But better.
And every moment it was better.
And better.
Greyson sat back up on the bed again, bandages in his hand. "You look like you could use a shower, but I think it would be better if you stayed off your feet until tomorrow. I could refresh the water in the basin, and you could take a sponge bath if you're feeling gritty."
"I am good." He could bathe himself. He could straighten his fur.
"Okay." Greyson took his paw again and began to wrap the white bandages around it. "I'll just get this done and let you sleep."
"I. You are a good Mans."
For some reason that seemed to make Greyson sad. "Not everyone wants to hurt you or put you in a cage, Torao. I'm sorry that it happened to you."
Torao shrugged. "I am free. I will not go back. It is better to die."
"You are free. And you don't have to die." Greyson's hand slid up his leg, petting again, after both his paws were wrapped in the silly bandages. "Look I'm just across the hall if you need anything, all right? Just call out. Is there anything I can get you before I go?"
"No. No. I nap." He would change. Groom. Stretch. Sleep.
"Okay. Sleep well." Greyson patted his leg one more time and then stood, going to the door. "You want the light on or off?"
"Off." His eyes worked in the dark.
"Cool. Goodnight, T."
The room went dark.
Torao moaned and stretched, groaning a bit as he changed into his true form and began to chew the cloth from his paws. He needed to lick.
Lick and groom and nap.
Nap in the Soft.
***
Saturday mornings were for sleeping in, but Greyson was up at dawn this particular Saturday.
Worried about Torao.
Wearing clothes that obviously weren't his own, feet bloodied and hurt, and running away from a man with a cage. It seemed unbelievable, except that he'd seen Torao for himself and there had been no hint of guile in the young man's story about the cage. The fact that he didn't want to go to the police only meant he was truly scared, or that he'd had run ins with them before.
Just thinking of that poor guy in a cage... Greyson clenched his hands into fists. Some people didn't deserve to fucking live.
He wasn't sure what to do about that. This guy obviously needed to be stopped, because men like that would go out and get a new victim if they lost the one they had, but he didn’t know how he could be the one to do it if Torao wouldn’t talk to him.
He could, however, do something about Torao. He could make sure that the man had a safe place here.
He gave into his urge to go and check on T. He crossed the hall and poked his head around the corner of Torao's room, eyes going to the bed.
Instead of the pale man with the startling shock of black hair, there was a.
A.
A.
No.
No, there wasn't.
People didn't have white tigers snoring in their guest rooms.
He stepped back, went to his room and pinched himself.
Hard.
Twice.
Ow.
Okay. He was awake.
He looked in the mirror over his dresser. His own face stared back at him, looking normal. Well, maybe not entirely normal, he looked a tad freaked out. Especially around his eyes. But otherwise he looked like himself, not like some sort of dream or drug twisted version of himself.
Okay.
He was going to do this again.
He went back out into the hall and went into T's room again.
Oh, fuck.
Fuck.
He might have screamed.
Just a little. Possibly more than a little.
He backed out as quickly as possible, closing the door and wishing like hell it had a lock.
Shit.
Shit, he'd told Torao that he was safe here. That nothing would hurt him. And instead a fucking tiger had eaten the guy. How the hell had it gotten in?
His heart was trip hammering as he went back into his room and closed the door, started pushing his dresser over in front of the door. He'd make sure he was safe and then call... shit, who did you call?
He thought he heard doors opening and closing and then he knew he heard his name called out, along with "Good Man."
He stopped pushing at the dresser and cautiously opened his door a crack, peeking down the hallway. Torao stood there, naked as the day he was born, blinking and scratching his belly.
"Torao!" He opened the door further and waved T in. "Come on, hurry! Hurry!" That T hadn't been injured by the tiger was a miracle, but Greyson didn't figure they needed to tempt fate.
"Hurry what?" Torao wandered closer, beautiful eyes shining.
He grabbed Torao's arm and tugged the guy into his room, closing the door behind them both. "I don't want to scare you, but there's a tiger in your room." God, it sounded insane when he said it out loud. But he'd seen it with his own eyes--a beautiful big white tiger.
Torao laughed--the sound almost a chuff. "No. Not in that room."
"Torao, I saw it. It was... a tiger. On the bed. I thought it had eaten you--I'm so glad it didn't. I know it sounds crazy, but I saw it." He shook his head. He could have sworn he'd locked the back door--how did it get in? And maybe he was going crazy. Just a little. Possibly more.
Torao nodded, stretched, looking completely unconcerned. "Napping. Napping in the sun."
"You let it in?" He knew he'd locked that door, but if Torao had gotten up and let the tiger in. "But why?" It didn't make sense though--how did the tiger fit in with the man and the cage. Oh. "Did the bad man keep you in the cage with the tiger?"
Torao tilted his head. "I. Yes? No? I was in the cage."
