Chris immediately perked up from the paper at the sudden noise from out in the front yard. His leonine ears twitched and he sat as still and silent as if he were crouched in the tall grass, waiting to pounce. He didn’t have to wait long; a moment later, he heard it again. A quiet, distressed squeaking noise. His mind raced, “Isn’t Tommy playing in the front yard? What’s the matter?”
He was immediately out of his chair and sprinting for the front door, ensuring that anyone who could have seen him would have certainly agreed that lions can be very fast when they need to be. He was there before the individual sections of the newspaper had finished fluttering to the ground, and he quickly flung the door open and rushed outside. His eyes darted around to see what the problem was, but he couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary – no one was even out there! He paused for a moment, wondering what had caused the noise. At that point, something made him look up. And when he did, he couldn’t keep himself from breaking out in a deep laugh, as all the tension he had imagined quickly dissipated.
Tommy was there all right. He was up in the tree that dominated most of their front yard. In fact, he was hanging from a branch that was about 15 feet off the ground. He dangled there and looked down at Chris with a very embarrassed look on his face and a deep pink color showing through his gray cheek fur. He looked like he had a solid grip on the branch, which seemed to be easily solid enough to support his weight, but his legs were out in space, with no branch or anything nearby to get a foothold on. And what was more – his jeans were all bunched up down around his sneakers and ankles, leaving his little furry legs and underwear in plain view.
He was wearing a pair of cubby undies that were decorated with little basketballs, soccer balls, and baseballs. They had a blue elastic waistband, a blue fly, and blue along the thighs and hole for his tail. They would have looked pretty adorable on his little frame normally, but right now there was something wrong. Since most of the underwear material was white, it was not the least bit difficult to tell – even at a quick glance – that Tommy had an accident. He had just about soaked his underwear so that the whole crotch was stained yellow and pressed wetly against his fur. It had even crept up between his legs and on part of his bottom. The fur on the insides of his thighs was also tinted yellow and wet down against his skin. It was like that all the way down to his ankles. It was clear that he had a very big accident.
Chris grinned up at the mouse after he had stopped laughing and crossed his arms on his chest. His relief that Tommy was okay was only slightly greater than his delight in finding him in such a compromising position. Tommy wasn’t far enough up that a fall would injure him, and even if he did – Chris was there to catch him now. This mouse was in for a teasing he wouldn’t soon forget.
“I definitely want to hear the story behind this one, kiddo.” Chris’s smile was playful and even a bit mischievous, which was not what Tommy had been hoping for. The little mouse gulped and didn’t say anything quite yet. He was still extremely embarrassed that he’d been caught like this.
“You weren’t climbing the tree, were you Tommy? Because we talked about that just yesterday, didn’t we?” Tommy gave his head a slight nod. “And we agreed that you shouldn’t be climbing unless I’m out here to watch you, right?” The mouse bit his lip and nodded again. “But you decided to go ahead and be a naughty little mouse, I see. I bet you figured I’d never even know. Well, that didn’t quite work out the way you wanted, did it Tommy?” The mouse shut his eyes and shook his head, squirming as much as anyone in his position can. “So tell me, how did you get stuck like that?”
Tommy paused for a moment, but not for long. His embarrassment at being in this position in front of his lion got beaten out by the possibility of the neighbors noticing him and coming to watch. So he spoke quickly, when he started. “Well… I was climbing the tree, Chris. I’m sorry! But I figured I could get up and down without you even having to know… You were reading the paper and I didn’t want to bother you…”
Chris nodded, still looking up at the little mouse hanging several feet above his head. He thought that he could probably jump up and grab hold of Tommy’s toes, but he figured he probably shouldn’t. “Go on,” he said, making sure Tommy went through how he had been naughty very carefully.
Tommy shifted the position of his paws on the branch and glanced around, checking to make sure that none of the neighbors were out and about yet this morning. “So I was up here, an’ my pants started slipping down some. I guess they’re a little bit baggy to wear for something like this. When I reached down to try and pull them up, I slipped…” his voice grew softer, “and my pants just kept sliding down…” he finally trailed off into a shy mumble.
