Moving Forward

Different (3)

Max's parents were both felid shifters - both turned into cats, both had claws. Unfortunately for Max, they weren't the same species of felid. Blake Waters was a lion shifter with questionable heritage and Kasumi Waters was a jaguar from a small city near the Amazon forest.

Surprisingly, Max didn't pick up any physical features from his father. When he shifted, he had a coat so dark, the brown between distinctive rosettes that marked him a jaguar shifter were just barely visible.

For a few minutes, Max did nothing more than stretch and shake his fur out, pausing a moment to lick his fur clean and sharpen his claws on one of the trees immediately behind his house.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, felt better than shifting. Not in Max's opinion. He could go maybe a week without shifting before his body began to rebel and push his bones into the shape it wanted to be.

Even while he was in Afghanistan he always managed to find time to shift. His team knew, used it to their advantage as a scout or for spying. Though, he couldn't really shift for the first few weeks after coming home without getting flashbacks. Now, well now, it was heaven.

The trees here were surprisingly close packed with thick branches that barely even shook as Max bounded up and across them. Occasionally, he'd stop to drag his claws across the bark, both sharpening the weapons and marking his territory.

Max wasn't worried in the slightest about falling. Of course, there was always the possibility, but heights actually brought him a strange sort of comfort.

It was a shame, though, he found himself thinking, that he didn't have any company. Being half lion-shifter made him, well not sociable, but want company. It wasn't that he needed to talk to people every second of the day - or even want to talk to people. But it would've been nice if he could share moments like these with someone.

In spite of being gay and fairly young, Max already knew that he wanted a mate, to get married, and have children. Just one or two. Not just yet, but the knowledge that it was a strong possibility would've been enough. Right now, it didn't look possible in the slightest.

And that was why Max shifted back into his human form and allowed himself to sit and wallow on the front porch - the warmest spot of the house when the sun was shining. Not having any actual chairs, he was content to bring out a fluffy blanket and stretch out across it. Being shirtless, he hummed as the sun shone on his back, eyes shut and face turned to the driveway.

He blinked himself awake on hearing another car roll up the driveway, not even having realised he'd fallen asleep. Hmm. River's truck. Max sat up, blinking a few times to adjust himself to the light. The sun had begun to set. As he did so, River got out of the truck and came to a stop in front of the porch.

Max avoided the bottomless brown eyes, instead noticing how River slid his fingers through his thick dark hair once again, with an inscrutable expression upon his face.

"Waters." He said, probably meaning it to be a greeting.

Max nodded. "River." Well, that wasn't at all awkward.

River cleared his throat and nodded. It was a muffled snicker that made Max notice the presence of another person in River's truck. River turned a glare on the person in the truck, but didn't move. His defeated sigh was audible, at least to Max, and his shoulders dropped just the slightest bit.

"There's a festival going on right about now. 27th of June, founding of the town. Figured you've been here a couple weeks and this would be a good chance to get to know a few people." River spoke with a sort of hesitation that coloured him as nervous, even though Max noticed his other nervous tick earlier, and in spite of that blank expression he seemed to perpetually wear.