Don't Tell Me

[Skye LeCroix]

Skye looked at her watch. It was five past two, and Nick was beyond fashionably late. She pulled her cell phone out of her purse and read the text message she'd obviously missed in her brief walk past Times Square, where she had paused to read some of the new advertisements.

Running late. Be there in 30.

She sighed a little, but she couldn't say much in the way of protest, because she'd done it to him more times than she'd ever have liked. She was unwilling to become cross over something trivial like this considering the careers they both possessed often called for such things. She was lucky, in fact, that he hadn't called the whole thing off.

She smoothed back strands of brown hair as the traffic breezed by, and tapped the heel of her brown Prada shoes on the pavement as she tried to decide what to do to occupy her time. She was hungry, that was to be certain, but if she ate now, she'd feel guilty. She turned and glanced at her reflection in a large glass window of a caf?. So Plain Jane! A tan skirt and a white button-up Oxford. Somehow, if she even tried to get attention she was overlooked; her husband could move an inch and people would just stare.

She inhaled slowly, scenting out gasoline, oil, perfumes, colognes, people in general. And then she paused. She smelled a.. Pakana. And it wasn't Ebere or Stella. It was close, too! She turned quickly and began scanning the crowds of busy people, trying to pick her out of the crowd. She had naturally assumed it was a female, but when she inhaled again, she nearly tripped on the sidewalk.

A male Pakana? Her search became somewhat more frantic; rabid even. This was definitely going to cinch her plans for the day.

[Jason Murphy]

She may have thought she was a 'plain jane', but she instantly had Jason's attention.  He'd been walking along, a backpack with his laptop and other important items in it slung over his shoulder, and he'd been on his way home for a long night of hacking into the Harry Potter Lexicon to throw gay references in there and write up his own ending to the Seventh book.  By the time the site noticed what had happened, it'd be all over the internet and everyone would be freaking out.

Ah, chaos.

His plans were put on hold by the sudden whiff of something...familiar that he got, though.  It smelled like...hyena?  Pakana?  But not one he knew.  

He followed the scent to the source rather easily, and he just stared at her for a moment.  He didn't know how to react to meeting a new hyena, though he wanted to get to know her.  Maybe hug her.  She looked nice.

"Er, this is gonna sound weird, but...hi?"

[Skye LeCroix]

Skye felt like she was getting closer and closer to the scent, and then a bus went by and she lost it! She looked around frantically in a circle, and that's when she caught a whiff of it again. She whipped back around to regard the man that had emerged from the crowd.

Nothing had changed, and yet, everything had changed. She took a step forward, cautiously. Could he be trusted? But of course, he was Pakana. She felt her heart grow oversized with excitement and pure joy as she suddenly imagined telling Ebere and Stella she'd found ANOTHER.

"Hi," she breathed. She smiled, and oh, she was lovely. The petite brunette took another careful step, wary of him still. She could not shake her hunter's instincts, but, oh he smelled so nice and he looked so accomidating.

[Jason Murphy]

Okay, so he'd been nervous about approaching this hyena lady in the middle of the sidewalk when he had no idea who she was.  He had been.  He wasn't anymore.  

The instant she smiled, it was like a huge weight had been lifted from his chest, and he gave her a huge grin.  This was going well, so far, even if he wasn't really sure what to do with himself.  "You're, uh, the first hyena I've met.  That I'm not related to, I mean."

A little embarrassed?  Yeah, just a little.

[Skye LeCroix]

Well, he seemed safe enough. Skye stepped forward again, putting only inches between them. A flood of people from the crosswalk swarmed them suddenly, and Skye took the crowd cover to lean in and give him a sniff of her own. He smelled so.. sandy and warm, something she could curl up to and snuggle with.

Before she knew what was happening, she had buried her nose effectively into his shoulder, and was looking up at him with her big, brown eyes. She stood there for a few seconds before suddenly pulling away and shaking her head free of the clouds.

"I'm terribly sorry," she said with a laugh that was edged with nervousness. Skye had never, ever seen a -male- Pakana before. Her stomach knotted itself tightly and she took a safety step away to put some distance between them. She needed Ebere and Stella right now, badly.

