Into the Dark

A/N - I have tried to do the forum reply to reviews thing.
http://www2.adult-fanfiction.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=16004&hl=
Or, go to AFF Community Forums > Fan Fiction > All Other Archive Categories > Original Writing > Slash

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Chapter 3

When Alex woke up again, he noticed two things right away. First, that it was night time again, and secondly, and more disturbingly, that he was being carried. He struggled for a minute, before he recognized Muranthen's voice saying something to him. Alex calmed down, though he was still a bit embarrassed to be being carried, and tried to take in his surroundings. They were in a different part of the forest; he was more or less dressed again, although the belt and his dress shirt were both gone, his laptop bag was slung over Muranthen's back, and Sascha was perched on the man's shoulder. It was an absolutely adorable sight and he couldn't help smiling. The cat man noticed, and leaned down to kiss him. His body reacted the same way it had the previous day, but luckily Muranthen made no move to stop walking and take him, which was good because right now Alex didn't think he would be able to enforce his no-sex-without-a-bed mandate.

He dozed off and on, each time waking up still during the night and still in the woods. Alex would have been worried about where the taller man was taking him; except for some reason he felt he could trust Muranthen. It was a disturbing thought, and Alex was far from naive or blindly trusting usually, but he couldn't help it. There was something about the other man, if he could call him that, which just made him want to trust him. Alex' logical brain had to accept that this wasn't a hallucination, as crazy as that seemed, but he was fairly sure if he was dreaming or hallucinating he wouldn't have been hungry or tired. So he had to come to terms with the fact that he had let a strange not-human man have sex with him, and now was letting said man carry him off to places unknown. Not that any place here would be known.

There was also the embarrassing fact of how quickly he had slept with Muranthen. That was most definitely not like him. Alex wanted to blame his prolonged lack of sex for his inability to restrain himself earlier, but that wasn't being truthful. He had been presented with chances for one night stands, but refrained simply because that wasn't something he wanted. He wasn't the type to jump into bed with people he just met; sure he had done his share of stupid things when he was younger, but he much preferred to actually be dating and at least care for the man before they moved on to that level. It wasn't panic or anything like that either – normally when someone's afraid they run away from whatever's scaring them, not spread their legs for it. It frustrated him to no end that he couldn't come up with a single logical reason why he had allowed it. Because he knew – the same illogical, impossible to grasp feeling – that Muranthen wouldn't have done anything if Alex hadn't wanted it.

So why was he suddenly so ready to ignore the fact that the only two things he knew about Muranthen were his name and that he wasn't human? True, he passed it off as not real the first time, but if he wanted to be honest with himself, he should have realized that wasn't the case by then. It was just the pull he felt towards the other man – it made no sense to feel this way, but considering the circumstances perhaps it wasn't so unbelievable. Either that or he was just clinging to the other man as the first person he had met in this place.

Eventually he was woken up because Muranthen stopped walking, and he noticed they were in a strange looking town. All of the buildings were narrow and tall, and he couldn't hold back the snicker when he realized they looked somewhat like the play tower he had bought for Sascha. Muranthen just gave him an odd look, probably wondering why he was randomly laughing at buildings, but without a common language there was no way Alex could explain. So he just shrugged and reached up to try to kiss him. He wasn't able to reach from the angle he was at, but the other man easily bent down to meet him. They walked a ways into the town, and finally entered one of the buildings.

There was another cat man inside, different from Muranthen. This one reminded Alex more like a lion than the panther Muranthen resembled. He was tawny coloured all over, and built a lot stockier. He seemed to know Muranthen, and the two started rapidly speaking in that strange language, and the stranger was smiling and obviously thrilled to see him. If it wasn't for the fact that he was still cuddled to Muranthen's chest he would have actually felt jealous. Instead he tried to concentrate on placing the language. He had always enjoyed languages as a kid, maybe he could pick up a few words. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't place it. The words didn't sound like anything he had ever heard before, so definitely not an oriental language or romance language. It was frustrating; he wanted to be able to talk to the other man and find out why he had jumped him so quickly after they first met. But it appeared the language was just as alien as the people and the buildings.

