~Moon's POV~

"So what exactly did you do yesterday?" Julius breathes into my neck, snuggling as if it isn't seventy-something degrees in the bedroom this morning. 

"Nothing interesting, just spoke to my manager for a bit then went to lunch at a Subway."

"Crew?" He draws his head from the curve of my neck, eyeing me with a newfound curiosity. 

"Why am I not shocked that Kai told you?" Without giving it much of a thought, I roll on top of his body with my crotch residing just above his. 

"So...um...mhm...kay..." He mumbles while running his fingers through his hair, obviously flustered by how close we are. I curl up on his stomach and painlessly shift, re-situating my body now that I'm a much smaller size. He appears shocked and a tad bit scared, his trembling fingers coming up to brush my fur cautiously. 

He hesitates just above the silky black fur of my back, spreading his fingers as he dives into it. "So what was with the blackish purplish shimmery mist?" He asks with an obvious tremble in his throat. 

I lick his fingers and run my head under his hand so he'll continue to pet me, ignoring his questions outright. 

"Can you understand me?"

"Yes." I answer a bit insulted. 

"I can hear you in my head." He laughs, scratching my fur with his nails as he becomes more comfortable with the situation at hand. 

My attention goes to the door as the handle turns, Andrew standing in the doorway with cups in either hand.

"Thank you." Julius smiles down at the glass cup, tilting the other one at an angle so I can ladle the water out with my tongue. 

Andrew takes a seat next to Julius. "You're acting very calm." He smiles, patting him reassuringly on the knee. 

"That usually happens when I'm freaking out." His voice shakes as he swallows hard, a pang of who-knows-what coursing through my fur-clad body. 

Andrew pets me once before drawing his hand away to rub his forefinger against his thumb. "You need a bath." He bluntly tells me, cupping my face in his hands.

Julius only glances over at Andrew confused. "He had a shower yesterday..." 

"His human self did. This part probably hasn't had a bath in months."

At the sound of a bath I shift, almost crushing Jules with my weight. "You're taking a bath today." Andrew gives me his 'I'm serious' look before directing his attention to Jules. "You can help as well."

"I've never even washed a regular dog." He rebuttals, petrified.

"We'll teach you." Julius sits up and I reposition myself in his lap. Facing Andrew in the circular bed, the kitchen sink can be heard from all the way up in the bedrooms, eerily resembling the drip-drop of the tub faucet.

I peck him a kiss under the chin, right in front of Andrew without even thinking. The only person I would ever kiss like that is Kai and maybe Clide if I was joking around. And earlier when I got on top of him, I'd never do that! Julius kisses the top of my head, warmth flowing through my body causing my feet to tingle from the feel-good sensation. He just continues chatting with Andrew as if nothing happened, his hands finding mine and holding them in my lap. I want to squirm away but I also want him to snuggle against me but I also want him to rip my pants o-

Nope. Nope nope nope. Triple nope. Double nope. I am not going to think about that. I shall think of....

Julius in the shower, Julius at the hospital, Julius and his pancakes, his bad singing, Julius drunk, Julius's kisses and I love you's, his scent, his colorful house, his office, his arms wrapped around me in a loving embrace, his car, his party, his coming out, his lips on my neck, his arms on my waist. His everything.

I practically collapse into a tantrum right there, falling limp and squirming around in his lap moments later, my head having slid down to his crouch and my legs on Andrew's shoulders. They've stopped talking and have taken up watching me fidget around having a mini conflict within myself. 

This is bad. Very bad. I kick the mattress angrily over and over again until I tire, biting a pillow and screaming into it until Andrew's hands are pressing into my hip bones, calming me down until I lay panting in the abused and disgruntled pillow. 

"Are you alright? You just freaked out all of a sudden." Julius whispers, petting my hair as my body twitches. 

"No." I reply with the undertone of a stubborn child.

"Is this because you have to take a bath or something else?" Andrew quizzes me, rolling my body over to face him on the other side of the bed.

"Something else."

He sighs and grants me a half smile, rubbing my red cheeks while wiping my hair away from my eyes. "I think I know what it is." 

"You probably do." My voice cracks halfway and I just shut my eyes, Julius automatically taking action and rubbing my stomach until I calm down. 

Andrew raises his eyebrows, obviously impressed with him. "You're already learning."

"I guess I am." He replies, a bit shocked by his natural reaction as well.

Andrew scratches behind my ears, ruffling the hair near it with a smile. "That tantrum isn't getting you out of a bath." 

Julius stops rubbing my stomach, just letting it lay there instead as he asks: "What's wrong with a little bath? It's good for you."

"It takes forever then I have to get flea medicine put on me." I pout, sticking my bottom lip out as far as it will go. 

He checks the alarm clock for the time before cocking a brow at Andrew. "It's already eleven, if we start now will we be done by one?"

Andrew runs a few fingers through my hair. "Depends."

"How about I just don't take a ba-!"

Julius has me over his (surprisingly strong) shoulder in a matter of seconds, following behind an amused Andrew and into the bathroom connected to my bedroom. The lights flip on and I'm laid on my feet facing the mirror. Andrew slips behind me, turning the faucet on and laying down the slip-resistant rug so I don't scratch up the tub with my claws. Julius takes a seat on top of the toilet, soaking in the strangeness of everything around him. 

I begin to strip, sliding my shirt over my head and throwing it on the messy countertop, knocking over a product or two. Pausing, I take a look at myself in the mirror, sliding a hand over my tag and prints, ruffling my hair with my fingers, and wasting time in general. I catch Julius in the corner of the mirror, eyes wide and staring as my cheeks rage the color of a massacre. 

