Tiger Winter - 19. Dance

Emmett had never really danced - too big, too clumsy, and too scared of stepping on someone’s toes - but when Jian held out his hand, his hips still swaying in time to the music, Emmett could do nothing else but follow his lead. He moved wherever the angles of Jian’s lithe sweat-soaked body directed him to, and within the space of a dozen breaths, Emmett had stopped thinking with his brain, letting his instincts take the lead as the edges of his visual field sparkled with points of golden light that had nothing to do with the flashing strobes around the club.

After a week of puppy training, Jian had deemed Pitanê to be ready to spend part of the evening by himself. They had started shutting the dog into his crate during the day, for ten minutes here and there while they went out, got groceries, or just walked around the block hand in hand to pass the time while the puppy got used to different parts of his new routine. The husky hadn’t had any toilet accidents in a few days, and when Jian had put him to bed the dog had simply yawned hugely and curled up into a fluffy ball.

The number of times Emmett had gone with someone to a club he could still count on the fingers of both hands. Even so, there was something incredibly erotic about watching the man who had bent double in the shower that morning and begged Emmett to fuck him senseless get dressed and ready to go out. Emmett had never seen Jian polished before, but now he shone and glimmered: his hair carefully styled and smooth, his tan skin freshly scrubbed. Emmett had watched raptly as his boyfriend had pulled on the smallest pair of sexy silken boxers Emmett had ever seen, and for his erotic vision of stripping them from Jian had received a balled-up t-shirt to the face. Jian dressed in jeans and a white t-shirt adorned with a sparkly tiger, and Emmett had never been prouder than to walk into the club with the boy on his arm.

Now the t-shirt was stuck to Jian’s skin, practically transparent where it clung to his muscles, and he danced with all the grace and power of his nickname. Emmett was helpless to resist him, and even his burgundy silk shirt was drenched along the furrow of his spine as he ground his hips against Jian’s in exactly the manner the boy wanted. Emmett was lost in the burning amber-orange of his eyes, and he was sure that if Jian had commanded him to, he would have stripped naked and screwed him right there on the dance floor. The music throbbed in their ears, but not as loudly as Emmett’s pulse, pounding every place where their skin touched. Kissing Jian under the flashing lights of the dance floor was completely overwhelming, and it was only when the little tiger pulled back, his hand placed firmly over Emmett’s sternum that the polar bear realised how close he was to losing control altogether.

“I think we should go get a drink,” Jian panted in his ear, “c’mon big guy; breathe Xue…”

Emmett ran his fingers through his near-white hair as he followed Jian to the bar. There were a lot of people on the dance floor, so they found a space to lean up against the mirrored surface as Jian caught the waiter’s eye and ordered drinks and water. Emmett poured half a bottle down his throat before he drew breath, then switched to the tiger beer Jian had ordered.

“You dance like…” Emmett couldn’t find the right words, but Jian smiled as though he’d said pretty things anyway. “Thank you.”

“What for?” Jian purred.

“For being mine,” Emmett murmured in his ear. He ran his palm down Jian’s spine, feeling the cat flex into is touch, and Jian purred for real when Emmett got to his tail bone and squeezed his pert behind instead.

“Xue!” Jian slapped his arm playfully, “you’re such a flirt.”

“Says the boy who teased me for four solid months?” Emmett pulled his boyfriend against his chest with a little thump, “I love you.”

Jian had his tongue down Emmett’s throat, fingers tight in his hair when the polar bear heard someone say his name, and over the salt-sweat, chemical-glitter scent of the club and the amazing rich spicy exotic floweriness of his boyfriend, his nose caught a familiar aroma.

“Emmett?”

Emmett broke the kiss, dragged his knuckles over his mouth and turned to see Zeke, looking slick and sexy in fitted chinos and a white shirt open practically to his navel, his arm around the waist of a handsome black man in his mid-thirties who obviously spent a lot of time at the gym working on his highly defined muscles.

“Hey,” Emmett didn’t know why he was so surprised to see his ex-boyfriend standing there, because it was the same club they had first met in, “Zeke, how are you?”

“Really well, thanks.” Zeke beamed, “this is Zuberi.”

Emmett shook his hand, and found Zuberi squeezing his own just hard enough to let him know that the other man really desired the upper hand in their encounter. The polar bear in him growled, but Emmett just smiled politely.

“Nice to meet you. Zeke, you remember Jian?”

