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Jack returned to the waking world under protest. Forcing one eye open half way only to have it close of its own volition moments later. A sigh escaped his lips as sleep reclaimed him. He thought about those crazy dreams last night. His hand drifted over the pillow tucked into his chest, it felt coarse and scaly.

His eyes sprang open and he glanced down to see the green kobold curled up beside him with his hand resting on her arm. “Lys?" He nudged her, but the kobold did not stir. She looked so peaceful that Jack gave up on trying and pulled himself out of the bed. The clock showed 8:01, early for him on a day off, but there was no hope of going back to sleep.

How had a kobold gone from being a stowaway in his trunk to sleeping in his bed overnight? If it weren't for the fact that his shoulder still hurt from yesterday, he might have convinced himself he was still asleep.

Out in the living room everything was the same old and yet it all had a sense of newness and not for the positive. For the first time in ages, he looked at the place in disgust. As if all the crap he'd let pile up had appeared during the night. The junk on his alleged dining table, the dishes piled in the sink, and the unwashed pans sitting on his stove.

The stove!

He snatched up his keys and headed out for a quick trip to the convenience store, besides he needed a new pack of smokes. Thirty minutes later the apartment smelled of bacon and fresh-brewed coffee. He'd cleaned the dishes out of the sink, and even managed to clear off a section of the dining table, just enough for two people.

Something about the sound and smell of a real breakfast made him feel good. It'd been far too long, but it never seemed worth the trouble when he was the only one eating.

The sizzling bacon gave way to something scraping across the cheap fabric rug followed by a heavy footfall. It came up behind him and changed to the clacking of tile. He turned about to see Lys standing there, hand on her hip and a wince on her muzzle.

“Morning sunshine," Jack said before turning back to the skillet. He did a double take. “Are you sure you should be up and about?"

“Lys isn't sunshine, Lys is kobold," she said, hobbling closer to the stove. Her toeclaws continued to scrape against the floor as she limped. A few more scratches to the countless hundreds meant little. “And Lys is…fine," she said in a stained voice. The kobold tried to get up on tippy-claws to see what was on the stove.

She took a deep sniff. “Smells good, what is it?"

Jack scooped the last of the bacon out onto two waiting plates next to some sausage he'd microwaved earlier. “Breakfast." He carried the plates over to the table. It felt odd to have the space cleared.

Lys's tail started to wag back and forth in anticipation. The sound of her hobbling across the room was almost rhythmic. A scrape followed by a thump and her tail brushing the floor as she kept balance. Jack was dying inside watching her, but she waved him off as if sensing his intentions. “Lys can walk."

“Barely," he started, “it's not a problem for me to help you."

“Need to be strong." She let out another strained grunt as she moved the chair and sat down. “No one to help Lys out there."

“Yeah…" Jack's distorted, sour expression stared back at him from the coffee. It seemed unpleasantly bitter all of a sudden. “What are you going to do once you heal?"

The kobold sighed and shrugged. “Do what Lys always do, survive."

Jack set aside the coffee. “There must be something else. Isn't there a place where you can get a job?" he asked.

Lys sniffed at the plate of food, she seemed to be enjoying the aroma like a fine wine. “No. No human ever nice to Lys, except Jack." She went back to smelling at her plate again.

“You know, just because you haven't met any nice humans until now doesn't mean there aren't any." He tried to steer the conversation back towards her future.

She kept eyeing her breakfast as she spoke. “Lys find nice human, find Jack. Humans hate kobolds, but if kobolds have to choose stealing or starving will steal every time." The kobold looked up at him with a raised eyeridge. “Did Jack forget Lys was sneaking inside car?"

“I didn't forget, but—"

“Why does matter? Why still talk about this? No good humans, nothing good out there. Lys happy to find Jack and be Jack's friend." She swiped up a slice of bacon and dropped it into her maw. Her expression went from moody to euphoric.

