Auh! Jay's Got A Crush On His Partner!

Jay, Holly- 18 ½

Cynthia, Leon-17 ½

Jay was acting oddly, being more quiet than usual -and that's hard to do- and being on his phone more often to talk to his partner, which was even odder for him, usually, he preferred to be alone. Currently, he and his family were eating lunch, but Jay was picking at his food without much of an appetite. He was fidgeting slightly in his seat and drumming his fingers on the table.

After about ten minutes of the drumming -that was driving Holly up the wall- she cracked. "Jay! Stop doing that!"

Jay jolted like he had been spacing off and he narrowed his eyes at his sister challengingly as he continued to drum his fingers on the table.

Holly groaned, her brother was acting super strange, and really annoying too. Usually, Leon was the annoying one, gushing about sports, his wild partner, more sports, and other jock like things, but now Jay was even worse. "Leon," she groaned and looked over at her other brother who was chatting to his father about the latest baseball game.

Leon paused his conversation, exchanged a short silent conversation with the girl sitting next to him -Cynthia- and returned to his conversation with his father while Cynthia handled the situation.

"Jay, you are driving Holly crazy, can you please stop the tapping?" Cynthia asked in a mumble from where she was slouched in her chair with Leon's hand on her right knee. She was particularly uncomfortable today, as shown by the cap hiding her black cat ears from view, the redness of her nose and cheeks and Leon's hoodie draped over her shoulders. Clearly, the season had decided to give the Spring Heightened wild a case of the chills and a fever at the same time. While she wasn't sick at all and couldn't give any of them the fever, she was really uncomfortable.

Jay turned his gaze to Cynthia before he decided to ignore her and kept drumming his fingers, still fidgeting and glancing occasionally at the clock.

Holly's eye twitched a few minutes later, the tapping was driving her crazy! Even though she knew it was a nervous habit of his. Wait… Was he nervous? Holly studied her brother, wondering why he was so nervous. The only thing he was doing after lunch was going with Bree to a new movie that the brunette had been dying to see all week... Then something clicked and Holly smirked, Jay had a crush on his partner Bree. She studied what he was wearing, he was even wearing something besides a hoodie all the time. He was wearing black jeans, a light blue t-shirt that went with his eyes, and a dark gray leather jacket with a semi high collar -a gift from Bree for the Partner Festival last year. "Hey Jay," she asked with a smirk, "nervous about going to a movie with your crush?"

Jay froze briefly and he denied it, but the appearance of his Wild's ears was proof of his lie. "No."

Now everyone's attention was on Jay -except Cynthia who didn't look surprised and was instead looking at Leon when he jumped at Holly's words.

"My little boy has a crush!" Skylar partially squealed, delighted at the idea of a girl finally haven caught her oldest son's attention.

"No, I don't." Jay huffed, his wolf ears twitching uneasily as he continued to push food around his plate, cheeks gaining a faint rosy hue.

"Let's see…" Holly teased, "amber eyes that are as warm as a fire…"

"...wavy dark brown hair that falls to her shoulder blades…" Leon cooed, teasing his brother.

Jay's cheeks glowed a little redder as he tried to ignore them.

"...Freckles across her cheeks and nose…" Holly added on.

"So bubbly nothing can knock her down," Cynthia added before letting out a small cough and pulling Leon's hoodie tighter around her shoulders. Leon temporarily stopped his teasing to give his under the weather partner his full attention.

"Who's the lucky girl son?" Brad asked, highly amused by the teenagers' teasing and Jay's slowly growing blush.

"I don't have a crush!" Jay exclaimed, in frustration.

"Bro," Leon said while hugging his partner to help fight off the chills, a small smirk on his face, "you've got it bad!"

"Says the guy who's had a crush on Cynthia since we were little!" Jay shot back.

"What can I say?" Leon shrugged, a blew a short raspberry on Cynthia's cheek. "Cyn's amazing."