“Hey,” Zeke’s smile only widened, and Emmett frowned, because he was sure he must have been misreading the happy yellow-blue scents given off by both his lover and his ex, “good to see you two together.” He paused, “you are together, right?”

Jian laughed.

“Oh yeah: I got my bear,” Jian beamed.

“He’s hardly a bear,” Zuberi frowned, glancing Emmett up and down. He switched his gaze to Jian, and stepped back quickly, “I’ll go get drinks babe…”

Emmett smoothed his hand over Jian’s hair, flattening the tiger ears that seemed a constant part of his image, and the tension dropped from the tiger’s shoulders. Zuberi had obviously felt an echo similar to what Zeke had experienced when he had told Emmett that Jian was a hell-cat, and Emmett smiled broadly, proud of his fierce and protective little mate.

“He seems nice,” Emmett commented.

“It’s fun,” Zeke shrugged fluidly. “He puts up with my appalling taste in reality TV shows.”

“If I never see another episode of Project Runway again…” Emmett drowned the rest of the sentence with his beer.

“It is so unfair that you don’t seem to have to worry about calories at all,” Zeke brushed a hand over his own flat stomach, “the rest of us don’t have such luxuries.” The other man smiled at them both, “I’m so pleased for you Emmett: for both of you. You deserve to be happy.”

“Thanks.”

“Did he resist long?” Zeke asked Jian bluntly.

“About three weeks,” Jian grinned cheekily, “he’s not completely resistant to logic, and I wore him down eventually.”

“Hey!” Emmett grabbed the little tiger around the waist and pulled him off the floor, tickling Jian’s sides as best he could, “you two are not supposed to gang up on me!” As soon as Emmett spoke, he was regretting it, and by the time Zuberi arrived with the drinks, the two slender men were trading phone numbers. Emmett glanced across at his bedroom-companion replacement and sighed. “This cannot be a good thing.”

Zuberi laughed.

“Oh you got yourself a strong one there. I’d hang on tight if I were you.”

Emmett bought another round of drinks: white wine, a martini, and another pair of imported beers, and got frowned at by Zeke yet again for his frivolous consumption of calories. Zuberi watched them clink bottles and smiled at Jian in a slightly cautious manner.

“So; what do you do, Jian?”

Emmett paused, and looked at his mate quizzically. Jian shrugged, as though it didn’t matter.

“Oh, I’m still deciding. I like to surf.”

“That’s cool,” Zuberi grinned widely. “I’m a model.”

Emmett tuned out of the conversation as Zeke radiated pride at his latest catch: he was just as bad as Logan, showing off the size of his prize and boasting about how wonderful it was and how difficult to lure.

Emmett couldn’t have claimed to be worried, exactly, by Jian’s lack of career drive, but as the three other men talked on without him, he wondered what on earth it was that Jian was going to do. So far, as much as Emmett could tell, the boy had travelled around the world, seemingly picking his next location on the availability of good surfing beaches, and had taken odd jobs here and there where opportunity arose. Emmett knew that in the last four months, Jian hadn’t earned anything, and though he had paid for his fair share of everything both in Toronto and back north, Emmett doubted Jian’s funds were completely inexhaustible.

It was a question that bugged him as they rode home, snuggled up in the back of a city cab.

“Tiger?”

“Yes Xue?” Jian unbuttoned part of Emmett’s shirt and slid his fingers in against the bear’s bare chest. His touch was feverishly warm, and Emmett tried to keep his mind clear of the flashing images of Jian under the strobe lights, dancing and swirling for the bear’s voyeuristic pleasure.

“What is it you want to do Jian?”

“Mmmm…” The little tiger purred in his ear, “I’d really like to get home, have you strip me naked, and screw like rabbits until the sun comes up.”

Emmett shivered.

“Sounds fun,” the bear shook himself down mentally. “But I meant, afterwards; later. Like a job.”

“Oh Emm,” Jian flexed away from him slightly, “let’s not spoil a good evening by being grown-ups.” He squeezed Emmett’s hand tightly. “Later.”

“Promise?” Emmett tried to echo the tone Jian used whenever he used a command, though he wasn’t sure if it was effective. “Tiger?”

“I promise.” Jian slipped his questing fingers down to the rough denim over Emmett’s crotch. “Now can I please go back to me telling you how hot you are?”

