And the curiosity reached it's unusual and scary point.

Chapter 13: Who is This Cub?

After settling in, Saori sat between Akashi and Taiga and she couldn't resist sitting on her stepfather's lap and that made Taiga smile and warm up even more and she said, "I've missed you, baba."

"I missed you too, Saori." Taiga replied, nuzzling his stepdaughter.

Saori then looked at Tigress and she came towards her and said, "Did you miss me?"

"Yes, I did miss you." Tigress replied.

Akashi sat beside Miyo as they were watching Saori unite with her step parents and for Akashi, he was happy to savor that moment and it seems as though his sister is just delighted to see them as he is and Taiga asked, "What have you been up to, Akashi?"

"I've been doing okay, I guess. Just training by myself, taking care of Miyo and Saori and things like that." Akashi answered.

"Has he been behaving himself?" asked Tigress, turning to Miyo.

Miyo knew that question was coming and she rolled her eyes when she looked at Akashi and replied, "For the most part, he was behaving. But not too much well-behaved."

That didn't surprise Tigress the most after hearing the end result that Akashi was still immature, but proud at the same time that he's still training and being the best he can be and she said, "Well...that's good to hear."

"Has there been anything going on that we should know about?" asked Taiga.

Akashi knew that question was coming soon and he wasn't sure if he can answer that, especially in front of Tigress and he replied, "Nah, just the same old same old."

"Nothing at all?" asked Tigress.

"Nope." Akashi answered.

But soon enough, Max crept through the steps and sees Akashi talking to Tigress and Taiga...and that surprised him that he's in the same species and that caused him to get a little nervous and he slowly backs himself up until he accidentally sneezes. Tigress heard that sound from a mile away and asked, "What was that?"

"What was what?" asked Akashi.

"I heard someone sneeze." Tigress answered.

"I didn't hear anything." Akashi stated.

Max was immediately scared from the start and tried to keep himself low-key until Taiga turns around and sees the cub's tail showing and he stands up and heads where he is and he said, "Hello, there."

Max was too shy to show himself in front of Taiga and he comes towards the stairs and Tigress comes from behind and when she sees Max for the first time, she was stunned and somewhat leery of the boy and she asked, "Who's he?"

Akashi went towards the steps and he said, "Yeah...this is Maximus. I found him a few days ago."

"What is he doing in your house?" asked Tigress.

Max could tell he was definitely scared of Tigress because in his mind...he sees his birth mother in her based on the anger and intimidation look in her and he slowly backs away and Taiga said, "Don't be afraid. I won't hurt you."

Max wasn't quite too sure about that and he just backed away a little more and Taiga wanted to make sure he's okay and Tigress felt her patience growing shorter and shorter by the minute and suddenly, she comes closer to him and that made Max even more frightened than ever and he said, "Please leave me alone."

"Cub, I just want to know where you came from." Tigress stated, reaching her paw.

But when Tigress grabbed Max by the shoulder, the cub responded by swiping her hand and exclaimed, "GET AWAY FROM ME!"

Tigress was stunned to see this kid reacting this way and she asked, "What's wrong with him?"

"You're scaring him." Akashi answered, running towards her.

That was one quote that Tigress didn't take too well that she's scaring him and asked, "How am I scaring him?"

She turns back to Max and tries to reason with him, but all it did was make Max even more scared and Tigress grabbed him by the arm and the cub was resisting the whole time and as a result, Max bit her by the finger, causing Tigress to roar loudly and that was not something he'd like to hear and the look on Tigress' face caused him to run away as fast as he could and after that, Akashi remained silent throughout the aftermath and he could tell from Max's face that it was the same reaction when he got attacked by his birth mother.

"What was that all about?" asked Taiga.

Akashi cleared his throat and he said, "It's a very long story."

You'll find out more on what happened after on the next chapter!