Giving up on figuring out what the language was, he looked around, and was shocked to find it actually looked similar to what a hotel would look like at home. There was a counter on one side of the room, and a bunch of couches scattered around, all backless. Either that was because of their tails, or they liked to lounge like a feline from his world would. There were a lot more plants, and a lot more windows, but other than that there were few differences. Alex hoped they were staying here; he could use a rest in a real bed, and food other than protein bars, or whatever they were. Luckily, the two men finished their conversation, and Muranthen headed to a door that Alex hadn't seen in the corner. The door led to large, platform like stairs that wrapped around the building. A few floors up, Muranthen stopped and opened the door they had reached. It was a fairly small room, which Alex had expected from the outside of the building, just basically a bed, and another door that Alex prayed led to a bathroom. Muranthen finally set him down, and he made a beeline for the other door. To his relief it was what passed for a bathroom here and he relieved himself gratefully. A part of his mind had subconsciously pictured it to be like a litter box, but thankfully the amenities were similar enough for him to figure out. Going back to the main room, he found the cat man lounging on the bed, and Alex was suddenly nervous.

Out in the woods, with no one else around, the handsome cat man may have wanted Alex, but now, back in civilization, with others of his kind...well, Alex knew he wasn't much of a catch, even to other humans. He shifted from foot to foot nervously, wondering if he could deal with sleeping on the floor. Getting another room wasn't possible; he wouldn't have the language skills to ask for the room, and he doubted the money he had would work here. Muranthen looked at him curiously, tilting his head to the side. Alex felt his throat go dry, and he couldn't help looking over the other man. Yes, regardless of the fact he wasn't quite human, he was still drop dead gorgeous, and Alex wanted him again. Muranthen held out a hand, and said something, and it was obvious that he wanted Alex to come closer. Well, that was something he was happy to do.

The cat man grabbed Alex's wrist as soon as he was close enough, and dragged the shorter man down to lay on top of him. He captured Alex's lips in a heated kiss, groping his ass through his dress pants. Alex groaned into the kiss and ground down on the hardness he could feel beneath him. He could easily get addicted to sex with this man. Sitting up, Alex made short work of his pants, wanting to feel that heat against his skin. Muranthen let out a growl and bucked up against his ass. Without thinking about the consequences, Alex raised his hips up, and as the other man thrust up the head of his cock sank into Alex's body. He groaned; luckily from their activities earlier he was still stretched, so it wasn't as painful as it could have been, but he was still dry, and it took Muranthen a few minutes to get a good rhythm going. But eventually Alex was riding the cock in him to the best of his ability, with Muranthen practically howling his approval. He leaned down, wanting to kiss him again, and the change of angle pushed him over the edge. He felt his release sticky between them, and as he slumped down from his high, Muranthen flipped them over and pounded deeply into him. Alex was shocked to find his body responding, and by the time the cat man came deep inside him, Alex had joined him with a second orgasm. Thankfully, since he could already feel his eyes closing against his will, he felt Muranthen pull out, and barely managed to curl up against the larger man before losing the battle against sleep.
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Alex yawned and stretched, reaching over to scratch Sascha behind the ears. He was rewarded by purring. What a strange dream. He really, really, needed to find himself a boyfriend or at least a fuck buddy if his subconscious was going to keep this up. He blearily opened his eyes, wondering why he had woken up before his alarm clock. Instead of seeing his blue sheets and the bedside cabinet he normally woke up to however, he was presented with a built chest and from behind that a twitching tail. He looked up, and saw bright green eyes peering down at him. It hadn't been Sascha's ears he had been scratching, but Muranthen's. He blushed and moved his hand. The man just chuckled, and pulled his hand back, kissing it on the way up to his ear. With an internal shrug, he resumed scratching. He felt movement by his feet, and saw Sascha stretching and waking up too.

It was amazingly pleasant to just lie there and listen to Muranthen purr, curled up against his chest. It had been mornings like this (without the purring of course) that he had enjoyed most with Nate, and that he missed about not having a live-in partner. Eventually, however, his bladder forced him to move and he grudgingly left the bed. Coming back out, he noticed Muranthen dressing, so he did the same.

"So what now?" He held out his arms, and gave a shrug, trying to indicate his confusion. Muranthen came over and wrapped him in a hug. He said something, but of course it made no sense to Alex. The cat man rubbed his hand against Alex's belly, and the smaller man flushed in shame. Of course he would have to notice his beer gut. He wished he had never let himself go; it was embarrassing for him to be seen by such a perfect specimen and look like a lazy slob. The biggest problem was, Alex had no idea what he was saying about his stomach. Maybe being heavy was attractive here? He frowned and looked up at Muranthen, tilting his head to the side as he had seen the other do when confused. The cat man frowned and asked him something, which Alex just shrugged to. Now Alex was nervous because Muranthen was starting to look worried. He picked Alex up and laid him on the bed, and with a hand gesture that Alex could clearly read as 'stay here'; disappeared out the main door.

