Raymundo pushed open the door to their dingy motel room. The only bright thing about the room was the giant window letting in a huge swath of natural light across Raymundo’s bed. He immediately threw himself onto the bed, letting the sun warm his aching body.
Scouting had been a mixture of holding very still to just watch, and actively moving around as small rodents trying to get a better lay of the land with regular eyes vs compound vision. And Lucky had never mentioned that things like injuries, would transfer back to the original body, so Raymundo hadn’t taken the time to learn how big his rat body was, ignored most instincts, and had gotten himself stuck, scraped, and bruised up be the time they were done.
Lucky plopped down on the bed next to Raymundo. The bed creaked as he sighed and scooted his hips over to accommodate Lucky.
"These are odd." They leaned over and poked the dark purple mark on his arm. He slapped their hand away and shifted farther away from them.
"Don't poke people's bruises. They hurt." Ray grumbled. Lucky poked their own marking, a short lived spark of pain made their eyes go wide.
Raymundo's breath hitched as he watched Lucky's skin turn translucent. When the sunlight highlighted am intact vein, he jumped up and quickly yanked the thick rough curtains shut. The peeling wallpaper almost looked normal in the dim light from the tv.
"Don't do alien stuff with the blinds open!" He hissed.
"It's so weird." They mumbled, not even glancing up at Raymundo. Eyes focused on the pooling blood under their skin they traced the capillaries leading to the injury. "Blood causes so many of your health problems. Too thick, too thin, too much sugar, not enough, lack of oxygen, nutrient deficit, it could clot, it might not clot when it's supposed too." Lucky finally took a deep breath and looked up. "Why did evolution take this path on Earth? Letting osmosis and diffusion do the work is easier."
First, Raymundo had to get over the fact he was staring at the muscular system in the face, seeing each twitch and flex, and the pulse of the blood vessels. The subtle shifts of muscles as their eyebrows started to furrow made the expression seem angry rather than thoughtful. And watching the muscles manipulate the eyes was particularly entrancing. Then Ray actually thought about the question for a moment, before answering.
"I don't know." He rolled his eyes. "But being a sack of jelly isn't all that much safer. One good puncture and you could be dead."
A slant to their lips and eyes downcast, Lucky slowly returned to regular Becky form. "I suppose you are right." It was a quiet, morose statement. Raymundo decided not to pry any further.
Word count: 469
