Baern glanced up from what he was doing – which was actually nothing more than staring at his hands folded in his lap – expecting to see Kyuso returning with dinner. The person in the doorway was most certainly not Kyuso, however.
It was a Felinoid, slender, and most decidedly pink. From the lack of chest, perhaps it was a male, though with Felinoids it was always difficult to tell. This one still had a collar and chain about the neck, and his clothes were terribly soiled and torn.
“Ehta…” the Felinoid bowed, looking nervous. “S… sorry.”
It took a moment for Baern to realise he had spoken in Rumanji, the language of the First Realm. Baern had been teaching himself the language, but he certainly was no expert at it. Hopefully it would at least be enough to get him through a conversation with this Felinoid.
“I was just… looking,” the pink Felinoid had a deeper voice, perhaps it was male.
Baern slid out of his blankets and scooped up his pants from the floor, no sense scaring a new Felinoid with the sight of him naked. It took him a moment to gather up the energy for anything lately, so he sat there for the moment with his pants in his hand, unable to even slip them on.
“Looking for what?” he attempted Rumanji.
The Felinoid seemed to understand him and shrugged, eyes scanning all around the room, “You live here?”
“Mhm, ever since Shana… since she asked me to move out, I’ve stay here to keep from being lonely,” Baern struggled to find the words in Rumanji, and had to pay attention to be sure he was understood.
The Felinoid looked a little surprised, “You know Shana too? She just fed me.”
“I was Shana’s… companion, for a time,” it hurt to say, but Baern managed it without tears. There was no sense crying in front of a stranger.
The wisp of a male – Baern had finally decided – was now inspecting the other bed in the room. “Who else is here? Smells like… sugar.”
“Kyuso lives here, I stay with him now,” he finally gathered up the strength to slide his pants on, but he was exhausted by the time he fastened them.
“It’s all so new, I… don’t know where to start…”
“Shana fed you, hm?” Baern let the exhaustion drag his upper body down, resting his elbows on his thighs, “She takes… good care of others.”
“I was kind of rude when I ate it, but… it was so good,” the Felinoid smiled, stretching out his hand toward Baern, “So you’re Baern, I’m Taeo.”
Baern eyed the hand, but he just could not get himself to move, which was terribly impolite, but he was so tired lately, “Nice to meet you. Been meeting new Felinoids lately,” he hoped that sufficed for politeness, though likely not, Taeo had no way of knowing how exhausted he was.
Taeo didn’t seem to mind, he went back to peering around the room, “It’s strange… to see Felinoids running around freely like they do here… I’m not even sure where here is.”
“Here is the Sixty-Fourth Realm, the world of Earth, the country of England, and the settlement of Torquay,” Baern accented the long “e” sound, “Or something like that.”
The Felinoid’s eyes widened with surprise, “All that way… just from hiding in a cave?” he rubbed at his temples, a short moment of distress before it sank in, “Torquay, seems nice enough. So… I’ll be here too when I know for sure it’s all right to stay.”
Baern gathered together those facts, that Taeo had been in hiding, and that he wasn’t sure if he could stay yet, and asked rather bluntly, “You’re an escaped slave?”
“I am,” Taeo nodded, “I don’t want to go back, I won’t, no one could ever get me back there!”
“Well, you’re sixty-four realms away now, so that’s probably safe enough distance. Though…”
Baern’s eyes wandered up and down the Felinoid, the slender body, watching as the tail gracefully floated to brush against the floor before arcing upward again to push against Taeo’s cheek. It curled there, the fluff of it looking a bit scruffy and ragged, but beautiful in a way Baern could not explain to himself.
“Though what?”
“This is a world of humans,” Baern tore his eyes away before he got lost in his confusion and attraction. What the hells was wrong with him? “Shana, although so shy it bothered her less, still can not comfortably go outside in this world. Humans… don’t understand a lot of things, so you will want to be careful.”
“Thank you for telling me. I don’t really know much of other realms… but I suppose I’ll have to learn. Thank you!”
Baern startled slightly as that soft wisp of ragged fur pushed against his face. It was so unbelievably soft that he had to close his eyes as the shock of pleasure moved through him. “You’re… mmm… welcome.”
“Damn thing has a life of it’s own,” Taeo grabbed hold of rouge appendage and shoved it down between his legs, “I-“
The bedroom door swung open just then, revealing the white-haired priest that was Kyuso. Baern felt heat rise to his cheeks, which was insane, the two of them weren’t doing anything to be embarrassed about!
“Oh! Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t realise Baern had company,” the boy quickly set a tray of food down on the bedside table, “Perhaps I’ll come back later.”
