#chessnah

“You might not want to get too close.” Thackery murmured cautiously.

The dormouse was sagged low in the chair, his arms folded tight across his chest and eyes fixed on a spot on the table with a firm set that pressed his lips together so tightly they looked white. Thackery sat tense in the seat beside him, his hands in his lap, eyes wary on Tarrant as the hatter leaned over Mally, puzzled by his anger. He shifted around to stand beside him, bending at the waist and peering into his face. The close proximity made Thackery slowly angle himself away, not held responsible for what could follow.

Tarrant extended a hand to touch the dormouse’s shoulder and Mally didn’t even blink but his lips released, curling in a rather unmouse-like growl that was low in his throat, rumbling and intimidating Tarrant into taking his hand away. He stopped growling the moment Tarrant stopped but the hatter experimentally tried again, earning another growl, louder this time and he dropped his hand again. Thackery pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers, hoping his old friend would get the hint and just back away while he still could.

The band had been attempting to get Absolem on the California Screamin’ after the caterpillar had one too many drinks that evening in the company of the two Queens when a cast member called them out of the line and asked they follow back to the hotel. At first everyone was puzzled, Thackery wringing his ears, nervous they had gotten in trouble for trying to put an intoxicated insect on a roller coaster but when they were escorted into a conference room at the Grand Californian and saw their event manager sitting at the table, something told him it would be much worse than a scolding on their behavior.

What the Event Manager said hit them all hard, Alice deathly still until Tarrant sought out her hand and she grasped it tightly, the hatter not complaining and grounding himself to the situation firmly rather than drifting off into his own mind. Mally went pale at first, all of the blood draining from his face as they were told that their attraction, The Mad T Party, was scheduled to be taken down by the end of November to make way for a new event. Chesshur sat at the other end of the table, bemused by the whole thing and kicking back in his chair with barely a smile but hardly as stoic as the rest of the band. Dinah was even present, her hands joined together on the table and eyes downcast. At one point Thackery though he saw Chess watching her a little more thoughtful that before but his attention was mostly on the news.

A new event was in the works to be set up during the winter months. Something themed from the movie Frozen that had raked in so much profit for the company since its release. There was merchandise, a float in the parade, even an ice skating show that Mally sat through while Thackery wondered how the people didn’t end up falling on their faces through the entire performance. The characters were pretty, yes, but wasn’t making another attraction for them a little much?

Nivens twisted the chord of his headphones between his fingers, a frown evident but no one could make out his expression beyond the sunglasses. Absolem was still trying to shake off the stupor brought on by the alcohol, looking sleepy where he was sagging in the chair, glum enough for everyone to know he understood what everyone was talking about but too tired to face it in the end.

The manager tried to sound hopeful, stating that they should be able to make a comeback in May if everything worked out. The meager bit of good news didn’t lighten the mood; however, everyone was still silent and avoided speaking even though Thackery felt the outrage would come forth eventually. He gauged Mally’s reaction carefully after the manager left, the band members left alone to take it all in and Alice finally seemed to breathe, twisting to face Tarrant and leaning into him, her head nestling against this collarbone while their knees interlocked between one another, Tarrant stroking her hair and slowly removed his hat from his head, setting it softly on the table beside him and tucking his head against Alice’s. The sight of Tarrant removing his hat only seemed to make it all hit that much harder, the mourning gesture of removing his hat followed by Absolem brushing back his hood and folding his arms on the table, dropping his forehead against them with a sigh.

He could hear the sob, see the shake of Alice’s shoulders and Thackery felt his own eyes sting, threatening to force him into tears as well but he sniffed, resisting and twisting to Mally, waiting for him to blink, let alone say anything. The guitarist barely moved aside from breathing at first, his hands on his thighs clenching into fists and Thackery watched as he melted in the chair until he was nearly lying in the seat, chin tucked into his chest and glaring straight ahead, in a sulk no doubt.

That was the state he lingered in even after Chesshur helped Nivens haul Absolem off to their hotel room, Dinah coming to Alice and the woman’s arms encircled her when she softly coaxed her to return to the room. It was just the original trio left now; the ones who started the band and now had to watch it fold into its fate. Tarrant left his hat on the table, rising and walking slow circles around the room until now when some of his previous carelessness seemed to return and he had prodded at Mally.

