Shoutouts to Canuckle (who is writing a whole bunch of new amazing stuff) and Cheshire.
Been looking back and ... yea I've gone a bit off course ... but working my way back onto it. Thanks for sticking around and the reviews. More and better things to come.
"Just talk to her ... Stop being stupid and - talk to her ... It's just K ... Get up and -"
"What?"
"What?" Greer's ears shot up as she turned back in her seat to see a very confused Vanyss staring from the seat next her and could tell Colton was doing his best to not give her a similar look from the seat across from her. The three were in the library and Greer had been supposed to be helping Vanyss with her English paper when she'd gotten distracted.
"Did you say something?" Vanyss tilted her head to the side and tried picking up what the tigress had been staring at.
"Oh nothing I just - I was ..." Apex's eyes slid up but Greer once again turned and kept hers fixed right on the door as her tail stilled and her claws sunk into the old mahogany table, "I'm sorry I gotta go."
"Go but we only got through - hey!" Vanyss called out exasperated as her tigress tutor seemed to bolt out of her seat, leaving behind most of her things including a new set of gauge marks, and an irritated teenager. Apex just let out a tired rumble and closed his book.
"Que se passe-t-il?" Vanyss muttered as she sank back in her chair and looked dejectedly at her half-written essay on the Scarlet Letter just as K wandered into the library.
"Forget it," Apex gave Vanyss enough of a look that it piqued the teenagers interest, "she had something to do."
"Uh huh ..." Vanyss replied sarcastically as she noticed Colton giving K his 'measuring' look, "since when has Greer been avoiding Professeur K?" Apex had picked up Vanyss only called K 'professor'.
"She isn't." Apex lied easily but Vanyss crossed her arms unimpressed.
"I thought they were supposed to be close?" Vanyss pushed, stating a relatively well known fact throughout the Mansion. Or at least Vanyss thought it was a fact. Apex meanwhile didn't like this topic of conversation.
"Let me see this." The panther rumbled as he pulled over the gargoyle's paper, earning a smirk from Vanyss. She toyed with the idea of asking Colton to let her go look for Greer but seeing as how Ororo had threatened to flunk her if she didn't get this paper down tonight… and that she was only three paragraphs in...The gargoyle rubbed her chin a little... oh what the hell, nothing an all nighter couldn't fix…
"I'm going to go get her back." the french teen said causally before hurriedly trying to get out of her seat but was stopped by Apex's tail.
"You can go get her back…. After you rewrite this." the panther rumbled calmly while Vanyss stared at him in horror.
"Rewrite this- Es-tu fou?! I've spent all day on this!"
"No you spent all day copying from sparknotes." Apex growled before rubbing his temples a little.
"Did you actually read the the book?" and Vanyss sunk a little lower in her chair…
"A Non. Ça m'ennuyait." she confessed before sighing in defeat as the panther shoved the book into her hands.
"Plagiarism is a crime." he rumbled in warning and the gargoyle pulled a face before reluctantly picking up the book and getting started. Or at least she attempted to while her mind drifted to what she'd do once she was done with this stupid paper… She wanted to know what was going on...
Greer took a deep breath before leaning against her favourite tree… Her knees travelling up to her chest while she took a few more steadying breaths to stop the shaking...Prior to the mission from mutate hell, Greer had gone through a bit of change: she was eating right, which led to her looking better and feeling stronger. She was more vocal and active when it came to the X-Men and her own classes. She was even dressing better, picking through Jacque's trove of outfits and steadily becoming more and more comfortable in her own fur. She had been proud of herself… It sounded crazy but the thought of… "I think I'm pretty used to this" actually drifted in and out of her head once or twice.
But then the mission happened.
The next few days for Greer were ... rough to say the least.
