Chapter 1 of Shape Shifters

Disclaimer: I don't own LP, but I do own the other people in the story, they're loosely based off of some of my friends.

Yo, this story I wrote while watching Simpsons(don't ask me how I got this idea from watching that but I did) and I've had it on my old computer for about five months and I just now got the chance to hook up the old '96 Mac and get the story off of it.

I hope that you guys like this story too, I'm not sure if I'll make this a one shot or not, tell me what you guys think of it so I know what to do. Now, onto the first chapter of my third story Shape Shifters.

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"I don't know what to do with this Shape Shifter, he's the last of his kind left on earth, as far as I know, and most of all the zoo keepers around the world know. He is the most endangered species ever," The zoo keeper said to his friend as he looked over at one of the rarest species ever.

"How did we end up with him then Jim?" His friend asked.

"My daughter found him on the side of the road, we didn't know he was a Shape Shifter until he was well enough to change. We only saw his Panther form. When my daughter first brought him in, I was a bit apprehensive. I didn't want to have to take care of a wild animal, I didn't think he was safe around my daughter. But when I saw that he wouldn't hurt anyone even when he was eating, I just couldn't give him up. He was around the age of two months old at that time. He grew faster then I thought he would. When I came home one day and was going to go outside for his feeding, I saw the strangest thing. There was a human sitting in the cage where the Leopard was just this morning.

"It was then that I realized that I had a Shape Shifter in my house. Just then my daughter, Amy, came out of the house yelling that there was a strange boy in the cage. I told her that the Leopard she had found was really a Shape Shifter and that he was in his human form. As soon as I finished saying that, she ran up to the cage to talk to the boy who was, at that time, about two years old but looked like he was six, the same age of my daughter. 'Daddy, come and talk to him!

He says his name is Mike and that he's happy that we saved his life and he wants to thank you for taking care of him!' Amy yelled to me. I walked over to the boy, Mike, and stood in front of the cage, looking at the boy in front of me.

"He looked very young, though had a mature look about him too. He had black hair that was spiked up and the deepest brown eyes I had ever seen. He was wearing what we call a loincloth. It took me a while to actually gather up the courage to talk to him.

"After a few years, when my daughter grew up and started to go to school, I noticed that Mike was acting strangely. He was sniffing the air for something, and he was in his dog form at the time. I decided to check up in Shape Shifters on the internet, whenever I would ask Mike he would just stare at me, and then walk away. Finally after hours of searching, I found the problem. It was his mating time, and he was looking for a mate. I knew that there weren't anymore Shape Shifters left, and I think Mike did too because he stopped sniffing around and would just sit outside in his dog form and lay on the ground.

"I decided to take him to the zoo that I worked at and seeing as it being a forest would help him anyway. So that's where I am today, still trying to help my daughter's friend find his life mate." Jim finished his story and turned away from where he was watching Mike look at his friend Scott.

"That was quite the story, I can't believe that he just showed up like that!" Scott said.

"It's hard to believe I know, I still can't believe it myself and I lived it!" Jim said laughing.

"Jim!! Jim!! Another Shape Shifter was spotted! It was found on the side of the freeway!"

Jim looked up at him surprised. "Where?"

"It was found in California! It's on its way, it will take at least a week to get here. It still needs treatment for its injuries," Joe said.

"Well, we'll just have to wait and find out then," Jim said as he walked over to the employee gate.

'I have to tell Mike. He's been here for two years, waiting for another of his kind. He should be happy that we found him a possible mate. But the problem is is that we don't know if it's male or female. I hope this doesn't get his hopes up too high.'

"Mike!" Jim called into the forest like space.

He heard soft footfalls in front of him, so he waited.

"Jim," Mike said. He had grown since the last time Jim had seen him. He was around the age of eighteen in human years now, and that's where he will stay, even though he will grow older, he won't show his age anymore.

"It's been a long time since I've seen you. The last time I saw you was before I got put in here," Mike stated. “I know and I'm sorry for that. I just haven't had the time to talk to you, I have other animals to take care of, mainly the new tiger cubs here," Jim said.

"I'm not mad at you for doing your job Jim, I just wish that you would come talk to me. I can't stand that girl Anna that comes to see me everyday. You're the one that saved my life, the one who took care of me when you could have left me to die," Mike said as he climbed a tree and sat down.

"I know, and I'm glad that you do still trust me," Jim said sighing as he too sat down, but on the floor, not in a tree.

"You're the father that I never knew and Amy is the sister that I had, the one I lost to the hunters,"Mike said looking down.

