Story: Delayed

[frogs_of_war]

The problem with planting plunnies is some times they stick to you.


Title: Delayed
Series: Wizard's familiars
Set: a year after the Mass Breeding Event (depending on how long gestation is and how fast familiars grow)
Length: 3k

Jax tried to look away from the sweet little kitten. He shouldn't even be in the park. Watching children was always so painful. His little one was out there somewhere…

He bit his lip and turned away. He'd gotten lost looking for his professor's house and he had to turn the assignment in by hand before sunset or he'd get a failing grade and he hadn't made it to class today because a friend was throwing up and had to be carried to the clinic, which turned out to be just a pregnancy and not terminal stomach cancer or anything, but the reminder of what Jax had lost hadn't helped him remember that if he didn't get a good grade on this paper that would add another term to his already dragged out college life and he'd have to spend even more time with stupid young people and their idiotic pregnancies and all the babies all over campus that weren't his.

At least when he'd gotten knock up, it had been on purpose. Covering it with a Mass Breeding Event, a mix of catnip brownies and careless undergrads, was a stroke of genius. Or so he thought until his lover had dumped him and he was stuck in the middle of a campus of kittens with no kitten of his own.

The term he took off wasn't long enough.

Professor Michel's house had to be around here somewhere. This is where most of the professors lived. And these were their spouses and children. The cute little fuffball shifted to her human form and toddled up to a man. The guy might be a familiar too. He didn't seem unduly upset by the naked baby.

Her hair was shiny gold just like Jax's had been as a kid, but her skin was a rich gold of Jax's ex. And she was the right age to be his.

He turned and rushed out of the park. He'd find someone else to ask directions of. He wiped his hand across his eyes. If he didn't have to get this damned paper to his fussy professor, he’d shift to his cat form and stop the tears in their tracks.

Tonight he'd curl up as a cat and purr himself to sleep.

"Jaxon Miller!"

Jax stopped. He wiped his eyes again, straightened his shoulders and turned. What? "Professor Dev?"

There he was plain as day. He wasn't the Professor Dev who had knocked Jax up. Anjal had left the school sometime during Jax's term off. This was his cousin Sujan. Just as handsome and not a jerk. But he would never have laid hands on one of his student and that's what Jax had been stupid enough to want.

Stupid body. Jax moved the folder in front of his hips. "I was trying to find Professor Michel's place, but Chapel Street doesn't seem to have a 700 block."

He tilted the folder just enough to see the address across the top. It still said 721 Chapel Street.

Sujan looked at Jax, the folder, back to the park, and at Jax again. "Did you see her?"

"Who?"

"Navika."

"Who's Navika?"

Sujan bit his lip. "I thought… Isn't that why… I left word."

Jax took another deep breath. "You left word for me."

Why? How had he even known Jax existed? Besides his name on papers Jax had turned in way back in his freshman year.

"Anjal is an ass."

So true.

"You deserve better."

The tears were coming back. Jax wiped his eyes. "Thank you for saying so. Professor Michel's house?"

Sujan took his hand. His hands were warm and strong like Jax had always imagined they'd be. Sujan turned them back to the park. "Michel lives just down the block from me. Let me get Navika and we'll go back."

Jax was all too aware of the man at his side. He smelled as good as he had when Jax first got a crush on him along with every other freshman in the class.

Navika was the golden and brown spotted tabby. The man she'd talked to was the father for her playmates. How he dealt with four boys Navika's age and three a few years older was anyone's guess. But he was a nice guy and seemed to know who Jax was.

Uncomfortable. Did professors really talk about students to non-teachers?

He changed forms and chased his boys around the grass. The boys pretended he was a tiger and they shrieked and giggled and tried to get away. So cute.

And yet so painful.

Jax was never going to have kids. The pain hadn't damped at all.

Navika chattered to them in some baby language and expected Jax to answer her questions. Sujan laughed. "Just nod. I don't even understand her all the time and she's mine."

Chapel Street did end at house 900, but picked up again two blocks later for something closer to a driveway or an alley than a street. Professor Michel lived in the second house in. The housekeeper promised to put the paper in his in box. Jax was the third student by today and she expected more, since Professor Michel had left his office early. "I think he does it on purpose."

Sujan wished her luck and led Jax back to the street. "We're just this way."

"Thank you." Which was the best way back to school from here?

"Thank me by staying for supper."

Jax looked at Sujan. He hadn't just asked…

"Unless you have other plans…"

Jax shook his head. He didn't trust his voice.

Sujan smiled. "Good. We're this way."

Sujan lived in a snug little townhouse with a porch in the front and the yard in the back. He didn't have much on his tables and shelves, but his walls were lines with lively pictures of his home and heritage. Sujan put Navika down in the living room. "I had to baby-proof and kitten-proof everything. One of the rooms upstairs is stuffed with everything I moved."

