Counting Sheep
Adrian's eyes creaked open. Everything was dark, beset by the shadow of the twilight hours he so despised being awake during. The sheep was little more than a moth without light, lost in its absence.
A soft snoring rustled his attention, startling but not enough so to incite fear. It was merely Sam--the jaguar. The giant. The feminine feline, the velvet vixen of vermillion... even asleep, the jaguar was beautiful to behold. Supple, yet thin legs unearthed from her comforter by midnight convulsions, Sam had been draped in only leaf-print pajamas and a yellow tee--the loose fabric of which betrayed an unbecoming level of cleavage as she lay on her side.
Flushing, Adrian turned away. Another brief, rather unladylike snort betrayed deep slumber and lifted lips over wicked teeth as her hands--crossed at the wrist as if they'd held something close moments before--twitched their fingers, uncertain of where their prize had gone. Nose pointed high as her jaw now hung open, the only source of light was the slight glint of saliva on the pillow. Scintillating fiery hair hung loose over her back and curled around her neck; a mane of pure flame sprawled out like a wildfire.
"Sleep well, I guess," Adrian muttered, voice barely higher than a whisper. Sam's pointed ears twitched, but she showed no further signs of response. The drooling, the snoring, the posture that bordered on painfully concave; God, how could one be so... contradictory? Not that he minded; it was even what he might call cute. Well, he thought, if something big enough to envelop him with a single toe could be called cute. But while she was stunning and mischievous by day, she gave in so readily to sleep, leaving not a single act of her psyche left to the imagination; as if she no longer cared what people thought of her by that point.
"Heh..." He pressed his fingers together, oval ears flicking nervously. "Yeah... I suppose it's cute."
Being captured by a giant was never an aspiration of Adrian's--though he had to admit, worse things could have happened to him. As he paced to the edge of the mattress, the sheep continued to ponder, brushing his wool in the hopes that there were anomalies thereof to justify the action. For his kind, theft was practically a way of life by now--it was how he had gotten here to begin with.
The wolf... oh Lord, the wolf. He'd picked the wrong target, that was for certain. The giantess caught him not minutes after he came in. Just showed how fit for _that_he was. Thankfully, whoever she was, she thought it below her to deal with him personally, and so had offered him to Sam as something of a gift. Strange. Maybe the intent wasn't 'gift', but that sure as hell was how Sam treated it.
Either way, he'd been here long enough. Bleating with vehemence, the sheep took further steps--while Sam slept, he'd go on and let everyone else at the Undersector know that he was just fine. He hadn't been eaten, stomped on, or otherwise maimed or injured, and that might be a nice thing to inform people. Cuddled with, sure, but he supposed that wasn't terribly worth mentioning unless it got too fierce for his tiny sheep bones... which it hadn't. Yet.
"It'll be fine, I just gotta--whoa!" Suddenly, he was teetering at the edge of the bed. Ah, right. The damn thing was suspended miles above the floor. A fall from here wouldn't be all that pleasant. As much as he'd like to imagine his own wool to be soft and pillowy enough to stop any damage from puncturing its fluffy exterior... well it was just unrealistic.
Behind him echoed the soft shifting of cloth and fur, accompanied shortly by a low, mewling yawn. "Adrian?"
"Oh! Oh--oh!" Sweeping his feet to turn and face the lovely, dangerous gaze of Sam, Adrian began to stumble back. "Sam!" His instability finally caved, and down he began to fall.
Thankfully, Sam's reflexes and pink-padded hand were both quicker than his descent. A split second after his fall, he landed again--greeted not by the polished oaken floor, but by Sam's open hand. Towering fingers of gold carefully curled around his form like a spider compelled to protect its prey, and his world began lifting up in an arc.
