Big Black Cat Love

How would you react if a big black gay cat would come up to you and ask if you wanted to marry it? Well, the poor Asao finds out about his reaction, and he was quickly pulled into a weird adventure in a world different from ours.

This is a story I came up with yesterday and completed today. I just loved the idea of weirdness and comedy in this one that it practically wrote itself. It was so fun to write that I was actually laughing while writing, and suddenly I got myself pulled in into the story and I just fell in love with the characters and their world.

It is yet again a romantic story with comedy and weirdness. I hope you like it and please let me know if you want more of this couple! I could definitely write more about them! I'm sorry if this lacks any sex scenes, but I felt that the storyline was too pure and innocent. I think it turned out better this way, or what do you think?

The 19 year old Asao was walking home late at night from a birthday party he had been invited to. He wasn’t really up to it, but his friend – the birthday child – had been insisting on him staying because of a girl he wanted to match Asao with. Not that the girl was bad looking, but he didn’t swing that way. But he didn’t want to be rude so he stayed a little longer.

“Haaah! When will Hayabusa give this up and accept that I’m gay?” Asao sighed and scratched his head in irritation when he bought a soda from the vending machine on an empty street.

He wasn’t seeing anyone at the moment. His last boyfriend ran away with his precious computer, and after that he hadn’t heard from the other man at all. He had bad luck in love. Every man he met turned out to be either a loser or a user. So he had become a user himself and went to bed with the first good-looking guy he met and then left the morning after. Not that he was proud of it being a tramp like that, but he didn’t want to be alone either.

He wondered why he had such bad luck. He had concluded that it wasn’t because of his looks. He was really handsome in a typical teenage way. His hair had a chocolate color to it and it was long enough to reach his jawbone, and his eyes were a little lighter than the normal Japanese. He also had good self-confidence so it couldn’t be that he radiated any looser aura around him either.

“I guess I just have bad luck in love,” he sighed and looked up at the night sky after taking a sip from the soda. “To hell with love,” he then muttered and continued his way to his apartment.

Asao had had a weird feeling these past few days. It felt as if he was being watched, and he had been worried about a stalker being after him. But nothing had happened for almost a week, so he thought maybe it was his imagination.

But suddenly he got a really palpable feeling of being watched. He stopped in his tracks and looked over the shoulder. Nothing there. He looked all around him on the empty street, but he couldn’t see anything. Maybe it was hidden in the alleys between the houses?

“Nah! It’s my imagination again,” he sighed and continued walking. But he was spooked by the feeling.

Then he heard something above him, and he stopped instantly and turned his eyes up to the roof of the house next to him, and there in the moonlight he saw some weird kind of cat animal. It stood there and stared at Asao for a while until it jumped down from the roof and landed a few meters from him. Asao stared at it and when it came into the streetlight he saw a big black panther.

“A panther?!” Asao exclaimed in terror, and he felt dizzy and slumped down to the ground.

“I’m so sorry!” he heard someone say, but he drifted into unconsciousness.



“Ugh…”

Asao woke up. His head hurt a little but except for that he felt fine. He was laying on a comfortable bed and it was warm and cozy.

Who did I go home with this time?, he thought and yawned. But then he felt something furry under his fingers. Then he remembered the black panther from last night and sat up in panic.

“OW!” his and another’s voice cried out.

He had hit his head in something, and when he opened his eyes he saw a young man at his age who sat on the floor and covered his hurting face in his hands. He could see his eyes though and they were tearing up.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Are you okay?” he asked, and the other man looked up at him.

Suddenly it hit him. Asao saw the clothes the other man was wearing. It was something like from a fantasy novel containing elves and stuff. The man had a dark green t-shirt like thing on him, and black trousers. The material seemed to be of some kind of hand-woven linen. Around his waist hung a brown leather belt which had a knot in it made of leather laces instead of a buckle, and in the belt hung a knife and a little bag. Over the man’s shoulders lay a gray fur mantle, and his arms were covered with black and blue tattoos in weird shapes.

The man was handsome though if you ignored the blood running from his nose. His middle length hair was jet-black and put up in a ponytail, and his eyes were silver blue. His skin was little darker than Asao’s, and his muscles were impressive. He was athletically built and a little taller than Asao.

