Full Moon [Neph]

[Cheesigator]

The moment the alarm went off on Hack's comm he was quick to snatch it up and mute it before it woke the sleeping fuzzy companion lying in between his knees with his head on the lizardman's lap.

He'd already been awake for about an hour or so now anyways, but he'd been too busy being wrapped up in his own thoughts to remember to turn it off preemptively, and besides--he did need it, for when he was supposed to get up up. Today was the last day of the transformation, and in a few hours the jackal-lookin pup sharing his bed would be back to the jackal-lookin man who got into way too much trouble quite honestly for his own good. Sometimes Hack couldn't tell if he liked the pup better or not.

No, he liked them both equally.

Ever so carefully, he eased himself out of bed and carefully untangled himself from the large, space-taking dog. The first rays of morning sunlight hadn't even come up over the horizon yet, it was still relatively dark, but that didn't matter because Hack had work to start and finish.

Granted, he always tried to stay on top of these things and make things as far in advance as possible, so as he slipped off into his study to check the mixtures he'd prepared last night he let out a slight breath of relief. The salve he made that helped remedy pain always worked better if the ingredients were left to sit and blend for a good 24 hours beforehand, but wait too long and their effects weakened. He gave it a careful sniff as he lifted the lid off of the container and hummed, it was just the way he'd expected it to be, which was good.

The next step would be the tea, because tea always helped, particularly as a muscle relaxer and to soothe any other symptoms he might be experiencing like dizziness, lightheadedness, nausea, etc. He wanted to make the transition as smooth as possible for poor Cayenne, because every time he'd watched it, it made his heart wrench with sympathy, which wasn't something Hack normally experienced on a daily basis. He pulled the ingredients he needed, double-checking the list and instructions he'd written for himself years ago now after perfecting the blend, and started preparing with the pestle and mortar as he mixed and ground the dried herbs together and sorted them into little bags, heat sealing them once they were all pulled together.

He pulled one of the mugs from the kitchen that was one of Cayenne's favorites, setting a kettle of water on standby on the small burner he had there in his study as he dragged a bag of rice grains from under one of the desks, pouring the pieces into cloth bags and tying the ends shut to be heated in the microwave once Cayenne was up and moving. Those were also good for muscle cramp relief, and aches and pains and all that. Finally he collected a bucket of cold water and a few clean rags, and began the task of carefully sneaking through the ship to situate everything in his room, since that was where Cayenne had decided to plant his furry butt, that's where it would remain planted for at least the next 12 hours until he felt okay to move on his own again.

Besides, it was easier for him to keep an eye on the pup that way.

He let out a sigh as he came over to the bed and ran his hand along the top of the jackal's head, giving him gentle pets that slipped down behind his ears as he smiled a little to himself. Moments like these were rare and hard to come by, but Cayenne always seemed to like sticking by Hack's side the most when he was a dog, and the lizard wasn't exactly sure why, but he certainly wasn't going to complain. As much of a pain in the ass as Cayenne could be even on a good day, he still cared for the guy way more than he cared to admit out loud. Not that it really mattered, anyways.

He eased himself down onto the mattress, pulling from his pocket a piece of jerky to waft in front of the pup's nose. He preferred waking him up early so he could be prepared, rather than him immediately waking up to a living, painful nightmare. Gods he always felt so bad having to just sit and watch though.

"C'mon boy, time to wake up." He murmured as he continued to run his fingers through the short fur, brushing up and down his neck and shoulders in broader movements to try and help rouse him from the clutches of... Whatever the fuck dogs dreamed about.

[nephero]

   Cayenne liked sleeping with Hack. It was comforting, piling up with another body, even if this body was strange and lizardy and didn’t like it when Cayenne got up in the middle of the night to circle and scratch at the blankets to get more comfortable again. Cayenne couldn’t help himself, though. He didn’t have thumbs, he couldn’t just fold up blankets.

