They spent the next few weeks jumping from person to person, trying to find a body that they both liked.
They had a few conditions: the body had to be young enough to not have a fully developed immune system, but old enough to have a civilised society; healthy, but not overly so, to be able to sneak past immunity when they first entered; and finally, both of them had to like it, which was proving to be the most difficult condition to meet due to Thrax's high standards.
Sometimes, between jumps, they had to spend the night in the open, and Ozzy noticed how there were many more germs there than there were inside a body.
Thrax would lay down in a corner, tuck Ozzy under his cloak to hide him from sight and put his arms and legs around him to protect him from any germs or viruses that might try and hurt him or take him away. Neither of them slept very well during those nights, and Ozzy was getting impatient.
"Oh, can we just pick one already?! I'm tired of sleepin' on the fuckin' floor and carrying all our shit around! It's almost your birthday and we don't even have a city to live in! What if we have to celebrate it out in the open? That won't be any fun!"
"Oz, I just wanna find the right place for us, and I'm not really into birthdays. I don't care if we don't do anything special."
Ozzy put his hands on his hips and pouted. "Well I care! It's your first birthday being with me, and I want you to have the best day ever." He threw his hands in the air and continued his rant.
"Besides, all the bodies we've seen have been great, you just keep finding small flaws. The last one was too cold according to you, even though every body is 98.6 degrees. The one before that apparently had a weird smell, and then you rejected that teenage girl the other day as soon as you found out she had an obsession with NSYNC. You can't be so picky!", he yelled, gesticulating with his hands more than normal. His brow was furrowed and he looked more sleep deprived than he usually did.
Thrax sighed and patted the ground for Ozzy to come sit next to him. "Baby, there ain't no way I'm gonna spend the rest of my life listening to NSYNC. Don't you wanna find the perfect home for us?"
Ozzy's face softened and he sighed, slumping down next to Thrax. "Yeah, I guess. But, for the record, I love NSYNC. I had a poster of them on my bedroom wall."
"Oh my God, that's something you should have disclosed to me before I asked you to live with me." He laughed, before saying, "go on, which one did you have a crush on?"
Ozzy grinned. "JC, obviously. He has these amazing eyes that you can just get lost in and such a dreamy voice…"
Thrax cleared his throat and prodded him on the arm, feeling a sting of jealousy. "Well I don't know about that, but fine." He put his arm around Ozzy and pointed at a family walking past. "Shall we try that girl over there? She looks about six or seven, seems like a happy kid. What do you say?"
They landed on her snack and waited for her to eat it. "This is disgusting by the way, I can't believe this is how you came into Frank. And in a rotting egg no less."
"It's not my fault he decided to eat that shit, and anyway, aren't you glad I did?"
Once they were inside, they hid behind a crisp fragment until the patrol car had passed and then ran down the opening of the throat.
Ozzy grabbed onto Thrax's waist and they jumped down. As they soared over the city, both of them knew straight away that this was the kind of place they wanted to live. The streets were clean, there weren't too many cops and there was a buzz and excitement in the air.
They went to a café to get something to eat. Ozzy ordered a donut and a hot chocolate, and Thrax ordered a coffee, only to be told that they didn't serve that here and that it would be hard to find any in the city of Lola. He snarled and begrudgingly ordered the same as Ozzy.
Thrax stirred his drink with his spoon as he watched Ozzy chucking marshmallows into his mouth, before happily slurping all his drink up. Thrax pushed his hot chocolate towards him and told him to finish his too. Ozzy nodded quickly and brought the mug up to his lips.
"So do you like it here, baby?"
Ozzy slammed the mug down on the table, his face covered in chocolate, and grinned. "Yeah, it's great, I love the energy here, and the food is amazing." He paused, "but what do you think?"
Thrax smiled at him. "I agree. Not about the food, but in general it looks good. Like you said, she has good energy. I don't think we'll get bored here."
Ozzy smiled and leapt out of his chair. "Does that mean we can stay?!"
Thrax nodded and Ozzy jumped onto his lap, kissing him on both cheeks and leaving chocolate all over his face. "Oh thank Frank, can we go look at houses now?"
