Shifter Paradise Cafe

"Yes, both of my parents can shift. They met as kids and kinda bonded there, at least that's what they keep telling me when I ask how they both have the ability," Anthony explained as he opened the refrigerator and pulled out two bottles with a light green pigmented drink in it. "Don't give me a disgusted look it tastes better than it looks," he said when he held out the home made drink to the woman. He opened it and downed half of it in front of him and said 'yum' before looking away from her for a few moments as he rested against the counter. "Out of curiosity, what do you normally shift to?"
 
"Better than it looks.. Won't be too hard since it looks awful," Kayla said, scrunching up her face as she took the bottle. She opened it and grimaced, then took a tentative sip. He wasn't kidding - it was delicious. She relaxed and took another drink, then looked at the bottle curiously, trying to figure out what it was. After a moment she shrugged and looked up at him. "A wolf comes easiest, but.." she started, then stopped. For a moment she had almost forgotten he was a doctor. If she went on, he'd only be more worried. "Nevermind."
 
. "It's strawberry, kiwi and banana with a bunch of vitamins and sugar put into it with a little dose of green sherbet to give it more color. As you can see it is filled with sugar and will definitely help with your blood sugar," He explained with a bright smile and tilted his head before blinking a few more minutes. "But what Kayla?" He took a step forward and leaned against the island as he took another drink of his own drink.
 
"No wonder it's so good. It's just a sugar drink. You're going to make me fat," she complained, then smiled a bit. "Kidding, kidding. It's really good," she assured him, taking another drink and setting the bottle on the counter carefully as she considered answering him. He'd worry, she shouldn't say anything. Yet.. he was her friend, right? And a doctor. Which weighed more? "I can't shift properly anymore," she finally admitted, not looking up at him.
 
Anthony perked up at the information that she couldn't properly shift. "How so Kayla? In a it's just too difficult way or in a, the shifting won't connect with me way?" He asked, leaning in as he studied her. Maybe he could help after all. First was to get some meat on her probably, depending on why she couldn't shift. It could all be stress related as well. After all, hadn't he lost the ability to shift completely during his residency and it had driven him nuts? He'd had to take three absences during the last year alone just because he'd awaken to a half-shifted body that wouldn't respond to his commands to return to human, or he'd try to shift and it wouldn't work. He was going to lay his bet on stress though, with the way that she had reacted earlier when he had taken her away from her job. How long had she lived like this?
 
"Well.. it's just.. When I try to shift, sometimes I can't do it at all. Other times it's really hard, but last night I actually did it easier than usual. But it was still.. wrong. I took the form that I used to take as a child," she explained, looking up at him as he studied her. Could he really help? She hesitated, then looked down and shook her head. "I don't know if my dad ever had this problem. He never mentioned it. Maybe it's just me.."
 
Anthony smiled and nodded. "It isn't just you Kayla," he told her before he raised up and turned away, picking up a pad of paper and turned back and started to write in uncharacteristically easy to read handwriting (for a doctor). "It is the stress--whatever you are doing--making it hard to shift. I'm not sure about the form as a child because that hasn't ever happened to me, but I was unable to shift all through my residency to some degree or another." He pulled off the piece of paper and held it out.

'Step one: Take a few days off.
Step two: Unwind
Step three: Relax' was scrawled on the paper that he handed her. He smiled and then turned around and opened a cabinet and pulled out a few bottle and turned around before putting them in front of the note. "Take these along with that prescription and you should be able to get your body ready to shift."
 
"Really?" she asked in surprise, blinking. The stress. Well, she certainly had enough of it. On top of working nearly constantly in a high-stress environment filled with small town gossip and bipolar coworkers, she had a pile of bills and her shifting secret to worry about. She hadn't had anybody to really talk to in years. In fact, now that she really started thinking about it, she realized that her problems had started very soon after contact with Anthony stopped. Was that all it was? Having nobody to talk to and keeping everything inside? She gazed at him as he scrawled something down, stunned by the revelation.

