Work Text:
Cleaning up turned out not to be nearly as much of a hassle as Laios expected based purely on how many things they would have to get done in such a short amount of time. It took a while to locate all of their clothes – especially Kabru's, since they were strewn all over the apartment, including his shirt being discarded in the bathtub – and decide which of them could be safely put on and which (again, mostly Kabru's) would have to be put in the washing machine along with the towel. While Laios took care of that, Kabru busied himself with stashing things away in the secret compartment under his bed where he kept all of the stuff that he didn't want to see the light of day. Then, while Kabru was in the shower, Laios made dinner for the both of them. It had to be something simple, but filling and nutritious, since Kabru likely hadn't eaten anything since they had breakfast this morning. After some consideration, he went with an approximation of curry in the form of chopped chicken fillet cooked in aromatic tomato sauce and served with (slightly undercooked) rice. They ate it sitting on his bedroom floor in their underwear, Kabru's glistening skin smelling of soap and coconut oil, Laios' still vaguely sticky and reeking of sweat. Once they were done eating, he finally went to take his long-awaited bath, leaving Kabru to entertain himself with whatever he found in his room while he scrubbed himself clean. After a quick detour into the kitchen to wash the dishes and grab some snacks in case they got hungry but didn't have the energy to get up from the bed, Laios retired to his bedroom at the exact moment Shuro returned home. That was a close call.
Kabru was already waiting for him on the bottom bunk of the bed, his back propped on the pillow, his attention seemingly absorbed by one of his animal encyclopaedias, the big illustrated one about reptiles and amphibians, one of his absolute favourites – he'd spent hours redrawing the illustrations in his sketchbook. Despite that, however, from the moment he came into the room, Laios felt Kabru's gaze on him, following his every move as he left the snacks on the night stand, checked if his computer was turned off, and pulled down the curtains, squinting at the bright, warm light of the setting sun. Today it was mostly orange and yellow. Pretty, but kind of basic. By the time he turned towards the bed again, the book had been put away on the night stand and Kabru scooted over to make room for him, lifting the blanket and patting the mattress with his hand, his eyes narrowed at Laios' face in a look of adoration, his lips curled into a soft, inviting smile.
As soon as Laios sat down on the bed, Kabru's arms instantly wrapped around him, and he found himself being pulled down into his tight, warm embrace. He let his eyelids droop as he relaxed in Kabru's arms, offering no resistance whatsoever. Kabru adjusted the position of his body so that they would be facing each other, his forehead almost bumping against Laios', the tip of his nose all but touching the other's, his smiling mouth so close that Laios could lick it if he only stuck out his tongue. One of his hands ran up and down Laios' back, tapping it with his fingertips as if he were playing some kind of musical instrument, while running the fingers of his other hand through his damp, spiky hair. In turn, Laios put one hand on Kabru's upper back, the other curled at his chin, his thumb stroking his bottom lip. Their chests were all but pressed together, Kabru's hard nipples lightly poking him and the patch of fluffy hair in the groove between his breasts tickling his skin. Their legs were tangled together, one of Laios' knees lodged between Kabru's, one of Kabru's legs thrown over Laios' hip, his foot resting on the underside of his knee, rubbing it with his heel. His pubic mound rested against Laios' groin, at just the perfect angle to draw attention to it. Laios' belly filled the space between their bodies, expanding like a balloon with every exhale. Kabru briefly moved his hand from his back to pat it fondly a couple of times. Laios huffed appreciatively.
This must have been the part of the mating ritual where, after a successful marking, the mating pair would retire to their love nest to rest and enjoy the physical proximity of their bodies, sharing warmth and reinforcing the strength of their bond. A part of him found it even more intimate than what came before. Obviously, getting to mate with Kabru was really special, too, but there was something really comforting, and almost overwhelmingly touching, about knowing that Kabru wanted to stay by his side long after the fun was over, to hold him as close as he did, as if he wasn't ever going to let go, even though he could have easily left and pretended that nothing like that ever happened between them. Hell, Laios wouldn't have even blamed him for that. There were a bunch of reasons why he may have changed his mind. But Kabru decided to stay, which confirmed that he really was committed to being Laios' mate, his mate for life, just like he promised earlier.