Thrax wiped the chocolate off Ozzy's lower lip with his thumb and shook his head. "First things first, baby, we have to register ourselves as citizens. I've never done this before so I have no idea how it'll go or how long it'll take. We'll book into a hotel after we've got some information."
They made their way to the town hall and Ozzy went in to get some information while Thrax hid in an alleyway. He was a virus after all, and the Lola Police Department had no way of knowing that he didn't intend on infecting her.
A few minutes later, Ozzy came out waving some pamphlets and grinning. "They were so nice! They gave me all this information and said they were happy to see that there were cells interested in moving to the city."
"Did they say anything about viruses?"
Ozzy looked down and mumbled, "hmm... I didn't ask. I was afraid they would kick me out or somethin'."
Thrax raised an eyebrow and sighed. He snatched the pamphlets from Ozzy and started reading them.
"Okay, looks like you won't have any issues getting a residency permit, me on the other hand… It only mentions vaccines here. Maybe if I pretend to be a flu shot or something they'll let me stay."
"I'll go ask them what shots she's had!", Ozzy exclaimed and turned around to run back inside.
It turned out that Lola had had her varicella vaccine recently, so they joined the queue to start filling in their paperwork.
Everyone in the queue was staring suspiciously at Thrax. He folded his arms to hide his claws and tried to smile as sweetly as possible. Ozzy laughed nervously and told everyone that he was just an overgrown vaccine and not to worry.
After two hours of waiting, they finally got to the front of the queue. Ozzy looped his arm through Thrax's and explained that he was a vaccine and that they both wanted to become citizens. The cell behind the counter lowered his glasses to look Thrax up and down. He raised an eyebrow, clearly doubting Ozzy's claim, but simply shrugged and plonked two piles of paper on the desk in front of them. Ozzy's pile was big, Thrax's was huge.
They slumped down in the corner of the room and started filling in the paperwork.
"Okay, name: Osmosis Jones. Age: twenty-three. Occupation:… cop?", Ozzy mumbled under his breath as he filled in the form. Thrax looked over his shoulder and his eyebrows shot up.
"You're only twenty-three?!"
Ozzy looked up at him and nodded, before trying to get a look at his form. Thrax held it to his chest and scooted away from Ozzy slightly.
"Oh come on, tell me how old you are!"
Thrax simply shook his head and continued filling in the rest of the form. Ozzy narrowed his eyes and stretched his arm to snatch the form out of Thrax's hands. He leapt to his feet and waved the form about in the air, grinning from ear to ear. Thrax scowled at him and stood up. He got hold of Ozzy's arm, but he slipped out of his grasp and ran a circle around him, laughing his head off.
"Hey, give that back to me! That's all personal and private information, y'know! Just because you're a cop doesn't give you the right to invade my privacy!" He tried to grab the form from him again, but Ozzy dodged under his arms and ran to the other side of the hall to read it.
He quickly skimmed over the form and stopped at his age. Thrax was standing behind him now and ripped it from his hands. Ozzy turned round, looked up at him and mouthed "you're thirty-seven?"
Thrax snarled at him and stomped back over to the other side of the room, before sitting down in the corner and turning to face the wall. Ozzy kneeled down behind him, put his hand on his shoulder and tried to apologise, but Thrax just shook him off.
They didn't say another word to each other while they filled the forms in. Thrax scrawled angrily, grumbling under his breath, while Ozzy tried to make his handwriting as legible as possible.
He attempted to ask Thrax a few questions about the form, but was ignored. He sighed and slumped against the wall, feeling bad about having violated his trust, but also thinking that Thrax was overreacting.
Thrax suddenly got up, stormed over to the desk, slammed the paperwork down and left the building. Ozzy panickedly filled in the rest of the paperwork as fast as possible and ran up to the desk.
He asked about what was going to happen next with their residency process, thanked the cell behind the desk and ran out to try and find Thrax. He darted around the streets calling Thrax's name, but couldn't see him anywhere.
