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Courtship By Terinas Tiger

Part 6: Days, Weeks, Months, Hours

-A day later-

(Teri)

Light washed against my eyes, pouring in from a window above my bed. At the same time, a distant sizzling noise struck my ears, buzzing and hissing into them. It was quiet, but annoying enough that, combined with the light, it roused me from my beauty sleep. With a faint groan and a kick of my legs against the covers, I rolled onto my side and rubbed my eyes. I've always been at my slowest in the morning, but thankfully it was the weekend, so I had a chance to sleep in a bit. I stirred, sitting up and checking my alarm clock. 9:15 am. About as good a time as any to get up on a saturday. Particularly to find out what that noise was about.

I stood up, looking at my morning fur, which was a mess as always. I'd need a good long brushing to get several patches along my chest to lay flat, and my hair was simply inexcusable messy. My tips were curling up around my head, and parts of it kept rubbing in my eyes. "You really need a haircut, Teri." I growled at myself, as I went to get dressed. I wanted to know what that hissing sound was before I got properly cleaned up, but it'd only make sense to have some clothes on first.

A tangy, salty scent slithered into my nostrils as I exited my bedroom. It was an alluring aroma, and somewhat familiar as well, emanating from the kitchen in our front room. The scent grew stronger as I walked down the hall, as if coaxing me towards it. I hesitated only a moment to look over at the door to Xavier's room. Still closed, and he only closed it when he was in it. So it wasn't him. After settling on his daily nickname being "Barcode", I continued my trek towards the front of our apartment. Once I hit the kitchen, it was clear what was going on. Kristoph was working in the kitchen, pulling some bacon off a sizzling skillet. I watched as he spun around to set a plate full of bacon on our kitchen table, next to a stack of waffles and a container of syrup, slightly warmed.

His tail was wagging as he turned around. "Morning, roommate!"

"You're cooking?" I said, nose twitching a bit as I looked down at the food spread before me. There was already more than one person would reasonably eat. Did that mean...

"Well, just basic stuff, really." Kristoph tilted his head. "But it's my first day with you and Xavier. I'm trying to make a good impression by feeding you both."

"A good impression is waffles and bacon?" I raised an eyebrow as I lowered myself onto a seat next to the waffles. I had always had a bit of a sweet tooth, and some waffles and syrup sounded good right then.

Kristoph's tail continued wagging. "And scrambled eggs, once they're done."

"Marry me." I said, without thinking about it. Someone who made me food in the morning was definitely someone I could see myself settling down with. If I was looking for that sort of thing.

This prompted the puppy to smile at me. "Is that a proposition?" He looked me square in my eyes. An eager glint shone in his.

"Er..." I squirmed a bit in my chair, hackles raising. I wasn't entirely sure what was going on. The Kristoph I knew wasn't so... forward. So amorously predatory. For a moment, I almost felt like I was talking to myself. I sighed. "Look, you and I both know there's good reasons we aren't... like that." A grumble escaped my lips. "It's entirely too early in the morning to have to have the talk again, you know?"

"Y-yeah." He said, falling a bit quiet. "It was just a joke, you know? Like something you might say."

I felt my fur relaxing a bit. Just a misplaced joke. "Time and a place for that stuff, puppy." I grumbled. "And not with anyone you'd consider an ex. It gets weird."

He sighed. "Sorry."

I pulled a waffle onto a plate Kristoph had laid out for me. "No harm done. Now let's eat some before Barcode wakes up."

Kristoph flashed me a baffled stare. "Who?"

-A week later-

(Teri)

Summer days were passing quickly. I'd worried that living with Kristoph would be long and awkward, and in that, I was wrong.

They were just awkward.

He'd kept doing things. Sometimes, they were just these little kind things, like cooking for everyone, or buying some incense to make the apartment smell nice. Those were harmless enough, but didn't do anything to make me any less attracted to him. And then, there were the big things. One of the reasons that Kristoph was around campus for the summer, instead of going home to see his family, was that he was taking a summer class. Specifically, a summer class in Physical Therapy. And that class had a reputation for being very hands on...

"Would you like a back massage, Teri?" His voice pierced my thoughts, causing me to jump a bit. It hadn't been the first time Kristoph had offered. Just the first time that day. His face wore an earnest smile, entirely free of guile or deception.

It took me a moment to process. "I'm... really not sure that's a good idea. You, uh, know why." I said, scratching the back of my head. The idea of that puppy rubbing his warm, oiled up hands along my back lingered in my mind, though. It was like he was trying to get me worked up.

My response provoked a slight whimper and a pout from the husky. "Aw... but I really need to practice! It doesn't have to mean anything, I just need to do this for my class."

"Why did you take this class, anyway?" A part of me suspected he was just giving me an excuse to touch boyflesh. But this was Kristoph I was talking to. To my knowledge he didn't have a sneaky bone in his body. "I mean, you're studying mathematics, aren't you? It seems like kinda a weird choice."

Kristoph shrugged. "Everyone's gotta have a physical elective of some sort. Doing it over the summer just makes sense, since I can afford it. But the only ones they've got available over the summer for some reason are Cardio Training, Roller Skating, or Physical Therapy."

"Huh. Tough call." I said, taking a sip of ice water from a glass I'd poured myself. The vibrating of my phone pulled me away from the conversation. Staring at the screen, I saw I'd gotten a text from Samson. He wanted to meet again sometime in the next week or so, and was offering to pay for a train ticket so I could visit his campus. It was a tempting proposition, but I wasn't sure how to feel about it. I still needed to find a job to keep paying my share of the rent, after all.

