Fin and Fur 1
Prequel-story to Stardance's bday ficlet starring Lei & Arvik, the arctic circle shapeshifters. ;)
No idea where this is going. I'm totally winging it. No notes, no plan... not my usual modus operandi at all. x.x Meep.
---
Lungs burning, heart racing, Lei ran as fast as his feet could carry him over the slippery ice. Stupid stupid stupid! What had he been thinking, to enter a polar bear's territory? He'd let his stomach override his brain, and now he was about to end up in something else's stomach. Specifically, the biggest, ugliest, nastiest polar bear he'd ever had the misfortune of crossing paths with.
Daring a peek behind him, Lei was dismayed to note that the bear seemed to be gaining ground. Of course, it had much longer legs than a small white fox, and despite its bulk could really run. Especially when chasing such a delicious morsel as Lei.
Skidding around a snow bank, Lei let out a bark of surprise as he found himself confronted with a sharp ice cliff with nowhere to go. The cliff was too high to scale, the sea was to his left, and the bear close behind him.
Trapped.
Whirling, Lei looked frantically for options. A few feet out into the ocean floated a small berg, just slightly beyond arm's reach of bear paws. But not out of reach of a long jump.
Gathering himself, Lei bolted for the floating berg as fast as he could run, taking a flying leap at the last moment and landing heavily on the floating ice, claws scrabbling as he braked enough to not slide off into the sea. Safe.
Turning, he found the bear standing at the edge of the ice shelf, regarding him. It made an odd sound, then leaned forward and slid off into the water. Lei barked in dismay. He'd forgotten that polar bears could swim, and waves created by the bear's entrance into the water were washing his little patch of ice further away from the shore. There was no way he could jump that distance now, and he didn't know how to swim.
Options. He needed options. He didn't have any options, beyond drown or get eaten. Neither of which sounded particularly appealing. Maybe when the bear surfaced again he could use its head as a springboard back to land...
A large, sodden head suddenly appeared before him and Lei lashed out without thinking, his nails raking across the bear's sensitive nose and making it bellow in pain, backing off a bit. Lei growled, tail lashing his displeasure, knowing it had to be the height of insanity for a fox to attack a polar bear but unwilling to go down without at least an attempt at a fight.
The bear raised a paw and shoved at the edge of Lei's patch of ice, moving it even further away from the shore and rocking it slightly. Lei dug his claws in and snarled, yipping snappishly at his tormenter even as he prepared himself for what was to come. All the thing had to do was knock him into the water and he was done for. It was really just a waiting game until the stupid bear figured that out.
It swiped at him again, missing, and Lei swiped back irritably. Now it was toying with him? Stupid bear. He hoped it choked on him and died.
The bear backed off a bit, then swam slowly around his little chunk of ice before coming closer for another attempt. One paw came up out of the water, claws extended, then quite suddenly the bear let out a bellow of pain and vanished beneath the water's surface.
Lei blinked. He'd never seen a polar bear do that before.
After a moment it surfaced again, several meters away, looking rather panicked. Well, as panicked as the supreme predator of the arctic ever got, anyway. After a moment it spotted Lei and began swimming cautiously toward him. It hadn't gotten more than a few feet before suddenly tumbling over sideways in the water, paws flailing as it struggled to right itself. Barely had it done so before it went over again, and this time Lei caught a flash of black just beneath the water as the polar bear went for a spin.
There was something else in the water. Something that could treat a polar bear as a toy. Somehow, that wasn't remotely reassuring for his tiny self.
The bear gave up completely on Lei, opting instead to flee back to the shore where it proceeded to haul itself out of the water and limp away as fast as it could, though Lei couldn't see any obvious injuries. In a few moments it was out of sight, leaving Lei alone.
On an ice berg.
In the middle of the water.
Well, he didn't have anything trying to eat him, but beyond that his situation really hadn't improved much. He looked around, trying to figure out if the current was going to carry him any closer to shore, yelping when something very large suddenly appeared in his field of view. Very large, and far too close.