He'd been searching for over an hour and it was starting to get dark. He shivered, only wearing a thin T-shirt and shorts, and leaned against a wall. He hadn't slept well in days, and fatigue was starting to take its toll. He had nowhere to go, and Thrax had taken all the money with him.
He went into a dark alleyway and curled up in the corner. It was safer than sleeping in the main streets, and he was very aware of what Thrax had said about germs trying to get their hands on him. He suddenly felt very small and vulnerable, and started to quietly sob into his hand as a mixture of guilt, anger and disappointment washed over him.
He knew he shouldn't have taken his form, but also he didn't understand how Thrax could just leave him on his own after all that talk about protecting him.
Suddenly, someone put their arms around him and pulled him to sit in their lap. He kicked his legs out and thrashed his arms, landing a few hits on whoever was holding him.
He hurled vicious insults and threats at them as they grabbed his wrists, stood up, spun him round and lifted him into the air. It was Thrax, and he looked pissed off.
Ozzy felt both relieved and angry when he saw his face, and started shouting at him, "where the fuck have you been?! I've been lookin' for you for ages!", he struggled around under Thrax's grip and kicked out his legs to try and hit him.
He continued yelling, his voice more desperate this time, "how could you leave me alone in a foreign body knowin' I had nowhere to go! What kind of boyfriend does that?! I'm so mad at you!"
Thrax frowned and dropped him to the floor.
"You're mad at me?! I'm mad at you! You took my form and looked at my private information when I explicitly told you not to! You couldn't control yourself, like a fuckin' kid!"
Ozzy stood up and pointed his finger in Thrax's face. "I said I was sorry for that! You're the one actin' like a kid, you're blowin' this completely out of proportion!"
Thrax growled, leaned down to Ozzy's level and shouted, "learn to ask permission!", making Ozzy jump back slightly.
Ozzy frowned and yelled back, his voice quivering, "learn to control your temper!", gesticulating with his whole body on every other syllable. They glared at each other for a few moments, waiting for the other man to make the next move.
Thrax then noticed a hint of fear in Ozzy's eyes. He moved his head back a bit and looked him over, seeing that he had backed himself against the wall, and that his whole body was shaking. Shit... he's scared of me.
He softened his expression and sighed, before standing up to his full height and holding out his hand for Ozzy to take. "Fancy a walk? I can think clearer on the move and I think we both need to cool down."
Ozzy hesitated, before nodding and taking his hand. They walked out of the alleyway and down the street in silence.
After a few minutes, Ozzy's anger had subsided. He bit his lip and looked up at Thrax. "I'm sorry for lookin' at your form. I guess I was just intrigued to know a bit more about you."
Thrax tightened his grip around Ozzy's hand. "It's fine baby. I should be more open about things. Also sorry about leaving you alone before. You're right, that was a shitty thing to do. I'd never forgive myself if anything had happened to you."
He stopped walking and put both hands on Ozzy's shoulders. "But just so you know, I was following you the whole time. It was kinda cute watching you look for me and run around like a headless chickenpock."
Ozzy smiled and threw his arms around Thrax's waist. "So… thirty-seven. I didn't think you'd be so old."
He widened his eyes and gasped, realising what he'd just said and moved back a bit to look at Thrax. "I mean, you look good, considerin' your age… I mean, I knew you were older than me, that's obvious, but not that much older. Not that you're old or anythin', I was just surprised. Oh man, I'm really diggin' myself into a hole here… I'm fine with your age, really, I…"
Thrax put his claw over Ozzy's mouth to shut him up and smiled down at him. "You're adorable when you get all flustered." Ozzy looked up at him with apologetic eyes and grabbed onto his wrist.
Thrax took Ozzy's hand and they started walking again. "So, how about we check into a hotel tonight and then tomorrow we can start looking at houses. Hopefully it won't take too long to get our residency approved. What do you say, baby?" He paused and looked down at him. "Wow, you actually are a baby compared to me."
"Nah, you're just really old", Ozzy said as he shivered, moving a little bit closer to Thrax's heat.
Thrax stopped walking and kneeled down in front of him. "Jump on my back and I'll carry you, you must be freezing in that get-up."
