[center]James, the New Home[/center]

     Click, chunk, and a turn and James’ front door opened with a slight creak. The old house had some work needed to be done on it, but the beefy Lucario was just happy he got the house in the first place. Shockingly cheap, at that. It was an older place with a beautiful yard, plenty of trees nearby, and a perfect view of the town across the lake. The place was almost big enough to call it a mansion. A few hundred thousand Poké up front and that was that. Utilities in place and working immediately, fiber internet ready to go next week, and even a good amount of furniture had been included in the deal for this abode. A house that should’ve cost millions to billions of Poké was his.

     Ever the suspicious type, James jumped slightly hearing the door creak. Last he checked, there wasn’t any news of any Pokémon passing away here. Nor was this a dangerous area. The lakeside home had neighbors only a couple kilometers away, and the most recent violent crime of the area was 80 years back across the lake. The only Pokémon this side of the lake were friendly too, an ancient Gengar, Allen, and his Camerupt husband Percy, the Aggron, Eric, with his Zoroark stepson Nathaniel, and one lonely Machamp James never got the name of. This town was idyllic.

     Stepping into his new home, the bachelor began breathing deeply, closed the door, and meditated for a second. “No one is here. I am safe here.” Raising a paw slowly, James began to undo his tie and unbutton his shirt. No need to be formal on a Friday night. “What time was it now?” Glancing at the grandfather clock across the living room, James could see work held him up longer than expected. Eyes going wide, he rushed upstairs to the master bedroom. The Pokémon in his neighborhood were having a dinner at Eric’s house to welcome him. Changing clothes would take most of his remaining time before he had to leave. There’d be no way he could get his workout in today.

     Sighing, James had walked over to a sign near his bed while slipping a neon pink tank top over his torso and erased began erasing something. “Days Since Last Missed Workout” had gone from 364 and been replaced with 0. “Dammit. What a shame. Going to be missing chest day.” Being a Fighting-type, the Lucario was particularly proud of his muscular form. While not particularly vain, he didn’t try to hide his cantaloupe-sized biceps, 6-pack abs, or the fact that his pecs had become big enough to stretch his shirts. He knew he was attractive to many and flaunted that.

     Chills went down James’ back as he started slipping jeans over his digitigrade ankles. Hackles raised, began looking around again. “Fuck this place has a bad draft problem. I need to call someone about this sometime.” After polishing the spikes on his paws and the one sandwiched between his pecs, James immediately hopped back into his van and drove southward.

     “Welcome on in James~” Eric bounced and practically sang. James could hear the Aggron from across the yard and see him as well. The giant, metallic Aggron was awfully jumpy for someone of his size and considering the smell of cooked meat wafting from behind him, the Aggron was clearly excited to meet James. A platter of hor dourves held by one set of claws and a wine bottle in the other. Nathaniel slinked around his stepfather with water bottles in one arm and basket of bread in the other. “You’re just in time. Everyone else is right around back! Follow me!” Waving James over, the Lucario couldn’t help but wonder if Eric had learned Bounce somehow. Soft tremors could be felt beneath his feat with each of Eric’s excited steps.

     “Pleasure to meet you! If there’s anything I can get you, don’t hesitate to ask!” Nathaniel exclaimed before chasing after his stepdad with food in arm.

     A small grin broke James’ stoic façade as he raced on back after the pair. It wasn’t long before he caught up and was greeted with balloons, a rather large cake, and a large assortment of food surrounded by his new neighbors. “Welcome on in!” Percy shouted. Flames shooting from the volcano-humps on his back as a smile covered his face.

     “Hope moving in has been going well. Need any help? I can get to all the hard-to-reach places.” James looked around, not seeing where the voice had emanated from. Another chill traveled down his spine as he felt a poke on his shoulder and heard, “Back here.” Hastily, James spun around and all but tripped as Allen made the characteristic grin of a Gengar to him. “You should see your face! Sorry about that. I can’t help myself.” Extending a claw, Allen tried to hide his laughter. “Pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

     “Pleasure’s all mine.” James sheepishly replied as he shook the Gengar’s paw. Allen’s paw felt as though James had grasped oddly dense air. Turning back around to Percy, James then shouted, “Thank you. Great to be here. I’m happy to meet you all.”

