Stronger Together chapter 158

Arriving home was a relief. We managed to get through that shitty nightmare jungle and make our way back past the fountain square and finally got back to the house. It was the middle of the night, though of what day it was hard to  tell and we all tromped inside exhaustedly. It had been an insane day. I  dropped down onto the couch bonelessly, getting a surprised and very  annoyed yowl from Max and I fell and he was forced to jump for his life  onto the cushions.

Because I was the only one laying down  Rumor decided I was a prime target and scrambled up onto the couch to  climb all over me. He pawed his way up to my face, giving me tiny puppy  kisses that occasionally resulted in his teeth bumping me. However he  was so adorable I didn't care too much, just gently reminding him as my  face got covered in dog slobber and the smell of puppy breath. I was  laughing and cuddling with the little guy when I heard an imperious  yowl. Rumor looked up from licking me to see Max glaring at him.

Despite  the cats obvious displeasure the puppy was thrilled to see another  animal his own size and bounded off me to run over to the kitten. He  rolled over on his back in front of the tiger cub, batting playfully at  the underside of the cats chin with his little paw. I tensed up, ready  to intervene if necessary. Poor little Rumor was all sweetness, he  didn't deserve to get cut up for being friendly. Luckily the houses  resident precious baby was too cute for even the cat to get angry at.  Max seemed appeased by the exposure of  the pups belly and I could have  sworn he even nodded slightly.

Rumor, being a fu dog  descendant and brilliant, noted the change in demeanor and happily leapt  to his feet bouncing around Max in a happy circle and darting in and  out to bump his nose against the kitten. The cat gave me a suffering  look, as if to say "please tell me this isn't going to happen all the  time" but didn't react poorly. Finally the puppy calmed down and stood  still, laying down in front of Max, who sat down to one side of Rumor  and started grooming the puppy. Rumor looked overjoyed, and I had to  smile at the cuteness on display.

Raven was watching them  have fun with an adorable smile on her face. "Rumor has been wanting a  play mate for a while now, but the rest of us are too big. It'll be so  good for him to have another baby to play with." She knelt down next to  the animals, scratching behind Max's ear with her fingertips and  nuzzling her nose into Rumor's side. The cat started purring and Rumor  started wriggling around to rub up against her even more and the whole  thing was just pure adorable. Raven was giggling and I could tell she  was in a rare moment of childlike wonder. I loved seeing her so happy.

The  touching scene was interrupted by a gleeful squeal from behind me as  Morgan came stumbling into the room, eyes wide with joy and excitement  "Look at the little BABY!" She snatched up a very confused Max and  hugged him tight against her spinning in circles and cooing. Raven just  rolled her eyes fondly grabbed the puppy, sitting down and plopping him  on her lap the snuggle as the apparently cat crazy vampire snuggled and  squeezed and  loved on a very confused looking Max. His eyes were wide  with a kind of helpless panic. He could tell this person didn't have bad  intentions but he had no clue what was happening.

I  laughed at seeing the imperious kitten so defeated. Morgan was clearly  friendly and he couldn't bring himself to slash up someone who was  clearly so happy to see him, but she was also a powerful vampire with  Aura and even that sturdy little kitten was looking rumpled and  panicked. I made a mental note of thanks for the fact that Morgan wasn't  a dog person, because poor Rumor would have been smashed flat by this  treatment. Luckily Max had like, metal bones or something and his  suffering was all emotional.

I took pity on the poor  kitten and stepped over to pry him out of the vampires grip. She fought  me a bit, but since she wasn't using her Hunger I got him loose and the  kitten scrambled up my arm to stand on my shoulders with his chin on top  of my head, using my body as a shield against the crazy cat lady.  Morgan's too wide eyes dimmed "Noooo! Kitty come back, we were just  getting to know each other." He face looked so sad even Max clearly felt  bad, he leaned out from behind my head and gave a soft meow.

Morgan  stepped up slowly, clearly having noticed she might have been overdoing  it, which was progress for her and held out her arm and shoulder. Max  gave her a confused look but finally decided to crawl over onto her  shoulder. Rather than channel the little girl from looney tunes who may  or may not have been a blooming serial killer she let Max climb over  onto her slowly, giving him the chance to go at his own pace. The little  kitten put his paws up on her head like he had done to me and stared  proudly down at everyone, putting contentedly.

I laughed  at their antics "Congrats Morgan, seems like you won his approval. I  think that calls for a celebration. Maybe you could take him into the  kitchen to eat some tuna." Morgan squealed with excitement and bounced  up and down a bit, clapping and running out of the room. I turned to  Raven with a wry smile "So, Morgan is a cat person apparently. Who  knew?" My girlfriend giggled and I plopped down on the couch next to her  to snuggle up with her and the puppy that was hopping back and forth to  kiss both of us, trying to decide between loving on his mommy or the  person who had just come back after being gone for two minutes.