“Mally, stop growling.” Thackery admonished, “It’s not helping.”

He grumbled in response, wrinkling his nose.

“Use your words.” Tarrant chided, shaking a finger at him.

“WHATINTHEEVERLIVINGFUCKARETHEYTHINKING?!” Mally roared, sitting upright so suddenly he forgot his rear wasn’t even in the chair anymore and the dormouse fell right out of it, the chair itself rolling away and bumping against the wall while the dormouse groaned painfully on the floor.

Tarrant and Thackery exchanged cautious glances before Thackery was on his feet, helping his friend pick the dormouse up off of the floor. Mally tenderly felt at his tailbone while he placed a hand on the table and leaned upon it, Tarrant letting go immediately, hands up in surrender. “Well…he used his words?” he said, his words a bit tight with hesitation in voicing them.

“If you could understand them,” Thackery sighed, looking at Mally and putting his hands on his shoulders. “Mally, focus. Eyes on me, please.”

Heaving a sigh, Mally met his gaze with a frown. “You’re taking this way too calmly, Thack.”

“Sure I’m mad, we all are, but no matter how angry we get, it won’t do anything. Disney is a company, a big business, so they’re going to go with whatever brings in the most profit. That’s how finances work in this world.” Thackery reasoned, though he was probably trying to rationalize with himself in the process of calming Mally as well. Someone would have to keep a cool head and it may as well be him.

“Frozen,” Mally stated, “Of all things, it had to be Frozen.”

“It’s almost winter, Frozen makes sense.” Tarrent sat on the edge of the table, resting his feet in the seat of a chair. “I don’t like the cold.”

“We’ve been here for three years,” Mally protested. “The fans love us and yeah, there’s been some drama but hey, we still bring people in. That’s profit, right?”

“Profit, yes, but it has been three years, sometimes things need to change.” Thackery rubbed at Mally’s back. “You can give up some stage time for a little while, can’t you?”

The look Mally gave the hare clearly stated he couldn’t. Mally was a diva, he needed the stage, otherwise he was impossible to live with and Thackery knew that better than anyone, considering he was his roommate and lover. His showmanship was what drew so many people to him, made him irresistible and easy to love even when he was causing shenanigans that muddled up other people’s performances. It was all in good fun, even if Thackery was left the color of Alice’s shoes by the end of some of that behavior.

“Maybe this is a good opportunity to, I don’t know, leave the parks for once and check out what else the world has to offer.” Tarrent suggested, “We’ve lived in a theme park for three years, surely we can go see what else is out there during this apparent break we’re getting.”

The idea of exploring was promising but Thackery didn’t feel appeased by the suggestion. This world was vast and they could never see it all in a handful of months. He didn’t mind being limited to Disney’s California Adventure and Disneyland, there were a lot of memories formed on these grounds. If not for this place, he wouldn’t have connected with Mally; Alice wouldn’t have woken Tarrent up to her affections and brought him back from his own chaotic mind. Chesshur hadn’t changed much, aside from becoming a father and turning poor Dinah’s world upside down in the process, but she was adapting it seemed. Absolem was befriending others at last and Nivens had learned things he never would have back in Underland, though he seemed to take the most vacation time out of all of them to go back home.

Home.

It dawned on him then, the idea of going back to Underland for a time. It was a perfect opportunity to make it back to familiar territory, to reacquaint themselves with the lives they left behind and alleviate the homesickness that plagued them all over the years but had to subdue for the sake of their performance. He grasped the dormouse’s upper arms, Mally looking at the hands on his skin then up at Thackery, an eyebrow arching up at the change in Thackery’s mood. “What, what are you thinking?” He asked, his eyes a little suspicious.

“We could go home!” he breathed, “back to Underland.”

Tarrant brightened at the idea, sitting up a little straighter and dropping the thread he had been attempting to wind about a spool from his pocket while Thackery had been lost in thought. “We could do that!”

“Go back home?” Mally pursed his lips, pondering on the thought.

