The sound of a blaring alarm caused a certain blonde to awaken, albeit with greet reluctance. His body was still tired, his head was groggy, and every single bit of him also begged him to lay back down and go back to sleep. Alas, he had things to do and people to see that day, forcing him away from the warmth and comfort of his bed.

Reaching over a fuzzy arm, Kristopherson switched off the device. He took in a sharp breath and flexed his muscles to help him wake up, but there was only so much he could do in such a confined space. The wolfman was trapped, held in place by the person behind him. Logan had his arms around Kristopherson's waist and his tail wrapped around the faux-blonde's leg. It was all well and good- even welcome, as it became colder out- but not first thing in the morning. With a groan, Mister Miles tried to sit up so he could crawl out of bed, but his boyfriend held fast, even going so far as to tighten the grip of his tail.

"Logan, we have to go to work." Kristopherson told him, only to receive a whine. "Let go."

He tried again to escape the other's clutches, pulling away and somehow managing to sit up, but he brought the other man up with him. "Logan," he complained. "I need to pee."

Reluctantly, the incubus' grip loosened, prompting Kristopherson to quickly separate the both of them and head toward the bathroom, leaving his boyfriend alone to doze. When the wolfman returned, he saw the sight of the blue man poking his head out of the pink duvet and shook his head lightly despite his smile. Walking over to the bed, he gently nudged at Logan's shoulder.

"You have to get ready for work." Mister Miles reminded. "It's not important if I'm late, but it matters for you."

Finally, Logan decided to roll over and face his beau. He cracked his eyes open only slightly, however, and didn't seem like he was going to be moving any time soon. "I don't take as long to get ready, though." he said. "Wake me up when you put your earrings in."

"I don't take that long..." Putting his hands on his hips, Kristopherson scoffed. "You know, I'm starting to think you like my bed more than me."

"You were right about the whole 'thread count' thing." the other sleepily chuckled. "This is absolutely luxurious."

"Glad to see you like it." With that, Kristopherson leaned down and pecked the other on the lips. "I'm going to go get ready."

"Okay." With that, Logan sank down into the blankets deeper until only the tops of his horns and the thick, black hair on the top of his head peeked out from under them. "Love you."

With a quick pat to the incubus' head, Kristopherson turned around and headed toward the bathroom to start the long, long, process of getting ready in the morning. His shower should have lasted about fifteen minutes, but with all of the products he needed to use and the fact that he simply wanted to bask in the warmth of the water doubled that. Afterwards, he donned a bathrobe to protect him from the coldness of the rest of the flat and stepped in front of the mirror to begin perhaps the longest process he had to undergo every morning. He had to shave his beard.

Now, being a werewolf meant that the man was a bit hairy, full moon or not. It grew back so fast that the man had given up on maintaining a shaved chest, arms, and legs. There was simply no point in spending that much effort, but on his face? That was unacceptable. Every morning, his meticulously designed goatee was had lost his face as the beginnings of a rather impressive beard began to form. Kristopherson used to design his signature goatee using a stencil, but as often as he had to carve it out, he could now do it freehanded. The skill shaved some time off, certainly, but he still had to be careful. If he was too careless, he might take off too much and have to take it all off and try again in a few days.

Then there was aftershave, moisturizer and a touch of makeup here and there to even out his skin tone was applied. The hair on his head was dried and styled, leaving him free to finally get dressed. Kristopherson wondered if he should wear his baby blue shirt with a pink tie, a pink shirt with a black tie, or perhaps even a white shirt with his pink and black tie with the swirling pattern? Eventually, he settled on the final option, but it took him ages. He wore a bold, black, pinstriped suit with it. Gold earrings on his ears matched the watch and tie clip of a similar hue as he debated on whether or not he needed rings to match or if that was too gaudy. Then there was what he was going to place on his lapel to consider. Every time he passed a mirror, he had to check his attire to make sure everything was prim, proper, and in place. Nothing clashed. Everything matched. Finally, approximately two hours after he woke up, he was ready to start the day.

Yet, when he turned around, Logan was still in bed, fast asleep. Gently, Kristopherson put a hand on the other man's shoulder and shook him awake. "Logan," he said, "It's time to get up. We have to go."