Chris shook his head again and clacked his tongue. “I suppose that was partly my fault, little mouse. I shouldn’t have let you dress yourself this morning! It’s just like you to pick yourself clothes that don’t fit right.” Tommy blushed even brighter and squirmed a bit more, feeling the cool breeze on his bare legs. “From now on, I pick out and dress you in every outfit you wear. It’s something that I should’ve done a long time ago, but you can consider an aspect of your punishment, Tommy.” The little mouse squeaked and nibbled on his lip some more at the thought of getting punished for this, especially when he imagined what else Chris had in mind.
“That’s right, little mouse. You are definitely going to get punished for this. Because you directly disobeyed what we had talked about just yesterday, and you could have gotten hurt in the process. I think it would be a good idea to put you back into diapers, right away. I think you’ve shown that you don’t know how to be a big boy quite yet. And that reminds me, you haven’t given me the whole story, Tommy. You still haven’t gotten to the part where you wet yourself. Don’t forget about that.” Just at that moment, the little mouse dripped a bit onto the lion’s nose, which just made him chuckle as he wiped it off and waited for Tommy to finish explaining himself.
The mouse definitely wasn’t anxious to keep explaining, but he was basically ready to say anything that would get him down sooner. So he took a deep breath and kept talking. “Well… It was real scary, when I first fell and caught myself… an’ … an’ I jus’ wet… I couldn’t help it, Chris!”
Chris chuckled a bit more and decided that the little mouse had probably been embarrassed enough for now. It was time to help him get down, then they would go back inside and Chris could start teasing him again. “Okay, Tommy. First thing’s first. Let’s get you down from there. Have you tried to see if you can get your foot to another branch?”
Tommy was immensely relieved that he was going to be getting down soon. He brightened up and started cooperating immediately. “Kind of, but I’ll try some more.” The mouse started wiggling his wet legs around, trying to get them to a somewhat nearby branch so he could get his footing again. He couldn’t quite reach though, and in the process his wiggling made his jeans slip down around his shoes and drop off, where they were quickly caught in Chris’s paw.
“Uh-oh. Looks like that didn’t work so well.” Tommy looked mortified as he dangled there, wearing just his wet underpants and shoes beneath his waist. Chris chuckled. “Oh, don’t look so embarrassed. It’s not like they were covering up anything but your ankles, anyway.” Chris rolled the jeans on his forearm and scratched his chin for a moment, looking up at the helpless, wet mousie hanging above him. “I think you’re just going to have to let go, Tommy. I can’t see how else you’re going to get down.”
Tommy let out a squeak and shook his head a bit, starting to whine, “I can’t just let go, Chris! I’d fall!”
Chris chuckled at that, too. Then he held his arms out in front of him and smiled, “That’s kind of the point, kiddo. Don’t worry, I’ll catch you. I promise I won’t let you get hurt, Tommy. I promise.” Chris’s voice made it very clear that he wasn’t joking about that. “So all you have to do is let go, and I’ll get you. You’ll be safe, Tommy. You’ve got nothing to worry about, trust me.” He paused and then his smiles broadened, “Besides, I’d hurry if I were you. You know that Ms. Vixen down the street usually goes jogging around now. I don’t think you’d want her to see you like this.”
That did it for Tommy. He looked down at Chris and then up at the branch that was holding him. He bit his lip and shut his eyes, taking in a deep breath and holding it. After a moment of waiting like that, he loosened his grip on the branch and finally let go, dropping down with a high-pitched squeak.
Chris caught him as softly as possible, and Tommy was perfectly unbruised in the bigger lion’s arms. Tommy opened one eye and looked up at his lion, who was smiling down at him warmly while holding him with one arm under his back and the other under his slightly-damp rear. “See?” Chris said, “I told you.”
Tommy blushed and nodded, then snuggled himself up to Chris’s chest as tight as he could, curling up into a wet little ball of gray fur in the lion’s arms. Then he leaned up and kissed Chris’s furry cheek, saying softly, “Fankoo, Chris.”
Chris stroked Tommy’s fur between his ears, scritching him there as he carried the mouse back inside. “Well, aren’t you as sweet as the dickens?” Tommy giggled a bit and snuggled up close into Chris’s warm, safe arms. Chris chuckled then and gave Tommy a soft pat on the seat of his underwear. “Don’t think that’s going to get you out of a spanking, though.”