“None of us want to watch the stage be dismantled and have another attraction built in its place. So, what better way to avoid that than to go back for a vacation, an extended trip back home where we can go back to how it used to be, everyone can look the way they were meant to look.”

“Yeah, but you remember how it used to be. Do you really want to go back to that?” Mally asked, there was a trace of hurt in his expression and Thackery immediately needed to double back.

“Not entirely back to the way things were.” He smiled, cupping the dormouse’s face in his hands.

Mally’s grim disposition warmed a little, shutting his eyes and holding onto his wrists. “I guess we can go back. There’s a few things there I want to take care of.” The tone in his voice hinted at something but the hare didn’t pick up on it, savoring the little moment they were having before Tarrant cleared his throat, feeling left out of the love without Alice around. He slipped off of the table, fidgeting with his hat, rotating the brim about his fingers while looking at his checkered shoes. Mally glanced at Thackery, wiggling his eyebrows and Thackery released him, the dormouse snacking an arm around the hatter’s waist and pulling him into a group hug, the guys linking their arms around one another and thunking their heads together , Tarrant laughing while Thackery grinned at them both.

“Alright, we’ll go home.” Tarrant agreed, rubbing his forehead against the two other skulls, Mally jerking his head back when he nearly messed up his hair in the process.

Thackery sat down in one of the chairs while Tarrant ran off to find Alice and try to comfort her before telling her their decision to return back home for the hiatus of the Mad T Party, Mally pulling his seat back and sinking into it with a sigh, facing Thackery and watching him while swinging side to side, the hare eyeing him suspiciously when he continued to stare at him. “What?” the intense stare still leveled at him made him flush, shrinking back into the chair a bit.

“When I said I had some things I wanted to take care of, did you know what I meant?”

Thackery shook his head, earning a grin from the dormouse. “I thought so. Probably best I not tell you about it just yet then.”

Thackery laced his fingers together thoughtfully, “What is it?”

Sitting was becoming both a blessing and a curse the further along Dinah became, her belly swelling with the life growing inside of her. She felt like her own comedy show when she shuffled through her apartment, opening drawers only for them to bump into her stomach or lean over the sink to reach for another dish to hand wash only to get suds on her shirt. Another fine example was already in motion as she approached her armchair and backed up towards it, nearly hearing the beeping rhythm of a large dump truck in reverse as she moved. Lowering herself slowly, she lost her center of gravity but managed to plop into the seat with enough cushion to make her comfortable when she leaned back.

Tilting her head back, Dinah rested her hands over her belly, fingers lightly circling over the taught flesh while she shut her eyes and relished the moment of relaxation. It felt nice to sit after spending much of her afternoon re-cleaning the apartment to her own satisfaction. Dinah had a lot of free time on her hands these days. So far she has managed to pull off a few shows in the past few months but every time she stood near a speaker she had a nagging feeling that her baby was being shaken up like a martini mix. It was a good thing she had a lengthy maternity leave in order, giving the fetus a rest, but that still left too many empty hours in the day to fill with who knew what.

Opening her eyes to the ceiling, Dinah let her hands drop down into the chair. It had been days since she had a proper visit from anyone aside from her usual company of Kitty and Snowdrop. The cats seemed to have picked up on the change in hormones within their mother dearest, for they mainly kept their howling for attention to a minimum, not wanting to risk a hormonal owner storming through the apartment. Kitty kept cuddled to her side near her pregnant belly most nights, purring against it like the baby’s own personal lullaby while Snowdrop gave Dinah a crick in her neck from how often she curled up against it while nestling into her pillow. The cats were her first babies and she never neglected them, especially now that she had all the time in the world to pamper the “kids” now.

Every now and then within the last month she managed to pay a visit to Alice and a few other park friends, keeping her legs in working order by making slow laps through the parks, taking the time to observe the attractions and interact with face characters she normally didn’t have time to chat with. Every time she walked through Disneyland she could imagine a future of bringing her own baby there one day. She could imagine a small human tugging on her hand, begging to go see Peter Pan at the end of a line of other equally eager children or ride Pirates of the Caribbean one more time. The characteristics of the child always changed but most of the time she could imagine to her own chagrin that the child would mostly resemble Chesshur. It was a reminder that she would never be rid of the cat who changed her life once upon a time but the more time passed, the less it seemed to bother her. Of course, that didn’t stop her from still being stubborn when it came to the band’s drummer. He was still an asshole, no matter how much he tried to butter her up these days.

