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Laios got woken up by something slithering by his side.
Even before opening his eyes, the adventurer’s hand instinctively snapped around the hilt of his sword, alert and ready to fight back.
But Kensuke stood still, unfazed- allowing Laios to release the tension in his body in a puffy exhale.
He blinked, trying to adjust his eyes to the darkness, while his consciousness crawled out of slumber as well- and his natural curiosity won over the need to roll over and fall back asleep.
So, what was this non-threat next to him? And why couldn’t his eyes distinguish any shape in the dark yet, despite the embers in the fireplace still crackled quietly, indicating a source of light should still be up?
Laios wrinkled his nose- bothered by something prickling its tip, and all of sudden everything made sense.
The darkness occluding his field of view wasn’t darkness at all, but rather a patch of black fur, extremely close to his face.
‘Idzutsumi’, Laios realized, relieved, with a small hint of pride.
Being chosen by a wary creature like a cat, to get napped on, was somehow special.
Especially for a guy who’s only ever had affinity with dogs.
Moreover, last time he’d tried to pet the young cat lady, that earned him quite the stingy facial scratch.
Laios craned his head up, above the mass of fur, to take a look at their current sleeping arrangement:
Idzutsumi was laying all stretched on her side, her spine flush against Laios’ arm.
For some reason, the human-beast had decided to crawl further up the cot, and that was why the sight of her furry shoulder-blades was what Laios had woken up to.
Well, she wasn’t that unpleasant of a presence.
Idzutsumi’s skinny frame didn’t take up much space at all, she wasn’t pushing any elbow or clawy feet into Laios’ tender fleshy bits, and she didn’t even snore.
It could had been easy for the adventurer to fall asleep again, and simply wake up in the morning to find out she had already sneaked away, anyway.
But, there was an issue.
There was this thought, burning into Laios brain, forbidding him to sleep, or to think of else at all, for the matter.
The voice in his head was pleading: “This is our chance! We can finally find out what her body looks like. How much of it is beast or human- like!”.
Laios tried to reason with himself- and found natural to imitate Marchille’s tone, when doing so:
“It’s wrong. It’s unacceptable: one can’t just grope another person- even if its an half-beast, and it’s out of pure thirst for knowledge, and nothing else.
Idzutsumi is still a young, unmarried lady” the petulant Mercille-voice continued “putting your disgusting man-paws on her could traumatize her forever! Don’t even dare think about it.”
Those were all very valid points, and Laios would’ve really loveed to agree to them, make amends, and give up.
But his own mental voice keeps whining: “This is one chance in a lifetime. How many human-beasts exists out there? How many of them are cats, specifically? And, if she reaches her goal, sooner than later Idzutsumi will get rid of her beastly side, throwing way any possibility of studying it forever”
No, no, no, Laios thinks, now that’s unacceptable.
He must know, he must find out, what Idzutsumi’s current form truly is like, before its gone.
The young man took a deep breathe, determination taking over any doubt.
Besides,- he remarked- it wasn’t like he was going to force himself on Idzutsumi.
The cat girl had proven herself to be miles away from the demure type who can’t assert herself when subjected to unwanted attentions. Quite the opposite.
Laios was confident Idzutsumi would have simply hissed at him and fast wriggled away, in case she objected to his experiments, and of course he would’ve let her, without any protest.
Well then. How to proceed?
Still on his back, Laios lifted up his arm, stretching it over his torso and, as delicately as he could, placed his wrist on the dip of Idzutsumi’s side.
“Merp!”she chirped- and her whole body twitched, the fur of her side prickling up.
But in a blink, it was over. Rather than jumping up and scuttle away, Idzutsumi stood still, her fur slowly deflating back into a smooth, uniform coat.
Laios could feel her breathing slow down too, to a steady pace, under his wrist.
The young man waited patiently, until his pulse matched hers.
Then, gingerly, he spread his palm open, fingers delicately plunging into the soft fur of Idzutsumi’s side.
The cat didn’t even flinch, this time, and Laios smiled in the dark.
Things were going great, so far, but he knew better than to ruin everything by getting impatient and moving too fast.
As slowly as he could, Laios begun to run his palm up and down- from Idzutsumi’s hipbone to her ribcage, and back.
His hand was huge, compared to her lithe, minute frame, and Laios could’ve easily cupped her whole stomach in one move.
But he kept touching a marginal area of her side, either with his open palm or the tip of his fingers- making sure she wouldn’t feel trapped or overwhelmed.
