# After Ski

Author: Portentous1975
Tags: Female, Hare, Lioness, Male, Predator/Prey, Roleplay, Vanilla

Basically a simple "boy meets girl" story. It needs proper proof reading and some heavy-handed editing, but it's already dragged out for far too long and I just had to get it over with, so here it is, warts and all.

 The after-ski was only semi-crowded, so it was made obvious it was  
still early in the season. There was a throng about the bar but it  
thinned out towards the back of the room and Tommy had the the couch  
in front of the fireplace almost to himself. There was a scrawny  
weasel with cross-country boots sitting at one end, but he was talking  
with the people sitting at the table behind the couch and so he was  
sitting more on the armrests than the seat and didn't take up much  
space at all.  
  
Tommy basked in the heat from the fire, his elbows rested on the back  
of the couch besides him, his left leg stretched out with the heel of  
the plaster cast on the floor and his right leg bent, the foot resting  
across the other knee. The warmth was just on the right side of being  
pleasant, the kind of overwhelming, deep-reaching heat you only got  
from a large, well-stoked fireplace, just at the point where if he'd  
sat any closer he'd sing his fur.  
  
There were still a couple of sips left of his gin and tonic, but the  
ice had melted and it'd turned lukewarm. He considered catching the  
eye of Christian or Curler and have them get him a fresh one at the  
bar, but that would require hoisting himself up over the back of the  
couch and waving. Way too much activity right now. Besides, if he had  
too many drinks he'd just end up having to piss, and hobbling down the  
stairs to the bathroom with the plaster cast was an experience he'd  
just as well pass on.

 A lioness leant over the couch next to Tommy and put her arms along the back  
of it. She was fit, lanky even, and wore a ski suit that didn't look  
expensive until you started looking at the details. Lions were one tribe  
Tommy didn't have much face-to-face experience with, and he couldn't make a  
good guess at how old she was. Older than him, he suspected, but anywhere  
from there to forty.   
  
The warmth from the fireplace and the gin and tonic he'd almost finished  
took the edge of Tommy's usual skittishness, so he remained as he was and  
made a friendly wriggle of his nose in greeting. Okay, so maybe rabbits did  
the nose wriggle more cutely, but hares knew a thing or two about it  
too.  
  
The lioness smiled back and flicked her short ears in a gesture Tommy wasn't  
sure how to read. "Is anyone sitting here?" She gestured at the two seats of  
the couch next to him.  
  
"No, they're free."  
  
"Oh good, I didn't want to have to stand at the bar. So, downhill or  
slalom?" She nodded at Tommy's embarrassingly bright blue cast.  
  
"Um, it was actually in the parking lot." Tommy's whiskers dipped. "I was  
unloading the skis and this other car came down the hill from the restaurant  
and didn't manage to stop. Wham. And I was off to the hospital."  
  

 "Just as you _arrived_? You didn't even get to ski? Oh, that's horrible."  
The lioness grinned. "I'm going to get a drink. Do you want me to bring you  
anything from the bar?"  
  
Tommy considered it and bent forward to put his warm drink on the  
floor. "Could you get me a rum and coke?" he craned his neck and  
searched the crowd around the bar for Curler's distinctive  
ears. "There's a tall, black hare over there somewhere. Red jacket,  
ears curling forwards. He'll pay for it if you can find him."  
  
"Don't worry about it. Just don't let anyone else take the seat while I'm  
gone."   
  
Tommy laughed and nodded. "Okay."  
  
 

Her name was Jahiho'uhne, a flow of exotic syllables wrapped around a  
glottal stop that Tommy just couldn't get right, no matter how many  
times he tried so by mutual consent she became Jahn. She was into  
alpine skiing, a few notches above Tommy's own level, had a season  
card and was staying at one of the apartment cabins with a friend. She  
drank rum and whisky, shared Tommy's disdain of the extreme skiing  
crowd and her most common expression was a sly half-smile as if she  
was half a step ahead of everyone and just waiting for the  
punchline. If it hadn't been for his two gin and tonics, Tommy would  
have been intimidated and he told her that.

 "So you're not only wounded but dazed too?" Again that half-smile,  
"You're like the perfect prey. Don't go near any predators for a  
while."  
  