Not long after the sheep's ride slanted and slipped him onto the cloth was he introduced to a pair of captivating eyes, yet again. With the color and richness of smooth, sweet raspberries, those scarlet eyes bore into him like relentless drills. Dark slits hanging fine in the center were flanked by half-closed eyelids--no doubt sleepily content--and lashes that began layering like rooftop shingles. They were captivating through and through, the sheep finding himself unable to rip away from interlocking gazes.
When the pupils shifted just slightly and settled in all authenticity atop his form, it was as though they projected a physical weight onto him. Though somewhat lidded, they seemed to cast expectant spotlights over him--which her words reflected.
Damn it, Adrian thought, it's always the eyes.
"What was going on there?" Sam mumbled sleepily, tongue tripping over the words it wanted to say.
"S-sorry, I just... eep!" The feline patted his wool reassuringly, eliciting a surprised bleat as he dissolved into a stuttering mess. "I-I didn't wake you up, did I?"
The jaguar seemed to immediately shake off her tire. "I didn't know you were a sleep talker," she said, mildly poking his stomach. "Or walker."
Oh dear. The sheep barely avoided shaking--not out of fear for his life, not quite, though the remnants of that were still there. Darn. He'd hoped to make this easy. Clingy girl, she was...
"You weren't going to leave me to my lonesome, were you?"
Shit. There was the question. "I--of course I... well."
Sam leaned just the slightest closer and leaned upon her crossed arms, very much amused by his hesitance. It seemed it was doing a fine job of waking her up. "Come now. You can be honest with me, Adrian."
Right, he had a name. She knew it. She liked him and wouldn't hunt or hurt him, she'd made that far too clear. With a swallow, Adrian shook his head. "I-I was gonna come back," he said nervously. God, something so massive and so terrifying and yet so entrancing shouldn't have been allowed to exist. He almost doubted he ever could leave. "Oh, I just wanted to let people know that I'm okay..."
His heart only palpitated faster when she unveiled another saw-toothed smirk in his direction, perfectly-kempt teeth sharp enough to gut him on a whim. "Oh, be a dear and quit your fretting. I know you were gonna come back."
"Did you now? Er, I mean--well that came out wrong." He huffed nervously. That could so easily have come off as challenging. Ugh, no, he didn't mean that!
Samantha's thunderous laugh, though attenuated and probably nothing more than a sharp giggle to her own ears, reverberated throughout the twists and uncertain turns of Adrian's chest. "You shouldn't be so scared of me, sheepy! I've said I wouldn't hurt you, and I have even less reason to now."
"I-I guess." Sheepy. Hm. In a hurry to change the subject, Adrian shook his head and asserted, "Say, I've kinda been thinking."
"Ooh, have you?" The jaguar's interest sprung through as she sat up, cross-legged. "Pray tell?"
No better time to ask than when prompted. "Other giants don't take well to us at all. Why are you so..." Don't ask why she likes me, anything but why she likes me, that's just conceited, "friendly?"
"That's... quite the thought indeed," Sam admitted with a nod. "And the answer dates back to my adolescence, you see. I've had a few positive run-ins while others have had the very negative sort. I'd assert it's as simple as that. But... hey, who am I to say?" she finished with a shrug and then a prominent stretch, kneading her claws into the mattress. Curtain-like locks of vermillion hair buffeted the tiny sheep as she leaned.
An accented purr punctuated every word that slipped from her lips. Either the result of her feline heritage or birthplace--likely both--but damn if it didn't give Adrian five and a half reasons to let her talk for as long as he could have her. Every syllable was capable of melting him when they were stated as factually and pointedly as that.
"That and you're utterly harmless," she continued frankly. Having finished her stretch, she straightened her posture again. "I don't see much of a point in being upset about tinies. Maybe it's because my parents took care of the tinies that wandered around my house, so I never really had to deal with them. My parents were also a lot more in tune with their instincts--I've never gotten many chances to hone such things myself. Something I honestly... don't miss or care for at all, hm!"