     A gruff grunt came from the Machamp next. “Welcome.” Pointing a finger to himself, the Machamp followed up by saying, “Taylor.” Afterwards, Taylor just sat down and cracked open a water bottle.

     Nervously waving back, “James” was all he could say to the Machamp. Stealing one more glance, James couldn’t help but be impressed by the fellow Fighting-type’s physique. What he wouldn’t give for toned, pecs that big, or abs so chiseled. Practically enamored by the older gentleman, James pulled up a seat by Taylor. For a while, James did his best to socialize with (hopefully) his new friends, enjoying the food, and doing his best to be a good neighbor. There wasn’t much talking, but slowly things began to liven up.

     Tasty food, good drink, and friendly neighbors? This party raised James’ spirits and helped him relax more around these new Pokémon. Even Taylor seemed to loosen up…with the help of copious amounts of wine. Besides the increasing frequency of the chills James felt, this was perfect. 

     “You make some good food Eric. Let’s toast again for James! Uh, Hun, if you would.” Percy exclaimed.

     “Sure thing” Allen said. Picking up Percy’s mug, he raised it for Allen. One by one, everyone’s glasses raised. “Hopefully, you’ll be staying around for a while.”

     “Uh, I hope I’ll be living here for a while.” James said, becoming confused.

     “Pay him no mind. Let’s just have fun!” Being pulled in, James realized Taylor started hugging him with a couple arms. “Always great to have new friends.”

     Besides Allen’s odd comment, everything went smoothly from there. Playing darts with Nathaniel and Eric, drinking with Taylor, and getting spooked by Allen for a couple hours made James happier than he would’ve expected. They really rolled out the red carpet for him. Haziness started to creep into James’ vision as twilight turned to dusk. “Wow. Must’ve been more tired than I thought. Alright everyfur, about time for me to get going!”

     “Awwwwww…leaving already? Take any food home with you that you want. If you need anything, feel free to drop by!” cried Eric. Tremors returned as the larger Steel-type bounced over to James and embraced him.

     “Dad don’t stifle him. It’s not like we’ll never see him again…probably.” Another Aggron who looked exactly like Eric walked around the corner of the house. “It was a pleasure to meet you. Hope to see you again soon” the Eric doppelgänger said with a bow.

     “Nathan what did I say about using my face?” Putting paws on his hips, Eric cocked his head and began tapping his foot.

     “Come on, Dad! It’s a fun party trick.” Shadows seemed to warp as the Eric illusion dissipated, leaving the Zoroark standing in his place. Giving Eric no time to complain, Nathaniel hugged James too. “Stick around a while. It’s a great neighborhood.”

     “Ummm…” James nervously hugged Eric back and squeaked. Another chill went down this back and his hackles raised again. Trying not to be rude he added, “Not sure why everyfur’s nervous about me bailing out of town so soon, but I really do have to call it a night” and tried to break out of the squeeze. He didn’t get far before the inebriated Taylor joined in, adding to the vice. Soon Percy began punting his thigh and Allen hugged his shoulder atop Percy’s head.

     “You’re my type of guy, James. Can’t wait to learn more about you. Maybe we can hit the gym together and have lunch sometime!” Taylor roared.

     “Sure. I guess we could.” The chills on his back grew more persistent despite having a Fire-type next to him and being hugged almost as if he was in a nest of Arbok. James began to wonder if he had caught some sort of flu when moving here. With a few protestive wiggles, the others slowly released him and backed off…though he was almost sure someone had grabbed his ass for a second there.

     “It’s a date then!” The Machamp roared again before slowly making his way back to his chair and back to his glass.

     “Mind taking him tonight, Eric? I don’t feel right asking Taylor to drive home like this.” Percy remarked with a troubled expression.

     “Already got the couch prepared. Thought this would happen again.” Nathaniel sighed. “We love the guy, but if there’s one vice he picked up since moving here, it’s alcohol.”

     Awkwardly waving, James gave one final farewell to the group before going around to his car. Hopefully, he remembered where he put the cold meds. Right before he could drive off, Allen floated down next to his van and whispered, “Sorry about that there. Hope it didn’t leave a bad impression. Taylor had a bad breakup recently…again.”

     “No, no. All’s good” James lied. “Mainly needed to get home because of these chills I’ve been having.”