"And the tiger?" Come on T, he thought. There's a fucking tiger in the house, focus.
Torao nodded, smiled at him. He sighed. Was Torao afraid he'd kick the young man out because of the tiger? He wasn’t like that. Well, the tiger couldn't stay. It was... a tiger.
"I won't be angry, T. But you've got to tell me--did you let the tiger in?"
"No. You let tiger in."
"No, I didn't. I let you in, and then I locked the door." He wasn't sure if T was being deliberately obtuse, but the man hadn't appeared this... slow last night.
Torao nodded. "Yes."
God. And the worst of it was Torao looked so earnest. Maybe he needed to approach this from a different angle. "Is the tiger dangerous?"
"No. No, you are Good."
"So he won't hurt us? We can go see the tiger?" Maybe with the tiger right there in front of him, T would have some better answers for him.
"You see the tiger now?" Torao blinked at him, head tilting.
"Yes." He nodded for emphasis. "You said it was safe, so we'll go together and see the tiger."
"Yes. See tiger." T stretched and growled, the air around the man shimmering, then there was a white tiger where the man had just been.
"Fuck!" He slammed back against the door, eyes wide. He couldn't have just seen... Pretty hard to continue that one, when there was a fucking tiger in front of him where Torao had been just seconds ago. He was obviously losing his mind.
Of course, the tiger seemed as scared of him as he was of it, backpedaling, paws sliding on the floors.
"Torao?" Could there really be a white tiger in his room with him? Could that tiger have really been a man just moments ago?
Was there any way this didn't sound insane?
The tiger nodded, head bobbing, teeth bared to him. So white.
He waved one hand, still pressed up hard against the door. "Hi."
One paw raised to him and he could suddenly see it, see Torao in those eyes.
Wow.
He sank slowly down along the door until he sat there, watching the beautiful tiger who was also... a man. The tiger stared at him, purring softly, tail thumping lazily on the floor. He’d lost his mind.
Impulsively, he reached out, wondering if the white fur was as soft as
it looked.
Oh.
Oh, soft. Silken. Warm.
His hand looked so dark against the white fur, and he couldn't remember touching anything so soft in a long time.
"Wow," he said softly, fingers sliding down over T's nose. He chuckled at the velvety skin. "This is unreal."
T's tongue was rough, lapping his fingers. It felt pretty damned real.
He moved a little closer, his other hand sliding around to sink into T's ruff. Soft and thick, it felt wonderful. T rumbled and leaned, chin resting on his thigh. The long whiskers tickled him, teased his skin.
"I still kind of think I must be dreaming," he murmured, sinking both hands in T's fur. It felt good, really good. And how could he be hallucinating something that felt so real?
T rolled over, batting at the air with huge paws. The back ones were scabbed and raw, cut open. Well, if he hadn't believed his eyes when he'd seen T turn into the tiger, there was more proof.
He let himself rub the white belly, but stayed away from the hurt paws, thinking that might be a good way to get bitten. Like sitting on the floor of his room petting a fucking full grown tiger wasn't.
Of course, when Torao's tongue lolled out, it made the huge beast seem even less scary.
He laughed and scratched his fingertips hard along T's belly. "You're just a big ball of fur, aren't you?" And what exactly was he going to do with this big ball of fur?
Torao rippled and chuffed, obviously laughing.
"So you can understand what I'm saying while you're like this then?" He didn't really expect an answer, but he liked to think he wasn't really just talking to himself here--given how high he was already pinging on the gone crazy scale.
T's head bobbed, nose wrinkling up once, then Torao shimmered again, fur disappearing quite unexpected. And suddenly he was stroking the slender muscles of T's naked belly and he yanked his hands back. "Sorry! I didn't mean to..."
T blinked up at him, arching in a lazy stretch. "Good?"
He swallowed and nodded. "I think so? I mean... well you're a tiger. Is that why you were in a cage?"
"My dam was in a cage, so I was."
"Your dam? Oh, your mother? Was she like you? I mean... human as well as a tiger?" God, he'd bet a freak show or circus would just love something like this...
"Yes. Man and tiger." T nodded happily.
"And that's why you were in a cage..." He shook his head. T and his mother were people as well as tigers, how could anyone cage them? Because people were assholes and if it made them a buck some of them would sell their own grandmothers, he knew that.
"Yes. Man and tiger in the cage." Torao stood and stretched, naked cock altogether too close to him for comfort.
He went to stand himself, but his foot was asleep and he wound up bumping his head into Torao's thigh, the scent of the man strong and musky. His own cock perked up, reminding him it had been too damned long since he'd gotten laid.
Torao reached for him, helped him up, seemingly unconcerned about the lack of clothing. "You. It is good? It is not good?"
"It's... strange. But that's not bad. We'll figure it out, and you can still stay here." He couldn't keep himself from checking out Torao's naked body, but as soon as he caught himself at it, he forced himself to meet T's eyes. "Clothes. You need some clothes. You can borrow some of mine."