Adrian swallowed. 'Took care' of? He hoped it didn't mean what it obviously meant, even if it was in the past--and not done by her. "You don't care for...? Well, what about that wolf girl--Fiela, right?"
The jaguar could laugh, but refrained. "Oh, now. My instincts are nothing like Fiela's."
Adrian pressed. "You sure? I-I mean... you did a good job at scaring me back there. When we first met, I mean. I think you're just fine."
Sam cocked her head, now very much interested. "How much of that was just the weight of the situation, hm?"
"Well, some, I'm sure! Just... well, you know."
"You sly little lamb. You aren't trying to flatter me, are you?"
"N-no! Er, I mean, I shouldn't have to, given--ah..." He was flushing madly. His sentence remained unfinished, a series of bricks in the sidewalk that fell off the edge of the earth and into oblivion. Sam's red eyes carved ruthless holes into him. They were curious and expectant, but nothing more, despite what his hurried mind told him.
The jaguar smirked. The darn thing was just so cute when he tried to impress her. Chances were he was still afraid, especially after having been caught with his pants down. She knew he was trying to leave--and one day she'd let him. But that day was not this one, and there was nothing wrong with having him enjoy his time here... and she'd bet her spots that he certainly did.
She may have been an upper middle class lady, but her refined tastes were her own--little Adrian counted among them.
"Perhaps I should say it now: I absolutely adore attention. And from what I recall you're a man of very exquisite attentiveness. So tell me, then..." she continued with a sultry tail to her voice, "Just what do you like most? About me, perhaps, or about where we are now? I'd like you to continue that line of thought, if you're able."
This is a trap was Adrian's first thought. Adrian swallowed hard and began growing mightily flustered beneath his clothes and wool. How to answer, how to answer-- "About where we are now?"
Sam pursed her lips, blowing a cool breeze past his ears and over his braced head. "It could be that." She was a patient cat if nothing else.
Suddenly, Adrian got a sense for where this might be going. He shook his head furiously at memories of the culmination of their first meeting. "N-no! We can't do this, not tonight..."
The jaguar's brow inched upward, but the biting of her lip betrayed her reaction. "Not tonight, hm? I can live with that." She rattled her head and angled it upward to shake her fiery hair back into straightness. Though she was the slightest disappointed, she wouldn't toy too much with Adrian's whims. Not tonight. "And you don't need to explain yourself."
"So... what happens now?" the ovine inquired anxiously. "You're not mad, are you? Oh, please don't be--"
"Hey." Her hips shifted position to allow the inching of her paw, which then reared over and pinned him between soft walls of flesh and fur. Much to his surprise and enjoyment, there was little pressure--only enough to keep him still and content as she hushed him. "Just relax. I'm only messing around." She sighed. "But I'll stop now, heh. Can't have you getting all jittery before bed."
Adrian nodded between toes. No argument was a plausible one.
"As for the first question, well, you did get caught red-handed," Sam admitted trickily. "For the future, you can just ask me if you'd like to go somewhere. I'd rather not have a certain doll of a sheep become a stain on the ground, just so you know. Either because he jumped off my bed and didn't make it, or did make it and I had no idea he was still out and about on my floor," she finished, toes flexing as if in emphasis.
"Well. That's as fair a point as any," he said without breath. "Also, um--I'm still... y'know, here," he motioned all around, brushing his tiny hands against the veritable forest of fuzz.
"Oh, look at me go on. I'm all talk and no play, aren't I?" With suiting feline quickness the jaguar reached forth. The soft pressure that kept him pinned let up for a brief moment--only for him to be snatched up and brought close to her mouth, which shortly thereafter buffeted his puffy wool with a lengthy lick. There was no time for him to react, let alone protest. "Oh, you're simply filthy. Look at all this dirt you have in your coat. Did you get outside when I wasn't looking?"
The sheep made no noise as she struck again. Ugh, the cat-bath. "You're trying really hard to find a scapegoat for this," he muttered as she worked.