It was... a fish? It was smooth like a fish, but Lei couldn't see any scales. Just black and white slickness. Not to mention it was bigger than any fish he'd ever seen before. Did fish come in bigger than polar bear sizes? This one certainly did. It peered at him, fins moving back and forth enough to make small waves in the water, then opened its mouth and made a peculiar sound that Lei might have tried to figure out if he hadn't immediately focused on the rows of very sharp-looking teeth.
Great. Escaped from the polar bear only to be eaten by a fish. A very big fish.
The fish slowly sank back down beneath the water again, slight ripples and a tall black fin showing where it circled slowly around him, then the enormous nose came up out of the water just enough to bump the edge of Lei's iceberg.
He yelped and dug his claws in, clinging to the ice as the big fish bumped it again, and again. He wanted badly to reach out with his claws and smack that nose that was just within reach, but if he did that he'd have to let go of the ice and risk sliding off into the water.
Countless nudges later the iceberg gave a shudder as it collided with something. Lei peered cautiously over his shoulder, startled and relieved to see that the big fish had managed to push him all the way back to the shore. He leapt off the iceberg back onto the more solid ice shelf, taking a few steps inland before stopping and looking back.
The big fish was watching him. Curious, Lei padded a few feet along the edge of the ice, fascinated when the fish followed him. He walked a few more feet, then a few more, still followed by the big black and white fish. After several meters Lei sat down and wrapped his tail around his paws, thinking. Fish, as a whole, were very stupid. But this fish had rescued him from the polar bear, gotten him back to shore, and was now following him almost playfully. It couldn't possibly be... were there shape-changing fish? He'd never heard of such a thing before.
The end of his tail twitched idly as he contemplated the fish watching him. Well, there was one way to find out. He stood up and carefully backed up a few paces until he was certain the ice would hold his increased weight, then shifted back to his true form.
The fish's mouth opened, closed, opened again, then it swam right up to the edge of the ice... and shifted.
"I didn't think an ordinary fox would be brave enough to take a swipe at a polar bear," the man, still black and white in the most fascinating of patterns, said as he placed his arms on the edge of the ice and hauled himself up out of the water. He was big, a good head and a half taller than Lei, at least, and stark naked. Apparently fish didn't get clothes when they shifted.
"I was running out of options," Lei said peevishly, trying very hard not to look at the naked fish, or contemplate the fact that he was big everywhere and not just in height.
"Well, it was impressive," the big fish-man said with an easy smile. "What's your name? I'm Arvik."
Warily, Lei hugged his thick fur coat closer to him. Not that it would do him any good if the big fish - Arvik - decided to attack him. Those arms could probably crush him to death with ease.
"Lei. My name is Lei," he said finally. He didn't know what Arvik found so interesting about him, though maybe the fish had never seen a fox shifter up close before? Arvik was the first fish Lei had ever seen that actually left the water. Not counting seals, anyway, but those weren't exactly fish, as far as Lei could tell. They slept on land, anyway, which fish didn't do.
He opened his mouth to ask when his stomach abruptly decided to complain of the fact that it hadn't gotten breakfast yet, having been interrupted in that endeavor by the obnoxious polar bear. He snapped his mouth shut and flushed, hugging his coat tighter, annoyed when Arvik blinked and started laughing.
"Oh," Arvik said, nodding. "The polar bear interrupted feeding time." He cocked his head to one side thoughtfully. "Do you eat fish? Seal?"
Lei blinked. "Seal, sometimes, if I can steal it from a bear..." His brow furrowed. "Why?"
Arvik grinned and winked, turning away with a wave and Lei did his best not to stare at the very nice ass that was presented to him as Arvik strode confidently back to the water's edge before throwing himself into the sea. He surfaced, calling out, "Wait there a minute," before diving back under. A few moments later Lei could see the sleek black form of the giant fish as it swam easily through the water and out of sight.
Bewildered, Lei looked around for a sturdy chunk of ice to sit on, plunking himself down and watching the ripples in the sea with a feeling of abject confusion. He'd come within a few feet of losing his life, been rescued, and now had met a very strange (and admittedly rather handsome) fish that was... what? Looking for food for him? That was a bit much to process.
Actually, the fact that Arvik had bothered to save his life was a bit much to process. From those teeth he'd spied he was fairly certain that Arvik was a predator. Therefore, shouldn't he be trying to eat Lei? Not feed him, certainly.
