Cali Kitto Kastu Ch III - Sneak Peak/WIP

(Early chapters are  https://archiveofourown.org/works/24027259/chapters/57809941 here)

The chilly, gusty day was unanticipated; it was the most likely explanation for Bill’s particularly sour mood as he waited, tipped back with his shoulders against the bricks of his dorm building. The sun was nearly down, and the additional land breeze created by the impending nightfall ripped all the heat stored within his body, no matter how well its large size retained it.

At least it was a weekend, and a lack of classes meant he could slack on his uniform. His red track zip-up snuggly overtop a simple long sleeved jersey provided some comfort, but leaning against the cool external stone on the building’s shadowy, least conspicuous side, it certainly didn’t feel like it. Hands which were protectively stuffed into his pockets risked the biting breeze to again pull his phone into view. He wasn’t checking for new messages like an impatient female, he told himself, only seeing how long it had been since Pina’s first text had come in.

PINA, 5:26PM

Meet me at your dorm before you go to dinner

PINA, 5:26PM 

It’s urgent

It was approaching thirty minutes since he’d received the message, and while his irritated impatience was only layering overtop of itself with every passing second, there was no danger of his rage igniting. Not when worry at those final words were sucking all oxygen from his lungs and bloodstream, creating a vacuum where no flame could feed. The slow ache of stress felt like year long suffocation… almost. It wasn’t like he couldn’t absorb life-giving oxygen... more like he was being slowly poisoned from carbon dioxide he could not expunge.

He’d been pretty hungry: a nasty state for any carnivore to be in, much less a high metabolism tiger, but there was no hope of settling down, even to simply eat, until his concerns had been eased. His whiskers flicked, tasting the air for any hint of cosmic information… and was thankful for the subtle positivity he discovered. Deep down, he knew panic wasn’t necessary…

So where the hell was Pina?

With the sheep on his idle mind and thoughts already tainted, it was easy for him to return to ponderings he’d had in previous days. Everyone in the drama club had already been passing quiet whispers about the strange one-sided altercation between Legosi and Riz. The fresh bandages to Legosi’s head were a sudden addition that only added to the swarm gossip. It had everyone’s curiosity absolutely buzzing with hesitant wonder.

Legosi’s spotlight-murdering outburst had been equally startling, but Bill had already pushed him to his limit once before, and the club knew the kind of wildly unexpected violence of which the normally shy, quiet wolf was capable. Inflicting it on a brash fire-starter like Bill made plenty of sense... but not with Riz. 

Unlike the well established badboy feline, the studious bear was a model for carnivore behavior: passive cooperation and reliable nerves. His clever penchant for both the electric and mechanical made him a valued member to the sound and stage team, but he was often busied with tasks that kept him on the sidelines. Through his quiet academic knowledge, his self-confidence was certainly noted, but he still stood with Legosi as one of the club's shyest members.

It would take something significant to rouse them to a state of such unnerving, hostile eye contact… and Bill suspected what that was.

Who that was, rather.

Pina wasn’t even subtle about his particular brand of conflict resolution. Its clever guise of disarming a heated situation between the two circling meat-eaters had fooled everyone else, but Bill could not ignore how hands, ones he was beginning to know intimately, had fallen with such casual affection to Legosi’s shoulders; how Pina leaned in with a level of trust the tiger would never have recognized if not familiar with it himself. Whatever was happening between his fellow carnivores, Pina was in the middle of it, and no matter the direction Bill’s emotion cyclone wanted to travel, he felt pissed off. 

The easiest solution was to simply not care, to remember that Pina had insisted on keeping a chasm of space between them for this very reason. What did it matter to Bill if he wanted to spread his flirtations across multiple large species of carnivores? There was an unfortunate realization that even if the simplest path were possible, it still meant contending with why Pina had chosen him in the first place. If the two shy, borderline insecure members were to Pina’s tastes, what did that say about Bill?

Of course, there was no reason to dwell on that question… because reacting with apathy did not seem an option. Despite his greatest efforts, Bill couldn’t quash the way he wished to forcibly put his body, and its snarling maw, between Legosi and the flirty white nuisance he was so appallingly territorial of. It took all the willpower Bill could muster to calm the overwhelming urge to drag Pina out of sight whenever he caught Riz staring at him. The looking wasn’t obvious, but cat intuition noticed… just as his whiskers twisted with a chaotic itch whenever the turbulence threesome were in close proximity to one another.

