7. Bjorn
Bjorn
Bjorn woke to a thud and a curse. He lifted his head, realizing he was in bear form and sprawled across the bed like a starfish. He was also alone. Where was Dennis? He rolled onto his side, the bed groaning loudly under his weight, and looked around.
A head popped up from the floor, covered in messy black curls. Muttered curses followed.
Grunting enquiringly, Bjorn crawled to the edge of the bed and looked down at Dennis, who was sitting on the floor and rubbing his ass grumpily. Bjorn blinked down at him.
Dennis scowled at him. “You agreed the bed would be big enough!” he accused.
Oh. Had he pushed him out again? Bjorn grumbled something he intended to be an apology, but he was pretty sure it got lost in translation, because Dennis’s scowl deepened.
“Don’t give me that bullshit,” he snapped, then muttered more quietly, “Fucking sharing a bed with a bear. ‘Yeah, it’ll be fine’. Jesus Christ.”
Dennis pushed to his feet, still rubbing his sore ass, and climbed back into bed, deliberately shoving Bjorn in the leg. “Shove over and stay there.”
Bjorn allowed himself to be manhandled back across the bed, but once he was in position and Dennis had lain down again, he snuggled up to the other man’s back and snuffled at the back of his head, letting one paw rest over Dennis’s hip.
Dennis smelled good. Sleepy and warm. Bjorn let out a satisfied grunt.
“And now he wants to fuckin’ spoon,” Dennis sighed, elbowing Bjorn. “Back it up, big guy.”
Bjorn huffed and shook his shaggy head. No, he wasn’t going to back up. He wanted to snuggle his mate, dammit.
Another elbow landed in the vicinity of his gut.
“I swear to god, if you bite me I will fucking end you,” Dennis grumbled, shifting his weight within the circle of Bjorn’s arms, but he’d apparently given up on the idea of total escape, because he didn’t fight any further. “Now go to sleep and leave me alone.”
Bjorn could do that. He snuffled once again at the nape of Dennis’s neck. His mate smelled so good. Like…leather and stone. Warm stone. Warm, sun-baked stone in the desert. Mmm, yes.
On that thought, Bjorn drifted back to sleep contentedly.
***
An alarm blared, startling Bjorn nearly out of his skin. Which was human at the moment, for the record. “Wha?” he garbled out.
Beside him, Dennis was standing next to the bed. “Time to get up.” He slapped Bjorn’s haunch. “Move it, big guy. We’ve got a lot of miles to cover, and breakfast downstairs only runs for another hour.”
To Bjorn’s way of thinking, if breakfast ran for another hour, he could sleep for another thirty minutes, but his companion did not seem to agree when he said as much.
“Nope. Up.” Another slap, this one to his shoulder. “I’d say you’re a bear in the mornings, but, well…”
Bjorn snorted. “That was terrible.” When Dennis raised his hand again, Bjorn rolled onto his back and raised his hands in surrender. “Ok, ok. I’m up.”
Dennis cocked a skeptical eyebrow and waited.
Oh, he wasn’t going to take Bjorn’s word for it and take himself off to shower or something, huh? Damn. Finally, reluctantly, Bjorn rolled the rest of the way off the bed, landing on his feet and shaking himself out. “There, see? I’m up.”
“Mmm.” Dennis didn’t sound convinced. Which was fair, because as soon as he turned his back, Bjorn was planning on crawling back into bed. “Go shower. You smell like bear.”
“Shocking,” Bjorn retorted dryly.
“Also, you’re naked. Again. You’re going to run out of clothes at the rate you’re shredding them.”
Bjorn looked down at himself. Yup, naked. Good thing he wasn’t body-shy. “We can pick some more up at some point. Maybe if I get really stretchy pants they won’t shred. Leggings?” he mused.
Dennis snorted at that. “Leggings…on a bear. I almost want to tell you to try, just so I can see that. But I digress. Go shower off, and then we’ll get some breakfast.”
Grumbling, Bjorn stumbled off into the bathroom. Hot water cascading down on him did sound nice, now that he thought about it.
Unfortunately, he shifted less than three minutes into his shower, which meant he was mostly insulated from the warmth by his thick fur, and also that drying himself was going to be a bitch and a half.
Halfheartedly, he scrubbed with his paws at an approximation of his armpits, his balls, and his ass - bear asses were much easier to keep clean than human ones - and called it good enough.
Of course, he couldn’t turn the shower off with his paw, and getting the shower door open was a bit of an adventure, but he managed the latter without breaking anything and shook himself off.
Water went everywhere. Oops, he always forgot just how much water his coat could hold. Dennis was going to kill him.
