{ "submission_id": "3619655", "keywords": [ { "keyword_id": "46878", "keyword_name": "age gap", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "1438" }, { "keyword_id": "54686", "keyword_name": "casual nudity", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "5723" }, { "keyword_id": "10308", "keyword_name": "male/male", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "127670" }, { "keyword_id": "25742", "keyword_name": "master/pet", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "2175" }, { "keyword_id": "590864", "keyword_name": "odd taxi", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "104" }, { "keyword_id": "592048", "keyword_name": "oddtaxi", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "98" }, { "keyword_id": "592104", "keyword_name": "odokawa", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "11" }, { "keyword_id": "22248", "keyword_name": "pet play", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "2123" }, { "keyword_id": "4219", "keyword_name": "puma", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "3839" }, { "keyword_id": "1158", "keyword_name": "suggestive", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "4809" }, { "keyword_id": "257124", "keyword_name": "tanaka", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "87" }, { "keyword_id": "7354", "keyword_name": "walrus", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "861" } ], "hidden": "f", "scraps": "f", "favorite": "f", "favorites_count": "7", "create_datetime": "2025-05-15 10:16:33.283335+00", "create_datetime_usertime": "15 May 2025 12:16 CEST", "last_file_update_datetime": "2025-05-15 10:08:29.194389+00", "last_file_update_datetime_usertime": "15 May 2025 12:08 CEST", "username": "dentodent", "user_id": "531073", "user_icon_file_name": "194449_dentodent_gigan18.png", "user_icon_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/usericons/large/194/194449_dentodent_gigan18.png", "user_icon_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/usericons/medium/194/194449_dentodent_gigan18.png", "user_icon_url_small": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/usericons/small/194/194449_dentodent_gigan18.png", "file_name": "5566231_dentodent_nightsclaws.doc", "file_url_full": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/full/5566/5566231_dentodent_nightsclaws.doc", "file_url_screen": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/screen/5566/5566231_dentodent_nightsclaws.doc", "file_url_preview": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/5566/5566231_dentodent_nightsclaws.doc", "thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/5566/5566231_dentodent_nightsclaws.jpg", "thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/5566/5566231_dentodent_nightsclaws.jpg", "thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/5566/5566231_dentodent_nightsclaws.jpg", "thumb_huge_x": "300", "thumb_huge_y": "300", "thumb_large_x": "200", "thumb_large_y": "200", "thumb_medium_x": "120", "thumb_medium_y": "120", "files": [ { "file_id": "5566231", "file_name": "5566231_dentodent_nightsclaws.doc", "file_url_full": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/full/5566/5566231_dentodent_nightsclaws.doc", "file_url_screen": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/screen/5566/5566231_dentodent_nightsclaws.doc", "file_url_preview": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/5566/5566231_dentodent_nightsclaws.doc", "mimetype": "application/msword", "submission_id": "3619655", "user_id": "531073", "submission_file_order": "0", "full_size_x": null, "full_size_y": null, "screen_size_x": null, "screen_size_y": null, "preview_size_x": null, "preview_size_y": null, "initial_file_md5": "5081eda055993fe11ec1333d5768afde", "full_file_md5": "5081eda055993fe11ec1333d5768afde", "large_file_md5": "", "small_file_md5": "", "thumbnail_md5": "11da160877db85f6be08a2821d8953a3", "deleted": "f", "create_datetime": "2025-05-15 10:08:29.194389+00", "create_datetime_usertime": "15 May 2025 12:08 CEST", "thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/5566/5566231_dentodent_nightsclaws.jpg", "thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/5566/5566231_dentodent_nightsclaws.jpg", "thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/5566/5566231_dentodent_nightsclaws.jpg", "thumb_huge_x": "300", "thumb_huge_y": "300", "thumb_large_x": "200", "thumb_large_y": "200", "thumb_medium_x": "120", "thumb_medium_y": "120" } ], "pools": [], "description": "Something for Odd Taxi cause personally I love the potential for these two (also HUGE Odd Taxi spoilers)", "description_bbcode_parsed": "Something for Odd Taxi cause personally I love the potential for these two (also HUGE Odd Taxi spoilers)", "writing": " \tThe night reached its peak dark where time compressed itself in Tokyo's can, a tunneling of seemingly endless three am. Those that were awake at this hour belonged to a different world. The world of the daylight people - the world of clocking in, health, regular meals, rationality - did not belong to those awake right now. That world did not belong to Odokawa. Even as his shift reached its end and he pulled his taxi to the curb, sleepiness would not come to him. No sand would grace his eyes to put him to sleep. No, he lived in this tunneling moment, this microscopic infinity.