When Asao looked around all he saw were wooden walls like a cottage and animal skins, a wooden desk with chair and some shelves with weird wooden things on them. The bed was a king-sized one, so it took most of the space in the small room – or whatever it was.

“Um… Where is this supposed to be? Are you an actor?” he asked the man on the floor, who stood up and wiped the blood away from his nose.

“An actor? Me? No, I’m nothing of such. I’m Uano, the son to the tribe’s leader,” he said, and Asao stared at him.

“The tribe?” he asked in an unfriendly manner. “What are you bullshitting me? I know I may look stupid to you but this is an insult! Not even I am that stupid to believe that crap you’re trying to feed me!”

Uano sighed.

“I knew this would happen,” he said to himself and then looked at Asao. “Please believe me when I say that I took you here to my world last night when we met on that street in your world.”

“Your world? My world? We met…?” Asao was trying to understand this fucked up situation with this loony. “Wait! Did you have something to do with that black panther from last night that attacked me?!” he then yelled when he remembered the panther again.

“Attacked you?! I did no such thing! I was just trying to discuss with you when you suddenly fell to the ground and started drooling!” Uano yelled back.

“What the hell are you talking about?! I’m talking about that black panther!” Asao yelled again. He was getting really irritated at this stupid situation.

“Yes! And I am the black panther!” Uano yelled back.

“You’re what?!” Asao started laughing. This was so weird that he didn’t know what else to do. Did this other man really think that Asao would believe that kind of crap? “You’re seriously retarded. I’m going home,” Asao laughed and stood up from the bed to head for the door.

“Not so fast!” Uano jumped in front of him.

“Hey, out of my way, you crazy person!”

Asao was about to push Uano away when he saw something that didn’t seem right. Uano had two fur covered black things on his head – one on each side – and then a long black thing pointing out from his back.

“What are…?” he said quietly and backed away.

Uano sighed and moved the fur covered things on his head, and the long thing behind him meandered around his hip and moved like a…

“A tail?” Asao asked, and Uano nodded. “And ears?” Uano nodded again. “They’re moving?”

“They’re real. So please sit down and listen to what I have to say,” Uano said, and Asao stared wide-eyed at him and backed slowly away to the edge of the bed and sat down on it. His knees were shaking. “Now listen. As I said before I’m Uano – the son to the Panthera Onca tribe’s leader. We’re not humans here. We are actually animals with human form and intelligence. We’re not from your world, and you were brought here by me to help me.”

“To help you?” Asao was kind of spaced out by all this. Was this real? If it was then it was really good acting skills this dude had. “Help you with what?”

Uano cleared his throat.

“You see, I’m turning 20 in a few days, and that means that I’m automatically forced to marry. My father wants me to marry the daughter of his right hand man, but I don’t want to.”

Asao stared at him.

“And you want me to do what?”

Uano sighed nervously and look worried at Asao.

“Don’t flip out now, but I want you to … marry me instead.” Asao stared at him dumbfounded. “Please! I’ve been watching you for a few days in your world and I think you are the right man for the job.”

“The right man…? WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!”

“Keep your voice down! Please!” Uano begged and threw a glance at the door.

“You are the stalker I’ve been suspecting for these past few days? You’re the one who followed me around? Why don’t you marry that chick and just leave me alone?” Asao was really angry.

“It’s more complicated than you think. The others in my tribe don’t think I’m normal just because I like guys, and now that I’m getting 20 I have to marry according to the tribes laws. There aren’t any gays in my tribe except for me, so I thought maybe I could find a gay human to marry?”

“You just though you could kidnap a human and marry him just like that?! You’re crazy!”

“Please understand! I have been watching you for a while and I just knew you were the right for me. The others in my tribe don’t think I’m normal because of my sexuality, but at least you would accept me because you’re in the same situation as me, right?”

“Normal? You?! You’re not normal at all! You have ears on your head and a fucking tail sticking out of your ass! That’s not normal!”

“Hey! It’s not sticking out from my ass! It’s an extension from my tailbone on the backbone!”

“Backbone? You don’t have a fucking backbone! You kidnapped me!”

“Shut up already!”

Uano took a leap and jumped at Asao. At the same time he transformed into the same black panther Asao had seen last night, and it landed on Asao and pushed him down against the bed with his big paws against his shoulders.