By experience, Laios knew smaller creatures where more willing to let themselves get pet, if allowed ample open space to flee, if they felt they needed to.
Whether deeply asleep or dozing, Idzutsumi wasn’t showing any sign of discomfort.
Laios even tried to keep track of her tail’s movement- if he could hear it tap on the groud, it would had been a dead giveaway to cut out his ministrations immediately- but the appendage laid down, asleep as its owner.
Emboldened by his success, Laios finally stretched his reach further up her abdomen, rubbing circles into the fur, now searching, eagerly mapping the whole area of her tummy.
And, eyes wide with frantic excitement, he finally found something.
Under his fingertip, small like a seed, unbelievably soft, Laios could feel a nipple.
So, Idzutsumi the human-beast did have cat-like nipples!
The breakthrough made the hair in the back of Laios’ nape stand up, as if his whole body was shot with electricity.
But his curiosity was now erupting anew with more questions: was it gonna be eight or six nipples? Was it gonna be symmetrical? Regular cats could be either, but would an half-human differ much?
Laios realized his breathing had gotten heavy and labored. Not good. He took a deep breathe.
If his excitement got him to act clumsy, and caused Idzutsumi to weasel away, he was never gonna forgive himself for it. He couldn’t allow that to happen, not now that he had gotten so far with his discoveries.
The young man waited until he had calmed down, idly rubbing small circles around the cat’s nub with his middle finger.
Finally, he begun to explore again, letting his fingers travel all over Idzutsumi’s stomach. And soon enough, he made more outstanding discoveries.
Where her lithe muscles dipped, in the center of her tummy, Laios did find a navel.
An unremarkable one, for human standards, but it made for an interesting contrast with-- (Laios’ forehead was drenched with sweat, as he tried to contain himself from hollering)- the SIX cat-like nipples he found, symmetrically distributed along Idzutsumi’s front, from her upper groin to the area right below her ribcage.
Laios paused.
His hand was cramping. After all, his arm was still stretched all over his own torso.
The young man gnawed at his bottom lip, debating if rolling over to his side- to get into a more comfortable position- was a risk too great of scaring Idzustumi off their sleeping mat- but eventually, he decided to dare.
As he rolled over- now fully facing the back of his beast subject- Laios panicked for a second, as Idzutsumi stirred in her sleep.
But it turned out, she would just huddle closer to him, making herself the small spoon against Laios’ massive chest.
Was she awake or just subconsciously getting closer to a source of heat? Laios wondered to himself.
Well, it didn’tt matter. She was still peacefully, passively letting him explore her body.
The adventurer put his hand back to work, rubbing opened-palm circles into Idzutsumi’s flat belly.
It did feel quite amazing to wander up her torso to eventually find out, once he slipped his hand under her top- that the girl’s fur got much longer and fluffier, in the middle of her chest.
Ears thrumming with his own pulse, hand engulfed in fur, for a second Laios thought, amused, that the feeling was indistinguishable from petting a real cat.
Then, his fingertip traveled over a delicate curve of soft skin- a breast- Laios realized, in awe, as he felt the smooth texture of a very human areola under his touch.
Unable to contain himself, the young man cupped the tiny breast in his hand, brushing the nub with the side of his thumb.
Sure, it was small, but undeniably a human breast.
Meaning, Idzutsumi had both cat and human secondary sex organs!
It was amazing!! Such an incredible combination of--
Laios flinched, as Idzutsumi’s head bumped into the nook of his clavicle, as she threw her head back.
Huge, yellow eyes stared at him.
Oh! Alright. Was she about to turn him into minced meat now?
Wait-
The headbutt hadn’t been aggressive at all- and most importantly, Laios realized, eyebrows shooting up in surprise, the buzzing noise he had initially mistook for his own heart-beat in his ears- was actually Idzutsumi purring.
The girl blinked slowly- her golden eyes reduced to long, shiny slits..
Laios blinked back at her. Her expression was unreadable.
The young man wondered if he was supposed to say something. He had no reference of correct behavior, for a situation like the one he got himself into.
So, he simply resorted to resume what he was doing- this time, confident enough to wrap his arm around Idzutsumi, to comfortably reach her other breast.
With the tip of his middle finger, he rubbed the areola, while the index gently pushed the nub.
Laios hummed to himself, satisfied with the confirmation all her nipples- human ones included – were completely symmetrical. And very pleasant to the touch too.
Idzutsumi wiggled, and Laios begun to open his arms, to allow her to scramble out- but it turned out that wasn’t what the beast intended to do.