\n\nThe cab driver fumbled for his keys, the world far away. Odokawa could lay back and he knew he would watch the world retreating. That's how it felt when he was awake this late. The world was part of the heat death of the universe and it was getting further and further away, accelerating as he remained in this bubbled existence. \n\nOdokawa unlocked the door, the light slicing through the block of darkness. Solid, tangible darkness. This was his darkness, his place at the end of the universe, at the end of time. He called out to the dark ``I'm home.''\n\nWas this a joke? No one answered.\n\nOdokawa let his disgruntled breath exit from his mouth. Lumbering through the dark, he caught sight of his walrus reflection in the dim mirror. He opened doors, cabinets, leaving them astray in his house tour. Ultimately in his room he came across his closet. Odokawa hesitated before pulling the screen door open. ``Ah, there you are, cat.''\n\nA body decidedly not the size of a cat stirred from where it curled up on the space on its spacious cage.\n\nThe walrus rubbed his eyes, ``I leave it open so you can have room to run....''\n\nThe feline stretched from the opening, crawling into the open space. Odokawa stared as they rubbed their side against his leg. Slowly, the taxi driver's stiff firmness caved in. He bent down to his knees and let his cat rub those ears, cheeks, and whiskers against his thick digits. A low hum noise, an attempt at a purr came from his chest. The walrus sighed, ``You don't need to wait up for me, you know...'' But he will admit, he did miss them.\n\n Odokawa caught the bell about the feline's collar, the only bit of clothing they had at present, delicately tracing his thumb across the bell attached soon hitting the stitched words in the collar `HAJIME T'. \n\nTanaka rubbed his forehead against his knee, ``Yeah but I wanted to. What's wrong with that.''\n\nThe taxi driver pulled at his own face, a weariness of responsibility tugging at him, ``As long as you're taking care of yourself.''\n\n``I'm eating,'' Tanaka asserted. \n\nFinally flipping the switch, Odokawa eyed the kitchen, ``Liar.''\n\nThat was all he had to say before the walrus started to prepare some donburri over the stove - some baked katsudon from pork he had leftover in the fridge. Tanaka lounged around, eventually getting out his phone game as Odokawa prepared this early morning dinner. Odokawa eyed the puma's frenetic playing. He was no fan of that game - Zooden? Something bad would come of Tanaka's attachment to it, he was for sure. \n\nTaking out a fresh cat dish, emblazoned with his cat's name, Odokawa scooped and plopped down the baked katsudon with little dramatics. Just as brusque, he set the dish down with a loud clack to get the puma's attention. Odokawa directed, ``Eat up.''\n\nA few more thumb darts and eventually the phone slid to the side. Tanaka slid to his belly, his head propped by his hands as his tail wavered in the air, ``I will...if you pet me while I eat.''\n\nOdokawa's eyebags had a miraculous power of growing more noticeable the more exasperated he grew. Nevertheless, he sat cross-legged beside the bare cat. Tanaka's fur looked silver under this light. He could feel the puma eyeing him. Odokawa sighed, sweeping his hand over his shoulders. He felt the subtle jerks and twitches of his musculature as Tanaka devoured the mix of fried pork and rice. Tanaka had a way of kicking up his feet to direct Odokawa's hands as he pet the puma. Kick - now this side. Nudge - now rub here. \n\nAs Tanaka ate, the walrus reminisced how they met. It was a visit with one of his benefactors when he noticed something weird with their car's trunk. By his age, the events of his life had made him uncomfortably attuned and aware of what people could do. Kidnapping was not off the table for suspicion, even with those that came and made sure he was living comfortably. He popped the trunk to find none other than a tiny puma. Before Odokawa started making the call, the puma gave the story.\n\nIt turned out this puma had a pretty shitty home life. But apparently it wasn't his violent dad that sent him over the edge. No, it was that he spent money for an online scam. This was twice in the puma's unfortunate life and they couldn't live with being such a failure twice. Instead they decided, the puma told Odokawa, they would live in exile and run away. They picked this trunk as the license plates seemed to come from far away and here they were. Tanaka begged Odokawa to stay.