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“Okay, fine. We go slow, and if you need to stop, you stop, got me?”
Chuff.
Adrenaline had me amped up, but I still couldn’t shake the feeling ofwrongness, although I tried to convince myself that it was in my head. It wasn’t really working, but I was fairly certain that we weren’t going to get another visit from our friends in the grey car.
It was also really fucking weird how not-weird it felt to be walking home with Taavi-as-a-dog beside me. And, sure, I was worried about the fact that he was occasionally putting that broken leg-arm down, and he probably shouldn’t have been, and I was worried about the fact that we might get assaulted by some bigoted dickwads in a car,andI was worried about whatever the fuck had me on edge for no good reason… but aside from all that, it felt oddly normal to be walking home with a really big, gangly Xolo dog beside me.
Fuck if I knew what that meant for our relationship, but since that specific thing wasn’t freaking me out, I was just going to roll with it.
At least until we got to my apartment building and I realized I was going to have to pick the bastard up and carry him upstairs again.
“Stay here,” I ordered, then took the stairs two at a time to throw his clothes and cast inside before coming back down to haul his hairless ass back up.
“You are very lucky I like you,” I muttered in his floppy ear as I shouldered him through the front door.
Chuff.
I carefully put him down, making sure his back feet hit first, then noticed that Pet was losing her kitty shit, making a lowmrrrrrowlin her throat, her tail puffed out as big as she could make it.
Obviously. Because I’d just brought adoginto her domain.
I had no idea what the fuck to do about that, but Taavi was clearly smarter than me. He dropped down onto his belly, flattening himself against the floor and letting his ears droop down, letting out a small whine.
Pet repeated her yowl, dancing closer, tail still puffed and her back arched.
Taavi let out an inquisitive whine, tilting his head to one side.
I decided to leave them to it, since I knew Taavi wasn’t going to hurt her. They’d figure it out. Or my cat would hate both of us for a week. One of those two things.
Leaving both my shoes and Taavi’s by the door, I took Taavi’s clothes back to the washer, putting them in and starting it up, since it was mostly full of my shit, anyway. Then I went into the bathroom to see if I had anything that could act as a makeshift splint.
I walked back into the main room to find Taavi’s head up, tongue lolling, with Pet curled up against his side.
“I wasn’t fucking gone that long,” I blurted, and he made that chuffling little laugh of his. I shook my head. “You’re a slut, Pet,” I told my cat. “Just sleep on anyone or anything that comes in this apartment, won’t you?”
I held up an ace bandage, a roll of gauze, and a couple rolls of athletic tape. I’d sprained an ankle a couple of years back, and used this crap to keep running when I probably shouldn’t have. “Okay, makeshift cast until either I can convince you to go to a doctor or at least get a heavy-duty brace from CVS. But I’m guessing you’re going to want to be back in human form before I do it.”
He let out a huffing sigh, then half-hopped to push himself up to sitting, causing Pet to get up and walk away, tail in the air as though she hadn’t been in a complete tizzy two minutes ago. Then Taavi gave me alook. I had no idea what it meant, though.
“Jesus fucking Christ!” The phone buzzing in my pocket scared the shit out of me.
Taavi cocked his head to the side quizzically.
“Shut up,” I told him, pulling out my phone.
It was Dan:fine four ambulances but no body bags gonna go home and get drunk now.
I put the phone back in my pocket. “That was Dan. He’s okay.”
Chuff.
“Do you want help getting into the bedroom or something?” Elliot always shifted in his bedroom or a bathroom, for privacy I guess.
Taavi made a weird noise I couldn’t interpret. Kind of a grumbly whine.
“I don’t know what that means.”
He sighed. Then he looked down at his feet, then up at the ceiling, then back at me. Fuck if I knew what that meant. “You… want to go on the roof?”