“Now listen carefully. I’m not letting you go home until you have helped me. I’m not marrying that daughter because I don’t like her, and you’re going to help me. If not then I’ll not help you back home. Understood?” Uano’s voice echoed in Asao’s head, like telepathy.

Asao was so scared of the panther that he just did as told and nodded his head.

“Good. Now then …” Uano jumped down from on top of Asao and turned back into his human form. “… we’ll go through the details of the plan.”

The plan was to Asao and Uano to marry, but it all was supposed to be fake. Asao would have to pretend that he was in love with Uano, and they would marry. Once the ceremony was over they would have a “fight” and Asao would leave and go home.

“But wouldn’t they just force you to marry someone else?” Asao asked where he sat on the bed, and Uano walked around in front of him while thinking.

“No, that won’t be a problem. In our law it is clearly stated that once you’ve married someone, even if you go separate ways you will always be married and can’t marry anyone else. It doesn’t matter if you’re male or female because the law book doesn’t state that is has to be male and female,” Uano explained.

“So according to your law we’ll be married forever?” Asao asked, and Uano nodded. “But why throw that away on someone like me? I bet you can find some … gay cat - or whatever - somewhere.”

 Asao didn’t know if he should laugh or cry at this bizarre situation.

“There is no one else. I’m the only one,” Uano stated and looked at Asao. “So you’ll stay here with me for a few days, and we have to pretend being all lovey-dovey so that no one can suspect us.”

“Okay. And when all this is done you’ll help me home, right?”

“Right.”


When the night fell over the Panthera Onca village Asao had dressed in something that he would call a woman’s dress. But according to Asao it was an everyday get up for men when they weren’t out working or hunting. The dress was blue with white embroidery of leaves, and he got brown comfortable leather boots to wear.

“This way”, Uano said as he held Asao’s hand, and Asao followed him through the village. He looked around and could see people with the same kind of black ears and tail as Uano had. Some were turned into panthers too and were playing with small panther kittens in a garden.

Maybe they’re mothers in some kind of kindergarten?, Asao thought.

But he was really uncomfortable with all the stares he got from the other people in the village. He took a tighter grip around Uano’s hand and hurried closer to him.

Then they finally arrived at a big wooden house made of logs, and Uano opened the door.

“Father! Mother! I’m here with my bride!” he yelled out into the house.

Asao immediately blushed at the word “bride”, and then he looked around. There was a fireplace with a small fire in it, and the house was well lit. It looked something as in the books about the Nordic Vikings.

They could hear steps and Uano pulled Asao closer and put his arm around his waist.

“Just play along,” he whispered in his ear and licked it. Asao let out a small yelp. The sensation went through him like a bullet, and he began to bleed lust. It was his weakest point after all.

“Mm! Stop it!” he whispered irritated, and then suddenly a man and woman appeared.

“Mom! Dad!” Uano said and pretended to blush at being discovered flirting with his “bride”. Asao didn’t need to pretend. His cheeks and ears blushed so bad that they felt hot. “Let me introduce the bride I’ve chosen. His name is Asao and comes from the human world.”

The man sighed.

“Are you sure, son? A human and a panther are completely different species. And you’re not able to get an heir who can take over your position as the tribe leader when you die,” said the man who obviously was Uano’s father.

“Yes, I know father. But please trust me. I don’t want to marry Ilista. I want to marry this human no matter what,” Uano said, and Asao kind of felt happy when he heard that.

But it’s just fake. He’s just pretending, he thought and put his hand on Uano’s chest and moved closer to press against him and put his head on the panther man’s chest. Uano seemed surprised first but then smiled and put both of his arms around Asao and gave him a kiss on his forehead. It felt warm and nice, like the arms of a boyfriend.

“He seems to be the woman in the relationship. What do you think, my love?” Asao’s father said.

Geeh! If I’m the woman in this male to male relationship then it’s okay?, Asao thought bitterly.

“He’s adorable!” the woman outburst and took the last steps to her son and his new bride. She put her delicate fingers on Asao’s cheeks and smiled happily. “You are very handsome! If you love my son then it doesn’t matter who or what you are.”

Asao blushed again.