"Where do you think I'm going to go when you're the only one I know and I can't speak the language? Stupid gorgeous asshole." He sat up on the bed, deciding to see if his laptop was working yet. It wasn't, of course, and a quick check showed his phone wasn't either. Not that he had really expected any differently. Pushing the bag away irritably, he decided to try and get some more sleep. He couldn't see Muranthen taking too long, but he was still tired. He had probably just gone for breakfast, and the worried look was about that – maybe he wasn't sure what Alex could eat. At this point the answer was 'anything'. Alex spent the next hour or so lounging around, somewhat dozing, but had been feeling hungry since shortly after Muranthen left, so sleep was eluding him. He groaned and wrapped his arms around his abdomen. Instead of sex last night he should have insisted on food. The hunger pains were only getting worse. He was nearly in tears from the pain when Muranthen finally returned. Gratefully, he tried to sit up, but he didn't get far before he doubled over. The cat man was instantly in front of him, looking concerned. He pushed a plate of some weird concoction in front of him, but Alex just wanted the pain to stop, and wasn't too concerned about what was in it. He devoured the entire plate, barely tasting it, and then Muranthen handed him a cup of a strange, pinkish looking liquid, Alex took a tentative sip, found it actually quite tasty, and quickly swallowed that down as well. It made him wish medicines at home tasted that good.

He started feeling better almost immediately. His stomach still hurt, but once the food digested he was sure he would be feeling perfectly normal again. And at least now he knew he would fail survival training. Who knows what would have happened to him if the other man hadn't stumbled upon him in the woods. Muranthen urged him to lie back down, and he felt the larger man curl up around him. Full, warm, and comfortable, it didn't take Alex long to fall back asleep.

A few hours later, he was woken up by more pain in his stomach. Groaning he hunched in on himself, trying to will the pain away. He felt the other man behind him, rubbing his back. After a minute the presence disappeared and when he came back, he held out another glass of that liquid. Remembering how it eased the pain before, he took it without complaint. The pain eased, but didn't fade completely. Muranthen returned with another glass, and after that one was gone, the pain receded to a tolerable level. Muranthen pulled his back into his arms, and placed kisses all over his face, murmuring things to him.

So since hunger pains were ruled out - and now that Alex was thinking logically about it, it was really too low in his gut to have been hunger pains to begin with – it seemed that perhaps something in the air or the water or something was affecting Alex poorly. The fact that Muranthen knew how to ease the pain gave Alex hope that it was treatable; he didn't think he could deal with too much more of those sharp pains. Since Muranthen knew how to treat it however, it might also mean there were other humans around, in which case he could figure out how to get home, and more importantly, to find a way to be able to communicate with Muranthen.
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The pain continued for all of that day, and the following two days. Each time it flared up, Muranthen would dutifully bring Alex another glass or two of that strange drink, which Alex assumed had to be some sort of painkiller or something, and rub his back until the pain had receded to a point where Alex could sleep again. Even after the painkiller however, it was a dull, ever present ache in his gut. So when he woke up on the fourth day, and felt completely pain free, he immediately rolled over and kissed Muranthen in relief. The other responded sleepily, but when hazy green eyes opened completely, and took in Alex's smiling face, he smiled back, purring and leaning down to nuzzle at his stomach. Laughing he pulled the cat man's head back up to steal another kiss. Growling Muranthen rolled Alex onto his back, and since both were already naked, it wasn't long before the cat man had three fingers thrusting in and out of Alex's body. He arched his back; strangely starved for contact from the other man, and wanting to feel him moving inside him again. Muranthen didn't disappoint, burying his whole length into Alex in one smooth thrust. It was a quick, nearly violent coupling, and showed the stress of the last few days. Still sexually deprived from the last few days of having to be next to each other without touching, it didn't take either long to be able to go again, and the second time around was much more satisfactory. A good while later, the cat man slowly eased himself out but remained draped over Alex, lazily licking at his shoulder. Eventually Muranthen moved, but just to go get food for them both, and after another couple rounds of exhaustive sex, they fell asleep still curled up around each other.

The following morning, Muranthen started to pack everything up, and Alex realized that he probably wanted to continue on to wherever it was he was headed when they stumbled across each other. So he obligingly packed up the little he had, and after a quick breakfast the three headed back out. This time at least Alex was allowed to walk by himself, although Sascha took up her previous position on Muranthen's shoulder. It made Alex wish he had a camera, even if he did feel a bit jealous that she had abandoned him so easily.

