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Description
Chase was more than a little nervous. After all, this was a rite of passage. A proof of independence. And wisdom, and virility, and maturity... His big brother must have noticed his fidgeting tail, seeing as he ruffled his black hair the annoying way older siblings do.

“Hey now, kiddo, ain't no pressure in this. It's an A for effort kind of thing.” Alex took his eyes off the empty road for a second to whisper in a conspiracy theorist voice:

“No one is going to know if you lie about what you do there, actually. Except the aliens. They are always watching.” Chase felt himself smile a little. Not five minutes later, Alex drops the bomb in his lap.

“Whaddya know, we're here!” Chase remained shellshocked as his brother shooed him off the car, slapped his back and forced a grin on his lips with his thumbs. “Good luck lil bro, have fun!” His camping equipment was dumped unceremoniously on his arms before Alex rode off with a last wave to him.

Wasn't that reassuring. Three days alone in the woods to find water, build his own shelter, and find his way back home. Oh, and hunt his own food. Or do whatever and lie about it to whoever cared to ask.

Chase quickly set up his tent and campfire in the first suitable place he saw. Off to find water then.
By the riverbed, he saw tiny footprints in the mud. There were probably neeras nearby. He should be excited about it, but he found himself still too out of his element to hunt such small, sneaky beings. Chase would stick to his granola bars for now.

It should be mentioned that Chase was naturally stealthy, and often sneaked up on people without meaning to.

So, upon returning to camp and noticing his backpack rustling, almost as if he hadn't closed it right and some critter was in the process of eating his only available food, Chase only thought about growling, sighing or cursing the heavens in frustration.

The neko instead threw open the backpack's flap. His pupils widened from their feline slits, obscuring his green irises. There was a neera right in front of him for the first time in his life and he never had to make any effort. It would almost be disappointing, except the hunting thrill had Chase near giggles. His ears flattened against his skull and the tip of his tail swished around in anticipation.

While waiting for the moment to strike, he offmindedly observed his prey, staring up at him with primal fear in its red eyes. It was a young male with short white hair, wearing some scruffy clothes, petrified where he stood with only his mousy ears and tail twitching with nervousness, caught red-handed cutting into a granola bar's packaging with a crude bone knife. Maybe from a rat.

His speculations were interrupted when the neera jumped the backpack's wall and tried to run. Chase sprung after him like a bullet, and there was barely time to blink before he'd lightly tossed the boy in the opposite direction. Chase spent a few moments gleefully undermining his escape attempts, batting him around, pressing him into the ground a few seconds at a time and feeling the tiny body stiffen before letting him try for freedom again. He was hardly thinking about it. It was just instinct to play cat and mouse.

In an act of desperation, the neera stopped running and instead lunged at Chase's hand with his knife.

“Did you just try to tickle me?” It hurt, but he wasn't exactly faking nonchalance.

Smirking, Chase grabbed the tiny boy in a fist and lifted him to his face, making him drop his puny weapon. Even sitting like this, his height was several times the neera's own. The small face drained of what little color it had and the boy let out a terrified squeak, which was kind of adorable. This power trip had Chase feeling like Christmas came early.

His fist turned into a cupped palm. The neera scooted backward on his hands, staring at him the whole time, until his back hit a wall. Realizing the wall was Chase's fingers, he flinched away.

Chase brought his other hand closer, seeing the boy tense up. He poked the small face with a finger and chuckled at the feeble attempts to bat him away. The neko grabbed one of his arms and watched him desperately try to free it for a few seconds, before suddenly letting go just to see him fall over. Right then, the neera glared at him. Chase wasn't about to let himself be sassed by meek prey.

“Ooh, looks like we got ourselves a badass over here!”

Chase pinched the back of the boy's shirt and moved him even higher and closer to stare him in the eyes. Then, he tilted his head back a little and slowly lowered the neera towards his mouth. In no time at all the defiant look was replaced with abject fear, filling Chase with satisfaction. His tongue snaked out and gave him a long lick, starting on his exposed torso and finishing on his cheek, making the trembling boy whimper. The taste made him purr.

“Not so brave now, are you?” Chase opened his mouth.

“No, no, NO! Please don't eat me!” Screamed the neera in panic, squirming around and kicking his legs wildly.