Days which seemed to have gotten shorter now that she thought about it…

Chesshur hadn’t made an appearance in her apartment for some time. His uninvited presence was once a constant threat to her patience but now he was as scarce as he once claimed he would be. Perhaps that meant the bet was off and she had won? No, that couldn’t be it. That would have been too easy. He was probably having a fit of wanderlust and was prowling about Underland in between shows during his free time. She couldn’t blame him. If she had that ability, she probably would have gone to Underland herself. Things have undoubtedly changed since then and she did wonder if everything still looked the way she remembered. However, she didn’t want to risk what could happen if she went back. Would she transform into what she used to be?

Combing her fingers through her hair, she picked her head back up, propping her elbow upon an armrest to cradle her head as her thoughts strayed to the transformation. It had been ages since she shifted into the cat she had been born to be back in the forests of the mythical realm that was once home. For years she thought she was finally able to pass as human, maybe the reality of it all had worn the cat right out of her, she once thought. That was proven horribly wrong. Funnily enough, it was proven wrong the night that she and Chesshur made this baby a reality. What a surprise that night was. Dinah gave a short laugh, covering her eyes with her fingers as she let her mind trail back to the night she finally let him have her again.

  ------------

  “You’re shaking.” Chesshur pointed out, his fingertips barely touching her collarbone exposed by the scooped neckline of her now wrinkled dinner dress. Hardly mattered, Chess ruined her date anyway if not most of her night.

“Thank you for pointing that out.” Dinah stated; her words tense while her eyes were locked on his meager progress. It was her own fault it was slow going. Her attempt at trying to get him in the mood hadn’t been successful since she awkwardly indicated he lay beside her on her bed after scrambling up off of the floor a few minutes earlier. She tried to scoot closer to him and give him something that was supposed to be a seductive smile but in the end she felt more like she was giving him the lazy eye. She ended up rolling on her side and burying her face into her pillow, screaming her embarrassment and lingering frustration into the stuffing until Chesshur laid a warm hand over her back. She thought he would goad her then, pick at her failure and punctuate his teasing with a vanishing act rather than fulfilling their agreement. Instead, he pulled her closer, nestling her into him until she felt his body heat radiating against her. The warmth triggered goose bumps all over her skin, leaving her wondering if the room had been cooler than she expected.

“There’s no point in being nervous, Kitten. You wanted this to happen.” He reminded her, leaning close to her ear as she taunted her with the reminder. Dinah cringed, bringing her knees up and feeling them graze his thighs, making them come to a screeching halt and freeze in place. She told him this was what she wanted and it wasn’t like they had never been intimate before. It was all old news, wasn’t it? Old, old news. Man, had it really been that long?

“Just—get it over with, Chess.” She said quickly, keeping her eyes shut.

Chesshur didn’t use his hand when he touched her. He used the very tips of his fingers. It was a slow, miniscule touch that ghosted over her skin so lightly she marveled how he was even touching her at all. He dusted his digits over her collarbone, skittering up her neck and transferring to her shoulder, grazing the sleeve of the dress before retracing his route and slipping the touch up to beneath her chin, the light pressure against it made her lift her head up until she felt him stop. After a few erratic heartbeats with nothing to show for them, she opened her eyes slightly, enough to see he was watching her and the minute he saw her taking a peek, a sly grin spread his lips. Opening her eyes wider, she frowned at him, shuddering when his fingertips left her chin, sliding down, still hardly even touching her when he dipped them behind her neck, pressing them into the base of her skull until she tilted her head back further.

Rolling himself over her enough to be hovering mostly over her right side, Chess’s smirk started to fade as he gazed into her face. The way his eyes searched her own robbed her of her irritation, leaving her with a sense of curiosity the longer he watched, his visage conflicted until he was leaning down, hesitant just short of her lips before they settled over her with shocking tenderness for a creature like him. It was that mild kiss, however, that gave her hands a life of their own, jumping up to him and clinging to his shoulders while he parted his lips, grazing them over hers with a rough caress that recaptured her mouth just as his hand cupped the back of her head, holding her to him.