Jack smirked. “You've never had bacon and sausage before?"

She grabbed up a sausage. “Lys has before, but not hot, not fresh." Grim thoughts of the kobold swiping leftovers and crawling through dumpsters came to Jack's mind. Meanwhile, she continued to stuff her face.

“Hey, slow down."

“Why? Is great!" The kobold went for another sausage.

“You might choke, and don't talk with your mouth full."

“Is how Lys always eats." She continued to smack loudly.

Jack made a mental note to try and show Lys a few table manners later, but what happened next made him lose his train of thought. Jack made two more discoveries about kobolds. The first was that they lick their claws clean. The second was that kobold tongues were flexible as she whipped her tongue about her claws with ease in an almost hypnotic fashion.

Jack stared for a moment. “D-don't do that, go wash up at the sink."

“Sink is too high up," she said as she continued to lap at her claws. “Why is problem?"

“Ehh, forget it. Next time I'll remember to get some napkins." He unwrapped his new pack of smokes and slipped one into his mouth. Lys spotted it and covered her snout.

Jack glared at her. “It isn't even lit yet." The kobold added some terrible wheezing to her act. Her yellow eyes focused on the cigarette of doom in his mouth. “Alright, alright. Jesus." He headed for the door.

“Wait!" Lys pivoted in her seat, almost falling off the chair.

“What?"

“Don't leave! Lys is sorry. Jack can burn nasty thing, but don't leave." Her voice sat on the verge of panic.

The lighter almost slipped out of his hands as he laughed nervously. “Relax, I'm only going outside to smoke."

“Why go outside?" she asked.

“So you don't have to smell the 'nasty thing', I'll only be outside for a few minutes."

Lys's gaze shifted towards the floor. The kobold held her claws in her hands as her tail twitched back and forth. “Jack do that for Lys?"

For him it was courtesy, for her, kindness. “Yeah, no problem." He opened the front door and crossed the threshold. The outdoor sauna engulfed him. It hadn't been this bad earlier. It was more of an act of kindness than he thought.

Outside the birds sang from the nearby trees. The overgrown branches always threatening to break and smash onto someone's car. In the distance a lawnmower hummed and the faint smell of cut grass drifted in the air. Once the heavenly taste of tobacco and nicotine reached his lungs the humidity didn't seem so bad. Besides, a smoke break gave him a chance to be alone with his thoughts.

Everything he learned about Lys made him more reluctant to let her leave. The thought of Lys having to crawl through garbage for food made him sick. She needed something better. Before he knew it, he'd smoked the cig down to the butt.

“Damn." As he took out another it occurred to him that he was smoking outside of his own apartment. Jack tried to convince himself he was being nice to someone who needed it. But, he was going pretty far for someone he'd barely known for one day.

And a kobold at that. Perhaps she was lying about how bad things were?

He did a few searches on his phone, but all he found were some bleeding-heart organizations, hate sites, and a shelter that looked more like an internment camp. Lys was right, there was nothing good out there. At least he had some time to figure something out.

Something, right.

He snuffed out the cigarette and went back inside no better for the wear. “There, 'nasty thing' is gone and I almost drowned in sweat I…what's this?" A small, copper colored object sat on the table. Jack picked it up to get a closer look. A flower, formed of bent wire. Stems, petals, leaves, an entire little flower.

He looked down at the kobold, she held her claws, fidgeting. “You made this?" he asked.

She nodded. “Found some wire sticking out from junk on table, wanted to make something for Jack for being so nice. Jack not mad?" She looked away from him, he could hear her tail rubbing against the chair.

“No, no, It's beautiful. How did you make it so fast?"

She gave him those big, yellow eyes and a warm smile. “Lys very good with claws, learned to make little things out of stuff friends found for fun."