Ozzy climbed onto his back and kissed his neck as Thrax put his cloak over him.
"Let's find somewhere to sleep. I'm exhausted."
After booking two nights in the nearest hotel, they went into their room and immediately flopped down on the bed. It was way too small for Thrax, so they put the mattress on the floor, allowing him to stretch out.
Ozzy put one leg over Thrax's thigh and gently stroked his face. "Thanks for protectin' me all this time. I know how worried you must've been."
Thrax smiled softly and closed his eyes. Ozzy kept stroking him until he was confident that he had fallen asleep, and then nuzzled into his chest before drifting off.
The next morning, Ozzy woke up with a big smile on his face. He pushed Thrax onto his back and straddled his waist. Thrax grunted and opened his eyes to see Ozzy grinning over him.
"Rise and shiiiine", Ozzy sang.
"What are you so excited about so early in the mornin'?"
"We're gonna look at houses today! My first ever house! And we'll officially be livin' together! How can I not be excited?"
Thrax rubbed his eyes with his palms before putting his hands on Ozzy's thighs. "I'll be more enthusiastic in a few minutes, let me wake up first, Oz."
Ozzy smiled and leaned down to kiss him. Thrax shut his eyes and sighed as he felt Ozzy press his lips against his, grabbing his butt to pull him closer. He then trailed his hands around his hips and rubbed the front of his boxers.
He raised an eyebrow when he felt that Ozzy was already starting to get hard, and put one hand up his boxer leg. Ozzy moaned quietly into the kiss and opened his mouth as Thrax took his length in his hand and started touching him.
He broke away and they both gazed at each other through heavy-lidded eyes. Ozzy titled his head back and softly moaned Thrax's name, before begging him to go faster.
Thrax then grabbed him by the hips, threw him down on the mattress and forced his legs up by his sides to kneel between them.
"Who's impatient now?", Ozzy taunted as he threw his arms around his neck and pulled him down.
"Shut up", Thrax whispered, brushing his lips over Ozzy's and trailing his hands down the inside of his thighs. He ripped both of their boxers off and pressed himself against him, causing both of them to moan softly.
"God, I've missed having you like this", he said between heavy breaths, before pressing his lips against Ozzy's again.
Ozzy lifted his legs around Thrax's waist and dug his heels into his back. He broke the kiss and pressed his forehead against Thrax's. "Don't hold back, I want Big Daddy Thrax to let me have it."
Thrax grinned and uttered, "somebody lay down a towel, this is gonna be messyyy."
They left the hotel with big smiles plastered on their faces and pranced down to the town hall, arm in arm.
Mercifully, the queue wasn't nearly as long as it had been the day before, and they got to the front desk relatively quickly.
Ozzy smiled at the cell behind the desk and put his arm around Thrax's waist. "Hi, we submitted residency forms yesterday and wanted to see if they've been approved!"
The cell waved his hand at them and told them that it would take at least a week before they'd know anything.
They turned around and left the town hall feeling a bit defeated, their shoulders slumped and their faces turned downwards.
Ozzy looped his arm around Thrax's and leaned against his side. "Well, I guess we'll just have to wait. But we can still look at houses, can't we? Make the most of the time until we get our residency."
Thrax perked up a bit and pulled Ozzy into a hug. "You're right, baby. How do you manage to put a positive spin on everything? You're like a little ray of sunshine in my life."
They went to the fanciest looking neighbourhood they could find and started looking at the houses for sale.
"Okay, baby, before we start, I have a few conditions." Ozzy sighed, remembering how hard it had been to find a body that Thrax liked, and raised his eyebrows as he waited for Thrax to start listing off his demands.
"It has to have a balcony in the bedroom and a terrace on top, instead of a roof. Oh, also a garden."
Ozzy gestured with his hands, telling him to continue.
"No, that's it. The most important part is that we both like it, right?"
Ozzy beamed at him and grabbed his wrist. "That one over there is for sale, let's check it out!"
They had seen five houses by mid-afternoon, and hadn't fallen in love with any of them.