With a groan, the incubus reluctantly peeked out of the blankets to see his boyfriend's status of dress. Satisfied with what he found, Logan stretched before finally sitting up. The blankets still covered his front due to cold.

"'Kay..." the incubus answered, uttering a loud yawn.

It took almost all of his willpower, but the man somehow managed to leave the warmth and luxury of those blankets and tip-toe into the cool air. It didn't help that he didn't have clothes on, leaving his boyfriend to watch his funny blue form skitter across the room in search of his overnight bag. Quickly, Logan picked it up while trying to wrap his tail around himself to block some of the cold, but it was thin and freezing as well. It was inadequate. Yet, he was dressed in less than five minutes, so he was perfectly alright in the end.

Hastily, he walked in the room with his bag over his shoulder, running a comb through his hair. "Alright. Ready to go?"

"I've been ready to go." Kristopherson replied.

"Don't be grumpy at me because you take two or three hours to get ready." the incubus said. "It seems to pay off, though. You look really good and smell really nice."

"You're cute, too, Logan." chuckled the wolfman before grabbing his beau's hand. "Do you have everything?"

"Oh, hang on a second!" Logan suddenly declared. Taking a deep breath, he retracted his horns and tail while he slowly changed his skin from it's usual blue to a more human-looking brown. When he opened his eyes again, the incubus saw his boyfriend staring at him with a surprised expression as though he wasn't quite sure what to make of the sight. "What?"

"Nothing." Kristopherson answered, visibly relaxing. "I just realised that I completely forgot that you can't go out like that."

"Kris, I'm a blue guy with horns. Humans don't like that."

"I like that and I used to be human. As much as I like you like this, your other form seems a lot more natural."

"That's because it is." the incubus reminded while tugging at the other man's arm. "Now let's go! We're both going to be late!"

"Get up earlier, then!" Kristopherson said as they exited the flat.

"Don't spend four hours on your goatee!"

Finally, at long last, they made it to the car so that they could begin the drive to Gehenna. It was starting to get irritating, traveling to and from one place to another. It was expensive and took coordination on both Kristopherson and Logan's parts to arrange. It was to the point where Kristopherson considered moving to Gehenna, himself. It wasn't as though he needed his large apartment. The money from the store couldn't even cover it, so he was still living off of his parent's money, for the most part. It was embarrassing, especially since he owned his own business and was a respected member of the community.

Unfortunately, he wasn't sure how plentiful real estate in Gehenna was. From what he had heard, it wasn't, but that was before Pyestock became a desirable place to live. Kristopherson was also in the process of trying to get a new location over in the other town, but until he could find cheaper lodging, that idea was financially out of reach for the time being. The wolfman had to act quickly, however, while there was still a monopoly to be seized. He was already worried about people copying his patterns and selling them as his own. It hadn't happened yet to his knowledge, but was a possibility. There was simply too much to do and little time and resources to do it.

The dark blue mini cooper pulled up to the curb outside of Kristopherson's shop and parked, allowing the pair to step out. Kristopherson dug in his pocket for a moment before pulling out his keys, only to feel a hand on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw his boyfriend, back to his his blue self.

"You're just gonna open up your shop without saying 'goodbye' to me?" the incubus teased, prompting a smile to appear on the other man's face.

"Pretty much, but if you're gonna be all uppity about it, I guess I can just this one time." Kristopherson jested right back, earning a roll of the eyes from his boyfriend. The wolfman took a few steps forward and pecked Logan on the lips. "Love you. Have a good day."

"You too, Kris." grinned the incubus while turning to walk away. But, he walked backwards toward his own work so he could wave at the other one more time. "I'll see you later~!"

"Bye." Kristopherson waved back, but his boyfriend didn't turn around to face forward.

Logan didn't seem to be done yet. That came to a halt, however, as he narrowly missed a pole and instead accidentally ran into a family who was walking down the street. His boyfriend couldn't help but chuckle at him as Logan bowed his head an apologised profusely. Then, the incubus finally disappeared into the general store in order to start his day at work.