"Oh," she said, snapping out of it as he handed her the paper. She looked down at it and her jaw dropped. "What?! I can't take a few days off! Today was bad enough! I can't.. I mean, the diner can't afford to let me go that long without working!" she exclaimed, nearly stumbling over her words. She frowned at the bottles, then looked back up at him. "Anthony, I just can't. I'd rather have problems shifting than risk losing my job."
 
Anthony had not missed the 'I can't' that she had quickly covered up. His frown deepened for a moment before he smoothed it and figured not to poke at it. She would tell him if anything important was keeping her at the diner, wouldn't she? He sighed and then pushed the bottles forward, but taking back the piece of paper. "All right, all right," he teased gently, trying to lighten the mood. "Then what you can do is take two from each of these bottles over the next week. These are a mix of vitamins and energy boosters. With the proper diet they'll return you to a healthy weight as well as make your body ready to shift again, though it'll take longer than if you took the few days off to relax and let them take affect," he told her before he turned away and threw the note away. If she wouldn't tell him after a week or so he'd start looking into it. She couldn't keep pushing her health out of the way as if it weren't important.

He turned back around with a gentle smile as he walked over and leaned back against the island. "Take the rest of the day to sleep if you can Kay," he said softly. "I can drive you back if you'd rather sleep at your house or you can take one of the guest bedrooms."
 
Kayla looked away from Anthony's frown and watched as he pushed the bottles closer to her and took back the 'prescription'. She gazed at the bottles of the yummy drink, listening as he told her all about them and how they would help her. With the proper diet. She could not, of course, tell him that it wouldn't happen. The problem was that whether or not she told him anything, he was going to know. He just said it'd take a week. If she couldn't force her body to shift properly in a week to prove that she was fine, he'd realize there were more problems than he was aware of. She pushed those thoughts away and looked up at him.


"I'm fine. I'm not even tired. I'll just sit back and relax," she assured him, standing up and picking up the bottles in one arm as she gave him a bit of a smile. "I live really close by, remember? And it's the middle of the day without a single drop of rain. I can walk. You stay and get some napping in before your parents get back. Tell them I said hello. I'm sure I'll see you guys around town sometime," she added, stepping toward the door hesitantly.
 
Anthony followed her to the door, watching her carefully before sighing and smiling at her. "All right that is fine. You'll take it easy over the next few days yes? I'm not saying take days off, but take it a little easier. And stop by if you can. Mother would like to have you around more she said last night. And I think she'd like it even more if she knew that you were like us," He said before hesitantly stepping forward and pulling Kayla into a hug. "I'm glad that you are letting me help you Kayla. I'm glad that we found out today. You have no idea how many times I had to leave early or run away to the bathroom to hide my tail or ears. I'm glad—that we might not have to do that dance again."
 
"Sure sure," Kayla said, feeling as though she was lying. There was no way she could take it easy for more than today. There was work to be done! Amy was going to have her hide as soon as she stepped back into the cafe and she knew it. There would be no way around it, but that was okay. It was what she expected and had come to always see from her lovely manager. Anthony couldn't change that, no matter how hard he tried. He had tried so hard, too. It was adorable, really, but she couldn't let him know. Never had she been able to just.. tell him..


"I know what you mean. It's nice to have you know after all this time," she said, wrapping her thin arms around him tightly. This was something she could never get tired of, but she forced herself to let go after a few moments. Otherwise she wouldn't have let go at all, and she wasn't going to have a mental breakdown in front of Anthony his first afternoon back home. She smiled up at him and laid a hand on his arm.


"I'll talk to you later, sometime," she said softly, then walked out.
 
Anthony watched her leave with a sadness to his features that had always been there every time he had seen her walk away from him. Whether it had been a timid leaving like after such a time as today or after a fun gaming session or hanging out, he always felt like he was never going to see her again and how he had yet to tell her the importance of her--yet again.