He huffed and glared at a chunk of ice. Fish made no sense. Land was much less confusing.
Several minutes later his attention was drawn back to the sea by a series of violent ripples, followed shortly by a tremendous splash as Arvik (or at least he was fairly certain the big black and white fish was Arvik) launched himself out of the water, along with something else that went flying, landing with a dull thud on the ice as Arvik fell back into the sea. Lei blinked, first at the choppy water where the fish had gone under, then at the hulk of a bull seal lying dead on the ice, blood slowly oozing out of numerous jagged tears no doubt caused by Arvik's teeth.
While he stared at the carcass, feeling rather lost even though his stomach was rumbling in gleeful anticipation of one of the most filling meals he'd had in a long time, Arvik appeared at the edge of the ice again and hauled himself up, back in his humanoid shape, water sluicing down his powerful form.
"How's that?" he asked.
Lei stood slowly and made his way over to the body of the seal, looking from it to Arvik and back. "This... is for me?" he asked cautiously.
Arvik laughed. "You sound like you're expecting me to take it away again." He dropped down onto the ice, crossing his legs and grinning up at Lei. "So, eat. You're hungry, right?"
Lei eyed him doubtfully. "Are all fish as weird as you are?" he asked.
Arvik blinked. "Fish? I'm not a fish." Lei had never seen anyone smile as much as this fish who claimed not to be a fish. It fairly took up his whole face. "Fish breathe water," Arvik explained. "I breathe air, even when I'm in my other form. I'm an orca, which is a type of whale."
"Whale?" Lei echoed, feeling lost and confused and hating that feeling. This was why he kept trying to tell his family they needed to be less solitary. There were so many things they didn't know, and the not knowing made him feel so very stupid.
Arvik eyed him curiously. "You really don't get out much, do you?" he asked.
Lei flushed hotly. "I can't swim. I try not to get too close to the ocean if I can help it," he snapped.
"Hmm..." Arvik mused, then grinned again. "Yeah, I can see that. All that hair probably doesn't make for very easy swimming. Much easier if it's just skin." He emphasized his point by running a hand along his leg, which drew Lei's eyes far too close to the fish - whale - man's blatantly exposed (and very impressive) genitalia.
Lei swallowed, tearing his eyes away with effort. "Right." He managed to lock his gaze on the carcass of the seal instead, idly watching the blood still leaking out. It really did look delicious, if Arvik wasn't just using it as bait... but then a seal was much bigger than a small fox, so there wasn't really much point to such a scheme, unless the fish-whale had a particular fondness for fox...
Finally giving up, Lei shifted back to his four-footed form and stepped warily up next to the seal, keeping one eye on Arvik just in case the man moved. Which he didn't, just sat there smiling cheerfully as Lei darted out his tongue to taste, and oh it was nice. All fresh and warm and wonderful. So wonderful, in fact, that he fairly stuffed himself on seal meat, completely forgetting to keep a watchful eye on Arvik.
Which would be why he started so badly when something touched his back.
Yelping, Lei found that Arvik had moved far too close while he'd been distracted with his meal and had lain a hand across his back and was... petting him? He slowly licked the blood off his muzzle, trying to decide if he needed to bite Arvik for startling him like that, but it felt very nice, and now that his belly was full he was feeling rather sated and content and pleasant and it would just be far too much work to bite the nice hand.
He did manage a faint warning growl when Arvik picked him up and cradled him in those massive black arms, but the fish-whale-man was warm and the hand still felt nice and he supposed he could forgive the minor transgression under the circumstances. Provided Arvik didn't make any more of them.
"Feel better now?" Arvik murmured, his voice sending little shivers through Lei's body and that really wasn't fair because he'd only just met the man and none of his own people ever made him feel like this but then foxes tended to run toward small and slender and Arvik was anything but. And he did have a very nice smile, even if he tended to use it a little too much. And if Lei wanted to be honest with himself, it really was impressive how easily Arvik had chased off the polar bear.