"Oh, you mean like you?" Tommy replied with a smile of his own.  
  
"Rowr." Jahn bared her teeth and made a lazy swipe in the air with one  
hand, her claws glittered red in the light from the fireplace.  
  
Tommy had been about to take a sip of his drink, but the full sight of  
Jahn's rows of sharp teeth sent an involuntary shiver down his spine  
and made his breath catch in his throat. His hand jolted and his drink  
sloshed, spilling onto his fingers and over his shirt. "Fuck!"  
  
Jahn's eyes glittered with laughter. "Did you just freeze up?"  
  
"No!"   
  
"Yes you did! Admit it."  
  
"I didn't... okay, maybe a little," he admitted with a laugh and tried  
to shake the worst of the spilled drink from his hand.  
  
"Oh, that's terrible -- and so cute!"   
  
"I just didn't realise how big your teeth actually were."  
  
"You think they're intimidating?"  
  
"Intimidating? They're scary!"  
  
Jahn's delighted laugh suggested she didn't take offense at that  
description.  
  

 Tommy looked down at his drenched shirt and sighed. He had had to  
switch to rum, hadn't he? "I need to go and get this shirt off before  
it soaks into my fur. The car's going to stink like a brewery tomorrow  
if I don't."  
  
"The car? Aw, you're going home already tomorrow?"   
  
"Yeah, we're only here for the weekend,"  
  
"But you'll be back later in the season, right?"  
  
"Uh, well...." They both looked down at Tommy's plastered foot.  
  
"Fuck, that was stupid of me. Of course you won't be."  
  
"No, it doesn't look like it. Eh, the parking lot here is too  
dangerous, anyway," Tommy replied with a grin. Mentally he was cursing  
the fates. She sounded disappointed to hear he was leaving, which was  
great, except that he was fucking leaving. Shit. First a broken leg,  
and now this. Some weekend this had turned out to be.  
  
"Hang on, I need to catch hold of Curler -- don't want to try the  
stairs to the hotel on my own." Tommy scooted up and stretched his  
head, scanning the crowd by the bar for Curler.  
  
"Hare in a red jacket, right?" Jahn moved to sit on her knees in the  
couch, her arms across the back, to get a good view of the room.  
  

 "Yeah, can you see him?"  
  
"Maybe. Is that him over by the stairs, chatting with the two ewes?"  
  
"That's him. Aw, hell."  
  
Jahn turned to look at Tommy with her ears turned forward in  
question. "Hmm?"  
  
"The ewes. He's going to be so pissed at me for interrupting his  
chances with them."  
  
Jahn regarded Tommy for a second, then her mouth curled into that sly  
half-smile again and she got up from the couch. "Leave him to it,  
then. I'll help you back to the hotel."  
  
"I -- you're sure? I mean, I'd like that, but..."  
  
"Positive," she said with a brief flash of teeth, "I need some cold  
air anyway. The fireplace was starting to get to me."  
  
"Okay then." Tommy clambered to his feet and managed to scoop up his  
crutches from the floor, "I thought most lions liked heat?"  
  
"'Most lions' don't ski," Jahn replied and moved so Tommy could  
support one arm on her shoulder.  
  
"That makes sense. I think."  
  
They threaded their way through the crowding room to the entrance. It  
was less hassle than Tommy had feared: most saw his crutches and moved  
to let them pass so Jahn only had to poke someone with her claws for  
attention once.  
  

   
The cold outside was a nice change from the heat and noise inside, at  
least for a minute or two. The night sky was clear, but there was so  
much light from the buildings and streetlights and the reflections  
from the snow that it might almost just as well have been overcast.   
  
Tommy almost slipped on an iced over step once, but Jahn caught him  
and held him upright with ease, one arm around his waist, the other on  
his shoulder.  
  
"You're stronger than you look," Tommy told her, his breath visible as  
puffs of lighted fog under the lamps.  
  
"Yeah. Predator muscle base, almost no fat. Fun, until someone opens a  
window and I freeze my tail off."  
  
"Skiing is a pretty weird hobby for you, then."  
  