Laios brought his face a little closer, bumping the tip of his nose against Kabru's, regarding his face from beneath lowered eyelids, and carefully pressed his lips to the tip of his nose, and the spot between his eyebrows, and his cheek, and finally his mouth, and Kabru let him do all of that, helpfully turning his head according to his needs, his lips curled into a wide smile. Kabru's skin still felt a little damp to the touch, even though he'd definitely thoroughly dried himself off when he came out of the shower. The moisture seemed to be an inherent feature of his body (in fairness, Kabru was pretty sweaty, so that might have been it), or maybe it came from some kind of oil or gel he used. Either way, Laios didn't mind it at all. On the contrary, he found Kabru's skin pleasantly smooth and lovely, with a distinctly sweet smell and flavour (that might have been the oil, too, but he wanted to believe that Kabru tasted good entirely on his own).
“This is nice,” he murmured against Kabru's lips, “really nice.” Seeing his face from up so close that he could count his eyelashes and the hairs in his eyebrows made Laios' heart beat faster in his chest. He wondered if Kabru could feel it through his skin. At this point, it definitely wouldn't surprise him. With how close they were, the lines between his own body and Kabru's were starting to blur. Whose foot was that, whose hand? What had just brushed against his leg? Was it his stomach that rumbled, or Kabru's? Well, in this particular case, it was probably his, but the point remained. They breathed in unison, and blinked in sync, and he wouldn't be surprised to find that their hearts were beating in the same rhythm. Two bodies as one. Mates. Laios' heart skipped a beat. “By this, I mean, like, not just right now, but everything we've done together,” he clarified awkwardly. “Getting to do all of this stuff with you has been really cool. I'm not that good at talking about feelings and stuff like that,” he added by way of apology, “but I wanted you to know that. It's a pretty big deal for me, so...” Deep breath. “Thanks for being here, Kabru.”
Kabru's smiling eyes narrowed at him, his hand fondly ruffling Laios' hair. “Of course,” he said softly, his other hand wandering up Laios' back again. “Thank you for having me, really. I had a very pleasant time. I expected nothing less, though,” he added fondly, scratching behind Laios' ear. Laios instinctively leaned into the touch, kicking his feet under the blanket. Kabru giggled against his lips before kissing him again. “You know,” he mused in a playful tone, “from the moment I met you, I had a feeling that you would be an interesting person to sleep with. Between your creative mind and vivid imagination, and your deep passion for everything that you do, I had no doubt that any sexual experience with you as a partner would be truly one-of-a-kind. My impression was entirely correct, of course,” he added with a hint of pride. “I'm never wrong about these things.”
“Huh? You've been thinking about it for so long...?” Laios hadn't dared to think about Kabru this way basically until the moment they were already in the middle of doing the very things he couldn't even dream about. It wasn't that he had no desire to do so, nor that it never occurred to him as an option, and it certainly wasn't a limitation of his imagination which was, as Kabru noted, quite vivid. The thought was there, like a thorn in his brain, impossible to ignore, and equally impossible to acknowledge, and Laios would force himself to look away and walk around it every time it came into view. Clearly, Kabru didn't have these kinds of hang-ups, which made sense when Laios remembered how many times he tried to flirt with him in ways that were, in hindsight, extremely obvious. “Honestly that's a little surprising to hear. I mean, sure, I can imagine all kinds of things in my head,” he went on, looking down at his body, his eyebrows furrowed, “but in reality, this is all I have to work with. You've got to admit it isn't much. My body isn't anything special,” he said matter-of-factly. “Obviously,” he added after a moment, “I know you don't agree with that.”
“Well, I'm glad that you acknowledge this much,” Kabru said, making an effort to speak in a playful tone, though the concern showed in his expression. “I understand that your body doesn't match the ideal you've created in your head. To a degree, I believe that is true of everyone, myself included.” Laios opened his mouth, intending to ask what Kabru could possibly be insecure about, and closed it again when the answer occurred to him after only a moment of consideration, relieved that he managed to stop himself from saying anything insensitive. Right, of course. Kabru had a pretty good reason to be unhappy with his body, so much so that he took hormones and stuff to change it. Duh. Come to think of it, they were kind of similar in this way, except that there wasn't a hormone that could turn one into a wolf-man. Not yet, at least. “That said,” Kabru went on in a reassuring tone, “while your body does not resemble that of your fursona, it still has a lot to offer.”