Of course when he opened his mouth to respond it came out as a yip, which the sea-man obviously couldn't understand, but if he changed back to be able to speak properly with Arvik he'd lose the pettings and his warm nest in whale-man arms. The dilemma stumped him for a few moments, during which he snuggled into the pettings all he could, then finally he gave up and changed back.
"Yes," Lei admitted sourly, fascinated by the not-smell of the chest that was so very close to his nose. It wasn't a fishy smell, or a seal smell, or anything he knew. It was... clean. Like the sea.
Arvik laughed quietly, a low rumble that vibrated through his chest and body enough that Lei could feel it where he was still sprawled in Arvik's lap. Lei hadn't been moved yet, so maybe Arvik didn't mind the fact that he wasn't fox-sized anymore, and - oh. oh... - Arvik was petting him again. He'd managed to knock back the hood of Lei's coat and was stroking gently between Lei's ears and that felt very nice indeed and-
It stopped. Lei whined low in his throat and looked up, finding Arvik staring out at the ocean with a faint frown marring his handsome face. Lei swished his tail irritably, starting to ask what was wrong, when Arvik abruptly looked back down at him, the smile back and looking somewhat apologetic.
"I have to go," he said, giving Lei's head one last slow stroke. "My pod is calling me."
Lei blinked. "Your pod?"
"My family," Arvik clarified, getting to his feet and carefully setting Lei back on his own. "Can I see you again? Tomorrow?" he asked.
Lei blinked again, feeling somewhat lost. "I... if you want..." he said slowly.
Arvik grinned brightly, and Lei was abruptly reminded of the summer sun when it caught on the ice just right. "There's a big rock, down that way a bit... with a tree on it." He gestured vaguely south. "And a beach just next to it. I'll meet you there?"
"I..." Lei hesitated, then nodded. "Okay."
Arvik smiled and reached out to run his hand through Lei's hair one more time before tugging Lei's hood back up and into place, then turned and strode easily toward the sea. "Don't forget!" he called back over his shoulder just before diving in and disappearing from sight.
A few moments later Lei caught sight of the tall black fin making its way rapidly away and out toward the open ocean, and he watched until it was out of sight before turning and heading home himself, his mind whirling.
This had to be the strangest day of his entire life.
To Part Two
No idea where this is going. I'm totally winging it. No notes, no plan... not my usual modus operandi at all. x.x Meep.
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Lungs burning, heart racing, Lei ran as fast as his feet could carry him over the slippery ice. Stupid stupid stupid! What had he been thinking, to enter a polar bear's territory? He'd let his stomach override his brain, and now he was about to end up in something else's stomach. Specifically, the biggest, ugliest, nastiest polar bear he'd ever had the misfortune of crossing paths with.
Daring a peek behind him, Lei was dismayed to note that the bear seemed to be gaining ground. Of course, it had much longer legs than a small white fox, and despite its bulk could really run. Especially when chasing such a delicious morsel as Lei.
Skidding around a snow bank, Lei let out a bark of surprise as he found himself confronted with a sharp ice cliff with nowhere to go. The cliff was too high to scale, the sea was to his left, and the bear close behind him.
Trapped.
Whirling, Lei looked frantically for options. A few feet out into the ocean floated a small berg, just slightly beyond arm's reach of bear paws. But not out of reach of a long jump.
Gathering himself, Lei bolted for the floating berg as fast as he could run, taking a flying leap at the last moment and landing heavily on the floating ice, claws scrabbling as he braked enough to not slide off into the sea. Safe.
Turning, he found the bear standing at the edge of the ice shelf, regarding him. It made an odd sound, then leaned forward and slid off into the water. Lei barked in dismay. He'd forgotten that polar bears could swim, and waves created by the bear's entrance into the water were washing his little patch of ice further away from the shore. There was no way he could jump that distance now, and he didn't know how to swim.
Options. He needed options. He didn't have any options, beyond drown or get eaten. Neither of which sounded particularly appealing. Maybe when the bear surfaced again he could use its head as a springboard back to land...
A large, sodden head suddenly appeared before him and Lei lashed out without thinking, his nails raking across the bear's sensitive nose and making it bellow in pain, backing off a bit. Lei growled, tail lashing his displeasure, knowing it had to be the height of insanity for a fox to attack a polar bear but unwilling to go down without at least an attempt at a fight.