I'm more aware now of his (painfully) obvious watchful eyes as I slide my pajama pants past my waist, letting them hit the floor softly around my ankles. Facing away from the mirror, I turn to the door and let my underwear fall, only giving Julius a view of my back for a split second before I shift. 

Andrew assists me with jumping into the tub, grabbing my back legs for me and lifting them over the sides of the black tub. I shrink into a corner as he turns the shower head on, water spraying my back and drenching my fur. Julie gives a sympathetic look from his spot on the toilet as I let out whimpers and whines of discomfort. 

He leaves his perch, kneeling beside the tub and reaching over to pet me, my fur hanging heavily off my body from being soaked. He turns to Andrew. "Now what?" 

"We comb out the tangles." With a forcefulness I'm not used to, Julius drags me out of my corner and to the front of the tub, holding me down in place as Andrew starts combing bits of me.

I sit in silence as they partake in idle chit chat, laughing under their breaths at times while I struggle under the comb. "How do you do it?" Julius asks after observing Andrew's handiwork.

"You just grab the comb and..." He creates a combing motion in the air, returning the object back to my skin. "like you would with your hair."

"No," He softly laughs. "I mean how are you not angry with him? Five years is a lifetime."

Andrew doesn't stop to think, he only lifts half his lip in a crooked smile. "Moon is prone to running away. It no longer phases me."

"I couldn't bear it." Julius whispers, his head down as the room quiets.

Andrew stops his repetitive combing, staring down blankly at the clump of fur in his clasped hands. "Neither could Kai."

"How often does he leave?" Julius asks, the whisper slicing through the silence of the room.

"Every few years. He's never been gone for more than one-and-a-half to two years though. It was hard," He pauses to exhale, not saying anything for a while just combing me robotically. "It was hard to see Kai breaking like that. Seeing him become just hostile and unstable, as if I had just gotten him all over again. That was the worst of it."

"They love each other." It's more of a statement than a question, his eyes seeming to flood with guilty emotions. 

"He knows where he stands in the middle of you two. As a servant and a soulmate, he knows his place and role. You aren't invading anything."

"I can't help but think," He goes on, allowing Andrew to hand him the comb and walk him through the motions of grabbing the fur. "that Kai hates me still."

"W-"

"I don't hate you." Kai interrupts from the doorway, grinning ear to ear at my shifted self. He joins the other two at the side of the tub, the tips of his sleeves growing darker as they tease the water's surface. "Hi." He smiles shyly at his reflection in the bath, his mouth never moving as he speaks only to me. 

"Hi." 

His frail frame shakes as he giggles and I feel the same ghostly tingly sensation he does. It's been too long without speaking like this and our bodies know it. I wheez a bit as well, my jowls drawing up in a rather unappealing way. 

My mind floods with memories of the past five years in California and I do the same with him, only allowing the happy memories to pass by my brain and into his. They go by in a blur but somehow I am soaking them all in, re-experiencing a type of Deja Vu as I relive the memories through my own eyes not Kai's. It's beautiful. 

"What are they doing?" Julius asks, Kaiien smiling like a fool and my body trembling from endorphins. 

"Speaking to each other I assume."

"He doesn't get it." 

"Don't expect him to."

Kai looks over to his side at a terribly confused Julius lathering me in shampoo. "Do you find him attractive?"

I've never kept a secret from Kai and I am not going to start today. "He is very attractive but you know I'm not like that."

"You may be though, you have dated guys in the past and not just me."

"I also had gender identity issues."

"It's like they're Snapchatting or something but only they see the caption." Julius comments, I wasn't even aware of the fact I was making noises or faces and by the look of Kai's face neither was he.

"I think you love him." He shrugs, crossing his arms nonchalantly and leaning on Andrew.

"You're being immature and you know it."

I involuntarily shake the water off of me, spritzing the three with water pellets. Andrew wraps me in a golden towel, lifting me out of the tub and onto the slick tile floor where my claws collide with a sickly nails-on-chalkboard screech. 

Julius reaches for another towel, rubbing my head and shoulders dry while Andrew covers the rest of my dripping body. He brushes the matted coal mess back, it's once fluffy appearance returning as it drys. Andrew gives my feet one last go with the towel, opening the door with caution as I sprint out the bathroom, skidding on the floor and barely making the jump onto the bed. 

As soon as I hit the bed I'm rolling, engulfing myself in as many blankets as possible before shifting. Kai stares from the bathroom, rubbing his thighs with his hands and trying his hardest to focus on the tile, the walls, anything but me naked in bed. 

"It's been a while, hasn't it?"

He nods at the floor, biting his lip while a small part of me goes insane.

"What about tonight? Maybe we could get everyone out the house?" I suggest.

"Daddy said we're going to dinner tonight."

"We're going to dinner?" 

"Oh yeah," Andrew answers on his way out the door. "I forgot to mention that. Where do you want to go? Will said Buffalo Wild Wings, Clide wants Logans, and James and Kaiien want to go to the Rising Sun." 

"Is the Rising Sun a sushi place?" Julius asks, staring at us with slight confusion.

"It's a mix of things." I rebuttal, drawing my hand across the back of my neck. 

Julius shrugs, not quite understanding what I meant. "I'm fine with sushi."

I check with the alarm clock, my legs drawing up to my chest as I exhale. "It's two right now. When do we leave." 

"Six-ish." He answers, leaving me in the room with a wide-eyed Kai.

"I know what we can do to kill four hours." He grins, getting up from his spot from the bathroom floor and tugging the curtains closed.

I open my arms to him, semi exposing my nude body with a smile.

{GO TO CROSSBLOOD SEXY SCENES FOR THIS}