They were the same desires he would have if Pina were a fresh kill, but something in Bill’s gut told him not to put faith into belief that his hostile, possessive drives were based on simply voracity… 

“Never hurts to hope…” He whispered to himself with a darkly humoured chuckle, but with the words came the shocking realization that he was talking to himself. Shit. Things were indeed getting fucking drastic.

The jolting revelations seemed to hit Bill without mercy, but at the very least they had distracted him from the brisk, biting cold. They had distracted him from mostly everything... until firm, poised pressure to his shoulder brought him to reality.

“Hey, thanks for waiting…” 

Pina’s species affirming sheepish smile was the first thing to greet Bill’s return, a hint that he knew there was at least one thing to feel guilty over. Riding on its tail: a sliver of annoyance that the younger student was perfectly cozy in this nippy weather… but Bill had always felt extra bitter towards the thicker coated animals during the, comparatively mild, oceanic winters.

Bill wanted to be angry when he saw that warmly pleasant expression, angry that Pina looked so damn composed while catching Bill in the middle of a jealous mental fit. He wanted to be angry over the very thoughts poisoning him, filling him with a sour acidity. Thoughts that Pina’s careless nature had put there.

Careless, or was Pina just flirty to a dangerous fault? Was his personal type of friendly so soaked into his magnetic biology that Bill couldn’t separate harmless interest from the heated, or was Pina truly as indulgent as he claimed…? Bill had no hard evidence either way; cat superstitions were no basis to support jostled emotions, and he swatted pesky thoughts away with a huff. He had plenty of valid reasons to be annoyed with Pina anyway.

Without obsessive bullshit to distract him, a gust of wind reminded Bill once more of his stiff, cooling body. “What took you so long?” Pulling phone from pocket to confirm his ire, Bill’s bad mood was given another gently encouraging stoke, like a warm breath into icy cupped hands. “What’s so urgent you needed half an hour?”

“I’ll tell you…” Pina’s tone was soothing, as were the calming gestures of his hands. “... but first.” Reaching into his side tote, as a show of both apology and consideration, a wrapped savoury egg bun was magically produced and offered forward. “I’m sorry I made you wait so long before dinner… you’re probably hungry.”

Apology accepted; the sizable snack was swiped out of Pina’s hands despite Bill’s best efforts to control his desperation. It was bordering on rude, but his ravenous need was understandable, and it would have been unfashionable for Pina to complain about a fire he’d set, intentionally or otherwise. 

Plastic was torn away like Rex-mas wrapping paper, and stuffing his face meant Bill’s mouth would be too busy to complain or gripe for as long as it took to consume. A tiny showcase of carnivore metabolism, one Pina made note to be a little more considerate about in the future. He wasn't keen on getting fingers bitten off because of merciless hunger.

“Oo…” Bill’s jaws hadn’t quite finished the last bite before he tried to speak, but hearing his mouth-full-of-marbles tone prompted him to search out his manners, swallow, and try again. “What’s so important? Is everything okay?”

It was a little surprising, the realization that Bill had been worried… Worried enough to inquire about Pina’s general wellbeing, even when his physical state obviously appeared fine. It seemed so natural; did Bill even realize how attached he appeared? In contempt of his attempts to pin the oddity on Bill’s behavior, Pina’s conscience was the one feeling guilty for so casually causing it.

“Oh…” Pina laughed a little, as if suddenly remembering something embarrassing, but that didn’t stop him from tipping inward.  He’d almost forgotten the guarantee to ensure Bill wouldn’t brush him off so easily before dinner. “Well… with segregation coming up, isn’t it urgent we squeeze in whatever time we can before it happens?”

The ease in which the ram fessed up to the blatant deception had Bill buzzing with irritation; it was fortunate his hunger was sated before it could absorb and amplify the negative feelings into true offense. Eyes narrowed when he felt cutting refutes settle on his tongue… but also the stroking waves of charm running from the centre of his forehead down his spine. 

Pina had missed him. Try as he might to brush it off as reasonable time management, Bill knew the impulse to manipulate was rooted in a need to see him, to be with him… and it had no intention of leaving any room for compromise. “Cute…” Bill’s tone betrayed both heated emotions, but he was relaxed in their warring presence. “But I’m still starving.”

