Ocean Depths. Chapter 37.
#39 of Ocean Depths
Ocean Depths
Chapter 37
By Roofles
Carlson stopped in front of the door to their large apartment. He fiddled with his keys before grinning widely, clearing his throat and throwing the door open dramatically. "Honey, I'm home!" He called and waited for a reply. It took a few moments with the frowning otter standing there having been hoping for his man to come running into his open arms. Or in a flower dress wearing an apron making brownies. "Mmm, brownies." Carlson murmurred to himself rubbing his gut.
"Living room." Lucas called. Carlson continued to frown, stomping his way down the room and peeking into the living room to see what the hold up was. And why his man wasn't greeting him how a house wife should.
Lucas was sitting on the large cushioned chair that could easily fit two of him in it. He had his legs folded up on the couch and a small doberman was sitting in his lap, shirtless and staring at the screen. On the adjoining couch, the same tawny brown as the chair, was sitting a smaller darker brown fur otter who had his legs folded up onto his lap and watching the screen intently.
"Scary movie night." Lucas whispered over towards him as Carlson set his briefcase behind the chair and kissed the top of his head.
"It's not even Six yet." The large male rested against the back of the chair, his chin on Lucas's head and watched the old Hollywood movie.
Aj, the doberman, looked up at him before back down at the screen. He was holding Lucas's hand with both of his own and was squeezing it tightly as the aliens stalked after the heroine. His brown amber eyes widened before he quickly turned around, covering his ears and burying his head against Lucas's chest. There was an almost howling whine from him as the nine year old shook his head.
The otter on the couch, Tj, was trying to be far more mature about the whole situation. He was holding his legs up against his chest with a pillow over them, resting his short whiskered snout on it. His face looked bored and he kept saying how lame this all was but his eyes were alive watching every scene intently. His rudder tail kept swaying behind him, fur standing on end every now and then, whiskers twitching, round beady ears folding back.
Carlson ruffled Lucas's hair wishing them a fun time with their movie and began heading down the hall past the kitchen. As he did so his beady ears perked up and he looked back in time to see Tj crawling next to Lucas and looking away as well. Carlson smile a frown at the sight. Glad things were going so well for them and jealous, slightly, at the same time.
The large otter wrapped his knuckles on the side room before sneaking inside. It was the smallest of the rooms in the three room house. It was originally meant to be a study of sorts but the two had managed to turn it into a rather nice, if small, bedroom. Lucas more so than Carlson seeing as how the larger otter had been working his tail off to pay for everything. Carlson had moved everything though, being the stronger of the two - as well as the fact Lucas was always weigh down by the doberman that had attached itself to him.
Directly across from the door was a large river blue dresser. Dark blue curtains hung from the window blocking out most of the dying light. A tv case had been affixed onto the other wall. Directly across from it was the bed where a large teenage otter was resting. Justin had his paws up on the bed, legs crossed and was busy playing with his new tablet. The tv was on but served more as background sound than anything else.
"Hey, hun." Carlson said walking over to join his son. Justin half looked up before focusing on the tablet once more. "You aren't watching movies with your dad?"
"No room." Justin just said flatly swiping the screen with a blunt claw.
"There's the floor." Carlson offered sitting on the edge of the bed. He looked over towards the tv. It was some political religious 700 club special. Carlson was positive it was only for the background sound. He got up anyways to turn it off. As he did Justin turned the nearby radio on making the larger otter frown, seeing as how the teenager had ear phones in as well.
"Why aren't you out there?" Carlson asked again.
"Why aren't YOU out there?" Justin asked hitting the nail on the head making Carlson wince.
"I just got home." The otter said a bit too defensively.
"And why aren't you out there now then?" Justin went on wiggling his webbed toes.
"Well I wanted to make sure you were doing fine." Carlson said wiggling his whiskers and scratching the side of his face, looking away. He never had a good poker face and lost more clams than he was fair with sharing.
"Sure." The younger male said looking up from his tablet finely. "What's wrong?" He asked as if he was the one to come into the room and check up on the other man.
"It's not fair!" Carlson whined pulling at his beady ears. "Lucas used to let me sit in his lap."
"And your fat ass used to crush him." The younger otter went back to messing with his tablet. Not really doing anything but it was still a new gizmo he had gotten recently and thus the teenager couldn't keep his webbed paws off it.
"Is it wrong to be jealous of your brothers?" Carlson pouted looking down at the floor.
"Yes."
"I mean all I wanted to do was come home after a long day and snuggle my man. Is that so wrong?"
"Yes." Justin repeated himself in that flat tone.
"Well I'm going too!" And with that the otter got up and marched his way out of the room into the hall before abruptly stopping. He poked his head back in, wiggling his whiskers. "You're alright, right?"
