The Neko's Tail - 14. Cats In Water

Elias sat at the kitchen table, his tablet showing lines of letters and words. His eyes were on fire, but still, he pushed onward, reading and rereading lines until he was sure he knew what they said.

Well, he knew what they sounded like, at least. He had no idea what they meant.

Curious, the neko tried saying one of the words out loud.

“Agato…”

His translator immediately picked up the word, changing it to cat. A small smile appeared on the neko’s face, and he tried to read the sentence.

“Di agato… esar-esair… di fina…”

The cat jumped over the fence.

Someone smirked behind him, and Elias whirled around.

“So, what backwards planet did he pick you up from?” Commander Hawke asked, conjuring a cup of steaming liquid from the strange device on the wall.

Elias frowned.

“My… My planet moves forward…?” he said uncertainly.

“Ugh, enough. My chip doesn’t have the room to learn your tongue.”

The human sat across from the neko, drinking. Elias lowered his gaze back to his tablet, trying to read the next sentence.

“Di… acadi? Di acadi deso- desoar-”

“Desoir,” Hawke grumbled. “Di acadie desoir di fina.”

The dog digs under the fence.

Elias was learning. But his company sucked.

Sighing quietly, the neko stood. Picking up his tablet, he left the room, letting the commander drink in peace.

Artemis panted as the toilet flushed. He was lucky his body couldn’t really differentiate between a hole and his hand. Dealing with his heat most days was as simple as just releasing tension in the privacy of the bathroom.

Speaking of the bathroom…

The tiger unlocked the door and stepped out. Checking the kitchen, he found Hawke sipping on a drink.

“Have you seen Elias?” he asked.

“Yeah, he left with his tablet about ten minutes ago. I assumed you were too busy to care.”

Artemis scowled.

“Look, Commander, you are on my ship. I have dealt with your bad attitude as much as I am going to-”

“But you will deal with it for a couple of days more. I owe you nothing anymore, and I will not pretend to like you or the little cat toy you travel with.”

”Anymore? What did you ever owe me?”

“Oh, I don’t know, it’s not like you rescued me from the vacuum of space or anything. Did you think I spent the credits I did to save your slave just out of the kindness of my heart? We’re even now. In fact, by military protocol, I outrank you. So there will be no more discussion about my “attitude” as you call it,” Hawke snapped.

Artemis grumbled, turning to leave the room. The neko clearly wasn’t here.

The tiger passed down the hallway, poking his head into the cabin. Elias wasn’t there either. Sighing, Artemis returned to the cockpit, bringing up the ship’s hologram. He found the neko in the med bay.

Stepping into the bay, he heard a voice whispering words.

“Deci… Decia arte issi…”

The tiger paused, listening to Elias’ voice as the neko puzzled out the words. He hadn’t planned on getting Elias to read out loud until Hawke was gone. Artemis was happy the neko beat him to the punch. His pronunciations were a little off, but they could fix that later. For now, the tiger just listened to Elias’ voice.

A quiet moan interrupted the neko’s reading, and Artemis watched Elias rub his eyes with the palm of his hand, swaying slightly in his seat.

“Elias? Are you okay?” he asked, causing the cat to jump in his chair.

Elias nodded quickly, his eyes squinting at the tiger.

“Are your eyes hurting?”

The cat nodded again.

“Do they hurt often?”

Artemis knelt beside the cat, looking into his eyes. The deep cobalt pupils stared back at him, looking perfectly normal. And perfectly lickable.

The tiger knelt back quickly. That was a rather unsettling thought...

“They hurt when I’m reading,” the neko whispered.

Artemis frowned.

“Can I see your tablet?” he asked.

Elias handed it to the tiger, and Artemis increased the size of the writing.

Handing the device back, he asked, “Is this better?”

The neko stared at the words and nodded slowly. Artemis studied the neko, trying to remember why he had been looking for the cat.

“Shower,” he muttered. “You need to take a shower.”

Elias’ ears flattened.

“You haven’t taken a shower in at least three days. And we went through a portal. That makes you sweat buckets.”

The neko’s head shook vigorously, his grip on the tablet tightening.

“Look, I have to take showers all the time. If I have to, so do you.”

“You’re the master of the ship. Who makes you shower?” Elias muttered.

Artemis stared at the neko. Heaving a sigh, he leaned back against a wall.

“No one makes me shower. But if I don’t shower, I will start to stink. And the same goes for you.”

The neko wasn’t budging. A quiet growl slipped from Artemis’ mouth as he tried to think through the situation. How do you get a neko to take a shower when he doesn’t like water?

“I’ll shower with you. We’ll suffer through it together,” he said.

The tiger’s shirt fell to the ground and Artemis stretched luxuriously, showing off his soft, yet stocky, frame. There were ridges in his abs, showing the tiger wasn’t afraid to work out, but they were soft too, like the rest of his body.

It made a certain sense, Elias supposed. There wasn’t much the tiger could do to exercise on the ship. He was still perfection in the neko’s eyes, a wizard who was physically fit.

The pants fell next, revealing the tiger’s groin, his rod beginning to peek out from his fluffy sheath. Artemis opened the door to the shower, switching the water on, and Elias flinched as he heard the drops hitting the ground. There had to be some way of getting out of this.

As Artemis’ tail flicked lazily, Elias got an idea. He might be punished for it, but Artemis kept saying he’d never hurt Elias. Maybe he should just go for it.

Placing his hand at the base of Artemis’ tail, the neko started to scratch, a small smile playing across his lips as the tiger began moaning. His hand slipped to the side, running across the tiger’s butt before wrapping around to grasp the big cat’s rod.