"They make really good thermal underwear these days. And it's safer  
than walking about in parking lots."  
  
Tommy had to laugh, "Yeah, I guess I can't disagree."  
  
"Not with that leg you can't."  
  
They made their way along the walkway as they talked, and soon reached  
the stairs up to the hotel. Jahn didn't turn onto them, though, but  
continued past without pausing, heading towards the apartments along  
the hillside. Tommy was forced to hop along.  
  

 "Hey, wait. The hotel is up there."  
  
"That's not where we're going," Jahn replied.  
  
"What? But I need to get changed."  
  
That sly smile was back in force and she tightened her grip around his  
waist. "Hush, hare."  
  
"Hey, come on! Really!"  
  
Jahn gave him a sideways glance and turned her head to face him. She  
hesitated for a split second then leaned in and bared her teeth,  
letting out a low, deep growl, full of warning.  
  
Tommy didn't just hear the growl -- it vibrated over his whiskers and  
reverberated against his side. His heart skipped a beat and he reacted  
in panic. He twisted in her hold, trying to get away, and his elbow  
came up and back. The growl cut off abruptly and her arm about his  
waist let up, giving Tommy the chance to break free.  
  
He got one step away then his cast got in the way and he stumbled. His  
good leg lost grip on the icy road and Tommy went sprawling  
face-first into the bank of plowed up snow besides the road. Tommy  
spat snow and rolled over on his back. Above him, a few bright stars  
could be seen through the light-haze from the buildings around him.   
  

 "Hey, are you okay? Tommy?" Jahn was crouching a few steps away,  
watching him with a concerned look in her eyes and one hand over her  
chin. She relaxed a little when Tommy met her eyes. "Oh fuck, I'm  
sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. Not for real."  
  
Tommy didn't answer. He was too busy trying to get his heart to calm  
down and to take note of all the places snow had gotten in under his  
clothes and were starting to melt. Back over by the nightclub among  
the handful of smokers who were standing outside, several puzzled  
faces were turned towards them. Tommy felt relieved to know there were  
witnesses, then shamefaced for feeling relieved.  
  
"Your leg okay?"   
  
Tommy had to take a moment to check if he could feel any pain before  
he answered. "Yeah, it's fine." He shook snow out of his ears. "My  
dignity took the brunt of it, I think."  
  
"Help you up?" Jahn's ears flickered uncertainly.  
  
Tommy had to suppress a flash of impulsive fear. "I -- sure. Why not?  
You helped me down, after all."  
  
Jahn smiled at that. She stood up and slowly took the two steps over  
to him and offered him her hand. With another flash of fear, easier to  
suppress already, Tommy accepted it and let her haul him to his feet.  
  

 "I fucked things up, huh?" Jahn said. Tommy didn't reply. They stood  
uncertain for a moment, Tommy leaning with one arm on the lioness's  
shoulder.  
  
"I'll help you to your room, if you want," Jahn said, flexing the hand  
between her and Tommy uncertainly, "but I'd really like to take you to  
my place, instead."  
  
Tommy swallowed, took a breath. "Okay."  
  
"Okay?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
Jahn smiled. "Okay." She put her arm back around Tommy's waist. Even  
through two layers of clothing her touch seemed electric. "Let's start  
walking again before I freeze my ass off."  
  
"And before I lose my nerve?" Tommy put his arm back around Jahn's  
shoulder. He accidentally brushed his mitt against her whiskers and  
she snorted and shook her head.  
  
"Yeah, that too."  
  
  
  
  
"Do you want something to drink? There's a mini-bar." Jahn had taken  
off her ski suit in the hallway and was standing around in her thermal  
underwear. It was a purple set of long-sleeved woolen shirt and  
matching pants and except for her tail it didn't show much more fur  
than the ski suit had. Even so Tommy found it hard to look away, and  
he had to concentrate to keep his whiskers from twitching along with  
the growing tension in his crotch.  
  

 "No, thank you. I'm already a little tipsy and I don't want to, uh."  
'Fail to perform,' Tommy left unsaid and felt the heat of a blush  
rising in his ears. He was leaning against the doorway with this  
crutches in his other hand and felt incredibly awkward.  
  