"Perfectly fine, dad." Justin said shooing him off with a paw and began face timing with one of his friends. Justin looked up with a frown, seeing that the door was left open and thus he had to move to shut it.
Carlson got half way into opening his mouth after heading back into the living room but found his voice failing him as large brown amber eyes looked at him. The doberman twitched an ear, staring with large puppy eyes until Carlson faltered and headed back into the kitchen, losing his nerve.
"You guys hungry?" Carlson asked just going through the cabinets and fridge aimlessly.
"Popcorn, please!" Tj squeaked before clearly his throat and in a far deeper voice said once more, "Popcorn."
"And chips." Aj arfed. The doberman had curled up at Lucas's side, the otter on his other, and the three sat in the large chair. "And soda." He added.
"And icecream." Lucas jumped in. The three looked at each other before laughing; Lucas hugging the two against him and ruffling their head fur a bit. Aj shook his head, large ears standing up before nosing back at him, cuddling up and hugging the man before looking at the screen once more.
Tj tried to be far more independent than he was, trying to act several years older. Aj didn't care on the other hand that he liked being hugged and petted, loved and spoiled rotten. Something he never had been given before.
Aj was quiet, reserved and didn't say much more than a few words at a time. He had also attached himself to Lucas's side. And was rarely seen anywhere away from him, like a duckling following his mom. The otter was much the same but at least tried to play it off. He wasn't used to the treatment Lucas showed him and wasn't sure how in which to react to it. Lucas never forced anything on the two but the average things and Tj ended up only doing things like playing fort or water balloons when Aj and Lucas did.
And if Tj was the third wheel to their odd tricycle, then Carlson was the spare old tire that would never get used. It had only been a week and a half since they were, officially, adopted. Lucas had taken the week off to make sure the two were properly oriented into their new home and into school. Lucas had only one goal in mind. Making sure they both were happy and well off, better than he himself had been growing up as a kid. And because of this the doberman had found himself inseparable from the man. Not that Lucas minded. He was a lot like a smaller, far less horny version of Axel after all. And though he didn't see the larger version of Aj much anymore, Lucas would call Axel his best friend for sure (after Carlson).
Tj ended up excusing himself near the end and headed for the bathroom as popcorn arrived to save the day. Carlson brought the bowl over planning on jumping into Lucas's lap with it but once more those brown amber eyes stopped him and he faltered, ending up walking like a drunk around the room before lazily plopping onto the couch. Carlson stretched his full body length out and his feet and tail dangled off the end of the couch as with glazed eyes he watched the tv. They had gotten this living room set because of the couch. It was longer than normal and allowed even a man of Carlson's body length to lay out fully and comfortably on it; which was saying something for otter standards.
"You forgot the icecream." Lucas chuckled taking a few pieces of popcorn. A slimy, wet tongue lapped at his hand and Lucas laughed once more hugging Aj against him making the dog fold his ears back and stubby tail wag. Like a sports dog his ears and tail had been cropped cruel and inhumanly as was custom in the older days; even with laws passed several people still did the tradition and even fewer tried to enforce the law for a "dog".
Carlson almost scowled at the two watching them being all lovey dovey with one another. Even if he knew it wasn't anything more, and knowing Lucas love for dogs, the otter still felt left out. "Wish I was that fricking adorable." He cursed under his breath, crossing his arms and pouting once more.
Lucas kissed the top of Aj's head before getting up. "Cherry vanilla, Ok?" The doberman looked up at him with those large eyes and Lucas gave in to hug him once more, squeezing him as he rocked him back and forth. "I'll take that as a yes," he chuckled as a tongue licked his cheek and the man headed off into the kitchen to get the ice cream.
Not only did amber eyes watch him go but deep sapphire blues. Carlson got up, scurrying to his feet and falling off the couch, heading after him. He straightened up a bit as he reached the kitchen stopping his jogging run to a more casual, leisured walk and strolled further in.
"How was your day?" Carlson offered lightly trying to be as nonchalant as he could. His whiskers twitched, ears jumping up as Lucas looked over at him.
"Nice, simple and quiet. I look forward to going back to work though." Lucas offered a soft smile and the otter fur stood up as if he had goosebumps. "And yours?" Lucas asked in the polite exchange as he got a couple bowls down.
"Long." Carlson said, his voice dropping a bit as he spoke. "Hard. And needing some good...quality attention." He growled the last part nosing behind Lucas a bit though his hands only groped at empty air as Tj headed behind them and back into the living room.
"So average then?" Lucas chuckled in good nature, petting a bit at Carlson's chest before kissing his nose having to stand on tip toe to manage the feat. "Ice cream's ready." He called over his shoulder into the living room and got twin cheers in turn. He gave Carlson each bowl before taking one other and heading down the hall for Justin's room.
