*Finished!
Please enjoy Cat and Dog, and if you missed it, go back and enjoy my second-newest story, Firecracker.
Both of the stories are stand-alone, but I may ad chapters in the future.
I see nothing in the near future, but stories have surprised me before. I wrote File 66 in three days, so don't give up hope.
All Characters are 18+*
When I got home, a small sleepy dark head peered from around the corner.
"Eric?" He whispered.
"I'm here Cade." I murmured.
When I closed the door behind me, Cade limped into the hallway. He was missing his left foot below the ankle, and he had to hobble, using an old steel crutch of mine. His soft black ears were perked up from the sides of his skull, and his soft brush of a tail was wagging furiously.
When Cade finally reached me, he hugged me as tight as he could, still trembling slightly from wagging his tail. "You're home." He whispered, clinging to me with desperate love.
I glanced up from the trembling puppy and I saw Sergei.
He was long and lanky, in comparison to Cade's sturdy young body. His arms were thin and frail, his legs long and graceful. His hips swayed like a girl's, and his long orange tail lashed at the air.
His pale green eyes flicked away from me as soon as they landed, and he walked away. "You're home." He murmured softly. In every appearance, he was disdainful and taciturn, but I could hear him purring.
Cade had his missing foot, and the burns on his hands and buttocks. Sergei had long shallow cuts all down the backs of his slender thighs. Sergei had the deep shiny scars on his shoulders.
Both of them were Somatics. And both of them had been badly hurt.
And I would protect them both for as long as I could.
---
"Eric?"
Sergei rarely spoke, so I looked up in surprise. He was sitting at the table with Cade and I. Eating his food. Roasted chicken and salad. He was avoiding the salad. As always.
"Yes?"
Cade ignored us. He was busy licking his plate. Normally I would have reprimanded him. We had plenty of food, and he could have just taken seconds, but I was intrigued by Sergei, who spoke so little.
"Why did you take us in?"
Cade dropped his plate with surprise and it slipped off the table and broke into fragments on the floor.
Cade was down in a moment, frightened tears falling down his round distraught face. In that moment, he was too stressed to speak, so he just whimpered like an animal. Whining with fear and shame while trying to gather up the broken pieces, cutting his fingers in the process.
"Cade... Cade..." I spoke softly, and tried not to move quickly. "Just leave the pieces... I'll get them."
I reached for a piece, forgetting to move slowly, and he flinched away, dropping all of the pieces again and making them break more. I felt a prickle of annoyance, but I smothered it, and just tried to calm Cade down.
Sergei dropped down to all fours and wrapped his arms around Cade's shoulders. The puppy flinched, but went still after a moment. Sergei just held him and nuzzled him very gently. Cade started to cry. At first the tears went down his face while he ki'yi'd like a dog. But then human sounds accompanied his embarrassed frightened tears, and he calmed down.
I carefully picked up all of the pieces and threw them in the trash. Then I got the first aid kit from the closet, and went back to the kitchen floor where the two boys were still holding each other.
"Let me see your hands, baby." Cade hiccuped and held out his hands. I carefully wiped and bandaged three small bleeding cuts.
"All better, see?" I murmured, holding up my hands. He held up his hands and smiled weakly, his eyes full of love.
Sergei's large triangular ears twitched, and he looked at me like he was trying to study me.
---
After the tearful and messy incident with the plate, I started a movie.
I sat in the middle of the couch. Cade curled up, resting his head on my lap so he could still watch the screen. I petted his hair and his soft crumpled ears as I watched. Sergei was slightly more aloof. Curling up in the corner, but still lashing his orange tail playfully in my direction. Smiling when I swiped at it jokingly.
Halfway through the movie, and Cade was asleep. His snores were soft and snuffly. I nearly jumped with surprise when aloof Sergei changed positions and leaned against me. Resting his head on my shoulder.
I could feel his bony shoulder nestled into my side. I could feel him purring.
I moved slowly. I didn't want to upset him. I stroked the top of his head, petting his soft hair and soft velvety ears. He didn't recoil. If anything, he purred more.
It was nice. It was very nice.
"I can't figure you out Eric." He whispered. His voice was soft and halting.
I put the movie on mute. Cade sniffled and stirred, but I continued to pet him and he settled again.
"What do you mean?"
It was probably the most words that Sergei had ever strung together at once. I listened carefully. He was normally so quiet. It was almost like it hurt him to talk.
