“Do you mind if I join you? There are no other comfortable sleeping areas besides here.”
Bella jumped, sitting up and brushing the hair out of her eyes. She’d practically been asleep, and without her contacts in anymore it was hard to see, but she could see enough.
Using the light of his cellphone to see, Lithus had nudged the door open a ways. His hoodie was down, but he still wore his black-gray knitted hat. Biting her lip uncomfortably, she was about to say no when she realized how rude that would be.
“Uh… Y-yeah, let me just shove my crap out of the way for you. Need to charge your cell? There’s a plugin right-“
“Just chill, don’t worry about me. You looked like you were about to fall asleep, so sit back down…Bella, right?” Lithus popped his shoes and socks off, checking his phone as he did so. Bella nodded quietly and rolled onto her stomach, hugging one of her pillows. She winced softly, hating the fact that she had to keep her bra on; it was one of her habits to take her bra off as soon as she could every day. She hated restrictive clothing, especially bras and jeans or jean shorts… Which she was wearing. Alice was going to get an earful for that later.
While she’d been mentally complaining, he’d stripped out of his hoodie and suddenly changed into a pair of pajama pants. Doing a double-take, she checked the corner of the room and discovered he’d stashed his backpack there earlier. Usually she brought one with her too, but the girls had ambushed her today.
“Not afraid to change in front of complete strangers, I see,” she grumbled. It wasn’t like she didn’t know what a guy looked like, it just bugged her that she couldn’t relax until he was all settled in. He smiled apologetically.
“I’m sorry,” Lithus said earnestly, “I didn’t mean to wake you up, it’s just I’ve got a migraine and those assholes out there are too loud.”
“Mm… Yeah…” Having mentioned migraines, she could feel hers again and groaned. Bella squeezed her eyes shut. The sound of a bottle rattling closely to her made her open them again, though, and she saw through hazy eyes that he had two white pills in his hand; she eyed them suspiciously, looking up into his blue eyes.
“Relax, it’s Excedrin.” He held out a metal water bottle to her, and she reluctantly took it. They both gulped down some pain medicine, and he tossed the bottles onto his pile of crap.
“Thanks…” Praying the Excedrin would kick in soon, she curled up against the wall. The bed was pushed into a corner, meaning Lithus had only one spot to go: the outside half. The young wolf blushed softly, realizing that she’d have to sleep beside him… She hadn’t done anything like that for nearly three months, innocently or otherwise. He slid under the blankets, procuring the last pillow that had been in the pile of bedding. The snake seemed intent on just going to sleep, but she turned over and gazed at him curiously.
He had dark scales; most people would say they were black, but you could see specks of brown and tan in them where his neck and chest were showing. He had markings that were slightly greener than they were black, and a lot of the larger scales even had veins of moss green traveling through them. Bella didn’t know much about species, but whatever he was it was pretty. Unable to help herself, she reached over and stroked a finger down his jawline.
Lithus’ eyes opened, blue shining in the murky dark. His hand took hers under the blanket, and he pushed his shirt up to let her feel his stomach, which was smoother; like a normal snake’s, there were larger and longer scales. She bit her lip, realizing that it was probably really weird that she was touching him without saying anything, but her hand continued exploring his scaled skin. He wasn’t quite cold, but compared to her fuzzy warmth he was cool to the touch, and the scales gently flexed when her hand pressed down against them.
“Are you enjoying yourself?” He mumbled quietly, smiling in a way she couldn’t quite interpret. She tried to pull her hand back but he softly laced his fingers between hers to hold it there. Compared to Bella’s hand, his was huge… She buried her face in the blankets shyly, huffing in response. Lithus let go, ruffling her hair.
Rolling over, Bella again faced the wall. She dragged some of the blankets to her chest, nesting up inside them comfortably. As a yawn escaped her mouth, she felt a hand slide up her back, as if it was searching for something. She yipped with surprise, squirming deeply under the blankets and away from his hand.
“S-sorry… Alice told me you hate sleeping with your bra on, and to see if you were wearing it. I mean, if you don’t want help taking it off, then…” he trailed off.
“Ah, no that’s totally fine with me, it just surprised me,” Bella wiggled her way back up, letting him unclip her bra for her. His hand ran down her back beside her spine, and she could feel his nails drag gently.
“I feel that shiver, like your back scratched huh?” He laughed playfully; he almost sounded cocky.
“Only when people I like do it,” she countered. His fingers ran back up towards her shoulder, digging in on the way back down. Bella let her breath escape with a hiss of slight discomfort, and she felt his scratching lighten up a bit. Lithus could feel her relax, but her bra was still under her shirt.
“You going to take your bra off, or do I have to work around the damn thing?”