[Jason Murphy]

It was true that he was no longer nervous, but now he had pakana instincts to deal with, and her closeness for a second there.  He'd automatically leaned close enough to sniff her just as completely as she'd smelled him, and her sudden touch was...amazing.  Was it wrong that he totally wanted to hold some woman he'd only just met?  Was it always like this with hyenas?

"It's, ah, okay.  I kinda liked it," he told her honestly, though he was almost afraid to move.  He didn't want her to jump away from him again.  Really, he wanted her to repeat that last movement, and sniff at him and lean on him again.  He'd liked it, whether it was wrong or not.

"Um, what's your name?" he finally asked, realizing rather suddenly that it was important information, and he covered it up with another grin.  "I'm Jason."

[Skye LeCroix]

Oh, Skye was cautious again, flighty even. She knew damn good and well that Nick would arrive at any moment and he'd pick up on her unease, and probably assume the worst, because he was over-protective and territorial, and that's just what he did. She wasn't sure, either, how another Pakana not familiar with her situation would react to the presence of a lion, reguardless of whether or not he wore the guise of a human.

"Jason," she repeated, nodding. "I'm Skye. Skye LeCroix." She had the faintest Bayou roll to her last name, but she'd lived a long time in Louisiana so it was to be somewhat expected. She also had a soft drawl to some of her words. It was pleasant. Everything about her was pleasant.

She held her hand out to give him a formal shake, the wedding ring she wore glinting in the afternoon sun. She needed to establish that for... for everyone's benefit.

[Jason Murphy]

He actually really didn't need a lion to show up, considering just how uneasy she was acting.  Had he done something wrong?  Had he upset her or freaked her out?  Should he have kept the fact that he liked it to himself?  Normally, he would have, but this was a hyena.  Was he not supposed to be that open with her?  He wanted to be, but she didn't look like it was a good idea.

His grin had faded with his worry, but he shook her hand and took note of the lovely accent in her warm, comfortable voice, and he tilted his head at her somewhat as something caught his attention.  OH! A WEDDING RING!!  Er, okay, awkward.

"Oh, uh, you're married.  Okay.  Guess I, uh, kinda came on a little wrong.  Er, didn't mean to, I promise.  I'm not usually so....creepy?" he asked, looking a little helpless in the face of this situation.  It was right there on his face.

[Skye LeCroix]

"Oh, NO!" she exclaimed, putting a hand on his shoulder instinctively to comfort him. He'd looked so crushed and unhappy when he'd thought he'd done something wrong, it just broke her heart. "No, no, Jason, nothing came out wrong." She giggled nervously and yanked her hand off of him.

Oh my god. Nick is going to kill me.

"Y'see, I've never met a male Pakana before. I had... no idea what to expect. I imagined it would be amazing, but... wow," she said, letting her voice trail off. She shook her head, hard, and then broke into a bright smile.

"I have two other hyenas who will love you, though," she said. Ah, Ebere and Stella were going to do some sort of happy dance if it killed her. She moved, and swayed forward just a hair, before stepping back again to keep her distance. She had no idea that the attraction would be.. quite like it was. She needed to take a cold shower. It wasn't even a sexual sort of attraction, not at all. It was different.

Stronger.

[Jason Murphy]

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, all things considered, Jason didn't know about Nick yet.  That wasn't likely to last for long, but at the moment he didn't know about the man.  All he knew about was the ring the lion had picked out.  That was for the best currently, since he'd have probably put some distance between him and the freight train that particular lion had once been dubbed by his wife.

"Really?" he asked, his expression brightening again.  More hyenas?  That would be great!  And she'd 'wow'ed him.  She'd totally just given him a 'wow' rating.  Married or not, she was hot, she was hyena, and he liked her.  It was very nice to get that 'wow', even if she wasn't date material.  She was still hopefully willing to be friends.  "I guess we're on the same page, then.  The only pakana I've met were family."

Which somehow hadn't been awkward.  Movies had always been fun.

[Skye LeCroix]

Skye raised an eyebrow. Family? "Your family is Pakana also?" she asked, amazed. So, this is where they'd been hiding all this time? She knew Stella was Australian, so she knew there had to been a pocket of them somewhere. She just felt so uncommon all the time.