Jack turned it about in his hand, marveling at the detail, gifts from the heart were always the best. He grabbed the kobold in a warm embrace. “Thank you very much, I really like this," he said, squeezing her tight. Lys responded in kind, wrapping her scaly arms over Jack's shoulders. Her tail drummed against the sides of the chair and she was slow to let go of him.

Jack placed the flower in his bedroom and sat back down at the table ready to resume being lazy for the rest of the day. But, he'd noticed something unpleasant while he hugged Lys. He'd smelled it earlier, but he couldn't place it until now. “Lys, you might want to wash up and I don't mean at the sink."

“Why?"

Jack hated being curt, but he had no idea how Lys would react. “Because you're ripe."

The kobold cocked her head once more in confusion. She looked so cute when she didn't understand, but he needed to get to the point. “Lys, you smell. When was the last time you bathed?" There, it was out.

She smelled at herself. “Lys smell like Lys. Is so bad?" She sniffed again for emphasis.

“Yeah, is so bad," he started, “you don't smell like you, you smell like sweat and dirt and who knows what else. You know how to bathe right?"

Her eyes narrowed into a scowl. “Of course Lys knows!"

Jack raised his hands in defense. “I'm sorry. I've only known you for one day and you're the one licking your claws so…" this was going nowhere good.

“Lys even toilet trained." Her tail thwacked against the chair. Picking up on her emotional tells was getting easier, her tail acted like a mood ring.

“I said I was sorry."

Lys got up from the table with a groan, gingerly planning her feet on the floor. “Is fine. Save claws for when the scales fall off."

“Huh?"

Lys rubbed at her leg for a moment. “Means not to fight over things that don't hurt." Her expression soured as she rubbed into it more. “Maybe water do leg good. Have place to wash?" she asked, looking up at him expectantly.

He stood up and led her past the bedroom and into the bathroom, saving the dishes for later. Lys hobbled behind with a look of determination on her scaly face. It did something to him, it made him want to protect her.

The tacky, peeling wallpaper adorned the bathroom from a time long forgotten. A full bathtub and shower combo took up most of the room with a nearby sink that only had a few cracks in the fixture. A small set of built-in shelving to one side provided storage for towels when Jack bothered to put them up. The odor of after-shave lingered. The clacking of Lys's toeclaws came up behind him as she made her way in.

“I've got plenty of soap and there's some clean towels on the rack." He gestured to the tub.

She looked around, her tail swayed back and forth. "Pretty."

Jack couldn't help but smile. "Here, I'll start filling the tub."

Lys watched the water rush out. “Never washed in one like that, much bigger than most places Lys washed."

“You can take your pick of soap. Irish Spring or Lavender." He pointed to the bars sitting on the edge of the tub.

"Both smell nice," she said as she sniffed at them. "Lavender is too sweet for Lys." She set it down and kept the Irish Spring. The kobold tapped on the side of the bathtub with her claw. “Is very tall is it?"

“Yeah, whoever put this thing in must have been a giant, I bang my ankles on it all the time. Always worried I'll slip getting out of it too. I'd love to force the landlord to replace it, but what can you do?"

Lys looked up at him. “Don't know, what can Jack do?"

“Not much. Here, test the water, wouldn't want stewed kobold for dinner." Jack gestured to the tub. Lys gave him a dirty look. “It was a joke."

She rolled her eyes and dipped a claw in, whipping it back in an instant, a look of shock on her face.

"Too hot?"

"No. Humans use hot water like this?"

He laughed. “Yeah, usually."

She waved her claw over the rising steam watching it coat her scales. “Kobolds always have to make do. Make do with cold water, make do with old water." Her voice dipped a bit.

He gave the whole thing another once over, the water wasn't too high, she had soap, everything seemed in order. He turned around. “Alright well…what are you doing?!"

Lys was busy stripping off her grimy clothes. “What?" she asked. “Not going to wash in dirty clothes, silly." Lys tossed her shirt off. While there was nothing to see, the idea of her bare, scaly chest still seemed taboo. Even so, someone in Jack's brain still took the time to jot down that the scales on her chest were a lighter green.

