Among the Peonies

The search for mr. Whiskers.

"That's your excuse?" His voice was low and his words were slow, testing. He was having difficulty reigning in his emotions.

"Um... yes?"

He closed his eyes and sighed, running his hands through his hair roughly as he paced quickly. Suddenly, he stopped. Eyes still closed, he ordered, "come here."

I slowly stood, and carrying the kitten, walked to him.

"Leave that damn cat over there."

"What?! No! I'm keeping..." I lifted the kitten up to dangle, "him. Definitely a him."

Blade opened his eyes and they were a burning obsidian. "Jay!"

I felt a rush of wind and then there he was. Stupid werewolves. "Take that damn cat to the house."

I glared at Bumblebee. "Please," I added for him. He glared back. "Oh! And could you please give him some water? Maybe some food, too, if we have anything. You know, like birds, snakes, mice... that sort of stuff."

He nodded and I handed the adorable kitten to him. "Yes, Luna." Once Jay left, Bumblebee was right in front of me. His stomach grazed my hoodie, but that was it.

"So you weren't trying to leave me?" His voice sounded so vulnerable.

"Well, I succeeded in leaving you to catch the cat..."

"That's not what I mean."

I gulped. "No, I wasn't trying to leave you."

He lifted my chin so that my eyes met his silver ones. "Promise?"

"Pinky."

He gave a little half-smile and held out his pinky. I looked down at it and looked back up at him with a huge smile. He smiled back.

I linked my pinky with his and he sucked air through his teeth. I immediately let go and snapped my gaze up at him. Worriedly, I asked, "what? What's wrong? Did I hurt you? I'm sorry! Let's go find a doctor! Do you have a doctor? Wait, it's only in your pinky. Whew, what a relief. We can relax. Well, not too much. You might be critically hurt on your pinky, but I don't know if that's possible. I guess-"

"Annabel!"

I looked up, and he was laughing. It made me smile. "I'm fine. It's just, we're mates."

I gave him a questioning glance as to how that applied here.

"When you touch me, or, when I touch you..." he was getting closer, and I kept taking steps back. His tone of voice was serious now and the octave had dropped. "These... sparks, I guess. I feel sparks. Do you? It wouldn't be surprising if you don't, since you're human."

Suddenly, despite my efforts to keep a safe distance away from him, he grabbed my hoodie and pulled me to him. His eyes searched mine deeply before he slowly lifted my shirt and hoodie to reveal the small of my back. He then delicately placed his other hand on the exposed skin. I gasped and leaped forward instinctively, resulting in me throwing myself into his arms.

He kept the skin-on-skin contact. "Do you feel that? Do you feel those sparks?" he whispered deeply to me.

My breathing hitched. I did feel the sparks. And it kind of freaked me out, honestly. Like, sure it was awesome having my heart racing like some adrenalin junkie, but it was a little out of my comfort zone.

"Do you?"

I tore myself from his embrace and ended up about five feet away from him. His expression held only hurt. I nodded. "They feel weird. I don't think I like it."