"Right, I'm fuckin' starving. If we don't like the next house then can we please go eat?", Ozzy whined, tugging at Thrax's sleeve.
Thrax rolled his eyes and grabbed Ozzy by the wrist to drag him into the next house.
As they walked through the door, they were greeted by a cell in a pantsuit, who offered to show them around. They nodded and swivelled their heads around to get a good look at the place.
First they saw the living room. It had high ceilings, huge arched windows letting in lots of light, and a fireplace. It also had a door that opened out onto a wooden porch.
It connected to the kitchen, which was bigger than any one Ozzy had ever laid eyes on. It had spotless, white cabinets; a kitchen island in the middle; marble countertops; and a silver range cooker.
Ozzy's mouth fell open, and Thrax quickly closed it with his hand. "Don't let them know we don't belong here, Ozzy", he whispered through clenched teeth.
As they saw the rest of the house, it became more apparent with every room that they were both besotted with it. What's more, it met all of Thrax's conditions, with two balconies on the top floor and a huge roof terrace overlooking the garden.
Ozzy nudged Thrax in his side, and gestured with his hands to speak to the cell who was showing them around.
Thrax ran his hand through his hair and straightened his clothes. "Ahem, what's the price of this property?"
"380,000, sir."
Ozzy's eyes widened and he tugged on Thrax's sleeve.
Thrax stood taller and leaned over the estate agent, smiling menacingly. "Listen, isn't there any wiggle room? We'll sign today if you can lower the price to, say, 300,000."
She held the clipboard over her face and shook her head. "N-no can do, sir. This is one of our finest properties." Thrax narrowed his eyes and slowly lifted his left hand in the air.
Ozzy sensed what was about to happen and grabbed onto Thrax's arm, before babbling, "it's fine! We'll take it! 380,000 is a bit steep, but we can manage it, right, baby?"
Thrax sighed and put his hand behind his back. "Fine."
Ozzy stepped between Thrax and the estate agent, waving his hands in front of her face to diffuse the situation. "By the way, we don't get our residency for a few days, is that a problem? Can we sign anyway?"
She tore her eyes off of Thrax to look at Ozzy and slowly nodded her head. She thrust the papers into their arms and scurried out the front door, not wanting to spend another moment with them for fear of what Thrax might do.
"Oz, this is really expensive. We haven't even had a chance to count our money yet, what if this is worth more than we actually have?"
"Well then, we'll just have to rob another bank, won't we?", Ozzy whispered as he signed the form. "Come on, this house is perfect! The sofa is a bit gross and the bedroom needs a whole makeover, but the house itself is exquisite", he said, putting emphasis on the last word and handing the form to Thrax.
Thrax laughed. "Look at you talking all fancy-like, and yeah this house is beautiful." He signed the form and whispered, "by the way, robbing banks ain't easy, baby, we just got lucky. It doesn't always go so smoothly. We'll have to be a bit careful with money for a while."
Ozzy went outside and gave the form to the estate agent, smiling at her and telling her that they could get the money to her by tonight.
They went to a small café round the corner from the hotel to get something to eat, per Ozzy's request.
A smile spread across Thrax's face when he saw that there was a coffee machine behind the bar, but his jaw dropped the moment he heard the price. He ordered two sandwiches and slammed the money on the counter, grumbling something about how much of a rip off it was.
"When's this girl gonna start drinking coffee and let me have a decent drink? She's seven, for God's sake, shouldn't she already be drinking hard liquor by now?"
Ozzy laughed and carried the tray of food over to a table in the corner.
"She's a kid, Thrax! The only coffee or alcohol we find in here will probably be from her dad lettin' her have a sip every now and then. That's why it's so expensive. Maybe we can go to another body soon and get some stuff to bring back." They sat down next to each other and Ozzy handed Thrax his sandwich.
"Bank heists, public nudity, and now smuggling contraband… you're turning into a right little criminal", Thrax whispered in his ear, pinching his cheek. "After this, we'll go back to the hotel and get all our stuff. Then we can go pay for that house. You're positive that that's the one you want?"
