a distrustful look at his father who still hadn’t answered his question, Phen focused his attention on his other father. “Why does someone really, really want to be a person or way to com-mun-i-cate between people when they need help talking to each other?”
Perplexedly frowning Steve looked at Adnan and then his son, “I don’t understand.”
Phen with great care explained, “Some of the djinn were saying that you were going to Lustful Liaisons to visit.” Smiling brightly, “Were you helping someone do that today?”
Steve swallowed his lips and threw a beseeching look at Adnan to rescue him, who gave him a wide closed mouth smile. They knew children were inquisitive that’s why there was and why they’d downloaded the ‘book child-proofing alarm’ app linked into Phenny’s barcode. Because really the letter H, in its little form, was not for little djinn to read.