This was the biggest risk, the move that made Elias all jittery. He stroked Artemis, trying to force his nerves back down into the pit of his stomach.

With a muffled growl, Artemis spun around, nearly knocking Elias to the floor. The neko’s shirt was yanked over his head, and Elias yelped. Maybe this hadn’t been the best idea. But at least the tiger had forgotten all about the water running in the shower. If Elias could just turn it off before Artemis realized what he was doing…

The tiger’s lips slammed into his, and the neko inhaled the larger cat’s scent. This he could work with.

Returning the kiss, the neko carefully maneuvered himself between Artemis and the shower. His pants fell to Artemis’ groping hands, and the neko shivered slightly, suddenly nude.

Artemis’ lips left his own, and the tiger’s tongue brushed over his cheek, trailing down to his jaw, and then to his neck. Suddenly Elias forgot what he was doing, assailed by so many new sensations. This had never been done to him before. It felt… amazing.

He took a fumbling step back, Artemis following him with a quiet growl. A purr escaped the neko as his chest took the brunt of Artemis’ next attack. The tiger’s tongue swirled over Elias’ nipple, and the neko let out a quiet moan, stumbling back again. His rod was achingly hard, its dripping emissions adding to the wetness around his feet… wetness…

Elias yelped at the sound of a door closing. He was in the shower, Artemis blocking the only way out. Water fell from the sky right next to him, and the neko scowled at Artemis. He had been bested at his own game…

Artemis was impressed. That had been close. If he hadn’t just taken care of himself, Elias would have gotten him.

Smiling at the pouting neko, the tiger folded his ears and dunked his head under the water. He stood over Elias, bending his head to kiss the neko’s head.

“You should have turned the other way. You made it too easy for me,” he chuckled. “It was a really good try though.”

Grabbing the shampoo out of the mounted cabinet in the wall, Artemis began lathering his head.

“Would you like to help?” he offered the bottle to the neko.

Elias stared at the bottle, taking it. He held it upside down over his hand and waited as the liquid slowly dribbled out. Artemis sighed, his suspicion that Elias hadn’t washed himself on the ship confirmed.

“You need to squeeze it,” he said. “But you don’t need a lot.”

A large glob plopped into the neko’s hand, and Artemis winced as the bottle fell from the neko’s hand.

Kneeling, the tiger picked up the bottle. Looking up, he realized his mouth was barely an inch from the neko’s rod. Unable to resist, Artemis flicked his tongue out, running it up the length.

Elias shuddered, drops of shampoo falling from his hand. Artemis stood, grinning at the cat.

“Well? Did you want to soap me down, or do you want me to do it?”

The neko lightly brushed Artemis’ chest with his fingers, the shampoo smearing over Artemis. He circled the tiger’s nipple uncertainly.

Artemis’ grin faded as he watched the neko.

“I keep forgetting so much is new to you. I’m sorry,” he said.

“You made me take a shower before,” Elias frowned.

“Yes, but I don’t think you used soap to clean yourself. When you’re washing someone, you should do the whole body, not just the chest.”

A light went on behind Elias’ eyes, a sudden memory? His hand dropped slightly, the lather making its way into Artemis’ stomach fur. Part of Artemis wanted to see just how much the neko was willing to touch him. The other part of him was aware of every drop of water going into the drain to be recycled later.

The neko’s fingers worked their way through the tiger’s fur, massaging his stomach before moving towards his hips. Artemis was moaning loudly now, enjoying the touch of Elias’ hands. Perhaps he was wrong. Perhaps the neko had done this before.

With someone else…

If Elias had washed someone like this before, it was most likely as a slave. Artemis’ tail drooped at the thought. His breathing faltered, to be replaced by a sudden moan as Elias’ hands met his ass.

The neko massaged his globes carefully, his eyes nervously watching Artemis’ face, looking for any sign that he might have gone too far.

“Damn kitten, you have magic hands…” Artemis breathed, his rod, and tail, standing straight up in the air.

The neko’s hands slid down Artemis’ thighs, continuing their massage as Elias’ breath warmed Artemis’ groin. Looking down, the tiger saw Elias lean towards his dick.

“Wait, don’t do-”

Elias’ mouth closed around the rod, and the neko fell back, spluttering. He spat on the floor of the shower, and Artemis frowned.

“Soapy dick. Not the best taste ever,” he said apologetically.

Elias gagged, sticking his mouth under the water. Spitting the water out, he glared at Artemis.

“Hey, I tried to warn you,” the tiger said defensively.

He stepped into the water, folding his ears while he rinsed.

“Okay, your turn.”

Artemis stepped aside, water dripping from his fur, and looked expectantly at Elias. The neko stared back at him, unmoving.

“Oh don’t be like that. I showered. Now you need to shower too. Come on, I’ll even cover your ears for you.”

Artemis held out his hands and Elias dodged them. Grumbling under his breath, the neko stepped into the cascading water, his ears folded to the side.

Artemis squeezed some shampoo into his hand as Elias got soaked.

“This isn’t the best soap for you. There are a few things I’ll need to get at Oyhaf when we get there,” the tiger said. “You can get out of the water now.”

Elias leapt for the door, and Artemis grabbed his arm.

“Whoa, not so fast there.”

He plopped the soap onto Elias’ hair and the neko shuddered. Gently massaging the shampoo into Elias’ hair, Artemis smiled as Elias let out a barely audible moan.

“See, showers don’t have to be so bad. And just wait until I can introduce you to a bath.”

Pushing the neko’s head gently to the side, Artemis covered Elias’ ears as he washed the soap from his head.

“Now we can get out,” he said.

Elias was out of the shower Artemis could finish the sentence.