Chase was so startled he let go of the tiny shirt. The boy plopped into his tongue. Instinctually, Chase closed his mouth and squished the foreign body against his palate. He couldn't help purring again. But... food didn't speak. Neeras weren't supposed to speak. They only babbled incoherently and whimpered and squeaked because they weren't people, they were prey. Weren't they? This albino neera didn't seem so much like a snack right now.

Chase spit him out into his palm. The poor thing was soaked in saliva and panting. Seeing him collapse on his stomach, Chase gently turned him over and realized the boy was crying.

“P-please don't...” He sobbed and did a full-body shiver.

Needless to say, Chase felt like a complete monster. He'd ignored all previous, obvious, signs of sapience, and tormented this helpless tiny person to the point of tears. He was no better than a mindless beast once he'd succumbed to his prey drive.

“Um... Hey, uh, little guy? I'm sorry.” It didn't seem to come through to the quivering neera, as he wouldn't stop crying.

“Please don't cry, I-I'm no good at this sort of thing.” Chase fumbled around. “Oh god, what do I do?”

Chase tried to remember how his brother used to comfort him when he was little. He reluctantly lifted the boy to his lips, which only made him sob harder. Trying to explain would scare him worse, so Chase just silently kissed the neera's forehead for a few moments. That made him quiet, so the neko lightly cupped the tiny body against his chest and waited.

After a few minutes of the neera's sobs dying down, Chase carefully lifted him to face-level. The little guy wiped his tear-stricken face with his sleeves and looked Chase in the eyes, looking much more composed but still wary.

“I'm Chase and I'm not gonna eat you... anymore... Um, what's your name? Did I hurt you?…Buddy?” Chase tried a sheepish grin to make himself less threatening.

“Rory...” Rory was dumbstruck at this development. “And no... Excuse me, wha-... Why?”

Chase looked away from his face and bit his lip.

“Oh, I... This is really awkward, but, um... I kinda didn't know neeras could talk so, when you did that I realized you were, you know, a person and... You, you startled me, I didn't mean to drop you just then. I couldn't... Eat you. That would be horrible and evil and... I am so, so sorry for what I put you through!”

“I can't exactly be mad that you are sparing my life. So, thanks.” Rory smiled up at him before averting his eyes, blushing.

“No, thank you. You're so cute-... Considerate.” Chase felt his own cheeks heat up and faked a cough before carefully lowering Rory to the floor. “You can, uh, go now. If you want! I just mean I'm not gonna stop you or anything. I'm glad you're alright and I don't want to ruin your day any further.”

Rory tried to rush off the hand while not looking like he was doing exactly that and failed miserably. Chase decided not to be a douche about it since he was this close to eating the guy, like, five minutes ago. He couldn't exactly blame him for being nervous. The neera fiddled with his tail for a moment before looking up at him.

“Actually, I came here in the first place because of that granola bar over there so...”

A lightbulb turned on atop Chase's head.

“Oh! Yeah, of course, you're hungry.” His own stomach had the sense of comedic timing to growl right then. “Clearly, me too. One sec.”

Chase crouched next to his bag and grabbed two granola bars. He wasted no time stuffing one of them in his mouth.

“There you go, dude.” He said, or at least that's what Rory understood.

Rory stared blankly at the granola bar - about his own size - being offered to him.

“... Do you expect me to eat all that?”

“Oh, yeah, there's that... But you could like bring it back to share with your folks or your friends or something, right?” Chase grinned at him, his full cheeks making him look like a squirrel. Rory couldn't contain a snort.

“I would, if I had any of those.”

Chase made a strangled distressed noise in his throat. Now he looked like a sad squirrel.

“Seriously?!” He figured the answer by Rory's not-kidding face. “Woah, man... Sorry.” He winced.

Chase contained himself for all of three seconds.

“But how-, I mean, why? If you don't mind me asking, that is, it's a very personal question-”

“I'm an albino. I assume you've noticed. It's an unfortunate color to be, a bad omen, it means I'm cursed... And much easier to spot. I guess the reasoning is that I'm going to die pretty soon and anyone that's along for the ride is screwed too, so I have to be alone for when the day comes. No passing on this trait either.”

Chase was at a loss for what to say.

“That's rough, buddy.” He choked out.

“It's fine.”

“But.. How is that fine?! You're telling me you're all alone, I mean, if that's so then if I had eaten you would no one notice? Would no one care?! Were you abandoned at birth or did your parents just kick you out one day for something you can't control?! How did you even learn to talk-” Chase noticed the blank stare Rory was giving him and shut his trap. “Sorry...”

