On the way home I popped by the grocery store and bunkered up with food. If Ash said yes to my proposal to live with me for a while, I didn't want to force my own weird eating habits onto him, I had to have food available at home. It was a odd feeling to walk among the shelves and shopping for someone else than myself. I found myself picking between several kinds of cereals, going for the luxury brand of jam, and buying more sandwich toppings than I had ever had at home.

He would have everything he needed, I wanted to make sure of that. I wanted him to thrive when he was at my place. Even thinking that was new to me. I had never bothered myself with whether or not people liked it at my home, the only thing that mattered to me was when they would leave.

Ash called me at ten that night and I dug my heels down.

"How is it with–," he started.

"No, you can't come over," I cut off, realizing too late that he didn't even finish his sentence.

"Ok, ok, I know," he chortled. "Nice to see you on your toes. But I was just wondering how we're gonna get to the lake house tomorrow?"

I sighed in relief.

"Zoey picks us up in her car at four tomorrow after work," I said. "How is the packing going?"

"Better than I expected, really," he answered, and I heard a metallic rustle. "I found the keys to my handcuffs."

"Oh, that's... great," I hiccupped.

He made a low, humming sound into the phone that went straight down between my legs.

"Want me to bring them tomorrow...?" he said with a purr and the rustling kept sounding in the background.

It was like I could see him in front of me, how he sat there smiling, playing with the cuffs in his one hand and holding up the phone with the other. In my vision he was bare-chested, his jeans were unbuttoned half way down and he let the cuffs glide over his crotch. Damn, he wasn't even here and still he affected me so much my heart pounded in my ears.

"I... don't know," I breathed. "Is that such a good idea?"

"I could chain you to the bed and suck you off," he mumbled hoarsely, and I shut my eyes. "Make you beg for release. Take your cock so deep that you wouldn't have any words left, you would just squirm beneath me until I finally let you cum in my mouth."

"Damn it, Ash! I know what you're up to but no, you can't come over," I groaned in dismay and pulled at my sweatpants so that they wouldn't chafe my newly awakened dick.

"It was worth a try," he said, and I could hear the smirk in his voice. "But God help you if you jack off by yourself tonight. I want you teeming tomorrow, you understand?"

That could prove difficult. But the new image I had of cat ears and handcuffs made the decision easy.

"I promise," I said. "See you tomorrow."

"I bring the chains and you bring the balls," he chuckled.

I was standing in the lobby of the office building waiting for Ash when worry set it. The day had gone by fine up to this moment, I had been so busy with work that I didn't have time to think about the weekend and it was only now when I stood there doing nothing that my mind started to wander. If my family asked who Ash was, what would I tell them? Had my mom already told them about Ash? Should I say he was just a friend, or should I just be up-front with it and risk getting all sorts of reactions and questions?

The content of my bag didn't make things any easier either. I had placed my purchase at the very bottom of the bag, so if someone were to open it, they at least wouldn't be met by cat ears first thing. The courage to actually put the stuff on had faltered somewhat and I had started to debate with myself if I should really do it. Maybe it was better to just present him with the key. At the same time, I wanted to surprise him. I wanted to see his face when he saw me.

"Haven't Zoey arrived yet?" I heard Ash ask from behind me and I turned around.

He had a large, black backpack thrown over his shoulder and beamed at me when he approached. With no warning he quickly kissed my cheek and winked at me. I decided to ignore any looks coming from the passing crowd. They could talk all they wanted.

"Nope," I said and eyed the entrance. "Hey, I was wondering. What do you want me to present you as when we get there? I mean, how do you..."

I trailed off and stared at the floor feeling awkward. Maybe he just wanted to act like a friend and let the nature of our relationship remain a secret? Suddenly I felt his arm hug my lower back.

"How about saying that I'm your boyfriend?"

I looked up at him, not sure if I heard him correctly. He watched me, his eyes soft and quizzical, a gaze I had never seen him have before. He was the one who said it first. My heart fluttered and I found myself standing there grinning like a fool.

"You want that?" I asked.

"If I want to be your boyfriend?" he said with a laugh. "Yes, you idiot, otherwise I wouldn't have said it, would I? But if you don't want to–,"

"Yes! No! Yeah, I want to! I mean, I didn't mean..." I was just babbling now, and the words tripped over my tongue. "I just thought that there might be reactions..."

A car horn sounded outside, and I saw Zoey's mint green Toyota pull up.

"I have no problems dealing with any reactions," Ash smiled and took my hand. "And if they give you a hard time, I'll be there for you. Come on."

I followed him staggering, my head swept into a weird fog because of the previous minute. About what he said to me. Was this how you felt when you asked someone to go steady in school and they said yes? I had never asked that, so I had no idea. It was always the girls who asked me, and I had said yes just because it was the right thing to do. This was completely different. Ash wanted to be my boyfriend. That meant that he wanted me to be his. The juvenal happiness that bubbled inside me made me feel like a damn giggling teenager again, but I didn't care. He wanted to be my boyfriend. That was all that mattered.

Zoey's boyfriend Daniel greeted us curtly as we stepped into the car, and I could feel the tension at once. They had been fighting on the way here. Zoey looked furious and Daniel was fiddling with his phone. I felt an urge to gloat. Not that I wanted my sister to feel bad, but for once the roles were reversed and I was the happy one and she was the one with problems.