He leaned against the door jam, watching her until she'd turned down the street and left his range of sight. He didn't like it. Not at all. So he simply turned away and refused to admit it to himself as he got about to work on some things he needed to do in order to open a doctors office around town. With a deep sigh, he ended up getting out of the house not an hour after she had left and was walking around with a Realtor friend of his from high school that had promised to get him a good lot. It was during this little walk that brought him to an office space right across from their old hang out spot. Sighting as he looked over at the new place that was built, he nodded and had an instant idea for the name of his clinic. Smiling he signed the lease and began to plot out the rest of his idea.

He was so tired when he got home that evening that he collapsed in his room and stared up at the ceiling as he thought about what he had found out. So she was like him? That simplified and complicated things. His hand was a few inches from the phone as he had found many times before, about to call her to discuss the latest things in their life before he stopped it and lay back. Better to let her have her distance for the next few days. Instead he turned over and let the tail that had been itching all day to come out to slip free of his pants and then the rest of his body to transform until he lay there under a pile of human clothes in the form of a small black-and-white cat. Getting up with a different mood in mind, he escaped the house and ran down the streets, arriving at the girls house a little under fifteen minutes later.

Taking the steps a few times at a time, the small cat stopped to stare at the bad maintenance they were in. What was she doing living at the top of such a bad staircase? With a worried mind, the cat ran the rest of the way up , following her scent to the room she was at. He wondered for a brief moment if she would remember him. As a freshmen he had followed her home once, mewling for attention just to see if he could get a hint at to how she felt about him. Pounce had been his name--what he had been dubbed at least. Mewing at the door now, he scratched at it, hoping to summon her forth.
 
Kayla felt beyond miserable the whole walk home - which only took a few minutes, as she had assured him before she left. It was impossible not to think of Anthony so soon after seeing him. She had tried so hard not to think about him when he was at school since they never wrote to each other after that one time she had visited. Eventually, she did forget. Mostly. It was hard to remember such good days when now her life was filled with nothing but stacks of bills and the stress of work and the deep, internal ache of not being able to shift. There was no room for pleasant things like past crushes. Yet, here he was, back again, and already changing her life all around. He was sending her for a mental tailspin, and she felt like she was going to fall to the ground.


Hard.


When she got home, she trudged up the stairs, automatically skipping the rotted and broken ones. She let herself in, tossing her sweater on the counter next to a stack of notices from banks that she hadn't even dared open yet. A flick of her wrist and the fridge was open, and she put the drinks Anthony had given her inside. Apart from those, she had a carton of orange juice, a carton of coffee creamer, and a mini tub of butter. The rest was empty, and the freezer was bare except for ice trays. She sighed and went over to her bed, flopping down and passing out almost immediately for a nice nap.


She woke up around sunset and took a long shower, then slipped into a pair of soft pink cotton shorts and a matching tank top. Everything was too big, reminding her yet again of her body issues. She sighed miserably and curled up in a chair, poking at the stuffing that was coming out before she got up and pulled out an old photo album from high school. Her mother had made it, and almost all of the pictures were of herself and Anthony. She had just opened it when she heard a faint scratching at the door. Strange.


She got up and wandered over, opening the door and looking around before she looked down. A cat! She smiled and squatted down, scratching him behind the ears.


"I think you've got the wrong house, pretty kitty.."
 
The young Shifter had to fight the urge to change right there and demand answers. Instead he pushed his hand into her hand and then stepped forward to rub his back against her hand with happy mewls before he jumped up onto her shoulder and started to nuzzle her cheek before looking at her with the same gold-green eyes that he had had as a 'kitten' when she'd found him. He meowed right out at her and then reached forward to bat gently at her cheek, rubbing the padded part of his paw.

He had studied how to be a cat should he ever be stuck in a form like that for a long time. He didn't want humans to find him and then freak out if he started to act differently thus he had learned exactly how act like them from the 'look at me, I'm perfect!' attitude to the arching of his back along a good hand.
 