"I know, and I'm very sorry for your loss. Your family was the last known clan of Shape Shifters, until now,"Jim said.

"What do you mean?" Mike said looking up from the ground and at Jim with hopeful eyes.

"What I mean is, that there was a sighting of another Shape Shifter on the side of the road. The people who saw it thought that it was just a fox and brought it to the vets. They found out a day later when they came back to the cage. They found a Tiger that was stuck in the small cage, and it was then that they knew that they had a Shape Shifter on their hands and fought even harder to keep it alive. We don't know what sex it is yet. They wouldn't release that information, but we did get them to give it to us, in hopes of giving you a mate to continue your species."

"It doesn't matter what the sex of the mates is, the males of my species can still

carry pups, as we call our kids. Since when they are born they are any kind of dog be it fox, wolf, or just one of your dogs that you have in your home," Mike jumped down from his perch in the tree and sat down next to Jim, "They do that so the pups will have a safe place to stay and the one pregnant can protect them."

"Well, that's great then, it doesn't matter if it's a he or a she, just as long as you both accept each other, right?"Jim asked.

"That's right, but I don't think that will be a problem, our mating season is next month," Mike said.

The rest of the week was used to get Mike's territory suitable for two of them and hopefully, their offspring too.

It was soon time for the other Shape Shifter to arrive and the staff at the zoo were apprehensive. They didn't know if it would go successfully. Jim told them all that what Mike told him, so they weren't worried about that, it was whether or not this Shape Shifter would actually get along with Mike. The vet told them that the Shape Shifter was never around any of its own kind before, that they think it was abandoned by its mother at an early age and was left to fend for itself. That's why they had to put the both of them on leashes.

Jim had Mike next to him on the leash, he had explained to Mike what he had to do and Mike agreed, happy that he would finally be meeting one of his own kind. Mike had decided to go into one of his favorite forms, the Tiger. Mike looked up from where he was laying on the ground next to Jim when he heard the sound of a truck, his potential mate was almost here. As the truck drew closer, Mike became worried, what if he or she didn't like him? What if he or she tried to kill

him? There was only one way to find out, and that was to go through with it. As the truck came to a stop, Mike stood up, staring, waiting for the other Shape Shifter.

As soon as the driver's side door opened he started to pull on the leash that Jim was holding, trying to get a good look. The driver walked over to the back of the truck, leash in hand, and disappeared. Mike heard the growl of another Tiger. 'Oh my god, this is really happening! I can't believe it!' The driver came around with another girl and he was leading something white, the girl was walking

behind them. The man was blocking his view so he didn't know if it was a boy or girl just yet. As they came closer, the man moved to the side and Mike got a clear view of the other Shape Shifter, it was a rare White Tiger. Very few Shape Shifters could change into one of those as only the most beautiful of their kind could, and that's only after a lot of work to get into that form.

The man stopped in front of them and shook hands with Jim. "It took a little while for him to get used to us touching him, he tried to snap at us when we tried to touch him or got too close for his liking, but it worked," He said.

"So it is a male then huh?" Jim asked.

"Yes, but he's never changed into his human form in front of us, so we don't know what he looks like," The man said.

Jim looked down at Mike when he heard growling and saw that the White Tiger was laying down with his ears back and growling at Mike.

'Strange,' He thought.

"Did you get a name?" Jim asked.

"No we didn't, as I said, he never changed in front of us."

Blocking out the talking around him , Mike looked at the White Tiger in front of him, and that was when he noticed that he had a strange smell to him. Mike got closer to find out what it was when the Tiger in front of him started to growl and crouch to the ground with his ears back.

'What is he being so protective of? It's not like I'm going to hurt him!' Mike thought and slowly approached the Tiger and hit his nose against the other's. Amazingly, the other Tiger didn't back away and he stopped growling. Mike took this as a sign that the Tiger was being submissive to him, especially when his head lowered and touched the ground, and from what he knew about the mating styles of their kind, that meant that he accepted him and was going to be the

submissive one in their pairing, the one to carry their offspring.

Mike pulled on the leash that Jim was holding, trying to get closer to the other Tiger. That's when Mike recognized the smell, the other Shape Shifter was already in heat. It was just starting too, and that's why he was so protective of

himself. He didn't want to go with anyone that just wanted pups from him.

Jim looked down at Mike when he felt the tug and saw that he was trying to get to the other Tiger that was lying on the ground looking at him with human-like brown eyes. Jim slowly let the leash go that he was holding and everyone watched, holding their breath, as Mike made his way over to the other White Tiger. Jim relaxed when he saw that the White Tiger wasn't going to hurt Mike and watched with interest as Mike laid down next to the White Tiger and put his head down on the Tigers paw. It looked like they had found a good match, and

Jim couldn't wait until it was time for them to mate.

