Gone and Come Home Ch.6
#7 of Gone and Come Home
I was so startled that I jumped up out of the sofa and was halted as I felt myself pinned down by some orange furry blob, and ripped myself free and tried running around to the other side of the room, again forgetting about my knee and within the first second of putting my leg down, it again collapsed under my weight, plunging me headfirst onto the upturned heavy wooden chair. There was a crack as my head collided with the chair with the full force of my weight, then blackness.
I hazily woke up, surrounded by something warm and comfortable, and soft. I groaned and slipped my eyes open, still hazy from my long sleep. I groaned again as I saw an orange, hazy but yet outlined figure over my head. I pried my eyes open, and looked with as much focus I could get at the figure, and realized it was Jim.
"Uhn... Wh-what happened?" I managed to drag out.
"Well, my dumbshit brother managed to barge through the door and tackle us..." He growled, lauder than necessary, facing towards the closed door.
"Wh-wait... You have a brother...?" I mumbled, getting up on my elbows.
"Yeah, he's 12, but he's really smart in school, but obviously not in life... Toby! Get up here!" He through the closed door. Then there was rushed footsteps up the stairs, and I could tell there were two pairs, not just one. Now I was confused... Then the door opened, and a juvenile face poked shyly and guiltily through the crack of the door. Then, he stumbled, as if he was pushed, inside the room, and I could see their mother standing outside of the door. She immediately close it once Toby was inside, looking shy and extremely guilty.
"Well, this is my brother Toby. Toby, this is Greg. You haven't heard his story yet, and I think you would benefit from hearing all of it. Come on, grab that chair over there," Jim said, pointing to the second chair sitting in his room, "and sit yourself down over here."
Toby did as he was told, still looking as guilty as ever. I knew what Jim was doing. Toby was obviously a very caring and nice cheerful person, and him feeling this guilty would not be the easiest for us to greet each other in for the first time. So, Jim was warming us up to each other with this story, making him feel like he already knew me.
Toby grabbed the chair and sat down next to his brother.
"So, why are you here Greg? How did you get to be here with us?" Toby said, smiling at me. I smiled back with my lopsided mouth, something Toby caught and got his attention. I used this, and started my story.
"-And Jim nearly ran me over, and that's how I got into this sticky little situation." I finished, nudging Jim with a playful manner, grinning, and he shoved me back, both of us laughing.
"So, how long will you be here for?" Toby asked me, when me and my lover were done playing.
"Well, I don't really know, to tell you the truth. I hope forever, but that may not be true. Maybe just until my injuries heal, but I know one thing, I will never go back to those animals who felt like they owned me before."
"Well, I hope you stay... I really like you..." Toby muttered, looking down.
"Hey! He's my boyfriend, not yours you little kitty..." Jim growled playfully, and tackled his brother onto the floor, rolling around with him in his arms as they both laughed and growled and bit at each other just like brothers do...
In the meantime, I was trying to reach a conclusion in the raging torrent which was my aching, wrapped head...
Were they both gay? I know Jim is but did Toby mean it like that? Should I ask? But what if-no, he just said that I'm his boyfriend, so he must know... I'm have to ask...
"Hey, um..." I interjected, making both of them stop in their playful wrestling and looking at me, curious.
"I have to know you guys... are you both....erm...."
"Gay?" Jim finished, relieving me of the question. My eyes said it all. "Yeah, we both are, and both of our parents know it. They know we don't like each other, so they're fine with it. Little kitty here doesn't have a boyfriend yet, but he will eventually, aren't I right little kitty?" Jim said to his brother, pinned under him.
"Oh shut up." Toby said back, in a friendly way, then going back to trying to throw his brother off of him.
I put all of the wrestling into the background as I stared around the room again, looking at the covered walls again. A few minutes passed, then Jim got his brother into submission, and started out,
"Hey Greg, you want something to eat?" Then he noticed I was lost looking around the room, and remembered the promise he made to me yesterday.
"Oh! Hey! I was going to tell you about all of my pictures, remember?" He said, relieving his brother to come and sit next to me.
"Hey, you never told me about your drawings..." Toby pleaded his brother.
"Well come sit down then, I'll make sure to include you." Toby came up and sat next to Jim, while he rested me on his shoulder, running his hand through my back fur.
