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Surely his sleepy mind was playing tricks on him. Yet, when he brushed his lover’s head again, down the side of his face and neck - he felt a vibration.
“Max… are you purring? ”
Kapkan hummed a vague noise of confusion and adjusted his cosy sleeping position on Glaz’s lap.
“Let me sleep, it’s comfortable here.”
It paused while they talked, but a few seconds after Kapkan settled, the low vibration started once more. Glaz, who left his hand on the other’s neck out of curiosity, felt it immediately. It was too soft to be snoring, and it didn’t have a vocal sound to it the way a hum would. Yet it was in line with the rhythm of Kapkan’s breathing, and sliding his hand up and down the length of his neck made Glaz sure it originated from where the vocal cords would be.
“Is there something weird with my neck?” The hunter asked.
Glaz gave it a quick look. “No, I don’t think so. But you definitely seem to be purring, somehow.”
Kapkan huffed. “Maybe you should take a nap too. We’ve had a long day.”
That much was true, but Glaz found it more and more difficult to believe this was simply his imagination. He heard and felt it all too certainly.
“Since when can you do this?” he asked.
“Tima, I’m not doing anything.”
“You’re purring when I pet you.”
Kapkan made an annoyed noise and propped himself up on his elbows to look Glaz in the eye.
“Humans don’t purr, and I’m not purring either. I don’t know where you’re going with this, but if it’s a prank…”
In response, Glaz held one of Kapkan’s palms up to the hunter’s throat while he used his own free hand to pet his head like he did before. A few minutes passed while the two men stared at each other awkwardly, Glaz waiting for his partner to relax enough to focus on the caresses once more.
And so, it happened. Kapkan didn’t seem to notice it at first, but when Glaz blurted out an excited ‘ See? ’, he stared in front of himself for a second, then jumped back in alarm.
“What was that?”
“I’m telling you. It’s purring.”
“Humans don’t purr, ” Kapkan repeated. “It must’ve been a burp or something.”
“It wasn’t. You can’t mistake the two. You have a cat, Maxim, you know what purring is like. And that was definitely it.”
“I could be sick,” the hunter contemplated with a look of mild panic on his face. “Some kind of pneumonia.”
“I really don’t think so,” Glaz insisted. “I wonder how long you could do this? Maybe you always could, and just didn’t know about it.”
“Nope,” Kapkan stated, now clearly nervous. He moved to get off the couch they were laying on. “Either you’re hallucinating, we’re both hallucinating, or I’m sick. I’ll check with Doc later.”
“You know, it’s not out of the question that some humans could have the ability,” Glaz shrugged. “Nature is just strange like that sometimes.”
Kapkan simply gave a wave of dismissal. “This will go away,” he said both to Glaz and himself. “Until then, not a word to the others.”
It was a long, arduous assignment and it took a lot out of both him and Fuze. They weren’t alone on it, guarding a convoy of important political personnel, but intel proved right and the attacks already started an hour into the journey.
Now four days and countless firefights later, the two collapsed onto the cheap inflatable mattress in their tent and groaned in unison.
“How’s your shoulder?” Fuze asked after a minute of silence.
If Kapkan wanted to be honest, he had almost forgotten about the injury that downed him on the first day, the bullet going clean through his trapezius and grazing his collarbone. It still hurt a lot, but by now everything else was aching too, so it didn’t stand out anymore.
“Better, I guess,” he sighed, unzipping his jacket and reaching for the covers. That proved to be out of his range of motion, the hunter hissing in pain and flopping back onto the cot, too tired to even be annoyed.
Fuze grabbed the soft textile for him and covered the two of them in one swift motion. It was nice, and when the Uzbek shuffled closer, Kapkan did the same until his back touched the other’s chest.
Sure, there were some downsides to dating three people at once. They were still figuring things out and running into the occasional rough patch. But one thing Kapkan has been thoroughly enjoying was almost always having at least one person to hold him.
His teammate snaked a hand around his torso, sliding under his jacket while he gently pressed his face into the crook of Kapkan’s neck. The hunter flinched from its proximity to his injury, but settled back just as fast. Fuze merely placed a light kiss on it.
Kapkan chuckled. Cheeky.
Lately there have been more moments in his life he wished he could extend a lot longer. If only his eyes were willing to stay open.
He didn’t expect that to be aided by his partner.
After what only felt like a few minutes, Fuze was tapping on his arm.
“What?” Kapkan whisper-groaned.
“Sorry. You were snoring quite loudly.”
“Mmh. I wasn’t even asleep yet.”
The Uzbek only hummed in response, pulling the covers tighter as they both fell silent.