Dinah felt him working her, his renewed kiss was forceful and pulling her in before she even knew how to react to it after the extreme contrast to his first one. He was opening her up with it, his manipulative lips coercing hers open to let him in and once she felt the coarse nature of his tongue, she refused his control. Dinah might have turned the kiss into a duel for who was kissing who but Chesshur hardly minded if the chuckle in his throat had anything to say about it when she grazed her tongue against his. Her determination turned to a pleasured chill when her tongue grazed his own textured one, the friction delicious but her hands still felt relatively stupid in comparison. Both of them clung to his shirt but moved no further while he was crusing her face to his with one of his own, the other bracing himself to lean over her the way he did.

The merciless kiss battle she raged with him felt less like love making and more like a battle of who kissed better but Chesshur turned the tables on her when his fingers balled up into a fist in her hair and tugged on the strands just hard enough to pull her away, resuming his control over her by nestling into her neck with his nose, inclining his head and grazing the skin of her neck with his teeth. She heard him purr in that moment, relaxing his grip on her hair and moving his hand, trailing the pads of his fingers down her skin to the neckline of the dress. She thought he would try to prod around inside but his hand kept moving south even as his lips occupied her throat.

His digits trailed over the fabric of her dress, skimming over a breast but breezing past it until he was down to her hip and even then as he rotated his wrist, he drifted even further until he was at her thigh and the fingertips were stilled on the wrinkled hemline of the skirt. He lightly scratched his nails against her skin, tickling scrapes that did no damage aside from gather up a hold of the dress in the process. He pulled it up higher, exposing more of her thigh but stopping just at her hip, abandoning the hiking up of her skirt and laying his palm upon her leg, the full force of his touch finally on her skin and sending another chill through her as the warm palm caressed her limb.

The skim of his tongue on her skin at the base of her neck distracted her from the hand on her thigh, Dinah twitching and pulling her leg up, bending at the knee while pressing her heel into the mattress. Chesshur took advantage of the movement, trailing his touch down her leg and cupping about the back of her knee, pulling the limb over and turning her into him as he laid back upon the bed, drawing her leg over him. She let him hold her against him, half laying over him as he continued to touch and kiss, his aim lowering until she finally felt some life in her fingers, her own hand feeling along his side and prodding at the evidence of his hip bone before pushing up beneath the fabric of his shirt. She lightly scratched at his stomach, passing her hand higher up and settling against his ribs while he resumed the process of pushing her dress higher up her form.

The dread of exposure niggled at the back of her mind, her hand freeing itself from beneath his shirt to jump up to his face, pushing his jaw up until she could capture his lips, wanting the distraction from how her dress was beginning to cover her less and less. Just because she did it before, didn’t mean she couldn’t be a little nervous about the whole ordeal. He was making quick work of it though and she still had to unzip some of it if he hoped to get it off of her anytime soon. Unfortunately, he already seemed to realize that when his fingers prodded at the zipper, finding the pull and drawing it down. She felt it loosen, the fabric slipping and sliding when he started his task of pushing it up and off of her again. Dinah broke their kiss, picking herself up and off of him to sit back on her knees, rolling the dress up and over her head without his help. It was beyond saving at this point, she would have to iron it later, there was no avoiding it but now that she was exposed in nothing but her undergarments, her arms crossed over her and the lack of Chesshur’s warm body brought an uncomfortable chill over her that forced her nestling back into him before he could even pull her back in.