Jax nodded. Anjal had surrounded himself with art too.

They went into the kitchen/dining room.

"Is she why you're no longer teaching?" Jax had missed seeing Sujan at a distance. He'd missed seeing him up close, but he hadn't had that since his freshman year.

"I'm taking a year off to raise Navika. They are only young once."

Navika lifted her arms. Sujan picked her up.

Jax looked away. Why was he even in a place so painful?

"I asked for her, not thinking I had a chance, but since I was family… I brought her home before her eyes opened. I'll go back next year. The kitten lounges were originally for professor's kittens after all."

Jax took a deep breath. He should walk away now. But how without being rude? "And your… spouse?"

"Nope." Sujan grinned. "It's just me and Navika. That's why I wasn't sure I'd get her: single with no familiars in the house. But I've had friends to help me."

Sujan was still single. And they were in a very porn-y situation. Except with a kid. But she was probably tired after her day in the park. But Sujan couldn't like him like that. Plus Jax had given up on sex. When had it ever gotten him what he really wanted?

"That's nice." He had to get out of here.

Navika held out her arms to Jax and he was holding her before his brain kicked in. Sujan grinned. "She looks like you. I thought she did."

Like Jax? "You're family?"

Sujan nodded. "That's how I got her."

"Then you know…"

"That Anjal is… totally unprofessional. Having sex with a student who you know is high, even if you two were lovers previously, and then not using protection… The dean was livid. The whole thing could have been swept under the rug if Anjal had married you, but by the time the dean had gathered all the facts, Anjal had cast you off and you'd quit school."

Sujan pulled on a lock of his daughter's hair and brushed Jax's shoulder. Probably by accident. "The dean made an example of him. He's never teaching again."

Good. "But it wasn't all his fault. I came back to him after he'd broken things off."

Sujan gnawed on his lower lip, bringing out the color and making it so very kissable. "We've all— Not all, but many of us have been in the position to turn a student around and make sure they get home safely."

"You?"

"Yes. For a while I thought you'd be one of mine, students with crushes hold a place in my heart. I try to let them all down gently."

That's why Jax had never gone. He'd wanted Sujan so badly, but if Sujan had said yes, that might have been worse. He wouldn't have been the man Jax wanted. "You are a good man."

Sujan turned and filled a pot with water. "That's not to say I've never been tempted. Freshmen are all little babies, but juniors… aren't quite so young."

Jax had been a junior during the fiasco.

"You graduate after next term?"

Phew. Subject change. "Just three more classes after these."

"And after that? Ever thought about staying in the area."

No. Around the college had to be the most fertile place on earth. He needed to find somewhere without kids. A monastery maybe. "I don't think so."

"Navika will miss you."

She laid her head against Jax's shoulder. Where could he put her down? This child would never be his. He'd…

"I'm sorry." Sujan passed him a tissue and took Navika back. "I just thought… I wanted… Jax, this is a lot to ask. I shouldn't…"

Navika changed to her cat form and purred loudly. Jax wanted to do the same. She loved her father and as little as she was, she knew purrs made her happy, so purrs would make Sujan stop being upset.

Jax reached out to her, but pulled his hand back. She wasn't his and never would be again.

Sujan stepped closer. Jax's fingers brushed the soft fur so like his own.

"You didn't give her up because you didn't want her."

Jax hadn't realized how much he wanted her until she was gone. "My circumstances. I didn't have a choice."

"If Anjal would have married you?"

"Anjal and I were long over."

"Then he should never have let you back in his bed. If he didn't want you, he shouldn't have taken you in the first place."

Navika's purrs got loud again. Sujan rubbed his cheek against her back. "Sorry, princess."

"I better—"

"Don't go." Sujan rested his hand against Jax's neck. "We want you to stay. I want you to stay."

Jax slumped into a chair. What he wouldn't have given to hear that last year. "Do you know why Anjal broke up with me? He said he wasn't the one I wanted."

"Was that true?"

"I…" Jax's heart was already broken. What more damage could he do? "I wanted anyone who would love me. I wanted to be cared for, taken care of, the hole filled in my chest." He wiped his eyes. "Only it's bigger now."

Navika jumped into his lap. He petted her back. "And you, sweet thing, I asked not to be told your gender, only that you were healthy. I covered my face so I wouldn't lay eye on you and still you haunt me."

She rubbed her nose against his.

"And meeting you is only going to make it worse."

He would see the pretty little girl in his dreams.

Sujan knelt in front of Jax. "Then don't go. Stay here with us. I've cleaned out the spare room. You can stay there. I promised not to do anything."

Jax squeezed his eyes shut.

"Unless you want me to." Lips touched his. He opened his mouth. Sujan tasted better than his dreams. Navika purred and jumped to the floor. Sujan's arms wrapped around him.