"Yes, I guess." Jahn laughed but looked a little tense herself, her  
ears perked and flickering with small twitches. She turned her side to  
Tommy and stretched deliberately, making her woolen shirt ride up and  
reveal a thin line of pale fur.  
  
"Would you mind if I was ... aggressive?" Jahn asked, "As pretend? I  
promise I won't hurt you, but I like to be a little ... fierce."  
  
"Predatory," Tommy said. His heart beat hard and his cock had tightened  
into an uncomfortable bulge in his pants.   
  
Jahn nodded agreement and just watched Tommy with her large, amber  
eyes, waiting for him to decide.  
  
Tommy let his crutches fall from his hand and skipped awkwardly a  
couple of meters away from the doorway and pressed himself closer  
against the wall.   
  
"Well, you've driven me into a corner so, so I guess there's nothing I  
can do to stop you, right?" Tommy licked his lips and gave the lioness  
a shaky smile.  
  

 Jahn's eyes sparkled at that and a smile tugged at her lips, but she  
held back a little further. "You're sure you don't mind?"  
  
Tommy nodded, a little more jerkily than he'd intended. "Just be  
careful with my leg, okay?"  
  
Jahn's face lit up in a full, thankful smile. "Okay, let me just take  
these off first," she said and began to pull her woolen undershirt  
off. It caught around her neck and she had to struggle to get it off  
over her head. She laughed from inside the shirt, "There's just no way  
to make it look sexy to take one of these off. Sorry."  
  
"That's okay," Tommy said, his voice unsteady. He wasn't so sure that  
the sight of the lioness struggling with her underwear wasn't sexy, if  
of a non-glossy, down-to-earth variety, and regardless the deeper  
smell of Jahn as her fur was bared to the air was sexy beyond  
question. The scent played across his nose, a flat, prickly smell that  
had a undercurrent of dry, sun-burnt grass that resonated somewhere  
deep in his amygdalae with an old, primal song about fear and danger.  
  
Jahn got the shirt off and tossed it off in a corner. Catching Tommy's  
intent stare she flashed him a grin. "This one is easier," she said  
and reached behind her and undid the tail-strap on the woolen  
pants. She managed to peel them down to her ankles without bending her  
knees, but had to sit down on the couch for a moment to pull them all  
the way off. "Still not very sexy," she said and shrugged one shoulder  
in excuse.  
  

 "Uh..." Tommy disagreed.  
  
"Anyway, now it's time to hunt," Jahn announced and that sly  
half-smile was back as she rose.  
  
Tommy steeled himself, half expecting her to immediately spring at him  
with a roar, but instead she stalked towards him deliberately and  
slow, a small pause after every step when her tail was part of her  
moving, swishing softly from side to side. She held her shoulders  
raised and her hands a little out from her hips, palms forward and,  
Tommy realized with a twitch in his gut, claws extended.  
  
He pressed himself flat against the wall as Jahn approached. His heart  
was racing and the room seemed to dim at the edges of his vision. The  
smell of Jahn and the room became an almost physical pressure  
somewhere between his eyes. 'So this is tunnel sensing,' he thought,  
and wondered how much he was pretending to be frozen and how much he  
actually was.  
  
Suddenly, Jahn pounced the last few steps to the hare and Tommy let  
out a startled squeak. Before he had a chance to react further, Jahn  
had caught Tommy's ears in one hand and locked him against the wall  
with her body, her chest tight against his and her thigh pressed hard  
against his crotch.  
  

 Tommy fought down a needle of panic and realised he was holding his  
breath. He let it out with a small gasp and struggled not to pant. His  
heart was beating furiously and he realised that Jahn must be able to  
feel it against her chest. The grip on his ears eased a fraction, as  
did the force of Jahn's thigh against his hard-on, and Jahn perked her  
ears in a wordless question.   
  
"Wow," Tommy breathed and answered with a shaky smile. He made a tiny  
nod, as much as he could with his ears held.   
  
A smile flashed across Jahn's face and sparkled in her eyes for a  
moment before she went back in character and her expression hardened  
again, her lips pulling back to reveal the tip of her teeth. She  
brought her head in so that their whiskers all but met and made a  
deep, loud growl, tightening her grip on Tommy's ears and pressing her  
thigh back into his crotch, uncomfortably hard.  
  