\n\nBut their failure wasn't the reason Odokawa took them in. He knew terrible parents, he didn't know why but he knew the signs of familial abuse when he heard it. The walrus let them stay. Anyone who questioned why the walrus had a much younger Tanaka hanging in his house, he would simply offer an excuse that he was tutoring or they were distant relatives. By the time both reached their relative adulthoods, no one really cared to question why they lived together. Both were abandoned people, discarded for different reasons.\n\nTanaka wiped his mouth, in a fashion typical of cats though Odokawa hated how much Tanaka got into the role. Yet the puma found a finger scratching under his chin, a reward for his dilligence with eating. Odokawa, ``Good cat,'' With a jingle of Tanaka's cat collar he strolled off, ``I'm off to bed, you coming?''\n\nOdokawa wasn't tired, but what else would he do in these wee hours other than stare at the ceiling and watch the ceiling melt around itself like impressionist Camembert? \n\n``I'm going to play a little bit,'' Tanaka asserted. \n\nThe walrus wished he could command the damn cat to do anything. He only ventured a grumpy, ``There's nothing surprising about that game at all.''\n\n``Spare me your feelings on cell phones,'' the bratty reply came as Tanaka curled up in his cage and started playing Zooden.\n\nOdokawa settled in bed as the light of the cell phone glowed like a UFO abduction light. He didn't like what Tanaka turned into when he played that game. It scared him. Then again, Tanaka scared him in an intimate way. A way no one else could really scare him.\n\nHe remembered when Tanaka started his first and only job they went to the zoo. He made a special stop at the cormorant exhibit, knowing how much Tanaka loved unusual birds. That was one of the things they had in common - Odokawa had a general love of animals, but Tanaka held a special fascination with birds. Together as they watched the aquatic bird dry off its wings with big flaps, the puma made a simple, ``Odokawa.''\n\n``Hmm?'' was the socially awkward walrus' response.\n\n``The world is your zoo, isn't it?'' \n\nThe question, phrased so strange and so left of field, made each word stumble out of Odokawa's mouth like he was being choked, ``--it's--it's not so simple. I don't know what you're talking about.''\n\n``I mean...'' Tanaka seemed to struggle with the concept himself, ``You're a walrus, yes?''\n\n``Of course,'' this always had been a fact. Always.\n\nThe puma gripped the protective bar around the exhibit, ``So what am I? When you look at me, what do you see?''\n\nOdokawa understood now. His friend was having what people were calling nowadays a `quarter life crisis'. As Odokawa knew it, it was just one of the bitter teeth that sprung in life. Odokawa could only offer what he always offered: his typical blunt diagnosis, ``You're the puma that smuggled himself in a guy's trunk and hid at my house. That's who you are.''\n\nHe knew if it was anyone else - his buddies at the bar or doctor - they would say `what the hell is wrong with you'. But Tanaka took serious consideration with what he said. He could tell with how solemn that puma got, the dark markings under his eyes like the start of a whirlpool. \n\nTanaka tensed the metal bar with his grip, ``A puma...so like a cat.''\n\n``Yep.'' Odokawa rolled back and forth on his feet, ``You're a cat and I'm a walrus. It's as simple as that.''\n\nTanaka flipped his head. He really did flip his head to Odokawa, like those collectible figurines. Odokawa could see those intense eyes, eyes like a moon on a famine winter. Odokawa had to look away - his natural dislike of eye contract taking over. It didn't deter Tanaka at all, ``Then make me your cat.''\n\n``What are you talking about, Hajime...'' the walrus only used Hajime when the puma was on some truly odd shit.\n\n``I don't feel...'' Tanaka's pinprick irises whirled, searching for what? God? A reason? ``Like anything. I wake up, I work, but it feels like nothing. It's like I'm a shell. So maybe I should stop being a person. I should be a pet.''\n\n``Have you considered talking to someone about this?'' Odokawa's subtext nudged: someone professional. \n\nThe puma shook his head, ``Nothing can fix me. This nihilistic pursuit of pleasure, of whatever life or a job promises...it means nothing. You said it, I'm a cat. So...I want someone to make choices for me. I want you to make that choice. I want to be your pet.''\n\nThe fact Tanaka delivered this confession so soft, so deadpan chilled Odokawa in a strange way. It was like talking with a biblical angel - holy yet he could barely look at it. ``Why me?''\n\n``Because you're the only factor that broke this...chain of misfortune. I'd be better off if you were my owner.'' Tanaka gripped his jacket, ``Please just think on it. I...I can be loyal to you. And will give you what you want. All I need from you is direction...'' He looked away from Odokawa, ``Care.''\n\n``This is a lot to ask of a person...'' Why wasn't he saying no?\n\n``I want to be your pet.'' Tanaka affirmed, ``I want to be your cat.''