Page 22 of Bear With Me

7

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.