They drove until around eight at night, then got off the interstate and spent about twenty minutes looking for a hotel. The one they found wasn't perfect, and was quite a bit of money, but he didn't want Ravi to be nervous with people walking by an outside room all night. 

He quickly got them checked in, then grabbed their two small suitcases and headed toward the elevators. Thankfully, Ravi was totally fine stepping onto it, though he shook a little and squeaked the ducky in his mouth as the doors shut and it began to move upward. 

Trever watched him silently, glad that no one else was in the elevator so that at least the pup wasn't crowded. When the bell chimed above the door a few moments later and they swung open, Ravi bolted out like a scared little rabbit. 

"You did it, bud. Our room should be right around the corner," he said as he guided the pup down a carpeted hallway, then turned left. 

"Here we are," he mumbled as he slid the key card into the lock and heard it click open. 

The room actually smelled very clean and as he walked inside, he was quite impressed. 

"Not bad for the price, at least," he mused as he watched Ravi start running around the room with the zoomies. He couldn't really blame him since he'd had him buckled in for quite a while during the later half of their trip. 

However...

"Ravi, are you okay with me giving you a bath?" he asked, noting the dirt all over the pup from when they'd played fetch earlier. 

Ravi spun in a circle back by the bathroom, then darted inside with a squeak from his duck. 

"I'm going to take that as a yes," he said as he got their suitcases settled near the bed, then took his shoes off and walked into the bathroom. 

Oh dang, this is definitely not what I had expected. 

The room was quite a nice size, giving him plenty of room to get situated before he tapped the edge of the tub and glanced over at the pup perched atop the closed toilet seat lid. 

Ravi gave out a little squeak from the duck and tilted his head, but didn't do anything else. 

Giving him a look, Trever nodded toward the tub. 

"It's bath time now, Ravi. Get in the tub please." 

The pup's ears perked up with the order and he quickly hopped into the tub and sat down with his tail thumping against the bottom. Trever got out one of the complementary bottles of shampoo and stared at it, then looked at the dog. 

This... might not be enough. 

He was just giving it another glance, perhaps silently hoping that it would grow in size, when something caught his attention from the corner of his eye. Looking up, he felt his heart fidget in his chest as he quickly glanced away from a very naked Ravi. 

"Would it... be easier like this, sir?" 

He's just a guy. Nothing to worry about. 

Except, his mind just refused to listen. He just didn't like the feeling of skin on skin. Hell, even those expensive sphinx cats freaked him out. He would never even consider petting one. And dogs with thin fur? 

Nope, nope, nope. 

"Master Trever?"

Right.

Shaking himself internally, Trever looked back over at Ravi. 

He's just a young guy who doesn't like being in his human form. Nothing to worry about. He shifted to make things easier on you, not to stress you out. 

That still wasn't helping him calm down, but there wasn't much of a choice about the whole bath thing. He was dirty, human or dog, and needed cleaned up before he could get in bed. 

"Alright, let's get this done," he said, more to himself then to Ravi. 

The young man pursed his lips and gave a stern nod, making his super curly afro-like hair bob with the action. It was a gorgeous head of hair, but it was pretty clear that it hadn't been taken care of for a while, too. 

"Would you like a haircut sometime?" he asked as he grabbed the detachable showerhead sprayer and began to dampen Ravi's hair and rinse off his body after gently removing the ducky still held in his arms so that it didn't get wet, too. 

He definitely wasn't going to scrub his body for him, but he didn't mind rinsing it off so that it would be easier for the guy to clean himself afterward. 

"Will master Trever come with me?" Ravi asked, making Trever raise an eyebrow as he continued to work on the guy's unruly hair. 

"Sure, I don't mind coming with you. Maybe we can get one done after I get settled at my new job?" he asked as he finally got down to scrubbing the shampoo into Ravi's crazy curls. 

He noticed the guy beneath him fidget a lot as he took care of his hair, but since he wasn't saying anything against his actions Trever let him be. It wasn't until a few minutes later, when he'd finally gotten all of the dirt scrubbed free, that he realized something. 

