# Love's Shadow Part 2

Author: Korrado-Xan
Tags: Feline, Gay, M/M, Romance, School, Skunk, slice of life

#2 of Love's Shadow

\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*

Love's Shadow prt2. c. Grey K. 1997

\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* 

 

- Love's Shadow part II,

 

* * *
\> The cavernous library, a full four stories tall was

something of a second home to the young skunk, he spent a lot of time

there perusing through the third floor.

 

      Each level of the old stone building was devoted to particular

area(s) of study. The main level Jace had been on being business,

economic fields, law and law enforcement. The second floor was dedicated

to the various arts, music and literature of all periods and languages.

The third floor, Jace's destination, was devoted to the natural

sciences, Biology, Zoology, Botany, Anatomy, Geology, and a host of

offshoots of all of those fields. The young skunk spent a healthy

amount of time immersed in the thousands of volumes on the third

floor, sating his thirst for knowledge in his favorite subjects.

 

      The only floor that the youth seldom ventured to was the

fourth floor. The area that comprised the young skunk's most vivid

nightmares, the floor devoted to mathematics, chemistry, physics and

their daughter fields. The only interest Jace showed in venturing to

the hated level was to make use of the drinking fountain or restroom

that were there. The young skunk ascended the creaking staircase to

the third floor. His sensitive nose picked up the musty smell of the

ancient tomes, yellowed or greying with age, interspersed with the

fresh tang of the crisp, newer volumes dotted here and there.

 

      Jace absently flipped a snow-white strand of hair out of his

eyes as he pushed through the doors to the third floor. He surveyed

the level, seeing that it was virtually empty except for himself and

someone he didn't recognize. The other individual was heading for the

doors on the opposite side of the room, those to the fourth-floor

stairs. Jace had only a glimpse of the other person before the doors

swung shut. They seemed vaguely feline with long, light colored hair,

seeming almost white to Jace. The skunk noticed that the other person

seemed to walk oddly, really almost as thought they were limping. He

shrugged, passing it off as the other person probably had an arm-load

of books.

 

      Jace dropped his pack and coat onto one of the reading tables,

leaving them and walking to one of the tall stacks against the wall.

He wasn't worried, everything he had of value(which wasn't much) was

on him and there wasn't anyone else around. If the other individual

came back in Jace would hear the door. Gazing absently at the printed

card the file computer had spat out at him, Jace scanned the shelves,

looking for the proper number. He found the correct shelf quickly,

scanning down it's length for the book he wanted, "G231, 232, 233,

234, Whoops..., Yes!, G235." The title jumped out at Jace near the end

of the shelf. Jace seized the book, sliding it out of it's spot and

reading the back cover intently.

 

      As he walked back to the reading table Jace passed one of the

gigantic windows that were set around the level and allowed a good

view of the campus. A small flash of light caught Jace's attention,

making him look up and out the window, past the small streaks of water

running down the glass from the light rain that persisted outside.

The skunk stood looking at the darker grey clouds a ways off to the

north. Another jagged streak of lightning zigzagged down from the

storm clouds off on the horizon. Jace scowled slightly, it looked as

though the area might be in for a thunderstorm later that night.

"Great, terrif.."

 

      Jace didn't mind thunder and lightning, as a matter of fact

he often enjoyed sitting behind the big bay window on the front of

his apartment and just watching the forks of colored light as they

came crashing to earth. The young skunk just didn't like the idea of

more and heavier rain accompanying the storm. Jace sighed heavily,

another cold, lonely night by himself in the apartment. He missed

Gary intensely. At least his former roommate had offered some contact,

a little intelligent conversation and the presence of another person

in the apartment. That is up until the amiable human had moved back

home to Illinois almost four months months prior. The spare room in

the apartment had sat vacant since, Jace just couldn't find anyone

that appealed to him as a roommate and friend.