“Like my butt, right?” Laios asked, subconsciously glancing down over his shoulder.
Kabru snorted, his forehead bumping against Laios'. “Yes, exactly,” he said, trying to collect himself, though the corners of his mouth continued to twitch with stifled laughter. His hand reached under the blanket to squeeze Laios' butt. He really couldn't have expected anything else, but it still made him squeal. “That's just one aspect of many, though,” Kabru added solemnly, his hand moving on to Laios' belly, which he proceeded to pat a couple times, making it jiggle with a soft clapping sound. “Delightful, isn't it? Like a drum made of flesh,” he remarked cheerfully. Laios reflexively nodded, trying not to think too hard about that mental image. Suddenly Kabru grabbed him by the wrist and brought his hand up to his face. “My, what big paws you have!” he exclaimed, his eyes twinkling with awe, as he pressed his lips to the back of his hand.
“Aaah...” Laios let out a whimper, blinking helplessly, feeling his cheeks grow warm. It was true that his hands were pretty big, which became even more evident when Kabru put it against his to compare. They both had long, slender fingers, but that was where the similarities ended. Laios' hands were noticeably wider, and his fingers thicker, with tufts of brownish hair on the knuckles. Kabru's palm was a few shades lighter than the back of his hand, with a noticeable pinkish tint. It was also very soft, and surprisingly cool to the touch. His fingernails looked almost pure white against his dark skin, with a barely noticeable hint of pale pink. They were neatly trimmed into a uniform shape, which made Laios very conscious of the state of his own nails, with distinct bite marks and stretched cuticles, and suddenly he felt gross all over again, but thankfully Kabru didn't seem to mind. He diligently kissed each of his fingertips and his knuckles, and pressed a kiss right in the centre of his palm, before finally cupping his own cheek with it.
Kabru placed his hand over Laios' heart, spreading his fingers wide and grazing the skin with his nails. Laios held his breath, his gaze fixed on Kabru's hand. It felt as if his heart was about to leap right into Kabru's hand. “You have a good heart,” Kabru hummed softly, pressing his palm flat against Laios' chest. “To be clear, I mean that both literally and figuratively. I've been monitoring your heartbeat for a while now, and it's impressively consistent, if a little fast. Although, granted, it might just be that your heart starts beating faster whenever I'm around, in which case I suppose my findings would be pretty worthless,” he remarked humorously, sending Laios a wink. “I'm tempted to lay my head on top of your chest, with my ear pressed here, right here,” he went on excitedly, his voice going ever so slightly up in pitch, “and let your heartbeat lull me to sleep.”
“I mean, you can do that if you want to,” Laios said automatically, scratching his chest. “I don't mind. That sounds pretty nice, actually. As long as you're comfortable, that's fine by me.”
“I don't see how I could not be!” Kabru laughed, cupping Laios' left pectoral in his hand. “Your chest is more comfortable than any pillow, I assure you. Oh, to lay my head upon your bosom, with the sound of your heartbeat in my ear and your hair tickling my cheek...” he gushed.
Laios knitted his eyebrows. “Oh, come on,” he huffed disappointedly. “Look, I know that you're trying to make me feel good about my body, but you don't have to take it this far. I know that my chest is not actually hairy. It's disappointing, sure, but pretending otherwise isn't gonna change that”
A wounded expression passed through Kabru's face, creating a deep crease between his eyebrows and turning his mouth into a thin line. Laios internally slapped himself, immediately regretting his words. So much for having a good heart, huh? Kabru collected himself, taking a deep breath. “I'm sorry that my words made you feel this way. However, it wasn't my intention to patronise you,” he said matter-of-factly. “Just because your body hair is difficult to see, that doesn't mean it's not there. I can feel it under my fingertips when I touch you. It's very soft, quite like I imagine fur to be...” he went on explaining anxiously, looking off to the side. “I should have been more careful with my words. I know that it's a sore spot for you. Would you rather I not mention it again?”