By the time they pulled up outside the house on Collier Street, both of them had their hands inside each other’s clothes, and Emmett was too slow and disorganised to be able to pay before Jian handed over a fold of banknotes with a cocky grin. It was late, and the house was quiet, so bear and tiger tripped up the stairs, trying not to be too loud which lead them to fits of muffled giggles. No sooner had Jian shut the bedroom door behind them, than Emmett lived up to the little tiger’s vision and stripped the boy’s shirt off over his head, sinking to his knees and pressing Jian back against the door as he pulled his jeans down past his knees.

Jian’s silky, skimpy little boxers still smelt fresh and clung to him in a deliciously erotic manner; so Emmett didn’t bother removing them from Jian’s body before he began to nuzzle and lap at his crotch. Wet silk defined the young tiger’s burgeoning erection even more explicitly, and Emmett engulfed the tip of his cock in the warm wet heat of his mouth, bathing him through the silk with his tongue. Jian purred and panted, his fingers tight in the back of Emmett’s hair, urging him on with a low moan of pleasure. Emmett skimmed his fingers up the back of Jian’s trembling thighs, kneading his tender arse before pulling down the back of his scanty underwear to explore his body further. Emmett didn’t think he would ever get used to the texture of Jian’s skin, and every time he touched the boy it was as though they glowed together.

Emmett licked and suckled at Jian’s crotch, massaging his pert rear until the boy was curled up, his every muscle tense, and Emmett was sure he was right on the edge of his orgasm. Only then did the polar bear divest Jian of his underwear and swallow his delightful erection until his face was pressed against the tiger’s smooth taut skin.

“Ahhh! Xue!” Jian panted, whimpering in pleasure, and his short fingernails dug painfully into the back of Emmett’s neck and shoulders as he reached the point of ejaculation. Emmett groaned in time, and the vibrations resonated up through Jian’s crotch and sent him spiralling over the edge into blissful oblivion. Emmett drank him down, his senses filling up with Jian’s exotic jasmine scent, and sat back on his heels in time to reach up and steady the boy as he swayed.

“Whoa there…” Emmett held his hips and placed a row of soft kisses from Jian’s inner thigh down to his knee, “oh, Tiger.”

Jian shone, sparkled in the darkness of the bedroom, and Emmett could see the points of light, bright as stars, that outlined his perked up ears. A long striped tail fell between the tiger’s strong thighs, but when Emmett reached out to stroke it, he found himself with his hand pressed against the wood of the door. Jian took a few deep breaths, and the image half faded as he stepped back and grinned in the cocky manner Emmett had learnt to adore.

“Come on then, big guy,” Jian had stepped out of his underwear, and whilst Emmett would normally be half-comatose after an orgasm, the tiger was already raring to go for a second round, swishing his hips as he grinned. “Shouldn’t keep a good cat waiting…”

“Whoever said you were ‘good’?” Emmett rumbled. “There’s not an adjective in the world to describe you.”

“I’ll settle for ‘yours’.” Jian smiled happily, “now what are you still doing down there?”

Emmett growled and grabbed at the boy, but he was too quick and darted away. They played an impromptu game of cat and bear around the edge of the bed, trying to be quiet as they chased each other. Jian tried to scramble away from him across the mattress, but Emmett grabbed his ankle and pulled him back until he had Jian’s rounded arse under his hands. He licked his way down the furrow of the tiger’s spine as he parted the plump cheeks, and Jian groaned low, his head and chest sinking down onto the mattress as his muscles trembled in pleasure. Emmett loved invading the tight heat of his boyfriend’s body, and while they had made do in the hotel, Emmett now slicked his fingers with a sweet smelling lube and pushed himself inside Jian as the tiger moaned and purred. His whole body vibrated, and he writhed under Emmett’s touch, arching his spine and giving the polar bear better access to his most private of places. Emmett leant over him, kissed his shoulders and neck, and let his free hand roam over Jian’s chest, touching and rubbing at his nipples until Jian was once again a quivering mass of pleasure underneath him. When he drew back, the tiger growled.

“Tease.”

“Yes,” Emmett agreed. He petted Jian’s arse appreciatively, running his fingers over the sensitive skin of his entrance, making the boy twitch and shiver.

“Please, Xue!”