"You're one to talk of scapegoats," Sam said proudly, using her fingers to press down his wet fur around his otherwise thin form. "And besides, it's either this or dress-up tomorrow. I could make you look simply darling!"
"I'll pass on that," Adrian remarked, prompting another lick from his captor. Warmly wet and uncomfortable though he was, he remained silent and still. Part of the ordeal was Sam's motherly instinct, though most of it was her spending her free ticket to do as she wished--not that she didn't have or use her infinite supply of those.
But instinct was another thing he'd never, ever argue with.
Finally, the jaguar decided to let up. Her free hand did the work of drying him off with a quick rub-down. "But in all truth, you did need something of a bath." She eyed her handiwork proudly. "Perhaps next time you can join me for a real one, hm?"
"O-oh gosh, I don't know about that--" The poor sheep's reddening cheeks would be able to replace her stove soon enough.
Sam cocked her head, weight beginning to settle over her eyelids. She needed to wrap this up. "I think you do."
The sheep quivered, but steeled himself. "Well when you say it that way, how can I refuse?" He swallowed; gambles weren't his thing, but if he knew what he did about her, it could net him a win. "Not that you're talking any different from normal."
Oh, that was it. "Awfully silver-tongued for one so fearful, aren't you? C'mere you little bastard," she growled and tugged him close, eliciting a confused meep as he was then nestled between the cover of a hand and her bosom, him flushing furiously. "But enough about me--what about you? Has anybody ever told you just how soft you are? Or how cute for that matter?"
Struggling to piece together words, Adrian suddenly blurted, "You have."
"Nobody else?" The titanic jaguar brought him close for another affectionate lick, buffeting his cheek and most of the face thereof. "Well, that's just unbecoming." She suddenly let out a wide yawn; she wasn't able to stay conscious for much longer. "And...? What a kind thing you can be; I'll say it if no one else has. You can't just let me take all the credit here."
"Well, to be fair, nobody takes compliments quite like you do," Adrian said with a laugh. She was trying to give him more and more reason to stay, that was it. A last-ditch effort before sleep claimed her to prevent her little thing from running off, and this twilight excursion from happening again--and doing so by simply returning the favor as desperately as possible.
"Right," Sam said. Her eyes had all but shut, the dimmest glint of magma escaping the bottoms of her lids. The lashes fluttered one last time as she snuggled him closer. She was in a perfect comfort zone--with her plaything in her hands, in her bed, warm as could be. "You know what, dear? I think you take them just as well as I do. Just... stay for a bit...."
Adrian only nodded. Her mumbling faded off into wordlessness as she buried her cheek deeper into the pillow. Before he'd even recognized it, the muscles that enveloped his form loosened ever so slightly--she was long out. Sam's soft breathing reigned supreme as the only sound left in the room, with something of a light snore acting as an intermission every so often. The grip was still a little tight and locked his torso in place, though with a little effort he could wriggle a way out, and probably without stirring his captor.
But why would he?
Adrian sighed and gave into defeat, nuzzling into his pillowy prison of fur and flesh, by far at his warmest and most comfortable. His tiny hooves kicked lightly against her palm so as to ease his posture. Oh, how he'd pondered leaving before; this was only the first time he'd so much as made a vague attempt. It had been shut down, and so quickly--but the sheep was flexible. The jaguar giantess' soft face no longer had its open eyes to accent it, sadly, though she now looked the very definition of peaceful. Thin tail flicking, bronze-and-black fur of her cheeks rustling with the breeze of the open window, her lips never fully shut... there wasn't any getting around it anymore: he was simply infatuated.
He had to admit: overbearing as the jaguar could be, he was perfectly content with this turn of events. In a world where one could find themselves crushed underfoot too easily, it paid to lower one's standards. Teddy bear was preferable to dead, the sheep had mused, and such was what he settled with again.
Not that he found himself minding it too much to begin with.