A/N: Thank you to all for the reviews, sorry for the delay in updating, I've been writing other things. Please tell me what you liked and what you didn't about this chapter.

"I met another shifter,"

I blurted it out so suddenly, Harley positively choked on the mouthful of cornflakes she had been chewing. Her and Ian had had a fight, and she was back when I got home, mascara running down her cheeks and her eyes swollen sore and red. She yelled at me for being home so late, then she cried, again and told me about her silly argument. They had bickered over what to cook for breakfast the next day, things apparently got heated and she drove off leaving Ian stranded in the woods someplace out near Shreveport. I couldn't help but laugh, serves him right, she presumed it was the end, I knew they'd be back on by next week, how wrong I was.

"His name's Tommy and he's the same age as me, he works at a restaurant in Bon Temps. I said I'd meet him today to talk, and stuff. I'm excited!"

"How did you meet him?"

"There's not exactly an online site for this kind of thing Harls, I just kind of, stumbled across him one night in the woods. Aren't you happy for me? At least a little bit? I finally will have someone to talk to, maybe even someone to shift with. Isn't that safer?"

She gave me a disapproving look, this infuriated me.

"God Harley I know you have a fear of the unknown, but the worlds a lot bigger than you think it is. You need to pull your head out of your ass and stop thinking everything is so sugar coated, its not."

I was fuming. To make matters worse I had used the last of my gas driving back and forth from Bon Temps last night. I had no option but to shift to get there, I sure as hell couldn't ask my sister for a lift, I probably had wound myself up and overreacted there. I didn't know what had gotten into me, we barely ever fought. Purely because we were all we had left, but the fact she couldn't understand this for me, that she couldn't relate drove me crazy.

Sometimes I wished it had of been her who had the 'shifting gene', if that's what you could call it. But then again I never was sure whether we shared the same Dad or not.

I had no idea how I was going to get my clothes all the way down there, maybe if I shifted into something a little bigger. I could carry them in my mouth, it would be annoying. But it would be better than seeing Tommy in my underwear, again. The thing was I'd never really dabbled with any animals other than cats. I'd tried a few different breeds, just for the fun of it. But never anything else, I'd been too scared to try being a bird, even though flying looked amazing. I was sure I'd get myself eaten somehow. A fish would have been pretty interesting too, but there was the problem of how I'd get into the water, I was always worried I'd drown somehow. There was nothing for it, I needed a mouth big enough to carry my clothes.

I'd just been watching a documentary about the animal kingdom, I thought it would give me a bit of inspiration. I'd been thinking about maybe broadening my horizons for a while now, and I saw some pretty amazing animals. But one had struck me the most.

A panther.

They were just so, beautiful. Graceful, not to mention the shine of their black fur. Of course they were similar to cats, so I figured it wouldn't be all that bad. And one time, I could of sworn I saw one in the forest. They were rare around here, but not completely uncommon. Since I couldn't go back to the house, I stripped off and sat cross legged on the forest floor, concentrating as hard as I could. Picturing the stunning black panther from the documentary, the way its body worked, the way its legs moved. The way its ears twitched, the way its mouth parted when it started to growl.

I felt the heat radiating through me as usual, from my head to my toes. Sure enough I was gone, and replaced by the panther.

It took a couple of tries to pick up my dress and underwear, I ignored my shoes. Figuring I may not even need them, with any luck we would run together. I padded, no; I galloped off into the woods, in the direction of Merlotte's. Being a panther was kind of like being a cat on steroids, at least what I'd assume a being a cat on steroids would actually be like. My running speed as a cat was matched by my walking speed as a Panther, although I was sure bigger. I still felt graceful.

Tommy was around, I could smell him. His scent was distinctly human, I just didn't know exactly where he'd be. That was one good thing about being a shifter, your animal senses were retained even when you changed back, I could sniff out the tiniest piece of something rotten, my eyes were sharp and more adjusted when it was dark, my hearing was a little over sensitive too, but fortunately and unfortunately; that was about as close as I got to becoming super girl.

I shifted back behind a tree, scrabbling quickly and pulling my clothes on. Checking to make sure everything was inside in and not inside out, I fluffed my hair out again and stepped out from the trees.

So did he.