The bear raised a paw and shoved at the edge of Lei's patch of ice, moving it even further away from the shore and rocking it slightly. Lei dug his claws in and snarled, yipping snappishly at his tormenter even as he prepared himself for what was to come. All the thing had to do was knock him into the water and he was done for. It was really just a waiting game until the stupid bear figured that out.
It swiped at him again, missing, and Lei swiped back irritably. Now it was toying with him? Stupid bear. He hoped it choked on him and died.
The bear backed off a bit, then swam slowly around his little chunk of ice before coming closer for another attempt. One paw came up out of the water, claws extended, then quite suddenly the bear let out a bellow of pain and vanished beneath the water's surface.
Lei blinked. He'd never seen a polar bear do that before.
After a moment it surfaced again, several meters away, looking rather panicked. Well, as panicked as the supreme predator of the arctic ever got, anyway. After a moment it spotted Lei and began swimming cautiously toward him. It hadn't gotten more than a few feet before suddenly tumbling over sideways in the water, paws flailing as it struggled to right itself. Barely had it done so before it went over again, and this time Lei caught a flash of black just beneath the water as the polar bear went for a spin.
There was something else in the water. Something that could treat a polar bear as a toy. Somehow, that wasn't remotely reassuring for his tiny self.
The bear gave up completely on Lei, opting instead to flee back to the shore where it proceeded to haul itself out of the water and limp away as fast as it could, though Lei couldn't see any obvious injuries. In a few moments it was out of sight, leaving Lei alone.
On an ice berg.
In the middle of the water.
Well, he didn't have anything trying to eat him, but beyond that his situation really hadn't improved much. He looked around, trying to figure out if the current was going to carry him any closer to shore, yelping when something very large suddenly appeared in his field of view. Very large, and far too close.
It was... a fish? It was smooth like a fish, but Lei couldn't see any scales. Just black and white slickness. Not to mention it was bigger than any fish he'd ever seen before. Did fish come in bigger than polar bear sizes? This one certainly did. It peered at him, fins moving back and forth enough to make small waves in the water, then opened its mouth and made a peculiar sound that Lei might have tried to figure out if he hadn't immediately focused on the rows of very sharp-looking teeth.
Great. Escaped from the polar bear only to be eaten by a fish. A very big fish.
The fish slowly sank back down beneath the water again, slight ripples and a tall black fin showing where it circled slowly around him, then the enormous nose came up out of the water just enough to bump the edge of Lei's iceberg.
He yelped and dug his claws in, clinging to the ice as the big fish bumped it again, and again. He wanted badly to reach out with his claws and smack that nose that was just within reach, but if he did that he'd have to let go of the ice and risk sliding off into the water.
Countless nudges later the iceberg gave a shudder as it collided with something. Lei peered cautiously over his shoulder, startled and relieved to see that the big fish had managed to push him all the way back to the shore. He leapt off the iceberg back onto the more solid ice shelf, taking a few steps inland before stopping and looking back.
The big fish was watching him. Curious, Lei padded a few feet along the edge of the ice, fascinated when the fish followed him. He walked a few more feet, then a few more, still followed by the big black and white fish. After several meters Lei sat down and wrapped his tail around his paws, thinking. Fish, as a whole, were very stupid. But this fish had rescued him from the polar bear, gotten him back to shore, and was now following him almost playfully. It couldn't possibly be... were there shape-changing fish? He'd never heard of such a thing before.
The end of his tail twitched idly as he contemplated the fish watching him. Well, there was one way to find out. He stood up and carefully backed up a few paces until he was certain the ice would hold his increased weight, then shifted back to his true form.
The fish's mouth opened, closed, opened again, then it swam right up to the edge of the ice... and shifted.
"I didn't think an ordinary fox would be brave enough to take a swipe at a polar bear," the man, still black and white in the most fascinating of patterns, said as he placed his arms on the edge of the ice and hauled himself up out of the water. He was big, a good head and a half taller than Lei, at least, and stark naked. Apparently fish didn't get clothes when they shifted.