“You could have warned me."

She paused. “Why? Jack is friend, not big deal," she said as she stripped off her shorts.

He turned away. “Do kobolds run around naked with their friends?"

“Sometimes, why Jack so afraid?"

“I'm not afraid. I have some decency is all," he said, still looking at the wall.

The kobold started to laugh loudly as she put her hands on her hips. "Jack is shy? Stop acting like hatchling. Is fine. Naked is naked." She tapped on the tub. “Besides, tub too high. Could do if leg was okay, but is not. Be brave and help scary naked kobold into water, okay?" She started to laugh again.

He looked down at her for a moment with a scowl. “I am not scared." Shyness or chivalry, it didn't seem right. With a big huff Jack reached down and took her into his arms, looking away all the while. He almost blushed as he held the naked kobold in his arms. The sensation of her scales on his skin seemed scandalous. Lys continued to giggle.

"Glad you think it's funny."

"Is very funny," Lys said as Jack laid her down into the tub. She let out a long sigh. "Hot water feels good and look," she said with surprise.

“What?" He glanced about, assuming something was amiss. When he looked back down the kobold pointed a claw at him.

She grinned wide. “Jack still alive."

He cast an icy glare at her before he reached for the shower curtain and drew it closed making her laugh again. “Why is such a thing? Are all humans this way?"

He took a seat on the toilet just in case she needed help. “Look, for humans wandering around naked isn't done," he said somewhat exasperated. "Don't kobolds have any sense of privacy?"

Water splashed against the curtain no doubt from her tail flicking in agitation. He braced for whatever tongue lashing he was about to receive. "Lys grew up with many brothers, sisters, friends in tiny place. Privacy for kobold is like tail for human."

"Hmm?"

"Is not there," she said. The sounds of kobold washing resumed.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Point taken, but privacy is important to humans. We don't walk around naked, usually."

"Maybe Jack should. Have very nice legs, strong legs."

“Thanks…" He couldn't help the smile growing across his face. If he didn't know any better, he'd swear she was trying to flirt. If only kobolds came with an instruction manual. “So where is your family?"

There came a long pause and with it an immediate sense of regret in asking the question. “Lys don't know. Kobolds try to stay together, but hard. Lived in someplace made from scraps. Us and some other families. Was only time Lys ever had home."

Jack leaned back, preparing himself for more bad memories. The porcelain lid clanked against the wall. “What happened?"

“What think happened? Humans come and say can't live there, break some law or something, like human always do."

“What then?"

She took a deep breath. “Humans came back later and started to tear down place with kobolds still inside," she snarled. “Try to take what we have. Some of us managed to grow some food; they say it theirs because of their land."

Jack ran a hand through his hair, thinking of something to say to break the silence. “Nobody went to the police?"

Water splashed against the curtain again. “Police? Like brownshirts? Don't care about kobolds. Stay far away from them. Would stay far away from humans, but can't." She started to raise her voice.

“Lys—"

“No, listen. Humans cruel. Jack is only one who kind. Jack took Lys to home, Jack fed Lys, Jack even go outside to burn nasty thing, and now Jack let Lys wash. No human ever do those things for Lys, ever." Her voice burned with anger.

The sound of claws scraped against the tub as Lys stood up. He heard the bar of soap fall back into the water and he sprang to his feet. This needed to stop.

“And when Lys leg better Lys will go and be all alone again!" The kobold tried to push aside the shower curtain, but she overextending herself. Her bad leg caught her and she slipped on the soap. Jack grabbed for her, slipping as he tried to stop her head from hitting the tub. As he caught her his elbows banged against the inside while his stomach hit the outside, knocking the went out of him. The shower curtain tangled around them both and the whole thing rod and all came down, smacking him on the head.

“Unh, damn," Jack groaned. The bruise on his shoulder would have a lot of company tomorrow and his shirt was soaked. “Are you alright?" The soggy curtain obscured his view.