Ozzy looked up at him and took a big bite of his sandwich. "Hmm-mm."
"Is that a yes?"
Ozzy nodded and swallowed. Thrax raised an eyebrow and wiped some mayonnaise off Ozzy's top lip with his thumb, smiling softly. "Normally I can't stand watching people eat, but for some reason I find you adorable even though you're the messiest eater I've ever met."
Ozzy grinned and waited for Thrax to take a bite of his sandwich before jabbing him in his side. He flinched, making him get mayonnaise all over his chin, and slowly turned to look at Ozzy.
"What the fuck was that for?"
"Now look who's the messy eater!", he chirped, wiping Thrax's chin with his napkin.
They met with the estate agent again and paid for the house in full. Thrax sighed with relief when he saw that there was still plenty of money left in the bags and squeezed Ozzy's shoulder.
She shook hands with Ozzy and nodded at Thrax, before scuttling out and shutting the gate behind her.
Ozzy and Thrax watched her leave, before turning round to grin at each other.
They opened their front door and Ozzy threw his bags on the floor. He started running around the living room, babbling excitedly, "yeah, baby, we've got a house!"
He jumped on the sofa, threw his arms in the air and yelled at the top of his lungs, "yippeeeee! I'm a homeowner!" He smiled at Thrax, lay down on the sofa and opened his arms for him to come join him.
Thrax sauntered over and lay next to Ozzy, kissing his forehead and sighing contentedly. "We're officially living together, baby, how do you feel about that?"
Ozzy looked up at him and grinned. "It's amazin', we're like a proper couple now! We'll start arguin' over who has to clean the bathroom and who left the food out of the fridge all night and who's turn it is to kill the spider mite. It's gonna be so fun!"
Thrax smiled to himself and shuffled down the sofa so they were face to face. He's so perfect. How did I get so lucky? He put his hand under Ozzy's chin and pulled him into a kiss. He opened his mouth and lightly squished Ozzy's cheeks to get him to do the same.
Ozzy shut his eyes and sighed as his heart began to flutter. Thrax's lips felt so soft against his, and Ozzy quietly moaned as he felt him put his tongue in.
He matched Thrax in a slow tongue dance, and soon it was as if they were devouring each other. They melted into the kiss and felt as the heat spread down their throats and across their chests, seeming to consume them both.
Thrax tightened his grip around Ozzy's waist and placed his other hand over his throat. He pressed lightly and Ozzy felt a jolt go through his body. He whimpered, desperately grabbing at Thrax's sweater and curling his toes.
Thrax pulled away and whispered, "I love you so fucking much, Ozzy, you have no idea."
Ozzy opened his eyes and whispered it back. They stared at each other for a moment as they caught their breath, their lips swollen, their eyelids heavy and their cheeks flushed.
Thrax slowly traced his thumb over Ozzy's bottom lip. "You're so beautiful, baby."
After a few moments, he got up and grabbed his cloak. He lay back down and wrapped it around them as best he could.
"The bed upstairs looks way too small for me, let's sleep here tonight and then tomorrow we can go buy a new one."
Ozzy nodded and nuzzled his face into the crook of Thrax's neck.
"Nighty night, Thraxy."
"Good night, Ozzy."
The next day, Thrax woke up and kissed Ozzy on the forehead, before getting up and grabbing the duffle bags where they kept the money. He set them down on the kitchen counter and started counting how much money they had left under his breath.
Ozzy woke up and shivered. He reached his hand out to pull Thrax closer to him, but grabbed at nothing. He groaned and lifted his head up, his hair flopping over his face and one eye squished shut.
He saw Thrax facing away from him and leaning on his elbows over the kitchen counter, mumbling away to himself. Ozzy heaved himself up from the sofa and dragged himself over to the kitchen.
He wrapped his arms around Thrax's waist and nuzzled his cheek into his back. "Morning", he croaked.
Thrax sighed. "You made me lose count, baby", and turned around to face him, his breath hitching in his throat when he saw what he looked like.