     “Did I accidentally put those on you? Sorry about that. Didn’t want to go that far.” Nervous laughing came from the Gengar as he began scratching the side of his head.

     “Actually, been having these chills ever since I moved to the new home. Probably just drafty or something like that.”

     “You know, that’s what the past couple inhabitants all said. Everything seemed fine, then a couple months later we all hear that the place is up for sale again.”

     Bewilderment was the first expression on James’ face, followed by a bit of apprehension as he dug his claws into the steering wheel. “Huh. Cool story. Wonder what could’ve happened?”

     Shrugging, the Ghost-type had no answer. He just added, “Probably why Eric wanted such a big party. Something to celebrate and hopefully convince you this is a good place to settle down.”

     Before James was able to respond, Allen floated away and back over to the party. Shaking his head and rubbing the haziness from his eyes, James began the drive back home. It was an uneventful drive. Crisp, cool autumn air, full moon in the sky illuminating the road, and the sound of waves from the lake made this night beautiful. Still, James felt something… off.

     James stepped into his house, locked the door, and slinked off to his room to meditate again. For some reason, he felt the urge to remove all his clothes to meditate. Tank top off, jeans off, and even underwear off. His large, fuzzy orbs and sheath airing out felt natural to him, inexplicably. Starting with breathing, James spent several minutes attempting to slow his breathing. Attempting. Ironically, the more he meditated, the faster and harder he seemed to be breathing.

     “Maybe…I should just call it a night early.” Shakily standing up, he tried walking over to bed. The haziness in his eyes returned, and this time nearly consuming all his vision. His legs seemed to have a mind of their own and his balance was thrown off. James only barely managed to catch himself on his nightstand. Heat suddenly overwhelmed him in an instant. “Fuck! So hot… I c-can’t.” The Lucario started panting. Seconds turned into minutes, minutes turned into hours and the Lucario slowly stood tall, unaware of what his body was doing.

     “Quite a stud we have this time~” Some mysterious voice said.

     “I know. I’m loving this guy’s physique.” The pitch was different. Somefur with a higher voice had said that one. Not that James could shift his head to see where the voice was coming from or move his ears to locate the direction of the voices. James couldn’t even hear the voices. James could only stand tall, panting, and eyes out of focus.

     “Do you want him?” The lower-pitched voice asked.

     “Hmmmm… How about we share this one?” The higher-pitch voice cheerfully responded.

     “Oooooh~ I like that idea. Alright, on three?” James could feel something brushing beside his right ear, then another presence near his left ear.

     Those two presences filled James’ ears as he moaned uncontrollably. For the next minute, he felt like something was swimming in his brain. That was the last thing he felt as his consciousness was put to sleep.

     “Took a while to get into this guy’s head. Worth it though~” James spoke, suddenly reaching up and started playing with his pecs.

     “I know, right? Glad we got somefur like this. Good work getting him to strip before we even took control!” One paw stopped grabbing his pecs and shifted to squeezing his ass. James said, continuing to talk with himself.

     “Thank you. Finally got a body that we’ll enjoy, and I wanted to see all of it. Hope he sticks around for a while.” Moving from his pecs, James shifted the other paw to playing with his balls.

     “Careful, Lightning. Let’s not blow our load too soon. We’ve got this body for ourselves all night~”

     “Fiiiiine.” Lightning groaned with James’ voice. “Did you have anything you wanted to do first, Titus?”

     “We both love his muscles. How about we take a turn using them?” Titus grinned using James’ face and began bouncing his pecs. “Where’s a mirror?” James began bouncing around like a puppy, running over to the bathroom, and turning on the lights. Immediately, his biceps were being flexed.

     “Huff~ We look good! Might want to get a boyfriend for him sometime and make it more fun.” A cheeky wink from Lightning did little to hide his intentions. “I’m probably going to be wearing this guy a lot.”

     “I’ll be wearing the boyfriend when he’s over, I take it?” Titus said, turning James around and bouncing the massive, muscular bubble butt.

     “If you want. We can always trade if we get bored. I’d show you a fun time either way~” Lightning then had a paw point down to James’ crotch, where a tip of canine length had begun poking out.

     “I’m looking forward to it.” Titus said, James’ tail now wagging.