FIC: To the Changing Moon (2/?)
Apr. 16th, 2008 02:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nilchanceTitle: To the Changing Moon (2/?)
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nilchance
It isn't Jeff's proudest moment, but he yelps and strikes, shoving the man off his chest. The man comes awake in an instant, tumbling off the bed and onto the floor on all fours. They both skitter to their respective corners and stare at each other, pinned down by surprise and alarm.
"What the fuck?" Jeff asks, then demands louder, "What the fuck? Who the hell are you?"
The man has the balls to look affronted. Sitting up, he looks himself over, then glares at Jeff.
"Hey. I'm talking to you, asshole. How did you get in here without--" Without Bisou reacting. Suddenly terrified for his animals, Jeff climbs off the bed.
As soon as he's up, the man shrinks in on himself and flattens against the wall. The whites show around his eyes for a fleeting second, before he ducks his head against his knees. The bare nape of his neck shows under his scraggly, too long hair: black ink on pale skin. A barcode.
Jeff stops, staring at him. "No," he says slowly. "You're not... no."
The man stays in the fetal position, protecting his belly. He flinches when Jeff takes a step towards him.
"Fuck," Jeff mutters. "Stay there. Stay right there."
He goes out to look for Bisou and the cat. Bisou is sitting happily on the couch, where she isn't supposed to be. There's no sign of the cat, but Jeff realizes he wasn't really expecting there to be.
There's a guy with a barcode in his bedroom. A barcode that matches his cat's. So either there's a medical lab somewhere skilled in naked home invasion strategies, or... it's too bizarre to think, but his best possibility is that his cat is part human. Or his human is part cat.
"Thanks," Jeff tells Bisou. "Thank you so much for pointing me down that alley. Really."
She wags.
Jeff thumps his leg, and Bisou comes to him. He takes her to the man on the floor, and she immediately is all over him, licking his face and huddling against him. And like that, Jeff is convinced, because Bisou's never been that damn friendly to other humans.
It's a weird truth, but it's a truth. Running it over and over in his head doesn't help him find any other options.
"Um." Kneeling down, Jeff offers out his hand to the cat... man to sniff. "Hi."
The man peeks out from beneath his hair, silent reproach, and swats Jeff's hand away. There's an irregular cut on the man's arm where the cat had been scratched.
"Well, I'm sorry. I'm not used to cats turning into people." When the man pulls tighter in on himself, reacting to Jeff's exasperation, Jeff sighs and tries again. He touches the man's hand, moving slow. "I'm not mad. I'm just surprised. Don't be scared."
The man lifts his head a little, giving Jeff a wary look, and bats at his hand. It's not a 'get away' pat, though.
"Good. Okay. Thank you for being patient." Jeff sits back. "Do you understand me? When I talk to you?"
The man says nothing. His eyes are the same bottle-green, but the eyelashes are new. He looks tired, even more brutally thin in this shape than in the other. He doesn't untangle himself.
Trying a new angle, Jeff asks, "Where did you come from? How did this happen to you?"
Nothing. The man shifts closer to Bisou, tucking in against her side, and hides his face again.
"Now isn't the time to play the 'I'm ignoring you game', baby." Too much of the man's body shows through his folded legs; Jeff clears his throat. "What should I be calling you? Because I don't think your parents named you Cat. Um. If they didn't name you Meow, and you didn't come from a litter."
The man turns his head, resting his cheek against Bisou, and studies Jeff. There's something there, human intelligence behind his eyes. Just... lost. It hurts Jeff to see just how lost the man really is.
"What's your name?" Jeff asks.
The man blinks, wrinkles his nose, and sits up. He stares for a moment at his hands, like he isn't sure what to do with them, and starts to lean forward onto him.
Jeff knows he can't handle watching this man crawl naked across his floor. He touches the man's shoulder and hates himself when the man pulls back. It isn't fear, though; the man just gives him a look, and then starts brushing at his shoulder like it's filthy. He'd probably be licking himself clean if he could reach.
If he starts laughing now, he won't stop. Jeff says, "Let me get you a robe."
