Raw, Animal Magnetism #2
“She’s the one saying swear words,” Cya sniffed haughtily, shooting Jasmyn a wink, and the young Lupyn stood taller, jutting her chin to match Cya’s posture.
Dex shook his head and sighed forlornly. “Pain in my ass, the both of you.”
Upstairs in the flat, Cya coiled up on the floor across from Jasmyn and did their best to carry on a voice-off conversation. Their vocabulary was lacking, so they had to spell a lot of things out, but Jasmyn was patient, offering the sign once they had finished spelling the word they needed.
While they chatted with his sister, Dex settled on the couch with an overflowing laundry basket and folded clothes while the Bluetooth speaker played rap music in what Cya thought might have been Lupali.
They weren’t sure, as they’d never heard Dex speak his own dialect before.
Even if they had, it wouldn’t have made a difference.
As ignorant as it made them, they’d always found Mammylion languages difficult to differentiate. They sounded so similar, with their rolling R’s and harsh consonants, mixed with resonating, almost growlish sounds. But that was their internal bigotry talking, wasn’t it?
Once the laundry was done, Dex excused himself to take a shower.
The pipes creaked, then his bellowing voice filtered down the hallway, singing a song Cya had never heard before.
His voice was surprisingly good. Sure, he’d never be a popstar, but he carried the melody well, his voice rich and a little growly.
Well, until he tried to rap along with the Bluetooth speaker he’d taken into the bathroom with him. Maybe he could sing well, but he couldn’t rap worth a damn, bless his heart.
Ten minutes after the singing had stopped and the pipes had gone quiet, Dex waltzed into the living space in nothing but a towel cinched at his hips.
Even from across the room, Cya smelled the clean freshness of his shampoo and the heady musk of his deodorant.
They had heard the blow dryer blasting, but his fur was still a little damp, and he was using a second, smaller towel to ruffle the longer hair between his ears.
They had been taking selfies with Jasmyn so they could post on their new social media profile, but at Dex’s half-naked appearance, Cya choked and nearly dropped their phone entirely. He was just… so very naked.
Honestly, his defined muscles were a personal affront, and they wanted to outlaw every weight machine in the Pentagram. It wasn’t fair, okay? Wasn’t their life difficult enough? Did they really have to be subjected to this… this flaunting?
“Aw, I wanna be in pictures too,” Dex said, immune to their inner turmoil. He approached as if he intended to lean down and fit his face between Cya’s and Jasmyn’s, but before he could Cya surged off the couch and backed away.
“I’m not taking a picture with you! You’re naked,” they screeched, and Dex quirked his head, one ear flopping over while the other stood tall.
Then he glanced down, like he’d forgotten that he’d just left the shower. “Oh, I am naked. I mean, the towel and the fur kind of”—he gestured vaguely—“cover the important bits, but I get why you’re intimidated. I’m just that sexy.”
“Of course that’s where your mind goes,” they said flatly.
“Hey now, it’s nothing to be ashamed of,” he said, rolling his body in a way that might have been suggestive if he wasn’t being so purposefully over-the-top. “You just can’t take my raw, animal magnetism.”
Jasmyn’s gaze ping-ponged between them, trying to keep up with their back-and-forth. At Dex’s atrocious dancing, her face screwed up in disgust, and she pantomimed throwing up.
Nodding their agreement with her assessment, Cya glared at him and said, “You’re ridiculous.”
“Ridiculously attractive, you mean?” He backed toward his bedroom, continuing to gyrate obnoxiously, the most infuriating smile plastered on his cocky face.
“No, just ridiculous,” they said sweetly, and Dex laughed.
He shut his bedroom door, and Cya shot Jasmyn a horrified look. They waved at his bedroom and signed, “Gross!”
“Yeah, he’s a boy,” she said, like it was the only explanation needed, and Cya supposed it was.