Sleeping was completely off the table and even when Colton did manage to coax her into actually passing out, nightmares would jolt her awake a few hours later. Greer shivered. God the nightmares… These ones were… These ones were the worse. Worse then the ones in weapon x… worse then the ones with Kraven. Greer's hand absent mindedly travelled to her neck, gently rubbing her throat while she flashed back to yesterday's nightmare… Her owner had her muted and the tigress had felt every pain staking minute of the procedure. She had felt the overwhelming terror and panic when the simple act of asking people to stop became beyond her and all that could escape her mouth were growls and hisses while a crowd full of people cornered her, gawking at her, touching her… The things they said… Greer growled at the memory before recoiling a little and grabbing her e nightmares always ended the same. The part that always woke her up… A red haired woman grinning at her, taking the leash… Something about kittens…. Greer rubbed her temples a little harder… Thanks to this, she'd estimated she had only gotten about eight hours of sleep total these last few days
That led to a sore, cranky, and overall miserable tigress that built up the strength for her tutoring and cheerleading classes and then promptly collapsed into the closest chair… But she'd never allow herself to go back to sleep which just prolonged her torture as her mind flashed back to the mission or the nightmares. It was a vicious cycle and Greer felt strained. Jean knew things were rough when the hoodie came back out.
She couldn't sleep…
And it was those same nightmares that were affecting another part of the 'improved Greer' that was now missing: K.
Greer couldn't explain it and it made her feel horrible but any time she caught a whiff of K or the little berserker came into a room, Greer felt her chest squeeze and ears fall flat and the urge to escape was overwhelming. And when she finally explained to Colton why she kept disappearing and he told her it was her feral 'fight or flight' ... well that just made her feel worse.
"But I can't help it." Greer mumbled to herself. She had tried to rationalize all this, rationalize it like a human being instead of falling back on those feral instincts… but it never seemed to work. Actually no, it did work but Greer would never bring herself to admit it. She didn't want to admit it. But… K was part of the problem. The tigress lowered her ears. Every one of her nightmares… Well… The person holding the leash… was K… and Greer had tried telling herself over and over that the real K would never dream of committing the atrocities her dream counterpart did but… it really wasn't helping when each nightmare get worse and worse and K just appeared more and more in them… and seeing the real K, in the mansion, snuggling up with Logan, tending to the horses acting like nothing was happening while Greer could literally feel herself falling apart… The tigress buried her face in her hands… She couldn't face the berserker… She just couldn't.
"Late again Ms. LeRoux." Ororo's voice froze Vanyss in her tracks as she had been about to slip into her seat in the back row.
"Désolé professeur." Vanyss mumbled as she kept her eyes firmly on her desk and not Professor Munroe's. The fact that she'd actually slept straight through Professor Summers's tactics class was causing her enough stress. She was actually relieved she'd only been 10 minutes late to English.
"If it happens again you'll have detention." Ororo then turned back to the board where she continued the analysis of Catcher in the Rye.
Letting things settle down and sure Professor Munroe was focused on the class and not just her, Vanyss carefully reached into her bag and slipped on her sunglasses. The glare from the early winter sun had been killing her and she was relieved to at least cut that out.
"Pssst." Vanyss turned her head a little to see Pixie looking back at her. "You OK?"
Vanyss gave a little wave to say, 'I'm fine don't worry about it', earning narrowed eyes from her roommate before she turned back in her seat.
Vanyss gave a little sigh. Today had been rough. Hell the week had been rough. She'd failed yet another test and had even strated to lag behind in Warren's flight class. Flight! The one thing she knew she was good at.
Catching Professor Munroe staring at her again, Vanyss quickly opened up her notebook and started taking notes. She'd worry about grades when she didn't have a storm goddess on her ass.
K for her part felt bad about what she had done to Greer ... but not for doing it.
"She wanted in on the mission. I told her - we told her she was in over her head. And the mission went off without a hitch. Maybe next time she'll listen." K had shrugged into Logan the one time he'd brought it up when they'd both seen the tigress in question sprint from the room at K's arrival.
"You could try talkin' to her," Logan rumbled as he nuzzled into K's neck.
"And say what? 'Sorry you didn't listen? but I told you so?' What good is that going to do? It's pretty cut and dried. She was in too deep to start with, she got lax in her cover, blew it and tried to take me with her. I thought you guys wanted her out over all else - so I did what I had to. Not. Sorry," K said with no small amount of heat. "She's got Jean and her cronies handling it as far as talking and feelings go. Leave me out of it."
From what K had heard amid the never-ending gossip Greer was getting plenty of consoling. Forget that none of the little teenieboppers had any idea what was bothering the tigress, they simply loved having someone to worry about. Though from the distance Greer was putting around herself it sounded like it was more for their benefit then their own.