Pressed so tight between Jahn and the wall, Tommy could feel her growl  
as a deep vibration against his chest and stomach. He couldn't quite  
repress a shiver and squirmed in the grip, earning him a deepening of  
the growl and a careful prick of claws at the base of his  
ears. "Please," he whimpered and held still, eyes big and  
fearful. That only took a little bit of acting -- to keep from  
pressing back against her thigh took somewhat more.  
  

 "That's a good hare," Jahn said hoarsely, her lips sliding back over  
her teeth despite her trying to stay in character. She squeezed her  
free hand in between them and began unbuttoning Tommy's shirt. "Your  
heart is going crazy," she mumbled, her hand having worked her way to  
the second uppermost button.  
  
"Um yeah, well. Prey, terrified," Tommy replied, not in the steadiest  
of voices, his mind acutely aware of the warm thigh pressing against  
his erection. He'd put his right arm around Jahn's waist at some  
point, he wasn't sure when. He ought to take it away, to stay in  
character, but his body really didn't want to. It stayed.  
  
Jahn laughed and got the last two buttons undone. She tugged his shirt  
over his shoulders and part-way down his arms, still holding his ears  
pinned against the wall with one hand. She snarled, not very  
convincingly, and put her mouth to his shoulder in a pretend bite. She  
dragged her teeth through his fur, along his shoulder and down his  
chest, as far as she could bend without either letting go of his ears  
or pulling her thigh away, then back up again to his shoulder.  
  

 "We should move to the bedroom," Jahn said, her breath hot puffs of  
air into his fur, her whiskers prickly against his neck.  
  
"Yeah," Tommy agreed.  
  
For a couple of seconds neither of them moved, then Jahn let go of his  
ears and they managed to extricate themselves from each other. Tommy  
undid the buttons on his cuffs and shrugged his shirt the rest of the  
way off.  
  
Getting to the bedroom was awkward, partly because of his cast and  
because he kept looking at Jahn's naked body as she supported him  
rather than at where they were going, but mostly because with every  
step his pants tightened uncomfortably against his hard-on.  
  
"You look, uh, really good," Tommy told Jahn as he stood in the  
doorway to the darkened bedroom, watching her hunt for the  
light switch.  
  
Jahn flashed him a smile over her shoulder as she cleared away a  
scattering of sweaters and underwear from the bed. "Bet you say that  
to every naked predator you see," she said and came back to help him  
over to the bed.  
  
"Only the ones that catch me," Tommy objected, and accepted the  
support of her arm and limped over to sit on the bed.  
  

 Getting his pants and underwear off and over his cast was a little  
awkward, but there was eager help available and shortly Jahn was  
running an eager finger along the shaft of Tommy's cock and  
sheath. "Ala, you're big; even your balls are massive," she told him  
with a twitch of her ears and ran her hand up along the length of his  
sheath and exposed cock.  
  
"Uh, leporine muscle base?" he said which earned him an amused snort  
from Jahn that might have been a suppressed giggle. "Is it going to be  
a problem?"  
  
"No, I think I can manage," Jahn said with a smile that showed the  
barest hint of teeth. "Just let me be on top and control things."  
  
Tommy had to grin. _Now_ she wanted to control things, was it? "Hey,  
I'm the prey species with the wounded leg here -- do I have any other  
choice?"  
  
Jahn's smile grew toothier and she put her hand on Tommy's chest and  
pushed his upper body down onto the bed. "Not really."  
  
"Could you get me one of those pillows?" Jahn asked as she straddled  
Tommy's hips, her tail lashing loosely against the inside of his legs.  
  

 "Sure," Tommy stretched and got hold of one of the pillows, quenched a  
momentary impulse to swat the lioness with it -- that wouldn't be very  
prey-like -- and handed it over all nice and meek.  
  
"Thanks," Jahn said and put the pillow down across Tommy's chest and  
smoothed it.   
  
Tommy shot her a quizzical glance. "Uh?"  
  
