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Okay, so maybe one of those questions was less important than the others, but damned if it wasn’t the loudest one in my panicked brain right now. Great, my fish was probably dying of asphyxiation while I was busy dying of thirst for some kind of drugged-up naked burglar.
As much as I wanted to shove him off and search the carpet for my poor dying fish, he was surprisingly strong - so much for suffering through all those expensive spin classes at the gym.
“Ariana.” Startled into silence by my own name in such a tender tone, I glared at him and bared my teeth in a roar of indignation, belatedly remembering I was supposed to be fighting my intruder.
“Getoff of meyou asshole! I’m going tomurder youand shove your body down the trash chutehow dare you-” I lunged forward as far as his hold would let me, but he held his shoulder clear of my teeth, having learned from my first bite. I figured if he had some terrible bloodborne pathogen I was already exposed, and it wasn’t like I could get my limbs free to defend myself.
“Well, I certainly didn’t plan for it to go this way, but…I accept.” The asshole had the nerve tosmileat me like I’d just given him a birthday present, but his eyes seemed almost animalistic as he did. Catching me off guard, he lunged forward, yanking my tee shirt away from my collarbone and sinking his teeth into the soft stretch where my neck met my shoulder. It was a shallow bite, but it still stung like fire, and I finally found my voice, letting out the loudest scream I could as I grabbed and pulled at his soft red hair, attempting to dislodge him.
If anything, his weight became even harder to move, soft, slow laps of his tongue across the wound taking some of the fire away as he insistently pressed against me. My desire to scream faded abruptly in my throat as I grabbed for the palm I’d just bitten, lifting it back to my mouth with a strange, irresistible instinct. The man let out a noise that sounded suspiciously contented as the copper of his blood teased at my tongue, his wound - impossibly - already little more than an indentation and silvery scar as his fingers curled on my cheek.
Heavy thumps were followed by a heavier accent as my older foreign neighbor from across the hall knocked at my door and called out, asking if I was alright. An unexpected flare of annoyance sizzled through me at the interruption.
“Fine, Hans! Sorry to worry you, just…uhm…just a horror movie - I had the sound up too loudly. Everything’s okay, thank you!”
Wait, had I just sent help away? Voluntarily?
The man on top of me gently released my other wrist, crawling cautiously off my body while watching me intently, as if he was still expecting resistance. I somehow knew down to the marrow of my bones that he wasn’t a threat, that he’d never cause me harm beyond the bite, and even then it had been more instinct than thought. He held his palms up, one whole and one marked now, glancing at the door with a concerned expression, then back to me.
“Ariana, I’m - I’m very sorry, this is probably a lot to process, but you bit me and I didn’t expect it and…you set in motion something very important. I hope you won’t hate me, this isn’t ideal but I think we’ll be excellent together, I really do, if you’d just give me a chance.”
He seemed apologetic, and surprisingly confident considering he wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing and had just indulged in a little light cannibalism with a perfect stranger. I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t completely grossed out over the fact I’d basically dog-groomed a bite wound I rightfully delivered to a burglar. It was definitely something I’d be completely grossed out by on a normal, non-burglar day.
I gasped, suddenly remembering my fish. I pushed the man aside as I jumped up from the couch and got on all fours, scouring the carpet and under the couch, giving a tearful little sob. “Oh no! I’m so sorry little guy, oh god where are you? I promise I’ll save you if I-”
The man laughed, his arms crossed over a broad chest and - yep, his dick was still out. Boy howdy was it still out.Focus, find yourdamn fish. He stood in front of me, making the whole dick-out situation even more literally-in-my-face, and made a quiet noise of inquiry.
“Lotus blossom, what are you looking for? I’m right here.”
I tilted my head up -don’t look at his dick, don’t look at his dick- and raised an eyebrow. Surely he wasn’t insinuating what I thought he was. That’d be crazy. Potentially even crazier than surprise vampire roleplay in the middle of my living room.
He blushed slightly, ruffling his own hair and dropping his eyes from mine, embarrassed. “I was never in real danger, to be honest with you, but I had to get you to kiss me. I thought maybe if you got worried I was dying you might lay one on me, but I wasn’t expecting you to try and blow me up like a balloon, truthfully. You know that wouldn’t have worked on a real fish, right?”