“I… uh, sorry…” It was slid off from under her shirt and tossed over him to the floor. She rolled back onto her side to face the wall, but Lithus sat up and grabbed her hips. “Wha-? Oof,” Bella gasped, having gotten dragged to the center of the bed and flipped onto her stomach. Her shirt was shoved up, and heavy weight plopped onto her thighs; his hands began to work at the knots in her back.
“Ladies deserve to be treated well, don’t you think?” Aside from the fact that it was slightly odd to have a near-stranger massaging her bare skin on day one, Bella couldn’t do much but moan an agreement. She knew it was Alice’s fault, since Alice was the only one who knew that her back was a weakness to get her to relax.
“I’m going to kill Alice when- o-o-o-oh…” She slid her shirt off all the way when it got in the way of him kneading at her shoulders.
“What was that? Couldn’t hear you over the sound of you creaming yourself, dear,” he laughed. A growl was quickly quelled by rubbing at her neck.
“How do you – nhh, do that?” Bella’s eyes were practically crossed.
“I’m not doing anything special, you’re just fucking uptight. When was the last time you had someone work at these knots? There’s next to no normal muscle here.”
“Erm… Months. It’s safe to say it’s been at least three.” She sighed, realizing who’d done anything to her last. Lithus’ hands slowed, and one reached up to her hair and brushed through it gently.
“Hey, I’m sorry. I know you had some shit go down, Alice said to not weird you out too much. If you want to talk about it I’m here, but it seems like you’re the type who doesn’t feel better after talking. How about cuddles instead?” His voice sounded understanding, almost empathetic.
“That would be really nice, actually. Thanks.” When she squirmed, he moved off of her legs, and she tossed her shirt back on. Bella curled up on her side, keeping her arm lifted so his could wrap down over her waist. With a little nuzzle to her neck, Lithus pulled her close to his chest and his other arm slid under her head. She fidgeted with the pillows to get comfortable, smiling.
His breath tickled against her fur, and she shivered slightly. Lithus’ thumb rubbed gently against her, and she felt her cheeks flush slightly because he was so gentle that it felt… nice. Not just his touch, but that was pleasant too; the fact that someone who didn’t know her and her past was willing to just spend time with her and comfort her through real or imagined anxieties was precious to her. Bella turned slightly, looking at him. His eyes were half open; he was probably curious as to why she’d moved.
“Lithus, I –“
“Shh.” He leaned in, kissing her fiercely. Her eyes flew open, but after a moment they closed and she responded to him by kissing back. His aggressiveness during kissing was a surprise to her, and it took the woman’s breath away. After a minute he finally let her have her lips back, and she was honestly breathing heavily. Lithus stole a few more quick nibbles before he nuzzled against her again.
“…Holy shit.” Bella’s hand effectively pushed his hat off, raking through his black hair. She couldn’t explain why she was suddenly feeling so pushy, but she knew it was his fault. “The hell was that for, huh?” Although her breathing was still erratic, she tried huffing as if she wasn’t affected. He smirked.
“Because you’re beautiful, and I felt like it.”
“…Excuse you?”
“There’s no excuse for me, but thank you anyway.”
“Hmph.”
Bella settled back in, eyeing him suspiciously for the second time in one night. When his breathing calmed and turned to sleeping, she buried her face in his hair. He’d fallen asleep with his head effectively on her chest, arm still wrapped around her from earlier. Curled up together, the woman slept better than she had in months… And little did she know, but so did he.
☾~☽
When morning came, Bella found herself alone in bed with the smell of food wafting into the guest room. She heard mumbled laughs and quiet voices, with a few male ones being more raucous than the others.
“Those are my pancakes, you asshole!”
“Excuse you, he handed them towards me. Get out of here.”
Rolling her eyes, Bella got up and put her bra on. She hadn’t brought a hair or tooth brush, so she grimaced at the thought of going out. The house was warm, and it was progressively so as she went towards the kitchen – which made sense, because the oven was on, she discovered. There was an empty carton of eggs on the counter with eggshells laid around, multiple pans on the stove with eggs, bacon, and pancakes in each, and 4 slices of toast heating.
“Okay, this has to be the most breakfast food I’ve ever seen… ever.” She sat down at the kitchen’s island in a chair that wasn’t taken up, surprisingly underwhelmed with the scene. She poured a glass of orange juice, sipping quietly.
“Yeah… The nerd herd gets hungry sometimes.” Ajax flipped pancakes, checking on the scrambled eggs and something in a different pan.
Daniel walked in with a blanket wrapped around him, Jazzie following behind with a huge hoodie on that Bella recognized as Lithus’. Bella raised an eyebrow at that, not expecting Lithus to be sharing his clothes so soon after meeting her. Sarah and William were sitting in the corner on the bench half of the table with mugs of coffee, Lithus next to Will laughing louder now that everyone was awake. He winked at Bella, to which she huffed and looked over at the living room.