Jahn's ears lowered and her nose pulled back in what might have been  
embarrassment, "Sometimes I lose control of my claws during sex."  
  
"Oh, uh... Then the pillow stays," he concluded, earning him a grin  
and a thump of Jahn's tail against his cast.  
  
"Okay now." Jahn took hold of Tommy's cock by the end of his sheath  
and tilted it upwards, raising on her knees to make room for it  
between them. She positioned herself against the tip of it and lowered  
herself carefully down onto it, uttering a soft hiss as she sank down.  
  
"I don't want to go any deeper than this. That okay?" Jahn said when  
she'd lowered herself down to take almost all of his cock inside her,  
her voice raspy and deep.  
  
Tommy let out a breathless laugh. "Yeah, that's fine. Plenty good."  
  

 Jahn leant forward and placed her hands on the pillow on top of Tommy's  
chest, effectively pinning him down against the bed with her  
weight. With a small grunt she began riding him, slow and careful to  
begin with, but she soon felt confident enough to increase the  
pace. "Ala, I'm wet," she said in a soft pant.  
  
"I noticed," Tommy answered, in between quick gasps. He'd twisted one  
of his hands into the sheets, the other was on her thigh, feeling the  
tightness of her muscles as the lioness rocked up and down on his  
cock. She really was wet. Moving his hand to the inside of her thigh  
he could feel the fur up by her crotch completely soaked.  
  
Jahn bared her teeth and leant forward, putting more weight on the  
pillow and pressing Tommy hard down against the mattress. A soundless  
snarl formed on her lips as she fucked him, ears twitching  
involuntarily every time she pressed herself back down on his cock.   
  
Jahn let out a loud, harsh hiss and there was a loud tearing sound.  
  
  
  
  
The first thing Tommy noticed when as he woke was a dull pain in his  
leg, reminding him that he'd chosen drinks instead of painkillers the  
previous evening. The second thing he noticed was a warm furry  
presence in the bed behind him, which reminded him of other things. He  
yawned and shook his ears and rolled himself around -- and looked  
straight into the bright grey eyes of a snow leopardess.  
  

 As the moment of stunned confusion grew longer and longer without  
Tommy managing to vocalise a sound, much less a word, the smile on the  
snow leopard turned into a grin that slowly grew wider. "Hi! I'm  
Dariga."  
  
"I... uh, where's Jahn?" Tommy managed to stutter out, barely.  
  
"Jahiho'uhne? In the kitchen. She seems to be in a really good mood  
this morning," Dariga said, amusement dancing in her eyes.  
  
"Uh..." Tommy's brain drew another blank, and his ears flopped down in  
awkward befuddlement. He was exceedingly aware of the warmth radiating  
from her almost-touching body and of the fact that he was naked under  
the sheets. The inside of his ears took on a decidedly pink hue.  
  
Perhaps reading much of that from Tommy's expression, Dariga's grin  
grew impish as she held the poor hare's gaze for a long, tense moment  
before speaking again. "Do you want me to fetch your crutches in the  
living room? Give you a chance to get dressed?"  
  
Ears burning, Tommy nodded desperately, "Please?"  
  
The snow leopardess smiled and slid out of bed and onto her feet with  
lazy grace. Tommy's heart twitched sharply when he saw she was  
completely naked too. Powerful, thick shoulders; a spotted, slender  
back; broad, shapely hips, bare buttocks sporting more spots; a long,  
thick, fuzzy tail; muscular, powerful thighs... not a stitch of clothing  
in sight.  
  

 She took a moment to stretch, apparently without regard that Tommy was  
in the room and that she was naked to the fur. Tommy stared, he  
couldn't help it, but when Dariga looked back over her shoulder and  
caught him at it she didn't seem to mind. She just flashed him another  
amused grin.  
  
"In case you are wondering: no, we haven't," she said, pausing in the  
doorway with an impish glimmer in her eyes. "I came home freezing and  
the two of you looked so warm, so I snuck into the bed with you." A  
slow swish of her tail threatened to reveal her last remaining privacy  
and Tommy locked his gaze desperately onto her shoulder.  
  