Twisting around in a way only a cat could, and lifting her head up, the girl’s tongue darted out to lick the side of Laios chin.
The man’s jaw fell open, in pure awe and child-like wonder: it was spiky!
Idzutsumi’s tongue was rough in texture, just like a real cat’s!
But she could speak just like a person. Could it be that…?
Hearth thumping in his chest, Laios couldn’t contain himself anymore, euphoric as he was with burning curiosity: easily and quickly sneaking his free arm underneath Idzutsumi’s side, his hand found her jaw, and he kept her head in place, as he bent his head down to kiss her.
Idzutsumi flinched, dipping her claws in the man’s forearm, but that was it. She didn’t rip his skin apart.
On the contrary, Idzutsumi slowly relaxed, tail swirling around, curious, as she let Laios’ tongue caress her own.
The young man, still gently but firmly holding the beast’s jaw in his grip, kept his eyes closed and brow furrowed as he processed a whole lot of sensations.
As he suspected, Idzutsumi’s tongue was actually meaty and thick, like a human’s, despite being prickly on top.
It was outstanding, wonderful.
Laios sucked on it avidly, circling it with his own, never tired to compare the unusual texture to the plump shape.
He was so engrossed into the kiss, he didn’t even mind the trail of saliva dripping down their chins.
The only thing that snapped Laios out of his intense tongue worship, was Idzutsumi growling, shooting angry vibrations straight into his throat.
The adventurer wisely and immediately broke the kiss, and- to his surprise, instead of clawing at his face, Idzutsumi gasped for hair, breathing fast as she had been about to drown.
She...didn’t know you’re supposed to breather with your nose while kissing? Laios wondered, quirking an eyebrow.
It actually made sense. She was pretty young, after all, the young man realized, as a pang of guilt hit him.
“I’m sorry” he whispered, apologetically scratching under her chin “I won’t kiss you again, promise”.
Idzutsumi bursted out in a sudden, violent sneeze- the way cats and dogs so.
“You’d better make up for what you did” she hissed, glaring.
Laios gratefully let her twist around, wriggling back into her previous position, back pushed against his chest.
“Sure” the man smiled, drying off his face with a sleeve, and happily plunging his hands back into Idzutsumi’s warm fluffy chest and neck.
For a while, they peacefully kept going like that.
Laios, still up above the clouds, running his blunt fingernails into the sensitive skin of Idzutsumi’s chest, torso and stomach, combing her soft fur, while she purred, leaning into his touch and throwing her head back.
Until all the fidgeting the girl did, -rubbing and nudging her whole body against Laios, suddenly reminded the man something very important.
He had just realized, there was something else he desired to find out, to truly satisfy all of his curiosities.
The man’s right arm was trapped under the cat-girl -so he kept that hand occupied with scratching her chin and caressing her chest- but his left arm was allowed much more freedom of maneuver.
Laios’ free hand slowly snaked down the side of Idzutsumi’s pelvis, earning him a “merp!” of approval- but rather than going back up again, it stopped there, its thumb rubbing circles on the side of the girl’s lower back.
Laios chastised himself. By acting reckless and kissing Idzutsumi before, he had upset her. But he wasn’t going to risk startling her again, to the point she may finally decide to leave.
This time, he was going to slowly ease her into relaxation and comfort, before pursuing his target:
Her tail.
Idzutsumi didn’t seem bothered by the attentions on her back- quite the opposite: her purring had slightly increased.
Reassured, Laios pressed his hand on the small of her back, some inches above the base of her tail, and rubbed his knuckles on her spine.
Idzutsumi’s reaction was as cat like as Laios had hoped it would be: she immediately arched her back, pushing her butt onto his lap, letting out a small elated gurgling noise.
“What-what did you-?” she whispered hazily, but was shut down by Laios resuming the gentle scratching of her lower back, this time with his fingertips.
“Don’t think too much about it, just enjoy yourself” the adventurer beamed.
It would feel selfish, to take what he wanted from her, if she wasn’t also gonna get something good out of the experience.
But since she seemed to draw enourmous pleasure from some tail-action, Laios felt enabled to keep going at full force.
He went faster, and lower, scratching and rubbing and pressing closer and closer to the base of Idzutsumi’s tail. Trying to both pleasure her and probe for her bones.
The latter had become quite the challenge: the cat-girl was now thrashing into Laios arms, to the point he had to use his right hand to cup her jaw again- less she’d actually hit her head, in her delirious state she was in.
Idzutsumi babbled and meaowed incoherently until Laios- afraid the others could wake up- covered her mouth, shushing her gently, in hope his action didn’t feel too aggressive.