Rory shrugged.

“Well, since you asked me with such passion... I don't really know. Since I was pretty young I just had a notion of these things, no one assumed my parenthood so... I mean, I grew up with the folks in the village so I learned to speak and walk and wear clothes. Once I could fend for myself they started getting more distant so I got distant too and here I am.”

“Do you ever go visit your village though, like, are you forbidden to go inside-” Chase blurted out before he could get a hold of himself.

“They're not that blunt. I scavenge things from the nekos that pass through and trade them in the market-” Rory stopped himself. “Why am I telling you this?!”

“Uh... Because of my charming looks and personality? Also, I gave you food.” Chase grinned.

Rory looked very exasperated for a moment, then waved it off. “Whatever.”

“Um... I hope this isn't horribly rude to ask but... How come you can talk?”

“What? I told you already- Oh. You mean how can I talk to you? Well, since I'm around nekos a lot and constantly bored, I learned the language, then I practiced deepening my voice and making the sounds and here we are.”

“Whoa, really? What does... Neera language sound like?” Chase had a sneaking suspicion already, though.

“What am I supposed to say?” Rory said, rolling his eyes.

“I dunno, um... What would you say to me if you couldn't speak my language?”

Rory looked a little sheepish, but produced a series of lilting squeaky syllables anyway.

“Oh my god, that's so adorable! You sounded just like a little mouse-” The glare leveled his way made Chase shut up for a couple seconds, but he soon changed the subject to keep talking. “So, what did you say?”

Rory averted his gaze and fiddled with his tail for a moment.

“I said 'Please don't eat me'.”

Oh. Well, that was a dumb question. Now it was Chase's turn to look sheepish.

“Uh, it's a good thing you do speak Neko, cause if you'd squeaked that at me I would've probably just gobbled you up-” Chase choked on his words once he realized what he was saying. “Sorry!”

“You don't need to say sorry, I know it's true.” Rory shrugged, even though he'd paled at the thought and barely concealed a shiver. Chase's ears drooped in embarrassment.

“It's so awful though! Neeras don't speak our language, so we think you're just dumb animals, so we don't bother trying to communicate with you, so we go on eating... you...” Chase noticed Rory's expression and felt ashamed at his tactless self again. He was shuddering and clutching his tail for comfort, looking absorbed in some very dark thoughts. “Shit, I'm scaring you aren't I?”

Chase fumbled for something to reassure the neera. A lightbulb flicked on above his head at the sight of the still untouched granola bar.

“Here!” The neko broke off a tiny piece of the bar and offered it to Rory, not missing the way he flinched at the sudden proximity of his hand. “You haven't even eaten yet and I keep chatting your ear off.”

Rory took the food with a hesitant smile. As he munched on it, his nervousness dwindled. Chase bit his lip, trying to resist a certain urge, but it was stronger than him.

The neera grew alarmed when enormous palms surrounded him without warning.

“W-what are you doing Chase-” Rory cut himself off with a squeak once he felt himself being scooped up to a dizzying height. He knew it, he knew it! This whole interaction was but a cruel ploy to gain his trust and toy with him! The neko would enjoy the betrayed shock on his face as he tormented him one last time and then he'd savor his fear before, before swallowing him whole! Frightened tears slid down his face as his heart pounded desperately, he was hyperventilating-

“Surprise hug attack!” Chase pressed the neera to his chest like a teddy bear and spun around, remembering to be gentle. This was so silly, he was already scolding himself. He held Rory so he could see his surprised face, instead feeling his heart sink. “Shit... I scared you again didn't I? I-I'm an idiot, I'm so sorry, you looked tense so I thought I'd make you laugh a little, oh, stupid, stupid...”

Chase couldn't think of anything better to do but clutch Rory against his cheek and close his eyes tightly so we wouldn't have to look at him for a while. He could even feel himself tear up a little, he was so pissed at his own stupidity, he just kept scaring the poor neera to death every two minutes. He stayed like this until Rory's heartbeat wasn't racing.

“I-I'm just gonna set you down so you can get away from me, I just keep screwing this up, I'm sorry again for making you put up with my annoying ass...” Chase started to move Rory away, when he felt a sharp pinch on his cheeks. He opened his eyes and had to cross them in order to focus on Rory right in front of his nose, holding on and refusing to be moved, red eyes glaring at his green ones.