Thankfully, Dex was fully clothed when he returned to the communal living space, and they gathered around the kitchen breakfast bar to eat the dinner his mother had left in the oven for them.
The foreign dish was fragrant and peppery, the flavors rich, but it was so much spicier than Cya was accustomed to.
Noticing their distress, Dex chuckled and placed a bowl of a dairy-based sauce beside their plate. “This helps with the spice.”
Equal parts grateful and chagrined, they dipped their spoon in the sauce and flicked their forked tongue hesitantly over the metal to taste it.
Dex’s gaze dropped to their lips, watching them roll their tongue back into their mouth, and they swore they heard a soft growl sputter to life in his chest.
With a smug smirk, they licked the spoon again. “Tastes good. Thank you.”
Dex’s right ear twitched, then he dropped his stare down to his plate and mumbled something resembling a “you’re welcome,” though it was barely intelligible words at all. Cya failed to hide their conceited grin as they primly took a bite of their food.
A disgusted noise sounded to their left, and Cya stiffened, peeking at Jasmyn from the corner of their eye.
The young Lupyn was glaring glumly at them, like she was a parent disappointed in their child.
Once she felt like she’d properly chastised Cya with her stare, she turned her disapproval on Dex, who was resolutely refusing to look at her at all.
With a huff, she rolled her eyes obnoxiously and shook her head.
The rest of the meal passed in relative silence, and after, Cya and Jasmyn cleaned up the dishes.
Well, she taught them how to properly load the dishwasher, before she guided them through the steps of adding the detergent to one pocket and a rinse aid to another.
Feeling rather accomplished, they snapped a picture of the loaded racks and sent it to Hemersyn, bragging unabashedly of their achievement.
Then they pushed the correct buttons, shut the dishwasher door, and smiled grandly when it started to hum its cycle.
Jasmyn gave them two thumbs-up, before she meandered to the living room where Dex was already searching a streaming platform for something to watch.
The sky was starting to darken, and Cya considered heading home.
They didn’t want to, though. There was nothing waiting for them there except an empty house.
Like Dex could sense their hesitation, he patted the couch cushion beside him and said, “Come watch a movie with us.”
They sat down, and Jasmyn immediately smushed into their side.
At her prodding, they scooted closer to Dex until they were nearly pressed against him from shoulder to mid-tail, and only then, did Jasmyn settle.
She fit herself under Cya’s arm, head on their chest, her thin forearm thrown over their waist. Even her drawn-up knees were half in their lap.
Entirely out of their depth, Cya froze, unsure where to put their hands or their arms or, well, any part of themself.
Dex watched them, amusement dancing in his eyes, but when he read their genuine panic, he slung an arm behind them to lie across the back of the couch and leaned in to whisper near their ear.
“Lupyns are pretty tactile. We always snuggle up like this, but you can tell her to move.”
“It’s fine,” they said, though they weren’t confident in their claim. “I’ll just… erm…”
They grudgingly rested their arm on the back of the couch as well, parallel to Dex’s.
His fur tickled their skin, his body heat sizzling in the minute space between them.
There was no place for their other arm that wasn’t his thigh, and after watching them struggle for a few moments, he snorted and guided them to lean back against him.
“You’re so awkward.” The words should have hurt, but he spoke them with such fondness, like he found their ineptitude adorable instead of pathetic.
Still, they couldn’t help but bristle. “Well, this wasn’t exactly a common family activity in my home, okay?”
“Relax,” he spoke into their hair as they rested their weight against his solid body. “Just do what’s comfortable.”
Comfortable? What a foreign concept.
They felt Jasmyn’s heavy gaze but was too embarrassed to look at her, so they stared resolutely at the TV where an animated movie they’d never seen began to play. As the colors flashed across the screen, Cya barely saw them, too preoccupied with the overwhelming pressure of bodies encasing them.
They tried to relax, to unlock their muscles, but they’d never done this before. They felt stupid and exposed.