It felt like barely any time passed before the tapping resumed.
Kapkan’s voice was quite irritated now. “ What is it? ”
“Can you turn on your other side? Maybe then it’ll stop.”
“I don’t snore. I never did. Here, I’ll turn around but- it’s gotta be some noise from outside or something, okay?”
“I felt your throat vibrate.”
Shit. Wait, was this the same thing Glaz was talking about? Not again.
“Did it… did it sound like purring?”
Fuze paused before answering. “When it comes to pet names, uh, if you want to be called–”
“ No. Did it or did it not?”
“I guess, now that I think about it.”
The hunter muttered a short list of curses. Just the bare essentials.
He pulled away, knowing that even though he couldn’t see his face in the dark, it definitely hurt his comrade.
Well, this sucked. Not only because he was too stressed to sleep now, and cuddling would feel even better, but also because he was here with the one person out of his partners who seemed to need that as much as himself.
He mumbled an apology and something about being exhausted.
Thankfully, his agitation kept the purring from happening, and Fuze from asking more questions.
Why did this have to happen right now? Just when his personal life was improving? Was this some sort of punishment for daring to let his guard down and open his heart?
He remembered what his teammate lying next to him once said about listening to late night thoughts and tried his best to wave them away.
No way was he letting this… whatever it was, get in the way of the best chance he’s ever had at a good relationship, maybe the only one he ever will.
There had to be a way to get rid of it. If affection was what triggered it, all he had to do was avoid too much of that for the time being. That shouldn’t be too hard.
The first night in his own room and bed was heavenly, and behind closed doors he didn’t have to fear alerting anyone else with any noises. He still wasn’t sure whether it happened when he was fully asleep, too – that wasn’t the case with cats, right? – but it was better to be safe.
If only there wasn’t a man in their group who made ignoring personal space into a sport.
At the peak hour of eight on a Sunday morning, Kapkan awoke to Tachanka’s positively beaming visage only centimeters from his own.
“Good morning,” the older man grinned. “Do you know what day it is today?”
Kapkan’s dazed look and slow blinks gave a clear enough answer. Tachanka didn’t seem to be bothered in the slightest.
"No? Well, you’re in for a surprise then.”
The gears in Kapkan’s head were left to turn for about two more seconds before his partner closed the distance between their lips.
Oh, shit. That’s what day it was.
Okay, don’t panic, he thought while Tachanka made out with him like it was their last day on Earth. If I don’t slip up, there’s no problem.
If it struck when he was comfortable and lowered his guard, he simply wouldn’t. He could get through Valentine’s Day being a little more alert than usual, right? He had many years’ experience suppressing emotions, how difficult could it be to keep his physical reactions under control?
He moaned into the kiss like he always did when it was getting really good. But when the sound ended, the vibrations in his throat didn’t.
Kapkan pulled away like he got burned, holding a very surprised Tachanka at arm’s length while he smiled awkwardly and got off the bed.
“Sorry, I uh, forgot to do something for today. I think I still have time,” Kapkan lied.
His teammate cocked his head, but thankfully didn’t press it. “Just be back in time for the movie.”
"Yeah, I will be,” he said with the voice of someone who hadn’t completely forgotten that they made plans months in advance.
Winter has been chaotic for the four of them, and they’ve all been looking forward to spending an evening together. Even this wasn’t much time, since three of them had to leave on deployment the very next day – it was barely enough for some drinks and a shitty sci-fi film. It was critical that everything went well.
Of course , the idea of sex had come up as well - that’s what most lovers did on this day, right? After a short and horribly awkward conversation, however, they ended up shelving the idea for a later opportunity.
They all had one-on-one “adventures” with each other before, so after things opened up into this four-way relationship, it was only a matter of time until Kapkan’s fantasies of all three comrades on him became a reality.
But he’d never rush that if it risked the others’ comfort, and apart from Tachanka, everyone including the hunter himself was admittedly a tiny bit unsure. The new situation was still too fresh and delicate. In the end, Tachanka himself made the decision for a chill evening instead. For once he seemed to think with the right head and call on some of the wisdom from his age, stating that it’s better to take their time getting used to each other, and the Rainbow dorms didn’t offer complete privacy anyway .
Since he made up his urgent task on the spot, Kapkan didn’t actually have anywhere to go. He ended up simply taking an extended walk around the base, calming his heart rate and running some mental gymnastics on things he could recall to avoid getting too relaxed during their four-man date night. They ranged from mildly upsetting news articles he’d read to gut-wrenching horror from some of the tragedies he’d lived through. If these weren’t enough to keep this condition at bay, nothing would.