Lys began to cry. “No, not alright."

“Are you hurt?"

“No," she whispered. “Lys make Jack get hurt. She is trouble, been better if Jack had left her on the road."

“Don't start saying crap like that." He untangled himself from the soggy curtain and flung the rod backwards. It clattered against the floor. “We'll figure something out." With a pained groan he lifted her up and set her down on the floor.

The wet, naked kobold looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “What?"

“I don't know, but we'll find something, there's always another way." He rubbed away the tears in her eyes. “Now let's get you dried off, okay?" Lys nodded at him and gave him a faint smile. The towel felt pleasant in his hand and he thanked himself for using softener. He tossed it to the kobold.

She rubbed it against her face. “So soft, humans get nice things."

Jack peeled off his shirt and tossed it into the clothes pile. “Need to find something for you to wear."

Lys wrapped herself up in the towel like a robe. “Lys not going to wear Lys clothes?" She pointed at her discarded shorts and shirt.

“I've got to have something you can wear besides that." He went back into the bedroom with the sound of toeclaws behind him. Most of Jack's clothes sat in the laundry basket until he needed them, but he remembered a few things he'd bothered to place in the drawer. “I think, yeah, here try this." He pulled out a large, black shirt. “Won this from a radio contest, but the morons forgot to ask me my size so they sent the biggest one." He tossed it to her.

Lys dropped her towel before Jack could suggest she change in the bathroom. He looked away, but not before the same person in his brain from earlier made note that the light green of her chest gave way to turquoise on her belly.

She struggled to get the shirt over her horns, but she managed. It was far too big for Jack and massive for her. It draped down past her knees. Lys admired it, turning about several times like a princess trying on a new dress. The cloth shifted back and forth as her tail flicked about. Lys started tracing her claw over the logo on the front. “What is slaa-year?" she asked.

“Slayer. A heavy metal band. You can read then?"

“Little. Family and friends taught what they knew, thought it might help to get along with humans, not very big help." The kobold continued to trace her claw over the patterns on the shirt. “What is heavy metal?"

“It's a kind of music." Jack slipped on a dry shirt from the basket.

“They bang heavy metal things?"

He tugged his phone out of the back pocket. “It's probably best if I show you." He yanked his earbuds off the nightstand, almost taking Lys's wire flower with it. “Here, sit down on the bed." He patted the mattress. Lys groaned as she pulled herself up.

Jack handed her the earbuds. It only took her a moment to figure them out and she slipped them into her…tympanum? Jack couldn't quite remember. “Ready?" The kobold nodded eagerly. Jack tapped on his phone, bringing up “Raining Blood" and pushed play.

Lys narrowed her eyeridges and then grinned. “I hear rain."

“Just wait."

Jack could hear it in his head having listened to it so many times. The moments passed and then her eyes went wide, the opening guitar riff started. “Ah!" She clutched her head as the drums came in and Jack expected her to yank the earbuds out, but she held them tight.

Trapped in purgatory, a lifeless object alive.

She began nodding her head in time and then her tail followed suit. Her thin, scaly lips twitched now and then.

Awaiting the hour of reprisal, your time slips away.

Her nodding became headbanging and she made an odd thrumming noise he'd never heard before. The kobold closed her eyes tight.

Now I shall reign in blood!

Lys reeled backwards, her head swaying all about and she thrummed again. Jack could hear the closing thunderstorm in his mind and then, silence. She looked as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice-water on her. A tinge of worry crept up his back, what had he done to her?

“Lys?" Jack prodded her with a finger.

The earbuds slipped off as she turned to look up at him. The kobold gave him a long hard stare with her mouth agape and then threw herself onto him in a hug, knocking him over. “Heavy metal is great!" The kobold shook him, laughing all the while. “There more?"