None of this surprised K. Nothing any of them were doing surprised her - but the Panther's change in attitude was ... interesting.
"Don't you ever get tired of fighting fakes?" K's voice rung out through the Danger Room as Apex finished what was left of the latest version of Doom bots. Taking a few breaths, he turned to find the smaller feral leaning against the wall with her claws through a bots head as she closely examined it. He'd given up on trying to keep K out of the Danger Room when he was training.
"Weapon X had me practice on live targets. This is cleaner," Colton replied with a rumble.
K snorted out a little laugh as she dropped the head and walked forwards, and Apex's tail slowed on it's own accord. "Well don't you get tired of acting like you don't want to fight on her behalf?" K asked in an almost bored tone. "I know you can't help yourself."
"I don't want to fight you, K." Apex rumbled, an attempt at warning K to back down. It wasn't that K was wrong ... there'd been a number of times that Greer had fled at simply the scent of K and Apex had instinctively wanted to get rid of the thing that his tigress found so threatening. But he hadn't.
"Of course you don't," K replied. "Because if you did - that would prove me right too. That she can't take care of her own problems and needs someone else to cover for her. The question here is ... what do you think?"
Apex stared down at K for a few seconds but as usual ... she simply started right back. arms crossed and hip cocked - totally relaxed. She also happened to be standing right between him and the exit. Eventually he let out a rumble, this one of defeat, and shook his muzzle.
"I don't blame you for what you did to Greer," Colton admitted. K raised an eyebrow of skepticism as he continued. "I knew you'd do what it took to complete the mission. And you did. The children are safe. Greer is safe. That's what matters."
"At least one of you can figure that out," K replied in a drawl. Apex let out a sigh and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Greer ... It was a nightmare. Or one of them anyway. But she doesn't blame you. Not really."
"Then tell her to man up. Or whatever. I'm tired of the scared kitten routine. She's supposed to be tougher than this - and if she can't pull it together? Not only is she a liability to X-Force? But she's a liability to the X-Men too. Tell her to deal with it before I bring it to Scott." K finished as she glanced around the Danger Room one more time before seeming to size up Apex.
"You sure you're not bored?" This time Apex let out a rumble in place of K's chuckle.
"Not yet."
"And here I thought only the Cheerleader was scared of me." K shrugged as she turned to leave, Apex's tail swaying once again as he watched the smaller but still very dangerous feral walk out.
Another day went by before Greer finally found herself in a situation where she couldn't avoid K: an X-Men training session. Scott had warned her that if she missed another weekend of training she was getting benched and that was the last thing Greer needed to deal with.
So she'd gotten dressed and avoided eye contact with basically everyone and fought to not keep shooting looks at K as Scott went over his newest training infatuation. He was always coming up with new ways to 'improve the team' and 'increase synergy' or 'get to the next level.' She internally puked. It was capture the flag ... why couldn't he ever just say something simple like that? I mean sure there were landmines and sentinels and MRD soldiers but ... it was still basically capture the flag.
K for her part had kept her distance and as the training started Greer was able to relax at least a little as she saw K pop her claws and dive straight into the fight. She was supposed to be one the people sprinting around the outside to flank and hopefully get to the target before the bad guys even knew she was there. Warren was doing the same from above as Kitty worked the opposite side.
If Greer was being honset with herself though she was kind of hoping for a bit of action. She'd barely done any training since the mission and the chance to get her claws into something actually sounded kind of good. And as she raced around the outside of the brawl happening in the middle of the room she saw her chance looming right in front of her. A squadron of MRD footsoldiers.
"Piece of cake." Greer growled to herself. She'd been training on these guys since she was a teenager. She was half-way through planning on how to take out the last soldier and about to pounce when she came up short as the entire squadron seemed to fall at once.
"Hey! That was - oh," Greer came to a full stop as she saw K didn't even give her a look over her shoulder before she scanned the field and sprinted off. She wasn't even certain K had even really seen her.
Kitty had ended up getting to the target that time and Warren the next. He'd only gotten it because this time Greer had gone a bit out of her way to tackle a sentinel but once again K and Logan had drawn it's attention, effectively stealing Greer's target and leaving her claws empty.
