Nikolai's Room at the Arms, Monday Morning, Before Classes

[spin_kick_snap]

It had been a very long and very tiring weekend for the little klipspringer that was actually a girl. There had been the necessary kicking anytime she'd been called a goat and the fretting every time her oddly-shaped MateProtector had gone out of sight. The time he'd been hidden behind the Great SquareWood the hid the place of BrightLightLotsWater had been quite distressing. Oh! And bouncing, of course. The bouncing was very important! And then she'd had to protect him when the creature with the weird headfur had been taken by predators--really, it was a lot for one little klipspringer to do.

Taking care of her MateProtector was definitely the hardest part of her weekend. He seemed to have no survival instincts at all. He kept trying to wander off without her, he blocked his eyes so he could not see, and he never kept lookout, even when she was eating! They had even fought the night before about when it was time to sleep. He didn't seem to understand that once the DayBright went away, it was time to sleep. After an intense argument where she'd had to headbutt him several times to get him to listen to reason, she had eventually 'persuaded' him to lay down. In addition to being dumb, her MateProtector lacked horns, which made it easier for her to win their arguments. He refused to sleep, preferring to watch the BrightSquare, but at least he was still enough to let her sleep. Except for those times when the BrightSquare would make loud enough noises to startle her awake and bounce away looking for predators.

MateProtector sometimes made loud noises at her when she did that. The klipspringer did not understand why. Was he trying to bring the predators to them? Each time, once she'd ascertained that they were safe and nothing was trying to kill them, she would return to her place on his chest and fall back asleep, privately resolving not to mourn too much if his idiocy got him eaten by an eagle or something.

At some point after the BrightSquare had gone off and the DayBright had risen, the Fandom's whimsy had released it's hold on the little klipspringer, returning her to back to her normal self. Sleep held Kathy too tightly for her to be aware of shift in form. She stayed comfortably tucked on Nikolai's chest with her head pillowed on his shoulder, a little colder now that her fur had turned back to skin, but too deep in dreams to really notice.

[For him whose room this is and was shamelessly modded!]

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[spin_kick_snap]

"Dun wanna," Kathy mumbled, nuzzling her face closer to Nick's neck. "Sleepin'."

Look, it had been a really long weekend and she was exhausted. So why was he bothering her right now?

[gunslingerpose]

Oh, goddamn, she was getting good and cozy, there. He almost didn't have the heart to move her.

"Yeah? You, uh, don't have class or anything today, do you?"

He didn't know what to dooooo.

[spin_kick_snap]

Why was he making her think? That was the utter worst.

"Yeah, got class Reno..." Finally, Kathy realized that she was speaking. With words. That Nick could understand. "I'm back!" she said, delighted. "I'm human! I'm--"

And then the rest of it sunk in.

"HOLY SHIT I'M NAKED!"

[gunslingerpose]

"Very," Nick agreed, grinning faintly. "Uh, I mean..."

Oh this was going smooth. He held his hands up, open-palm, to show he wasn't going to try anything stupid. While he kept his eyes closed.

"I'm not looking. Obviously I'm not looking. The aim of the game here isn't to knock you out again. Welcome back?"

And then, because he was an asshole, "Comfortable?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy was busy flinging herself off of the couch and futiley trying to cover every part of herself with her hands and hair to answer. "Naked! I'm naked! How long have I been naked? Don't look at me!"

Yeah, she knew he wasn't. But all the same--don't!

[gunslingerpose]

"You've been naked since you turned into a goat-thing, days ago," Nick replied, sighing. "I'm not looking, I promise. You'd know if I was. And your uniform is on the counter by the fridge. Cleaned it for you and everything."

Because he had nothing better to do yesterday but randomly wash laundry and get Kenzi arrested, and while he had no idea what to make of Kathy's costume and underwear, it was laundry all the same.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Antelope! I was an antelope! Not a goat! Antelope!"

For just a brief moment, Kathy's weekend-long frustration boiled out and eclipsed her abject mortification.

"And I wasn't naked then! I was covered in fur! And not human! The not human part is really, really important!" She was diving for her uniform, yes.

[gunslingerpose]

"Okay, then you've been naked for about ten minutes, because you turning back into a real girl woke me up pretty quickly," Nick replied, shrugging and sitting up, eyes still closed, attempting to cast around the floor for his shades with one hand. "Either way, with you curled up on top of me, it's not like I got an eyeful of anything besides your shoulders and the top of your head. They are nice shoulders, though."

[spin_kick_snap]

It was a good thing that Kathy was still pulling on her gi. The strangled noise she made could easily be mistaken for...tying her belt too tightly? Maybe?

"...They are?" she croaked. "I mean--thank you?"

Oh lord. She'd been pressed against him. While naked. Skin against skin. Nick hadn't been wearing a shirt and she'd been naked and sleeping and...

And she had nice shoulders.

[gunslingerpose]

She had nice a-lot-of-things. But Nikolai would compliment her on one thing at a time, because he was pretty sure 'you're hotter than you give yourself credit for' would short her brain out entirely, and then she'd just dismiss it out of hand as pity-flattery.

"Welcome," he replied, sounding almost flip. His hand closed around something on the floor.

... Remote control.