 

      He still wrote Gary often and talked to him on the phone when

he could afford the long distance bill. His human friend had promised

he'd be back as soon as matters allowed, but it didn't look like it

would be any time soon. As he stood gazing out onto the damp, cold

day Jace thought of Gary and of his brother, and how he missed both

of them so much it nearly hurt. Jace assumed that his being alone and

lonely often probably showed to those he knew and he realized that was

probably why the rotund librarian and his other friends were trying to

get him settled with someone to fill the gap in his life.

 

      Thinking along the lines of meeting new people, Jace rolled the

name that Mrs. Dewitt had given him around in his head. Patrick Lauren,

a nice name, and it did ring a faint bell somewhere in the back of

Jace's mind. But as hard as he tried he just couldn't put a face to the

name at all. The young morph shrugged to himself, he knew a lot of

people in passing around campus, he had probably heard the name around

somewhere or something. Jace nodded, concluding that was probably it

and continued to look out the window, watching the glistening ribbons

of water cascade down the face of the glass.

 

      He pressed the pad of his hand against the cold pane, seeing

it frost over around the outline of his fingers and palm. Pulling his

hand away, Jace looked at the window curiously, seeing a fogged

relief of his palm and fingers on the glass. Almost like one of those

Kurlain effect photos he had seen in a magazine, Jace thought absently

to himself. If it was already that cold out as it stood, things would

probably be downright frigid after dark. Having a fur coat does have

some assets but Jace still got cold some nights more than others.

 

      Often there are types of cold that no amount of fur or number

of blankets can alleviate, in Jace's case it was often the icy chill

that accompanies heart-wrenching loneliness. He had spent more and

more nights lonely and cold since his brother and Gary had left. Not

that Jace didn't have friends or hadn't had relationships since their

departures but passing associations and meaningless sex are seldom

the answer to loneliness, and also seldom alleviate it. Coffee after

classes or sex with people he hardly knew could never fill the gap in

the youth's life that his friendship with Gary or the presence of his

brother could.

 

      Now that those things were gone, or at least temporarily

relocated, Jace needed something or someone in his life to fill their

place. None of the individuals he had gone out with had met his criteria

for sharing his life. Jace was more than open to sharing his bed with

those who had been willing, sharing his heart was another matter

entirely. The stream of idiots and jerks the young skunk had gone

through had just discouraged him. Not one of them had been ever close

to filling the gap in his existance the departure of his two closest

friends had made.

 

      As things stood, after a number of meaningless flings Jace had

stopped dating entirely, and hadn't had made love with anyone for

over a full two months. For some species that's not too long, but for

most morphs a week much less a month is fruatrating at best and nearly

maddening at worst. Needless to say, videos, magazines and other

similar forms of stimulation were losing their effectiveness at sating

the healthy young skunk's physical and emotional needs.

 

      As Jace stared out the window, absently tapping the spine of

the book against the sill of the humongous window an arctic fox he

recognized from one of his classes strolled into view. Jace had been

amazed at the changes the slight fox had undergone as the seasons

shifted. The male fox's fur had gradually transformed from a rangy,

dusky, reddish-brown to a dazzling, thick, fluffy white, slashed

with black on his tail and ears. Perfectly suited for the weather in

northern California at this time of year, the young fox made his way

across the courtyard hardly feeling the inclement weather.

 

      Jace envied the vulpine, he carried no umbrella, and the rain

seemed to just sluice off the thick, snow white fur. The vulpine

hardly seemed bothered at the brisk wind that had sent Jace running

for cover earlier. Jace knew the slim fox was an open bi-sexual, he'd

seen him at local hot-spots with various males and females, sometimes

both, on his arm. He had tried to strike up a conversation with the

snow furred vulpine more than once but the fox hadn't shown more than

passing interest in him.

 

      The young skunk sighed, gazing longingly at the handsome fox,

thinking how nice that soft, warm fur would be to curl up next to on

a freezing winter's night. Jace shook his head to clear it of his

dreary thoughts and pried himself away from the window and the

shrinking figure of the fox. Making his way back to where he had

dumped his stuff Jace pitched the book onto the table top.

