From the stories Adam had heard, some pets got to go for nice walks with their masters in the outside world. They’d have meals, go shopping, take vacations together.

But Adam was not one of those pets.

Instead, he was the type of pet that his master would nudge away from the door as he was waltzing out it, telling him to be good and not break anything. He knew Zerric didn’t like to share, but it seemed his master was particularly prickly with others down here, not allowing anyone in his house or even near his house, Vas-Tin having sprung out of bed to go and chase off someone outside several times since Adam had come to settle in his master’s cramped ass dwelling.

The dwelling, as he figured out, was actually slightly smaller than the one Adam had been issued by the government when he signed up for the ranching grant, Vas-Tin’s home a full two feel smaller in every direction. It seemed extremely smaller though because it was weirdly spaced – there were no counters in the kitchen, instead, all the appliances were built into the wall, the radio built into the wall as well by what Adam was sure was the most uncomfortable sleeping mat ever.

But he could deal with that. That was all very whatever because he was sure it was this way so Vas-Tin and his blind ass could function or whatever.

What Adam still was having a hard time dealing with was the, uh, decor.

There were beast heads and medals EVERYWHERE. If he wanted to be able to see, that meant turning on the slightly blue-tinted mood lights on the ceiling and then he couldn’t turn without finding a pair of dead eyes staring back at him or catching the blinding glare off some metal. It was like a house of horrors and Adam got to sit in it all day long, alone, twiddling his thumbs between trying to connect with his sister on the radio and trying to one-up himself doing sit-ups.

Besides that though, there was absolutely nothing for Adam to do as Vas-Tin refused to let him go outside. So Adam had to find some way to keep himself entertained, and lately, that had been taking the heads off the wall and creating a maze on the floor for his master to navigate once he got home while Adam stayed silent and waited to be located. While Vas-Tin wasn’t entirely pleased about his trophies being moved, he seemed to genuinely enjoy trying to find Adam and appreciated the effort made in his tiny, cramped-ass home. Lately, Adam had been ordering some weird food from the kitchen so the entire dwelling would smell like some weird-ass spice, enough so that Vas-Tin would start to struggle to find him.

He tried to keep it interesting.

But one month after coming down here and he was starting to get a little loopy.

Today though would be a good day -

Once Vas-Tin got home, that is.

Adam had come to learn was that when Vas-Tin got called for work and pulled out ‘the big guns’, as Adam liked to all them, he was going to come home and just absolutely ruin him. Apparently hunting down and fighting to the death or whatever with another Zerric really got his blood pumping and in the mood to some needy ass fucking. Adam wasn’t going to judge. He didn’t kink shame.

So when Adam woke up this morning to Vas-Tin hastily getting dressed and pulling out his ‘kill bag’, he watched with a knowing smile that it was on. At some point, he’d get a call that his master was on the way home and he better be ready for it.

Until then...he just had to stave off boredom.

The only thing that had saved Adam from going completely out of his mind with boredom so far was the fact that he tended to be pretty damned exhausted by the time Vas-Tin had to leave. Most of their time spent together was either having sex or getting each other riled up for the main event, and they tended to just keep at it until Adam tapped out.

And it was always Adam that tapped out first. Though it was arguable who had better endurance, years of living alone without a partner had left Vas-Tin with what the hunter referred to as ‘some desensitization’, so it tended to take a lot more force for him to get there, which apparently was pretty common with the males of his species, as they had high sex drives but tended to go long periods without mating...which was why humans were so prized as pets, since they were the only other being they had sex with.

They talked about trying to go a while without having sex so Vas-Tin could start to regain more sensitivity, but so far that hadn’t happened. When they were together, they rarely had their hands to themselves, and while Adam wanted to think it was because he was just that good, he knew it was because there was just nothing else to do here. It was like the night cycle up on the moon, only all the time.

He supposed the Zerric didn’t really encourage you to be home much. You were either out there being productive, or you were asleep or fucking. That was it. There were no real pass time things to do for them...it was all business.

And so fucking and sleeping was pretty much all he and Vas-Tin did besides eating and bathing.

But on days that Vas-Tin didn’t just go to work but had to go on whatever search and kill he had to, when he got home – whenever that was - they would have their crazy sex. If Vas-Tin planned on sticking his monster cock into him, then he always gave Adam a few hours warning before he came home so Adam could prep himself with spacers. There was just no way that Adam was going to be able to take him without easing himself into it before each time. They tried once after Adam egged him on.

It was a disaster.

So when Adam got a call on his wrist com that his master was on the way back and was going to ‘claim him’, as Vas-Tin so eloquently liked to put it, Adam knew he needed to start prepping, going to grab the box from the washroom that held the spacers. After he confirmed with his master that the other wouldn’t be home for a few hours he set the box in the sink and decided to soak in the tub for a little bit to unwind, since a looser body tended to make everything easier.

Besides the mind-blowing sex and the general good company Vas-Tin provided, this was another perk – the bath had the same atmospheric thing the hotel did where it was like you were in a lake or whatever, the tub producing gentle waves or bubble that made it super easy to relax in.

Well.

When Vas-Tin wasn’t here, anyway.

His master liked to bathe with him, but it was always a borderline traumatic experience for Adam.

The baths always started out great, but that nice little bonding they’d have never lasted long.

The first time they did this had been that first night he had arrived.

Adam hadn’t been aware of what was going to happen, so after his master got in and carefully helped Adam in as well, Adam got cute and sat on his master’s lap facing him. They kissed, slow and sweet, he played with his master’s hair and asked him if he wanted to wash it for him, kissed his cheek, and told him how pretty he was.

Vas-Tin chuckled and told him to relax, that baths were for relaxing, which Adam agreed to and proceeded to turn and lay with his back against his masters to soak in the warm waters while he enjoyed feeling his master’s heat and steady breathing against his back.

It was all so nice.

Why couldn’t it just be nice like that!?

But no.

Vas-Tin then proceeded to open his arms to rest them along the back of the bath, flipping the switch on the wall before he relaxed and laid there with a very serious look on his face.

And then Adam learned exactly why the dome ceiling was so fucking low.

The ceiling of the washroom pulled back and exposed them to the monster hurricane outside, the torrential rain pouring in and wind howling down on them, lighting cutting through the sky as thunder exploded all around them. Adam had screamed louder and higher than he had ever screamed in his life.

Vas-Tin fondly said after that first awful bath that the whole experience was very relaxing because it was like the first few hours after being born when everything was new and reminded him of what was important, and Adam...just didn’t want to know what birthing a Zerric baby was like, because no. Holy shit. He remembered very vaguely they’d give birth outside the domes but thought that was only during quiet years when the storms were out at sea, not, you know, right fucking there.

So they had an agreement where Adam got the fuck out of the washroom before Vas-Tin had his little...rebirthing therapy. Vas-Tin didn’t always remember the agreement, but Adam did, and that’s what mattered.

After a long soak, he got out of the tub and dried off before he grabbed the box out of the sink and went to the bed mat to start the slow process of prepping himself.