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.