Rolling on top of her again, he kissed her over and over again, short, teasing nips at her lips that she tried to catch but he kept pulling away until she coiled an arm about his neck and pulled him into her range with an irritated growl that vibrated in her throat, clashing with the rumbling purrs in his own. His hands wandered over her more freely now that she was mostly exposed, touching, fondling but avoiding her breasts, grazing the underside of one with his knuckles but darting his hand away before she could react to the touch. He made her wait for him when he removed his shirt, tossing it to the floor and rejoining her but his lips brushed her throat, moving down to a shoulder and even further until he pressed one to the center of her chest. That was where she felt the bloom of warmth in her belly, the burn of his kisses on her skin beginning to rile her up, winding her tense as he kissed, nibbled, and licked. Her nerves began to creep up on her again the lower he went, his lips on her belly, hands on her hips and slipping up her sides until they were on her bra, thumbs caressing the sides of her concealed breasts then his whole hands settled over them, cupping over the shape of them with slightly splayed fingers. The moment he had them, he moved back up, nuzzling into one with a gentle prod of his nose. The intimate brush of his cheek against her sent a rush of heat to her face and the tension suddenly snapped.

Dinah yowled as her entire body suddenly recoiled from the tension break and before she knew it she was in a fit of panic and Chesshur was plucking a few cat hairs off of his tongue as he sat upright on the bedspread, chuckling until it broke into a hearty laugh while Dinah rolled over to collect herself only to find herself flopping over in a much smaller, much less human body. Lying on her back, Dinah tried to look down at herself, flabbergasted by the pale booted paws that were sharply contrasted by the reddish fur. She could feel the twitch of her own tail and the bristle of her own fur when she righted herself, standing shakily upon four paws.

“What do you know,” Chesshur mused, reaching over and giving the little cat a scratch at her cheek, the animal hissing at his fingers. “You’ve still got it.”

  ------------

  Dinah grimaced as she remembered the awkward situation of trying to resume a human form, Chesshur sitting back and letting her rant before he began to get her back into the mood again but it definitely took some time before she had been eager enough to finally do the deed they intended to complete when they first started. Bet that would be a story Chess would try to tell her kid if he ever had the chance to. She would definitely neuter him if he even dared to tell anyone about her bedroom blunder. She couldn’t help herself, she got overly flustered and then she lost her control and poof, she reverted to a feline without even realizing she still could. Since then she hadn’t transformed again and hoped such a situation wouldn’t arise again. She didn’t want to risk it. This baby was going to be safe no matter what.

Putting a hand to herself again, she realized something was already against her stomach, picking her head up abruptly to find Chesshur sitting on the footstool, his fingers on her stomach. She stared at him while he removed his hand, eyes trailing up her to her face and giving her a smug grin. Dinah saw that smile often enough to no longer attempt to react to it but it still touched a nerve in her when he gave her that little smirk, betraying that he knew something the person on the receiving end didn’t.

“Hey, Chess.” She gave a half-hearted greeting, already having given up being angry any time he popped up uninvited. It was the first time he came around in weeks. She could bear with it.

“Hey.” He nodded to the baby, “You got bigger.”

“Happens when you crawl through another month.” She stated, drumming the fingers of one hand over the swell.

“Hard to believe it’s already been several months, isn’t it?” he placed his hand over her again. Dinah momentarily caught a flicker of pride in his expression before the usual smirk returned in full force. She wanted to dismiss it but it would have been nice if he was actually willing to let others see that he was getting excited about the baby. Whether he won his bet and stuck around or not, Chesshur was looking a little more interested in the development every day. She glanced from his face to his hand back and forth until her hormones go the better of her and she laid her hand over his, lightly rubbing her thumb across the back of it.

“It might just be the hormones talking, but do you want to listen?” she asked, the cat’s eyes flicking up at her at the question.

Chesshur shrugged his shoulders, downplaying the gesture but he slid down to a knee and leaned into her, laying his head against her belly, ear pressed close while Dinah tried to keep still. He felt along the bulge, shifting a little to the left and squinting at the wall until his eyes widened again at the first clear sound of the heart beneath. He shut his eyes, continuing to listen while Dinah stared into his dark hair, her fingers gripping the armrest, resisting the urge to brush through the strands in a moment of weakness.

“I never thought I would want to do this.” He murmured, his eyes still closed and ear still pressed close. “You’re making me soft when it comes to this, Kitten.”

“That’s not a bad thing, Chess. You’re kind of an asshole the rest of the time.”

He picked his head up, grinning at her truthful comment. “You’re right, I am.” He glanced down at the baby and gave a little nod. “Would you like to know something?”

“You have the warm fuzzies?” she teased.