Kara  came strolling into the room looking puzzled. "Hey, welcome back guys,  quick question, am I somehow very stoned right now or is Morgan in the  kitchen feeding tuna fish to a small tiger? Also follow up question, she  does know you're supposed to remove the tuna from the can before you  feed it to cats right?" She glanced back at the wall, clearly using her  x-ray vision to look into the kitchen. "Although the little guy doesn't  seem to mind. He ate the whole thing in just a few bites. Can tigers  here eat metal for some reason?"

I  laughed at the confusion on her face "Not as far as I know. That's Max.  He found us in The Wild Wood. Apparently he's some kind of ancestral  totem beast from China. White Tiger's are of the metal element and the  little guy has crazy sharp teeth. Even took a chunk out of my arm, which  I was starting to think was impossible. Anyway Morgan lost it when she  was him and they're bonding now." I was happy the little dark haired  vampire was so excited, she deserved some joy in her life given how  rough things had been for her. "Apparently she's-"

Kara  cut me off "A cat person, yeah I gathered. That's really cool though,  he's a total cutie. Inari is going to love him. She's a cat person too."  She paused "Now that I think about it so is Sam. You think it's a  family thing. Cat's do seem kind of vampy. You know, stalking their  prey, toying with their food, being impossibly vain-" her eyes widened  as she suddenly changed what she was saying "and of course cats are  fierecely independent and incredibly intelligent creatures with rich and  complex personalities full of nuance just like vampires."

I  was a bit confused where that came from until I saw Inari step out from  behind a corner opposite the kitchen where Kara had been looking. The  vampire didn't look impressed, a raised eyebrow showing she had clearly  heard the whole thing, but the small smile on her face showing she  didn't mind. "Uh, huh. I thought I told you in the shower last week I  wasn't comfortable with you kissing my ass." I heard Morgan whoop with  laughter in the next room as Kara's face flushed dark red. Inari gave a  satisfied smirk and scooped up the puppy from my lap. "Besides, I'm more  of a dog person."

Kara  glared at her girlfriend "Being a vampire is a terrible influence on  you!" It was a bit funny seeing her so off balance. Normally she was  pretty unshakable given all the sex she could hear constantly with her  super hearing, but Inari had always been able to get under her skin and  she had started teasing much more since her Hunger woke up. The white  court girl was definitely more confident now than she had been before  her change. Inari rolled her eyes and put down the puppy, spreading her  arms.

Kara  huffed a little and pouted and Inari cooed consolingly "I'm sorry baby. I  was only teasing. Come on, don't be mad." She stepped closer to her  girlfriend who rolled her eyes but sidled up a bit into her arms. Inari  wrapped her in a hug and planted a soft kiss on Kara. She held her close  and chuckled as the kryptonian smiled, clearly not really minding the  teasing and just wanting a kiss. This time it was Inari who rolled her  eyes "You're such a brat sometimes." Raven and I smiled at the two of  them, looking so sweet together.

Inari  and Kara's relationship had only gotten stronger over the last year or  so, and it was really nice to see them both so happy. Inari had become  like family herself, just like the rest of the girls, and Kara had been  with us since the beginning. They were both amazing people and deserved  plenty of happiness. They were so in sync with each other all the time  it was beautiful to see. I expected the whole true love thing to come  up, but apparently since Kara wasn't fully human it didn't affect them.

Inari  was now almost as big a fixture at the Carpenter house as Kara was, and  Charity adored having yet another daughter. The two of them often went  over to watch the kids when the Carpenter's went out for their weekly  date night. My roommates had a perfect relationship. Speaking of perfect  relationships "Hey anyone seen Barb? I was hoping she'd be hear to  berate me about the irresponsibility of picking up stray cats while  trying to subtly hoard his attention from the rest of us." My redhead  was also a cat person, to my dismay and she and Rumor got on well  because he got on well with everyone, but they weren't especially close.

Kara  chuckled at the completely accurate prediction of how my girlfriend  would treat the kitten but shrugged "She isn't home. Something about  idiots with metal in their brains  not marketing effectively. I believe  her exact words were 'this marketing plan is a dumpster fire'. She  scheduled a meeting with Dalton to look into less mundane options for  getting the word out. She said relying on word of mouth is the business  equivalent of closing your eyes and hoping it all works out." That did  sound like her but I wasn't bothered, we had put her in charge because  she knew what to do.

When  one of your girlfriends was mentored by Bruce fucking Wayne you have to  be either deeply stupid or have your head deeply up your own ass like i  had not to take advantage. Granted her training had been less from the  business tycoon and more from the unstable orphan in the bat costume but  hey she'd still picked up some tricks. Raven had been right about me  needing to delegate if I was so burned out I missed something that  obvious. Regardless I was happy she was taking well to the business side  of things. I put my arm around Raven and sat back, just taking in how  wonderful my life was.