This was all a dream. He was about to wake up. He'd cry so hard at the loss that he'd miss his first class.

"Jax." Sujan moved the kissed to Jax's neck. "Tell me you'll stay."

"Sujan…"

Little hands patted his leg. Sujan moved away with a laugh. "Someone here wants dinner."

Dinner was curry. Navika's job was to supervise. Jax's was to stir. Sujan did everything else. By the time the dishes were empty and the bellies full, Jax had started to understand a few words. Cleaning up went quickly and was fun, but then the feeling of invading Sujan's life returned.

It was better of all of them if he left and never came back.

"Navika, Jax here can shift just like you do."

Navika pounced. Jax could stay a little longer. He shifted and chased her around the living room and under the table and between the chair legs. Then he let her chase him and almost, but never quite, catch him.

Sujan laughed at their antics. "Get her upstairs."

Jax leapt up the stairs and ran down the hall. One room smelled more like Sujan that the others. He leapt on the bed. Navika pounced in triumph. Jax pretend to be a caught mouse. She giggled so hard he got away. Navika stalked him across the bed. He circled her.

Sujan watched from the doorway.

She pounced. He easily got the upper hand and cleaned her like he'd wanted to since before she was born. She was his. He tried not to think about it. But she was.

She licked him back, baby attempts at grooming. Sujan obviously couldn't teach her properly, not being able to change himself.

Then she curled against him and fell asleep.

Sujan lay on the bed and petted his daughter. Sometimes his fingers ended up in Jax's fur, but that was understandable. They were both golden spotted tabbies. She was just brown where he was beige.

Jax closed his eyes. The bed shifted. Sometime later Sujan returned. "I try to get her to sleep in her basket."

He picked Navika up. Jax stood and stretched. He needed to go home soon.

Sujan sat on the bed, in just a pair of boxers. "You can stay here."

Too tempting. Jax walked to the edge of the bed.

"Why?"

What? He shifted back to man form and repeated himself.

"Why do you feel you need to leave?" Sujan's hand ran down Jax's very bare leg. "I want you to stay."

"Sujan—" Jax's words were stifled by a kiss. Hands moved along his body and his head came to rest on the pillow. Sujan's body was as hard as his.

"Stay." Sujan kisses moved down. "You want to."

He did. But… "Navika."

Sujan rested his chin on Jax's chest. "I thought I was a good parent."

"You are a good parent." Navika was happy and healthy and curious and clean.

"I thought so too, but seeing you with her tonight, I realize just how much she's missing out on, how much I can't teach her."

"Your friends are helping you."

"But a friend can't wrestle her down and lick her clean. I need… I've wanted you for years, but now I know I need you."

"Wanted me?"

"That curl behind you ear bobs when you turn your head."

"What?"

Sujan reached up and tugged on Jax's hair. "This one. I wanted Navika to have it, but her hair is more like mine."

Despite the hardness against Jax's thigh, there was something he didn't understand. "You adopted Navika because she's Anjal's."

"I adopted Navika because she's yours. If Anjal hadn't been such a bastard, I would have had you in my bed months ago. I wonder if that's why he did it. I was too angry at the time to ask."

"Months?"

Sujan sighed. "If you'd come to me as a freshman, I was planning on telling you to come back after you graduated. You would have been my first 'maybe later,' the first time I'd even considered that. But you never came. And by the time you were a junior, you'd bloomed. I was having a hard time taking my eyes off you. But you were already with Anjal. I'd missed my chance."

Sujan kissed Jax's nipple. "And then you broke up, but you were still an undergrad. I'd promised myself I wouldn't be one of those professors that marry their barely legal students. I waited too long. But of course I thought Anjal planned on marrying you. I didn't realize what a truly horrible human being he was until it was too late for me to console you. You had already left."

All that time he'd be looking to the wrong cousin. "I didn't love Anjal."

"Good." Sujan kissed down Jax's chest. "That will make it easier for you to fall in love with me."

To have this home, this family, this man with his insistent fingers… Jax let go and allowed himself to be seduced.

Hours later he woke as a cat to a kitten curling against his belly. Jax gave her a few licks. His kitten. Sujan mumbled in his sleep and petted both of them.

He woke and shifted to man form under Sujan's caresses. They attempted not to disturb Navika, but she stood up, rolled her eyes and went back to her basket. Sujan laughed. "She sure told us. How long do we wait before our next ones?"

More kittens? That he raised for birth? That he'd never have to give away? "Siblings are very important for familiars."

Sujan hummed and rubbed just the right spot. "I was thinking the same thing."

On graduation day, Jax wasn't the only familiar with a wide waist. He tossed his cap and ran to the open arms of his husband and daughter. He was just the happiest.