"So which one do you want to hear about first, hun?" He said into my ear. I pointed to one of a particular interest-
"That one." I said. Jim got up and took it off of the wall and brought it back to the bed, and both of the onlookers crowding around his shoulders to see.
The picture was a very interesting one---it was a black, white and red picture, but it was a pattern. The pattern was of a sort of wolf, lion and tiger mixture, and the creature curled into a ball with a sort of Japanese art style dominance, using only the three colors. The ball had a sort of red and black fiery mane, showing off the ball pose that it incorporated, making a flame rise up all the way around fifty percent of the ball, with the defining muscles in black and outlines in red, and the muzzle curled inside, covered by the body. It was an amazing piece, and seemed to have a lot of emotion about it.
"This one picture I made a while ago, and was about the first feelings I had when I first came into this school. The emotions were that although you look innocent and calm and serene on the outside, you can feel like you are about to kill somebody on the inside. For this instance, me and this one kid got into a fight, and I refused to hit him. I wanted to head off, and I could have, but I knew that if I did, that would ruin my entire being. It would make me such an unlikable person, and would have torn myself apart. I released those feelings when I came home that day, into this picture. The fiery fur and muscles about this animal is to show the emotions I was feeling at the time, of anger and rage, but then the body pose is of innocence and obedience. I also used three different animals, a wolf, a lion, and tiger, all combined into one to symbolize the different attributes of each animal. The wolf for it's skill and cunning and stealth, the lion for it's ferociousness, and the tiger because of it's sleekness and intelligent use of power."
We both asked questions, and he answered both of ours. When we had both finished, I pointed out another, and we continued onward with the explanations.
Finally, after hours and hours of going over piece after piece of artwork, the voice of their mother called from downstairs.
"Boys! Dinner's ready!!"
"Well, looks like we gotta go to dinner." Jim said. Toby stood up and opened the door.
"See you guys down there." He said as he left, leaving the door open for me and Jim. Jim picked me up and carried me down to the table, where Toby was sitting, their mother was putting food on the table, and their father was coming from a chair, folding a newspaper.
"Heey there... Looks like we finally get to meet. I'm Mr. Emrodite, but you can just call me Phil." He said, extending his paw and smiling. I smiled back, still in the cradles of my lovers arms as I shook his hand, and was placed in an empty chair around the table.
The family connected hands, and me shortly after knowing what this was, and proceeded to say the grace. When that was over, they treated me like I was already a member of their family... I felt so loved, the two kids joking to me, the parents offering me food, just me partaking in the natural flow of a family dinner.
Then Phil spoke up to me. "Hey whoa, what happened to your head?" I felt up where I got hit earlier and felt a bit of padding wrapped around it, and continuing around the back of my head. I hadn't even noticed it.
Jim answered, "Well this kid over here decided to tackle me while we were hugging, and so brought us down together and beforehand I had not told Greg that he was at a school-year-beginning sleepover, and greg got startled and tried to run away and his knee gave out on him again and he fell on the chair that upturned when he tackled me. Phew..." Jim said all of that in one breath, one sentence.
Then Phil turned his gaze to Toby, who lowered his ears and sunk in his chair.
"Toby...." He said in a low voice. "What have I told you about this kind of thing in the house? I thought I said no more of it, you were barely gone for two days!" His father scolded him.
"Well, yeah, but mom was telling me about Greg and I didn't know he was there and I was just so excited... I'm sorry..." Toby pleaded to his father.
"I forgive you, son. But I really think the main person you should apologize to is Greg, You knocked him unconscious for God's sake! I mean, look at his head..." He said, looking to me as I stopped in between a bite to look up myself and into Toby's once again guilty green eyes.
"I'm sorry Greg.... I didn't know...." He started pleading, but I broke him off.
"Oh, don't be sorry. I'm glad someone is excited to have me in their life. I forgive you, Toby." I said, smiling with my funny looking mouth.
Th dinner continued with the regular family kind of dinner, and afterwards we went back to discussing Jim's pictures until the late night, until his mother came in and said it was time for Toby to go to bed, and we decided it was time also, kissing and saying goodnight, and hugging each other again, intertwining out bodies together once more before we went to our rooms and drifted off to sleep, awaiting another wonderful day with the two if us... together, ad lovers.