He's Cocky, He's Mean, He's My Pet Panther

He's Cocky, He's Mean, He's My Pet Panther Ch. 4

Chapter 4- Swimsuit Season

We sat at the empty food court of the mall, chewing on pizzas that had I casually stolen from behind the now abandoned pizzeria counter. Several alarms had been set off as Leo waltz out of various stores, and was now fully dressed—he was quite a looker naked but it was much easier on my eyes now that he was dressed in a thin black v-neck—that coincidentally was the same shade of his panther coat—dark blue jeans and high laced boots that probably gave him an unnecessary inch or two. 

I picked absentmindedly at my pepperoni, sneaking quick peeks at Leo, had this guy really been a panther less than an hour ago?

Leo now had a fresh piercing on his left ear, a small golden earring that looked sort of like a miniature dog tag engraved with a symbol that I’ve never seen before.  Now that I looked closely, hidden under his huge mop of hair, Sam had a similar earring on his right ear. 

“So…” I chewed slowly and swallowed.  “You guys are telling me that you guys are descents of this guy who was cursed for his greed and selfishness?”

“Precisely so!” Same piped in, picking the cheese off his pizza before stuffing it in his mouth.  “Percival DeMorgans was a selfish and nasty man,” He made a point at crinkling his nose before continuing, “he would take advantage of ladies and then pass them on to other men.  He was a powerful man, a magician to be specific,” Sam shot me a look as if to check how I was taking it all in; when I kept my expression unchanged, he went back to telling the story.  “He and his wife both studied witchcraft vigorously, and then one day—he let his sick friends rape his wife.” 

I struggled to keep my face free of emotions as he continued on. 

“But since all he did most of the time was slouch around with girls, his wife had become much more powerful than he ever was, she placed a curse on him afterwards in which if he ever got sexually excited or scared, he would turn into a panther—and that’s what happens to us now.”

I tried to absorb the information, the story sounded ridiculously stupid, I mean why would anyone in their right mind believe that?

But I wasn’t just anyone, and after the last few hours, I wasn’t quite sure if I was still mentally stable. 

Apparently I wasn’t because I easily accepted Sam’s explanation with a nod. “So wait, what changes you guys back?” I glanced at Leo. “…Stinky shoes?” I felt a smirk form on my lips as Leo suddenly seemed extremely engrossed in his pizza. 

Sam smiled and seemed glad that I believed him, “Yes that generally works, but basically, anything that disgusts us will do the job.” I nodded, making myself a mental note when Sam spoke up again, “Oh and water won’t change us back but if we get scared or excited in water, we won’t change.” Sam looked to Leo, then back at me and winked.  I rolled my eyes and shook my head in response.

 “How come you never told me that?!”

Leo slapped the palm of his hand on the table and stood indignantly; his half eaten pizza lay discarded next to him.  I jumped, almost forgetting that he had been listening, the whole time Sam had been explaining, he had been contently keeping to himself.

“ ‘Cause. I don’t like you, Leo DeMorgans.” Sam stuck out his tongue juvenilely and slung am arm across my shoulder as if to say “I like Clarke, way more than I like you.”  He received a glare in response as Leo flopped back down in his seat. 

“Oh! Clarke, you need to come meet the rest of us! I must tell them that we’ve found the princess of the Percivalians!” He nodded encouragingly as he grabbed my hand, pulled me up and gave me a twirl.  I giggled in spite of the fact that I was completely overwhelmed. 

“We have a princess?” Leo asked in disbelief. 

“Well…not exactly, I might have made that part up.” Sam explained biting the inside of his cheek and shooting Leo an impish grin. 

 Suddenly I remembered a question I had meant to ask a while ago.  “Oh. How did you guys end up changing at the mall anyways?” My furrowed my eyebrows.  I just couldn’t figure it out.  There wasn’t anything particularly frightening about a small town mall, and there wasn’t anything overly kinky either…

The two of them exchanged looks and for the first time since I had met him (which wasn’t a very long time ago) Sam looked embarrassed and bashful, Leo smirked, obviously enjoying Sam’s discomfort. 

“Uh, don’t get the wrong idea or anything princess, us Percivalians have perfect control...kinda. But we tend to stay out of the female populations way when we can, however…us guys…we..sometimes we get these little demons.” He eyes widen dramatically as he tried to explain.  “And these demons, well they would eat us alive if we don’t answer our urges.” He clutched my hands in his and I rolled my eyes.  I knew exactly where he was going with this.  “So you guys get irritated and staring at pin ups just doesn’t cut it sometimes, yes?” I stated bluntly, setting Leo off on a laughing spree as Sam’s face cracked into his usual grin.  “Gosh, you catch on fast.” He nodded with what looked like new found respect in his eyes. 

“But why now, it’s not like there’s anything at the mall at this time of the ye—” Oh, and then I finally understood.

“Swimsuit season.” Sam said innocently, enunciating what I had just been thinking.

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