The man tilts his head, blinks again, then leans forward and pats Jeff's face. After a minute, he starts touching Jeff's face with his fingers, apparently fascinated.
"Okay, sweetheart. You do that. You-"
Those searching fingers end up in his mouth. Jeff pulls back, and the man makes a face before moving forward and starting again. This time, Jeff keeps his mouth shut, but the man seems happy just touching his beard. The man strokes him, gentling, patting at Jeff's jaw to get him to turn his head so the man can study the scar on his cheek.
"Where did you come from?" Jeff murmurs again, mostly to himself.
The man touches his throat, his larynx, and hums. Hums again, little bursts of vibration, until Jeff clears his throat.
The man doesn't smile, but his eyes light up, and he hums louder. No words. Mute? God, what did they do to him in that lab?
"My name's Jeff," Jeff tells him. "I'm not going to hurt you."
The man sits back, folding his hands in his lap, and looks solemn. Then Bisou's tail wags, and his attention is gone, refocused on chasing her tail with his fingers.
"Right." Jeff grabs the poster of his bed, starts to pull himself up. "I'm gonna get some food and then deal with-"
And, easy as saying food, the man is staring up at him. Attentive. For good measure, he paws at Jeff's leg.
"Do you just understand food?" Jeff asks. "Or are you ignoring everything else I say because it's boring?"
At the word 'food', the man makes a querelous, curious noise in his throat and stares harder at him.
"Pants first," Jeff says. "Understand? Pants."
Expression clouding, the man sits back on his heels, exhales and looks away again. Bored now. If Jeff isn't imagining it, the man exchanges a long-suffering look with Bisou and sighs.
Slowly, Jeff reaches into his cabinet and pulls out a pair of sweats. They're old, and they'll hang like clownpants off the man's skinny hips, but they're something. Then he shakes them out, and puts them in front of the man. "Pants," he repeats.
The man refuses to look at him.
Tapping the sweats, Jeff says, "You need to put these on."
Still nothing.
Jeff sighs. "So you can get food."
Instead of the outright interest he expected, the man gives him a sidelong look, then pointedly doesn't pay any attention to the sweats.
"You can't run around here naked, dude. I have neighbors. And windows." Jeff rubs the back of his neck. "Fuck, you are, uh. Toilet trained. Right?"
The disdainful look the man gives him could kill.
"Oh, now you're listening?" Jeff pushes the sweats over. "Pants. You need to wear them."
The man picks up the end of the sweats, by one ragged leg. Then he puts them in front of Bisou, who happily chews on the hem.
"No! No. Aw, don't flinch, I'm not..." The man hunches and looks at him, wary again. Jeff bites back a growl, counts to five, and grabs the pants from Bisou. Thankfully, she doesn't decide to play tug. Wiping off the drool, Jeff says, "Okay. You want me to help?"
No answer. The man rubs at his face with the back of his hand and glares.
"I'm not asking you to wear a tie here, sweetheart. Will you just work with me?" Slowly, Jeff reached out and let his hand hover over the man's ankle. "One leg at a time. I'm gonna touch you."
With a quick prayer to whoever tamed cats, Jeff closed his hand around the man's ankle. For a minute, he thought he had it. Then the man blinked, squirmed, and rolled away from him. He lay on his belly, staring at Jeff's outstretched hand, and patted it.
"We're not playing right now, cat." Shaking out the sweats again, Jeff sets his jaw and says firmly, "Now come here."
Which is how Jeff spends four hours trying to pull a man out from under his bed.
****
They're both scratched and bruised, and Jeff isn't sure which of them is worse off, but the man is in pants. It's something.
"Can you write?" Jeff asks, putting bits of turkey on a paper plate. "Anything? I just need to know who you are."
The man looks at him, rumpled and glum, a silent 'fuck you' if Jeff's ever seen one. Bisou's already had her lunch in the time it took Jeff to get the man to walk to the kitchen. The man can manage two legs, but he doesn't like it by any means, and he let Jeff know by grabbing every doorframe they passed.