"You wanna do me a favor and let me know when you're dressed? I'm gonna need you to turn your back for a minute so I can find my shades."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Oh! Oh, right! Umm, of course. I'm sorry, I should have thought..." Wait, no. It had kept his eyes closed while she got dressed. Not that she thought he'd have any reason to be sneaking peeks at her, but it was an extra layer of comfort. "I could help you find them? Orrrr I could maybe go to the bathroom, just to make sure it's clear?"

She remembered where it was. It had been an obstacle to be overcome this weekend.

[gunslingerpose]

Nikolai remembered that much. There were tiny cloven-hooved scuff-marks on the door, after all.

"Either is fine," he replied. "If you wanna go camp out in the bathroom for a minute, I'm not going to stop you. Wouldn't mind the second set of eyes, but this is sort of a 'one set of eyes at a time' hotel room, I'm afraid."

[spin_kick_snap]

Maybe if he hadn't GONE OFF BY HIMSELF WHERE HE COULD HAVE BEEN EATEN BY AN EAGLE, there wouldn't have been scuff marks.

So there.

"I could look around the couch while you look in the cushions and everything? This should keep your eyes not where I can accidentally see them and give you the second set to find your shades quicker."

Because, even mortified, she was a helper.

[gunslingerpose]

"Actually... That should work. Look at you, ever the problem solver," Nick chuckled, rearranging himself so that he was on his knees on the floor, facing the couch. "Can you see my face from wherever you're standing?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Yeah, so give me a second." Kathy dropping to her hands and knees and began peering under the couch for his shades. "I'm good! And I'll give you a warning if I'm about to look up in anywhere you could be, okay?"

[gunslingerpose]

"I appreciate that, thanks." Ah, light. Nick opened his eyes and took a moment to look around the room, getting his bearings...

... And lingering for a second on the sight of Kathy on her hands and knees. What? He had a pulse and she had a nice ass. Lingering was mandatory, here.

"I didn't knock you out last night that I can remember, so they can't have gone too far."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Nope, not even with all the dancing I did on your chest." Kathy's voice was muffled and her bottom wiggled slightly as she tried to reach a little further under the couch. Was that...? Nope. Empty soda can. "Sorry about that, by the way. I guess klipspringers are kind of nervous."

As opposed to Kathy, who was always totally cool.

[gunslingerpose]

"You thought my bike was going to eat you," he shared. "And I'm pretty sure you thought the bathroom door was, at one point, too. The dancing wasn't too bad, though."

If you didn't mind hooves putting the same sort of pressure on your chest as a large cat's paw might.

[spin_kick_snap]

"The bike was very noisy," Kathy informed him, pulling her head back out from under the couch but keeping her eyes averted. "And the bathroom door meant I couldn't see you. I'm pretty sure I was convinced you were going to be eaten by something the moment I turned my back."

Because Nick was pretty stupid for a prey animal.

"...I'll pay for the damages to your door."

[gunslingerpose]

It was pretty fortunate that Nick was actually at the top of his food chain, then, wasn't it?

"You can if you want to, but it's easy enough to fix," Nick replied with a shrug of his shoulders before he just started pulling the cushions from the couch entirely. "And the bike's not all that bad. Maybe when you're less antelope-shaped I can take you for a real ride on the thing, without having to stuff you into a saddlebag or put the thing in neutral and walk it or whatever."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Wait, you will?" Kathy caught herself at the very last second before looking up at him and grinning. "I'd love that! And--aha!"

She dove forward, snagging his sunglasses from where they had somehow landed under the coffee table. Holding them up, she beamed triumphantly, eyes firmly closed. "Look what I found!"

[gunslingerpose]

"Oh, good," Nick was quick about making his way over to her and plucking the shades from her hand. "Thanks, baby. I wouldn't be going anywhere without these."

Well. Except for heroing, of course. But he wasn't exactly keen on making Gorgon a full-time job until he could get more mirrored shades.

"And... there. It's safe for you to open your eyes again, too."

[spin_kick_snap]

Lord, every time he called her baby, it was like a firecracker went off in her stomach. It was stupid--he probably called every girl he talked to 'baby' or something. But still. Total turn-on.

Never mind that she'd written a Tumblr screed like a year ago about how if anyone ever used such an infantalizing nickname for her, she'd freak. That was different.

"Welcome," she said, opening her eyes again. "Glad I could help. Least I could do, with the way you took such good care of me over the weekend. And, you know, not laughing at me for freaking out about waking up..." She couldn't make herself say 'naked.'

[gunslingerpose]

"Human," Nick supplied, because he was capable of being half-decent at least occasionally. "And don't mention it. I'm not in the habit of leaving people I like behind when they're suddenly small, scared animals. And the last couple of days, it isn't like I even remembered who you were."

He wasn't apologizing for calling her a goat, though. She kicked and headbutted like one.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Human," Kathy agreed. "Actually, that kinda reminds me. Umm, would you mind if I maybe borrowed your shower? A night of heroing and then a weekend of being an antelope--" that part was important!--"means that I'd really appreciate one right now."

Granted, she could just run back to the dorms and shower. Or maybe see if he'd let her into one of the empty hotel rooms. But none of those brilliant ideas were occurring to her.