Bruce and Danny

By: BeatleNumber9

Chapter 4: The Tiger's House

“Come on sweetie," Mom said, “time to get your shoes on."

I knew we were going somewhere today, to a friend of my parents who I didn't know. I didn't know that many people, just my grandparents, aunts and uncles, and a few people from my mom's work. I was excited, because they mentioned that they had kids that were my age. The only other kids I got to play with were the ones at the park that dad would take me to.

“You ready yet?" Dad asked us. Dad was wearing some white cargo shorts, and a green button-up shirt with palm trees on it, in place of his usual sleeveless shirt. While mom wore some jean shorts with a red blouse.

“Think so." Mom said, finishing up tying my last shoe.

We began the drive to wherever we were going. After a few minutes of playing with the Spider-Man figure I brought with me I decided to ask them again.

“Where we going again?" I asked.

“To our friend Karim's house." Mom said.

“Oh…Have I met him before?" I asked.

“Just when you were a little cub." Dad answered. “You wouldn't remember though. But don't worry, you'll like him."

“Okay." I replied.

“Our other friends will be there too. Grady and Nita have met you too, but Nathan and Gloria haven't. They're all really nice." Mom added.

“Cool." I said. “You said there'd be kids I can play with?"

“Yup." Mom answered. “You've technically met two of them, but you all were so little then, you spent most of the time sleeping than playing." Mom joked.

“I hope they like me." I said.

“Don't worry sweetie," Mom said, “they're nice kids."

A few minutes later we finally got there. There were three other cars outside the house we parked in front of. Dad got me out of the car seat and carried me to the front door while mom walked with us. Mom knocked on the door and a large tiger, about as big as my dad, answered it.
            “Hey," He said, cheerfully, “You guys came!"

“'Course we did." Dad said, bouncing me up slightly on his arm.

“Well, come in." The tiger said waving us in as we walked into the house. “And, you brought Danny." The tiger added, excitedly, “Haven't seen this little guy since he was… one, maybe?" He said.

“Probably." Mom answered.

“Well it's nice to see you again little guy." The tiger said holding out his paw for me to shake. “I'm Karim."

“Go ahead Danny, shake the nice tiger's paw." Dad encouraged. I wasn't scared just shy, I slowly extend my hand until he gently closed his paw around it and shook it, making me smile, he made me think of Tony the Tiger.

“Let's go see everyone else." Mom said.

I met Karim's wife Julia. And then met Grady and Nina, Grady was a Husky with light brown and white fur and Nina was a Chow Chow with orangeish-brown fur. And the last one's I met was Nathan, a coal-black bull, and his wife Gloria, a grey cow. They were all really nice. But the ones I really wanted to see were their kids.

Karim and Julia's daughter's name was Angie. She had light orange fur with jet-black stripes, and was wearing a dark blue Duck Tales t-shirt and dark shorts. Owen was Grady and Nina's son, and he of course looked like a mix between his mom's breed and his dad's breed, though he looked much more like his dad. He was wearing a red shirt with Wakko on it from Animaniacs, and white shorts. And Nathan and Gloria's son Tyson looked a lot like his dad, he was a little lighter black, with his horns just coming in, wearing blue jeans and a dark t-shirt with a T-Rex on it. They were all playing with Hot Wheels in the middle of the living room, when we came in.

“Hey kids," Grady said, “This is Bruce and Emma's son, Danny." He said as my dad finally lowered me to the floor.

“…Hi." I said and waved awkwardly.

“Hi." They all did the same.

“If you need us, we'll be in the kitchen, sweetie." Mom said to me, before she, dad, and the other parents left the room.

After a bit of an awkward silence I finally said, “So…What're you guys doing?"

“Playing with Hot Wheels." Owen answered.

“Cool." I said, walking over closer to them and sitting down.

“We were thinking about playing hide n' seek later." Angie said. “My house is pretty big, so there's lots of places to hide."

“Me and daddy play that sometime…" I said, “It's not that fun with two people."

“So…how come you're not a bear?" Tyson finally asked.

“Oh my gosh!" Angie said, pushing Tyson over, “Tyson!"

“Hey!" He yelped.

“Don't ask him that!" Angie scolded him.

“I jus' wanted to know!" Tyson remarked.

“It's okay guys," I interrupted, “I know I look different."

“See, Angie, he's not mad!" Tyson said, pushing himself up.

“So…how come you're not a bear?" Owen repeated Tyson's question.

“I'm like Superman." I said proudly.

“Like you have heat-vision?" Owen asked.

“No." I laughed. “Like they found me and took care of me."

“Wow." Angie said.

“So are you from space like Superman?" Tyson asked.

“I don't think so." I said. “Just, y'know, different."

“Hm, weird." Owen said.

“Whatever," Angie said, “You guys wanna play hide n' seek already or what?"

“Sure." We all agreed.

I ended up having all sorts of fun with my new friends that night. We played hide n' seek several times, I didn't do too bad; when you play against a seeker like my dad as many times as I did you tend to be good at finding excellent hiding spots. After that we played with some of the toys Angie had in her room, along with some that Owen and Tyson brought with them. We all hit it off really well. When they brought up the fact that I looked different I was afraid they wouldn't want to play with me, but we got a long well.

Pretty soon it was time to eat dinner; chicken and gravy with mashed potatoes and green beans. Afterwards we still had enough energy to run around outside, playing tag. Pretty soon all we had the energy to do was sit back in the living room and watch TV.

“What's it like not having any fur?" Owen asked.