Pina rolled his eyes, discovering a little annoyance himself when Bill rushed him- or was it just critique of his priorities and planning? “I brought more food, stupid…” His tone remained warm, the insult rolling off his tongue with the sweet grace of a lover’s pet name. “I also brought you a gift.”

He was already becoming subconsciously familiar with feline attention spans. Well aware that the comment would capture the cat’s attention, Pina made a show of reaching into his side bag, searching between the clinking glass that housed cafeteria food Pina had snuck away like secretly improvised take out. Buried somewhere between them, deep enough to prolong its discovery- or maybe Pina was just creating artificial delays to excite Bill’s humming attentiveness- a different glass container was pulled from the casual pack.

With its long cylindrical shape and twist top lid, it wasn’t much suited for many foods other than salad dressings or dips… perhaps spices. The green leafy herbs inside the jar certainly looked like cooking flavour, but Bill instantly recognized the drying plant for what it was, especially bundled up in the small but packed paper cone. Just as Pina has suspected, the offered gift had Bill’s mind off his panging hunger… at least for the moment.

“Holy shit…” Bill laughed with a bemused, surprised delight. “Where did you get catnip?” Considering how the plant didn’t affect many species beyond the felines, it was a fair question for the ram. Spinning the jar covertly in his hands, Bill glanced about- particularly downwind- before unscrewing the cap for a quick sniff. It had been recently rolled, quite possibly by Pina himself… that certainly explained some of his delay. “It’s fresh…”

“It’s rude to ask about your gifts, Bill.” Pina tutted, but even the chide couldn’t wipe away the smile growing on the trail of  Bill’s delight. Cat loved their altered brain states, and it didn’t take a mastermind to assume Bill was not the self-limiting sort… not when it came to spacy vices. Not when the high offered additional benefits…

When Pina brushed past Bill, he moved close enough for even the less accurate nose of a feline to notice his natural scent only vaguely tainted with the smell of females from that morning. “Come on, let’s get you something to eat… Somewhere downwind.”

Bill knew of such a good, isolated location close to the male carnivore dorm. He’d used it enough times in his previous years; he was more than occasionally desperate for both privacy and the warmth of the sun. It required both a small detour off the main trails into the thicket of trees, and scaling a semi fallen tree trunk to reach a moderately higher escarpment: animals that were too small to reach, or too big to lift their impressive weight could never find it.

Once they reached the heightened ledge, Bill assumed Pina would need his assistance getting up, given his growing rack and herbivore stature. The sheep was happy to hand his bag over when Bill requested it, but he ignored any offerings for a boost; his palms and feet were perfectly capable of finding purchase amongst the small rocky outcrops, and his core strength was plenty to help lift him up and over the edge.

Leaning over to bring up his reserved bag, Pina watched Bill join him, brushing a few dried leaves and specks of dirt off his blazer while his eyes remained casually drawn towards the agile tiger. Bill did not climb the same way Pina had; instead he braced his weight against the wall itself, propelling himself up to catch the slumped log with both his claws and the other foot. It was quicker, and left the older students uniform untouched and clean. He could see from Bill’s expression that the subtle respect was mutual…

Bill led him away from the makeshift ladder, back into the trees on a path only he knew. “I’d recommend this place to take your girlfriends’ but don’t come after dark. Carnivores who know about it usually come after dusk…” Pushing aside a heavier branch as if he were opening the door for a lady, Bill gestured to the small, tidy clearing. A few smooth, large rocks had been placed in a haphazard circle- not organized enough to resemble a true camping site. Between them, a flat, dark stone hid a small metal fire pit, and acted as a low table itself when the pit wasn’t in use.

With a hint of wonder, Pina glanced around; it was a simple little space, but it was accommodating and whimsy in its creation. The appreciation came with a small, somewhat bitter thought: perhaps carnivores were so adaptive on the fringes because they could not feel comfortably themselves in the middle of things. The trees surrounding them shaded most of the little clearing, but even as the setting sun drew ever closer to the horizon, some of the fading light found its way to the leaf-littered dirt floor.