A black-gray-furred canine sat at the couch playing something on the TV, with Alice next to him. Squinting because she hadn’t put her contacts in, Bella realized it was her jackal-wolf friend, Sivil. With a smile, she knew he’d be playing a racing game – his major passion.
“Is my toast or bacon done yet?” James’ face popped into the room, looking towards Ajax, who seemed to be the designated cook for the morning.
“Sit down, you’ll get your food in a minute dude.”
“Alright, sorry,” he said before disappearing again.
“Impatient…” Bella chuckled. He grunted in response, nodding.
Doing a quick headcount, she realized that not everyone was there from the party and sleepover last night. The deer… ‘What was his name?’ She thought for a moment before remembering – Trace. He was nowhere to be seen, so she opened her mouth to ask the group.
“Toss me the syrup, will you Ajax? My pancakes need more.” Twirling around in her seat, she saw Trace walk into the kitchen with a giant half-eaten stack of pancakes with butter smeared over them.
“I’m going back to bed, there’s too many people,” Bella muttered. Gulping the rest of her glass, she stood and went to go wash it out. When she saw how much food was on the stove, she changed her mind and rummaged for a second spatula, sighing, “You’re working too hard over here, let me give you some help. I’ll do the rest of the pancake batter, those eggs look done…”
Ajax almost shooed her out, but instead shrugged and let her stay. She flipped a few pancakes out onto a plate, and he scooped eggs and bacon next to them. The plate was slid onto the island, and thus they repeated that process until the food was done. By the time they got to the last two plates, everyone was nearly done eating, so they piled theirs high with the leftover bits and sat down at the table on the chair half – opposite of William, Sarah, and Lithus.
Bella observed the three of them as they joked around, trying not to inhale her food as she did so. William was tall, which would make sense for him being an ostrich. He dwarfed his fiancée by comparison; Sarah was a small hummingbird, who seemed tiny compared to him. Ajax leaned in and murmured to her.
“Y’know, Lithus and Big Bird are related… no one can keep it straight though.”
“We’re cousins, ya dumbass,” Lithus hissed goofily, causing Bella to jump. “Technically third cousins…” He continued trying to explain how they were related, but between grandpas and uncles’ brothers, Bella couldn’t figure it out. With how he tried to tell her, he needed a diagram.
“It’s too early in the morn- afternoon, for this…” She shook her head with a half-hearted smile, taking her dish and Sarah’s empty mug to the sink. Sarah smiled appreciatively, going back to snuggling Will.
Bella meandered through the doorway to the living room, nestling down against Sivil, who was still racing and arguing with Alice about the best car and tracks in the game. She threw her legs over the top of his lap and wrapped an arm across his waist, bored of socializing. He was in a loading screen, so he ruffled her hair and smiled.
In the kitchen, Lithus and Ajax looked at the couch with curiosity, not realizing Bella and Sivil were nearly siblings. They shared looks for a moment. Alice caught a glance at them, and laughed.
“Guys, these two have been friends since middle school, this is normal for them.” Their faces had matching looks of understanding, and Ajax nodded. Lithus pulled out his phone and started texting.
“I summon Bullshit in attack mode!” Daniel’s voice shouted from the table in the corner of the living room, where he and Jazzie were playing YuGiOh. Jazzie laughed quietly, and he went back to playing seriously. Bella’s head stretched up to check out the two of them, and she decided to hop up and stand by them.
“Who’s winning?” She tilted her head.
“She is, unfortunately… I let her use my stronger deck,” Daniel said matter-of-factly. Jazzie beamed happily.
“Well, if you place this card, then do that…” Bella reached to the cards in his hand, pointing out things he could do. He nodded, realizing she was right. On his next turn, he placed a few cards and managed to make the winning moves.
“Good game, good game,” he acknowledged. Jazzie nodded back, reshuffling the deck she’d used.
“Hey guys, I think I’m gonna go… The husband can’t be by himself too long or he forgets how to cook,” Alice laughed, grabbing her purse. Jazzie jumped up and found her things, obviously getting a ride home with her. They looked at Bella, but she shook her head and threw her thumb in the direction of the distracted Sivil – with that, they waved goodbye to the group and took off.
The woman sat down at the table next to the young jackalope, looking through his decks. She wished she’d brought her own decks, because as she looked more intently she realized he’d brought his Magic decks as well.
“We’ll need to play some time, I think you’d like my Green-White token spawning deck I have,” she smiled.
“I’d like that, nearly everyone here’s got Magic. By how you knew what to do earlier I guess you also play YuGiOh?” He asked, appreciating the nerd talk.
“Well of course – doesn’t everyone?”