"Uh, right. Okay," he said, feeling stupid and confused, acutely aware  
of his ears burning and fighting to suppress a twitch in his groin.  
  
"Just thought you should know," Dariga said and flashed him another  
smile and disappeared from the doorway into the hallway.  
  
Tommy sat up and swung his legs clumsily over the side of the bed,  
making sure to keep the sheet draped over his lap as he looked for his  
pants and underwear. Dariga's head suddenly reappeared in the doorway  
and Tommy froze.  
  

 "I did peek, though," she admitted with an impish grin and disappeared  
again, leaving Tommy with a strong, rosy colour on the inside of his  
ears.  
  
Tommy managed to find his pants and underwear and put them on before  
Dariga re-appeared, still naked, to hand him his crutches. Taking the  
crutches without staring at anything too sensitive was an exercise in  
restraint that was rewarded with a wide smile and a sway of her hips  
as the snow leopardess sauntered off again.  
  
After a detour to the bathroom, Tommy limped his way through the  
living room and into the kitchen. Jahn was standing by the stove  
frying some kind of meat. He saw fried eggs already prepared, so he  
supposed it was bacon.  
  
"Hey." The lioness' ears swung forward as she looked towards Tommy  
with a large smile. She'd put on some thermal long johns and a faded  
blue t-shirt and a white apron over that. She looked good in it, Tommy  
thought.  
  
"Hey." Tommy smiled back and his ears perked up, everything suddenly  
all right.  
  
"Sorry about Dariga. She's impossible; absolutely no shame. I meant to  
kick her out of bed before you woke, but you looked so sound asleep, I  
thought I had more time." Jahn's ears dipped in apology.  
  

 "It's okay," Tommy said and realized that it actually was. He limped  
his way over to the kitchen table and sat down. "I think she just  
wanted to shock me."  
  
Jahn dipped a sympathetic ear, but not without a hint of a smile. "Yes,  
she does that. Sorry. Do you want breakfast, by the way?" she asked  
and shoveled the bacon from the skillet onto the plate with the eggs.  
  
Tommy's felt his stomach lurch at the sight of the greasy bacon. "Uh,  
have you got any root vegetables or something?"  
  
"Oh fuck! Of course you don't eat meat. I'm an idiot. Vegetables... I  
don't know," Jahn's face fell and her eyes roamed uncertainly about  
the kitchen, looking for anything that looked like it might hide a  
vegetable.  
  
"Don't worry about it," Tommy smiled. Jahn's mistake and her chagrin  
at it made him feel oddly pleased.  
  
"There's orange juice in the fridge and some bulbs of garlic in the  
cabinet next to the jerky," Dariga said, lounging in the doorway,  
still not dressed.  
  
"Orange juice would be great," Tommy said and did his best to keep his  
gaze off the naked snow leopard, something that became difficult when  
Dariga sauntered into the kitchen and began rooting around in the  
fridge looking for the orange juice. Not bending at the knees either,  
Tommy noticed in his peripheral vision.  
  

 Jahn rolled her eyes at the snow leopard and sat down at the table  
next to Tommy with her plate of bacon and egg and an empty glass which  
she slid over to him. "You might as well look, you know," she told  
him. "She wouldn't be parading around like that unless she wanted you  
to."  
  
"I have no idea what she's talking about. I just couldn't find any  
clothes I wanted to wear," Dariga grinned and walked over with a  
carton of orange juice for Tommy. She put it down with a flick of her  
whiskers and walked back to the doorway, hips and tail swaying  
hypnotically.  
  
An unexpected brushing of claws through his stomach fur startled Tommy  
and he jerked his gaze away from the swaying, fuzzy derriere and into  
Jahn's amused eyes.  
  
"Don't forget to drink your breakfast, hare." Jahn retracted her claws  
and stroked her fingers firmly through Tommy's soft fur.  
  
"You're not making it easy for me," Tommy said, the inside of his ears  
rosy.  
  
"Nope," said Jahn and grinned, the tip of her tail brushing against  
Tommy's good ankle. She picked up her fork in her left hand and  
speared some bacon on it, leaving her right hand free to linger on  
Tommy's stomach while she ate.  
  

