Page 49 of Bear With Me

17

Bjorn

He thought he finally had it. The idea. The date idea. The one that would knock Dennis’s socks off and convince him to agree to mate. It had been shockingly hard to come up with possible dates; everything he thought of was too cliche, or too cutesy, or too social for Dennis’s grumpy self. Bjorn was working hard to tamp down his own extroverted tendencies so he didn’t overwhelm his mate; he didn’t want to spoil that now.

Which was why he’d settled on this idea: an adults-only evening at a science museum in the nearest city. Not ‘adults-only’ in the ‘clothing optional’ sense – he’d double-checked on that – but there would be a bar and nibbles and a band, and they could wander the museum freely.

He thought it was a well-balanced idea; enough to do and see to keep things from getting silent and awkward, but they could stick together – which they couldn’t have done at any den events, where Dennis would be pulled aside by the curious – and talk freely - which they couldn’t have done at a movie.

Now he just had to actually invite his mate to go with him and convince him to accept. He thought Dennis would probably accept, no matter what Bjorn had planned – he’d feel honor-bound to go on the date he’d promised – but he wanted the acceptance to be enthusiastic. And there was always that small, negative voice in the back of his head warning him that this was far from a done deal.

But things had been going well, he reminded himself. They’d spent another night in Gran’s guest room, and he’d woken up as a bear with Dennis cuddled up to his chest, the man’s breaths tickling at his fur. He hadn’t been able to get out of bed without waking Dennis – you just couldn’t move that much bulk in a small bed without disrupting everything – but Dennis hadn’t seemed resentful. He’d also made a joke about how he’d only fallen out of bed twice the night before, and he didn’t seem particularly angry about that. It was either a very good sign that he seemed to have accepted the hazard of sleeping with Bjorn…or a very bad one, that he’d resigned himself to sleep just sucking every night. Bjorn wasn’t sure which, though, and that was bugging him. Had Dennis reached the point of comfortable acceptance of Bjorn’s dual soul…or had he just achieved total apathy?

“Bjorn?” The voice of the man himself interrupted his musings, and he realized he was standing, now as a naked man, in the bedroom, alone. Dennis’s voice had come from deeper into the house, which meant he was probably either with Gran in her bedroom or in the kitchen.

“Bjorn?”

Oh, right, he hadn’t replied yet. “Yeah,” he called back, grabbing a pair of pajama pants. Dennis hadn’t needed to raise his voice much to be heard, since bear ears were good, but Bjorn didn’t have the same option if he wanted Dennis to hear his reply. “Sorry, still waking up. Everything ok?” He stepped into his pants, tied the waist, and let himself out of the bedroom and into the hallway.

Now that he was out from behind the closed door, he did a thorough mental survey of the sounds of the house: no cooking noises from the kitchen. Quiet murmurs from Gran’s room, too low for even Bjorn to make out clearly. Damn, Gran was doing that on purpose. He harrumphed and crossed the hallway to her bedroom, popping the door open quietly and hoping to catch them at it.

It didn’t work, and by the time he had his head inside the room, both Gran and Dennis were sitting still and waiting for him with smiles on their faces.

Oh, that was nice to see. Dennis didn’t smile enough, in Bjorn’s opinion. He knew part of that was just Dennis’s Resting Bitch Face, but he thought some of it was also just that not a lot made Dennis actively happy, at least these days. So to see him smiling, and directing it at Bjorn…it warmed him.

“Good morning,” Bjorn offered to the pair. “Sorry, I guess my bear went back to sleep after Dennis left the room.”

Dennis rolled his eyes and scoffed playfully. “Yeah, because your poor bear is clearly the one who gets a bad night’s sleep when we share. Since I regularly kick him off the bed and all.”

“I’ve said I’m sorry!” Bjorn pointed out, not sure how to take the accusation: was this play, or resentment? “Once we leave the den, I won’t ever make you sleep with me again, I promise,” he offered desperately.

Dennis’s eyes widened. “Hey, whoa, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I was teasing, Bjorn. I’m getting used to sleeping with you. You’re literally a giant teddy bear.”

Oh. Oh, that made him happy. “Still,” he tried, “the pushing you out of bed…”

“Ok, yeah, that kinda sucks,” Dennis agreed, “but once you get your shifting under control…” He shrugged.

Did…did that mean he’d have the chance to get his shifting under control? Because unless Dennis rejected him and he got stuck in one form forever, there was only one other way for that to happen, and Dennis, at least in theory, knew that. But maybe he didn’t remember. He’d been hit with a lot of information this week. “Under control?” he ventured, biting his lip worriedly.

Gran, who’d been watching this exchange avidly, took a loud slurp of the cup of tea Dennis must have made for her. “When you mate!” she announced loudly after swallowing the tea.

“Gran…” Bjorn winced and glanced back at Dennis, expecting to see panic or resentment. Instead, he found…fondness? He blinked. “Dennis?”

Dennis gave himself a visible shake and then smiled slightly at Bjorn. “Let's start with the date. Speaking of which, when is the date?”

“Oh, uh.” Bjorn’s breath stuttered in his chest. “I thought…could we do tonight? I got tickets for a, um, thing.”

“What sort of thing?” Gran demanded, putting down her teacup and leaning forward in bed eagerly.

Dennis smirked and pointed at Gran. “What she said.”

“Ok, look, so…” Bjorn gulped. He described the museum event as best he could, trying to make it sound utterly fascinating, and ending with what he hoped wasn't a desperate look on his face. “So I thought…maybe we could go to that?”

Dennis looked kind of stunned by the offer. “A science museum?”

Bjorn’s hands twisted together of their own volition. Had this been a horrible idea? “We don’t have to, if you don’t want to!” he hastened to tell his mate. “We can do anything you want to do for our date. Just tell me!”

“Hey, whoa.” Dennis patted his arm comfortingly. “Breathe, big guy. I think this sounds like a cool idea. I was just surprised because I was expecting something boring like a fancy restaurant.”