“Would you shut up for five seconds?!” Rory breathed deeply, gathering his wits about him. “Good. Now listen up... You're a chatterbox. You can barely control your mouth. And you do dumb shit out of nowhere, which is startling, and I haven't figured out if I can trust you yet, so that sort of thing scares me. I'll be honest. I'm actually still kind of freaked out, but if you are in fact not going to hurt me, I don't want to be scared of you anymore. Even you must have figured out that I'm lonely as hell... Anyway! Answer me honestly now: Do you want to, or... Or plan to, eat, torture, or kill me?”

“No, of course not!” Chase shot back immediately. “I... I was rambling about that because I felt guilty, about you and people like you, I don't want things like that to happen anymore. I don't want to hurt you or scare you, I-I think you're cute and kinda interesting, I'm just... Bad at talking.”

Rory released his hold, slumping back on Chase's hand, a light blush spreading over his face. So fast Chase almost didn't register it, Rory spun on his heel and placed a kiss on the tip of his nose.

“If you quit scaring me, I'll... stick around or whatever.” Rory muttered, crossing his arms and looking away.

“Wha-what was that?!” Chase felt his cheeks heat up.

“Don't get all excited over a peck on the nose!”

“Why, is there going to be something better?” Chase smirked cheekily.

“There's going to be a slap on the nose if you don't shut it.” Rory grumbled.

Chase laid down on his stomach but kept his hands cupped around Rory. The neera felt more than heard a deep rumble coming from the huge chest in front of him.

“... Are you purring? Really, now?” Chase purred louder in response and closed his eyes. He traced Rory's fluffy white ears with a careful finger. Rory huffed and rolled his eyes, but accepted the petting while he sat back against Chase's hands. This wasn't so bad.

“I'm gonna convince everyone neeras are people. I mean, I'll try. Hard. At the very least my brother will believe me. And then, you... You won't have to be afraid and hide anymore.” Chase adjusted himself and Rory to a more comfortable position and yawned.

“That sounds nice.” Rory closed his eyes and relaxed.

The two fell asleep together.

Description
Chase was more than a little nervous. After all, this was a rite of passage. A proof of independence. And wisdom, and virility, and maturity... His big brother must have noticed his fidgeting tail, seeing as he ruffled his black hair the annoying way older siblings do.

“Hey now, kiddo, ain't no pressure in this. It's an A for effort kind of thing.” Alex took his eyes off the empty road for a second to whisper in a conspiracy theorist voice:

“No one is going to know if you lie about what you do there, actually. Except the aliens. They are always watching.” Chase felt himself smile a little. Not five minutes later, Alex drops the bomb in his lap.

“Whaddya know, we're here!” Chase remained shellshocked as his brother shooed him off the car, slapped his back and forced a grin on his lips with his thumbs. “Good luck lil bro, have fun!” His camping equipment was dumped unceremoniously on his arms before Alex rode off with a last wave to him.

Wasn't that reassuring. Three days alone in the woods to find water, build his own shelter, and find his way back home. Oh, and hunt his own food. Or do whatever and lie about it to whoever cared to ask.

Chase quickly set up his tent and campfire in the first suitable place he saw. Off to find water then.
By the riverbed, he saw tiny footprints in the mud. There were probably neeras nearby. He should be excited about it, but he found himself still too out of his element to hunt such small, sneaky beings. Chase would stick to his granola bars for now.

It should be mentioned that Chase was naturally stealthy, and often sneaked up on people without meaning to.

So, upon returning to camp and noticing his backpack rustling, almost as if he hadn't closed it right and some critter was in the process of eating his only available food, Chase only thought about growling, sighing or cursing the heavens in frustration.

The neko instead threw open the backpack's flap. His pupils widened from their feline slits, obscuring his green irises. There was a neera right in front of him for the first time in his life and he never had to make any effort. It would almost be disappointing, except the hunting thrill had Chase near giggles. His ears flattened against his skull and the tip of his tail swished around in anticipation.

While waiting for the moment to strike, he offmindedly observed his prey, staring up at him with primal fear in its red eyes. It was a young male with short white hair, wearing some scruffy clothes, petrified where he stood with only his mousy ears and tail twitching with nervousness, caught red-handed cutting into a granola bar's packaging with a crude bone knife. Maybe from a rat.