This pair of Shape Shifters were the last of their kind on earth and he was helping them replenish their species by mating them. At least he did that right. He couldn't wait until they actually mated and had pups.

Jim slowly grabbed Mike's leash and tried to pull him up, and he was surprised when he received a growl from Mike. "Don't worry, I'm not taking you away from him. I just need to bring you back to your home," He said and watched as Mike got up and nipped at his new mate's ear. The other Tiger got up and the man, Steve, gave Jim the leash.

"I hope that this works out for the both of you." That said, Steve turned and left with the girl, Stacey, following.

"Let's get you home because there's a long day ahead for you two tomorrow,"Jim

said as he handed the White Tiger's leash to Scott and led Mike over to his home. The reason it would be a long day tomorrow was because the exhibit with the two Shape Shifters would open. They waited until now, hoping that Mike would find a mate to show off to the audience.

Mike smiled happily in his mind as he looked over at the new mate. Things were finally looking up. He has someone to care for, someone to talk to, someone to love. As they got closer to the place which he called home, Mike looked over at his mate again and wassurprised to see that instead of a proud White Tiger, he saw a red fox and laughed in his head as Scott had to chase after the Fox and put the leash around him again, this time making it small enough to fit around his neck. As his mate was walked back, he saw happiness in the fox's eyes. He was happy that he had a place to stay, a place to call home, even if it was a zoo.

Jim put Mike into the caged area (it was big enough for them to run around, it was the length of two football fields with a huge lake in the center of it where they could cool off) and watched as Scott took the leash off the red fox and put it away.

"Well, welcome to your new home," Jim said, smiling, "I'll come by later for feeding." With that, he walked away and out of the cage.

When he looked up from where he was locking the gate, he saw that Mike was in his human form and was surprised to see that the other Shape Shifter was too, he was quite beautiful.

Mike smiled as he watched his soon to be mate look around their home. He was slim and tall, with milky white skin and brown hair that was

closely shaven, but the strange thing was was that he had on glasses. Behind them were a pair of soft brown eyes, he was wearing white pants and was shirt less. All in all, his soon-to-be mate was very beautiful.

Jim chuckled and left them shaking his head, all he had to find out now was the boy's name.

"It's big," Were the first words out of the man standing in front of him. Mike chuckled and smiled.

"Yeah, it is. It wasn't this big actually, when it was just me. They built it mostly in hope that we would mate and have some pups, not that I want to mate right now," Mike said, blushing when the other Shape Shifter looked at him.

"You never said what your name was," Mike said.

"Chester, from the Bennington clan, though that no longer exists," The other said.

"I'm Mike, from the Shinoda clan. My family got killed by hunters; I was found by Jim's daughter, Amy," Mike said.

Chester grinned and changed into a wolf and ran at Mike, who yelped in surprise and was knocked over by the strong wolf. Mike laughed as he was licked in the face and tried to push him away.

"Chester! Stop it!"

Chester got off Mike and changed into his Tiger form and laid down, looking up at Mike, who smiled and changed into his Tiger form and went to lay down next to him.

As they curled up together, one thought was on their minds, 'I finally found something to live for.' And both Tigers fell asleep, content with what they had.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~The next day~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Jim walked into the cage with the food for the shape shifters, meat(of course), they were most likely in their Tiger Forms, they seemed to love that one more then others. He walked into the middle of the forest and saw Mike chasing Chester around (He had found out his name from Anna, who had visited them yesterday) and they were in their Tiger forms, just like he thought.

"Mike, stop chasing Chester and get over here. There's food for you." Mike looked up from the position he was in, on top of Chester who was on his back.

After Mike had given one last lick to Chester's nose, he got up and went over to the food.

When they were done, Mike and Chester started to roam around their home, it was mainly Chester though. He wanted to know what his new home looked like. He smiled softly as he changed back into his human form and looked at the lake he had just found. He gasped when he felt arms go around his waist. "Welcome home Chaz," A husky voice whispered into his ear.

"Glad to be home," He whispered back and turned around in his mate' arms, "I'm also glad that I have you to be with for the rest of my life."

Mike just smiled and captured Chester's lips in a soft kiss.

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Well, that's it, I don't know if I'm going to write more, I might, if I get enough reviews, but I think that this will just be a one shot story, and I hope that it wasn't too short. I'm off to work on the next chapter to BEA now, hopefully that will be up soon. R/R!

Ja-ne until next story!