 "She's making it hard for you? Again?" Dariga wondered from the  
doorway, eyes twinkling.  
  
The inside of Tommy's ears grew darker red and his whiskers flickered  
as he laughed. "I think you both are. Oh, hang on." Tommy got his  
suddenly chirping cellphone from his trouser pocket and checked it.  
It was an SMS from Curler.  
  
"Your friends looking for you?" Jahn asked and took her hand off  
Tommy's stomach, her ears dipping low.  
  
"Yeah," Tommy nodded and tapped away at the undersized keys with his  
blunt claws, writing a reply. "They've just gone to breakfast; they  
want to check out and get going in about an hour."  
  
"Oh."   
  
"Yeah."  
  
There was a brief, awkward pause but it was dispelled when Dariga  
asked in mock upset "What? We don't get to keep him?"  
  
Jahn shook off the spell and perked her ears back up. "'Fraid  
not. Strictly catch and release." She chewed down a couple of hurried  
slices of bacon and put her fork down. "Go put on some clothes, you  
hussy. We have a hare to deliver," she told Dariga, who smiled and  
walked off to get dressed with a swish of her tail.  
  

 "'A hare to deliver'? From evil?" Tommy smiled.  
  
"Perhaps." Jahn smiled back and got up, pausing to caress the back of  
Tommy's ears lightly. "I better go get dressed too. Just sit and  
finish your orange juice. I'll get your jacket and shoes... shoe for  
you."  
  
  
  
  
"There they are," Tommy said and nodded towards a small group of  
hares at a table at the back of the dining room. They were  
chattering about over breakfast, hands gesticulating and ears flicking  
right and left.  
  
Tommy was squeezed in between Jahn and Dariga, one arm around Jahn's  
waist and the other draped over Dariga's shoulders, Jahn carrying his  
crutches. Truth to tell, it would have been less awkward to have taken  
his crutches himself and hobbled down to the hotel on his own, but  
doing it this way had its advantages -- primarily him having one arm  
around Jahn's waist and the other draped over Dariga's shoulders.  
  
Jahn and Dariga shared a look, Dariga's lip twitching up to reveal one  
of her fangs. "Sure we can't keep him?"  
  
"I wish," Jahn replied, which earned her an extra squeeze from  
Tommy.  
  

 "Well, let's at least give them a show, then." Dariga started forward,  
pulling Tommy and in turn Jahn along with her.  
  
"Hey, does this belong to you?" Dariga grinned, all teeth, and  
proffered Tommy towards the table. The hares' chattering cut off  
abruptly and all their ears swiveled towards the unlikely trio.  
  
Supported by the cats, Tommy hobbled forward and slid into the  
remaining free chair at the table. "Thanks," he said and accepted his  
crutches from Jahn.  
  
"This is for all the fun this morning," Dariga said and leant down and  
gave Tommy a slow, intimate lick on the cheek.  
  
"And this is for last night," Jahn added and leant down to place a  
similar lick on Tommy's other cheek, slowly rasping her tongue along  
his fur from the base of his jaw and up to the corner of his  
mouth. She brushed her muzzle against the side of his ear as she stood  
up, and whispered something that sent shivers down Tommy's back. Then  
she and Dariga turned and walked off arm-in-arm, hips swaying.  
  
Tommy turned and watched them leave, then when there was too many  
tables and people in the way, he turned back to the table and grabbed  
himself a slice of toast. Finally meeting the disbelieving stares and  
forward turned ears of his friends, Tommy feigned innocence. "What?"  
  

   
  
  
"I can't believe you didn't get her number. She sounds perfect for  
you, you dimwit!" Bobby, Curler's sister, was loudly exasperated with  
Tommy in the back seat. Over the last hour or so, she had managed to  
extract at least the gist of Tommy's evening and that it had centered  
on only one of the two "crazy hot cats" to use Axel's description.  
  
In the passenger seat, Tommy just smiled and shrugged. "It just didn't  
come up." He turned to watch the landscape run past the side window  
and thought about what Jahn had whispered to him as she left.He  
chuckled and suppressed a faint shiver. "Besides, I don't need her  
number: She's got my scent."

Source: https://sofurry.com/s/rn69zYEm