Before turning to unlock the door to his shop, however, the wolfman instead smiled and greeted the trio his significant other had run into as they approached. "Good morning, Mister and Missus Huang." Looking lower, he added, "Good morning, Justin."

The trio was the Huang family, a family of "weretigers" that lived in Gehenna. Unlike werewolves, however, their bites weren't infectious. One could only be born a weretiger and the condition predominantly ran in families of Chinese descent. They also could transform at will and commonly held a preference for remaining in their tiger-like state. As one can imagine, it made buying clothes a bit difficult, so Kristopherson saw quite a few of them coming in.

"Morning..." answered the tiger cub, seeming a bit unenthusiastic.

"Sorry about him, he's doesn't really like trying on clothes..." his mother apologised.

"Most kids don't, I don't think." the wolfman replied before sliding his key into the lock. "I'm just opening up. It'll take me a few minutes before the registers start up, but feel free to look around."

"We were planning on it, anyway. If we can't find anything, we also brought his measurements." Mister Huang informed, holding a piece of paper in his hand. "We also have my father's measurements."

"Right. Let's go inside, then." Kristopherson replied in an understanding fashion. With that, he opened the door and slipped inside, holding the door open for the family.

From there, the group split up. Kristopherson quickly moved the "closed" sign to "open" on his way to the register, soon followed by Mister Huang. Meanwhile, Missus Huang took her son and began looking around for pieces of formal wear that would fit him.

Taking the paper from Mister Huang, the wolfman asked: "Do you want me to keep Justin's measurements on file?"

"Won't do much good." the other man stated. "He grows like a weed! By the time we need to order something again, he'll need them taken all over again."

"Alright, then." Kristopherson nodded with a smile. "Just the suit, then?"

"Yes… And I don't need to be rude or demanding, but we really need it as soon as possible..."

"I understand. When the seamstresses come in, I'll pop the order upstairs so whoever's free can get started right away. If not, I'll bring it home tonight to work on myself. I don't have an exact date I can get it to you by, I'm afraid. It really depends on who all I can have working on it at once. If you want, I can call you as soon as I find out."

"That would be wonderful..." Mister Huang sighed.

He wasn't trying to be rude or to ask too much of the wolfman. The man simply had a lot going on at the moment. Thank goodness the Miles understood. Unfortunately, the reason why the Huang family was in Kristopherson's shop that day was because they were preparing for a funeral. They had to drop off the deceased's measurements for him to give him a proper suit. It was almost a shame that it was going to be burned on a pyre as traditional in Gehenna, but they wanted Mister Huang's late father to have something nice.

"If you'd just fill up this form, please, we can get started." the wolfman informed. He jotted down a few things on the piece of paper before sliding it across the table. With his pen, he pointed at it. "Here's the estimated price for a plain black suit ensemble. Just fill in your contact information and sign here. I'll need a down payment of this amount right here as well. You have until this date to cancel your order, or you'll only refunded this much. Once the order is done, we'll call you or send for you to notify you. Any questions?"

"This math doesn't add up." the other said, pointing to the document. "You undercharged me. See? I don't want to rip you off or anything..."

"No, that's the right amount. There's a discount on funeral orders, so I've subtracted that."

Blinking, Mister Huang tried to compose himself before he answered. It took him longer than he would have liked, causing him to worry if he had made the situation more awkward than it was already. "Thank you." he said. "You've been really helpful..."

"It's no problem. It's my job, after all!" No matter how much Kristopherson insisted, however, he was still thanked profusely while Mister Huang filled out the forms, although while struggling to hold the pen in his large hand. Kristopherson was somewhat envious, however, as the weretiger had retractable claws while he didn't.

While Mister Huang was doing that, however, the wolfman occasionally glanced behind him at his wife and child as they looked for something suitable for the lad to wear. Missus Huang would hold something up to the boy to judge how it might fit, only to shake her head at something being too long or too short while the lad seemed to wish that he could be anywhere else. Eventually, Mister Huang finished and submitted his order before assisting the other two. While they were looking at shirts, a few of Kristopherson's employees walked in before heading to their stations.