Emmett shuddered with the power of Jian’s voice. He loved to be asked, loved to have that effect on his insanely gorgeous partner: but even more, Emmett wanted to have the choice removed from him, and do everything, anything, and exactly what Jian wanted. He could not bring himself to ask for the command, because somewhere deep in the back of his brain it did not seem like the sort of thing for a strong masculine polar bear to want to do. But Jian read his mind, somehow, and Emmett felt his self-control lurch out of his grip as soon as the tiger drew breath.

“Fuck me, Xue,” Jian commanded, “now.”

Emmett growled, placing his hands on Jian’s hips and pulling the tiger back against his crotch. His hard cock slid a few times between the mounds of Jian’s rear, and then Emmett unconsciously adjusted the angle of his hips and slid into his lover in one smooth thrust. Jian yowled, a combination of stretching pain and intense pleasure as Emmett bottomed out inside him. The polar bear exhaled sharply with the shock, suddenly surrounded by the tight wet heat of his lover, and growled in pleasure as Jian literally bit the pillow to keep from crying out as he thrust again. Emmett loved the lack of control that overwhelmed him, binding him to Jian’s will, and he thrust just as deep and hard as the tiger wanted, timing every movement to give them both as much pleasure as physically possible.

“Oh Xue! Ahhh… Ungh!” Jian was incoherent with pleasure underneath him, “oh please…”

Emmett was all too happy to follow Jian’s wordless request, sliding his hands down the boy’s spine before resting against the mattress, covering him as he continued to thrust his length in and out of the tight sheath of his body. He pulled Jian away from the bed and up against his chest with his palm on the boy’s throat and collarbone, and Jian whimpered as Emmett began to explore his chest with his other hand. Even as he reamed the little tiger, his free hand drifted lower, thick fingers wrapping around Jian’s cock in just the way the lithe young man wanted as he was fucked.

With every movement synchronised, they came together, both reaching the point of orgasm at exactly the same time, and Jian’s cry of ecstasy was only partially covered by Emmett’s deep bass growl. Emmett felt the noose around his self-control slacken off as he came down from the dizzying high that came with making love to Jian, and with that he clung onto the boy, turned and collapsed on the bed with a groan. Jian purred as he was stroked, long lazy motions Emmett’s fingers followed from his soft hair, down the curve of his spine and ending at the place where their flesh was still joined. It seemed like a long time later when either one of them was able to speak.

“That was amazing.” Emmett mumbled an incoherent response, and Jian elbowed him gently in the ribs. “No falling asleep just yet, Xue.”

“Warm,” Emmett muttered, “comfy.” He wrapped an arm over Jian’s torso more tightly, and felt the boy squirm against him in response. Emmett had thought he was tired, but already his body, surrounded by the warm of Jian, was having other ideas. “Love you.”

“Love you too,” Jian took his hand and kissed his knuckles, “Why did you want me to command you Xue?”

“Love you,” Emmett responded. The actual answer seemed much too complicated when his mind wanted to be asleep, but his cock wanted to fuck his boyfriend again. “You feel awesome.”

Jian wriggled back against him, inspiring Emmett’s tumescent erection to swell inside him even further. The polar bear nipped at the back of Jian’s neck softly, soothing the raw skin by lapping with wet tongue and damp lips, and Jian mewled in a manner which Emmett interpreted as begging. With infinite slowness, he thrust himself in and out of Jian’s warm body, rocking his hips to meet his partner as they lay curled and cushioned in the enormous bed. Jian purred with each stroke, and Emmett took unexpected pleasure from watching the boy snake a hand down his own torso, drawing patterns in the sticky emission that already decorated his abdomen and crotch, to wrap around his own erection and stroke himself off. Emmett turned the boy’s head to kiss him, and watched as he came for the second time.

“No one is more beautiful than you,” Emmett growled against the shell of his ear.

“Oh Xue…” Emmett got the distinct feeling that, despite the fact his erection was still moving inside the tight tunnel of Jian’s flesh, it was Emmett’s words which had made the boy blush. “I love you.”

“Ungh… little Tiger…” Emmett panted, groaned, and flooded the boy for the second time with his seed. True exhaustion caught up with them both, and Emmett kissed the nape of Jian’s neck as unconsciousness pulled him under. They fell asleep locked together, sharing the soft beat of their pulse through every place their skin touched.