"I was running out of options," Lei said peevishly, trying very hard not to look at the naked fish, or contemplate the fact that he was big everywhere and not just in height.
"Well, it was impressive," the big fish-man said with an easy smile. "What's your name? I'm Arvik."
Warily, Lei hugged his thick fur coat closer to him. Not that it would do him any good if the big fish - Arvik - decided to attack him. Those arms could probably crush him to death with ease.
"Lei. My name is Lei," he said finally. He didn't know what Arvik found so interesting about him, though maybe the fish had never seen a fox shifter up close before? Arvik was the first fish Lei had ever seen that actually left the water. Not counting seals, anyway, but those weren't exactly fish, as far as Lei could tell. They slept on land, anyway, which fish didn't do.
He opened his mouth to ask when his stomach abruptly decided to complain of the fact that it hadn't gotten breakfast yet, having been interrupted in that endeavor by the obnoxious polar bear. He snapped his mouth shut and flushed, hugging his coat tighter, annoyed when Arvik blinked and started laughing.
"Oh," Arvik said, nodding. "The polar bear interrupted feeding time." He cocked his head to one side thoughtfully. "Do you eat fish? Seal?"
Lei blinked. "Seal, sometimes, if I can steal it from a bear..." His brow furrowed. "Why?"
Arvik grinned and winked, turning away with a wave and Lei did his best not to stare at the very nice ass that was presented to him as Arvik strode confidently back to the water's edge before throwing himself into the sea. He surfaced, calling out, "Wait there a minute," before diving back under. A few moments later Lei could see the sleek black form of the giant fish as it swam easily through the water and out of sight.
Bewildered, Lei looked around for a sturdy chunk of ice to sit on, plunking himself down and watching the ripples in the sea with a feeling of abject confusion. He'd come within a few feet of losing his life, been rescued, and now had met a very strange (and admittedly rather handsome) fish that was... what? Looking for food for him? That was a bit much to process.
Actually, the fact that Arvik had bothered to save his life was a bit much to process. From those teeth he'd spied he was fairly certain that Arvik was a predator. Therefore, shouldn't he be trying to eat Lei? Not feed him, certainly.
He huffed and glared at a chunk of ice. Fish made no sense. Land was much less confusing.
Several minutes later his attention was drawn back to the sea by a series of violent ripples, followed shortly by a tremendous splash as Arvik (or at least he was fairly certain the big black and white fish was Arvik) launched himself out of the water, along with something else that went flying, landing with a dull thud on the ice as Arvik fell back into the sea. Lei blinked, first at the choppy water where the fish had gone under, then at the hulk of a bull seal lying dead on the ice, blood slowly oozing out of numerous jagged tears no doubt caused by Arvik's teeth.
While he stared at the carcass, feeling rather lost even though his stomach was rumbling in gleeful anticipation of one of the most filling meals he'd had in a long time, Arvik appeared at the edge of the ice again and hauled himself up, back in his humanoid shape, water sluicing down his powerful form.
"How's that?" he asked.
Lei stood slowly and made his way over to the body of the seal, looking from it to Arvik and back. "This... is for me?" he asked cautiously.
Arvik laughed. "You sound like you're expecting me to take it away again." He dropped down onto the ice, crossing his legs and grinning up at Lei. "So, eat. You're hungry, right?"
Lei eyed him doubtfully. "Are all fish as weird as you are?" he asked.
Arvik blinked. "Fish? I'm not a fish." Lei had never seen anyone smile as much as this fish who claimed not to be a fish. It fairly took up his whole face. "Fish breathe water," Arvik explained. "I breathe air, even when I'm in my other form. I'm an orca, which is a type of whale."
"Whale?" Lei echoed, feeling lost and confused and hating that feeling. This was why he kept trying to tell his family they needed to be less solitary. There were so many things they didn't know, and the not knowing made him feel so very stupid.
Arvik eyed him curiously. "You really don't get out much, do you?" he asked.
Lei flushed hotly. "I can't swim. I try not to get too close to the ocean if I can help it," he snapped.
"Hmm..." Arvik mused, then grinned again. "Yeah, I can see that. All that hair probably doesn't make for very easy swimming. Much easier if it's just skin." He emphasized his point by running a hand along his leg, which drew Lei's eyes far too close to the fish - whale - man's blatantly exposed (and very impressive) genitalia.