"Who's the girl who finally caught his attention?" Skylar excitedly asked Holly, and ignored Leon's comment, her green eyes bright and excited.

Holly smirked and opened her mouth but the doorbell rang and Jay shot up from his chair and practically bolted for the door.

Bree was outside the door, tucking a loose strand of her brown hair out of her face as she waited with a bright smile for her partner. "Hi!" She greeted him brightly. She wasn't in unusual clothing, but she had skipped her brightly colored hoodie and went with one of Jay's which was a light gray.

"Hi, let's go." Jay ushered her and moved to close the front door.

"Jay! You left your phone!" Holly exclaimed and gave Cynthia a pointed look who groaned, slipped out of Leon's grasp and trudged toward the door to distract Bre. While Holly finished terrorizing her brother.

Jay darted back into the room and scooped up his phone, he looked eager to leave.

"Her stuttering shyness," Holly teased her brother who groaned, spun around, and turned to leave.

"Cindy!" Bree gasped at the sight of her under the weather looking friend, "what happened?!"

"Spring happened," Cynthia grumbled.

Holly caught her brother by the wrist, her green eyes softening slightly, "she likes you too," she told him, "she's liked you for ages."

Jay gave her a look that said, "you expect me to believe that?"

"Oh!" Skylar then smiled as she realized who the girl was, "Bree's had a crush on you for years Jay, she adores you."

Jay rolled his eyes, shook Holly off, and made his way to the door.

Cynthia moved back to let him through and smiled weakly at them both, "have fun you two," she encouraged before Jay shut the door. She glared at Holly and trudged all the way back to the table before she plopped down in Leon's lap, not giving him a choice about the situation.

Leon pressed a short kiss to her ear, his way of giving her permission before he wrapped his arms around her waist and drew her snugly to his body, all the while he rested his head on her shoulder.

Skylar smiled fondly at her youngest son before turning to her daughter, "now we just need to find you your match."

Leon snorted and covered it with with a cough when Cynthia jabbed him in the ribs. "Courtesy of Holly." she droned monotonously and the entire table laughed.

Cynthia and Leon's Little Girl

Cynthia, Leon- 21

The feline hiss startled everyone, excluding Cynthia of course. Her black cat ears were flattened against her skull, showing she was uneasy and nervous. She was also shaking from the exhaustion of Lixa's birth and the stress of not having her partner there to support her while she went through the experience. Lixa was wrapped in a blanket, tucked into her shaking young mother's arms, now asleep. It had been only ten minutes since Lixa was born, but the baby was tired; her mother was frantic and fearful, she didn't want anyone touching her baby, even Leon -not that he was there. Cynthia's ears twitched slightly and she curled her body farther into the corner of the room and protectively around her daughter, breathing heavily.

Usually, when a wild had a child their partner was there too, giving the female reassurance that nobody would touch their new baby without her permission. But Leon wasn't there, he had practically vanished the moment Cynthia's first major contraction hit, so Cynthia was on her own. "Go away!" She snarled at them, azure blue eyes darting toward each person in the room, exhaustion, and fear displayed on her face.

"Back away toward the far corner," Leah quickly instructed, wary of how powerful Cynthia's instincts were. "Someone call Leon's cell, see if he'll pick up."

Cynthia was panting now, trembling from her exhaustion and stress levels, feeling very alone, betrayed by Leon's absence, and helpless. The last emotion doubled when Lixa started crying, giving her mother a fright and leaving her with no idea what she wanted from her. "What little one?" She eventually cooed to her daughter, looking at her with scared and wide blue eyes. Lixa's cries quieted and she made a small coo in the wild language, which Cynthia understood impatiently.

Her daughter was feeling her stress. Infants had a high chance of mirroring their mother's moods and feelings due to how close the relationship between an infant and their mother is from the moment they're born.

