With the monster’s tongue lapping against his cheek, Rick’s mind whirled, the gears spinning out of control, eyes wild and rapidly blinking as she leaned closer. Her tongue was wet, rough, and stinking of things far worse than bad breath. There was a hint of blood in that scent, but the human was far too near a panic attack to properly think things through. What was going on?

She licked him a third time, tracing her way to his lip. After a moment, she leaned away, appearing amused at something, letting go of him as she sniffed at his shoulder, inhaling deeply. Another sniff. She followed her way down his right arm. The sniffing paused at his fingers.

The woman stopped as she focused on the blue backpack he’d been holding in a death-grip this whole time. A purr escaped her, sniffing harder and licking her lips. She reached down and snatched the bag right out of his hands. She frowned at it, as if it was her first time having seen such an object. She turned it upside down as her other hand let go of him. The contents fell out and spilled all over the floor. It was one item in particular that caught her attention in full. The zip-bag of half melted chocolate treats.

The sugary treat had oozed out, perhaps when Rick had fallen onto it from her shove. The feline glanced at it, frowning, sniffing closer before giving it a tentative lick. The reaction was immediate. Her tail lashed out, eyes widening, the feline ears atop her head perking up. She began licking some more. The wild woman chomped on the side of the bag that had the most chocolate covering the outside plastic, biting down and ripping it out in a single savage yank of her head.

Laying on the ground and looking up at her in disbelief, Rick could only blink in disbelief as he watched her purr as she chewed at the stolen treat. The sound lasted up until she started gagging. The white-haired woman spat out the pieces of plastic, glaring at the packet while holding it pinched between two fingers as if it had just committed a grave sin against her.

The young teacher hesitated, his mind racing. From the chaos of near panic, a thought made its way through. “Hey.” He leaned over, sitting up just a bit, waiting for her to turn his way before he began slowly reaching for the bag, but not daring to even make it seem like he was going to take it out of her paws.

She pulled her hand away from his reach as she glanced at the bag of sweets with a scowl. Her eyes narrowed in a silent threat when she turned back to look at him. He didn’t move, meeting her gaze and lowering his eyes afterwards, but remaining firmly in place. He lingered, swallowing hard, waiting, wondering. Was this the right choice? Should he do this? Was she going to attack him and put a definite end to this?

A heartbeat, then a dozen more that followed in quick succession. He waited with bated breath.

She frowned, peered at the bag, then at him, and then at his outstretched hand. Pausing, she kept her eyes narrowed. Her lips pulled back, and she bared her fangs at him as she moved her clawed hand closer to his palm. Rick gulped, nodding slowly when she dropped the bag in his palm.

The snarl was making his body want to shudder uncontrollably. It was physically oppressive. With supreme effort and no small amount of nervousness, he picked up the bag and peeled off the plastic from the chocolate. Carefully, gently, with shaking fingers and with an aching chest that was nearly going to fail at containing his racing heart, he took out one of the half-melted pieces of candy, now devoid of plastic, and left it on her outstretched paw.

She looked at it closely. Gave a brief look at Rick, then at the chunk of chocolate. The monster lady sniffed at it and then licked it off of her paw, taking the entire piece into her mouth and chomping down on it. At first she did so slowly, appearing to test whether there was plastic within, but once she had confirmed there was none to be had, she chewed on it loudly and swallowed.

A wide smile spread across her face, smirking as she sat down in front of Rick, legs crossed, leaning forward. She licked her paw as she looked at the bag with keen eyes. Her head made a gesture at it. The human let out a nervous chuckle, feeling a knot forming at the back of his neck. “Oh, you want more?” He couldn’t help but force a chuckle while his shoulder remained stiff enough to hurt. Rick mentally calculated how much remained. Maybe enough for a dozen or two similarly sized pieces? Less?

What would happen once the chocolate was gone? His back felt like it was about to collapse in on itself from the tension.

Keeping the smile fixed in place, he took another sample, scooping it out of the bag and offering it. It took a moment; she leaned down to inspect it, sniffing it again, licking the edge lightly. Her paw reached out to grab his wrist firmly. Sudden panic rose in Rick’s chest as she opened her mouth, sharp fangs laying within. The man fought with his own body to keep it extremely still, watching as she slowly licked at his fingers now that he was unable to pull the limb away, lapping his palm clean while purring, grinning from ear to ear while her tail lashed.

The woman let go after a second and leaned away. Rick let out a withering sigh and relaxed, glad he still had all ten digits. Her face glowed with a smile as she opened her mouth, clearly asking for more. With a nervous chuckle, he obliged, doing his best to ration the sweets so they would last as long as he could make them. His brain was going a mile a minute as it attempted to figure out what to do, where to lead things. He couldn’t just keep giving her chocolate indefinitely; he’d run out, and fast.

What would he do afterwards? “Here you go.” Another piece of candy. Rick’s hands were shaking ever so slightly, but he was getting it under control. His eyes moved up to her perked, feline ears as she suckled his finger. And the absurdity of the thought that followed made him want to scream at himself to stop. Should he? He waited, allowing her three more nibbles before he’d worked up the courage.

Not that any better options came to mind.

It was all or nothing.

The chemistry teacher used his free hand to reach out towards her head. Very, very slowly. The hammering of his heart between his ears was deafeningly loud. She saw the outstretched hand and frowned. Rick froze, leaving it there, unmoving, waiting.

His other hand offered more chocolate underneath the outstretched hand.

Her focus shifted towards the candy and leaned to pluck it from his fingers with her lips. In doing so, she pressed the top of her head against his other hand. Waiting before moving again, Rick gently dug his fingers into her scalp, stroking in slow circles, and following through her hair up to the base of those twitching ears. He was ready to pull out at the first sign of so much as a twitch of a brow. But she stayed there, and he proceeded. One scratch, two, then three. He drew slow lines with them, unable to look away from her intense gaze as she peered up at him.

A nervous chuckle left him as he redoubled on the insanity, caressing her hair and ears, trying his best to make sure it was enjoyable. His mind kept bouncing back to Odin, the odious black cat that loved nothing more than to scratch him to hell and back.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a purr. Rick let out a massive sigh of relief. His whole body half-slumped back to the ground as he continued scratching. A strange hysteria gripped at his chest, making him want to laugh. A part of him wondered just how mentally exhausted his brain was to have thought this idea was a decent one. But the sight of the feline woman relaxing into his touch was as good a sign as any.

Her purring became louder, leaning forward, catching Rick by surprise as she buried her face against his stomach, her arms wrapping around his waist, tail lashing back and forth in an apparent simple enjoyment. She forced him onto his back as she cuddled close against him. The gesture prompted him to continue, now moving both palms to the top of her head, stroking and massaging the base of her ears.

The teacher marveled at them, feline in their entirety, attached to her head and completely functional, the muscles twitching on her scalp. Nothing about them looked any different than a cat’s. He didn’t spot human ears at the sides of her head, either. It seemed as if this was the real deal.

A growl came out of her when he’d slowed down to observe her ears more closely, her grip tightening dangerously. Rick’s hands immediately moved faster, the question repeating itself inside his mind over and over and over.

The memory of what she’d done to the bat-like monster, and of how she scared off the spider with but a roar… Rick’s heart raced as he considered the prospect. What if…

Hope wormed its way into his chest.

What if he could convince her to keep them alive?