Whatever conscious thought still remained in Kapkan’s mind after the seventh shot of vodka told him that he was doing remarkably well.
The four of them managed to fit on the same couch with Tachanka laying horizontally on the bottom and the other three arranged on parts of him like clothes you chuck wherever when coming home after a tiring day. Fuze was against the man’s chest, holding up and hugging Tachanka’s muscular arm like a teddy bear. On the opposite end, Glaz was upside down with one leg propped on the backrest, one on the arm of the couch and his head dangling from the edge.
Nestled between the two of them was Kapkan, lying comfortably against Tachanka’s belly and nursing his next drink. The movie was reaching quite a boring part, so the four Russians in their various stages of drunkenness kept chiming up with whatever topic came to mind.
“What do you mean you wouldn’t fuck your own clone?” Tachanka asked, nudging a flushed Fuze for an answer.
“Mmh, I don’t know. Just not interested.”
“In someone who knows aaaaall the right ways to touch your body?”
“Hah. Isn’t that what we’re here for?” Glaz asked, earning a round of chuckles but remarkably, no distinct denial from anyone. He then stretched one arm and made grabby fingers towards the drinks. “Max gimme another shot.”
Kapkan reached for the coffee table to get him one - his teammate, however, seemed to have forgotten his orientation or that gravity existed because in his attempt to drink the shot, he simply poured it down his own nose.
His comrades instantly lost their shit watching him flail around, trying to turn right-side-up and sputter alcohol everywhere. In his brief panic, the sniper also managed to kick Tachanka in the dick, which silenced said man but only made the other two laugh even harder.
Kapkan wiped tears from his eyes as he laid back, finishing his glass with a satisfied sigh. He was having one of those rare moments where he could really appreciate all he had, and even just the fact that he was here. Damn it, he loved these guys, and somehow they loved him back, and that would never stop being mind-boggling to him.
“Aww, look at you,” Tachanka cooed. “ You’re purring like a cat. ”
The hunter’s eyes snapped open from the sheer, sobering shockwave the words sent across his brain. He did it again? Damn it all to hell.
“I’m so fucking done with this shit,” he groaned, exasperated and covering his face with both hands. The copious amounts of alcohol at least made it easier to voice his thoughts. “Why is this even happening?”
Tachanka made a confused noise. Right, he wouldn’t have an inkling what’s going on yet.
“This, this purring shit has been happening for how long now? Over a week? Just out of the blue.”
“You can keep going,” his teammate shrugged. “It was kind of cute.”
Maybe it was the alcohol numbing him, but Kapkan couldn’t even muster the energy to glare at the older man. He simply pulled his legs up and knocked his forehead against his knees. “It’s out of my control. I fucking hate it. I hate that it’s audible, and I don’t even know how or why or- just, fuck .”
“You could wear something around your neck to muffle it,” Fuze suggested.
“Yeah,” Tachanka agreed. “Like a collar. With a little bell, too, so the sound overrides-”
“Fuck off.” Kapkan didn’t expect them to have any helpful ideas, but he hoped at least they’d understand why he didn’t find this
cute.
After a minute of quiet, Glaz’s hand appeared on his shoulder.
“Max, it’s okay,” he said in that incredibly soothing tone Kapkan had only ever heard him use within their circle. “If it just started happening, it might simply go away on its own too.”
“I really hope so. I feel like I’m not allowed to fucking relax because of it.”
He felt Fuze snuggle tighter against his side. “If I can sleep through Sasha’s snoring, I can get used to this too,” he said.
“You know we’re not gonna tell anyone, right?” Tachanka added. “Plus it’s really not bad, to know for sure that you like this. Like us. ” Glaz and Fuze hummed in agreement.
Kapkan felt more warmth in his cheeks than what the drinks warranted. He was still incredibly unused to people so openly offering comfort to him. To his drunken, sensitive self, even having physical contact with all three at the same time was overwhelming, let alone knowing they cared so much.
“Ah, I read it once too that the frequency is also good for joint pain. So you could let it happen, you know, for my bad knee.”
Kapkan huffed, but the silly suggestion earned a smile nonetheless.
It was possible after all that he had it wrong. Maybe the universe or fate or whatever wasn’t telling him to try and be on edge twenty-four-seven, and eventually go insane. Maybe the message was encouraging the sort of comfort he’d managed to find in his life. In these people. Dare he think it was allowed, good even, to express that to them? To show it, be genuine and unashamed of all the love and care?
He was well aware of the rhythmic rumbling when it arose this time, slowly intensifying with each breath. At the same time, it seemed to draw the men around him in like a magnet, seeking more contact, if that was even possible.
Maybe he could live with this.