318 Vol. 6 pt. 4 (1/2)
”What… what happened here?” Fenrir asks upon stepping off of The Shoebill.
The first sight that he is met with is the sight of Rao's body buried halfway underground. All that can be seen of his upper half is his hands sticking out of the dirt. As for his lower half, it is sticking up from the ground. His legs are somehow straight, sticking into the air like a flagpole.
And nearby is Tabitha looking smug with her hammer.
”He was thinkin' somethin' weird,” Tabitha explains.
Fenrir hears mumbling come from where Rao has been half buried.
That mumbling is Rao asking for Fenrir's help.
”Oh. Anyways, the meeting with King Cat went well. We got a bit sidetracked with a quest he wanted us to go on, but now we've got this to make up for it,” Fenrir says, pulling Serra up next to him before presenting them both to Tabitha.
Rao's mumbled calls for help go unanswered.
”Ya look great!” Tabitha tells Serra. ”Nice and powerful lookin'. Men will be scared of comin' by ya.”
Serra nods and gives a thumbs-up.
Then Tabitha looks up at Fenrir, keeps her eyes there for all of two seconds, and looks away.
”He-hey, what's that supposed to mean?” Fenrir asks.
”Ya look edgy,” Tabitha answers.
”But I match with Serra.”
”But ya don't pull it off. You're a dog boy dressed like a goth Roman. Maybe if ya had a scarier personality, but ya don't.”
”I can be scary when I want to be.”
”Uh-huh. Who's a good boy?”
Fenrir's tail wags.
”That's – that's cheating,” he says, not sounding scary nor intimidating in the slightest.
”Fen is a fluffy puppy who wants to be a wolf,” Serra says.
”I'm not a puppy.”
”Who's a good boy?”
Fenrir's tail wags even more.
”It's not my fault!” he claims despite being the one to choose this sort of body for himself. There is also the fact that his virtual tail is only wagging because he believes that is how it should be behaving.
As much as he might claim that it is not his fault, everybody around him knows that it is, in fact, his fault.
”Nell, I know how to be scary, right?” he asks, going to the one girl who loves that sort of thing and would never deny it.
”Of course, my hero! You are scary in the same way that it is frightening when a puppy trips and falls down the stairs. There is a moment of panic and horror before you know that the puppy is alright!” Nell answers.
Fenrir's ears fall flat against his head.
He has been betrayed.
Nobody around is willing to support him and his claim that he knows how to be scary.
The man who once led a group that inspired fear among all of its victims – the one whose sadistic side has made some people ragequit games forever, is now nothing more than a puppy simply thinking that he knows how to act tough.
But then somebody else comes around.
Cassiel.
If he can get to her before she realizes what's going on then she won't know to play along.
He can salvage his pride.
He can be scary.
Cassiel turns to look their way.
”You're finally ba—”
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Her words are cut off when she finds Fenrir standing in front of her, holding her by one shoulder to push her back up against a wall as his other hand firmly places itself against the wall on her other side.
He has her boxed in between his arms.
The wolf in black has captured the angel in white – well, the would-be angel.
”Fe-Fen? Wha-what are you—”
As cheesy as it might look to the others, when he bares his sharp and elongated canines are her, Cassiel cannot help but to shiver and blush.
Her eyes find it impossible to look away from his exposed fangs.
Though, those eyes do close when he brings his mouth closer and closer to her.
But as scared as she might look, she is not closing her eyes because she is scared.
She has closed them because she is excited.
Very excited.
And hopeful.
Full of anticipation.
And then…
”See?! I scared her,” Fenrir says, standing away from Cassiel to point at her to the others.
What he is pointing at is not a scared victim.
Who he is pointing at is his now-aroused-and-needy girlfriend.
Though, she is no longer aroused nor needy as soon as she notices that she is being pointed out to Tabitha, Serra, Nell, Eva, and the still-half-buried Rao.
”Fen,” Cassiel says.
Fenrir might have believed that he just proved how scary he can be.
But not anymore.
Now, he is the one being scared by the tone of Cassiel's voice.
That cold, sharp, serious tone spoken in a low voice that demands attention – that demands submission.
”Ye-yeah?” Fenrir asks, slowly turning around to face her.
”Since you're such a dog, maybe we should build a doghouse for you to sleep in,” Cassiel says.
”Are – are we talking about in-game or—”
”Real life. Maybe the neighbors will throw a ball for you whenever they walk by and see you leashed in the yard.”
”I love you?”
”If you loved me then you wouldn't try to take advantage of my feelings.”
Fenrir wants to tell her that wasn't what he was trying to do – that he was just playing around and didn't mean to actually embarrass her.
But the more he thinks about it, the more he realizes that he really should have thought more about it beforehand. Especially considering that he has used that exact same technique on her before that always led into more.
”Sorry,” Fenrir says. ”You're right. I shouldn't have tried doing that to prove a point.”
While he apologizes to Cassiel, Serra and Nell whisper to each other about how cute he looks from behind with his ears drooping and tail hanging low.
”Hmph,” Cassiel hmphs. ”You're lucky I love you. Now, close your eyes.”
Fenrir closes his eyes.
The next moment, he gets pulled down by the top of his new cuirass and feels soft, warm lips press against his own.
”Jerk,” Cassiel whispers.
”Beautiful,” Fenrir whispers back.
”You owe me that for real later now.”
”The against-the-wall thing?”
”Yeah. And you better do it a hundred times better than this time.”
”That's a tall order.”
”It's the cost of forgiving you for embarrassing me.”
”That's a good deal.”
”I thought so. Dumbie.”
”You can call me the other word if you want to. I deserve it this time.”
”No. I said I wouldn't call you that anymore.”
”You're not even tempted to?”
”Not at all.”
”I love you, Cass Cass. You're the best.”