My shirt... is unbuttoned. 

He froze with the sprayer hitting the spot directly behind where Ravi sat. The boy was leaning forward slightly, still holding onto the bottom hem of his shirt.

I...

He was honestly close to just standing up and storming out of the room. It took all of his effort to simply stay there, kneeling next to the tub as still as a statue. He kept his mouth shut tight, trying so hard not to get mad. He was just about at the end of his rope when he felt hesitant fingers gently brush against his lower belly as Ravi nervously began rebuttoning his shirt. 

At first, Trever thought that Ravi might have figured out that he was mad, but when he didn't seem to speed up or slow down with his task, he realized that he wasn't doing it to intentionally bother him. 

I took the ducky away. He needs something to fidget with. 

After that realization, he slowly... very slowly, began to relax again. Ravi continued his work, seemingly undisturbed by the reactions of the person leaning close to him. He was completely zoned in to the task he was performing. 

Taking a deep, calming breath, Trever quickly but carefully finishing washing Ravi's hair, then slowly leaned back to sit on his heels so that the guy's fingers would slip from his clothing. Thankfully, he'd buttoned it almost all the way back up by the time his hair was done being rinsed out. 

"Alright, are you okay washing your body by yourself?" he asked, not knowing exactly how the guy lived before he'd left his brother.   

When Ravi nodded, Trever gave a sigh of relief and stood up, stretching for a moment before turning around to walk into the bedroom. He changed after digging through his suitcase for his pajamas and was just settling the flannel pants on his hips when he heard a dejected whine come from behind him. 

Turning, he raised an eyebrow at Ravi's wet dog as it looked around the corner from the bathroom. 

"What, you wanted a show?" he asked jokingly. 

When the pup nodded immediately in response, Trever blinked, then frowned. 

I swear this guy has two different personalities. 

"Let's get your teeth brushed before bed," he said, resolved to ignore the dog's previous agreement to his other question. 

Thankfully, Ravi let him brush his teeth and dry him off without a fuss, then went back into the bathroom to retrieve his ducky before curling up on the floor next to the bed. 

 "You... don't want to get in bed?" he asked, surprised. 

Ravi slowly sat up with the duck in his mouth, seemingly contemplating his words as he glanced between him and the bed a few times. 

"You're allowed to get in bed, if you'd like. It's big enough for both of us," Trever said, not really worried. 

When Ravi simply settled his head down against his paws and squeaked his ducky again, Trever shrugged and got his phone charging, then sent Wyatt a quick text that everything was going well and they were heading to bed. 

Once that was done he slid beneath the covers and dropped his head down onto one of the soft pillows. It didn't take long at all before he was drifting off to sleep. 

At some point during the night he partially awoke, but not enough to really bring himself to full consciousness. It honestly just felt like one of his pillows had been positioned a bit weird and it was making his back uncomfortably hot. 

So, he rolled himself over slowly, then grabbed the pillow. It squirmed a bit for some odd reason, but stopped once he got it better situated against his chest. 

Something grunted in response, and he wasn't sure if it was him or something else, but again, it didn't bother him enough to wake him up any further. So, after tossing the blankets back a bit so that he wasn't so hot, Trever settled back in with a content sigh and drifted back off to sleep. 

The sound of incessant sniffing brought him out of his slumber some ten hours later. As his eyes slowly opened to a new day, they weren't quite sure what they were seeing. 

Is that... a duck butt? 

The sound of a tail thumping against the mattress pulled him further out of his sleepy haze right before Ravi's head popped up directly behind the ducky, his ears perked and his mouth doing his nervous chewing-but-not-chewing habit. 

"Good morning, my hyperactive friend," he mumbled as he stretched his arms over his head and yawned, feeling some of the muscles in his body pop just the right way to feel amazing. 

When he opened his squinting eyes back up he was surprised to see Ravi sitting up next to him, the pup looking down at him with pointed ears and a tilted head. 