Kayla laughed as the adorable cat hopped up on her shoulder and started nuzzling her as if he planned on staying. She stood up carefully and nudged the door closed, then walked over to her counter and set him down. Turning away, she opened a cupboard and got a small bowl, then filled it with coffee creamer from the fridge. She set it in front of the cat and absently scratched his back.


"Sorry, darling, I don't have any milk for you. It doesn't look like you have fleas or anything, though. You can't possibly be a stray," she mused, examining him thoughtfully. He reminded her of a kitten she saw years ago, but it couldn't be the same cat.. could it? It was possible, she supposed. If that was the case, perhaps he really didn't have a home. She tilted her head, considering, then sighed.


"I can't keep you here either way. Not allowed and I can't feed you," she said apologetically, then yawned and rubbed her face. Ugh, today had her exhausted.
 
Anthony balanced on her shoulder as she moved and then hoped onto the counter and sniffed the coffee creamer and then looked back up at her as if asking her 'really? Really? Do I look like I'd drink this stuff?' before he heard her explanation and he bent his head obediently and started to lap at the milk as he listened for a while. When he had drank his fill--what was in the bowl--he turned and then jumped down and went about inspecting the house, following faint smells until he had inspected each corner of the 'home' that she had.

To put it simply: He didn't approve. How could she live in such a place? He turned and then finally jumped up on her bed quickly and stretched before meowing over at her as he curled up near her pillow, intent on 'making himself at home' until she accepted the kitten for a little bit. It was too bad he was undercover. He wanted to pull her out of the house and back to his house and lock her away in a room that was befitting her. He would definitely have to see about talking tot he owner of this house and make them fix up the place.
 
Kayla watched the cat walking around for a few minutes, then turned and pulled a glass out of the cupboard. After retrieving one of the bottles that Anthony had given her from the fridge, she poured a small drink and sipped at it while the cat sniffed everything. Curious little thing. She sighed and looked down into her glass, frowning. It would be nice to have a cat or even a little dog around here, but she knew that she couldn't. That was one of the first rules the landlord had said when she signed the lease - absolutely no animals of any kind, ever. But the cat was so cute..


"No no! Don't get comfy! You can't stay here or you'll get me in big trouble. If you get me evicted, I'll be living out on the streets again and I don't want to do that," she said as the cat curled up by her pillow. He looked so at home, though. She didn't want to pick him up and toss him out, that was just mean! After a moment, she set her glass down on the counter and wandered over to her bed, giving him a stern look.


"One night, but you're out in the morning," she said, climbing into bed and flicking her lamp off. She yawned and pulled the blanket up over herself, not even bothering to try and shift. It would just hurt.
 
Anthony bristled. Again? Street living for her? Never. He forced himself not to jump straight up but look up at her with a smug 'I knew you'd agree' kind of cat look that they all get once they've won an argument, before he closed his eyes. This was the only way that he could keep the murder in his eyes from showing. After she'd gotten comfortable he got up and pranced up to curl next to neck and ear, purring as he snuggled in closed to her.

Her scent was so much stronger int his form than it had ever been before and he loved it. He felt it wrap around him simply by being near her. To him it was intoxicating and he couldn't get enough of it. His purring became louder as he shifted so he could nuzzle her gently with his little kitten nose as if wishing her a good nights sleep before he slowly let himself doze off.
 
"Don't get too cocky. One night only," Kayla repeated as she noticed the look on the cat's face. Still, she smiled as he got up and snuggled with her. The purring was soothing, and he was so soft and warm. Oh, if only she was allowed to have a cat! Sleeping with somebody was so much better than being alone, even if the 'somebody' was a cat. She sighed and scratched him behind the ears until his purring evened out and she knew he was asleep. After that, she curled her arm around him gently and closed her eyes. In minutes, exhaustion set in and she fell into a deep sleep.
 
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