 

      As he did so a tickling sensation erupted in his throat sending

the skunk into a spectacular coughing fit. After a few moments the

wracking coughs and chokes subsided, leaving the morph dry-mouthed

and breathless. Wheezing slightly the young skunk leaned on the back

of a chair to gather his strength for a minute then struck off for the

4th floor stair-well. Jace padded up the stairs quickly, pushing past

the doors and making a bee-line for the stainless steel drinking

fountain on the opposite wall of the level.

 

      He gulped several mouthfuls of cool water, feeling it assuage

the scratchy sensation in his throat. Swallowing a final mouthful too

fast, Jace began to hack again slightly and spat some of the water back

into the drain. He watched it swirl down through the tears that had

welled in his eyes from the new coughing fit. Regaining his composure

Jace straightened and gazed around the eerily quiet floor, the only

sound being his rasping breath and the softly humming fountain.

 

      Jace assumed that the odd individual he had seen must have

exited through the alternate stair. They weren't obviously visible

and there was no noise at all to indicate the presence of anyone else

on the level. The young skunk gazed about, skimming his eyes over the

section signs, Algebra, Calculus, Trigonometry, Physics, Astronomy,

Chemistry, Biochemistry. Jace perked his ears thinking he heard a creak

from the stacks devoted to general Physics. Not hearing the sound again

Jace shrugged, putting it off to the old building settling with the

cold. He dismissed it and headed back to the doors to the stair-well.

 

      As Jace's raven furred hand contacted the heavy swinging door

the skunk's sensitive ears were assaulted by the sound of a loud

commotion, followed by a muffled thump and a sharp cry of pain.

Freezing for an instant, unsure of where the noise had originated from,

the young skunk realized it had emanated from the Physics section where

he had heard the mysterious noise moments before. Dashing to the aisle

that composed the General Physics section Jace saw a form lying slumped

on the carpeting.

 

      The young morph neared the motionless form recognizing it as

being the unknown morph he had seen earlier. They were lying quite still,

face down on the floor, obviously semi or un-conscious. Jace knelt,

rolling the person over and straightening their body out more

comfortably. Getting a closer look than he had earlier Jace realized he

was looking into the face of a stunning male feline. Dressed in plain

clothes, a dark shirt and loose navy jeans, the male resembled a Russian

Blue cat. He had dusky, blue-gray fur with a lighter gray undercoat

beneath. Jace was caught by the almost ethereal colour of the morphs

hair, it's shade was somewhere between silver and platinum and it hung

down to almost shoulder level on the handsome feline.

 

      The young skunk was almost disappointed that the felines eyes

were closed, concealing their colour from view, Jace wondered with fur

and hair like the feline had what colour his eyes could possibly be. He

noticed that the amazing hair cloaked the upper right part of the

feline's face, concealing his cheek and partially blocking his eye from

view. Getting past his initial awe at the feline Jace bent over,

patting the feline gently on his exposed cheek, "Hey., Hello?, Are you

all right?, Hey, wake up., Come on..."

 

      The feline stirred slightly against Jace's knees, eyelids

fluttering slightly but not opening all the way. Jace gripped the

male's wrist, seeking out his pulse, and finding it strong and very

rapid. The skunk hoped it was just adrenaline making it so fast. As

Jace gripped the feline's wrist the closed eyes finally flew open

behind the curtain of silvery hair. The prostrate male gasped, making

Jace jump, then pulled violently out of the skunk's grasp. Jace

watched as the feline quite nearly threw himself against the shelves,

banging his head against the access ladder in the process.

 

      He jumped to his feet, backing away from the feline as quickly

as possible, speaking in a low tone, "Whoa, whoa, whoa..., Hey now.

Come on, calm down. It's all right, I wasn't going to harm you. I just

wanted to make sure you weren't hurt." The feline morph's chest still

heaved as he watched the skunk with slitted eyes. Jace suddenly

realized that if the male had injured his head or was somehow

delusional he might have a fight on his hands. The rational part of

Jace's mind, not so preoccupied with keeping things calm, idly

wondered if he could control a crazed male feline nearly the same size

as he and undoubtedly with larger teeth and claws.

