Chapter Text
Jason feels like someone should have told him about this beforehand.
He tries to curl himself further into a ball, tucking his head under his hands—no, paws, his brain corrects, huge dark velveteen paws with razor sharp claws sheathed within them. Someone's hand brushes his shoulder, and his tail lashes violently. He shudders and shakes the hand off.
"He's sooo lucky!" a familiar voice coos. Gracie. "A beautiful leopard with luxuriously soft fur... so cute!"
"Adorable," and that voice is Ashley. "Just makes you want to snuggle right up to him—Hey!"
This adorable leopard has weapons of its own, Jason thinks balefully. Normally, he's known for his cheerful and effervescent personality, but he figures that changing into a huge cat is a sound excuse to be mad, especially when everyone seems to know what's going on except him.
His suddenly sensitive ears pick up footsteps out in the hall, coming toward the game room. He recognizes Jeremy's stride (oh, so that's where Polina went), and it sounds like he's accompanied by Meryl, Charlie, and Polina, and oh shit, he cannot take the idea of any more people in this room!
When the door opens, he quickly uncurls himself and sprints out from under the ping-pong table, squeezing under one of the comfy armchairs backed against the wall. His human brain is telling him that it's only his teammates, people he knows, people who would never hurt him, but right now, the wild animal instincts are almost overwhelming, and he needs the small assurance of a wall behind him.
The footsteps are coming closer, and then Jeremy's face appears in front of the chair. "Hey, kid," he says.
"Uh, hey?" Jason answers, only it comes out as an animalistic noise, a mix between a chuff and a chirrup. Because right. He's a cat.
"Okay, uh, so Jason? This is, uh, normal? Don't panic—"
"And carry a towel," Ashley snickers. Jeremy scowls and his head disappears.
"Okay, that's enough," Meryl says, going into mother mode. Jason can't help but be thankful, because when Meryl's in mother mode, she's got an iron grip on the situation. "Everyone out. Charlie, make sure no one comes in until I say it's okay—" *sigh* "Everyone does include you, Gracie."
With a small amount of grumbling, the room slowly clears of skaters. Just before the door closes, Meryl calls out, "Oh, and could one of you boys grab some extra clothes? Jason's gonna need some."
"Sure thing, ma'am," Polina calls out, followed by Ashley's laughing "She did say boys..."
Then the room is quiet once more.
Jason's not sure how much time passes. He does know that Meryl sits down in one of the other chairs and takes her phone out. She doesn't do anything else, which the skittish animal instincts appreciate much more than anything else so far.
Eventually, he's calmed down enough to stick the tip of his nose out from under the chair. His whiskers quiver, which, weird. It's almost sensory overload. He can't believe how much he was missing in human form.
Suddenly, he spots the rope trailing from the ceiling. Huh. That wasn't here when he'd come in. That wasn't here when he'd changed...nope, not thinking about that. Anyway, the rope is a strange new addition and it's not a rope anymore it's a snake.
Prey.
Before he knows what he's doing, he's out from under the chair and leaping at the rope. He grabs it between both paws, but loses his hold as he lands. He rears up on his hind legs and bats at it, but he can't get a good grip. Eventually, he gets frustrated and falls back to all fours, tail lashing angrily.
Wow. That's new, too. He's gotten used to a default setting of cheerful, so to suddenly have a default setting of pissed off is... confusing.
He's confused.
And pissed off.
And a leopard.
That's when he realizes he's been on camera this whole time. He glares a haughty fuck you at Meryl, and makes to stalk off, until her words register with him.
"You want to learn how to change back?"
Oh yes please god why didn't you tell me before get me out of this leopard skin. He nods as best he can with a strange spinal structure.
"Think about being human... how it feels to be human. What it's like to have hands, and thumbs, and eyes that see color in definition, and walking upright, and no tail and no fur... just skin." There's a singsong quality to her voice now, hypnotic and convincing. It's kind of like an ocean, a lake, filling up the room with the breaking of waves against invisible shores. "Your claws have become fingernails, your paws feet, your fangs small white human teeth. Your face has flattened, your senses dulled, your spine shifted..."
Jason loses track of what's going on. When he rejoins reality, the rest of the skaters have come back in, and he's been propped in a sitting position in one of the chairs.
Considering the earlier comment about clothes, he's kind of surprised he's not naked.
Then he's even more surprised about what he's wearing. He's fairly certain he doesn't own such a pair of black skinny jeans, and the white t-shirt with the strange spiky symbol on it is new also. Considering the way they fit him, they probably don't belong to any one else.
But then where did they come from?
Okay. Jason's about ready to give up now. He's got to skate tomorrow. There's the free skate, and he doesn't have time for an existential crisis right now.
When they ask him if he wants to know what happened, he says, not now.
They understand. They're athletes too.
Only, he doesn't stop thinking about it. It's still tickling the back of his mind when he gets on the ice for the free skate, and despite starting the day in sixth (within reach of a medal) and having multiple people mess up before him, he can't make anything happen. He's too tense, not fluid enough, and he ends up in ninth.
Oh, well. He's only nineteen. He's got some time. In 2018, in Pyeongchang, he'll be ready. And it's not like this Olympics was a complete loss. He helped win the team bronze, so at least he's got a medal, but... oh well. Four years , and then we'll see.
On the other hand, he is now ready to find out everything he can about the leopard incident.