*

Emmett knew he was at the beach even before he opened his eyes, because every part of him from the shoulders down was warm and wet, and there was snow falling on his upturned face. He blinked in the bright orange light of a warm sunrise, though it may have been a sunset, and stared across the glittering sea to the little stripe of beach, the sparkling expanse of the pure virgin snow, to the polar ice caps, bathed in soft light the same colour as Jian’s eyes. Emmett cast around for his mate, and just as he became worried, he heard the boy’s lilting voice from behind him.

“Xue!”

Emmett turned in time to see Jian come cresting over a wave, silhouetted for a moment in black against the low disc of the sun: his dark shape was accentuated by ears and a tail that Emmett knew were not physically there, but still they cast a shadow. He rode the wave, and Emmett trod water and watched him skid effortlessly by, balanced on the balls of his feet, crouched low over the sleek shape of the surfboard, all the way to the beach. Jian kicked up the board and stuck the tail into the sand before turning back to look for his lover, but Emmett had sunk out of sight below the waterline. He grinned to himself, full of smug confidence, and powered out of the surf on all four big feet. The polar bear jumped at the little tiger, knocking him back into the snow, and shook himself down like a dog doing a passable impression of an oscillating fan.

“Xue!” Jian tried to cover his face with his hands, but Emmett knocked them aside with his muzzle and licked his boyfriend anyway, ears up and laughing happily. His huge paws had left perfect imprints in the sand next to Jian’s own human-shaped feet, and now he placed his paws to either side of the boy’s shoulders and began to nuzzle at the soft skin of his neck.

“Wooarm,” Emmett rumbled against him. Jian’s skin glittered with trapped droplets of water, and the bear felt the sudden desire to lap each of them up. Jian’s chest was the most marvellous texture to explore, and when Emmett reached one of the boy’s small brown nipples he pushed against it with his rough tongue until the little tiger mewled ecstatically, sharp nails running through Emmett’s thick, and magically dry, fur.

“Oh, Xue,” Jian half sat up and took the big bear’s muzzle to kiss him.

Emmett couldn’t work out how to kiss him back, too scared of his own sharp teeth to make a move, but Jian didn’t seem to care, and melted against him. The point of contact of their tongues was like electricity, and Emmett felt himself giving in to the desires of his body. Jian had been wearing a pair of splashily coloured board shorts in the sea, and Emmett shredded them with his claws as he moved down Jian’s narrow body. The tiger yelped in surprise, and Emmett rumbled happily in his chest, and set to licking at Jian’s exposed crotch. Jian purred, rumbling like a freight train, and Emmett could think of no better way to spend his time than exploring the body of the man he loved. He worked his way down, pushing Jian’s thighs apart with his deep chest, and pressed the tip of his cold wet nose to the boy’s taint. Jian nearly leapt out of the his skin, and at the first rasp of Emmett’s tongue against the tender flesh of his arse, was crying out, fingers digging into the snow, the sweep of his arms throwing flurries of snow into the blue sky. Emmett sat up and twitched his ears forwards, grinning in satisfaction.

Jian lay in the snow, still somehow graceful even with his hair in a mess, his chest rising and falling like the bellows of a forge as he panted for breath. He flicked a fluffy orange and white ear at Emmett as the big bear huffed, and his black-tipped tail skimmed back and forth across the snow. With the light covering of snow and his abdomen decorated with the sticky remnants of his orgasm, he really was a white tiger. Emmett inhaled, and melted back into his skin.

“You look like the best sort of fantasy,” Emmett sighed gently, “I love you.”

Jian mewled, and held out his arms for Emmett. The bear reached down and scooped the boy up. Jian’s tail instantly wound around his bicep and both of them stopped to stare at the fluffy prehensile appendage.

“You have a tail.”

“Yeah; I like it.” Jian flicked his tail into his palm and ran it through his hand with a satisfied smirk, “what do you think?”

“I think it’s damn sexy,” Emmett rumbled in Jian’s ear. “How did you do it?”

“I’m not sure, it just sort of happened.” Jian slid down from Emmett arms and began to wipe his chest and abdomen, washing himself with handfuls of snow, “it’s not cold.”

“The snow is cold,” Emmett wriggled his bare toes into the thick drift they were standing on, “this place is amazing. How far away do you think those ice-boulder fields are?”

“A mile?” Jian frowned, “Xue, why do you think we’re here?”

Emmett turned to the little tiger and shrugged.

“Because it’s fun?”

The tiger smiled.

“It’s like our favourite things mixed together.”