Lei swallowed, tearing his eyes away with effort. "Right." He managed to lock his gaze on the carcass of the seal instead, idly watching the blood still leaking out. It really did look delicious, if Arvik wasn't just using it as bait... but then a seal was much bigger than a small fox, so there wasn't really much point to such a scheme, unless the fish-whale had a particular fondness for fox...
Finally giving up, Lei shifted back to his four-footed form and stepped warily up next to the seal, keeping one eye on Arvik just in case the man moved. Which he didn't, just sat there smiling cheerfully as Lei darted out his tongue to taste, and oh it was nice. All fresh and warm and wonderful. So wonderful, in fact, that he fairly stuffed himself on seal meat, completely forgetting to keep a watchful eye on Arvik.
Which would be why he started so badly when something touched his back.
Yelping, Lei found that Arvik had moved far too close while he'd been distracted with his meal and had lain a hand across his back and was... petting him? He slowly licked the blood off his muzzle, trying to decide if he needed to bite Arvik for startling him like that, but it felt very nice, and now that his belly was full he was feeling rather sated and content and pleasant and it would just be far too much work to bite the nice hand.
He did manage a faint warning growl when Arvik picked him up and cradled him in those massive black arms, but the fish-whale-man was warm and the hand still felt nice and he supposed he could forgive the minor transgression under the circumstances. Provided Arvik didn't make any more of them.
"Feel better now?" Arvik murmured, his voice sending little shivers through Lei's body and that really wasn't fair because he'd only just met the man and none of his own people ever made him feel like this but then foxes tended to run toward small and slender and Arvik was anything but. And he did have a very nice smile, even if he tended to use it a little too much. And if Lei wanted to be honest with himself, it really was impressive how easily Arvik had chased off the polar bear.
Of course when he opened his mouth to respond it came out as a yip, which the sea-man obviously couldn't understand, but if he changed back to be able to speak properly with Arvik he'd lose the pettings and his warm nest in whale-man arms. The dilemma stumped him for a few moments, during which he snuggled into the pettings all he could, then finally he gave up and changed back.
"Yes," Lei admitted sourly, fascinated by the not-smell of the chest that was so very close to his nose. It wasn't a fishy smell, or a seal smell, or anything he knew. It was... clean. Like the sea.
Arvik laughed quietly, a low rumble that vibrated through his chest and body enough that Lei could feel it where he was still sprawled in Arvik's lap. Lei hadn't been moved yet, so maybe Arvik didn't mind the fact that he wasn't fox-sized anymore, and - oh. oh... - Arvik was petting him again. He'd managed to knock back the hood of Lei's coat and was stroking gently between Lei's ears and that felt very nice indeed and-
It stopped. Lei whined low in his throat and looked up, finding Arvik staring out at the ocean with a faint frown marring his handsome face. Lei swished his tail irritably, starting to ask what was wrong, when Arvik abruptly looked back down at him, the smile back and looking somewhat apologetic.
"I have to go," he said, giving Lei's head one last slow stroke. "My pod is calling me."
Lei blinked. "Your pod?"
"My family," Arvik clarified, getting to his feet and carefully setting Lei back on his own. "Can I see you again? Tomorrow?" he asked.
Lei blinked again, feeling somewhat lost. "I... if you want..." he said slowly.
Arvik grinned brightly, and Lei was abruptly reminded of the summer sun when it caught on the ice just right. "There's a big rock, down that way a bit... with a tree on it." He gestured vaguely south. "And a beach just next to it. I'll meet you there?"
"I..." Lei hesitated, then nodded. "Okay."
Arvik smiled and reached out to run his hand through Lei's hair one more time before tugging Lei's hood back up and into place, then turned and strode easily toward the sea. "Don't forget!" he called back over his shoulder just before diving in and disappearing from sight.
A few moments later Lei caught sight of the tall black fin making its way rapidly away and out toward the open ocean, and he watched until it was out of sight before turning and heading home himself, his mind whirling.
This had to be the strangest day of his entire life.
To Part Two