Apex had given her a few curious looks throughout the night as Greer's tail seemed in hyperdrive and she seemed distracted through dinner, barely talking as the two felines made their way through a platter of chickens (and Greer's addition of a small salad for 'balance.')
"Let's go for a run." Greer looked up from the page she'd been staring at and giving the dark outside the window one wary look she let out a low growl and slapping her book shut went to change, meeting Colton outside their window a few minutes later before the two took off. She finally felt a bit of the tension in her back relax as her claws dug through the earth and she picked up speed, finally relenting on their third circuit around the entire property.
Colton walked over to the recovering tigress and gave a brief nuzzle. Glancing up, Greer gave a tired smile and with a nod the two headed back towards the Mansion at a more measured pace. Back in their room and showered, Greer snuggled into Colton with a tired sigh.
She couldn't let K get to her like that. It was just training ... tomorrow would be better.
Tomorrow wasn't any better.
It was worse.
This time Scott had them working as a full team in a straight up fight with the Thunderbolts across a series of rooftops in what she was pretty sure was industrial St. Petersburg. Or at least she thought those billboards were in Russian.
Greer had paced as Scott called out orders, this time the tigress not hiding the looks she was shooting at K, and when he gave the word she shot out towards the oncoming bad guys like they'd burned her closet. And at first things were going pretty well ... she found herself working with Remy and Rogue and three took down Scourge and Grizzly easily enough.
"Tigra help on Psylocke!" Scott's voice rang in Greer's earpiece and after a nod from Remy showing they'd be fine Greer tore off towards the purple bolts of light. But when she got there ... K was already helping Betsy to her feet.
"Pyslocke's covered - where do you need me?" Greer growled over coms and Storm called for some help dealing with Venom.
But over the next hour, for every target Greer managed to get her hands on, K had handled before Greer could close the gap. And when Scott finally called it a day and the group of now scorched, scratched, and sore X-Men headed for the showers, Greer was standing practically spotless with her arms crossed as she glared openly at K who had unzipped her borrowed uniform and was lazily picking out bits of metal from her shoulder as Logan and Scott had a mini argument nearby.
A part of Greer was still telling her to drop her eyes and get the hell out of there ... but a louder part of her was replaying the training sessions and wanted answers.
"Got a second?" Greer called out as she stalked towards K, the two now alone in the Danger Room.
K looked toward the ongoing argument and shrugged. "Maybe," K grumbled and simply went back to fiddling with a particularly stubborn piece of metal wedged under her collar bone.
"What were you doing out there?"
"Not killing people that were clearly asking for it, so I'm told ... my job."
"You're job isn't to cover for me. I can handle myself."
"Glad to hear it. Not my problme," K muttered as she let out a bit of a hiss as the metal finally came out and she grinned.
"Excuse me?" G. K tossed the piece of shrapnel away and gave Greer the impression she had just really noticed her. The tigress felt a growl build up but pushed it down, trying to keep her tone civil. "I said that I don't need you watching out for me. I get that enough from Colton ... and Logan for that matter. I don't need it from you."
"Well then quit your bitching because you're not getting it from me," K said with her eyebrows raised a bit.
"Oh really?" Greer crosses her arms clearly not believing her.
"You made it clear before you don't want a babysitter. I THOUGHT I made it clear that wasn't my job anyhow," K replied easily. Greer's tail slowed as her brow furrowed. "I was just trying to end the sim faster. That's ALL."
"So you - you weren't trying to protect me?"
"No," K chuckled, not really looking at the tigress as the conversation between Scott and Logan seemed to be drawing to a close. The sudden space Greer felt from K felt like a chasm. It was hard to describe but if what she was getting from K was right ... she hadn't been out there trying to watch out for her. K hadn't even taken her into account. It honestly kind of hurt.
"I thought we were friends." Greer's tone was half-unsure and accusation.
"That's why you can't stand to be in the same room with me? Friendly." Greer winced at that one as her ears lowered. K noticed Greer's reaction and took a deep breath, her tone losing some of its harshness. "Listen ... you're one of Logan's girls. I get that. And a good kid. But I'm not friends with kids, honey. I have better things to do than deal with the drama." K turned and headed for the door. Greer lowered her head, not quite processing what K just said, at least she wouldn't let herself process that properly, because if she did… K had just said something truly hurtful.
