Caged (On Hold)

Chapter 4

Christian

I woke up to the sound of a car horn outside. Grumbling in annoyance I sat up to see Jackson curled up on top of the blanket at the end of my bed. I remembered what had happened the night before, poor Jackson. I wonder why he is so scared of everything. Even simple things like baths. Why?

I decided to wake Jackson up as it was quite late in the morning now, fortunately for me, I didn't have work today. If I didn't wake him up his sleeping schedule would probably be thrown off. I placed my hand on his shoulder to nudge him awake. That's when I saw them. I jumped away from him falling off the bed in the process.

Jackson jumped awake, hearing me fall to the floor. That's when the realisation hit him. He quickly pulled his hood up and ran to the corner of the room, forming a ball on the floor. I slowly approached him, because if I moved any quicker he would be even more terrified than he already was...that and the fact I was also terrified.

Jackson

He approached me. I didn't know whether to run for the door, which was unfortunately behind Master, or whether to stay here and come clean. "Take your hood off Jackson." Master instructed. I slowly peeled my hood off, my ears clearly on display now. He came closer to inspect them. I sat completely still, not moving a muscle. "What...are..." Master wanted to ask me something, but couldn't string together a sentence. "Why do you have cat ears?" He blurted out.

"I am a Neko. It means I am part human, part cat." I said quietly, looking down at the floor. You should always look at Master when answering, I thought quickly and looked up, ready to apologise but I was interrupted.

"Can I touch them?" Master asked. I had had many Masters pull on my ears as punishment, and it definitely wasn't pleasant. In fact I was deaf in my left ear, due to it being pulled on too hard that it destroyed the connections in my ear.

"Yes." I said quietly, I wanted to say no so desperately but I couldn't say no to Master. I felt his finger drift across my right ear, it tickled, I giggled slightly. He then went across my left ear, but I felt nothing.

Christian

I dragged my finger across his right ear...CAT ear. It twitched, and fluttered against my finger. He giggled too, it must be ticklish for him. I did the same to his left ear. Nothing. It didn't twitch, or move at all for that matter. I clapped my hands above his head, making him jump slightly. His right ear moved like a radar, scanning the area for noise. His left ear remained stationary. Motionless. I must of had a confused look on my face as he seemed to answer my question of why.

"A Master of mine pulled on my ears as punishment. One day he pulled a little too hard on my left ear, destroying almost all of its connections. I can no longer hear with my left ear, nor can I feel anything touching it. In fact I can no longer move it because of how much damage it suffered. But I can still hear with my left human ear." He said quietly.

I felt extremely guilty for touching his ears and apologised immediately. Slowly I was beginning to see why he was terrified of just about everything. I pulled him into a hug. "You're safe with me Jackson. Always. I promise." I pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead. Then one to his right ear, which twitched at the touch. Then one to his left ear, which unsurprisingly remained motionless.