 

      Jace took it as a good sign that the feline hadn't moved, either

toward him or to get away. That he must still be rational but scared

and shaken up from what-ever accident had happened. He was just

kneeling awkwardly on the floor, gripping the lower book-shelves for

support. Jace noticed that the feline's claws were still sheathed in

his fingertips, and decided to take some initiative. Bending down

slowly, with his hands held up so the cat could see them, "It's OK.

Not gonna hurt you, I think you must have hit your head, you were out

cold for a minute there. I just want to make sure you're all right,

just stay calm. Do you recall what happened?"

 

      Jace lowered himself down onto his haunches, then into a

kneeling position. When he was level with the feline he smiled,

keeping his hands open and visible. Jace felt better when he saw the

morph's chest slowing gradually as the cat relaxed. As he watched the

feline gently shook his head, slowly reaching up and probing near his

right ear.

 

      "Ladder..." Jace barely caught the word, "What?" He noticed the

colour of the feline's eyes for the first time as they flipped up to

regard him. Yellow would have been much too crude a word to descibe

the feline's eyes. A pair of dazzling, utterly brilliant, golden eyes

studied Jace's face for a moment as the morph repeated himself,

"Ladder., I fell off the ladder. Lost my balance I guess."

 

      Jace sighed, relaxing slightly, "Are you O.K.?" The feline

nodded slowly, "I think so." Jace stood again, offering a hand to

the feline, "Need a hand up?" The golden eyes narrowed again,

regarding Jace's outstretched hand and arm warily. Biting his lower

lip as though he were about to plunge his hand into some boiling

cauldron the male feline shot out an arm, gripping Jace's hand a

little harder than the skunk would have liked.

 

      Flexing his muscles Jace pulled the feline upright fairly

easily. Before he was even fully upright the feline wrenched his hand

back away from the skunk morph. He faltered and nearly fell again,

barely catching himself on the nearby shelves. He gazed around at the

floor, evidently searching for something. Jace watched as the feline's

ears perked forward, turning his eyes to where the male was looking,

"Uh, w-would you mind getting that for me?" the morph faltered

slightly, gesturing over to an object half hidden in shadow. Jace

shrugged, walking over to the object.

 

      As he neared it Jace realized that it was a short walking

staff. A glossy, black finished cane with a non-slip ferrule and

knobbed grip. Jace bent down retrieving the aide from the floor

where it had come to rest and delivered it back to it's owner.

Proffering it back to the feline Jace smiled warmly, seeing the cat

return the smile shyly,  "T-Thank-you." He stammered slightly not

meeting Jace's eyes as he took the staff in his hand.

 

      Jace perked his ears at the feline's voice. It was pleasantly

soft, even, and slightly accented, though just barely noticeable. The

skunk picked up the just slightly rounding of the T's and R's in the

feline's vocabulary, Jace thought it sounded faintly Mediterranean but

he wasn't totally sure. The male cat shifted uncomfortably, seeming to

favor his left leg as he stood, using the cane to keep it's weight

off the floor. Flustered as to what else to do Jace stuck his hand

out boldly at the other male, "Jace." The feline glanced up at him

sharply, "Pardon?" Jace wavered slightly, "Uh, my name, it's Jace.

Pleased to meet you."

 

      The feline regarded the skunk's outstretched hand skeptically

for a moment before slowly reaching out and gingerly grasping Jace's

raven furred paw in his own. He smiled again shakily, "Uh, P-Patrick,

Thank-you." Jace felt Patrick's smooth hand pad against his own with

the silky fur around the feline's wrist rubbing lightly against his

fingers. The hand-shake was fleeting, much to Jace's disappointment.

Patrick quickly drew his hand away, although less vehemently than

before.

 

      Jace watched as Patrick attempted to step over a pace to

orient himself better with the skunk. As the feline did so his left

leg buckled underneath him, making the him cry out in shock and pain.