“Uh… So far, it’s just James, you, and me, but I think Lithus and Big Bird want to learn too.” He frowned a bit, with a ‘But what can you do?’ look. She nodded, returning it.
“So how do you guys know Sivil? He’s never mentioned anyone here,” Bella questioned, genuinely curious. She’d known Sivil a long time, but all he ever talked about was work.
“Through Alice, actually. He’s hung out once or twice, but I don’t think we’re all very close, sort of like you and Jazzie,” he explained.
Bella nodded, figuring that was the case. Alice brought a lot of people together like that. She smiled at Daniel before standing up, going to the kitchen to grab something more to drink. Trace kept popping in and out, finally deciding to sit on the couch with Sivil to race. Because Daniel and Bella had been talking cards, Lithus, Ajax, and Will had grabbed their decks and binders to work on personal projects – she stopped beside the table with some coffee in hand, watching as everyone worked on something or helped each other out. The noise lured Daniel over, and he pestered the group to duel.
“C’mon dude, you ask them all the time… Give ‘em a break,” Trace called out, before shouting happily after winning a race.
“Actually, I think I want to go home…” Bella grabbed her phone, about to ask Alice if she could grab her since she was .01% sure she could get home on her own. She got about two words into the text before three or four voices piped up, offering a ride. “Uh…” she idled.
“Okay, we can’t all give her a freakin’ ride… Does anyone even know where she lives?” Ajax sighed, shuffling a deck of Magic cards. Everyone looked at each other blankly, shifting uncomfortably.
“Well, no… But…” Daniel said awkwardly, “We could totally use a GPS, it’s not that hard.”
“Pfff… Guys, you forget that I’ve known Bella since, like, forever.” From across the room, Sivil held a wireless controller in his hand as he leaned against the doorway. His black-gray ears tipped forward as he looked on with an eyebrow raised.
“Mkay, that works. Doesn’t matter how she gets home as long as she can get there.” Will’s cards snapped as he shuffled them down against the table. With that, the guys went back to goofing about.
“Thanks Sivil, I didn’t know if you wanted to hang around longer…”
“Eh, I was just playing Xbox until something interesting happened, it’s no biggie to me,” he ruffled her hair again, grinning impishly. She huffed, smiling back. Her small pile of things were still on the bedside table so she ran to grab them, but realized she’d left her cellphone on the table while she’d grabbed her wallet.
“Has anyone seen my -…” She paused suddenly as her cell was plopped into her hand by Lithus, “…Err, okay…”
“You seem pretty forgetful, there.”
“E-excuse me?” Bella stood up straighter, wrinkling her nose up and flicking her ears back. He just smiled and sat back down at the table to continue a 4-person card game.
“Don’t worry about it, Lithus is a dick sometimes,” James said, looking up from his laptop. He had a headset on, and she was surprised he’d heard anything that’d transpired at all. She nodded vaguely, still unsure of what had just happened.
“Ready, girlie?”
She turned around to see Sivil with a motorcycle under each arm. Her tail perked up, and she practically bounced over. The smaller, light blue-silver helmet was his backup for her. “Yes! But do you have the jacket and chaps? I don’t have mine on me… Obviously…” Bella looked down at her t-shirt and short-shorts. She was clearly not dressed for a motorcycle trip.
“Only the chaps, but you can do without the jacket for a day,” he chuckled.
“Dude, that’s awesome. Can I see your helmet?” Ajax perked up, leaning out from behind Daniel at the table to look at Sivil.
“Sure thing, catch,” laughed the jackal hybrid. He tossed the helmet over-arm like a basketball; Ajax caught it, examining it. He grunted appreciatively, checking the moving parts and the padding inside.
“Sweet shit,” he noted. They nodded to each other knowingly before it was tossed back to the owner.
“Okay boys, I really need to head back now, I’ll have work-mandated training later this week so I have to get ready,” Bella sighed, heading towards the front door as she popped her helmet on. The guys chorused out their goodbyes, and with that they exited out to the lawn. He brought the 1995 Yamaha V-Max out front, grabbing the chaps for her as he suited himself up.
“I really wish I could get more rides from you, but with that lead foot of yours it scares me shitless…” She muttered half-seriously. He shrugged unapologetically; she knew he was a racer on the side, it was a flaw he was willing to deal with. With chaps and helmet secured, she hopped on behind the young man.
“Alrighty, ready back there?” With his visor raised, Sivil glanced over his shoulder.
“I was born ready, shall we ride into the sunset my prince?” The wolf snickered at her friend, wrapping her arms around his waist. Without further discussion, he revved the bike and blasted forward – obviously showing off for the nerd herd inside the house.
Bella rolled her eyes, but she was honestly having too much fun to care. What’s a better cure for depression than a sexy motorcycle under you, taking you away from your worries at 70 MPH? She couldn’t think of one, and probably never would.