His speculations were interrupted when the neera jumped the backpack's wall and tried to run. Chase sprung after him like a bullet, and there was barely time to blink before he'd lightly tossed the boy in the opposite direction. Chase spent a few moments gleefully undermining his escape attempts, batting him around, pressing him into the ground a few seconds at a time and feeling the tiny body stiffen before letting him try for freedom again. He was hardly thinking about it. It was just instinct to play cat and mouse.

In an act of desperation, the neera stopped running and instead lunged at Chase's hand with his knife.

“Did you just try to tickle me?” It hurt, but he wasn't exactly faking nonchalance.

Smirking, Chase grabbed the tiny boy in a fist and lifted him to his face, making him drop his puny weapon. Even sitting like this, his height was several times the neera's own. The small face drained of what little color it had and the boy let out a terrified squeak, which was kind of adorable. This power trip had Chase feeling like Christmas came early.

His fist turned into a cupped palm. The neera scooted backward on his hands, staring at him the whole time, until his back hit a wall. Realizing the wall was Chase's fingers, he flinched away.

Chase brought his other hand closer, seeing the boy tense up. He poked the small face with a finger and chuckled at the feeble attempts to bat him away. The neko grabbed one of his arms and watched him desperately try to free it for a few seconds, before suddenly letting go just to see him fall over. Right then, the neera glared at him. Chase wasn't about to let himself be sassed by meek prey.

“Ooh, looks like we got ourselves a badass over here!”

Chase pinched the back of the boy's shirt and moved him even higher and closer to stare him in the eyes. Then, he tilted his head back a little and slowly lowered the neera towards his mouth. In no time at all the defiant look was replaced with abject fear, filling Chase with satisfaction. His tongue snaked out and gave him a long lick, starting on his exposed torso and finishing on his cheek, making the trembling boy whimper. The taste made him purr.

“Not so brave now, are you?” Chase opened his mouth.

“No, no, NO! Please don't eat me!” Screamed the neera in panic, squirming around and kicking his legs wildly.

Chase was so startled he let go of the tiny shirt. The boy plopped into his tongue. Instinctually, Chase closed his mouth and squished the foreign body against his palate. He couldn't help purring again. But... food didn't speak. Neeras weren't supposed to speak. They only babbled incoherently and whimpered and squeaked because they weren't people, they were prey. Weren't they? This albino neera didn't seem so much like a snack right now.

Chase spit him out into his palm. The poor thing was soaked in saliva and panting. Seeing him collapse on his stomach, Chase gently turned him over and realized the boy was crying.

“P-please don't...” He sobbed and did a full-body shiver.

Needless to say, Chase felt like a complete monster. He'd ignored all previous, obvious, signs of sapience, and tormented this helpless tiny person to the point of tears. He was no better than a mindless beast once he'd succumbed to his prey drive.

“Um... Hey, uh, little guy? I'm sorry.” It didn't seem to come through to the quivering neera, as he wouldn't stop crying.

“Please don't cry, I-I'm no good at this sort of thing.” Chase fumbled around. “Oh god, what do I do?”

Chase tried to remember how his brother used to comfort him when he was little. He reluctantly lifted the boy to his lips, which only made him sob harder. Trying to explain would scare him worse, so Chase just silently kissed the neera's forehead for a few moments. That made him quiet, so the neko lightly cupped the tiny body against his chest and waited.

After a few minutes of the neera's sobs dying down, Chase carefully lifted him to face-level. The little guy wiped his tear-stricken face with his sleeves and looked Chase in the eyes, looking much more composed but still wary.

“I'm Chase and I'm not gonna eat you... anymore... Um, what's your name? Did I hurt you?…Buddy?” Chase tried a sheepish grin to make himself less threatening.

“Rory...” Rory was dumbstruck at this development. “And no... Excuse me, wha-... Why?”

Chase looked away from his face and bit his lip.

“Oh, I... This is really awkward, but, um... I kinda didn't know neeras could talk so, when you did that I realized you were, you know, a person and... You, you startled me, I didn't mean to drop you just then. I couldn't... Eat you. That would be horrible and evil and... I am so, so sorry for what I put you through!”

“I can't exactly be mad that you are sparing my life. So, thanks.” Rory smiled up at him before averting his eyes, blushing.

