Chapter Text
“My goodness.” Victor stepped away, throwing his head back and laughing with a mixture of delight over his creation and hilarity over the simple humanity of their situation. “Hungry, are we? So soon? But I shouldn’t be surprised; a big strapping man such as yourself, fresh into the world.”
A flicker of unease danced across the Creature’s dark eyes as he looked up from his belly to his new acquaintance, but he seemed to respond hopefully to Victor’s laughter, seemingly asking of him: Is all well? It must be, if you laugh.
“No, no, nothing to be concerned about. That is normal, very normal indeed. This means everything is working as it should; your systems are functioning as I designed.”
Victor paused a moment, and the two men studied each other intently; one to marvel, the other to learn.
“When you’re hungry, when you want food to eat, your stomach will growl or make funny noises that sound like growling, if it becomes empty enough. This is because—ah, never mind. Too much information for now. Can you say hungry? Can you say stomach?”
The Creature stared at him, clearly trying to understand, though he did touch his middle, remembering the source of the sound and the feeling of discomfort that still gnawed away inside him.
Victor realized he needed to greatly simplify. He had had little experience with children professionally; personally, his greatest exposure had been William, and their childhoods in each other’s company had been mournfully short, due to their age difference and family tragedy. How should he go about explaining such simple concepts that he could not even remember someone teaching him?
Such basic facts; someone must have taught him when he was too young to recall. His mother, a maid in his nursery? Victor suddenly gained a new appreciation for them, clearly seeing now the immensity of the task before him, and tried desperately to remember how they spoke to him when he was very small.
Victor rested his palm on his creation’s belly. “Very good. Stomach. Hungry.” He pantomimed holding his own, painting a light grimace on his features. “I’m so very hungry. I need to eat. Try it again. Stom-ach.”
The Creature did not answer, but touched Victor’s a bit aggressively, not yet able to control his strength, so it felt more like a jab.
Victor huffed a laugh, suddenly feeling a bit self-conscious, unused to such innocence and simplicity and having to lower himself to a childlike mentality. “Careful now, gently. Yes, that’s right. That’s mine. Perhaps stomach is too difficult at the moment. Can you say tummy? Belly, even?” Belly was a bit coarse, but would work.
“Vic-tor.”
“No, you goose. I’m Victor.” Victor teased affectionately. “Come, you can do it. I know you can. Tumm-y. Bell-y.”
“Tum. Beh-ye.” The Creature haltingly annunciated.
Victor cheered in exaltation, causing his new acquaintance to jump with surprise and look at him curiously. The doctor threw his arms around his creation in a tight embrace. “Excellent, excellent! Well done! Christ, how fascinating. How quickly you learn. I made you well, didn’t I?”
The Creature gave him a shaky half smile, clearly feeling pleased at causing such a strong reaction but shy around exuberance.
“Let’s find food to fill these hungry bellies of ours, shall we? I fear we might not find much at the moment. I also didn’t anticipate how you might eat me out of house and home. But I have rarely eaten these days, myself, so food has been of little priority. I apologize, how very rude of me. I suspect…”
Victor rambled on as he bustled about the room looking for a clean shirt to pull over his own head and something large enough to drape over his creation for warmth, clearly in ecstatics and scarcely knowing how he himself could sit down and eat a meal at a time such as this. He looked for a journal and pen for note taking, knocking books and papers from various surfaces and sending them cascading to the stone floor, paying little mind while the Creature watched, fascinated.
Victor finally found what he assumed was a somewhat clean shirt for himself and eventually pulled the top quilt off his own bed and wrapped it around the Creature, pulling it tight around his shoulders and smoothing it with his hands.
“I’m so sorry. This is the best I can do for now. I didn’t think—I desperately hoped—I had not planned this far in advance. I will find clothes for you, and I will clean myself up; I must look and smell a fright. What a scene you have entered into.”
The Creature seemed to drink in every word he spoke, caring little for his creator’s state. They stood in silence for some time, Victor waiting to see what his creation would do or say next.
To his surprise, the Creature, fascinated by Victor’s altered appearance and his newfound vocabulary, lifted the doctor’s shirt front a bit when Victor’s own stomach suddenly rumbled with impatience. “Tum? Beh-ye? Vic-tor. Eat.”
Victor laughed, hanging his head in defeat. “Yes, you’re right. Come, follow me.”