Spots (mxm)

Chapter 33: A Little Control

Terran had to smile at Arron's lack of enthusiasm. Poor kid had probably been stressed out by the guy Rylan had said dropped him off the other day. He'd noticed some fur missing from the back of his neck, as well as a scar healing there, so when he heard about Rylan pressuring him at school earlier from Erin, he'd had to call his father.

The elephant shifter was actually a good friend of his from before he'd graduated and they still talked on the phone quite a lot. Not that he would help him land Arron over his own baby brother, but if Rylan kept stressing out the poor kid, he would definitely have to switch sides.

"Alright, let's go." He said with a reassuring smile.

Arron stared up at him like he was crazy, but when Terran grabbed his bag from the front door and tossed him his clothes, Arron seemed to figure out that he wasn't joking.

He hopped off the sofa and quickly pulled on his clothing. Before he could even straighten them out, Terran was grabbing his hand and tugging him out the door. He stumbled to keep up but when Terran stopped and dropped his bag again, Arron stared at him in confusion.

"What are you doing?"

Stripping, obviously.

"Shift again after putting your clothes in the bag." Terran said.

Now he really looked like he wanted to run away from him, but after a minute he did as told. Terran quickly zipped up the bag and set it down once Arron had put away his clothing, then shifted into his lion form. After picking up the bag with his teeth, Terran began sauntering down the sidewalk at a slow trot. Arron had no trouble keeping up even in his kitten form and pretty soon they had a nice pace going.

My lion is so out of shape.

He was panting after only a few blocks. Hopefully Arron didn't mind a little drool on his backpack.

When they finally arrived at their destination Terran walked Arron behind a bush so that they could quickly change back and get dressed before heading inside.

"Why are we at the mall?" Arron asked as soon as they stepped through the electronic doors.

He might still be confused, but Terran knew that the run would at least relax him. Cheetah shifters were always more calm when they got to exercise a bit. He just knew that he wouldn't have been able to run around in human form well, thus the shifting. He smiled as he lead the way toward a big store called Books 4 You. It was a cheesy name for a bookstore, but it had the best selection of stuff. It also had a tiny cafe in the back where you could buy drinks and small treats, then go sit and relax for a bit while reading.

"Well... I wanted to talk to you, and this seemed like a good place to do it." He finally said as they walked to the cafe in the back and he bought a chocolate bear claw pastry and a hot chocolate for them both. They then found a place to sit off in a corner. Settling down in two comfortable wing chairs, they sipped on their drinks and worked on their snacks before Terran began to speak.

"Sorry, but I'm not really interested in any kind of relationship with you. Not that you aren't adorable or anything like that, but I prefer not to go to jail." He said.

Arron chuckled a little at that before taking another bite.

Guess he figured out that I wasn't going to be serious.

"Anyways, I came to talk about Rylan."

That had him pausing.

"It's okay. I know you're not happy with my brother, or at least his attitude. But, I just wanted to tell you that he honestly does like you, like really likes you. It's just that he sucks at emotional things. It's mainly because of his lion but also his stubborn personality."