Baern jerked himself out of his thoughts, realising it was only polite to introduce them, “This is Kyuso,” he informed Taeo in Rumanji, then slipped back into a more comfortable language to talk to Kyuso, “My company is Taeo, just from the First Realm.”
“Nice to meet you Taeo,” Kyuso smiled so easily, he always smiled so easily. Baern envied that a little. “I shall not stay, it is nice for Baern to chat to his friends without me. Though I’m sure we’ll meet soon enough. Baern,” the boy smiled at his roommate, his tone still so soft and kind, but just a little more chiding, “I hope you can manage some food tonight, try, okay? I’ll come back later on.”
And then he was gone, the sweet scent of him lingering after.
“He seems… really nice. Is that your lover?” Taeo asked as if it were the most normal question to ask a man you had only met five minutes before.
Baern rolled the question through his thoughts. Oh there were so many issues surrounding that, and how much did he want to share? How much did he feel compelled to share for various reasons? There was so much there waiting on his tongue, barred by his lips, and it took so much willpower to grab hold of most of the words to spare himself the embarrassment of telling a stranger too much.
“My heart tells me I am still in love with Shana, but Kyuso… he cares about me, apparently, in that sort of manner, so I agreed to give him a chance instead of letting my grief over Shana kill me.”
Well those feelings of guilt were still there, baring his heart to a stranger hadn’t helped any. And that food was still sitting there causing a few more feelings of guilt. Kyuso always looked so sad when Baern didn’t eat.
“Shana is very sweet, I wouldn’t blame anyone for loving her,” Taeo appeared to have his eyes fixated on the food tray, in fact, Baern hadn’t seen them look away yet, “The other one is really handsome, and seems nice too.”
Baern sighed and let himself fall back against the bed, perhaps that would make it clear enough to the Felinoid that he wasn’t going to claim the food. “The other Felinoid? Fiore?”
He felt that creeping of heat move across his face. He had met Fiore before, and he had experienced some very… interesting reactions to the entertaining Felinoid. Hopefully Taeo wouldn’t notice.
“He was trying to help me out too. You look embarrassed, sir.”
Damn, he had noticed.
Baern struggled less with the disclosure decision this time, “I met Fiore… two nights ago?” he shrugged, the time span didn’t really matter, “He was… interesting, and… somewhat provocative, in that he provoked things I didn’t know I had in me.”
“You sound like you have a lot of problems, if you don’t mind me saying so, sir. And all of them are to do with… romance.”
“No issue with saying the truth, and that is the truth.”
Taeo looked at him, head tilted in a fairly cute manner. Then he laughed, a quiet, almost delicate seeming laugh, “Thank you, this is the first amusement I’ve had in a long while.”
“Ah! You laugh at my suffering!” Baern put on a show of being insulted, “My pain is entertaining!”
“I’m sorry,” Taeo giggled a little more, amused by Baern’s antics, “It’s not often I see a big man like you suffering, it is usually small people like me.” The Felinoid stood at the side of the bed and leaned gracefully, a slender arm reaching out until his finger poked Baern in the chest, “So, you are a pushover?”
“I’m pussy whipped,” Baern managed to hold the serious expression for half a minute before breaking into a grin.
Taeo’s grin widened even further, “Aww, poor man. Well no wonder you have problems, if you are like that. So does the whipped one want that food there?” it seemed the Felinoid had finally grown bold enough to ask.
Baern snorted softly, closing his eyes again to block out the sight of Taeo’s tail gracefully swaying, “No thank you, sir, food and I are not currently on speaking terms.”
“I’ll eat it if you don’t want it, if it’s okay, I mean… to eat it for you?”
“Go ahead, Kyuso can’t scold that badly. Sure, he’ll pout at me, I’ll feel bad, but that happens all the time and food goes to waste. Have at it.”
Baern listened to the movements of the other male in the room, resisting the urge to open his eyes. What was this insane attraction, first to Fiore, and now towards Taeo? Was he not sleeping in the same room as Kyuso? Was it not the boy priest who so desperately wanted his affection, and here he was getting turned on by others completely!
“Food was great, you missed out,” Taeo moved back towards him, settling at some point beside the bed again, but this time lower, as if he had sat down on the floor. “So… you like boys then?”
“Eh… not really… I was far more certain of this the other day,” Baern pinched the bridge of his nose, as if that would help clear his mind. Three days past and he would have denied any such thing immediately, but the erection he had gotten while watching Fiore had been undeniable.
“Who cares? Most people don’t care, as long as it’s got a hold then it’s fine.”
Baern was taken slightly aback at the bluntness, but he attempted to recover quickly, opening his eyes to peer curiously at the Felinoid, “A… what?”
“You know… somewhere to put it,” Taeo pointed towards Baern’s crotch, “Your cock.”