Laios' expression softened, and he grabbed Kabru's hand and pressed an apologetic kiss to it. “Nah, you're good. I'm the one who should apologise. I took it all the wrong way and overreacted for no reason. You're totally right, you know,” he went on, playing with Kabru's fingers. “I spend so much time thinking about the stuff this body lacks that I forget the things that are good about it. Sure, it's not as cool as I'd want it to be, but it could've been way worse, you know? I mean, having thumbs is pretty useful, for one,” he said, reflexively giving a thumbs-up. “It's not like I dislike my body, anyway,” he emphasised, pursing his lips, “I've just gotten used to it, I guess. I don't even think about it most of the time, unless someone brings it up, and even then I usually forget about it. Obviously, I've had to think about it a lot more than usual since we started doing stuff together,” he went on, scratching his cheek with Kabru's fingers, “but that's not a bad thing. I'm just not really used to hearing so many nice things about it. That doesn't mean you should stop, though.”
“Well, that's a relief.” Kabru sighed discreetly. “I understand that it might take some time for you to adjust to the situation. I can only hope that my constant compliments will help to speed up the process.” Suddenly a strange light passed through his eyes. “On the subject of your body, I've recently discovered something that might interest you quite a bit. You see,” he went on, his eyes twinkling mischievously, his lips curling into a wide smile, “amongst homosexual men, there is a rather complex system of categorisation according to one's body type. I imagine it's quite helpful for specifying one's preferences. While I've been vaguely familiar with it for a while, I decided to investigate it a little more thoroughly the other day, and I discovered – you're not going to believe this, but it's entirely true – that according to the system, you would be classified as a wolf.”
“Huh?!” Laios' eyes shot wide open. “No kidding! Really?” Kabru earnestly nodded his head. Laios giggled, kicking his feet under the bedsheets. “No way! A wolf! Are you sure that's right? Aah, that's so cool! Are they all named after animals? Which one are you?” he asked rapidly.
“Not all of them, but many of them are, yes. It just so happens that an unshaven body with the perfect balance of muscle and fat is one of them. In case you're curious, if you were slightly larger and hairier, you would be classified as a bear instead. As for me,” he said, putting his hand up to his chest, “as far as I understand, a lean, unshaven body would make me an otter.”
Laios' face instantly lit up. “Otter, huh! Otter...” he hummed thoughtfully as his mind projected the features of an otter onto Kabru. “Yeah, I can see it! Totally! That gives me an idea for your fursona,” he mused, stroking his chin. “We really gotta go to the zoo sometime so I can finally figure out what I wanna do with it. Oh, by the way, that reminds me,” he prompted, snapping his fingers. “I've been thinking about what you said yesterday. About how it's important to establish if you want to have kids or not at the start of a relationship. We haven't really done that, right?”
Kabru crinkled his eyebrows, looking at him uneasily. “What's the correlation...? No, never mind that. I don't need to know.” He lightly shook his head before looking at Laios again, this time with a certain curiosity, stroking his bottom lip. “We haven't discussed the matter yet, that's true. To be honest with you, I considered broaching the topic sooner, but ultimately decided against it for two major reasons. For one, I feared that bringing up such a serious topic of discussion too early into our relationship might prove too overwhelming for you. Perhaps that was silly of me, but, at the time, I felt that I may already have come on a bit too strong when I declared you my boyfriend without asking if you're fine with labelling our relationship in such a way. Obviously, it turned out that my concern was unfounded in that instance... Anyway, the other reason why I didn't feel the need to bring it up,” he went on, rubbing his temple, “was that I thought that you made your feelings on the matter perfectly clear when I asked you about your background. You went on for quite a while about how relieved you were to have escaped the life of a married man with children.”