She pulled out her phone, brushing past another text message from Nick:

On the way.

She dialed Ebere's phone number, and left a brief voicemail. "Ebere? It's Skye. Listen, I can't explain, but I need you to come to Times Square right now. I have a surprise for you that you might like." She closed her phone and smiled.

"I've just called another one to see if she can come meet you. We need to get you familiarized with us." There was no 'Would you like to come with us' or anything - no, naturally, Skye simply assumed he'd want to be with the rest of them. Not forever, you know. But right now.

[Lachlan Williams]

Very few people had the number to Ebere's phone, so when it rang or messages showed up on it, she tended to pay close attention. And so, a few minutes later, when she noticed she had a message.... She picked it up, flipped it open, and examined the phone for a moment before listening. Skye?

"Ebere? It's Skye. Listen, I can't explain, but I need you to come to Times Square right now. I have a surprise for you that you might like."

Ebere blinked in some surprise, but didn't argue. Instead she quickly finished getting ready and and went to Times Square with all possible speed. She didn't exactly want to waste time hunting around for the other pakana, so she went demi form and was, as was rather usual, almost overwhelmed by the smells of the place. Luckily she was used to it at this point, or... wait.

Ebere froze in some shock. Skye, yes, she'd just caught a whiff of Skye, but who in the name of all the.... She didn't do what she wanted to do, which was turn into a hyena complete and track Skye and whoever it was down the fastest possible way, but she settled for the next best thing and broke into a run.

And then, there, Skye, and with her... someone Ebere didn't know. Someone she had never seen before, but who was wonderfully, gloriously, pakana....

Another. There was another....

She wasn't quite sure what she wanted to do, but she wasn't sure how just walking up and leaning against the stranger would be taken, so instead she tried staying still, and decided that wouldn't work either, then walked up closer to him and smiled.

[Jason Murphy]

"Yeah, my dad passed it down," he told her when she seemed surprised at his family being hyenas.  Of course, his mother wasn't, but what mother minded her children and husband being that affectionate and cuddly?  Of course she'd loved it, and she'd been more than willing to join them in pulling the hide-a-bed out for a puppy pile and a movie.  They'd been an...odd family as teenagers, when most teens wanted their own space.

His mother had LOVED it.

"Alright, sweet," he said happily, not finding it to be at all strange that she simply assumed he'd want to stick around for this.  Of course he would!  And seeing her walk up, he couldn't help but grin for Ebere.  He felt a little better now that he understood Skye's reactions a little better, and he assumed Ebere would react about the same way that Skye had.  Thus, he wasn't so cautious as he'd been before.

"Hi," he told her, the grin brightening as she smiled.  "I'm Jason."

[Skye LeCroix]

"Oh, it's just... well, I have a hard time finding them. It's like we're hidden or something. I guess it's a good thing, because I don't really know what I'd do if I were just surrounded with them." Probably end up in divorce, she thought to herself.

Aloud, she said, "I called another Pakana here to come and meet you." She smiled brightly as Ebere showed up in a record amount of time - really, when that girl thought something was afoot she moved. She reached back and wrapped a comforting arm around her, because she wanted Ebere to know that the situation was a-okay at the moment.

"Jason, this is Ebere. She's... amazing." She smiled brightly. All of her 'sisters' were amazing.

Right now, Skye was so high on this Pakana-love feeling she wanted to run around in circles like an excited puppy, but she managed to mantain a steady sense of appearance, despite her insides jumping for joy.

[Lachlan Williams]

"Hello, Jason," Ebere said with a happy smile, but before she could introduce herself Skye had done it for her. She sighed happily, and nuzzled Skye's shoulder for a moment, then looked back up.

Ebere was around a new pakana. It was strange, certainly, but of course it was ok. She looked at him happily, and her gaze was still a bit odd (it always was a bit odd), but she was smiling, and the smile reached her eyes.

Though Skye might have wanted to start jumping around, Ebere's internal reaction was the exact opposite. Being around other pakana had the effect of calming her - Ash might have been shocked at how quiet her aura probably would have been at that moment, had he seen her. The feeling left her... content, and she wanted to be able to curl up with both of them somewhere and just sort of let things be. And so she grabbed both their hands, and dagged them to the nearest bench.