\n\nAnd that was how Tanaka confessed his love to him.\n\nHe would be lying if he said it was a slow warm-up to the idea. No, it was more like the ignition of a star. Several days cold and then one day the spark was hit and Odokawa burned millions of degrees. It must have just been the proximity, the bond forged out of a crawling apocalyptic desperation. They were the only two that shared an unnamed mental anguish, connected by that mental incongruity. \n\nOdokawa wanted something that gave meaning to his sleepless nights. He was a simple guy and his taxi job made him happy but...what was he doing beside that? He wasn't ravenous in want like poor Tanaka, but to care for someone that wouldn't be too bad, would it? \n\nThey spent so much time: Tanaka providing for his emotional and stimulation needs, Odokawa for Tanaka's physical and existential needs. Odokawa hated to admit it, but he had grown just as dependent on the cat. Grunting as he rose, the walrus hunted down his pet. With both arms he lifted his skinnier partner with ease, throwing them off their game. Tanaka hissed, ``What the hell you doing?!''\n\n``I said you're coming to bed with me, you're coming,'' Odokawa tried mustering a tough commander voice as he could muster.\n\nTanaka writhed fruitlessly, wanting no real effort put into his struggle. In a move fitting a wrestler, Odokawa flopped Tanaka to the bedside opposite the ghostly shroud of he walrus' insomniac rest. The puma folded his arms on his new spot on the bed, incensed at the walrus' boldness. This was part of their routine, Tanaka playing the cat with Odokawa playing the exasperated owner. Odokawa pulled the blanket up to his own chest, ``Don't look at me. Why can't you play on the bed?''\n\nHis cat's eyes had a ghostly shine in this low light, reflective of the ghostly hours of the evening, ``You're distracting.''\n\n``Oh I'm distracting,'' Odokawa muttered wearily. He could tell how sleepy his cat started to get as they snuggled up to his chest. \n\nTanaka tensed his claws on the older man's shirt, pawing as he muttered lazily, ``Pet me, Odokawa...''\n\n``I'm thinking about it...'' the walrus considered.\n\nEven through the sheets, Odokawa couldn't deny how warmly the feline's slinky squirming affected him. Tanaka had become such a brat in that way. The puma demanded, ``Pet me.''\n\nThe walrus gave in, his hands gliding down the smooth curvature of his cat's back. He could feel the subtle wiggles and shifts of their musculature while Odokawa stroked from the shoulder blades all the way up to the base of the tail. At the small of Tanaka's back the feline insisted Odokawa would scratch a little, giving Odokawa a lovely visual of the puma wiggling their bare ass as he did.\n\nYet even with their difference in state of clothing, their vulnerability, Odokawa did not feel in control. At these times, when he had Tanaka's piercing gaze stabbing through him like the eyes of an incubus, he really did know he had a true puma in his arms. Tanaka was a powerful wild creature pretending to be docile...this fact while terrifying, thrilled Odokawa.\n\nWith one non-petting hand, Odokawa looped his pet's collar and pulled them for a kiss. Tanaka closed his eyes as he tasted the old man's tongue, the two swapping intricacies of their mouth, speaking the language of true tongues. \n\nOdokawa got a true perverse thrill out of it, petting such a slinky body while he kissed them while his petting hand got a handful of buttock and squeezed that meat--\n\nHe broke the kiss, nudging the feline off. Odokawa motioned, ``C'mon, it's early. You need your sleep.''\n\n``Can I play Zoo--''\n\n``Sleep.''\n\nTanaka frowned, ``I can sleep here, at least?''\n\n``That's a given,'' his blanket-covered foot tickled Tanaka.\n\n After a bat at Odokawa's foot the puma yawned, curling up on the walrus' legs. The walrus waved to Tanaka, ``Good night, my cat.''\n\n``I'll still be here,'' Tanaka asserted, kneading at the older man's legs.\n\nAh he would, the walrus reasoned. Odokawa had miles to go between his hazy eternity and the next taxi shift. But he had something to keep him company on the way, something not even his buddies at the bar could give, something they couldn't even understand. Not even he truly understood it, but that's what it means to be two souls living at the edge of the night. \n\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": " \tThe night reached its peak dark where time compressed itself in Tokyo's can, a tunneling of seemingly endless three am. Those that were awake at this hour belonged to a different world. The world of the daylight people - the world of clocking in, health, regular meals, rationality - did not belong to those awake right now. That world did not belong to Odokawa. Even as his shift reached its end and he pulled his taxi to the curb, sleepiness would not come to him. No sand would grace his eyes to put him to sleep. No, he lived in this tunneling moment, this microscopic infinity.