“Oh, that!” Laios' face lit up with recognition. “Yeah, I did say that. It's not really the same thing at all, though,” he said, lightly shaking his head. “If I married that girl and had kids with her, I'd never be able to leave the village. You can't just escape that kind of responsibility. It's not fair to the people who'd have to stay behind and clean up your mess. Since I knew that I wasn't gonna stay, I had to make sure that I wouldn't have anything like that hanging over me. Besides, I didn't really know that girl at all. With you, though, it's completely different,” he went on, idly playing with Kabru's fingers as he spoke. “I mean, we already agreed that we wanna live together, for one. I don't know if we're gonna stay here or move somewhere else, but that doesn't really matter, as long as we're together. Also, you're my mate for life, remember? Either way, we are already responsible for each other. I mean, I would totally marry you if I could. If you wanted to have a baby with me, that would be fine, too. I'm sure we'd figure it out somehow.”
A noise came out of Kabru's mouth, a kind of high-pitched squeal that made Laios' hairs stand on ends. “Wait, wait!” he cried, his voice still unnaturally squeaky. “What did you just say?”
“Hm? I said a lot of things, so that depends on which one you mean,” Laios said, trying to remember anything that could've caught Kabru off guard like this. “Ah, is it because I said that I would marry you? Yeah, I would. I thought that that was pretty obvious.”
“Well, maybe,” Kabru said, hiding his smile behind his hand, “but I wasn't expecting you to admit it so casually.” He snorted with laughter, his cheeks visibly flushed. “Why on earth was I ever worried about moving too quickly in this relationship? Evidently, you're multiple steps ahead of me.” His smiling eyes narrowed at Laios, the corners of his mouth twitching with stifled laughter. “We shall come back to the topic of marriage at a later date, although my feelings on the matter should be quite obvious to you. As for the other thing...” He paused for a moment, running his hand up and down Laios' back. “To be honest, I'm relieved to hear that you're not opposed to it. Obviously, we should consider our options carefully. It would be a huge commitment, and I'm not sure that my body could sustain a pregnancy, but nevertheless, I would like to give it a try one day.”
“It would be kind of cool if you could get me pregnant,” Laios said excitedly, eyes twinkling. “I could handle it all right, I bet. I mean, I've got a lot of room in here, and I could totally eat for two, no problem,” he hummed, fondly patting his belly. “Man, if only we were real shapeshifters! We could do whatever we wanted. Oh, well... Obviously, if we end up going through with it, I'm gonna take care of you!” He nodded eagerly, grabbing both of Kabru's hands. “The one thing that worries me, I guess, is that I have no idea if I'd be any good as a father. I sure as hell didn't learn anything from my own dad,” he scoffed, clicking his tongue disapprovingly.
“Well, I never met my father,” Kabru said soberly, looking somewhere past his shoulder, “so I suppose we're both at a disadvantage here.” That was the first time he'd ever brought up his parents, as far as Laios could remember. It didn't seem like he was going to elaborate, but something about his tone instinctively made Laios resent his father just as much as his own. “For what it's worth, I believe you would be. You possess all the qualities a good father should have, like patience, kindness, and a deep sense of responsibility. Well,” he sighed, “we'll come back to that, I suppose.”
“Yeah, sure,” Laios said distractedly. “Anyway, the actual reason why I asked is that, if you and I want to procreate, then we need to make sure that our fursonas will be able to have viable offspring. Obviously, it's a little more flexible with furries than it is with real animals, especially when you're dealing with shapeshifters, but you've still got to figure out how to make it plausible, you know. So that's another thing we're gonna have to keep in mind when we decide on the species...”
On the very edge of consciousness, he registered that Kabru was laughing, which instantly made him pause and look over in shock. Kabru's face was buried in the crook of Laios' neck, his hands holding on to his shoulders, his back shaking with stifled laughter. Unsure if he should keep talking, or how to react at all, Laios wrapped his arms around Kabru's back and rocked him gently, all the while watching him from the corner of his eye. “Aah!” Kabru loudly sucked in air and tilted his head slightly to look up at Laios, laughter tugging at the corners of his mouth. “You're right. That is a very important matter indeed, and it deserves proper consideration,” he said in a noticeably shaky voice. “I'm thrilled. I simply cannot wait to see what a wolf-otter hybrid might look like.”
“Oh, yeah, I should probably start with that, huh?” Laios hummed thoughtfully. “I'll get back to you when I figure something out.”
“Please do,” Kabru said sincerely, and gave a loud sniffle. “Definitely, definitely do.”