Ozzy was looking up at him, eyes squinted, hair messy, with his cloak draped loosely over his shoulders. The bottom of it trailed along the floor, and Ozzy shut his eyes as he stretched his arms up, the hem of the sleeves flopping over his hands.
Thrax had never seen anything more precious in his life. Oh. My. God.
Ozzy continued to look up at him and asked quietly, "what didja say?"
Thrax bent down to his level and stroked his cheek with the back of his hand. "I was counting our money. So far I've counted about 100,000, but there's still loads more left in that bag. Wanna help me out?"
Ozzy nodded and Thrax lifted him up by the waist to sit him down on the kitchen counter. He patted Ozzy's thighs to get him to open his legs and stood between them, before leaning in and leaving soft, slow kisses over his cheek. "You have no idea how much I love you", he whispered, as he trailed his claws up Ozzy's thighs and around his hips.
He pulled Ozzy into him and kissed his forehead, as Ozzy grabbed a wad of money that was on the counter. Thrax smirked and took it off him to fan himself with it. "Do you know how much money is in my hand right now?"
"Enough for a dog?", Ozzy said, as he rubbed his eyes and stretched.
"We're not buying a dog, baby, we'll go down to a shelter and get one of those proper mangy ones. They're always more fun." Ozzy laughed and put his arms around Thrax's neck, pulling him closer.
Thrax put the money down the front of Ozzy's boxers. "There's 30,000 just in that little wad. How do you fancy going shopping today and decorating the house?"
Ozzy took the money out of his boxers and his eyes lit up. "Yes please! I want a big bed like the one in that fancy hotel a few weeks ago, and silk sheets, and… and a full length mirror!"
Thrax smiled and grabbed Ozzy by the waist to put him on the floor again. "I'm gonna finish counting the money. You go get dressed. We'll leave in twenty minutes to go get some breakfast and then we can go buy whatever you want."
It turned out that they still had over 200,000 left, so there was no price limit on what furniture they could buy. They went shopping and bought a four-poster king size bed, a wooden dining set for the balcony and some black silk sheets, which were all to be delivered to the house later that afternoon.
They also bought a few tins of cream coloured paint and trundled back home.
They went up to the bedroom and moved all the furniture into the middle of the room. Thrax rolled up his sleeves and handed a roller to Ozzy. Neither of them had ever decorated before, so they were both pretty apprehensive.
"You go first…", mumbled Thrax. Ozzy turned to look at the wall and tentatively dragged the roller over it. He furrowed his brow out of concentration and stood on his tiptoes.
Thrax put his roller down on the table and lifted him up onto his shoulders so he could reach the top of the wall. Ozzy started painting manically in every direction, finding it to be more fun than he had imagined.
"Hey, Oz, be careful with the paint, will ya? You're getting it all over me." Ozzy looked down at him and grinned, before running the paint roller over his face.
Thrax spluttered and wiped the paint off his face with his hand, while Ozzy jumped off his shoulders and darted to the other side of the room.
"You little shit."
He chased Ozzy round the room and grabbed his wrist, but Ozzy wiggled out and squished himself between a chair and a table.
Thrax grinned, shoved the chair to one side and lunged at him. Ozzy ran between his legs and scrambled to get under the bed.
"You slippery little freak", Thrax said, before lifting the bed up and staring down at him. "Got you", he growled.
Ozzy sat up, stuck his tongue out and jumped into him, wrapping his arms around his waist. "No, I've got you!"
Thrax put the bed down, threw Ozzy on top, and straddled him. He grabbed the roller from the table and ran his claw along it, looking down at Ozzy menacingly. First he painted a pair of glasses around his eyes, and then some whiskers on his cheeks.
He chucked the roller to one side, and they both laughed at each other as they caught their breath.
"I love you", Ozzy whispered, as Thrax stroked his cheek with his thumb.
"I love you too, baby." He leaned down to kiss him, and Ozzy threw his arms around his neck and pulled him down, humming into the kiss.
After a few moments, Thrax broke away and left little kisses all over Ozzy's cheeks. "Come on, baby, let's finish painting and then I'll buy you a nice dinner."