The cab driver fumbled for his keys, the world far away. Odokawa could lay back and he knew he would watch the world retreating. That's how it felt when he was awake this late. The world was part of the heat death of the universe and it was getting further and further away, accelerating as he remained in this bubbled existence.

Odokawa unlocked the door, the light slicing through the block of darkness. Solid, tangible darkness. This was his darkness, his place at the end of the universe, at the end of time. He called out to the dark ``I'm home.''

Was this a joke? No one answered.

Odokawa let his disgruntled breath exit from his mouth. Lumbering through the dark, he caught sight of his walrus reflection in the dim mirror. He opened doors, cabinets, leaving them astray in his house tour. Ultimately in his room he came across his closet. Odokawa hesitated before pulling the screen door open. ``Ah, there you are, cat.''

A body decidedly not the size of a cat stirred from where it curled up on the space on its spacious cage.

The walrus rubbed his eyes, ``I leave it open so you can have room to run....''

The feline stretched from the opening, crawling into the open space. Odokawa stared as they rubbed their side against his leg. Slowly, the taxi driver's stiff firmness caved in. He bent down to his knees and let his cat rub those ears, cheeks, and whiskers against his thick digits. A low hum noise, an attempt at a purr came from his chest. The walrus sighed, ``You don't need to wait up for me, you know...'' But he will admit, he did miss them.