   His ears flicked at the sound of movement, but Cayenne didn’t wake up immediately, taking in deep breaths through his nose and letting them out again just as slowly. He was sleepy, so sleepy, and somewhere in the back of his mind he knew he didn’t want to wake up today at all. He couldn’t remember why, just that he didn’t like it, and his ears swiveled back a bit. Before perking up again as he heard Hack approach the bed.

   Cayenne couldn’t help himself. He cracked open his eyes, took in a deep whiff of Hack’s scent, and his tail thudded happily against the still-warm blankets of the bed. He liked sleeping with Hack. He always got pets in the morning, and he liked pets. It felt nice, and Hack felt nice, and Cayenne lifted his head from his paws to lick at the weird lizard man’s hand in thanks. He huffed as Hack pulled his hands away, scooting forward a bit to try and paw at his arm to get more pets because those were so nice and all Cayenne wanted was to lay in bed and snooze and—

   Was that jerky?

   His tail was going a mile a minute then, and Cayenne huffed again, giving a wide yawning whine as he scooted closer to Hack, sniffing for where that jerky was. Yes, jerky! Jerky was awesome, Hack was awesome, Hack gave him jerky! Jerky and pets! Cayenne gobbled the piece down with wild abandon, chewing noisily and sniffing around for any fallen crumbs of dried meat in the blankets. Wait, was that a piece? Cayenne licked at the bed and got only blanket-flavor. No, no other pieces.

   But Hack was still there. Cayenne looked up at him, ears perked and tail wagging hopefully, sniffing close to his hands to see if maybe there was any more jerky to be had. As a consolation prize, Cayenne was also willing to go for more pets, scooting close and resting his paws on Hack’s lap.

   He licked at the lizard man’s arm, and then craned his neck to catch Hack just underneath his chin, happy slobbery good morning greetings for his most favorite person in the whole wide world! Most favorite, best favorite.

   Cayenne stretched his legs one after the other, and trotted across the bed, nosing around the ruffled blankets for his squeaky. He was sure he’d left it in there, had played with it before bed. Wait. Wait. No, he remembered now. Hack had gotten mad and had taken the squeaky across the room where Cayenne wasn’t allowed to get it until morning. And it was morning! Pets and jerky and squeaky, it was morning!

   The jackal bounded off the bed with a little yip, moving over to the far side of Hack’s room and looking up at the top of the dresser, where he knew squeaky was. Hack had put him there outside of Cayenne’s reach, and Cayenne wasn’t allowed to get up on his hind paws in here. Too many things to knock over, too much shouting when he made a mess. So he was good, and stood on all fours, and stared up at the dresser.

   This didn’t seem to get him what he wanted quick enough, however, and he looked back at Hack, then to the dresser, and then back to Hack again. Wait. Hack put squeaky up there, he could bring it down again. He trotted back to his friend, tail wagging away, and gave a begging little whimper before trotting back to the dresser again. And back. And forth. And back again.

   The whole thing had him panting. Though that was weird, he’d only just woken up, and the room wasn’t that big. But he was panting, his tongue hanging out of his mouth as his breath came hard and fast. About halfway back to the dresser, Cayenne stopped, a tremble wracking through him as he stood there.

   He tried to adjust his stance, but he couldn’t stop shaking, and slowly he eased himself onto the floor with a whimper, just as the shaking got even worse, even his ears trembling in wave after wave of Bad Feeling. Oh. Right. It was morning. Sometimes it was morning. Had it been that long already?

   Cayenne whimpered as he shook, his ears pinned back against his head and every inch of him somehow feeling… too tight. Too tight and too bent and nothing was how it was supposed to be. He tried to stretch to make it feel less tight, but he couldn’t get his legs to move right, and so the jackal ended up on his side on the floor instead. He couldn’t even reach to lick his paws where his nails hurt, like they’d gone too long without a clipping and pushed funny on the ground. His paws were too long, his nails bending in funny ways, and as Cayenne tried to get closer everything erupted in agony.

