There was a certain eagerness the tiger could feel in her as they walked through the forest at a rather fast pace. There were multiple times where she hounded him to keep up. Truthfully, the tiger wasn't exactly sure what it was she was so eager for. In a way, he still didn't fully understand her.
We don't have to understand only when it's agreeable.
And that's what was so attractive to the tiger. What was so mysterious about her. It kept the love and eagerness for her so much stronger than it would've been otherwise.
I wonder if I'm the same way to her...
He knew how secluded he could be. How reserved he preferred to be. He always savored his alone time. He liked being alone. But alone... with someone like her. That was something entirely new to consider.
It wasn't long before he found himself revisiting the den she grew up in. She wasted no time with pulling him by the paw and sitting him down inside.
He found it difficult to look at her. Not out of spite or anything. He was just uncomfortable. It had been a whole day since they fought. And now that everything was back to normal, he felt... undeserving of it.
She, on the other hand was the exact opposite, as usual. The striving lust and desire that bled through her eyes erased all doubt in the tiger. She still loved him. That never changed.
"Thanks, Diego." Her voice soft as the silent evening.
"For what?" He genuinely wondered.
She bit her lips and leaned back a bit, clearly hesitant in letting her thoughts out.
"For putting up with me." She said in distraught and rather quickly, turning away in shyness.
"Whatever that means." He argued.
"You know what it means." She murmured into his chest.
"You really thought I would leave you?" He asked with his paw stroking up her shoulder. The comforting gesture had her cuddle up into his warmth, ridding her of the unbearable weather outside.
"Diego... even I get sick of myself. You don't have to hide it."
"Hide it?"
"Yeah."
"Okay. Then I won't."
"What do you m-
Her breath was shut off to his embracing mouth against hers. So much power. So much raw emotion that wouldn't be there had all the scenarios over the past few days never happened.
"It wasn't me you were mad at..." He spilled out, panting of loving lust and catching the hesitant look in her eyes, "... was it?"
Her answer didn't come out as words, rather as a form of loving gestures that could only happen out of pure love and care. Her paw reached the side of his face. The pink ran against the softness.
"I was mad at everything except you. I just..." she halted at a loss for words.
"It's okay."
"Not it's not."
"Really. It's-
"It's not okay, Diego! I don't want to keep being this way to you!" She raised her voice in frustration. But just from peering back into his eyes, the guilt. The blame. It all vanished.
"You deserve better." She spoke so sincerely, gripping onto his back with her head resting on his shoulder.
"I want to be better... for you." Her tears only then started to rain down. As she leaned back, eyes connected, the tiger could see her tracing down his pelt. The wounds she gave him. The blood that was still there. The hurt on her face. It bit through him much like she did.
The tiger found it impossible to answer the burning look of want and need in her eyes. Through the trials their tongues were tied with so many unsaid lines. Their lives were over at so many moments. And now they're all just beginning when they started living with purpose. This is what the tiger understood he was made for. This was his deepest dream.
This is how I show her my love. Through compassion. Through understanding. Understanding what we've grown to be.
"You've been nothing but the best to me, Shira."
Her soft, silvered pelt hugged him in return. So much warmth. That's all he wanted every night. To think that he could've ended up different, with nothing. Had he not allowed himself one more chance to fix things. The very thought had him shudder.
"What's wrong?" She asked, noticing his lesser comfortable state.
"Nothing. Just thinking..."
"You're always thinking, aren't you?" She teased, nudging his shoulder.
"Unfortunately..." he sighed with a smile. Her laughing response quickly halted as she realized he was serious. As such, she gave him a look. She was waiting. She was listening. Willing to. Always.
"I couldn't imagine being with anyone else. I wasn't going to let you go. I never will. You're my everything. You're my kitty. My saber."
His paw held hers, eyes shadowing each other's.
"My Shira."
So much thought flooded them both. Almost as if what he said became too much. An entirely new experience opening up to both of them. Words they never thought either of them were capable of. Words that left them uncomfortable, yet unconditional and without judgment.
You're the one, Shira.
She seemed to be at a loss for words. Her face burned of intensity. The licks that the tiger stroked up her neck only added to that effect. Her lips tugged and bit in lust for her golden tiger.
It seemed so fantastical to the tiger how easily both of them lost focus on everything except each other. One minute, they're talking. The next, they're wrapped up and embraced in each other. Then they'd try talking again, but just as quickly fall back into that spiraling love that seemed endless.
"You're too much for me, sometimes. You know that?" The tiger let out in both lust and humor as she pinned him to the floor, getting a giggle from her in response.
"Too much for you, softy?"
"It is. Please, no more." He joked.
In response, she smirked, leaning down ever so slowly before reaching his ear.
"I don't do requests." She teased a whisper as she rested her stomach on his own, her chin on his chest and her eyes sparkling forward with a light smile on her face. Soon after, her tongue stuck out and tickled his skin. The look of satisfaction on her face from getting him close to completely losing it was all he needed before lunging forward and pressing into his entire world.
Let me get close to you. Let me get lost in you.
He wrapped her up tight in his warmth, necks rubbing up each other's. Breaths in silently lustful rhythms. He wanted to show her everything he felt for her. Every single night. He wasn't going to let the powering love die. He never did. He knew he'd take it to higher places.
