AN: Hi, I'm back. Temporarily anyway, hopefully regularly, we'll see what my schedule permits. Enjoy and review please. Feedback appreciated. A bit of a short chapter but I hope to write a longer one soon.
FD: Thanks for the review!
{Arthur}
Perhaps I pushed him a little too far, Arthur wondered, finally having calmed down enough to think rationally. The young human had been boiling mad, furious and indignant at the way the Predator had punished him for his rebellion but now, after having some time to think, Arthur realized he had overreacted.
One could hardly blame him though. Seriously, being handed a large, raw piece of meat and ordered to cook it had not been what Arthur had expected when the Yautja had woken him up from his nap. He had tried to explain that he did not know how to cook, but Ka'Anu either did not understand or refused to listen. Instead the Predator had shown him a shelf filled with spices and then stepped back to watch. Stupidly, Arthur had stood his ground and refused. He was not a woman, or some educated culinary chef, he had no idea how to cook other than the microwavable packages. To expect him to cook was the last straw, cleaning, fixing things or polishing armor was one thing but cooking was an entirely different level that Arthur was not comfortable with in the slightest. After losing patience with the Yautja's insistence that he cook, Arthur had yelled his defiance without any thought to volume or being respectful. A short second had passed then, a heaving human staring at a shocked Predator, before said Yautja had roared in the boy's face. Arthur had had a moment of fear, as Ka'Anu had grabbed him and hoisted him over one shoulder, and he had started kicking and hitting until his still aching abdomen had protested.
In silence, Arthur had breathed heavily while the Yautja carried him to the back of the ship and into a room that looked like a cargo hold. Several hooks were hanging from the ceiling and Ka'Anu coiled a rope around and under Arthur's shoulders before lifting him up. Hung by the rope, the human swung slowly while the Predator gave him a parting glare and then left the room. Arthur had yelled at him, threatened to take revenge while the Yautja slept and when those failed he had started begging. Nothing worked, for Ka'Anu did not come back and the silence of the cargo hold was stifling. Arthur felt he had been hanging there forever, and the more time that passed the more the human became aware of his growing hunger. At first, he was able to ignore the pangs of his stomach, the pain in his abdomen proving almost equal to that of his hunger. However, as time passed, the initial stirrings of his stomach started to resemble the sounds of a rumbling mountain. When it was full out growling at him Arthur began to panic. He had never known real hunger; a missed meal here and there sure, when studying or a game had been more important, and while his family had never been rich there had always been food enough for one healthy serving, if not two. Now though, Arthur feared Ka'Anu would punish him by starvation, and who knew how long the Predator would remain ticked off at him. Just about when Arthur was beginning to feel like his stomach was about to start eating its way up his chest, the storage door opened. The Predator entered, eyes immediately pinning the human where he hung and Arthur quivered. He met the Yautja's eyes before lowering his own, barely daring to breathe as his 'owner' stopped before him. Arthur dipped his head further, hoping he was properly showing his submission and readiness to obey.
The human almost reared back when he saw the clawed hand coming up, but Ka'Anu was reaching for the rope. Being lifted up and then put on his feet brought to the forefront of Arthur's senses the pins and needles feeling traveling up his arms. They ached, the shoulders sore from where the rope had been wrapped around. The Yautja untied the rope and stepped aside, his manner expectant. Arthur lifted his eyes just once, startled to see the Predator raising a spiked eyebrow at him. Ducking his head again, Arthur scurried forward, his face red with embarrassment and not at all looking forward to the task ahead. Ka'Anu followed him back to the kitchen, preferring to stand off to the side as Arthur stared in trepidation at the large piece of meat in the sink. Huffing, and hoping he did not mess up, the young human figured out how to start the grill and then found a knife to cut the meat into manageable slices. Investigating the spices cupboard made Arthur panic, for there were dozens of bottles and he only recognized a few. Salt was one he knew would be needed, definitely, as well as pepper, but what was cumin? Or that matter paprika? Cloves? Rosemary? Arthur felt his head start to pound. Deciding to stick to what he knew, Arthur grabbed the salt and pepper and started seasoning, going lightly on the pepper because he knew that some humans could not handle a lot and finding out the Predator's tolerance level was not ideal. Just as the meat started to brown on one side, the smell filling the room, Arthur jumped at the loud growl behind him.
Startled, the boy looked behind and saw that the Yautja was fidgeting, looking away while one hand had made an aborted move towards his abdomen. Had the Predator's stomach just rumbled with hunger? Arthur's own stomach had been clenching in anticipation to finally having food, but had otherwise been silent as if it had growled itself out while he was still in the cargo hold.
A glare from Ka'Anu had Arthur turning back to his task, not sure how he felt knowing the Predator had hungered. Of course, the Yautja could have made himself something to eat; he had most likely done so plenty of times before Arthur had come along, so why had he purposely gone without food? To make his human slave feel guilty about being defiant? That was probably it.
Arthur dished up the first two pieces of meat that were done and quickly handed the plate to the Yautja. Some of the tension left his body after Ka'Anu moved to the table to eat. Arthur left the rest of the meat to cook while he went to the fridge unit to get out the pitcher of water and found a couple of glasses before taking them over to the table. The Predator was eating heartily, which must be a good sign, but then dogs ate just about anything, even stuff that was bad for them, so who knew?
Ka-Anu stiffened then, his nostrils flaring, and Arthur had one wild moment where he thought he had poisoned the Predator. However, the Yautja turned his head and inhaled, his nostrils twitching. And then Arthur smelled it too; the tantalizing smells of the meat had been replaced with a burning stench.