"Morning..." greeted Kyung-Soon with a lengthy yawn as she walked through the front door. Her tiredness was understandable for her species, so Kristopherson often let it slide. It was remarkable, really. She was a non-nocturnal vampire who slept at night and walked around in the day using shade gel because her girlfriend was an elf. Since it was getting colder, so she wore an unusually stylish coat over her usual hoodie and with her matching sunglasses and black lipstick, she seemed like she belonged at a high-end store. With her unusual skill at making stuffed animals, she was a welcome addition to the store.

"Morning, Kyung-Soon. You wake up okay?" her boss replied.

"Same as usual." the woman stated. "I slept in on Sunday, so it's throwing me off really bad this week. If I don't go to sleep and wake up at my usual time, I slip into being nocturnal again."

"That can't be healthy. You could take the night shift, you know..."

"Can't. Then I'd miss my Teggy every day." Taking off her coat, Kyung-Soon started heading toward the back room. "Then again, I don't really see her until the afternoon, anyway… Whatever, I guess. Anyway, I'm gonna check to see how the new prototypes turned out. If the paint's dry, do you want me to move them out for sale?"

"Yeah, that would be good." nodded her employer. "Hang in there."

"Already trying." With that, the woman disappeared, leaving Kristopherson to man the front of the store on his own again.

He resumed getting the store ready for when more customers showed up. Mostly, it was inspection to see if the night shift did their job at cleaning up the night before and doing some restocking until more staff arrived to do it for him. By then, he was simply there to assist.

"Excuse me, Kristopherson." said Missus Huang while holding up a tie. "Would you happen to have something in a smaller size? All of these are way too long for Justin."

"I'm sure we do." the man answered. "What colour would you like?"

"Just plain black is fine."

As if on cue, Kyung-Soon appeared from the back with boxes of merchandise to put up. She set it down before beginning to work, but was soon interrupted by Kristopherson.

"Hey, Park, do you have any short neckties on you?" he asked, but the woman wouldn't answer her until she completed the thought she was on. She felt as though she needed to put away what was in her hand before then or she would forget what she was doing.

"Maybe." she answered before crouching down. Her answers were short due to grogginess, but she would get better throughout the day. "What colour?"

"Black."

"Okay, hang on..." Handing the man a few plush toys, she asked a bit too late: "Can you hold these for a second?"

"Sure." Kristopherson said, but immediately afterwards, he felt a pair of eyes staring at him rather intensely.

It was something that children did when they saw a toy that they wanted, and the wolfman had several in his hands. Big, round, green eyes focused intensely at the plush toys in his arms, seemingly shutting out everything else around their owner. For the first time since arriving, Justin Huang had found something that he wanted.

You see, Andreas' was a specialty shop for supernatural beings. It sold clothes that they could wear and patterns and materials to make or repair them with. One thing they also sold that was incredibly popular with all of the children of Gehenna, and perhaps even a few adults, was the plush dolls of supernatural beings that the shop had to offer. It was started by Kyung-Soon and was the reason why she was hired in the first place. Naturally, Justin already had one of these dolls to his name, but he hadn't one of these. No kid had. Kyung-Soon had just made the first few attempts and they hadn't been put up for sale yet. It was only natural for a child to light up when they saw a toy that reminded them of themselves, and that is what Justin saw when he laid eyes upon the new weretiger dolls that Kyung-Soon was just about to put on the shelf.

"Here you go." the woman said finally before standing, handing a black tie to Missus Huang. "Try this one."

"Thank you." Missus Huang smiled before turning around to see her son standing there with wide eyes and perfectly round pupils. Looking up at her husband, she asked: "What's with him?"

"Beats me." the other weretiger shrugged, only for their child to suddenly be snapped out of his trance.

"Can we get a tiger?" he asked them, causing them both to arch a brow. He then pointed at the dolls in Kristopherson's arms. "They have tigers now!"

"They do!" his mother replied, unsure of how to handle this.

They had already spent so much on making the first payment on his grandfather's suit as well as the boy's own, so this trip was getting expensive. They didn't want to say "no," however, as it was the first time the boy had ever seen a toy that resembled him. They knew the significance and were impressed, themselves, but Missus and Mister Huang knew that they probably wouldn't be able to buy one on that particular day.