Cynthia awkwardly brought her closer to cuddled her against her body, not sure if that was what the newborn wanted. For a few moments Cynthia was distracted and captivated by her daughter falling asleep in her arms, then someone thought it was safe to step closer and she snarled viciously, scaring the man half to death and reminding him that she was young, currently partnerless, and more stressed out that he had ever been in his life. Then she heard someone say her partner's name and promptly snarled, shoving one of the hospital machines over, her blue eyes shining with hurt and betrayal at her partner's absence. "Don't talk about him!" she snarled angrily, "He abandoned me!" She shoved another machine, tears blurring her vision "he left me on my own!" She keened unhappily and harshly rubbed at her eyes to make the tears go away. "He left me again!"

:(

"Hello?" Leon asked stressfully, he was pacing in the hospital lobby, unsure if he should join his partner or stay out of it. Lately, she had been so moody with all the pain she was in, that he didn't know what she wanted anymore.

"Leon?-" Hannah was cut off by the sound of a medical machine crashing to the ground and a familiar voice snarling what he understood as 'don't talk about him! He abandoned me!'. Ice grabbed hold of his heart at his partner's broken sounding snarl, she sounded exhausted, stressed to her limit, hurt and betrayed. By him. Cynthia started keening, sounding like she was devastated that he didn't go with her and help her give birth to their baby. But her last words made his freeze completely.

"He left me again!"

"I promise I won't say his name Cynthia," Hannah promised the wild and he heard shuffling like everyone was standing next to each other. "Lee," she came up with a name on the spot, "we need you over here, Cynthia's frantic, she won't let anyone get near her and she's probably going to pass out here in a bit."

"I-I'm on my way," Leon responded a bit shakily, what Cynthia had said had hit him to the core, "I don't know if she'll want to see me though."

"That's okay, just get over here!"

:(

"Cyn?" Leon asked cautiously as he stepped into the mess of a hospital room, "are you okay?"

Cynthia's head shot up and her red rimmed blue eyes focused on him. She hissed warningly and cuddled closer to her newborn daughter, betrayal and hurt shining brightly in her eyes. "Leon." she snarled his name, hurt about him not coming with her in the first place.

"I'm sorry," Leon crooned to her and took another step into the room. "I didn't know if you wanted me here or not."

"Of course I wanted you here!" Cynthia snarled furiously, "I wanted to be able to sleep while you watched over me! I wanted to know my partner loved our daughter!" More tears welled in her blue eyes. "I wanted to know my partner still loved me." She whined softly and cuddled Lixa even closer to her body.

Leon felt guilt weigh down his body, of course, she had, Leah had told him a thousand times that no matter her mood he needed to be there during the birth with her, to reassure her they were all safe, but after her snapping at him for offering to come along, he had stayed back, done as she asked, even though her harsh words were spoken from the pain she had been feeling. "Of course I still love you," he growled softly to her, his tone soft and sincere, "I didn't come because of my own mistakes, it's not your fault at all, I promise." He stepped closer to her, standing only a few feet away from his partner who was huddled on the floor, too tired to stand.

Cynthia watched him approach for a few moments before she used her free arm to gesture for a hug, her blue eyes teary and emotional.

Leon quickly knelt down in front of her, scooped her into her lap, and wrapped his arms gently around her waist. "You're so brave for doing it without me," He crooned softly into her hair, "you're amazing Sweetheart."

Cynthia gave a weak purr, clearly, her exhaustion was taking hold now that she felt safe in her partner's loving, warm, and strong embrace. "I want to sleep…" she mumbled and nestled her face against the soft material of his hoodie, her hold on Lixa was loosening.

Leon kissed the top of her head and gently took Lixa from her, "Are you sure you don't want to sleep up on the bed?" He asked, not objecting to her statement and wants.

"No, you're my favorite spot to sleep on." Cynthia murmured drowsily before she fell asleep, out for a little while, her black cat ears moving into a more relaxed position as she did so.