“But honey, he’s a human! And Uano is the next leader for the tribe. He has to marry a female from our own species and produce an heir,” Uano’s father exclaimed.

“Chitchat! You’re so traditional and conservative. Let the past go and let these boys get married. Uano would be very happy, I think,” she said, and her words seemed to be the end of the discussion. “Because I believe that you love my son very much, right?” she then asked Asao, and his heart felt suddenly heavy.

“Um… Yes, I do. I love him a lot,” he answered, and Uano caressed him over his head.

“Then that’s settled! You two are going to marry in a few days! We must get started with preparations and the ritual!” she then said and started to order some panthers that were hiding in the shadows that Asao hadn’t seen until now.

“That went well!” Uano said as they returned to Uano’s place. Asao sat down on the bed and sighed heavily. “What is it?” he then asked.

“Your parents seem to be very loving and caring about you. Doesn’t it feel bad to deceive them like this?” Asao asked, and Uano shook his head.

“I love them, but I must think about my own happiness first. I don’t want to waste my life on a girl that I don’t love.”

“Yeah, but still…”

Suddenly Uano jumped over him and pushed him down on the bed. Asao was shocked as he felt Uano’s lips press against his, and then Uano ripped the dress open.

“What are you doing?!” Asao yelled.

“Quiet!” Uano whispered and kept kissing him like he was in heat.

Then the door to the cottage opened after a short knock, and then they could hear a “Oh!”. When Asao looked at the door he could see a girl at his age with very long black hair. She was staring at them with shocked eyes.

“Ilista?” Uano asked, and the girl named Ilista bowed her head.

“I’m sorry for disturbing,” she said quietly and then ran away. Uano let out a small growl like a panther and went to close the door.

“That was the girl you were supposed to marry?” Asao asked and sat up on the bed.

“Yeah. She’s a pain. I see her more like an irritating friend, but she sees me as her hero and prince. She’s pathetic,” Uano explained and sighed. “I’m sorry if I just jumped you like that, but I could hear her coming so I wanted to show her that I didn’t love her. I know it was cruel against both you and her, and I’m very sorry.”

Asao stared at Uano and then averted his eyes and pulled what remained of the clothes tighter around him.

“It’s … okay…”



A few days passed and Uano had showed Asao a lot of things. He had shown him the beautiful waterfall not too far away from the village, and they went there to swim every day. One day they visited the Lepus Timidus village – a friendly tribe of hare like people who were good friends with the Panthera Onca tribe. They had long ears and cute bunny tails.

At nights Asao and Uano would sit at the big fire where the whole tribe gathered to eat and have fun. It felt like a big family and after a while Asao noticed that he began to feel at home. The whole tribe – except for Ilista and her family – treated Asao like one of them and offered him company and loved to ask him about his human world.

He and Uano would sit tight together and act being all lovey-dovey by feeding each other, kissing each other, hugging and cuddling… Asao had to be honest with himself. At some points he just wanted to puke all over their super lovable pretend relationship. But at the same time he liked it and it truly felt like Uano was his boyfriend.

He’s what I’ve been looking for for all this time. I wish I didn’t need to go back home to my human world, he caught himself thinking. Maybe I really love him?

He knew he couldn’t stay. He had to go back home. He bet all his friends were worried about him now. Maybe they already had contacted the police and they were searching for him?



The next day he was out in the forest alone searching for flowers. Uano was in a meeting with his father and the priests of the village to discuss Uano’s future as the tribe leader, so Asao didn’t have much to do. He picked up a blue flower and looked at it a while. He was thinking about tomorrow’s ceremony and ritual. He was supposed to be baptized into the clan before he could marry with Uano. It meant he would get a special place in the tribe even though he was an outsider. But he would leave that special place next to Uano right after the ceremony.

“Why do I always fall for the wrong ones?” he asked himself quietly. Then he heard something behind him and he turned around. “Who’s there?!” A black panther jumped down from a tree nearby, and it changed itself to Ilista. “Ilista? What are you doing here?” he then asked, but Ilista looked at him with hateful eyes.

“I’m here to fight you, human! We’ll fight about Uano!” she exclaimed.

“Fight? I don’t want to fight anyone!” he said and stared at her.