“Um…cold, I guess?" I said, not sure how to answer. “What's it like having fur?"

“Warm?" Angie answered back.

“What about not having a tail?" Tyson asked. “What's that like?"

“I don't know." I said. “How would I know if I never had one?" I laughed a little, scratching behind my head. “OW!" I muttered, forgetting about the scratches on the back of my head.

“What's wrong?" Owen asked.

“Eh, someone scratched me at the park a few days ago." I said.

“On purpose?" Angie asked, shocked.

“Yeah…" I said.

“Sheesh, which park was it at?" Owen asked.

“Cherrywood." I said.

“Was it that Jaguar kid?" Tyson asked.

“Yeah." I said.

“He picks on everyone." Angie said. “Someone should stop him."

“My dad took care of him." I said, smiling.

“You mean like…?" Tyson gently smashed his fist into his hand.

“No." I laughed. “But he did scare him pretty bad."

“Cool." Owen said.

“We should ask our parents if they'll take us to the park together." Angie said.

“That would be fun." I said.

We talked and played for a little while longer while we watched TV, but eventually we all just lay sprawled out on the floor, too tired to do anything else together.

It was real nice seeing everyone again. I'd known Karim and Nathan since Middle School. Me and Emma had met Grady and Nina when we were in college. We only met Julia and Gloria once they started dating Karim and Nathan respectfully.

Their kids were great, seemed like Danny really hit it off with them, they didn't even mind that he wasn't an anthro. I was glad he'd gotten to make some friends that he could actually see regularly.

“So how old is he now?" Grady asked Nathan and Gloria.

“Just turned five, last month." Nathan said, in respect to his son. “Gonna have to start thinkin' about school."

“Angie's still four." Julia said.

“Owen is too." Grady said.

“So's Danny." Emma said. “He'll be five in October."

“He's gotten a lot bigger than I last saw him." Karim said. “You could practically hold him in one of your paws back then."

I laughed. “I know." I said.

“Danny and the kids really hit it off." Nathan said. “It's a shame Danny won't be able to go to school with them."

“I know." I said.

“He can always hang out with them on the weekends." Grady pointed out.

“That's true." Em said.

“Well I think we should get ready to go." I said, “It's starting to get late. We should get the kids together again sometime."

As I said this Emma got up and started walking into the living room.

“Oh, my," Emma said, stopping in the doorway to the living room, “you all have to see this."

We all got up out of our chairs and went into the living room with Emma. All four of our kids had fallen asleep watching TV. Angie was laying on the couch, with Tyson laying on his stomach on the floor, with Danny laying his head against Tyson's leg, and Owen was lying on his stomach as well, with his head resting on Danny's leg.

“I've got to get a picture of this." Julia said, going to her and Karim's room to get her camera.

“Looks like the pups got tuckered out." Grady said.

“Can't say I blame them." Gloria said, “They've been running around practically all night."

“I've got it." Julia said, as she held up the camera. Slowly she aimed the camera at them and took two pictures, not even managing to wake them up with the flash.

“Send us all a copy, when you get the chance." Grady told her.

“Sure thing." Julia said.

“Now let's get these pups home." Grady said looking down at Owen. “Let's go buddy." He said, as he slowly lifted Owen up.

“Time to go kiddo." I said picking up Danny.

“Let's go big guy." Nathan said to Tyson as he too picked him up.

We all whispered our goodbyes, so we wouldn't wake the kids, and went out the front door to our cars. I laid Danny down in the back seat, and buckled him up, and we set off for home.

Pretty soon we were home and I unbuckled Danny and started carrying him toward the front door.

“Daddy…?" He sleepily asked, looking up at me.

“Hey, little guy."

“Home…now?" He groaned.

“Yeah, we're home." I said. “You kids were pretty tired."

“Aww…I didn't get to say bye." He said.

“Aw, that's alright buddy, you'll see them again." I reassured him as Emma unlocked the door and we walked in.

“Okay." He yawned, starting to fall back asleep in my arms.

We got Danny to stay up long enough to brush his teeth and get his pajamas on, and put him to bed.

“Well, that was fun." I said to Emma.

“Remember what Nathan said about thinking about school?" She asked.

“Yeah?" I asked back.

“We should probably start thinking about it too, seeing as he won't be able to go to the same one as Angie, Owen and Tyson."

“Yeah," I sighed, “I've been thinking about that too. I hate that we're going to have to send him to a school where he doesn't even know anyone."

“Hey, some of the kids he's met at the park, or daycare might be there." Em said.

“Yeah I guess there's that. But it's going to be pretty awkward having us as parents."

“Don't say that." She said. “We're just parent's looking out for our son, like all the others."

“Hey, you know how many looks we've gotten when we're out shopping with Danny? I'm just saying it's not going away, and we're going to have to deal with it, and help Danny deal with it."

“I know." She sighed. “I've known this since the day we brought him home. I guess I just haven't dwelled on it as much as you have." She admitted, moving over in bed and hugging me.

“And I thought it was the mama bears that aggressively looked after their cubs." I joked.

“Ha ha." She said. “Aren't you forgetting what I did that time at the movie theater?" She pointed out.

“You mean the weird guy talking to Danny while he was in the men's room? Ha, I thought you were going to rip that guy's lips off."

“And what's your big war story tough guy?" She joked. “Chewing out some bully at the park?"

“And his mother." I added. “Fine I guess it is a team effort." I smiled.

“That's right." She said, kissing me on the cheek.

“I still think I was more aggressive when I yelled at that kid." I pointed out.

“I'll bet you were." She said.