To his amusement, instead of biting down, Idzutsumi begun to frantically lick his palm, eyes unfocused and hazy.
It stung a bit- but it couldn’t distract Laios from his goal- now closer than ever.
His fingers rubbed and pinched down, trying to get a grasp (literally and figuratively) of Idzutsui’s tailbone.
Humans, Laios had once learned, used to have tails. A long, long time ago.
The far end of a human’s spine was the proof of it: by looking at a skeleton, one could immediately tell the coccyx looked like the tiny, curly remain of a tail.
Sweat dripping down his temple, Laios tried to map the shape of Idzutsumi’s tailbone- but it was so hard.
Yes, the tiny cat girl was skinny enough that her bones almost stuck out- but she kept almost convulsing with pleasure, into the man’s headlock, thrusting her hips back and forth, making it impossible to apply pressure long enough to get an idea of the structure…
Laios felt terribly hot- the friction, and Idzutsumi’s body heat rising added to his frustration.
He was getting tired, and knew he couldn’t keep up with the violent cuddle session much longer.
The adventurer had to resort to a bold, potentially risky move, before it was too late.
With a grunt, Laios lifted up a leg over Idzutsumi’s, to push her down firmly onto the mat.
Then, swiftly, he grabbed the base of her tail, hooking a thumb underneath it while the rest of his fingers could finally press down and grope the base of her spine.
OH! Oh- it split.
It actually split: her spine kept extending into her robust cat tail, but Laios could feel, with the side of his thumb, a human coccyx underneath the tender skin right under the appendage and above Idzutsumi’s butt.
With stars in his eyes, Laios groaned.
He was so high and euphoric for his breakthrough, he didn’t quite realize how tightly he was gripping his companion’s erogenous zone.
Idzutsumi’s legs clutched around Laios’s one,tail whipping wildly onto Laios’ side, as she arched her back and let out a high pitched, breathy moan, muffled out by the big hand covering her mouth, followed by quieter, huffy, whiny little bleats.
Laios’s eyebrows shot up in shock. Had she just came?
As the two both caught up with their breathes, drenched in sweat and slowly deflating in a tangle of limbs, Laios put his thoughts in order.
He knew cats loved getting their spine scratched- and that it was an erogenous zone.
But for some reason, it didn’t occur to him the pleasure could get that intense, for a half-human hybrid, to the point of coming without any other stimulation to her vagina.
Well, that was just another interesting fact added to the amazing loot of information he had just gathered, about human-beasts, that night!
Arms spread onto the floor, chest heaving with exertion and pure joy, Laios felt satiated.
“What are you smiling at?” a voice croaked out.
Laios snapped out of his inner world, making out the outline of Idzutsumi’s face, illuminated in red light by the embers of the fireplace.
She had sat up without him noticing, now looking down at him with a frown.
He noticed her eyes travel down his body and stopped at his crotch.
“You didn’t even get hard..” she drawled out, with...resentment? Confusion? Annoyance?
Laios really couldn’t tell. And had no idea what to respond either, or if it was appropriate to respond at all.
He shrugged.
Idzutsumi sighed, and looked away “...You’re so weird”.
Laios couldn’t quite read the air, at that point of their interaction, but really didn’t want to end their...whatever they just had- on a negative note.
“Thank you, Idzutsumi.” he said, in earnest “for allowing me to touch you, and explore your body. I know you hate your current form, but everything about you is so fascinating and special. Your bone structure and your fur felt so good to the touch, and you can make sounds no human can. You’re the best bedmate I’ve ever had”.
Her pupils expanded, making her eyes look huge.
Then, Idzutsumi scoffed, the corner of her mouth wrinkling up in a grin.
“...Gross” she spat out, shaking her head, and Laios wondered if she meant him, or the cat-like characteristics of her body he had mentioned.
The cat girl crawled closer, and Laios braced himself to get that retaliative scratch, at last, for his unwanted compliments, but she stopped, face hovering right above his head.
“When I’ll get into heat” she whispered, eyes turned into slits again “I’ll come visit you at night again”.
Laios nodded, having nothing to add.
Only when Idzutsumi, after one last glance, crawled away- Laios realized it was almost time to get up.
The man rolled onto his side. His entire body felt heavy as lead, and his mind as gooey as slime.
The tired adventurer had about one more hour of sleep to enjoy, before the rest of the team woke up.
To the thought he was going to write down all of his discoveries, the following morning, Laios fell asleep with a smile on his face.