“I love him! I just can’t take it that a mare human gets to marry with him! He was supposed to be mine!” she yelled and turned herself into her true shape of a black panther. She got closer and showed her teeth. Asao started cold sweating and backed away. He knew Ilista was serious and wanted to fight for Uano, but Uano wasn’t in love with her.

When Asao was about to turn around and run Ilista took a leap and landed on him. The panther was so heavy Asao fell to the ground with her over him. She growled and hissed at him and her claws buried themselves in his chest where they held him down.

“Agh! Please, Ilista! Don’t do this!”

“Silence! I love him more than anyone and I can’t accept this marriage! If you die maybe he’ll see me and marry me! That is the only thought I have in my head. I have to kill you so he will notice me!” she screamed inside his head.

“This is not love, Ilista! This is just pure hate and jealousy! If you kill me Uano would get heartbroken, and if he ever finds out it was you who killed me he’ll hate you forever!” Asao didn’t know what to do, so he tried to talk her out of it. But he was so scared his voice shook and he felt dizzy.

“What do you know about a woman’s love? You should just die for interfering in our tribe’s traditions!”

She opened her mouth and was about to bite him in his throat when Asao yelled:

“I love him! I love him so much it hurts knowing that I’m not what he is! I’m sorry for interfering but I just can’t help it! I love him!” He was being honest. Tears rolled down his temples as he closed his eyes hard. He was so scared he didn’t want to look at the black panther on top of him. “I don’t want to die. I’m so sorry. I really am.”

“Liar!”

He knew he would die the next second she bit him. Her fangs were sharp and they would bury themselves in his soft flesh. He didn’t know what else to do than cry. He was so in love and so heartbroken about knowing he had to leave Uano and the village after the ceremony – if he lived for that long. He didn’t want to leave, but Uano surely didn’t love him and would toss him to the curb like everyone else after the ceremony.

Why do I always have bad luck in love? Why did I have to fall for him?

He felt Ilista’s breath against his throat and prepared himself. But suddenly something hit Ilista hard and she fell off of him.

“Are you okay, Asao?!” he heard Uano’s voice, and he opened his eyes and saw two panthers in front of him. One was laying on the ground and the other had its back turned against Asao like it was protecting him. Then more panthers appeared and everyone kept an eye on Ilista.

“I’m fine…” Asao said quietly and sat up, and Uano hurried to him. He changed to his human form and examined Asao.

“I’m so sorry, Asao,” Uano said and pulled him to a hug.

Now he’s pretending again. How long can we keep up with this?, Asao thought sadly, and the tears rolled down his cheeks and he burst out into a cry.



He lay in bed in Uano’s cottage under the blanket. Uano sat on the edge of the bed in silence and listened to Asao’s hulking sounds as he tried to calm down. He was still in shock.

“Maybe we should abort everything and just send you home?” Uano said, and Asao sat up and looked at the panther man’s back. His tail lay on the bed and didn’t move, and his ears hung like he was sad.

“You don’t want to marry me anymore?” Asao asked, and Uano laughed a sad laugh.

“I think it’s better to send you home and stop all this pretending. It’s not fair to you or anyone else.”

“Pretending…” Asao said quietly and sighed. I want to stay by your side as long as I can, he thought, and took a deep breath to say: “Let’s do this. We’ve come this far. The ceremony is tomorrow, and Ilista has gotten her scolding. I think one night in confinement will calm her down.”

Uano turned around and looked sadly at Asao.

“Are you sure?” he asked, and Asao nodded firmly.



The next day, early in the morning, the village’s priests came to get Asao. Asao was first cleansed with special herb water boiled during yesterday and cooled down under the full moon during the night. The full moon made the water sacred to ward off all evil spirits. After that Asao was dressed in a white robe and led to a special spring deep inside the forest in a cave. The rest of the village followed to be witnesses and bless Asao’s membership in the tribe, and Uano was the one to help Asao in to the water.

The priests began praying and during their prayers Asao watched the big crowd of panthers watching him. He wasn’t intimidated any more. He was to become one of them – though only in name.

But I’m doing this to hurt them, he thought and wanted to apologize to everyone. But I’m also doing this for Uano so he can be happy – even if it means he’ll be happy with someone else after he’s done with me.

His chest hurt.