”I know. Nobody else would forgive and kiss you right after you embarrass them.”
”I thought you didn't forgive me yet?”
”Shut up. You know I did.”
”This is why you're the best.”
”I won't forgive you so easily next time.”
”Then I'll just have to make sure that there never is a next time. Deal?”
”Deal.”
They kiss again.
But, this time, she bites onto his lower lip just enough to make him bleed before pulling away.
”Now you're forgiven,” she says.
”First I wasn't, then I was, then I wasn't again apparently, and now I am again? What about the deal for later?” he asks.
”That's to make sure that you're triple forgiven.”
”I see. Triple forgiven sounds pretty nice.”
”Yeah, but it's almost impossible to get, so you better try hard to earn it.”
”I'll try as hard as it takes. Is there a quadruple forgiven?”
”Yeah but that's even harder to get.”
”How do I get it?”
Cassiel looks behind him where all of the others are still standing, pulls him down again, and whispers into his ear, ”Babies.”
”I'll… I'll eventually get that quadruple forgiveness,” Fenrir says, stepping back.
The need for children has been increasing among his girlfriends more and more lately. Each time, it gets responded to with some variation of ”eventually.”
There is just far too much to do before he can seriously think about it.
They still need to meet up with Azalabulia at some point, but at least that is planned for the upcoming weeks. Then there is probably moving again to an even larger place given how many children his girlfriends want.
Then there is the fact that, as much as he wants kids himself… the thought of it scares him more than anything else has ever scared him.
But he has yet to let any of his girlfriends know about just how scared he is of the thought of being a father.
He probably wouldn't be a good dad if he is so scared and worried about being one, or so he thinks.
And that is one fear that he has not been able to bring himself to share yet.
That fear is also responsible for why he and his girlfriends still haven't had any real penetrative sex. When in-game sex is just as realistic as the real thing but without any of the risk of pregnancy, why risk it?
But with every time the topic of children is brought up to him, he finds the urge to tell them about his concerns growing stronger and stronger.
He knows that they will be accepting of the fear and give him all sorts of assurances that he will be a great dad, but he just can't find that same confidence in himself.
”Anyways,” he changes the subject, ”what do you think? I look pretty good in this, right?”
Cassiel looks him over now that she's no longer being flustered or embarrassed.
”You look good,” she answers.
”Only good?” he asks.
”What do you expect? Do you want me to call you hot? Because you are. Plus the old armor you had was all banged up and didn't fit you right. It was too big.”
”That's what she said.”
Cassiel sighs.
”And how about Serra?” Fenrir asks, walking back over to the others with Cassiel.
”I'm Dread Pirate Queen Serra,” Serra says.
Cassiel was going to call Serra cute… but the cuteness has been upgraded to utter adorableness with Serra's new title.
All Cassiel can bring herself to reply with is a hug.
Serra has a smug, satisfied smile as Cassiel hugs her.
That is, until Serra decides to join Fenrir in being bad.
She licks Cassiel's neck.
The sudden lick gets a Cassiel-tier squeak out of Cassiel, causing her to jump up and blush.
”I just got done being mad about being embarrassed and now you do that,” Cassiel says to Serra.
”You should leave the public humiliation for me,” Nell says. ”I assure you that I will enjoy it much more than our dear Cassiel!”
”But you don't squeak,” Serra tells Nell.
”I could always work on a squeak!”
”Hey, don't change the subject,” Cassiel says.
”Sorry,” Serra says.
”Thank you. At least you weren't a jerk and try to show off while embarrassing me.”
Both Fenrir and Serra might have embarrassed Cassiel, but she does have a point in that only one of them actually tried to make a show of it.
”Does it even count as embarrassment if ya like it?” Tabitha asks Nell.
”Consensual embarrassment is still embarrassing!” Nell explains.
Tabitha shrugs and returns to what she was doing before, leaving the degenerates to their public displays of affection and other things.
But before any more public displays of affection can take place, something else happens.
Or rather, a different public display of affection happens.
A powerful force slams into Fenrir's back and knocks him over, banging his head against the ground. Said force then rolls him over onto his back to properly attack him.
With kisses.
With licking.
”I think you almost broke my neck,” Fenrir says between attempts at turning his head to avoid the hard tongue lapping at his face. ”To think some more food would make you this big…”
All of the mining done at the mountain for construction materials has resulted in plenty of rocks and other minerals lying around. Now, while a bunch of rocks lying around would not normally be anything worth protecting, those who have been assisting Fenrir's group in gathering and constructing have discovered that there is somebody worth protecting the rocks from.
And her name is Rock.
Rock the rock-eating dog. Though, at this point, it would be much more appropriate to call her a wolf.
Or perhaps a dire wolf.
Her new diet has done the opposite of slim her down. Instead, she has experienced a larger growth spurt than what anybody could have expected.
She is half as tall as Fenrir now. When standing on her back legs alone, she is taller than him.
Her ”fur” has grown out as well. Though, her ”fur” looks more like rocky scales sticking out all over her. Aside from that, more greyish colors have been blended into her rather than only brown due to the types of rocks that she has been eating, and her ears are standing up much higher than they were before.
Then there is Shogun who has come to try and dig Rao out from the ground.
Shogun…
Has not changed at all.
His rocky dire wolf of a girlfriend might have become twice if not thrice the size that she was just a few weeks ago, but he has not grown even slightly larger.
The result is that it is not utterly impossible for him to fly around with her on his back and that he looks comically undersized when next to her.
The two of them cuddling looks more like a mother sleeping with her adopted child.
And Rock is the younger of the two.
”I'm pretty sure you're strong enough now to knock down castle walls all on your own. You could just charge straight into them and headbutt them,” Fenrir says, failing at pushing Rock off of him.