Starting, Jace rushed to catch the feline before he could hit the

floor again, supporting him under the arms and holding him upright.

Patrick allowed Jace to take his weight, realizing that the slim

skunk was stronger than he appeared. Panting from the shock and

sudden discomfort, the feline looked over his shoulder at Jace,

"Please, I think...I need...to.....sit..."

 

      Jace nodded, helping Patrick to the fourth floor reading

tables and sitting him down in one of the chairs. Concern coursed

through Jace as he saw that Patrick's ears, nose and lips were pale

against his fur and the feline morph was shaking slightly as he sat.

Looking around himself Jace noticed a small pack laying on one of the

chairs next to him, the initials P.L. were embroidered on one of the

zipper pulls in bright blue thread. Jace helped Patrick to recline

slightly, gently probing at the base of the feline's right ear,

feeling a small knot under the fur there.

 

      Patrick yelped sharply, jerking away slightly at the touch.

"Sorry!, Sorry." Jace pulled away, "You've got a little bump on your

head there. Now, what happened to your leg?" Patrick rubbed gingerly

at his head, eyeing Jace, "I think I twisted my knee a bit when I

fell." He paused, regarding the skunk as the black and white morph

glanced sidelong at the cane in his hand, "Old accident." Jace nodded,

"Here, I might be able to help, let me have a look. Here lean back a

little. There, like so."

 

      Jace helped Patrick to lean back far enough in his chair as to

allow the feline to place his leg on top of the table, elevating his

knee above the rest of his body. He probed at Patrick's leg gently,

feeling the morph tense, looking almost panicked, "Whoa, whoa, take

it easy., This won't hurt, I promise." Jace felt Patrick's knee

through his jeans, noticing that it felt oddly swollen on one side.

He reached around to the back of the feline's knee seeking out the

pressure points there and pressing gently. The skunk felt Patrick

relax slightly under his hands as he continued to press on the nerve

point while lightly massaging the feline's battered joint with his

other hand.

 

      After several minutes Jace sat back. He looked approvingly at

Patrick, who was staring with wide expressive eyes, one of which was

still cloaked behind the curtain of silver hair. "Better?" Patrick

flexed his knee experimentally nodding, "Yes, but how did..?" Jace

smiled, "Oh, my mother knows a little about accu-pressure and nerve

point manipulation., She showed me some techniques when I was

younger."

 

      Patrick nodded slightly resting his hand lightly on a small

notebook that was lying open on the table. Jace's eyes skimmed across

the open pages, seeing them covered with some kind of mathematical

equations, physics equations, he realized with a start. Suddenly

Jace's brain did a bit of a mental back-flip and everything clicked,

the odd behavior, the Physics work, and the initials P and L. "Patrick

Lauren." The skunk blurted despite himself, seeing the feline jump in

his seat and look as though he were about to bolt but was unsure as

to which way to flee.

 

      Jace grabbed Patrick's arm attempting to steady the high strung

feline, "No!, No, no. It's OK... I just realized who you were, that's

all. I thought I had seen you around before." Jace lied slightly to

cover his own out-burst. The gold eyed morph seemed to settle down

once again, "Yea-yes, that's my full name." Jace let go of the

feline's arm, settling back to a comfortable distance from Patrick

allowing the cat his space. "I hear you're good at physics."

 

      Patrick looked slightly taken aback, "From who?, I-I really

don't know anyone here on campus, uh,  j-just yet." Jace forced

himself to look as relaxed and casual as he could, hoping that it

would rub off onto the agitated feline a little. Patrick looked as

though he had a live wire shoved up his posterior with sitting at the

table in such close proximity to the skunk. He was fidgeting and

moving constantly in the chair, playing restively with his cane or

a plain pencil that was laying on the table. Jace noticed that the

feline's eyes roved constantly, tracing a near perfect outline of

his body, hardly ever focusing on Jace himself, and never meeting

the skunk's own green gaze as they spoke.