Minutes passed as the two rested just inside the entrance, looking out into the night sky that shimmered much clearer than recent days. Living in a world so cold. But no longer living in a shell with no soul.
For so long I was left behind. For so long I felt I was losing my mind. Just counting the days...
In the back of his mind, he always knew she'd stay with him. She'd come back. She'd change her mind. She'd never truly leave. When they got so lost in each other, anything else in the world was more likely to happen.
"I'm nothing without you, Shira." His heart spoke.
Her passionate motions against his body came to a stop as she heard him.
"How come?"
"Cuz I'm not. I was never anything special. I never cared to be anyone."
She sat up, the tiger proceeding the same.
"You're someone to me, softy." She spoke with humor and sincerity.
He had never felt such a heavy blush tingle his cheeks as she said that. Her giggling only added intensity to it.
"How so?" He asked, switching roles.
"I don't know. I mean, you're so nice. So lenient. Laid back. You've shown so much care. You're so... passionate. Funny."
"My humor's kinda dry, ain't it?"
"That's why it's so funny, though."
"Oh... thanks, Shira."
"You're welcome." She said so sweetly, pecking him on his burning cheek.
"Feeling hungry, by the way?" She asked with so much lively passion flowing through her.
"I'm feeling a whole lot of things, right now" He joked yet was completely serious.
"Oh yeah? Well... what're you gonna do about it?"
"Maybe..." he began as he pulled her back to the ground and resumed his locking embrace around her, "I can just hold you here forever."
"You can't do that!" She faked her frustration with a smirk.
"Try me." He insisted, stroking down her side as he met her lips once more, "It's all I need."
He held her there for a good thirty seconds before she sighed of acceptance, "You weren't going to give up on me, were you?" She murmured, twiddling her paw in his pelt.
"I couldn't." Diego choked to say, "It's so hard to find someone who cares about you." He let out as he kept his lock around her secure. She only looked up at him and smiled, assuring that she truly did care.
"Or..." she started, lips closer to his, "someone that can keep it together when you've come undone."
"Me, you mean?" He questioned.
"You never seem to let anything get to you." She admired. She appreciated. She had her eternal thanks for him, "I could never do that."
"Things do get to me, Shira."
"But you're better at hiding it."
"Maybe that's a bad thing."
She only bit her lips and shrugged. They remained that way, pondering thoughts and touching pelts until the moonlight shined through.
And the tiger couldn't make up what he was gazing at. The absolute perfection that he had come to adore suddenly seemed to exceed past that boundary. Her eyes had never shimmered to such an extent. Her nose. Her lips. Completely changed in contrast. Everything that created her into what she was, the tiger was recognizing. Even if he thought he already did. The way the moonlight shadowed over her really gave a new sense of importance to her. Like life was trying to tell him something.
He couldn't help himself but cry over it all. He whimpered. He curled up into her. For the first time, she held him. He collapsed onto her.
There was worry on her face and in her eyes, not quite understanding what it was that had gotten into him.
Eventually, the tiger pulled himself together, still sniffling. Still trickling down tears. He found it mandatory to take a deep breath.
"See? Things do get to me." He managed to whisper with a subtle laugh.
"You're so emotional." She sighed as she collapsed into him, their backs resting against the cave wall.
"Look who's talking." He teased, scratching behind her ears, her loving purrs infinitely soothing as she stretched her neck, closed her eyes and smiled.
All the good times the two of them had shared were coming back. The tiger kept reminding himself they could've ended. They wouldn't go on forever. Somewhere down the line, life would catch up. It's not like he wasn't aware. He was. And maybe that was a problem. As long as he held her in his warmth every day and night, he would always be aware. Aware of what he could lose. But it was worth it.
Before he met her, he was living in a world so cold. His body was a shell with no soul. Wasted away. Counting the days.
It's always when we're too young that we lose ourselves and feel this wrong. For the longest time, I felt like I was losing my mind.
The tiger constantly wondered if anyone else ever felt it. Did anyone else ever look at themselves deep down inside? Staring at themselves with nothing but lies. The world was so cold. He had to live in it. But he lived in it with her. Paw in paw. The guilt didn't seem like it was going to leave him.
"I'm sorry for keeping everything from you, Shira." He clenched his paws, frustration directed at himself. Shira could practically feel the angered breaths down her neck.
"You did nothing wrong. I..." she stopped for a moment, placing her paw to his face, "I understand."
There was only a gleaming sparkle in his tinted eyes as his breaths leveled.
"Understand?" He spoke.
"Yeah." She answered back. The tiger had to glance away. Thinking. Contemplating.
"Then you did nothing wrong, either." He accepted as the space between their lips vanished.
Through the trials. Through the mistakes. Everyone should understand. Just that. Understand.
Deep down, the tiger knew there would be those that would never do that. Those that only thought about themselves. Only their point of view. They couldn't be convinced. No one's mind can be changed. Only adapt. Only learn. Only add.
The way he's come to terms with it all, everyone has to figure things out themselves. That was the whole journey. That was life. The more we try to control, the less happy we'll be. The more we argue, the less we'll solve. Through it all, she taught him to think for himself. To open all of his eyes. All the while, she didn't have to say a damn word. It was all through compassion. Through understanding. It paved his own vision, giving him purpose. He finally found himself. He wanted to live it with her. Life will never get easier. But it will always be worth it as long as he's got both paws.
- The End