"Borrow?" The limits of T's experience were... quite overwhelming, honestly.
"I'll give you some clothes." He opened his dresser drawers and found a pair of boxers, handing them and a t-shirt over. T was more than a little distracting as he was. And very well hung.
He jerked his head back up to T's eyes.
T's head tilted, those eyes watching him carefully, closely, nostrils flaring. "You. You wish to mate?"
"Mate? What? No!" Heat filled his face, and he shook his head, not that his cock wasn't giving that away as a lie. "Of course not. I mean. I won't touch you, I promise. You're safe." Just put the damned clothes on...
"Oh." Torao slid the clothes on, keeping just far enough away that he wasn't tempted to touch. Was it wishful thinking on his part, or had T sounded a bit disappointed?
He cleared his throat and smiled. "Let's get something to eat, yeah? Sit down and have breakfast and figure out where you're running from and what we're going to do." He'd bet Torao didn't even know what a social security number was, let alone have one.
"Eat. I go in the darkness and leave the lights." T nodded, walking carefully on feet that had to be screaming this morning.
"What? What do you mean go?" Where the hell did T think he was going to go? Especially hurt as he was.
"Mam says 'run and hide in the trees, eat from the cans in the man-towns.'"
Greyson winced. He supposed it wasn't the worst advice going, if you thought like a tiger.
He got T sitting, off those poor feet, and started poking through the refrigerator. "T, you'll get sick if you eat from the garbage cans. And if anyone sees a tiger? Folks are going to want to capture it at best, kill it at worst."
"Better dead than in the cage." T sounded so sure.
"It was pretty bad, huh?"
"No. Not pretty. All bad."
He nodded. "Pretty bad's an expression; it means bad."
He pulled out a carton of orange juice and brought it and two glasses over to where T sat. "Did they make you do stuff?" he asked, pouring the juice out.
"They had fire. Sticks. We jumped and roared." T ducked his head, looking away.
Greyson reached out to slide his hand along T's arm, instinctively trying to comfort him. "I'm sorry you were treated like that. Did they know? That you were a man, too?"
"Yes. They know. Mans pay for tigers like us."
"That's awful!" He squeezed T's arm, the skin beneath his fingertips warm and soft, though not nearly as soft as the tiger's fur had been. "You're pretty damned unique and special and shouldn't have been treated like that."
"Free now. No more cages." T nodded to him, bright eyes so serious.
"No, no more cages. No garbage cans for food and hiding in the trees though, Torao. We'll find something that works for you, 'k?" God, if T went back out there as naive as he was, he'd find himself in God only knew whose clutches. There were a lot of people who'd exploit T just for the pretty young man he was, let alone the fact that he could turn into a tiger.
"Works." Torao's nose twitched, eyes on the juice. "Bright."
"Yes, it's orange juice--it tastes bright, too. What kind of food were you fed?" he asked, pushing the glass of juice toward T.
T shrugged. "Meat. Water. Brown things."
He made a face. "Brown things? That doesn't sound very appetizing. Have the juice--you'll like it." He wanted to introduce T to fruit and fresh vegetables, to all sorts of breads and chocolate--oh God, he'd bet T would be amazed at chocolate. Good brown stuff.
T's eyes went wide as he lapped at the juice, then the entire glass was gulped down. Greyson grinned. Oh, man, he was going to need to go shopping. And get lots of everything. As soon as the glass was empty, he refilled it.
"More. Thank you. More. Good." T drank deep, then put the glass down, pouncing on him, rubbing their cheeks together.
It surprised him at first, but then he realized it was what the tiger would do and he rubbed back, happy to share this with Torao. It felt good, too, T's cheeks much smoother than his own rough ones.
"You didn't spend a lot of time as a man, did you?"
"No." T purred for him, nuzzling. "Tiger is easier."
"Yeah?" he sort of murmured the word, enjoying the nuzzling, doing nothing to stop it. It felt good. T felt good.
"Mmmhmmmmmmmmmm." T licked his jaw, tongue dragging on his skin.
He swallowed, a part of his brain thinking he shouldn't be doing this, the rest of him totally ignoring that enjoying T's touches. He turned his head a little, so T's tongue slid across his lips. T chuckled, tongue cool and orange-flavored and slick.
He smiled, staring into T's eyes, his lips chasing T's
tongue, sucking it into his mouth. Oh, God, T tasted good. Torao's eyes went wide, a soft sound pushing into the contact.
He sucked softly, T's tongue hot inside his mouth. Good. He reached for Torao's face with his hand, fingers sliding on the warm cheeks. T nuzzled into his touch, purring away like a huge housecat. He turned the sucking into more of a kiss, T's lips soft and good against his, the low purring noises making everything vibrate.
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