"Hey!" Greer shouted after her, but K didn't even acknowledge her. "We're not done talking." Greer kept the growl out of her voice but there was no hiding her hackles on end.
"Not now, princess. I have other things on my mind."
Greer took a few deep breaths before deciding to just get rid of the huge elephant in the room. Maybe that'd clear up what K was implying because losing K's friendship ... was almost as important as her respect suddenly.
"The mission."
"What about it?" K said, finally spinning to look her way. "Are you ready to admit you were in over your head, because I don't care anymore. Mission's over. Get over it already."
"Get over it." The words echoed a lot louder and harder then Greer knew K had uttered it, but it still struck her dumb. Did K not notice how she had been falling apart last week… How- How do you get over something like that?
But Greer shook herself as if fighting off a bad dream.
"No that's - It's that it was /you/ K ... You were never supposed to be that person. You were the one that got me to trust myself. To actually think this was OK. You were never supposed to be the one to make me feel like that!"
"If you want hand holding, find Jean. I had a job to do, and it was only complicated by your rookie mistakes. I did what needed to be done. But this? The little campfire hand holding kumbaya crap? Not. my. department."
"I don't want you to hold my hand K. You think I like feeling like this? You don't think if I could just turn it off like the rest of you do I wouldn't?"
"Turn what off?" K asked now somewhat curious where this was heading. She couldn't remember seeing Greer this worked up before and not in some kind of curled up ball.
"I don't -" Greer snarled in frustration, her fur standing on their ends a bit from her agitation as she struggled to put her thoughts, instincts…. Whatever they were into words
"Don't stop now, kitten. Come on - what is it that you think I'm lacking?"
"You're humanity!" Greer shouted back and K finally let her shoulders relax slightly. "I just lived through my own personal hell and you want me to just what ... 'shrug it off?' Pretend like it didn't just happen - like people didn't want me to crawl around on all fours ... fuckin' breed me! Mute me! I'm not an animal!" and Greer had shouted that last part to no one and yet everyone in the room. Her eyes wide while she panted, she honestly thought she was going to just break down and cry but this was different… She wasn't sad, but she was hurt, and she was angry and she just wanted to give K a piece of her mind but putting into words was like an uphill battle ... one that she was losing steam for.
"You're right Greer ... you're not an animal. You're a coward." K. Greer jerks back like K slapped her.
"I'm not a -"
"Do you really think that this is something that's just a problem for YOU? That you're the only one that's had to listen to that crap directed at them? It's just your FIRST time, kid." She paused to draw herself up a bit more and take a measured step Greers way, her eyes flashing. "You can't have it both ways. Either you keep away from the missions that put you in those situations, or you learn to control your damn emotions like an ADULT rather than a moody, spoiled teenage princess. It's your CHOICE."
"That's just it - it isn't a choice!" Greer snarled, "I didn't choose to be terrified of you K. I didn't choose any of this! God I wish - You're the one that told me to listen to my instincts and guess what? My instincts told me to run at just the scent of you. The scent! And now you want to stand there and tell me I have some choice in this?"
"You know what's your problem?" and K leaned back, seemingly just not taking in anything that Greer had just said. "You've got this sick sense of entitlement." and Greer reared back, eyes flashing but K only continued.
"This one bad thing happens to you and you use it as a leverage for all your other problems. Anything that remotely tiptoes out of your comfort zone and you throw yourself the same god damn pity party. You don't do it because you need help, we've all done our fair share of helping. You do it because you can. What is it Tig, making up for those years where you were no longer the center of the god damn universe?"
"That's not - I -"
"Jean, Colton, Logan they may put up with it but guess what?" and K took a step forward, "I'm sick of it because no matter what I do, no matter what I say. If you keep doing this then it all goes down the drain, and that's a f*** waste of my time. And YES you do have a choice. YOU chose to go and you can choose to take some responsibility for it but no. You're a coward. You'd rather run and hide and get everyone sucking up to you while you're at it. You chose this because secretly, you like it." and K took another daring step towards Greer who was shaking ... ears pinned back while she had to wrestle with herself not to hurt her friend for saying that.
"You don't know what you're talking about…" Greer growled quietly before it was her now backing away while K just smirked.