“No, thank you. You're so cute-... Considerate.” Chase felt his own cheeks heat up and faked a cough before carefully lowering Rory to the floor. “You can, uh, go now. If you want! I just mean I'm not gonna stop you or anything. I'm glad you're alright and I don't want to ruin your day any further.”

Rory tried to rush off the hand while not looking like he was doing exactly that and failed miserably. Chase decided not to be a douche about it since he was this close to eating the guy, like, five minutes ago. He couldn't exactly blame him for being nervous. The neera fiddled with his tail for a moment before looking up at him.

“Actually, I came here in the first place because of that granola bar over there so...”

A lightbulb turned on atop Chase's head.

“Oh! Yeah, of course, you're hungry.” His own stomach had the sense of comedic timing to growl right then. “Clearly, me too. One sec.”

Chase crouched next to his bag and grabbed two granola bars. He wasted no time stuffing one of them in his mouth.

“There you go, dude.” He said, or at least that's what Rory understood.

Rory stared blankly at the granola bar - about his own size - being offered to him.

“... Do you expect me to eat all that?”

“Oh, yeah, there's that... But you could like bring it back to share with your folks or your friends or something, right?” Chase grinned at him, his full cheeks making him look like a squirrel. Rory couldn't contain a snort.

“I would, if I had any of those.”

Chase made a strangled distressed noise in his throat. Now he looked like a sad squirrel.

“Seriously?!” He figured the answer by Rory's not-kidding face. “Woah, man... Sorry.” He winced.

Chase contained himself for all of three seconds.

“But how-, I mean, why? If you don't mind me asking, that is, it's a very personal question-”

“I'm an albino. I assume you've noticed. It's an unfortunate color to be, a bad omen, it means I'm cursed... And much easier to spot. I guess the reasoning is that I'm going to die pretty soon and anyone that's along for the ride is screwed too, so I have to be alone for when the day comes. No passing on this trait either.”

Chase was at a loss for what to say.

“That's rough, buddy.” He choked out.

“It's fine.”

“But.. How is that fine?! You're telling me you're all alone, I mean, if that's so then if I had eaten you would no one notice? Would no one care?! Were you abandoned at birth or did your parents just kick you out one day for something you can't control?! How did you even learn to talk-” Chase noticed the blank stare Rory was giving him and shut his trap. “Sorry...”

Rory shrugged.

“Well, since you asked me with such passion... I don't really know. Since I was pretty young I just had a notion of these things, no one assumed my parenthood so... I mean, I grew up with the folks in the village so I learned to speak and walk and wear clothes. Once I could fend for myself they started getting more distant so I got distant too and here I am.”

“Do you ever go visit your village though, like, are you forbidden to go inside-” Chase blurted out before he could get a hold of himself.

“They're not that blunt. I scavenge things from the nekos that pass through and trade them in the market-” Rory stopped himself. “Why am I telling you this?!”

“Uh... Because of my charming looks and personality? Also, I gave you food.” Chase grinned.

Rory looked very exasperated for a moment, then waved it off. “Whatever.”

“Um... I hope this isn't horribly rude to ask but... How come you can talk?”

“What? I told you already- Oh. You mean how can I talk to you? Well, since I'm around nekos a lot and constantly bored, I learned the language, then I practiced deepening my voice and making the sounds and here we are.”

“Whoa, really? What does... Neera language sound like?” Chase had a sneaking suspicion already, though.

“What am I supposed to say?” Rory said, rolling his eyes.

“I dunno, um... What would you say to me if you couldn't speak my language?”

Rory looked a little sheepish, but produced a series of lilting squeaky syllables anyway.

“Oh my god, that's so adorable! You sounded just like a little mouse-” The glare leveled his way made Chase shut up for a couple seconds, but he soon changed the subject to keep talking. “So, what did you say?”

Rory averted his gaze and fiddled with his tail for a moment.

“I said 'Please don't eat me'.”

Oh. Well, that was a dumb question. Now it was Chase's turn to look sheepish.

“Uh, it's a good thing you do speak Neko, cause if you'd squeaked that at me I would've probably just gobbled you up-” Chase choked on his words once he realized what he was saying. “Sorry!”

“You don't need to say sorry, I know it's true.” Rory shrugged, even though he'd paled at the thought and barely concealed a shiver. Chase's ears drooped in embarrassment.