Jack caught his breath, for a brief moment he thought she was going to attack him. “Oh yeah," he said with a heavy exhale. “Let me get this hooked up to my speakers." The two went into the living room. A thick coating of dust adorned the stereo, but it still worked as far as he knew, it better for what it cost him. After a bit of finagling, he prepared to educate the world's first kobold metalhead. “Let's see if you like Children of Bodom." He took a seat on the couch and fired it up.

Lys sat down next to him. “Children make heavy metal too?"

“No, it's only the name of the band." The dulcet tones of Alexi Laiho poured forth from the stereo.

“Why are they growling? Is sick? Jack?"

He was already into the music, his fingers flying down invisible frets until a claw poked his side. “What Jack doing?" Lys asked.

“Oh sorry, air guitar," he said proudly. The kobold had that confused look he'd grown accustomed to. “You know what a guitar is?"

Lys nodded. “But how do Jack play guitar made of air?"

“Like this, here." Gently, he took his scaly disciple by the wrists. “Place your hand up here and now put your other hand down here and just, you know, play."

She looked worried. “But Lys don't know how to play guitar."

“You don't need to know how, watch." Another solo blasted over the speakers and Jack's fingers strummed along. A toothy grin formed on her muzzle as she picked up on; her claws prodded at unseen strings. “See, you're a natural."

And so, it went until a loud thump came up from the floor.

“What was that?" Lys hunkered down.

Jack flicked the music off. “That's the sign that we're having too much fun. That's enough for today." He was about to get up when he felt a claw on his arm. The kobold squeezed his wrist gently.

“Jack, thanks so much for breakfast, and heavy metal, and air guitar." And then she licked him across the face.

He yelped and fell backwards after feeling her slick tongue against his cheek. Of all the things she'd surprised him with so far, this was the top. “You're welcome," he finally managed to get out.

“Did Lys do something wrong?" She looked hurt.

He wiped his face, chuckling all the while. “No, not at all. But humans do it a little differently."

“So, another human kobold thing then?" She looked relieved.

Jack nodded. “Usually, we kiss people that we like."

She cocked her head. “Kiss?"

“It's probably best if I show you." With that he leaned in to teach his student another bit of human behavior. Her eyes locked to his and a look of anticipation crept over her muzzle. A slight thrum reverberated from her throat as his lips drew ever nearer and then planted a kiss on her snout. For a moment Lys sat there cross-eyed and then she lit up like a firework.

“So that's what it called. Seen before, but never knew why." Her tail whipped back and forth and her tail jutted out of the back of her shirt. “Does Jack like Lys then?"

For some reason the question struck him a lot more than it should have. He liked her. In a short amount of time, she'd breathed new life into him. Old music was new again, he cleaned up –some– of his apartment, and he'd cooked breakfast for the first time in over a year.

He liked her a lot.

“Yeah."

The kobold grinned wide. “Can Lys kiss Jack?"

It felt more personal the other way around, but he sucked it up and gave her a nod. He prepared himself for a kiss on the cheek or maybe even the mouth. Instead, she planted her scaly lips right on his nose.

She looked very pleased with herself. “Well?"

He cracked a half smile. “Not bad for a first time, not bad at all."

That night Jack bedded down more at peace with things than the day before. As he settled in, he noticed the copper flower Lys had made earlier and smiled, but his peace didn't last. The night thoughts crept in and he couldn't stand this situation, he wanted Lys to be safe, he wanted her to have a future. Letting her stay here risked himself, but letting her leave seemed out of the question. There was also the matter of getting her some real clothes. She couldn't run around bottomless in his band shirts the whole time, could she?

He tossed and turned until his bedroom door opened. The scrape thump announced her presence.

“Jack, Lys wondered if—"

He said nothing, opening the covers for her. Lys looked relieved as she limped over the bed and crawled inside. She gave him a look of gratitude and laid down on the other side. He already knew she'd be curled up next to him before the night was over.

And that was fine by him.