Chapter 12

While Jerry cleaned and bandaged his clawed stomach and bleeding, bitten hand, wondering what had caused the latter.

By the time Jerry successfully laid Tom on his bed, he was panting for air, resting his hands on his knees.

How can you barely eat and still weigh this much..?

After stretching his back out, he sat down on the bed, and instinctively started to stroke the sleeping man's dreadlocks, tied into a bun.

Then his heart did a double take as his hand was grabbed, and he was pulled to lie on top of him. The bandage hand went around his waist, holding him down. The pace of his heartbeat quickened erratically as he held his breath, extremely conscious of their closeness.

But he wasn't complaining.

Any traces of sleep in him disappeared completely, as he lay on top of the other, staring, dumbfounded at the sleeping face.

No going back, he thought as he rested his head on Tom's chest, inhaling the wild scent he was intoxicated with. The same scent he was supposed to be forbidden to near.

***

"Drink it."

"..."

"Drink it."

"..."

"Fúcking drink the soup Tom, or I will shove the bowl down your throat."

"You know, I'd like to shove something of mine down your throat too. Care to taste?"

"No thanks, I don't like the taste of COWARD."

"I'm a coward because I don't want to drink orange soup? You can't lie to me, Mousy, this has carrots in it, doesn't it?"

"So what?"

"They're revolting!"

"Stop being such a kid!"

"I'm not,"

"Well you're acting like one," He came to sit next to him, taking the bowl into his hands. "So I'm going to treat you as such."

The look in Jerry's eyes had changed, to that mischievously sultry squint that made Tom gulp. The same look he saw when he woke up from the two hour nap and found Jerry on top of him, wide awake.

He cleared his throat, looking anywhere but into the other's eyes. "W-what do you mean?"

"I mean, if you finish it, you get a special reward. " Something had changed. Tom didn't know if it was because of Jerry's half-lidded eyes, or that devilishly sexy look he was giving him.

His eyes had always seen his little mouse that way, but this time it seemed more vivid than usual.

Snap out of it Tom.

"A reward? Like a.. gummybear or some shít? Nuh-uh, I'm not gonna drink barf-soup for that."

"No, it's not candy. Idiot cat. You'll like it. "

"I highly doubt that."

"Then you'll decide the reward, is that okay?"

He sighed, a long, tired sigh. "... Fine. I'll drink your potion thing."

And though he gagged a lot, and might've almost spat it out at some point, he made it through the whole Carrot-Ginger soup, almost crying in pure joy when the bowl got empty.

"Ugh, fuck, I'm never going to eat another vegetable in my life... "

"Corn is a vegetable too, you know, " Jerry grinned, a laughing expression on his face as he watched him down several glasses of water.

"You know I don't mean that literally. "

"Mhm..." He hummed, distracted by the bob of Tom's Adam's apple as he swallowed the water. His phone suddenly started buzzing, and glancing at the caller ID, he got nervous instantly. He hung up, "Uh, I gotta get home. Jesse's calling."

"I can take you, my panther's feeling a bit restless. "

He hesitated, "Um, okay. But Jesse shouldn't see you."

"You kidding? I'm practically a ninja."

"Sure you are," He rolled his eyes, smiling.

It was a bit past 12, and his aunt and uncle weren't back yet. It wouldn't really even matter if they were. As he ran the distance to Jerry's house, the boy on his back and holding on tightly, he sighed internally at their closeness. But he knew himself that he wanted to be even closer.

Suddenly, he knew what reward he wanted.