“And now, repeat after me,” the head priest said and Asao turned his attention to the priest and repeated the promise he made to the whole tribe and their gods. During the promise the other priests put flowers into the water and then all the members of the tribe who blessed Asao’s membership would pour water from the spring over Asao’s head with a special cup made of holy wood.

When Asao had been soaked with water from the spring by the whole tribe – even by Ilista and her family – Uano was the last one. When Uano poured the spring water over Asao he could see sadness in Uano’s eyes.

Why do you look at me with such sad eyes?, Asao thought.

After the ritual was done Asao was escorted back to the village on Uano’s furry panther back. He had first insisted on walking by himself, but Uano had been unusually stubborn and so Asao gave up and let Uano carry him while the rest of the tribe followed.

“I’m sorry if I’m soaking your fur,” Asao whispered and laid down on Uano’s back and felt the movements from Uano’s panther muscles under his cheek.

“It’s nothing to apologize for. I was the one who insisted. And besides, it’ll dry fast in the sun,” Uano answered, and Asao smiled.

“You know – this has been the most amazing time of my life. I never thought I would ever feel this welcome in a place with people that are so different from me.”

“Humans have a lot to learn about equality. We all breathe the same way, and we all feel the same feelings. When I was in your world watching you I noticed that you humans tend to say that you all are the same, but then you divide yourselves again into races. You say that Asian and western people are equal and the same, but then you keep on talking about your difference with your skin color and from where you are,” Uano said, and Asao sighed.

“We humans are stupid, aren’t we?” he asked, and Uano chuckled.

“No, you humans just got a lot to learn,” he answered, and Asao smiled and closed his eyes and buried his fingers into Uano’s black fur.

When the evening came it was time for the ceremony. Asao had been kidnapped by Uano’s mother and her maids, and they were playing dress-up with him. He got a long red robe on him. It was very simple. It had a green girdle and a black collar. On his head they put a crown made of different flowers and then they massaged perfume in his hair and on his wrists.

Then the ceremony began.

It was a simple ceremony. He and Uano – who was dressed in a light blue robe of the same design as Asao’s with the same kind of crown of flowers on his head – stood in front of the head priest and Uano’s parents. The head priest prayed while the other priests were chanting, and after the payers Uano’s mother and father gave them their blessings, and it was finished.

The party afterwards was wild. First Asao and Uano sat down next to the big fire around which they always sat during the previous evenings with the rest of the villagers. There they got the offerings from the villagers, and after that the food was served.

Asao got a little too much to drink and was so drunk he threw himself on Uano and kissed him. He knew he wasn’t acting properly, but neither were the villagers who were as drunk as him. But Uano pushed him away and whispered to him to control himself.

“I’m so sorry, Uano. But I can’t help it. You’re so handsome and hot that I have to touch you.”

“Please control yourself,” Uano whispered again when he pulled Asao into his arms.

“Ohoho! Shouldn’t you boys retreat to the cottage and get all lovey-dovey between the sheets?” Uano’s mother yelled from the other side of the fire. She was dead drunk.

“Mother!” Uano complained and blushed.

“What do you say? Shall we listen to your mother’s advice?” Asao asked with a flirty smile on his lips.

Uano sighed.

“You’re so drunk I think it’s better if we call it a day and try to sleep,” he said, and Asao’s expression turned to sad.

“No action on the wedding night?”

“It’s a fake wedding, is it not?” Uano whispered, and Asao’s heart felt heavy again.

“Yeah…” he muttered. “Fake…”

They left the party and took the wedding clothes off and lay down on the bed – both on his own side of the king sized bed. They didn’t say anything and didn’t touch the other.



The next morning Asao woke up with a hangover, and he moaned in irritation.

“Wake up. We have to go before the villagers wake up,” he heard a voice say, and Asao opened his eyes a crack and saw Uano’s handsome face in front of him. “I have to take you home,” he said, and Asao nodded and sighed.

Asao didn’t know if it was yesterday’s alcohol or his aching heart that made him feel so nauseous, but he knew he didn’t feel good at all. He was depressed and sad about having to leave the village and continue his lonely life back at home in his own world – without his handsome panther man at his side.

He ran after Uano who held his hand as they hurried through the forest. Asao didn’t really know where they were running, but soon they came to two old trees who’s branches had grown together to form something that looked like a gate.