"You understand me. I know you do. And you're not..." Crazy? There's a man acting like a cat on his kitchen floor, and Jeff's ready to vouch for his sanity. Rubbing between his eyes, Jeff starts again. "Can you change back? Do you know how?"
The man stretches to see the plate's contents.
"You could at least nod."
With another dark look, the man sinks back to the floor and waits. Not patiently.
"Fine." Jeff tears up the last piece and holds the plate out. "Here you--"
The man snatches the plate away and bolts. Before Jeff's even out of the kitchen, the man has somehow wedged himself behind the couch with the plate.
Well, then. At least he was dressed--
A moment later, the pants come flying over the back of the couch.
Jeff goes to get some aspirin.
Author:
nilchanceIt isn't Jeff's proudest moment, but he yelps and strikes, shoving the man off his chest. The man comes awake in an instant, tumbling off the bed and onto the floor on all fours. They both skitter to their respective corners and stare at each other, pinned down by surprise and alarm.
"What the fuck?" Jeff asks, then demands louder, "What the fuck? Who the hell are you?"
The man has the balls to look affronted. Sitting up, he looks himself over, then glares at Jeff.
"Hey. I'm talking to you, asshole. How did you get in here without--" Without Bisou reacting. Suddenly terrified for his animals, Jeff climbs off the bed.
As soon as he's up, the man shrinks in on himself and flattens against the wall. The whites show around his eyes for a fleeting second, before he ducks his head against his knees. The bare nape of his neck shows under his scraggly, too long hair: black ink on pale skin. A barcode.
Jeff stops, staring at him. "No," he says slowly. "You're not... no."
The man stays in the fetal position, protecting his belly. He flinches when Jeff takes a step towards him.
"Fuck," Jeff mutters. "Stay there. Stay right there."
He goes out to look for Bisou and the cat. Bisou is sitting happily on the couch, where she isn't supposed to be. There's no sign of the cat, but Jeff realizes he wasn't really expecting there to be.
There's a guy with a barcode in his bedroom. A barcode that matches his cat's. So either there's a medical lab somewhere skilled in naked home invasion strategies, or... it's too bizarre to think, but his best possibility is that his cat is part human. Or his human is part cat.
"Thanks," Jeff tells Bisou. "Thank you so much for pointing me down that alley. Really."
She wags.
Jeff thumps his leg, and Bisou comes to him. He takes her to the man on the floor, and she immediately is all over him, licking his face and huddling against him. And like that, Jeff is convinced, because Bisou's never been that damn friendly to other humans.
It's a weird truth, but it's a truth. Running it over and over in his head doesn't help him find any other options.
"Um." Kneeling down, Jeff offers out his hand to the cat... man to sniff. "Hi."
The man peeks out from beneath his hair, silent reproach, and swats Jeff's hand away. There's an irregular cut on the man's arm where the cat had been scratched.
"Well, I'm sorry. I'm not used to cats turning into people." When the man pulls tighter in on himself, reacting to Jeff's exasperation, Jeff sighs and tries again. He touches the man's hand, moving slow. "I'm not mad. I'm just surprised. Don't be scared."
The man lifts his head a little, giving Jeff a wary look, and bats at his hand. It's not a 'get away' pat, though.
"Good. Okay. Thank you for being patient." Jeff sits back. "Do you understand me? When I talk to you?"
The man says nothing. His eyes are the same bottle-green, but the eyelashes are new. He looks tired, even more brutally thin in this shape than in the other. He doesn't untangle himself.
Trying a new angle, Jeff asks, "Where did you come from? How did this happen to you?"
Nothing. The man shifts closer to Bisou, tucking in against her side, and hides his face again.
"Now isn't the time to play the 'I'm ignoring you game', baby." Too much of the man's body shows through his folded legs; Jeff clears his throat. "What should I be calling you? Because I don't think your parents named you Cat. Um. If they didn't name you Meow, and you didn't come from a litter."
The man turns his head, resting his cheek against Bisou, and studies Jeff. There's something there, human intelligence behind his eyes. Just... lost. It hurts Jeff to see just how lost the man really is.