Alarmed, Arthur bolted for the kitchen, catching sight of the flames charcoaling the meat on the grill before a large arm wrapped around his waist and yanked him back. Smoke built up into clouds, and Ka'Anu rushed past the human, tapping a control panel and Arthur exhaled as the sprinkler system engaged. The kitchen was doused in water, the smoke building before finally being drawn out through the vents.
Arthur tentatively stepped forward, looking around the Predator's bulk at the kitchen and winced. Charred, wet meat stuck to the grill, and over every surface was a coating of soot and water that gave the whole area a very ugly appearance. He was so dead.
Apparently Ka'Anu felt the same way, for he spun on his heel and grabbed Arthur by his shirt, hauling him forward.
"I'm sorry!" Arthur's heart pounded wildly in his chest, ramming against his ribcage. Perhaps it was from the smoke but Arthur's eyes watered, and tear tracks were already making their way down his smoke covered cheeks. He blubbered on; sure he was going to get skinned alive or beaten to within an inch of his life. He ignored the Yautja's growling words, he was past hearing anything, even his own sobbing voice that begged and pleaded for mercy. All he could hear was his heart, sounding like a rapidly beaten uneven drum.
Ka'Anu must have heard it too, for his head tilted, his eyes looking down at Arthur's chest. The human was breathing so quickly he was on the point of hyperventilating, his chest rising and falling so fast that hardly any air was getting into his lungs at all. Captor and captive stood there, the only sound Arthur's hitching breath.
The young human was lost in his terrified mind, aware of nothing but the imminent death that loomed over him. Until a sound broke through his panic, a low rumble coursing through his body, like the engine of a motorboat and for some reason it was soothing. He started thinking about something else, his mind slowly moving away from thoughts of his torturous death, like why the sound of a motorboat would be calming.
Arthur awoke from his dazed state: slowly lifting a hand to rub at his aching, wet eyes. He blinked, feeling worn out and drowsy but unable to close his eyes because he knew something was not right. His senses came back to him, and he blinked again, trying to process what he was feeling, seeing and hearing.
His left ear was pressed against a rubbery, warm, dry surface, and a large arm of the same skin texture was wrapped around him. He could hear the steady beating of a heart against his ear, a big heart from the din it was making, and the rumbling sound was actually a very loud purr, resonating up the chest he was pressed against. Arthur knew before he understood, that Ka'Anu had an arm wrapped around him, pressing him to his chest and was purring to calm him down.
This information was computed in Arthur's mind, and then it looped again and again, trying to make sense of it. And when it did, Sullivan inhaled sharply, jerking his head away but the rest of him was kept immobile. If possible, Ka'Anu's purring kicked up a notch and Arthur found himself to weary to resist or ponder why the sound affected him so much. Was it because most humans found a cat's purring a soothing and calming technique against trauma or emotional pain?
Arthur belatedly realized that he was being carried, into his room. The Predator put him in his bed and covered him with the furs in a way that would keep him warm but he would not overheat.
The purring now no longer rocketing through his body, Arthur blearily looked up at the Yautja, his mouth dry and no words came but what would have been the point anyway. Ka'Anu was still purring, softer now, and Arthur felt himself drifting again, this time towards sleep and his eyes closed heavily. He did not dream, his mind too exhausted to conjure images up before his closed eyelids.
{Ka'Anu}
The human was asleep, for real this time not merely mentally lost. Ka'Anu stopped his purring, slowly moving away from the bed and leaving the room. This day had to be the worst the Predator had ever had, even fighting hard meat had not been as bad as this. The Yautja had forgotten, in his zeal of having a human protégé that the soft meat creatures were amongst some of the most emotional species' in the universe.
He had not been sure that purring would help calm the human down. The technique was useful on female Predators and even female humans but male Yautja were immune to its effects. Thank Paya that male humans were not.
His human had had a panic attack; a dangerous reaction to stressful situations but thankfully Ka'Anu had reacted quickly. He had only planned to yell at Arthur for forgetting about the meat, nothing more, but the boy must have feared a far worse outcome. If the hammering of that small heart had been anything to go by, Arthur Sullivan had acted as if he were about to be skinned alive.
Ka'Anu felt no satisfaction in instilling such fear in the human. This agreement would not work if Arthur moved around in dread to every action the Yautja took. When his eta woke they would have to come to an understanding, after the human got something to eat and drink, and cleaned the kitchen.
Huffing, Ka'Anu moved towards the cockpit, contemplating what he could do to show Arthur Sullivan that he was not going to permanently damage him, no matter the offense. Of course there would be consequences for acts of disobedience or disrespect, like earlier when Arthur had first refused to cook. But hanging from a hook in the cargo hold was about as severe as Ka'Anu was going to get.
Perhaps he needed to change tactics? Not all human males were so domineering after all, many of them could command respect without raising a hand. Perhaps Ka'Anu needed to be more parental and less a teacher at the moment?
The Predator nodded to himself as he sat down at the helm controls, his decision made.
He would change; after the kitchen had been cleaned of course because there was no way he was doing that. Not only was it beneath his warrior dignity but Arthur should clean it to instill a well-learned lesson: take your eyes off the food that's cooking again and you will be cleaning up a similar mess again. It was not going to be easy, and Ka'Anu felt a little amusement as he imagined the human's frustrated look at trying to wash the soot away.
Life had certainly lost its dull age since he had taken Arthur Sullivan in.
