[PRP] Definitely not a cat (Oliver & Horace)

[The Semblance of Unity]

He pressed a hand to his eyes, knocking his glasses askew. The other he held out towards Oliver in a 'stop' motion. "Gimme a.. a minute." He just needed a moment to calm down and then he'd be back to normal.

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Oliver's mouth opened and then closed again. Actually, the urge to turn into a raccoon and run off was sorely tempting. Instead he stayed rooted to the spot. He wobbled a little bit before finally deciding to scoot forward a tiny bit.

"You... okay...?" He cracked his knuckles only to get distracted with how now very present claws. Stupid nails being stupidly hard; he went from looking at Horace to being fixated on his hands. Stupid terrible sensitive raccoon hands.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Horace briefly in and out slowly, remembering how he was told to focus on his breath, focus on the fact no one was touching him, there was nothing wrong. He took a final, deep breath and looked up. Horace still felt shivery, but he knew it would fade.

"Y-yeah, I'll be fine. You just startled me, sorry. It's a thing that happens. I... didn't expect that to be you." He smiled weakly, then his smile fell. "Oh... oh s**t, I pet you; I put my face on your stomach!" Even with Horace's darker skin, it was apparent he was flushing violently.

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Oliver snorted. "I was trying to tell you! It's hard to talk when you're a ******** raccoon." He huffed, reacting to Horace's obvious anxiety with normalcy. It worked for Shiloh. It worked when Shiloh did it to him too. "You totally did both of those things though."

He laughed a little bit, covering it with the back of hand.

"I really am sorry though." He settled back down, sitting with his hands on his lap in the sidewalk, palms turned up somewhat sagely. "I can leave if you wanna stew alone in your shame or something."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

The situation was just so utterly ridiculous that it was helping push back his rising anxiety. Oliver's laughed made a weak one of his own bubble out.

"You could have shifted back sooner, I guess." But now the ear motions made sense. "I have no shame. But you let a guy cuddle you," he pointed out, feeling much more lighthearted. Slowly, he began to unfold from the tight ball he'd curled himself into. He felt horribly exposed doing it.

"So, how is it being a raccoon?"

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"I mean." How exactly did you say you were only into guys cuddling you from the get go? He huffed. "It was only weird 'cause I was an animal." No, wait, it would've been weirder if you were still a human Oliver, think before you speak for ******** sake. "O-Or because you didn't know I was the animal."

He groaned and rubbed his temple (before jolting a little and pulling his hand back, he kept forgetting). Staring disdainfully at his hands he went on, "It's... got its pros and cons." He sighed. "My senses are totally jacked."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

He made a weird sound halfway between a cough and a laugh. "So it would've been okay to cuddle you and press my face to your stomach while you were in human form, then?" Horace made it halfway through the phrase before he started hiccuping on laughter. The last bits of panic had been stuffed securely away for him to obsess and get anxious over later.

"Are your hands okay?" He had a bunch of bandages and stuff in his bag and he yanked it around in front of him in case it was needed.

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

He rolled his eyes, "I dunno Horace, would it have been?" He deflected the question right back his way, one of his fuzzy ears flicking absentmindedly. He didn't have a good grasp on all these new nerves and muscles. Why the hell was he the one getting all flustered again! He was supposed to be using this as ammunition against Horace.

Maybe he just wasn't that good at keeping himself composed yet. "I—they're fine, mostly. I mean there's nothing wrong with them." He held his hands up and wiggled them. Aside from the sharper, longer nails, there was nothing different at all. "I gotta learn to get used to it eventually..." His nails clicked against each other, purposefully avoiding the fleshy parts of his skin.

"...actually, why do you have all that on you anyway?" First the weird a** witch hazel, now this.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"I dunno, Oliver, wanna try it and find out?" He grinned, feeling normal again. Horace definitely would not have minded touching Oliver's ears again. It was a novelty and they were really super soft. But that was probably incredibly strange to ask.

He looked at Oliver's hands and fiddled with the zippers on his backpack. "Does it feel weird? And oh, uh, because 'be prepared'... I guess. Everyone needs bandaids or sport tape or witch hazel sometime, right?" Was it really that weird? He frowned at his backpack. He'd needed these things so often that it had become habit.

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Fine, I dare you." He sat up straight and huffed, not bothering to touch on how weird his hands felt. He'd get over it. "And I mean, I guess it's not that weird. Shiloh always carted around first aid s**t too before we moved out." But that was mostly because Shiloh got into a metric s**t-ton of fights for no god given reason.

"Doesn't hurt to be prepared I guess, yeah. Just makes you wonder what you're preparing for." He didn't mean to make it sound like an accusation, just an observation. The ear flicked again.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

He zipped his bag back up, feeling kind of self-conscious. "Old habits die hard, I guess." He would really rather not get into the specifics of why he used to feel the need to carry around these sorts of things. Luckily, Oliver had provided him with the perfect out.

"Oh, you dare me? Put your stomach where your mouth is." Horace smirked, about ninety-five percent sure Oliver would not do anything of the sort.

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

He gawked, but then smirked a little bit in retaliation, "You can't trick me like that. I'm not initiating anything in case you shock me again." His arms folded awkwardly in an attempt to keep his palms from brushing up against his sleeves. Okay, that was a lame attempt at deflecting, but he had to try.

He sighed.

"Whatever, whatever." He waved it off with a silent you win.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Actually, I think it only shocks people when I'm startled or not expecting it. Like I don't often shock my co-workers and... well, I didn't shock your hand at the yarn shop, did I?" Horace shrugged. Him shocking people was honestly alright with him; it meant people were less inclined to suddenly touch him again. He didn't want touching to feel so awful forever, though, but he wasn't sure how to fix himself.

"Do you wanna blow this joint?"

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"I guess it didn't, no." He looked down at his hands again, wiggled them, sighed. His arms unfolded and he rocked his weight back and forth. Eventually he had enough momentum to get himself up to his feet, no assistance from his hands necessary. He still wobbled slightly, tail poofing out for extra balance. He still wasn't really used to that.

"That sounds like a plan, yeah." Said tail swished around as he looked up and down the street. "I can probably find a way out..."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

His lips twitched as he watched Oliver get to his feet. It would be rude to laugh, he reminded himself sternly. Horace got to his own feet, swinging his backpack on.

"Actually, I can, uh, kinda see when the doors will take me back. They look different." He tapped his glasses. It had only started happening recently, but it was great when he got dumped here unceremoniously. "They look kind of wobbly. So if we start walking, I can yell if I see one?"

melancholies