Love's Eternal Song: Tygra's Story

Chapter 6: The Morning After and The Consequences

The first thing that Tim noticed when he woke up was that he was incredibly warm and comfortable. I don't want to move, Tim thought as he curled closer to the warmth and let out a small sigh. Tim let himself drift between the realm of dreams and the realm of wakefulness for awhile before he attempted to get up. He opened his eyes and found himself on a couch with something wrapped around his waist. Tim looked down and saw that it was an arm, a well-muscled, orange, black, and white arm, but an arm nonetheless. Tim looked over his shoulder and saw Tygra looking back at him with those penetrating amber eyes of his.

"Good morning," Tygra said, leaning close and rubbing his left cheek against Tim's right.

"Morning," Tim answered, reaching up and running his hands through Tygra's headfur.

"How did you sleep?" Tygra asked with a knowing gleam in his eyes.

"Very well.  And you?" Tim answered, fighting not to blush at the real meaning behind the gleam in Tygra's eyes.

"I slept well too," Tygra replied, running his left hand down Tim's right side.

"Mmmm," Tim murmured, arching into Tygra's touch.

Tygra watched as Tim fairly purred at his touch and couldn't help but fall in love with him a little more. He didn't want to move, but he could easily hear the other soldiers opening their doors and walking down the hall.

"I don't want to get up," Tim said, echoing Tygra's thoughts.

"I do not want too either, but I fear we must," Tygra replied, watching as Tim stood up and stretched.

"I know we have too, but I wish we didn't," Tim said as he went searching for his clothes.

"Duty calls," Tygra answered simply, getting up as well and looking for his things.

"Sometimes I wish it didn't call so damn early," Tim replied, straightening up with his clothes in his hands. Tygra chuckled at how much Tim sounded like a little boy right then.

Tim smiled at the sound of Tygra's laugh and thought that it sounded a little like his father's had once had. They pulled on the clothes they had on last night and Tygra walked Tim to the door.

"I'll see you soon," Tygra said, pulling on Tim's hand before he could open the door and propelled him back into his arms.

"What happened to letting me go back to my room to shower and change before heading to breakfast?" Tim asked, chuckling as he wrapped his arms around Tygra's neck.

"I'll let you leave in a minute," Tygra whispered before lowering his head and kissing Tim slowly and thoroughly. Tim allowed the kiss to continue for a few minutes before he pulled away and moved around Tygra and opened the door.

"I'll see you soon," Tim said as he walked through the doorway and down the hall towards his room.

"Indeed you will," Tygra murmured to Tim's retreating back before closing the door and heading towards the bathroom.

Tygra walked into the bathroom and over to the mirror and looked at his reflection and thought, General Livingston won't win this battle, I won't let him. As he looked into the mirror, Tygra watched as his eyes started to glow faintly and the slits contract more towards the center. He pushed off the sink and stripped out of his clothes before stepping over to the shower and turning it on.

As Tim walked back to his room, he could feel just how sore he was: some of his muscles hurt in a way that he didn't even know they could hurt in. He slid his passcard into the slot on his door and waited for it to turn green before opening the door and stopping in his tracks at what he saw. His room was destroyed; all the furniture was either turned over or was slashed beyond recognition. Tim stood in the doorway dumbly because he couldn't wrap his head around the battlezone that was his room. Finally, he snapped out of his shock and turned around and went straight back to Tygra' s room.

He knocked and waited for a couple of minutes for Tygra to open his door and when he did dressed in nothing but a towel, Tim almost forgot about his destroyed room, almost.

"Is something wrong, Tim?" Tygra asked after a few minutes of silence.

"You bet there's something wrong! Someone completely trashed my room!" Tim answered, his voice getting louder with every word.

"You mean that someone broke into your room and destroyed it?!" Tygra replied as he stepped out of the way and let Tim enter his room.

"Yeah. I didn't go inside and look around, but from what I could see of the living room and part of the bedroom, the whole place was trashed," Tim explained as he sat on the arm of the couch.

"Who would do something like this?" Tygra asked as he stopped in front of Tim and folded his arms across his chest.

"I can think of only one person who would do something like this," Tim said, folding his hands and resting them between his legs.

"So can I," Tygra growled deep in his chest and his hands clenched against his biceps.

"General Livingston," Tim replied quietly, not looking up at him.

"Why does he want you for though, Tim? I never understood that," Tygra said as he uncrossed his arms and dropped them to his sides.

"He wants the part of me that I keep hidden," Tim answered quietly, not looking up.

"What part?" Tygra asked, confused.

"Haven't you ever wandered why we were drawn to each other the day we met?  Or, when you were in my mind, why some of the memories were purposely blocked?" Tim asked, evading the question for the moment.

"Yes, I have wandered, but I was waiting for you to tell me yourself when you were ready," Tygra admitted, watching as Tim looked everywhere but at him.

"Well, I guess I don't have a choice now," Tim answered, taking a deep breath and looking up at Tygra.

"Tell me, please," Tygra pleaded softly.

"You and your friends aren't the first from your planet to come to Earth.  My mother was another who crashed here when her ship was attacked by the Mutants.  She was a scientist, and she managed to guide her ship to Earth and crash-landed not far from a military base.  That's how she and my father met, when the base sent out people to investigate the crash.  They allowed her to stay once they saw that she wasn't a threat to the planet and she and my father slowly fell in love and had my brothers and I," Tim explained, not looking away from Tygra's eyes.

"That's incredible," Tygra whispered, not being able to look away from intense hazel eyes.

"Does that mean you believe me?" Tim asked hopefully.

"It means that your story has some credibility.  Many of our populace have gone missing through the years and some never returned, we thought them dead," Tygra explained, realizing how young Tim looked in that moment.

"You believe me!" Tim cried, not being able to contain himself any longer, he threw himself into Tygra's arms and hugged him fiercely.

"Yes, I believe you," Tygra said before he was thoroughly kissed by a very enthusiastic Tim.

           Tim felt as if a burden had been lifted from his chest and he could breathe normally again.  And as he kissed Tygra he knew that in that moment they had no worries: no trashed room to go clean, no obsessed General to contend with, and no planet to save.  It was just them in that one perfect moment in time.