 Odokawa caught the bell about the feline's collar, the only bit of clothing they had at present, delicately tracing his thumb across the bell attached soon hitting the stitched words in the collar `HAJIME T'.

Tanaka rubbed his forehead against his knee, ``Yeah but I wanted to. What's wrong with that.''

The taxi driver pulled at his own face, a weariness of responsibility tugging at him, ``As long as you're taking care of yourself.''

``I'm eating,'' Tanaka asserted.

Finally flipping the switch, Odokawa eyed the kitchen, ``Liar.''

That was all he had to say before the walrus started to prepare some donburri over the stove - some baked katsudon from pork he had leftover in the fridge. Tanaka lounged around, eventually getting out his phone game as Odokawa prepared this early morning dinner. Odokawa eyed the puma's frenetic playing. He was no fan of that game - Zooden? Something bad would come of Tanaka's attachment to it, he was for sure.

Taking out a fresh cat dish, emblazoned with his cat's name, Odokawa scooped and plopped down the baked katsudon with little dramatics. Just as brusque, he set the dish down with a loud clack to get the puma's attention. Odokawa directed, ``Eat up.''

A few more thumb darts and eventually the phone slid to the side. Tanaka slid to his belly, his head propped by his hands as his tail wavered in the air, ``I will...if you pet me while I eat.''

Odokawa's eyebags had a miraculous power of growing more noticeable the more exasperated he grew. Nevertheless, he sat cross-legged beside the bare cat. Tanaka's fur looked silver under this light. He could feel the puma eyeing him. Odokawa sighed, sweeping his hand over his shoulders. He felt the subtle jerks and twitches of his musculature as Tanaka devoured the mix of fried pork and rice. Tanaka had a way of kicking up his feet to direct Odokawa's hands as he pet the puma. Kick - now this side. Nudge - now rub here.  

As Tanaka ate, the walrus reminisced how they met. It was a visit with one of his benefactors when he noticed something weird with their car's trunk. By his age, the events of his life had made him uncomfortably attuned and aware of what people could do. Kidnapping was not off the table for suspicion, even with those that came and made sure he was living comfortably. He popped the trunk to find none other than a tiny puma. Before Odokawa started making the call, the puma gave the story.

It turned out this puma had a pretty shitty home life. But apparently it wasn't his violent dad that sent him over the edge. No, it was that he spent money for an online scam. This was  twice in the puma's unfortunate life and they couldn't live with being such a failure twice. Instead they decided, the puma told Odokawa, they would live in exile and run away. They picked this trunk as the license plates seemed to come from far away and here they were. Tanaka begged Odokawa to stay.

But their failure wasn't the reason Odokawa took them in. He knew terrible parents, he didn't know why but he knew the signs of familial abuse when he heard it. The walrus let them stay. Anyone who questioned why the walrus had a much younger Tanaka hanging in his house, he would simply offer an excuse that he was tutoring or they were distant relatives. By the time both reached their relative adulthoods, no one really cared to question why they lived together. Both were abandoned people, discarded for different reasons.

Tanaka wiped his mouth, in a fashion typical of cats though Odokawa hated how much Tanaka got into the role. Yet the puma found a finger scratching under his chin, a reward for his dilligence with eating. Odokawa, ``Good cat,'' With a jingle of Tanaka's cat collar he strolled off, ``I'm off to bed, you coming?''

Odokawa wasn't tired, but what else would he do in these wee hours other than stare at the ceiling and  watch the ceiling melt around itself like impressionist Camembert?

``I'm going to play a little bit,'' Tanaka asserted.

The walrus wished he could command the damn cat to do anything. He only ventured a grumpy, ``There's nothing surprising about that game at all.''

``Spare me your feelings on cell phones,'' the bratty reply came as Tanaka curled up in his cage and started playing Zooden.