I huffed, shoving myself back up to a kneeling position to glare at him again. “Well how was I supposed to know! It works on humans and you - you were my first fish. Fishes? Wait a minute, is the other one like-?”
We both looked at my other fish, hovering in the middle of his tank and fully flared out. He lookedpissed, about ready to charge the glass, for all the good it would do.
The stranger sighed, sliding a hand down the beautifully-chiseled features of his face. “Okay. Like I said, I promise I’ll explaineverything, but one thing at a time, please. I’m still trying to shake off the fish brain here. But to answer your question, he’s like me too, but it’s…complicated.”
I rolled off my knees to sit gracelessly on the carpet. “You’re really going to stand there and tell me that you’re-Jesus Christwill youpleasecover up your dick?” I looked away from the magnetic pull of his sizable endowment and blindly stabbed a finger at the afghan draped over the back of my couch.
He chuckled, moving towards the couch. The sound rippled over me like water, settling right between my legs the way I wished he would. Before I could begin to unpack that particular insane impulse, he’d cleared his throat, drawing my attention back to him. He’d wrapped the afghan like a beach towel around his hips, an unfortunate woven kitten’s face tented outwards from what he’d at least attempted to cover. The effect was both wildly inappropriate and hilarious, but at least I could look at his damn face now. He settled down across from me on the floor, carefully arranging the blanket to keep himself covered.
He reached out, taking my hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. “Now. Obviously, I’m not human, not entirely. I am a shifter, specifically a betta fish shifter, confined to my fish form until I met my mate in adulthood.”
I withdrew my hand, looking at him suspiciously, despite the deep instinctual feeling I could trust him. “Yourwhat now? There’s no…I-I mean, I don’t even know your name!”
He leaned back, rubbing his palms on his blanket-clad legs nervously. “Erm, well, I’m Kian. And obviously, you are Ariana. I heard you introduce yourself to Grant - it’s nice to meet you properly. That-” he nodded towards the tank where the absolutely-furious red betta was now swimming in rapid circles, “-is Ro. He’s, well I should say hewasa friend until a few months ago. Sometimes if we stay in our animal forms too long, we forget how to be human. Wego wildand just live out longer-than-natural lives as our animals. Ro’s on the verge. I was getting there, and a little desperate, hence the whole playing-dead routine.”
“I can’t believe I’m sitting here listening to this. Why am I not freaking out?” I half-whispered the question to myself, staring at the carpet, wondering if I’d been drugged. I had a pretty high startle reflex naturally, and every instinct in me should have had me lunging for a phone, a kitchen knife, or screaming for Hans again.
Kian sighed softly, wincing. “So that would be the mating bond. You triggered it when you bit me, I finished it when I bit you back instinctually. It sort of bridges our emotional intentions, lets you know that I don’t mean any harm and, in betta shifters, that I’m prepared to protect you and fight for you. It’s supposed to reassure you that I’m a good mate.”
“But I didn’t - I was trying to fight you off! I wasn’t trying to…to…whatever the hell this is!” I gestured angrily at my neck, but even through my annoyance I knew he was telling the truth. I felt a powerful, inexplicable pull to be in contact with Kian, and it was taking everything in me to stay sitting where I was.
He hung his head, sighing again. “I know. I know, and I’m so sorry - mating bonds are a serious, permanent thing and this wasn’t supposed to happen, not without discussion and clear agreement. I only wanted your kiss to be able to actually communicate with you, ask you if you’d be willing to consider it. Please believe me, I didn’t plan for this or want this for you. Fighting off the need to complete the bond would have been near impossible normally, but I might have managed if I wasn’t halfway to going wild myself. We were in that pet store for alongtime and it’s hell on a shifter used to freedom. So, this is my fault, but also it - well, maybe it wasn’t entirely.”
He looked so crestfallen I reached out and covered his hand with my own, giving it a gentle squeeze. I was still pissed at him for making me worry, and for whatever implications this “mating bond” had dumped in my lap, but he was obviously not doing well. He gave me a wan smile, turning his hand to hold my palm against his.