“It's so awful though! Neeras don't speak our language, so we think you're just dumb animals, so we don't bother trying to communicate with you, so we go on eating... you...” Chase noticed Rory's expression and felt ashamed at his tactless self again. He was shuddering and clutching his tail for comfort, looking absorbed in some very dark thoughts. “Shit, I'm scaring you aren't I?”

Chase fumbled for something to reassure the neera. A lightbulb flicked on above his head at the sight of the still untouched granola bar.

“Here!” The neko broke off a tiny piece of the bar and offered it to Rory, not missing the way he flinched at the sudden proximity of his hand. “You haven't even eaten yet and I keep chatting your ear off.”

Rory took the food with a hesitant smile. As he munched on it, his nervousness dwindled. Chase bit his lip, trying to resist a certain urge, but it was stronger than him.

The neera grew alarmed when enormous palms surrounded him without warning.

“W-what are you doing Chase-” Rory cut himself off with a squeak once he felt himself being scooped up to a dizzying height. He knew it, he knew it! This whole interaction was but a cruel ploy to gain his trust and toy with him! The neko would enjoy the betrayed shock on his face as he tormented him one last time and then he'd savor his fear before, before swallowing him whole! Frightened tears slid down his face as his heart pounded desperately, he was hyperventilating-

“Surprise hug attack!” Chase pressed the neera to his chest like a teddy bear and spun around, remembering to be gentle. This was so silly, he was already scolding himself. He held Rory so he could see his surprised face, instead feeling his heart sink. “Shit... I scared you again didn't I? I-I'm an idiot, I'm so sorry, you looked tense so I thought I'd make you laugh a little, oh, stupid, stupid...”

Chase couldn't think of anything better to do but clutch Rory against his cheek and close his eyes tightly so we wouldn't have to look at him for a while. He could even feel himself tear up a little, he was so pissed at his own stupidity, he just kept scaring the poor neera to death every two minutes. He stayed like this until Rory's heartbeat wasn't racing.

“I-I'm just gonna set you down so you can get away from me, I just keep screwing this up, I'm sorry again for making you put up with my annoying ass...” Chase started to move Rory away, when he felt a sharp pinch on his cheeks. He opened his eyes and had to cross them in order to focus on Rory right in front of his nose, holding on and refusing to be moved, red eyes glaring at his green ones.

“Would you shut up for five seconds?!” Rory breathed deeply, gathering his wits about him. “Good. Now listen up... You're a chatterbox. You can barely control your mouth. And you do dumb shit out of nowhere, which is startling, and I haven't figured out if I can trust you yet, so that sort of thing scares me. I'll be honest. I'm actually still kind of freaked out, but if you are in fact not going to hurt me, I don't want to be scared of you anymore. Even you must have figured out that I'm lonely as hell... Anyway! Answer me honestly now: Do you want to, or... Or plan to, eat, torture, or kill me?”

“No, of course not!” Chase shot back immediately. “I... I was rambling about that because I felt guilty, about you and people like you, I don't want things like that to happen anymore. I don't want to hurt you or scare you, I-I think you're cute and kinda interesting, I'm just... Bad at talking.”

Rory released his hold, slumping back on Chase's hand, a light blush spreading over his face. So fast Chase almost didn't register it, Rory spun on his heel and placed a kiss on the tip of his nose.

“If you quit scaring me, I'll... stick around or whatever.” Rory muttered, crossing his arms and looking away.

“Wha-what was that?!” Chase felt his cheeks heat up.

“Don't get all excited over a peck on the nose!”

“Why, is there going to be something better?” Chase smirked cheekily.

“There's going to be a slap on the nose if you don't shut it.” Rory grumbled.

Chase laid down on his stomach but kept his hands cupped around Rory. The neera felt more than heard a deep rumble coming from the huge chest in front of him.

“... Are you purring? Really, now?” Chase purred louder in response and closed his eyes. He traced Rory's fluffy white ears with a careful finger. Rory huffed and rolled his eyes, but accepted the petting while he sat back against Chase's hands. This wasn't so bad.

“I'm gonna convince everyone neeras are people. I mean, I'll try. Hard. At the very least my brother will believe me. And then, you... You won't have to be afraid and hide anymore.” Chase adjusted himself and Rory to a more comfortable position and yawned.

“That sounds nice.” Rory closed his eyes and relaxed.

The two fell asleep together.