Snow Leopard Short - Featuring Bengal

    "I will give you my allowance if you make him stop."

    Bastian looked up from where he had been making Mac & Cheese for lunch and blinked at the petite Snow Leopard frowning at him. He had been baby-sitting the fraternal twins for many months by then; easy money most of the time since they usually just wrestled together or watched television while he did his own homework. Being only four years older—sixteen to their twelve—meant that he didn't have to work extra hard to watch them, like he did when he watched the five-year-old tiger triplets. He got hazard pay for that one. "Beg pardon?

    Asha nodded her head firmly. "I'll give you my allowance if you make Altai stop bugging me."

    "Would you like to go back a step and tell me what he's doing?" he countered dryly. "And why it merits giving up your allowance?"

    She sighed. "I have two chapters left in my book and every time I sit down to read them, he noms my tail!"

    Bastian had honestly never really 'gotten' the thing Snow Leopards had for holding or biting their own tails or others, but he was mostly Bengal himself. He had spots only on his ears; his tail had dashes—bands not fully stripes yet not actually spots. The twins called him Morse Code Cat, which he didn't mind. "Tuck your tail away?"

    "He dug it out." She clasped her hands and aimed to look as cute and pleading as possible. Not a difficult feat when she had big blue eyes and wore her white hair in double buns under her black ears. "Please distract him? Can he nom your tail? It doesn't hurt, I promise!" She had been more than once kinda tempted to nom Bastian's tail personally, given how cute he was. Darned if he would know she had a crush on him!

    "Alright, alright. But keep your allowance, Asha. You wanted to buy that special edition book, remember?" He finished the pot of Mac & Cheese and dished it out. "Lunch!" he called louder, so Altai would hear as well. The other near-identical cub came scampering merrily into the kitchen and Bastian handed over a bowl. "Dig in."

    In appearance, the twins were visibly so, sharing the same coloring and near matching features. Altai kept his hair short and his bangs flopped in his eyes, though. The spots across their fluffy tails also differed in placement and size. He kept up a steady stream of chatter while they ate lunch, which made Bastian hide a smile. He had always seen Asha as the quiet moon and Altai as the bright sun. Honestly, if either got a few years older and showed interest in him, he might well be interested back.

    After lunch, Altai had dishes duty. Bastian headed into the living room, and so did Asha. When Altai joined them, he bounced onto the couch between them and was near about to pounce his sister's tail until he spied the dashed one in front of his face. "Om!" He happily grabbed Bastian's tail with his mouth, but not his teeth, and rocked his head back and forth to the lively music playing on the television.

    Asha grabbed her book up eagerly and dove in nose first, but only after sending Bastian a grateful look. He merely shrugged with a wry smile as he used the remote to channel surf. He definitely would never understand either of these two, but they were always entertaining.