"Lemme guess, goin' to go tell Logan about what I said? It'd be so like you to make yourself the victim…" Greer's ears flicked but she turned and continued walking.
"For someone that doesn't want to be an animal you sure know how to show your belly." and Greer felt her ears go straight up, while her claws unsheathed themselves and before she could think about it, she whipped around and leaped at K with a roar.
K for her part didn't flinch and instead rolled with the tackle and the two went at it. Had anyone been down there they'd have thought the two were trying to kill each other. But someone with a sharper eye would have noticed that while both ferals snapped and growled and fought furiously with each other ... there was no blood. Or at least not much anyway.
Most people that sparred with Greer got frustrated when it came to getting a hold of her. The tigress's fur, speed, and flexibility made it almost impossible to get a good handle and the fact Greer was exceptionally strong on top of it made pinning her a special achievement. That was of course if you were fighting 'fair' and hadn't spent a good part of your life wrangling barn cats. K used Greer's fur against her, grabbing it and every pressure point she got a finger on to earn a stream of hisses and snarls. She almost had the kid pinned but when she grabbed the tail Greer roared and practically bent over backwards to grab K in a reverse headlock and flipping her over, slammed her to the floor where K promptly swept her feet out.
It was the fact that K was only slightly less flexible than her feline opponent and infinitely more experienced that K finally managed to get to Greer's back and pin the tigress's head to the floor.
"You're right ..." Greer growls
"Just NOW you realize that?" K grunted as she fought to keep her position. Damn this kid was strong ...
"I said you're right!" Greer roars and breaks away from K, both ferals falling to the ground a few feet apart panting. Minute passes. Greer kind of shakes herself off. Would think she'd be shaking and tense but actually ... actually for the first time in days Greer looked over at K and didn't feel a sudden urge to run ... or tackle her. In fact she just felt kinda beat.
"I - I think I could use a drink ..." Greer finally half-growled as she slowly got to her feet.
"You need a milkshake, kiddo?" K teased still catching her breath on the floor, "I know you're not big enough for anything stronger."
"Just tell me you and Logan haven't drunk this place dry." Greer grinned as K took the extended hand.
"Tigger, if this place ever went dry ... I wouldn't be here to fight with."
As it turned out, the Mansion was far from dry and where Greer had felt rather proud of the beers she'd managed to scrounge from the minifridge in Remy's room those were quickly shuffled aside at the sight of the four different whiskey bottles K carried into Greer's new office.
She had asked something about glasses but K had just given her a look, tossed the tigress one of the bottles. K opened one for herself and tipped it back as she dropped into a chair. Greer took that image in for a couple seconds before looking down at her own bottle and with a shrug followed suit.
What happened over the next hour was difficult to recall for Greer, but at the end of it both ferals were sitting next to each other on the carpeted floor, their backs resting against the leather couch.
"I'm done." Greer's sudden slurred growl got a little smirk out of her smaller feral companion.
"With what exactly? Drinking? Thought you were tryin' to keep up with the professionals," K teased as she tipped her head back and took a shot at draining her second bottle.
"Not done with that," Greer grumbled as she took the bottle from K once she'd taken a breath and tipped it back. Somewhere around Greer's second bottle, the tigress shifted gears and had gone from taking sips, to drinks, to simply tilting her head back and ignoring the taste. K was amused at the shift. "Was talkin' about bein' done with ... that." K raised an eyebrow as Greer gestured at nothing.
"It's official. You're drunk," K said as she moved to take the bottle away and when Greer growled and shifted the bottle to her other hand K tipped her head to the side a bit as if to ask 'really' before she simply made a quick move that left K with the bottle, and earned some bared teeth from the tigress which K simply chuckled at.
"I wasn't - I was talking about being done with being ... I dunno being scared all the time. Helpless." Greer slid down the couch a bit as K raised an eyebrow Greer's way and took a drink as she watched her.
"Okay then. Liquid courage isn't going to solve your trouble. You're more helpless now than you were two hours ago. Generally you're choosing to be helpless though."
"And scared?" Greer shot back with. K nodded and Greer just huffed as she pushed herself back up.
"Well I'm done ... I never should have been scared of you. I never should have been scared of them and I should never have avoided you like that." Greer's drunken stupor seemed to suddenly wear off.