The lazy teen hadn't closed his door yet, still fussing over the fact he'd have to actually get up to manage such a task. Lucas, even with the door wide open, knocked on the door before coming in. He shut the door behind him, getting a large smile in return from Justin. A wordless thank you.
"Got some ice cream for you?" Lucas said but ending up asking it as a question, what he originally meant to say to begin with.
"Thanks." Justin just replied eyes drifting back down to the screen in paw as if unable to look away from it for too long without severe pain. Justin at least offer a wave in the general direction of his night stand in which he wanted it to be placed.
Lucas frowned but didn't get on him about it this time. The nightstand was taken up mostly by dirty dishes and cups that had been used the previous night. Like much of the room, it was a mess. Old smelly socks were draped on the end of the bed. Shirts were piled up with shorts and underwear in lumpy mounds like ant hills around the room.
Lucas just offered a sigh, shake of his head and a shrug of his shoulders as he took the plates and bowls, cups and silverware into the kitchen. He'd do the dishes later as he returned to Justin's room a bit later with a large basket for the cloths.
"How's school going?" Lucas asked as he returned, bending over to sort of the cloths and toss others into the basket.
"It goes as it goes." Justin offered back just as weakly as he had before.
"How goes you an Roddie? I haven't seen him around lately." Lucas asked after thinking about it for a couple of minutes, trying to remember that fat raccoons name from the summer party they had seemingly ages ago.
"We're not friends anymore." Justin just said without even trying to sugar coat it. Though he didn't show if he was bothered by this or not. And Lucas did a tiny cheer in his head at the thought, the raccoon had been rather annoying in more ways than one.
"Oh," Lucas feigned sorrow as he asked what had happened.
"He was annoying." Was all Justin said on the matter. Lucas was sure some kind of issue came up as he folded one of the shirt and put it into the basket.
After Justin had gotten into a fight at school, due to Lucas in fact, things had been rather sour on the subject of school. Not that Justin seemed to blame him for it but Lucas knew, because his step-dad was a human, things were far tougher than they should be on the teen. He should be worrying about his grades, college and high school dating. Not such serious matters that plague even adults.
Though it was rarely mentioned in news, magazines or the like the racial issues between humans and Anthro's was always a present day problem. Even amongst other Anthro's could be a huge, even violent, issue in some parts. And even in the city they lived, neighborhood and school there would always be those, rich or poor, that would have problems with their dilemma. Lucas didn't understand it, why someone would for such a simple matter, but knew they might as well put a target onto Justin's back because of them, he and Carlson, being together.
And so, Lucas figured the most likely cause of losing his friend was in fact Lucas and Carlson rather than anything Justin did.
"We're watching the full Aliens series, Aj and Tj haven't seen them. So I wanted to educate them." Lucas smiled up at the otter, crouched down as he was cloths filling his arms. "They wanted to watch a scary movie," he just shrugged.
"I'm good." Justin said not even glancing at him.
"We'll do something," Lucas said after standing back up with the basket. "Just you and me. We'll go see a movie or something."
"If you want."
Lucas frowned not wanting it to seem he was favoring anyone in their small, ever growing family. He already had to deal with Carlson neediness. Lucas came from a family where the parents were far more concern with their own problems than their kids, which only created more problems for them. Lucas never wanted that for a family, he never thought he'd actually have.
"It'll be fun. We can go out to eat, see a movie, go to the beach. Make a day of it. Just us." Lucas smiled far more easily.
"Just us?" Justin asked looking over his tablet for a second or two. With a nod from Lucas, Justin went back to his tablet. "Sure." Was all he said but his tail was swaying back and forth and he seemed to be far more relax than he had been before. So Lucas took it for a win, wished him a good night and headed out into the hall where the washer and dryer were hidden inside the large closet.
Walking down the small stone steps into the semi-garage like closet he placed the basket of dirty cloths in its dictated spot. A small wooden sign read "Justin" just above the spot; similar ones with Aj, Tj and Dad's were next to it. Lucas didn't even try to fight how Carlson wanted to use the same laundry, never fully understanding the otters strange needs for them to do everything - even menial task like this - together.
Lucas returned to the living room shortly after starting the laundry. The next movie was in and, making sure everyone was having fun and no other needs were present, headed into the kitchen to make dinner. Carlson was in the chair with Aj in his lap and the two were talking, a somewhat one sided conversation as Carlson did most the talking, about the movies and actors in them.
And though the night slowly ticked by, even with the fact he had to go back to work (and all the work waiting for him on his desk), Lucas smiled until he fell asleep.