   A harsh yelp escaped him like it always did on the way out. On the way in he usually had enough self-awareness to try and put on a brave face, but like this… like this, he couldn’t help himself. He cried, he cried hard, high pitched and keening as his fur receded and his bones rearranged, pushing at the inside of his skin and threatening to break through if he so much as twitched funny in the wrong direction.

   His knees snapped, disconnected, his legs folded in and pushed down, bones lengthening and shortening and claws pulling back into his skin only to be replaced agonizingly slow by other claws entirely. He was sure he was drooling, but he couldn’t help himself with that either. All he could do was breathe, pant and breathe even as his teeth ached and head split, spine curving wildly in the opposite direction before settling down again.

   Cayenne was crying, and crying hard when it was all said and done. And like every time before, he sniffed hard to suck back his tears, shaking hands pushing into his eyes until all he could see for a moment was a series of bright, sparking dots.

   Sparking dots and Hack.

   Still trembling and utterly incapable of moving, Cayenne peered up at the other Pepper through his lashes, before taking a rattling breath punctuated by hisses as the last of his ribcage snapped into place.

   “Morning,” he said, hoarsely, letting his head rest on the cool ship floor as if that would ease the nerve-searing pain any.

[Cheesigator]

Seeing those pretty eyes open, those ears perking up as the jackal was woken up always brought a kind of childish glee whenever Hack saw him. He'd never had a dog as a kid, though he distantly remembered always wanting one. He wasn't sure it was appropriate to call Cayenne his dog though, because he belonged to no one but himself. Still, it was a feeling, a sentiment, one that took him a hard swallow to push the lump down his throat and keep him from dwelling on it too long.

He smiled as he gave the other gang member all the attention he sought, not caring at all about the slobber on his hands that made its way up to his face. Being on the receiving end of Cayenne's affections, even like this, felt very very nice. He wasn't going to be one to complain.

He stayed where he was on the bed as Cayenne seemed to remember his squeak toy from last night and begged for it; but Hack didn't budge, his expression sobering up despite the dog's cuteness. Now wasn't the time for games, as much as he really did want to play them, and the moment he saw that shudder roll through his friend's body he sucked in a breath and held it.

He knew there was nothing he could do, and knowing that only made it so much worse. He couldn't prevent this from happening, couldn't make it any less painful. All he could do was watch and wait while the person he cared for most screamed in agony and writhed there on the floor, making Hack feel like the most useless doctor on all of Edanith. He had to keep reminding himself that this wasn't his fault--the fact that Cayenne felt pain and he couldn't do anything about it wasn't his fault.

Every snap of bone and blood curdling cry made Hack wince, and yet not once did he allow himself to look away. Cayenne needed someone here with him right now, and no matter how many times he'd seen it that didn't change the fact that he was going to be here with him through it--through all of it.

He waited a moment or two after the most of the transformation had passed, the last few ribs popping into place as he saw those same gorgeous amber eyes looking up at him through those dark lashes, before he slowly got up from the bed, trying to stay quiet. Every sense probably hurt him right now, his eyes, ears, mouth, nose.

He came over and lowered himself down onto the floor next to Cayenne so the two of them were laying there together, Hack's own dark eyes shining with the worry reflected in the way he knit his brows together as he watched Cayenne's every heaving pant.

"Good morning." He said quietly, keeping his tone of voice gentle and even. The last thing he wanted to do was bombard him with anything when he was so exhausted.

"Let me know when it's settled down and we'll get you to the bed, kay?" He asked quietly, nodding at Cayenne as a visual aid to keep his attention.

He wanted nothing more than to pull him close and hold him, but he knew better. The last thing he needed or wanted was to ever seriously hurt Cayenne, and the poor guy had already gome through a hell of a morning. He didn't need Hack making it worse with his own selfish desires.