 

      Jace felt Patrick's short furred tail brush past the tip of

his foot as it tangled in and around both the feline's ankles and

the legs of the chair. "I heard you were good at Physics from Mrs.

Dewitt, the librarian, she's a friend of mine." Patrick seemed to

relax slightly at hearing the portly woman's name, but still wouldn't

look Jace in the eyes at all. This rather unnerved the skunk, he

usually used the other person's face and eyes to gauge them in

conversations. With his eyes already partially hidden by his hair and

nervous, evasive behavior, Jace wondered exactly what the fidgeting

feline was so keen at keeping to himself.

 

      Patrick nodded slightly, "Oh, yes, Mrs. Dewitt, I-uh, I've

spoken with her a few times before. She is....talkative." Jace laughed,

stifling his amusement when he saw Patrick looked apprehensive, almost

as though he were afraid to laugh at all. "Yes she is, very talkative."

Jace personally thought that talkative wasn't nearly the term needed

to describe the librarian. He often thought that if the rotund woman

didn't need to take a breath now and then she would probably never

cease speaking.

 

      Patrick smiled slightly, then returned to neutrality again, if

Jace had blinked he would have missed it, "Thus far she's the only

person I've met that seems interested in knowing me at all." Jace smiled

at the feline, "I'd like to., Mrs. Dewitt says you're new here., Where

are you from?" Patrick scrutinized the tabletop and his watch throughly

before speaking, "Uh, well, Chicago originally. W-When my father died

several years ago I moved in with my brother in New York., Th-then this

last spring I came here to be nearer to my Grandparents." Jace looked

puzzled, "Chicago?, But..." Jace caught himself not wanting to embarrass

his new acquaintance.

 

      Patrick surprised him by smiling again, a little wider this time,

"Oh, uh, my accent. My parents are, were, is, ach, sorry, is for my

mother, was for my father, from Europe. Near the borders between Italy,

Switzerland and Austria, its kind of odd, I'm not sure exactly where,

I think my grandparents moved around a lot. It's sort of a local dialect

type of thing, I don't speak it, never have. I and all my brothers and

sisters were born here in the states. All of us except for a few just

seemed to pick up the accent a little as we were growing up, kind of

rubs off I guess. I didn't think it was that noticeable, but I seem

to notice it gets heavier when I'm stressed, bizarre."

     

      Jace nodded, he had noticed the feline's accent lighten as he

relaxed. He sat watching Patrick, examining his features more closely

than he had gotten a chance to earlier. The feline's soft, short fur

on his neck and face, the pointed ears set wide and back on his head.

Patrick's facial features, a smallish dusty beige nose on the end of

his blunt muzzle, set above his mouth and light colored lips. Jace was

caught by the wide, expressive eyes with their intense, golden yellow

color. Patrick's long lustrous hair shone like platinum in the muted

light of the library as it dipped down past his shoulders in back and

draped across his ears, neck and face, especially the right eye and

cheek. Jace itched to reach forward and push the amazing hair out of

the feline's face so he could admire those golden eyes unimpeded.

 

      Suddenly, catching himself staring, Jace twitched, feeling

anxious and tapped his tail against the table leg reflexively making

a muted rustle. Patrick started at the motion near the floor, noticing

the skunk shifting in his chair, "Oh!, Uh., I-I'm sorry., Am I boring

you..?" The inside of Jace's ears reddened sharply and his nose felt

hot as he realized he had been so caught up with looking at the feline

he hadn't caught a single word the other morph had been saying. He

looked chagrined, grimacing as he looked at Patrick, "I'm sorry. I was

somewhere else., What was that last thing you were saying?"

 

      Patrick didn't look convinced, glaring at the floor intensely,

"You were staring at me then you spaced out., Didn't hear a word I

said did you?" Jace felt ready to die, "I, uh, I'm really sorry, it's

just your fur is so handsome, and your hair and eyes caught me, they're

wonderful." Patrick looked hurt, as though he weren't really listening

to the skunk, "Yeah, right, sorry, that's how it all starts. Then

people always end up staring at my fac-.."