Internally sighing, he plodded on four feet back out into the bedroom, where he found Dennis, fully dressed, sitting on the edge of the bed with his phone.
“Get dre-” he began, then sighed when he looked up and spotted the bear.
“Or not. I guess I’m going to bring you something up from breakfast. And why is the water still running? ”
Bjorn regarded him stolidly, waiting for the penny to drop.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Dennis stood and crossed to the bathroom, sticking his head in long enough to turn off the shower and then returning to the bedroom.
“Since I’m apparently your waiter this morning, what strikes your fancy for breakfast: eggs?
Cereal? Pancakes?” He paused between each word, giving Bjorn a chance to respond.
Bjorn made a happy noise at the thought of pancakes and Dennis smirked. “Pancakes it is. Grunt once for syrup and twice for butter only.”
Grunt.
“Gotcha. I’ll be back in ten minutes or so.” Dennis pocketed his phone. “And don’t go back to sleep,” he warned in an ominous tone or voice.
Bjorn would have liked to challenge him with an or what, but…
bear vocal cords didn’t do that. So he just made a grumbling noise.
Not like he could climb back into bed with soaking wet fur, anyway.
He didn’t hate the hotel housekeeping staff that much.
So instead, he walked back into the bathroom, seized a towel in his teeth, and carried it back out to his companion, who paused and gave it a quizzical look when Bjorn dropped it at his feet.
“Why…” he began, and then sighed as realization hit him.
“You need me to dry your goddamn furry ass? Seriously?”
Bjorn grunted.
“Ugh. Why can’t you just…change back.”
He would if he could. He was getting damn sick of having no control over when or where he shifted.
His bear felt…unmoored in his head. It was a really uncomfortable feeling for someone who was used to existing in harmony with his animal.
Unable to articulate that currently, he just huffed and sat down next to the towel at Dennis’s feet.
Moving reluctantly, Dennis picked up the towel and rubbed it over Bjorn’s head, scrubbing at his ears especially vigorously. “I predict you’re gonna regret asking me to do this.”
Bjorn didn’t think he could regret anything that involved his mate touching him. He rumbled his pleasure at a particularly rough manipulation of his ear. Mmm, that was the stuff. He always felt like his ears itched after he got them wet in bear form.
Five minutes later, Bjorn’s fur was standing on end all over his body, and he thought he might have a friction burn from the terrycloth on his paws, but he was mostly dry. With a huff, he collapsed back down onto the floor and gave Dennis what he hoped was a pleading look. Pancakes? Now?
“Fine,” Dennis grumbled, plucking a wad of fur off his jean-clad thigh.
“Five minutes. Be ready to eat when I get back. And,” he added, “if you can manage to change back, pack your shit. I want to be out of here as soon as we’re done eating.
We’ve got a good ten- or twelve-hour drive ahead of us.
” And with that, he was out the hotel room door, leaving Bjorn to entertain himself.
Which was rather difficult when one was a bear and couldn’t use one’s phone.
Huffing to himself, he scratched his ear and settled down to see if he could doze off again before Dennis returned.
***
Luckily, by the time Dennis had returned with two plates of food, Bjorn was back in human form, which meant he could feed himself.
They ate in companionable silence, packed up, and checked out of the hotel.
They were on the road by nine-thirty, which Dennis informed him meant that they’d be pulling into the den, near a Native American reservation, by around seven-thirty that evening as long as they didn’t make too many stops.
Bjorn was hopeful that that meant he could see his Gran before he slept again tonight.
They piled into the car and Bjorn started the music and began sorting through their remaining car snacks from the previous day. “How are we on gas?” he asked as Dennis navigated them out of the hotel parking lot.
“Half-tank,” he replied. “And don’t act like I don’t know you just want to stop at a rest stop for more junk food.”
He said that as if it was something to be ashamed of. “Car snacks are necessary,” Bjorn said evenly, and relaxed back in his seat. “Wake me up when we stop.”
Dennis made a spluttering noise. “You’re going to subject me to this music and then pass out while it plays? Hell no. Either turn it off or stay awake to distract me.”
“Aw, Dennis,” Bjorn teased, “you find me distracting?”
“Fuck you,” was the response to that. Bjorn chuckled. “I just don’t like the noise.”
“Noise?” Bjorn gasped offendedly. “This is Led Zeppelin! We are gettin’ the led out for the morning!”
Dennis snorted and veered onto the highway. “Whatever that is.”
Bjorn settled back in his seat. “You have no culture. Where are you even from?”
“Originally? Ohio,” Dennis deadpanned. “We’re not known for our culture there.”