"What's your name?" Jeff asks.
The man blinks, wrinkles his nose, and sits up. He stares for a moment at his hands, like he isn't sure what to do with them, and starts to lean forward onto him.
Jeff knows he can't handle watching this man crawl naked across his floor. He touches the man's shoulder and hates himself when the man pulls back. It isn't fear, though; the man just gives him a look, and then starts brushing at his shoulder like it's filthy. He'd probably be licking himself clean if he could reach.
If he starts laughing now, he won't stop. Jeff says, "Let me get you a robe."
The man tilts his head, blinks again, then leans forward and pats Jeff's face. After a minute, he starts touching Jeff's face with his fingers, apparently fascinated.
"Okay, sweetheart. You do that. You-"
Those searching fingers end up in his mouth. Jeff pulls back, and the man makes a face before moving forward and starting again. This time, Jeff keeps his mouth shut, but the man seems happy just touching his beard. The man strokes him, gentling, patting at Jeff's jaw to get him to turn his head so the man can study the scar on his cheek.
"Where did you come from?" Jeff murmurs again, mostly to himself.
The man touches his throat, his larynx, and hums. Hums again, little bursts of vibration, until Jeff clears his throat.
The man doesn't smile, but his eyes light up, and he hums louder. No words. Mute? God, what did they do to him in that lab?
"My name's Jeff," Jeff tells him. "I'm not going to hurt you."
The man sits back, folding his hands in his lap, and looks solemn. Then Bisou's tail wags, and his attention is gone, refocused on chasing her tail with his fingers.
"Right." Jeff grabs the poster of his bed, starts to pull himself up. "I'm gonna get some food and then deal with-"
And, easy as saying food, the man is staring up at him. Attentive. For good measure, he paws at Jeff's leg.
"Do you just understand food?" Jeff asks. "Or are you ignoring everything else I say because it's boring?"
At the word 'food', the man makes a querelous, curious noise in his throat and stares harder at him.
"Pants first," Jeff says. "Understand? Pants."
Expression clouding, the man sits back on his heels, exhales and looks away again. Bored now. If Jeff isn't imagining it, the man exchanges a long-suffering look with Bisou and sighs.
Slowly, Jeff reaches into his cabinet and pulls out a pair of sweats. They're old, and they'll hang like clownpants off the man's skinny hips, but they're something. Then he shakes them out, and puts them in front of the man. "Pants," he repeats.
The man refuses to look at him.
Tapping the sweats, Jeff says, "You need to put these on."
Still nothing.
Jeff sighs. "So you can get food."
Instead of the outright interest he expected, the man gives him a sidelong look, then pointedly doesn't pay any attention to the sweats.
"You can't run around here naked, dude. I have neighbors. And windows." Jeff rubs the back of his neck. "Fuck, you are, uh. Toilet trained. Right?"
The disdainful look the man gives him could kill.
"Oh, now you're listening?" Jeff pushes the sweats over. "Pants. You need to wear them."
The man picks up the end of the sweats, by one ragged leg. Then he puts them in front of Bisou, who happily chews on the hem.
"No! No. Aw, don't flinch, I'm not..." The man hunches and looks at him, wary again. Jeff bites back a growl, counts to five, and grabs the pants from Bisou. Thankfully, she doesn't decide to play tug. Wiping off the drool, Jeff says, "Okay. You want me to help?"
No answer. The man rubs at his face with the back of his hand and glares.
"I'm not asking you to wear a tie here, sweetheart. Will you just work with me?" Slowly, Jeff reached out and let his hand hover over the man's ankle. "One leg at a time. I'm gonna touch you."
With a quick prayer to whoever tamed cats, Jeff closed his hand around the man's ankle. For a minute, he thought he had it. Then the man blinked, squirmed, and rolled away from him. He lay on his belly, staring at Jeff's outstretched hand, and patted it.
"We're not playing right now, cat." Shaking out the sweats again, Jeff sets his jaw and says firmly, "Now come here."
Which is how Jeff spends four hours trying to pull a man out from under his bed.