Uano chanted a spell and suddenly the gate started to glow.

“Come on,” Uano said and pulled Asao along. They ran through the gate and the next thing Asao knew he was standing at the park a few blocks away from his place. It was raining and it was getting dark. “We’re here.”

Asao looked at Uano and smiled a sad smile.

“Thank you for everything. It has been an experience of a lifetime,” he said quietly and put his hand against Uano’s chest to feel his heartbeat under the palm of his hand. “I wish you the best of luck and I hope you find another gay cat somewhere to spend your life with now that you’re free.”

He stood on tiptoe and gave Uano a light kiss on his cheek. Though I wish it would be me, he thought sadly. Then he gave him a last smile and said: “I love you. Take care.”

“You too,” answered Uano with averted eyes.

He turned his back against Uano and walked. He was so surprised that his confession came out so easily. It was usually so hard for him to say the special words to someone. But to say them to Uano felt so natural. Tears started to flow down his cheeks and he ran the rest of the way until he got home, unlocked the door and stepped inside.

The second he closed the door he broke down and cried. He would miss Uano so much that he didn’t know if he could continue like nothing had happened. He turned on his cell phone and suddenly he was bombed by text messages and missed calls. His friends and his parents had tried to call him.

Maybe I just should call them and tell them I’m fine?, he thought and calmed himself down. Then he began to call everyone who had tried to reach him.

After a few hours when the time turned to midnight he brewed himself some tea and took a sleeping pill. He was so tired, but his aching heart didn’t want to stop hurting and he couldn’t sleep because of all the thoughts about Uano.

Why do I always have bad luck in love? Why is it always my heart that gets ripped apart like this?, he thought and sighed.

He was about to go to bed when there was a pounding on the door. He hurried to the door and when he opened it he stared at a soaked Uano. The rain was pouring down heavily and he must have been out in the rain for a long time.

“I have to ask you if you meant what you said in the park,” he said, and Asao stared wide-eyed at him.

“Uh… Yes.”

“Everything?”

“Y-yeah. I meant everything I said.”

Without warning Uano threw himself on him and hugged him. Asao’s clothes got soaked from the wet Uano, but he didn’t notice it. He was so shocked that all he could do was stare at empty air.

“How stupid am I for letting you go? How could I even think about leaving you here and return home to my world after all we’ve been through?”

Wait... Hold on! What is he saying?, Asao asked himself and put his hands on Uano’s shoulders and pushed himself away to look at the man before him.

“I didn’t want to go home. When you told me you loved me I didn’t first understand what you meant. But right when I was about to go through the gate I started to realize that maybe all the sadness that I’ve seen in your eyes these couple of days could be because you loved me and thought I was just pretending.”

“Weren’t you?” Asao asked.

“No! Or yes, I was. But at the same time I thought you were pretending too, so I didn’t think it would matter if I was pretending or not,” Uano whispered, and Asao’s knees was about to give way under him, but Uano held him upright. “I love you, Asao. I really love you.”

“Uano…”

“Come with me. Come back home with me.”

“I-I can’t. I have friends and family here who’ll miss me,” Asao said with a weak voice.

“Then I’ll stay here.”

“You would? What about your family?” Asao asked in surprise. “Doesn’t the tribe need you as their heir?”

Uano sighed.

“Yes, they do. I know I should return home, but I love you too much.”

Asao kissed Uano on his lips and smiled.

“Can’t we just compromise and switch between the worlds from time to time? I have to go to the university to study, but you can come to visit me whenever you want. And during the weekends and holidays I’ll come to your world. Just promise me you’ll come and get me,” he said, and Uano’s sad eyes changed to joyful.

“I promise.”

“I’m sorry. I’m getting really sleepy. I took a sleeping pill and I’m becoming drowsy. I think I have to sleep,” Asao then said, and Uano kissed him deeply and passionately.

“Can I sleep next to you?” he asked, and Asao smiled and nodded.

“Please do.”

They closed the door, took off their soaked clothes and lay down on Asao’s queen-sized bed. Before falling asleep Uano transformed to his panther self, and then he pulled Asao close with his big black paws and hugged him against him. Asao smiled and buried his face in Uano’s black and soft fur and fell asleep in the arms of his panther man.