"And what's your big plan, hardass?" K asked in a flat tone.
And Greer raised an eyebrow.
"You don't believe me." she said softly, her look drilling holes into K who just closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. "I'll believe it when I see it." and the tigress looked down, ears pressed against her head for a moment before they perked up and she grinned.
"Then get ready to believe," Greer sounded determined, "I've got a plan."
"Mhmmm." K rumbled with her eyes still closed as she ignored what she sensed going on behind her.
"But first ..." Greer reached over K's head where her tail had snagged the last bottle, "I want to find out what Logan likes about this so much."
Another hour went by and at this point both ferals were about as drunk as two women could get with accelerated healing abilities, though Greer was certainly further in than K was.
Evidence to that fact was when Greer went from leaning on K to half snuggling on her. Though the tigress didn't seem to realize it until K let out a sigh and reciprocated, half cuddling into the fur on Greer's shoulder.
"K?"
"What."
"Are you nuzzling me?"
"No."
"Cause it feels like your nuzzling" Greer didn't try to hide the smile on her face as she sleepily teased.
"I'm snuggling. You started it, and I'll have you know, I stab pillows that move too much,"K grumbled as she got into a better resting point on the tigress' shoulder. Greer just let out a tired sigh and finished her drink.
Before long, the fight, the drinking, and the fact it was warm inside the office had gotten to both ferals and they simply slid onto the floor, a drunken Greer using K as a surrogate teddybear. K for her part didn't snuggle with anyone outside of Logan ... but having a giant, warm, fuzzy blanket wrapped around you was hard to resist.
Logan and Apex had just come in from a mission, Apex had gotten a lead on the missing Wild Child, and neither of them had found their women in bed … which was troubling . Both had set out seeking them and by some twist of fate met up unintentionally in the kitchen.
"Yours missing too?" Logan asked, and looking worried now, Colton nodded. He'd known things had been tense between Greer and K and the fact both were missing was ... ominous. The two of them upped their pace and on their way to the garage, Logan caught K's scent and quickly followed it. The two men were slightly confused when they found the two women, curled up together in Greer's office surrounded by enough whiskey and bourbon to make Logan jealous.
"Well damn. Looks like we missed the pillow fight," Logan grumbled, though he had to admit … the two of them looked incredibly comfortable all tangled up.
"There'd be blood if K had a pillow fight," Colton said dryly. Logan chuckled in agreement.
"You wanna go first?" Logan gestured at the pair on the floor and Apex took a step back, making it clear he wanted Logan to take the real dangerous mission of the night. Giving his head a shake, he kneeled down and tried to pry K from Greer's grip, earning a low growl from the tigress. Logan tried to slip K out but that got a growl from her. Logan snorted as he stood up with hands on his hips as Greer seemed to tighten her grip on her feral teddy.
The fact Colton was just standing there with his tail swinging clearly enjoying the show wasn't helping. Tired and wanting to get to bed with his woman, Logan simply growled low, K's eye popping open before she smiled lazily.
"Hey love ... feeling left out?"
"I'm feelin' like you should be gettin' up to bed," K opened her mouth but he cut her off, "with me."
K tried to shift and looked down at herself, noting the rather large hands wrapped around her, and smiled mock apologetically up at Logan.
"Not sure it's really up to me."
But this time Logan growled with a different timber and with a roll of her eyes K tried to extricate herself from the tigress,
"Tigger ... Hey Tigger you gotta - sonofa -" which just got Greer to hold on a bit tigther, making K let out a bit of a wheeze.
Apex seemed ready to say something but K shot both him and Logan a look and taking a breath managed to turn enough to give Greer one solid flick on the ear.
"Wha - ow!" Greer snapped awake and the second her grip relaxed K slipped from the tigress's grip into Logan's who promptly picked her up and headed for the door.
"All yours." Logan rumbled as he and K headed upstairs. Greer meanwhile was more than a bit dazed on the floor as she rubbed her ear and tried figuring out what had just happened.
"Where did - why did she ..." Greer quited down as Colton dropped himself onto the floor and wrapped Greer up in his arms. It seemed to take a second for Greer's still sluggish brain to process the change from snuggling K to being nuzzled by Colton but ... she didn't really mind it either way.