 

      The feline froze in mid-sentence squinting up at Jace

suddenly, "Wait a minute, what did you say?" The skunk looked

startled at the intensity in his new companions gaze, "Nothing, just

that your eyes and hair are..," Patrick cut him off, putting a hand

protectively to his face, "What's wrong with my eyes and hair?"

"Nothing, nothing, really. They're just so amazing, really I've never

seen anything like them, they're beautiful. That's all, I swear." Jace

spoke honestly, not understanding the feline's defensiveness.

 

      Patrick's eyes were wide as his hand was slowly coming down,

"What?, What did you say?, You actually think my eyes and hair are

nice?, I don't think I heard you right... It sounded like you said I

was handsome, and that my eyes and hair are amazing, Ha." "I did."

Patrick was deathly quiet for a moment, mulling that over in his

head, then speaking softly, "No one's ever said that about me, it's

always been odd or weird or bizzare. I don't think I've ever heard

the term handsome or-or beautiful with my eyes or hair. That's the

first time anyone's ever said that to me. Why did you?"

 

      Patrick was looking at Jace with a sudden suspicious wariness

once again, the skunk held up his hands, "I was just being honest.

I've never seen anything like them before. They're so striking, I kind

of got caught up looking at them while you were talking ., I'm sorry.

I didn't mean to upset you." Patrick's gaze was softening rapidly as

he looked at Jace directly for one of the first times, "No, that's OK.

And T-Thank-you. You're the first person to ever say such a nice

thing to me before, I thought I was hearing things for a minute.

Next to Mrs. Dewitt, you're the first pleasant person I've met here."

 

      Jace saw the feline's ears dip slightly, "You seem perfectly

fine to me and the people around here are normally very nice, quite

welcoming." Patrick chuckled bitterly, idly turning his cane between

his fingers, "Not with people like me. Everyone looks at me like I'm

some sort of shambling abomination, some Mary Shelly type

Frankensteinian monster come to flesh, some poor freak with a cane.

Everyone, everywhere I go, it's never been different," He paused

looking up at Jace, "That is, until now, until you. I just don't

understand. I hope you forgive me, it's just you get used to a certain

reaction., When you don't get it, it's kind of a shock."

 

      Jace shifted in his seat a little, feeling somewhat uncomfort-

able at the feline's candor, hoping he wouldn't come to disappoint

his new friend, "Uh, well, that is... Let's just say I've had some

familiarity with how it feels to be called a freak, or an abomination.

I would never patronize or claim to know how you feel but I do know

what it's like, and I know it hurts a lot." Patrick looked concerned,

"You?!, Why do people call you those things?, You're not like me, why

would they do that to you?, You're normal." Jace smiled, putting out

a hand on the table and nearly patting Patrick's arm, then drew back,

not wanting to make the feline uncomfortable. That would no doubt come

later, Jace thought bitterly to himself. "Oh, it's nothing obvious,

it's just, well, I just met you and I don't want to risk alienating

you so quickly..."

 

      Patrick looked puzzled at the skunk's reluctance, Jace didn't

notice as he sat with his eyes glued to the tip of his tail, watching

it flip against his leg, finally shrugging, "OK, maybe you'll feel

more comfortable telling me later, after we've gotten to know one

another better. It can't be that bad, can it?" Jace jerked as though

he'd been poked in the side, "You'd be surprised." He muttered to

himself, thinking the feline couldn't hear, "What?" Patrick asked.

"Oh, nothing, I just said I'd like that a lot, getting to know you

better, that is..." Seeing Patrick nod Jace paused hesitantly, "Uh,

Patrick, would you like to go somewhere a little more relaxed than

here and talk..?, You don't have to, we can stay here if you

like..."  

 

* * *
\> end part II

 

 

Source: https://sofurry.com/s/AnKyvoVe
Part of the series Love\'s Shadow
Previous: https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/212374-love-s-shadow-part-1.md
Next: https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/212385-love-s-shadow-part-3.md