They left the town, although Alex would have like to stay and explore more. There were a lot more of the cat people floating around, and more of them called out greetings to Muranthen, which he returned with a grin. Alex couldn't help the jealousy that rose and the desire to know what all the other men were saying. But soon enough they were back in the forest, just the three of them. They walked in silence, of course, since there was still the language barrier between them. Alex was lost in his own thoughts anyway. After all, he was in a completely different world with people who looked like cats and that was technologically about a century behind what he was used to. It was going to take a while for him to wrap his mind around. Outside of the town it didn't look too much different from his own world (and even thinking that phrase was insane) – the trees and plants looked similar at least; although Alex was never really an outdoors person, so it's not like he'd recognize much anyway.

The day stretched on; Muranthen was clearly trying to make up time, and he kept a fast pace. It was all Alex could do to keep up with him, and it was soon obvious how woefully out of shape he was. He was sweating and panting by midday when they stopped for a quick lunch. Muranthen looked concerned, and slowed down a bit during the afternoon, but Alex was still ready to drop by the time they stopped for the night. Taking pity on him, Muranthen just curled around him and didn't initiate anything. He was asleep nearly instantly, worn out physically from the walking and mentally from the thoughts that had kept circling through his mind.

It took them another two days to get to the next town, both of which passed nearly the same as the first. The lack of conversation was starting to get to him. If it had just been him, he would have talked to Sascha just to break up the silence. However, he felt silly talking to his cat with Muranthen there, and he would feel awkward talking to the other man when he wouldn't be understood. He also wanted to know where they going – he was just tagging along blindly behind Muranthen and it bothered him a lot. Not that having a name of a place would help, and he doubted that the other could communicate in gestures what his purpose in going there was. He also felt like his legs were going to give out on him, but he still tried to keep up and not show Muranthen just how badly off he was. Still, it was with a great sense of relief when he saw buildings in the distance. The town was nearly identical to the first, and they stayed in another strange looking hotel. Muranthen wasted no time talking to the proprietor this time, dragging Alex upstairs as soon as possible. The following day they left early again, which Alex wasn't too happy with after the marathon sex they had engaged in the previous night, but it was apparent that Muranthen needed to be somewhere, and his bout of sickness had delayed him enough. And at least he was restricting their bedroom activities to a bedroom now.
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They were passing another field like the one Alex had woken up in when he saw it. It had been almost another full week and two more towns since their first stop where he had gotten sick. There was a strip of blackness – or probably more accurately, where there was a lack of light. The memory came rushing back to him – entering his apartment, or trying to and finding only empty space. He grabbed Muranthen's wrist and pointed at the anomaly, but the cat man only looked confused, ears twitching. Perhaps he couldn't see it; he knew cat's eyes were different than human's, the sliver of not-light might be on a spectrum the other man just couldn't see. He grabbed Sascha off the other man's shoulder, and tucked her back in his bag, ignoring her whine of protest. Alex then gave Muranthen one last kiss before walking resolutely towards the thing that he hoped would get him home. Or kill him horribly; he wasn't too sure on which. Muranthen called out after him, but Alex steeled himself and refused to look back. He wasn't about to give up his entire life for a man he had just met, who wasn't even the same species as he was, and who he couldn't even communicate properly with. He didn't know where they were going, or what things were like here. Could he find work here, or would he be forced to live off Muranthen? What did the other man even do for a living? There were too many questions and no way to find out the answers. Just because the sex was great was no reason to stay. Even if that was a damn good reason. And damn good sex. Alex noticed he had slowed down, and forced himself to start walking again. Muranthen had caught up with him easily and pulled him to a stop. The other man had such a sad look in his eyes that it almost broke Alex's resolve to go back. What life was he going back to anyway? But then Muranthen said something, and he was reminded of the reasons why he had to leave. This wasn't his world; he didn't even know what he was to the other man. Sighing he reached up and cupped the cat man's cheek. There was no way he could explain that he was going home, and it broke his heart that he had to leave like this; it seemed like such a callous thing to do. Regardless of the sex, Muranthen had taken care of him and helped him out when he didn't have to. But it was still something he had to do. The anomaly was only a few feet behind him now, so not taking his eyes off Muranthen, he walked backwards. As the slice of nothingness gripped him and everything went dark, he thought he could hear Muranthen calling out to him one last time.