He didn't say a word, he just motioned for me to follow him inside to the trailer. I hopped like a cat on a hot tin roof across the sharp gravel of the parking lot, wishing I'd brought my shoes now. Tommy was dressed simply in jeans, cowboy boots and a faded grey tee. I noticed how it slightly accentuated his muscles, he was short but well built. The gnarls of a scar started from the back of his neck, and disappeared underneath his shirt. He didn't hold the door open for me, and the inside of the trailer was very much like the exterior. A little shabby.

Tommy kicked off his boots and placed himself on the couch, he rested his bare feet on the table, and I felt a little better about my own. I bit my nails again, and just stood like an idiot in the corner of the room.

"Aren't you going to sit down?" His voice was even, calm, I slowly made my way over and sat next to him. Not too close, but not too far. His slate coloured eyes were on me now, I pulled up my legs and crossed them, turned to face him. Without a word he turned his head to the side, I smiled nervously.

And before I knew it Tommy's lips were on mine.

If I thought the moment that my hand touched Tommy's neck last night was intense, it certainly had nothing on this. It wasn't the way Tommy was kissing me, although that was nice too. It was how I felt that our lips just fitted perfectly together. Our tongues flitted in and out, all the while an electric current ran through my body. It was a feeling similar to shifting, I could of sworn there and then I would have changed. I hoped it was my usual tabby and not the panther, sure enough I would break a few things if it was the latter.

Tommy was on top of me now, I felt him purposely press his body into mine. He was obviously enjoying it, and I didn't feel the need to complain. Although I couldn't help but think things were moving a little fast, Tommy wasn't the first guy I'd kissed. But no guy had kissed me like this before, and no guy had made me feel like this before. There were things I wanted to ask before it got to this point, reluctantly I pulled away and eased up so that we were back facing each other. A look of hurt momentarily washed over his face, I opened my mouth to speak.

"If I tell you everything about me, will you promise to tell me everything about you?"

Instantly I could tell Tommy had a thousand problems with my offer, I figured it was the only way. I'd never told anyone before, and I sure as hell wasn't going to go through all of that without him even telling me a thing.

"I don't think you'd want to know-"

I put a finger to his lips, and replaced it with my own lips, softly. I pulled back and smiled.

"-I want to know you." I said firmly, and traced the scar on the side of his face with my finger.

He grabbed my hand and pushed it back, I sensed that I'd angered him slightly, his brows furrowed. So I removed the shirt I was wearing, it was white and gypsy style with rainbow coloured threads stitched to make a kind of sun picture on the front. I had on a simple black T-Shirt bra, but this wasn't about seducing Tommy, I turned and traced my own scar - as best as I could seeing as it was far down on my back - after a few seconds I felt him exhale a breath I didn't realise he had been holding and touch my own scar, his fingers were kind of rough and worn, I mentally ticked a box from the checklist I'd made about Tommy in my mind.

Possible car enthusiast/mechanic, check.

"I'd rather show you."

And he took my hand and pulled me outside. It was warm for early morning, I had left at 9am, the sun beat down on my still half naked torso. Tommy stripped down, he removed his shirt to show more scarring but a nicely toned chest, if not a little pale. He fiddled with the belt of his jeans, and then grinned at me, I covered my hands with my eyes and when I removed them again I saw the crumpled up pile of clothes, next to that I saw a very unfriendly looking pitbull.

I wasn't sure what exactly I'd been expecting, I hadn't given his animal of choice much thought. A pitbull seemed pretty fitting though, he himself could be slightly unfriendly at times. Around his neck was a thick studded choker chain, the kind only Goths wore. I could of sworn he was grinning at me, his tongue out and panting. I bent down and gave him a little stroke, just to show him I wasn't scared. He rubbed a wet nose against my leg, obviously wanting me to shift too. There was no way I was going completely butt naked in front of Tommy, even if I stripped to my underwear he would get a glimpse of my you-know-what, even if for a split second. I made my way over to the back of the trailer, and shyly took off my own clothes, shoving them underneath.

What's on the cards today Laura? A panther or a cat? I figured I'd save the panther for a time when he was himself, just so I could watch his expression. I just hoped that dogs didn't always chase cats.

He had came to see what was taking so long, luckily his timing was impeccable. And just as I opened my new cat eyes, I saw him in front of me. He growled a little playfully, I let out a soft hiss. And began licking my paw, why I did not know. It was almost like I was putting on a show. What now? I thought to myself.

This certainly was odd, I'd never had anyone to run with before.