****
They're both scratched and bruised, and Jeff isn't sure which of them is worse off, but the man is in pants. It's something.
"Can you write?" Jeff asks, putting bits of turkey on a paper plate. "Anything? I just need to know who you are."
The man looks at him, rumpled and glum, a silent 'fuck you' if Jeff's ever seen one. Bisou's already had her lunch in the time it took Jeff to get the man to walk to the kitchen. The man can manage two legs, but he doesn't like it by any means, and he let Jeff know by grabbing every doorframe they passed.
"You understand me. I know you do. And you're not..." Crazy? There's a man acting like a cat on his kitchen floor, and Jeff's ready to vouch for his sanity. Rubbing between his eyes, Jeff starts again. "Can you change back? Do you know how?"
The man stretches to see the plate's contents.
"You could at least nod."
With another dark look, the man sinks back to the floor and waits. Not patiently.
"Fine." Jeff tears up the last piece and holds the plate out. "Here you--"
The man snatches the plate away and bolts. Before Jeff's even out of the kitchen, the man has somehow wedged himself behind the couch with the plate.
Well, then. At least he was dressed--
A moment later, the pants come flying over the back of the couch.
Jeff goes to get some aspirin.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 06:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 06:29 pm (UTC)this makes me happy. a lot.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 06:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 06:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 06:40 pm (UTC)Oh, you've got Jensen's cat body-language down *perfect.* This is so awesome. I clutch Jensen's contrariness to my heart and GRIN.
\o/
no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 06:42 pm (UTC)Jeff being all exasperated is too cute!
no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 06:50 pm (UTC)Well, then. At least he was dressed--
A moment later, the pants come flying over the back of the couch.
Jeff goes to get some aspirin.
*howls!*
I really, really love this series. It, by turns, makes me go 'awwww!' and 'heeee!'. I'm waiting patiently (because the trip is so entertaining) for it to make me pant and writhe.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 07:20 pm (UTC)I don't even want to know how Jensen became a cat (or human if he started out as a kitten), not now, the interaction between Jeff and him is just so wonderful ... that's not to say that I'm not curious - I am - but this is just so much love ...
*contented purring*
no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 07:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 07:36 pm (UTC)OMG. *dies laughing* This is the best ever!
no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 07:47 pm (UTC)Killed me DED of teh giggles.
*rolls around laughing*
no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 07:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 08:15 pm (UTC)Which is how Jeff spends four hours trying to pull a man out from under his bed.
Oh god, especially that bit. At least human-shaped catperson doesn't have those hooked claws!
no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 08:21 pm (UTC)Oh, i love. But yes, wtf, weird and horrible lab that's fucking with people and cats!
*watches for more*
I love the sulky look and the pants. Flying over the couch. Heee!
no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 09:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 09:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 09:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 09:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 09:38 pm (UTC)This was just gripping and I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see if Jeff would recognize him and Jeff was being so sweet and patient and gentle and it was all so wonderful- and then this line and I just FELL OFF MY COUCH laughing. HAH!
This is great!
no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 09:43 pm (UTC)Jeff is going to be his human, isn't he? Soooooo good!
no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 09:46 pm (UTC)I love it. *sits happily to wait for more*
:)
no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 11:45 pm (UTC)BTW the two of you have got some serious writing-fu going on in the last couple of days and I think it's awesome.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-17 01:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-17 02:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-17 03:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-17 05:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-17 05:23 am (UTC)Jeff had a lot of patience there...
And somehow is hard for me to see Jensen with long hair...*g*
no subject
Date: 2008-04-17 01:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-20 01:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-22 06:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-23 04:20 pm (UTC)The fight between laughter and squee, heartache and sympathy just keeps me coming back for more. SO GOOD!
no subject
Date: 2008-04-26 08:54 am (UTC)Thanks, i needed that!
no subject
Date: 2008-05-09 08:55 pm (UTC)Aww this is so cute! Jeff straddling with Alec to get him into pants and back out of under his bed. *snicker*
no subject
Date: 2009-01-30 10:47 pm (UTC)Cute naked fetish ^^