"Is it just me or are those two pissed at each other?" Ash whispered discretely in my ear when we were speeding down the highway.

"They had a fight, I think," I whispered back and rolled my eyes.

He took his phone and handed me one of the earbuds and put the other in his own ear. The pounding bass sounded in my head and suddenly I felt revengeful. I wanted to get back at Zoey for all those times she had been cuddling with her boyfriends in front of me. I moved closer to Ash and rested my head against his shoulder. He grasped my hand and caressed it absentmindedly across his lips and leaned his head to mine. I smiled innocently at Zoey through the back mirror. She stared back at me in anger and then looked intently at the road again. God, I was enjoying this too much.

When we pulled up to the lake house my mom and dad was already standing on the lawn in front of the house, waiting for us. The trees surrounding the house had already shifted in color and was glowing red and yellow in the setting autumn sun. Ash got out of the car and stretched, while I got out luggage from the trunk of the car. My mother went straight for Ash and smiled welcoming.

"So, you're Ash," she said and ignored his outstretched hand and hugged him. "My name is Dorothy, but you can call me Dot. This is my husband, Frank. We're so glad you could come."

My father didn't go for the hug, instead he grabbed Ash's hand and shook it vigorously as if to measure his strength.

"Nice to meet you," Ash greeted back at them.

"So, you're James'...uhm...?" my father said and couldn't seem to finish the sentence.

"Boyfriend, yes," Ash confirmed and flashed a dazzling smile. "But it's fine if you want to call me Ash too."

My dad burst into a roaring laughter and slapped Ash on the back. The initial fear that still had been present in me as we had gotten closer to the house disappeared completely as I saw how effortlessly Ash was dealing with meeting my parents. Instead, I felt oddly proud to present him. There was still hope for their hopeless son.

Dinner was served on the glass-framed veranda and the happy buzz I had all afternoon just continued. Ash seemed to get along really well with my parents, and everything just felt so natural, except for the fact that Zoey was still mad at me. But I didn't let that drag me down at all.

"So, how did you two meet, Ash?" my mother asked and put down her fork. "James never told me, I want to know everything."

I stiffened somewhat in my seat, right in the middle of a bite of spaghetti and glanced at Ash. He had been acting exemplary up until this very moment, but all of a sudden, I remembered how outspoken he could be. Did he dare to tell the truth in front of my parents?

"It was nothing special, really," he said calmly. "I just saw Jamie in the cafeteria and thought he looked interesting, so I stalked him for three weeks before presenting myself and then I started to terrorize him. You know, simple stuff like spooking him in the office at night and following him into the bathroom and stuff."

I kicked his leg under the table in pure panic, but my mom and dad just laughed and so did Ash. They thought it was a joke. I tried to laugh too, as I collected myself from the shock of Ash telling the absolute truth around the dinner table about how we met. He was out of his mind.

I saw my chance later that night, when Ash had been hijacked by my dad and they sat talking about some World War 2 stuff, something I had no idea that Ash knew so much about. But my dad looked positively thrilled to have someone to talk to that held the same interest. Now I could go down to the cabin beforehand. I had deliberately refrained from thinking about my plan, but now I had to, if I was to go through with it.

I said good night to my parents and reassured Ash that it was ok for him to stay a while longer, then I trudged through the wet grass down towards the lake and the small gray cabin. My nerves were like insects buzzing around in my gut. Wasn't this a little too crazy? Maybe he would laugh at me? No, he wouldn't. I was sure of that. I stepped inside and made sure to close the curtains over the two small windows. In a corner of the room was my sister's old horseback gear, still sitting here since she was younger and had a craze for horses, and my old fishing poles was leaning against the wall as well. I tried to push away the memories of childhood and fixed my mind on my bag instead.

My hands were cold as I took my clothes off, got in front of the mirror and held up the diadem with the cat ears. Carefully I placed it on my head, draping my hair over the diadem to cover it. When I looked at myself in the mirror I couldn't help smiling. This didn't look that bad. Maybe I had gone insane, but I actually looked kind of cute. I cocked my head and admired my reflection. Then my gaze landed on the tail laying on the bed.

This is insane. I am insane.

Decidedly I grabbed the bottle of lube and splurged a generous amount on the plug and evened it out over the black rubber. My breath quickened as I tried to keep my hand steady when positioning the plug against my entrance. This was not at all the same as when I was with Ash. This felt awkward and weird, but I didn't give up. I pressed slowly, felt the tension and the yield and finally my hole closed over the narrowing end of the plug and the tail was in place. I let out a groan as I straightened out my body.

Something felt different. A faint, warm tingling sensation inside, that seemed to come from the plug. I took a step towards the bed to read on the bottle and the feeling came stronger and I drew a breath. What kind of lube was this?

'Stimulating. Heightens the sensation in the erogenous zones.'

Jesus, this was not in my plan at all.

I staggered to my jacket and got out the spare key I had in a long chain and hung it around my neck. I would not back out now, not a chance in hell. Now that I had come this far, I didn't want to abort just because some stupid lube. I wanted to see the look on his face. I sent a text to Ash, telling him that I was lonely and then I sat down on my knees on the floor in front of the door, draping the long fur tail over my thighs. This was it. Sink or swim.

After a couple of minutes, I heard his steps on the wooden deck outside and I tried to breathe normally, even if the sensation of the lube was getting stronger by the minute. The door opened and Ash stepped inside. I looked up at him, smiled and cocked my head to the side.