When the food was split up, Bill found himself staring into the ramen bowl- the sheep has even been considerate enough to keep the soup split from the main stuff until that moment; heavy chucks of tofu floated amongst the swirling strings of cooking egg; the majority of the bowl filled with plump water heavy vegetables like pumpkin and zucchini, root slices that only further absorbed the broth’s flavour;  there were very few dark greens, but they weren’t completely absent, providing Bill with just enough fibre and minerals from the plant matter he detested.

Either Pina knew cats well, or he was a clever estimator: regardless, Bill was warmed by the effort. “Thanks…” His stomach rumbled, but there was still a pinch of concern for how savagely uncultured he looked; somehow, he managed to aggressively down the meal before it had a chance to cool, all without looking like a completely wild animal.

Even with his mouth busy, saffron eyes remained lifted and fixed on his herbivore companion as he picked at his own leafy salad, richly topped with full bloom flowers and roasted seeds. Pina’s own eyes rose when he sensed Bill staring at him, but only a small smile graced his lips when he saw Bill’s distraction. “Don’t forget about the other thing…”

Bill almost had, his hunger had been so intense. Reaching into his pocket, he withdrew the small glass vial, now unconcerned with fully withdrawing its contents. As he tested the fresh minty smell under his prickled nose, his eyes remained fixed on the coy ram. “... what’s the occasion?”

“I want some help with my lines before rehearsal tomorrow…” Pina looked down into his salad as he stirred the green mixture around, spreading the bittersweet vinaigrette he’d poured only moments ago. He paused his answer to take a conservative mouthful, or maybe to ensure Bill remained hanging on his every word. “... and it’s already late. I don’t want you to have a hangover tomorrow morning...”

The explanation was subtle yet obvious. Bill knew catnip wasn’t required for simple dialog bouncing, even if they were alone together in his room; the ram trusted him a little more than that. What Pina wanted was a very specific type of coaching. As Bill set the wrapped cone between his lips, he saw the other boy move to set his bowl down, possibly to offer him a lighter or pack of matches, but Bill held up a hand to stop him. Reaching inside his tracksuit jacket, he withdrew the pack of matches he kept for special emergencies: one never knew when a whisker needed to be burned for a smoke swirl reading.

Hopefully no sensitive noses were about, Bill thought as he lit up a match, watching the dancing flame with primal fascination. He rolled the tip of his catnip joint over the flame until the fire had moved dangerously close to his finger tips. He shook out the dying flame with one hand while simultaneously inhaling from his rolled smoke with the other, stoking the burning ember at the end before it too could die out.

It was Pina’s turn to mindlessly observe, his gaze unwavering even as his smaller dinner briskly disappeared with each cultured mouthful. There was something universally erotic about smoking; the ways lips wrapped around a filtered tip delicately, the way the chest expanded with each addictive inhale… Bill had a particular habit of letting the smoke escape through his nostrils before exhaling the rest through his mouth, a mobster image Pina found oddly electrifying…

There was worry his excitement would rise up far too quickly if he watched the tiger for much longer, but it was a convenient moment for Pina to begin tidying up. Like many herbivores, he had the foresight to keep a little extra water aside, using it now to give each container turned dinner bowl a small rinse before placing everything back in the side tote. By the time he finished, Bill was nearly done with his smoke, his already glazing eyes now more shameless about stealing back his hungering looks while Pina was distracted. A shiver skipped up the sheep’s spine from the safely wild glint to the carnivore’s eyes.

“Come on…” Pina cleared his throat with a small cough, hoping it would help dissipate the heat forming across his cheeks as well. “Think you can handle a walk back with how you inhaled your dinner?” He joked, knowing carnivores especially could get sleepy after a meal. 

Paired with the superstition of believing the habit caused laziness, cats were in an inconvenient position to fight their natural instincts or accept the unsavory label with all the dignity and grace their species was equally known for. Bill found a halfway point with classroom naps, but he couldn’t be blamed everytime- not when at least one professor had a lecture voice like whitenoise... cats were willful but they were not magicians.

While the ramen meal had sated the cat’s hunger to his satisfaction, Bill did not find himself slowed down by his heavy stomach: a stroke of luck for their walk back to his dorm. He was already light headed and relaxed from the smoke, if he were also feeling the itis after eating, it was unlikely he’d even make it. Cold climate species or not, it was doubtful that Pina would appreciate practicing his lines outside after dark.