"I've always been alone. When I was born, there was a man who raised me, and I thought he loved me, but all he wanted was my body. To sell it. To play with it. To take pictures of it and brag about how successful he had been with making the perfect Somatic."
He bristled with anger and hurt. I carefully rubbed his shoulder, feeling the tense muscles there relax very slightly.
"He created Cade too, although I didn't know it at the time."
I didn't know that either. It explained a few things.
Sergei snuggled into me. He had never been much of a snuggling type, but now I doubted I could untangle him if I tried.
"When you took us in... I wanted to leave as soon as I could. I thought you just wanted to sell us. Or maybe fuck us.
He was quiet for a moment. "It's been a year Eric. What do you want from me? What do you want from Cade?"
His tail coiled up around his knees and went still. He held still, leaning against me. "We both owe you. I know that. But you better not hurt him. He trusts you."
I looked down at Cade, snoring quietly on my lap. I ruffled his dark hair as he slept, and his ears twitched.
"You two don't owe me a thing." I murmured, petting Cade as he snuggled in with me.
Sergi leaned away from me. Watching me closely with his pale green eyes. His ears flattened against his head and his eyes narrowed.
"Don't lie to me." He hissed. "You know that we do."
I remembered the first time I had seen those eyes. Surrounded by dirt and filthy matted hair. Desperate and vicious. In the face of a malnourished and frightened boy.
"Maybe you do. But I'm not a loan shark. I don't want anything from you two. I just wanted to keep you safe."
Sergei relaxed slightly, but he was still tense. "Nobody does anything out of the goodness of their hearts. However you might put it, you're doing this for a reason." He reached out to touch Cade's soft ear. "And I want to know why, and what you expect in return."
"I wont let you hurt him."
I was quiet for a moment. But curiosity got the better of me. I had housed these two for almost a year, but I still knew very little about their life before.
"How long were the two of you together before I knew you?"
"Two years."
Cade stretched and yawned. "Eric?" He whispered sleepily. "Eric? Can you get my back?"
"Sure thing."
Sergei flicked his eyes to me, biting his lip. He was so prideful sometimes, he never asked for what he wanted.
"I'll get you too." He gave a little nod, as if that was expected, and then he watched the movie. But I could hear him purring.
---
Cade's turn first.
He handed me the brush and stripped out of his shirt. During the day he wore a baggy t-shirt of mine that hung all the way to his knees. He lay down on the couch, and I smiled at seeing his little wagging tail right above the hem of his briefs. His tail was a little less than a foot long, curled up and fluffy. The fur was soft dark brown.
He yawned and stretched when I scratched his ruff. He hummed softly with pleasure, twitching as I scratched the area well.
Cade had a trail of slightly coarse fur from the base of his neck to right about the middle of his back. The fur was dark brown like his hair, and it made a slight ruff, that itched constantly. I took the comb and ran it through the fur, using long slow strokes that made Cade wiggle and melt with how good it felt.
I looked up and Sergei was swishing his tail impatiently, though he had a small smile on his face watching Cade. It was hard not to smile when Cade was in a good mood. I brushed his ruff for a minute or two, but Sergei was getting impatient.
"Come on little fella... It's Sergei's turn."
Cade huffed, but moved with a good-natured smile. He always seemed so happy. That's why the incident at the table, and others like it, were so devastating.
I looked down at Cade's legs. At the delicate curve of the tendon connecting his thigh to his calf. At the one small scratched-up foot, and at the other leg which ended in a soft fleshy stump about four inches from where his heel would have been.
When I had found them, that wound had been old, but still infected. A dry black crust covering it. Sensitive to the touch, and oozing dark pus where the scab cracked.
Sergei carefully lay down on the couch, and slid out of his shirt. He kept on a pair of pajama pants. He had a modicum of modesty that was lost on Cade.
The ruff between his shoulder blades was softer and shorter, but still thick. In places, fur didn't grow because of fat pink welts. He had a crude burn on his shoulder. Somebody had tried to brand the letters AF into his skin. The letters were crude and almost indistinguishable. He had never told me about them. There was a lot that my two wards had kept quiet about.
He moaned softly as I pulled the brush through his short fur. The fur was clean now, but when I had first found them, the fur had been dirty and filled with fleas. Cade's ears had been filled with plump ticks, and he had been nearly comatose.