Emmett sighed heavily. He had been thinking along much the same lines, but Jian’s sentence was extended automatically in his mind. They were dreaming together in some magically impossible land where their favourite environments merged together in some surreal landscape. The polar ice caps didn’t quite meet the sun-warmed beach, and in essence their dream world was the arctic mixed with a Californian summer. Even though Emmett wanted to be blissfully happy, all he could think was that his and Jian’s favourite places were completely incompatible.

As though Jian knew exactly what he was thinking, Emmett found the boy’s fingers linked with his own, and the tiger leant against his shoulder with a purr.

“We’ve not quite got everything settled, eh Xue?”

“No, it doesn’t seem so.” Emmett began to walk in the direction of the distant glittering ice-caps, and Jian fell into place beside him. “What are we going to do?”

“Now? Walk that way for a bit.”

“I meant-”

Jian cut him off with another squeeze of his hand.

“I know what you meant babe, sorry.” Jian sighed, his tail swishing happily through the top layer of the snow. “I don’t know. I’ve never known what I really wanted to do. I just didn’t want to grow up to be my father.”

“No chance of that,” Emmett ran his palm over Jian’s silky hair, stroking the velvet softness of his ears. “After all, you’re only the most talented, sexy, beautiful tiger in the universe.”

“Emm…” Jian rolled his eyes, “you don’t know any other tigers.”

“Doesn’t stop you being the best,” Emmett squeezed the boy to his side, and let his hand roam down to appreciate Jian’s pert rear.

“Hey!” Jian skipped away from him over the snow, “get off!” Emmett arched an eyebrow at him, and Jian huffed, his ears flicking back over his skull. “I thought we were trying to have a serious conversation? It’s kinda hard when you’re grabbing my butt.”

“But it’s such a good butt,” Emmett purred happily.

“Be as that may,” Jian smiled at him and stepped closer again, “when did you know you wanted to be a lecturer?”

“I didn’t really,” Emmett smiled as they reached the ice caps and let go of Jian’s hand to seize the ice and begin climbing up the sheer face of the ancient block. “I wanted to do something that gave me free time and was flexible enough that I could go home: university life seemed to suit. And then I started tracking a group of Canada geese no-one else was following… I like drawing maps and the university needed someone to stay on and write a research paper about the physical difficulties encountered while tracking the movements of cold weather migratory animals, and it seemed like a fun thing to do. I never really left.”

“But you love it?” Jian queried; he was climbing up and over the ice boulders with all the strenuous difficulty as a man strolling through the park.

“Yeah, it allows me the freedom to do all of the other things I want, and I like the students.” Emmett paused, and turned back to his mate, “what do you like to do?”

“Surf,” Jian shrugged, “apart from looking pretty and making bao buns it’s one of the few things I’m actually good at. Great Spirits,” Jian froze, looking out across the landscape, “it goes on forever…”

They stood together at the top of the ridge. The horizon was made of irregular shapes and huge cathedral sized blocks of ice. To the two men standing there, it seemed to stretch forever, further than they could see, and Emmett glanced back over his shoulder to the smooth white snow, marred only by their matched footprints, to the bright line of the sandy beach, and the glittering distant wash of the sea. He sat down heavily, and Jian came to curl up in his lap.

“It’s enormous…”

“I know: I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?” Jian pressed his finger tips to Emmett’s furrowed brow.

“Because I’ve always wanted to go there,” Emmett pointed out across the ice in the direction he most associated with ‘north’, “and it looks so inhospitable. I can’t drag you away from the sea.”

“Well, we’re not exactly dressed for the occasion,” Jian replied softly. When the bear didn’t answer, the little tiger reached up and kissed his jaw, “The Sea and the North Pole aren’t mutually exclusive Xue. We can have both.”

“How?” Emmett wondered.

“We’ll work it out Xue. I promise.”

*

Emmett opened one eye. It was still dark, and though he couldn’t see the clock on his bedside table, he had the feeling that not much time had passed. Jian shifted in his arms, rolling over and nuzzling into his chest.

“Go back to sleep Xue-bear: we’ll work it out in the morning.”

“Mmm…” The bear snuggled back down into the bed, pulling the little tiger across onto his chest. Jian stroked his fur in a sleepy manner.

“I like sleeping with you in your fur,” Jian yawned like a housecat, “good night babe.”

Emmett closed his eyes wearily: they hadn’t worked through anything, and nothing was resolved, but with Jian curled up in his arms, Emmett felt better about the future anyway.