"There is no need to pick on your brother, Janice," Jenny turned her younger sister after John ran out.
"But I'm not!" Janice protested at the admonishment, "I'm happy for him. I think John likes her, and it's pretty clear that she likes him. Thus they'll be together and will be happy together. They'll get married, have little weretigers and live happily ever after."
Jenny wasn't quite sure on how to answer that without revealing something that she wasn't sure was truly hers to reveal. And even if John was okay with it, Jenny wasn't sure how she could explain how she had the sense that John was likely having some sort of crisis of identity on who he was. There was a lot about Moon Lake that broke many of the rules that she was aware of before coming to Moon Lake. Her greatly enhanced bosom, huge pointed ears, pointed muzzle, and cream fur of her Fennec Fox based were form was proof of that, but to Jenny's knowledge there were no stories of weres being psychics. Yet when she went through the process of not only completing her transformation but recovering from the mental strain of being incomplete for as long she had, there had also been the sort of mental visions that she'd had in her own dreams that had hinted at John likely wrestling with the possibility of himself being at least bisexual if not completely homosexual. Explaining that would probably come off as "odd" and something that might not be easily believed, even if John would be okay with it.
"Even so, dear," Lisa Jenkins commented softly, "it would be pretty clear that your brother is not comfortable with pointing the concept of having a girlfriend."
"But why not?" Janice asked, "Ginger seems nice. I don't think she'd hurt John... at least not deliberately."
"That we can't know for sure," Jenny said softly, "he could be shy... he could only see Ginger as a friend and has no romantic interest in her... he might even have interests that are different from what you think... He might want a boyfriend rather than a girlfriend for example... We won't know for sure until he feels comfortable to tell us."
"But why wouldn't he feel comfortable?" Janice asked, "Dad can't hurt us anymore."
"Dad can't," Jenny said slowly, "but that doesn't mean what he did didn't cause lasting fear."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
John didn't hear of this debate and reprimand of his sister. He didn't necessarily want his sister to be reprimanded or punished. That would only serve too many callbacks to how James Harper Senior had responded to such things. He could remember the sound of a wooden spoon or spatula be used to spank his siblings when they were all younger and episodes where his older brother had caught some of these issues, be it with John, Janice, or Jenny, and too responsibility for whatever it was in some way, if only to save them from being beaten.
But with his own mind wrestling with who he was and his sexuality, even with some recognition that it was possible that he did like and desire Ginger as more than just a possible friend, John didn't feel ready to shrug off the teasing of him having a girlfriend. He wasn't ready for that and he simply collapsed onto the bed with his mind drifting off to fairly troubled sleep...
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The vision that came to John's mind was a mismatch of various things. They came out of images that seemed to crisscross things that came from all over what he knew. John seemed to wander through the single floor home that the Jenkins had for them to live in. However he could find no sign of Jenny and Harry in what was normally their room, nor Henry Jenkins Senior and Lisa in the master bedroom. Neither was there any sign of Janice, either. The bedroom that he and Janice shared lacked the twin bed and cot that had been set up for him and Janice to share. There was a lone queen bed in the room. The room was also done some dark blues and John noted a photograph of two men together.
John then wandered through the area where the ling quarters of the Jenkins house was. The master bedroom had a large king sized bed in it. On a nightstand was a photo of a man and a woman, the man looked vaguely similar to him and the woman somewhat like Ginger's mother, but not quite. The room that Jenny and Harry shared held one twin bed and there was a photo of John as he was now on tall dresser. In none of these rooms did John find any sign of anyone. He merely found the rooms empty, other than the images that he'd seen. Some of the décor reminded him of the Jenkins house as it was. Some reminded him of his home in Alabama. Some struck him as something he'd never seen before. It left him at a loss for what to see as he wandered through the rooms.