Baern couldn’t help but resist glancing down at his crotch, for whatever strange reason, “And… where exactly is this somewhere?”
“Well, if someone likes you,” the cat-like male shifted, as if he was embarrassed, and yet not, “why waste the opportunity of giving them some pleasure with it? Male or female doesn’t matter, both have holes. And as for personalities, gender doesn’t really matter there, does it?”
“No, personality isn’t linked to gender… but… what hole?”
Taeo was definitely blushing, just the slightest bit, and his words were halting from nervousness. But it wasn’t exactly embarrassment. Baern couldn’t quite put his finger on what Taeo was feeling exactly, but it was an adorable expression nonetheless.
“The tight hole in the ass… haven’t you ever?” Taeo looked down at the floor between his thighs, “It’s tighter than a girl, but not as wet… I’m only telling you this because you asked, okay?! Don’t get me into trouble for being rude!”
“No, I won’t get you into trouble,” Baern leaned forward slightly to peer at the Felinoid’s expression. It had calmed somewhat, as if that had been the thing that had unsettled him, the idea of getting into trouble with someone. “You’re right, I did ask you.”
“But Taeo,” Baern frowned, trying to push through his confusion to find the words to ask another question, “That… that is an “out” hole, things go out, not in.”
“Nothing can come out while a cock is going in, now can it?” Taeo peered up at Baern.
Frankly, he didn’t want to think about that, and some part of his mind wouldn’t let him think about that, as if there were a wall in his mind about such things, “Women have holes for things going ni, which is why men have this equipment,” he gestured towards his crotch.
Taeo shifted, shuffling slightly closer to the bed, smiling, “It can feel really good, or so I hear… if it’s with someone you like. You should try it with that pretty boy friend of yours.”
“I should… wha…?” Baern couldn’t even finish his word, his mind protested the idea so very much. That block was making talking about this subject very difficult, and even harder to understand.
“Well, surely you’re an adventurous man? You have to try everything at least once to prove that you either like it or don’t like it, right?”
Those words were easier to digest. True, Baern was not one to back down from anything new, in fact, he usually sought out new things out of boredom and need for stimulation. That tended to be how he became addicted to so many different things, he just kept trying new things to become addicted to. He sighed and slouched, defeated after a fashion.
“I don’t see… how my equipment… could… begin to go in that hole,” that sentence had been so difficult for Baern to form, he felt his temple throb in protest.
Taeo shook his head, ragged hair swirling around his cute face, “You stretch it with your fingers first. Use your mouth if you want, use lubricant if you’re feeling particularly nice. And then you can push in. The boys make good sounds when you do that to them, my master used to say. You men love to hear moaning sounds during sex, right?”
Baern tilted his head to think about that. His mind automatically conjured up the image of a woman, but still he had to nod in agreement, he did indeed like noise. “It just sounds… it doesn’t sound like it could be nice at all.”
“Isn’t your friend attracted to you? That means he wants you to do that.”
The former Dragon General shifted uncomfortably, chiding himself that a little sex talk could make a man like him squirm. But he honestly couldn’t make a connection between the attraction and the act that Taeo was describing. “I don’t… get that.”
Taeo giggled, that delightful, delicate noise again, “The men here are weird.”
“I am not weird.” At least, not for that reason.
“You don’t want to fuck? That’s different from any man I’ve ever met,” Taeo pushed himself up, that slender body sliding through the air as if weightless, “You don’t want to feel something tight around you? Or touch skin, or hear sounds, weird I tell you,” he emphasized the word.
“Of course I want to fuck…” Baern sucked in a breath, saying it made it kick even harder in his groin. “But I just… don’t get how that would work, mechanically, or attractionally.”
“Well, mechanics are simple. You wait until you’re hard, and then you get the boy to strip. Get him on hands and kenes and finger his ass, and then you slide in your and take your pleasure. Simple. As for attraction, if you have a hard cock, then you’re attracted. Simple?” Taeo took a deep breath, as if that last instruction had worn him out. “It’s been nice teaching you this stuff, but I’m tired. Is it okay if I go now?”
Baern was still wrapped up in his words about sex, so he barely heard Taeo’s last two sentences. He waved his hand dismissively, “Yeah… you can go whenever you want. Thank you…” he murmured, sliding down a little further on the bed. His head was absolutely swimming from all the information that refused to go in where it could be fully realised.
“I’ll be in Shana’s room now, so… I guess I’ll see you when I move here. Good luck with your… problems,” Taeo looked pointedly at Baern’s groin before sliding out the door.
Baern scowled, jamming the heel of his hand down against the bulge that had formed there.
None of it made any kind of sense to him, that especially.