Odokawa settled in bed as the light of the cell phone glowed like a UFO abduction light. He didn't like what Tanaka turned into when he played that game. It scared him. Then again, Tanaka scared him in an intimate way. A way no one else could really scare him.

He remembered when Tanaka started his first and only job they went to the zoo. He made a special stop at the cormorant exhibit, knowing how much Tanaka loved unusual birds. That was one of the things they had in common - Odokawa had a general love of animals, but Tanaka held a special fascination with birds. Together as they watched the aquatic bird dry off its wings with big flaps, the puma made a simple, ``Odokawa.''

``Hmm?'' was the socially awkward walrus' response.

``The world is your zoo, isn't it?''

The question, phrased so strange and so left of field, made each word stumble out of Odokawa's mouth like he was being choked, ``--it's--it's not so simple. I don't know what you're talking about.''

``I mean...'' Tanaka seemed to struggle with the concept himself, ``You're a walrus, yes?''

``Of course,'' this always had been a fact. Always.

The puma gripped the protective bar around the exhibit, ``So what am I? When you look at me, what do you see?''

Odokawa understood now. His friend was having what people were calling nowadays a `quarter life crisis'. As Odokawa knew it, it was just one of the bitter teeth that sprung in life. Odokawa could only offer what he always offered: his typical blunt diagnosis, ``You're the puma that smuggled himself in a guy's trunk and hid at my house. That's who you are.''

He knew if it was anyone else - his buddies at the bar or doctor - they would say `what the hell is wrong with you'. But Tanaka took serious consideration with what he said. He could tell with how solemn that puma got, the dark markings under his eyes like the start of a whirlpool.

Tanaka tensed the metal bar with his grip, ``A puma...so like a cat.''

``Yep.'' Odokawa rolled back and forth on his feet, ``You're a cat and I'm a walrus. It's as simple as that.''

Tanaka flipped his head. He really did flip his head to Odokawa, like those collectible figurines. Odokawa could see those intense eyes, eyes like a moon on a famine winter. Odokawa had to look away - his natural dislike of eye contract taking over. It didn't deter Tanaka at all, ``Then make me your cat.''

``What are you talking about, Hajime...'' the walrus only used Hajime when the puma was on some truly odd shit.

``I don't feel...'' Tanaka's pinprick irises whirled, searching for what? God? A reason? ``Like anything.  I wake up, I work, but it feels like nothing. It's like I'm a shell. So maybe I should stop being a person. I should be a pet.''

``Have you considered talking to someone about this?'' Odokawa's subtext nudged: someone professional.

The puma shook his head, ``Nothing can fix me. This nihilistic pursuit of pleasure, of whatever life or a job promises...it means nothing. You said it, I'm a cat. So...I want someone to make choices for me. I want you to make that choice. I want to be your pet.''

The fact Tanaka delivered this confession so soft, so deadpan chilled Odokawa in a strange way. It was like talking with a biblical angel - holy yet he could barely look at it. ``Why me?''

``Because you're the only factor that broke this...chain of misfortune. I'd be better off if you were my owner.'' Tanaka gripped his jacket, ``Please just think on it. I...I can be loyal to you. And will give you what you want. All I need from you is direction...'' He looked away from Odokawa, ``Care.''

``This is a lot to ask of a person...'' Why wasn't he saying no?

``I want to be your pet.'' Tanaka affirmed, ``I want to be your cat.''

And that was how Tanaka confessed his love to him.

He would be lying if he said it was a slow warm-up to the idea. No, it was more like the ignition of a star. Several days cold and then one day the spark was hit and Odokawa burned millions of degrees. It must have just been the proximity, the bond forged out of a crawling apocalyptic desperation. They were the only two that shared an unnamed mental anguish, connected by that mental incongruity.

Odokawa wanted something that gave meaning to his sleepless nights. He was a simple guy and his taxi job made him happy but...what was he doing beside that? He wasn't ravenous in want like poor Tanaka, but to care for someone that wouldn't be too bad, would it?