"Hey, Teri." Kristoph coughed. "I had something I wanted to ask you..."

I looked up from texting my ex-boyfriend a response. "Yes?"

All of a sudden, he turned away from me. "Well, um, nevermind." I watched as he walked over to the couch, where Xavier was resting, his snout poked into a chemistry textbook. Even over the summer, that skunk was a boring old scholar! "Hey Xavier, would you mind if I used you for massage practice?"

The textbook closed with a light thumping sound. "Eh, again? If you really need the practice..." He stood up. "Come on, let's do this in my room."

As I watched the stinkbutt and Kristoph walk off down the hall, I realized I was scowling a moment after I started doing it. The act had been entirely subconscious, and it surprised me. Was I, the flirty, vivacious tiger that I am, actually jealous?

The revelation was both shocking and unwelcome.

-A month later-

(Teri)

Part-time job hunting hadn't gone quite as planned. I had hoped for a job working with clothing. Haute couture, or at least a job at an outlet clothing store or something. Unfortunately, in a college town I found my considerably charming self competing with thousands of other students. I had to take what I could get. And what I could get was...

...well, it was best not to dwell upon it.

Opening the door to the apartment, I walked in with a pouty sigh, letting my ears droop. "Well, I've found a stupid job!" I said, my striped tail curling as I spoke out loud to no one in particular. "Toiling away for a cruel master, having to stoop to such menial labor!" I put a paw on my forehead, closing my eyes. "Such a plight for a poor wayward stray cat like me!"

"What's the job?" Kristoph's voice rang in my ear.

As I turned to my left to look at him, my eyes widened. Kristoph was sitting on the ground with his legs pressed up against the couch, doing situps. Shirtless. His gray fur covered in beads of sweat, his fur soggy and outlining his chest. Although he was naked from the waist up, a pair of metallic blue workout shorts lined his private bits, and I could see the edges of a black jockstrap poking up above the waistline of his shorts. Said shorts were noticeably tight enough against his body that they outlined a sizable bulge running along his left leg as he curled his stomach up. With his arms folded along either side of his head, the husky lifted his body into another sit-up. And then, as if looking at him had made it all real, the scent of sweat and musk hit my nostrils for the first time. Maybe I hadn't been paying attention before, but it hit me at once, like a wave. I took a step back, eyes trailing up and down the contours of his shapely, muscular body.

"What are you doing?" I stammered, feeling something stiffening between my legs.

"The gym was closed for renovations." Kristoph grunted back, pausing his situps for a moment. "Had to do something for my daily workout. So I'm doing situps and squats and pushups." He tilted his head as he stared up at me. "Is that a problem?"

"Barely clothed?" I asked, hating myself for calling attention to it. A certain part of me wondered if I could convince him to wear that around the apartment all the time... the rest of me reminded me that I'd hurt him twice before. I was keeping a distance from him for his own sake. No matter how much certain feral instincts wanted me to push him down and clean his whole body, finishing with his...

I shook my head.

"Gotta keep cool while you exercise, you know? And this apartment's much hotter than the gym." He pushed away from the couch to stand up. My eyes were locked on his crotch, watching it bounce as he stood up. I knew it was crass, but I couldn't quite take my eyes off of it. "Actually, Teri, I've been meaning to ask you something..." He gave me a warm smile. "Could you-"

"Oh!" I coughed. "I'm sorry, but i'm a bit hot and sweaty and such myself... I'm gonna go take a shower now, ok?" I turned and raced for the bathroom, closing the door behind me and locking it. With my back against the door, I started sliding my shorts off. "Nnngh. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that dog was actually wooing me or something." I needed to do something to get my mind off of hot, sweaty, muscular men. Before I said or did something I'd regret later.

Even if I was kind of regretting running off right then.

-An Hour Later-

Teri was avoiding me. After a long shower, he'd darted to his bedroom, with the door locked. I'd wanted to ask him about it. The day I'd moved in,he'd smelled like sex and squirrel. and then, earlier in the month, he'd taken off for a few days by train to go visit someone he only called "an old friend.". When he returned, he'd come back wearing the same scent of squirrel around him, clinging to him like a coat. It was making me nervous enough to want to ask him about it. But I kept worrying about the answer too much to bite the bullet. And whenever I did get the courage to ask, he kept running of. I was afraid to know, but I had to find out. What if he already had another boyfriend? Xavier didn't think so, but I knew how flirty Teri could be. And how good he was at keeping secrets when he really didn't want to open up. Slumping over on the kitchen counter, I stared at the grain of the table's wood, hands supporting my head. Maybe I was going about this wrong. I had a plan, but if Teri was already seeing someone, it'd be wrong to go any farther.

"You're not going far enough, Kristoph."

I jerked my head up. Xavier stood on the opposite side of the kitchen table, large tail swaying lazily behind him. The skunk folded his arms as he looked me up and down. "You're trying to tempt Teri, aren't you? While acting like you aren't. It's sneaky, I like it."

"Yeah, but..." I looked away.

Xavier's expression never deviated from the small scowl painted across it. "Then you need to push on him a bit harder. Something a bit more intense. I could help you..."

I perked my ears up at that statement, whipping my head back to stare into his eyes. "What do you suggest?"