The Dreamers [MxM]

2

[Ares]

Internally still gushing at the sheer cuteness of the human kid, when he entered the lair, Ares – if he weren’t distracted by it – would easily avoid his baby brother’s pounce. Since he didn’t, and the corridor was empty of the other clanmates, he let Senri pin him down, chuckling at the kit’s victorious croon and the wild satisfaction on his adorable muzzle.

Fuck it, he might be the leader, but he never hid that he had a massive weakness for his youngest brother. Perhaps because he – and their middle brother, Kasto – spent years fighting to keep their baby brother safe and happy. And maybe they spoiled him a little as a result.

“This time, I got you!” Senri crooned, a tad awkwardly setting his paws on his back. He was visibly unsure what to do now that he had achieved the win.

“You did...” Ares sighed morosely, then purposefully tossed his brother a solemn look. “Now you’re going to lead the Clan, Sen.”

The kit yelped and scrambled. His paws slipped off Ares’s fur, and he landed nose first in his back—which shook while Ares laughed at his expense.

“Will you two stop fooling around?” he heard down the corridor leading deeper into the lair. When he looked up, Kasto headed toward them with a deadpan expression on his white muzzle.

“Ares, you smell nice,” meanwhile, his baby brother nosed at his fur, sniffing him loudly. “What is that? Like spices...?”

“Ah,” Ares pushed him off and stood up, shaking off his fur before sitting on his hind paws and putting the right front one on Senri’s nose when the kit tried to move around him. “A human kit fell off the tree on me.”

“Inside the border?” Kasto scowled darkly, putting his paw on Senri’s back and pinning him down when their brother wouldn’t stop trying to get around Ares to keep sniffing him. “Sen, behave... What got into you...?” The white hybrid shook his head when the kit whimpered sadly but obediently froze, looking up between them with huge, pale eyes as his tail waved with agitation. “A human got inside the border, and you let him leave?” his younger brother didn’t sound impressed.

“Barely a step inside, and it was just a kid,” Ares stated helplessly, then pushed his head against Kasto’s shoulder, forcing him to back off from Senri. Internally, he swore when the kit didn’t move when freed, still assuming the submissive pose. He exchanged a quick look with Kasto above their youngest sibling, and his white-furred brother laid his ears back slightly, giving him an apologetic look before nudging his nose into the kit’s side.

“Up and at them, Sen... It’s dinner time,” he said. With an uncertain look between them, their baby brother finally hesitantly rose to all fours if his ears were still flat against his head. His tail was low when he turned around and headed deeper into the lair. “Sorry, Ares, habit. But even if it was a child, you know you shouldn’t let it go. What if it brings more humans along the next time?”

“I couldn’t resist, Kasto. He looked not much younger than Sen and had those gorgeous, ruby eyes...” Looking at their middle brother, he missed how his youngest brother froze, and his ink-furred head swiveled back toward them with wide, ice-blue eyes. “Almost like in the legends about the Awlbast...” Ares shrugged again, then shook his head and, chuckling, walked around Kasto, following their sibling. “And he was almost as cute as you, Senri,” he said, swatting him with his tail as he passed by him.

“And... you could touch him?” his youngest brother asked, catching up with him. “Like... really touch him?”

“Like I said, he fell right on top of me,” he laughed, then shook his head again, twitching his whiskers at the curious expression on his baby brother’s muzzle. “What of it? And why so excited suddenly?” he pointedly looked toward Senri’s madly waving black tail.

“No reason,” Senri sped up and soon disappeared down the corridor. When Kasto caught up to him, Ares exchanged confused looks with his brother.

“Suspicious,” Kasto remarked, and he could only nod in agreement.

It was a day like any other in Gatesville, quiet and peaceful. That’s likely why the first people to spot a massive cat only gawked, frozen in whatever they were doing, when the ink-black beast broke the edge of the trees and calmly headed down the main road of their town.

In a size that set it apart from the animal kingdom, it seemed to look about curiously with incredibly pale, blue eyes. Without a hint of fear, it looked at the passerby, seeming to be carrying something in its muzzle. Some would even dare say its long, as black tail as the rest of it swiveled behind it almost… excitably.

While some people called the Sheriff’s office, others hesitantly followed the beast’s ‘walk,’ at a safe distance observing its behavior. Unsure what to do, since though all knew not to approach the specific part of the forest, none could remember a rule that denied their ‘neighbors’ visits. Most of the spectators relaxed only when arriving at the main crossroads of their small town, where the big cat was met with the tall figure of the brown-haired Sheriff.

Although relatively young for the position at twenty-five, Luke Morris looked more excited than nervous as he bared the way. He smiled pleasantly when the beast stopped, looked him over, and dropped the package it was carrying in front of its paws. Dared by it, some townspeople approached the display enough to overhear the exchange.

“May I help you…?” their Sheriff asked politely, hooking his thumbs in the pockets of his jeans, far more relaxed than anyone else felt.

Though they knew what it had to be, it was still a shock when a human voice sounded from the feline muzzle—even if none could understand it. Not surprisingly, the beast spoke in a different language—none of the witnesses could even place it. A tad of throaty and nearly musical speech sounded like nothing they had ever heard before, and even their usually confident Sheriff blinked, uncertain of what to do.

…until a teenager with a very long, red braid and cyan eyes ashine with delight broke out from the crowd and approached the spectacle with a wide grin.

“He’s speaking in Arabic,” the teen, Ravi Lystad, announced, stopping by the Sheriff, who regarded him with surprise. Then, though somewhat hesitantly, the redhead said something in that strange language toward the feline – who seemed to stare at him with wide-open, ice-blue eyes. The exchange lasted a moment, and the seventeen-year-old looked increasingly surprised before he cleared his throat and looked toward the tall Sheriff with an unreadable expression. “He’s… ah, looking for someone.”

“Who?” Luke asked, looking between them with a suspicious expression.

“My brother,” the redhead said, then ignored Sherriff’s surprise, saying something toward the big cat. Ravi turned and motioned for it to follow as he headed down the road toward the school’s building. The black beast picked up its package and, ignoring the growing audience, with that excitement in the movements of its tail, followed the teenager. As did the crowd, since this was an event that was one to turn into the ‘story’ to liven up their town for months to come!