They spent so much time: Tanaka providing for his emotional and stimulation needs, Odokawa for Tanaka's physical and existential needs. Odokawa hated to admit it, but he had grown just as dependent on the cat. Grunting as he rose, the walrus hunted down his pet. With both arms he lifted his skinnier partner with ease, throwing them off their game. Tanaka hissed, ``What the hell you doing?!''

``I said you're coming to bed with me, you're coming,'' Odokawa tried mustering a tough commander voice as he could muster.

Tanaka writhed fruitlessly, wanting no real effort put into his struggle. In a move fitting a wrestler, Odokawa flopped Tanaka to the bedside opposite the ghostly shroud of he walrus' insomniac rest. The puma folded his arms on his new spot on the bed, incensed at the walrus' boldness. This was part of their routine, Tanaka playing the cat with Odokawa playing the exasperated owner. Odokawa pulled the blanket up to his own chest, ``Don't look at me. Why can't you play on the bed?''

His cat's eyes had a ghostly shine in this low light, reflective of the ghostly hours of the evening, ``You're distracting.''

``Oh I'm distracting,'' Odokawa muttered wearily. He could tell how sleepy his cat started to get as they snuggled up to his chest.

Tanaka tensed his claws on the older man's shirt, pawing as he muttered lazily, ``Pet me, Odokawa...''

``I'm thinking about it...'' the walrus considered.

Even through the sheets, Odokawa couldn't deny how warmly the feline's slinky squirming affected him. Tanaka had become such a brat in that way. The puma demanded, ``Pet me.''

The walrus gave in, his hands gliding down the smooth curvature of his cat's back. He could feel the subtle wiggles and shifts of their musculature while Odokawa stroked from the shoulder blades all the way up to the base of the tail. At the small of Tanaka's back the feline insisted Odokawa would scratch a little, giving Odokawa a lovely visual of the puma wiggling their bare ass as he did.

Yet even with their difference in state of clothing, their vulnerability, Odokawa did not feel in control. At these times, when he had Tanaka's piercing gaze stabbing through him like the eyes of an incubus, he really did know he had a true puma in his arms. Tanaka was a powerful wild creature pretending to be docile...this fact while terrifying, thrilled Odokawa.

With one non-petting hand, Odokawa looped his pet's collar and pulled them for a kiss. Tanaka closed his eyes as he tasted the old man's tongue, the two swapping intricacies of their mouth, speaking the language of true tongues.

Odokawa got a true perverse thrill out of it, petting such a slinky body while he kissed them while his petting hand got a handful of buttock and squeezed that meat--

He broke the kiss, nudging the feline off. Odokawa motioned, ``C'mon, it's early. You need your sleep.''

``Can I play Zoo--''

``Sleep.''

Tanaka frowned, ``I can sleep here, at least?''

``That's a given,'' his blanket-covered foot tickled Tanaka.

 After a bat at Odokawa's foot the puma yawned, curling up on the walrus' legs. The walrus waved to Tanaka, ``Good night, my cat.''

``I'll still be here,'' Tanaka asserted, kneading at the older man's legs.

Ah he would, the walrus reasoned. Odokawa had miles to go between his hazy eternity and the next taxi shift. But he had something to keep him company on the way, something not even his buddies at the bar could give, something they couldn't even understand. Not even he truly understood it, but that's what it means to be two souls living at the edge of the night.

", "pools_count": 0, "title": "Night's Gleaming Claws", "deleted": "f", "public": "t", "mimetype": "application/msword", "pagecount": "1", "rating_id": "2", "rating_name": "Adult", "ratings": [ { "content_tag_id": "4", "name": "Sexual Themes", "description": "Erotic imagery, sexual activity or arousal", "rating_id": "2" } ], "submission_type_id": "12", "type_name": "Writing - Document", "guest_block": "t", "friends_only": "f", "comments_count": "1", "views": "96" }