He eventually made his way into what was normally the Jenkins living room where he finally found someone besides himself, but it was still different from what he knew. In fact the room was different in its layout and design from what he'd seen. Along the wall that faced where the TV normally was a large whicker couch with some soft cushions on it was located. On it stat two adult weretigers, both nude, but sitting calmly and holding hands. One was female and who's stripe pattern matched Ginger's, reminding him of the fact that no two tiger's had the same pattern of stripes. It helped him identify the adult Ginger O'Toole. But she was seated with a larger male weretiger. John noted this male as being different from Ginger in few ways. Her fur was a standard red-orangish color with black stripes. This male, however had tannish orange fur with plain brown stripes. The fur on his arms up to the shoulders and his legs up to the knee and nearly all of his tail with the exception of his brown stripes was white.
Along the far wall, next to the entryway to the kitchen was an individual whicker chair with another male weretiger in it. John didn't know this weretiger's name, but by his stripe pattern, John figured this was the same male weretiger he'd seen before. John still didn't have a name, though. Opposite Ginger and this male weretiger that John didn't recognized was a smaller leather couch where a pair of transformed werewildcats sat. One was in a pair of gray shorts and looked like he was based off of the Ocelot while the other wore a pair of maroon shorts with a white capital "A" on it was one that was based off the Canada Lynx. These two also held hands and nodded to John.
Along the wall immediately to John's left were two separate chairs. In one was himself, seated in a pair of blue jeans and a polo shirt while in the other was Ginger in her human form. They were a bit further apart, but smiled to him with a small wave. It left John completely confused.
"What... what is all this?" John wondered aloud.
"You're probably just wrestling with who you are and everything that's changed for you," the John in the chair spoke, "I mean... coming as part of some scheme to try and break up Jenny's wedding, find out that we'd missed the actual wedding and that she's become a buxom werefox vixen besides... that's a lot to think about."
"It's not just that," John admitted as he looked to that human John as he noted that the human John glanced to Ginger's human form and then back to him as well. "It's well..."
"You're still wrestling with WHO you are, right?" the Canadian Lynx Werewildcat asked in John's own voice.
John blinked in surprise but managed a nod in reply, though he didn't know what to say.
"Well... from what I remember talking through with Ginger on and all that..." the werewildcat John said slowly, "and all the old memories... I came to realize that I've been bisexual... but dad's biases just got in the way and created trouble."
"And I found the same," the male weretiger that John didn't recognize, though again in John's own voice, "but Moon Lake offered us a freedom to enjoy everything and friends that can accept that."
John watched as the two weretigers nodded with the weretiger John leaning to nuzzle his muzzle to Ginger's and then nodding to other male weretiger. He still looked a bit confused as he looked back to the human versions of himself and Ginger seated in the separate chairs. Both returned a small smile.
"You're at a point where you're facing a lot of decisions," the human Ginger said slowly, "the one thing that all of your possible futures may agree on is that you are bi... Not that there is anything wrong with that. Never think there is."
"But sexuality is merely in who turns you on," the human John commented, "figuring out that realization will be easy... Not without its confusing elements but relatively easy."
"The real puzzle will then be on which choice you make with regard to who you love, and that is something different from who you sexually desire," the weretiger John said slowly, "for me... it was for the good friend who never gave up on me and was always understanding..."
"And for me... it was with someone you haven't met yet," the werewildcat John spoke, "though not that it cost me Ginger's friendship...."
"But... which way do I go in all of this?" John asked.
"Just as Jenny, Henry, Mrs. Anderson, and others have told you," the human John said to him, "that is all up to you..."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
John woke up to find himself on the bed in what had once been Huck's room in the Jenkins home. He was wrapped up in the blankets and noticed a small note laying beside him. The light was faint, mostly relying on what came in through the window on the other side of the cot where Janice was presently sleeping, indicating that the rest had gone to bed after he stormed out of the living room at some point, but John did manage to make out some of the writing.
It read: Don't worry, John. You'll be fine, regardless of who you love. Though, I do think you and Ginger look good together and I think she likes you... but if not... we still love you. -Janice.