By fate or by chance?

Jasper slept fitfully under a tree, whimpering and rolling back and forth as he was plagued by the same, repeated nightmare. He was dreaming of the night his sister had died, the night he had…the night he had pulled that trigger, the night he had lost everything he had. In the dream, Jasper was about to pull the trigger, and when he did, a loud, crashing explosion like a meteor shook the world around him. The cat jolted upright, breathing heavily and amber eyes widened with a mixture of fear and surprise.

Well, it didn’t take too long to locate the source of the sound. A large metal object had crashed into the forest, destroying all in its path. The sight made Jasper a little sad, but there was something more important to focus on at the moment…a new scent. Warily, the hunter followed it, circling around the pod until he found the pilot, who, at least from the back, seemed to be around his age with spiky black hair the color of Raven feathers. Jasper gave a furious growl and held up his rifle, disengaging the safety and snarling menacingly, “Turn around slowly and identify yourself or I’ll shoot.” He ordered firmly, “Tell me why the hell you destroyed so much of my forest and what the hell you want.”

It was true, Jasper was fiercely protective of his territory, definitely to the point of killing. His tail lashed and his ears were flat against his head, teeth bared as the rumble resounded deeply in his throat.

Once the man had turned around and taken a submissive stance, Jasper relaxed a bit, lowering the gun and tilting his head. The cat’s ears swiveled and his tail flicked curiously, definitely very intrigued by the stranger. Blinking, Jasper turned the safety back on and swiftly strapped the weapon back in place, taking a few cautious steps forward, although his hands still twitched toward the handguns on his waist. There was something about this man that had really gotten Jasper’s attention, his eyes, a glowing crimson that somehow didn’t make him as uncomfortable as he knew he should be.

“Ka…deoo…” Jasper murmured slowly, testing out the name and deeming it to be, by his standards, a good enough name, albeit a bit odd. “Hmph…well you don’t…smell dangerous…and you’re kinda cute…” The tom leaned forward, stepping up closer while his feet made soft sounds on the ruined dirt. The cat got quite close, leaning into Kadeo’s neck and inhaling deeply before giving a soft sigh, relaxing almost completely, “…damn…you smell amazing actually, f-fuck…” The man wrapped around the newcomer, trying to coat himself in the scent and feeling his body heat up and his skin tingle. Licking a singlestripe across Kadeo’s neck, Jasper purred softly, giving a soft but firm “Mine.”

Jasper gave the attractive male a few more slow licks, pausing halfway through one strip and blinking at the words. Pulling back, Jas blinked some more, tail flicking as if what Kadeo had just said was in another language. “…?” There was a confused little murp in his throat before he tilted his head, flicking both ears back and staring, “But…I claimed you…?” He repeated, nuzzling into the delicious smelling man and feeling himself starting to heat up, feeling a problem growing in his pants. Coughing, he realized what the scent was and pulled off, taking Kadeo by the arm and dragging him toward the river.

“Besides, you can’t very well go anywhere in that ship and I mean, I know these woods much better than you do, and I may as well at least help take care of you so you don’t die immediately.” Once they’ve arrived at the riverside, he shed his clothing without any hesitation, stretching from side to side and showing off his lean muscles and throbbing…
Ahem.
Wading deep into the ice cold water, Jasper dove in, surfacing a few feet off to the side, “You can come in if you want, it’s not too bad if you know how to swim.” Immediately Jasper’s head was clear again, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

Jasper gave Kadeo another look of confusion, as if he had to explain why people had to breathe and eat to the smaller male. “I claimed you…it means that now we’re on our way to being mates. What about that is so confusing, honestly, I don’t own you or anything, it’s how you show interest in a romantic partner.” He spoke slowly as if Kadeo is a child, completely and utterly puzzled by the fact that he’d never heard of claiming. And, more importantly, that he’d never been claimed before. As he stripped, the raven haired male kept speaking to him, though it was more of a ramble than a speech.

“Pretty much. Considering you’ve never even heard of claiming, I’d wager you wouldn’t even last a day in these woods by yourself. You’d eat a bad plant or fall in a pit or something.” Making sure to stretch meant showing off his attractive figure, which obviously had an effect on Kadeo. This made the tomcat quite proud of himself, and he gave a quick smirk at the now turned ravenette, even chanced a soft moan of appreciation at his stretches before entering the water.

Sighing, Jasper dove down then resurfaced, shaking his hair out, “Fine, fine, don’t come in.” The confident man floated leisurely on his back with the gentle current, “You can stay at my camp. There’ll be food and a fire to stay warm, but there’s only one bed so we’ll have to share or you have to sleep on the ground, your choice.” Finished cooling his heated body, Jasper swam to shore and shook off the excess water before redressing and lightly shoving Kadeo, “All right, let’s go if you want to live.” With that, the cat set off, shaking out his hair one last time and splattering the red eyes male with water, “So where the hell did you come from, anyway? You just fell from the sky, so you had to have come from somewhere.”