"We need to go pay." Mister Huang finally said. "Come on, Justin. Let's go."

"But-" the boy began to protest, only to realise it was futile. He knew he would have to wait until another day, but knew that surely, that weretiger doll would one day be his. Even if he had to do more chores around the house and come back with his own money, he would make sure of it! But that day, he would just have to follow behind his parents as they paid at the counter and stare longingly at the dolls as Kyung-Soon put them out on display.

"Here's your receipt." Kristopherson said while handing the lad's parents a slip of paper. Looking over at the boy, however, he couldn't help but feel bad for him. Thus, he made an observation. "You sure spent a lot." he said while facing Justin. "How about I throw in a little something extra?"

"Oh, no, you don't need to do that." Missus Huang insisted, having caught on. "You've already done more than enough."

"Well, the thing is, I'm worried about those new dolls over there." the wolfman said while pointing. "Y'see, they're brand new, so I haven't had anybody to test them out yet. You'd actually be doing me a favour if I gave you one!"

Suddenly, the boy looked up at Kristopherson with hope in his eyes. They were practically sparkling. Turning to face the boy's parents, Kristopherson added: "With your permission, of course."

The couple mulled it over for a moment, debating on what was the appropriate thing to do in this situation. "As long as you're sure it's no trouble..."

"It isn't. Don't worry about it." the wolfman chuckled before turning to Justin and pointing at the display. "What do you say? Are you willing to give one of those tigers a new home?"

"Yes sir!" the boy replied in a rather dutiful manner.

"Are you going to take good care of him?"

"Yes!"

"Then go pick one out." Kristopherson said and like a flash, the boy made his way over to the display.

"You really didn't need to do that." Mister Huang said. "But thank you."

"Don't worry about it. They really are prototypes. They should be in good condition, but the stripes are put on with fabric paint and might need touching up now and again."

"They have a white one!" Justin shouted suddenly, capturing both parties' attention. "All of them have different stripes!"

"Choose wisely." Kyung-Soon remarked while watching the boy consider things very carefully. He had it narrowed down between an orange one with a pattern he liked and a white one. "Orange or white… Orange or white… I've never seen a white weretiger, though..."

Eventually, he settled on orange, deciding that he might get the white one later. New friend in arms, he pranced up to his parents, only to be reminded of something important.

"What do you say?" his mother asked.

"Thank you!" he said to Kristopherson with a wide, toothy grin.

"No problem. Take care, now." replied the wolfman while the group left. For the next few years, every time they walked by his shop, he would see a well-loved stuffed weretiger in Justin's arms, always with freshly painted stripes.


A/N: Slowly but surely... Gehenna is becoming a safe haven for furries...

Good news is that I got to use a supernatural being that I've wanted to use for a while. That's one ticked off my very, very long list! I want a "Frankenstien's Monster" eventually...

A lot of people don't know about weretigers for some reason. They're an actual legend. If you watch anime with werewolves as a central focus, you often see people who can shapeshift into tigers and tiger people. That's because they're pretty similar, and the legend comes from Asia. Not Japan, though. A certain clan from China is supposedly cursed with being weretigers, but honestly, it doesn't seem that bad. They can change any time they want and don't have any of the weaknesses that werewolves do. Don't have all the powers, though. But hey, being able to turn into a tiger at will is pretty rad. It's way more convenient. Not contagious, but hereditary. Wonder how you explain that to the kids...

Ah... Let's see... I've been keeping a notebook with only ideas for arcs and scenarios and all kinds of crap lately, and I guess I can scratch this concept off. Feels good. Lots of weird stuff. Lots of murder. There may or may not be a diagram of a coffee table that also doubles as a coffin.

I dunno what I'm gonna do for the next chapter, though? I don't want to get into this big arc I'm planning because it's massively long and I want a break from big plotty stuff for the moment. Honestly, I don't really want to write a full date day for the duo, either, but if I can't come up with anything, I might have to... But then that chapter will take really long because I'm reluctant... nuuuuuuuuuhhhhhh...

Anybody have any ideas?

Until the next chapter, my duckies~!