"Can I help you, good sir?" he mumbled before giving another yawn. 

Once he was done with said yawn he felt a paw tap against his chest, drawing his attention down to it with a raised eyebrow. 

"Do you want me for something?" he asked, slowly pushing himself up against the stack of pillows piled behind himself. 

Ravi looked down at his ducky for a moment before hesitantly picking it up, then gently setting it down on Trever's midsection. 

"Oh, do you want me to throw it for you?" he asked, already reaching for the stuffed toy. 

When Ravi shook his head, Trever frowned and looked at the toy, then back at the dog sitting beside him. 

"Alright, then what are you trying to get me to do?" he asked, still not understanding. 

Ravi flicked his ears this way and that, then huffed and flopped over onto his back. He seemed almost forlorn...

I think I need a Ravi translation device. 

Shrugging aside that strange interaction, Trever moved onto his hands and knees and reached over to begin rubbing the pup's belly. At first, Ravi seemed determined to ignore the attention, but that little bout of stubbornness didn't last long... at all. 

Pretty soon he was rolling around making little squeaking grunts and snorts as Trever used both hands to scratch at his belly and fuzzy neck. 

"Trying to ignore me, huh? I thought you aren't supposed to ignore the person you call master, hmm?" he teased, enjoying watching the pup's paws flailing in the air as it grumbled and sneezed with excitement at such an exciting belly rub.

When Trever stopped what he was doing all of a sudden and leaned back enough to lift his hands away, Ravi stopped abruptly, too. His head lifted slightly from the messy pillow he'd had it on and his ears perked up and forward as a paw lifted to try and pat at Tever's chest. 

"Done ignoring me, huh?" he teased, panting a little as he watched Ravi's tongue slowly roll from the side of his mouth. 

Shaking his head, Trever turned and moved so that his legs hung over the edge of the bed. He wasn't sure why he'd just played around with the pup so much, but at least it might have worn it out a bit so that it wasn't so hyper for the remainder of their trip. Of course, that was unlikely, since they'd only played for a few minutes, but one could dream, right? 

He was just chuckling to himself and leaning forward to stand when he felt something warm and firm wrap around his midsection, freezing him in place and making his eyes go wide. When a faint pressure was added to his back, he pursed his lips tightly and fidgeted. 

Touching... Too much touching. 

Trever was about to lose his temper when he heard muffled words from directly behind him. 

"I'm sorry master Trever. I would never ignore you... I just wanted some attention," Ravi said quietly, his voice shaky with nervousness. 

Stay calm. You have a shirt on. He's not touching you directly. 

Biting his lip hard, Trever counted to twenty in his mind before shakily reaching up to undo Ravi's smaller arms from around his waist. He was as careful as he possibly could be to not grip his wrists too hard and not move too quickly, but it was extremely hard to manage. Especially when he just wanted to rip himself away from the guy right that second. 

When he was finally free, after a grueling fifteen seconds, he mechanically reached over and picked up the ducky toy, then handed it to Ravi, who looked like he was doing his best to keep his tears at bay. 

"I'm sorry I didn't realize that you were asking for attention. I'm not used to being around other people in such a way, or shifters, for that matter. How about we try this. If you'd like attention, I give you permission to tug on my lower pant leg or shirt sleeve, whichever you can reach easier?" he said, trying to find a middle ground so that he wasn't touched so abruptly again. 

Ravi took a moment to process what he was offering, but then took the ducky in his arms and, after hugging it to his chest, nodded sheepishly. 

"Yes sir, I can do that." 

Giving a grateful sigh of relief, Trever licked his slightly-bleeding lip and straightened back up. 

"I'm going to go take a quick shower. Do you want to shift now so that I can put your harness on, or wait?" he asked with a small smile. 

Ravi looked down and waited nearly a full minute, contemplating his response before finally looking back up and speaking it out loud. His words, however, weren't what Trever had expected to hear. 

"I want to stay human for now, sir."