Derek didn’t believe in Christmas miracles, or miracles in general. Miracles were feel-good stories for placating the masses, for keeping them hoping for change instead of going out and making it. Derek wasn’t a rat of hope, he was a rat of action.

Still, when he awoke on Christmas morning and pressed his whiskers against his bedroom window, his eager breathing fogging up the window, it was hard not to think:

[i]It’s a Christmas miracle. Dad said it wouldn’t snow.[/i]

The snow had fallen thick too, hiding the driveway and smothering the trees. Across the road and down the hill, the creek had frozen over. It was like he’d passed into another world while he had slept: the kind of world where one might find a candy cane pole or gumdrop rock formation. Not that Derek was interested in such a corporate-media depiction of Christmas, he reminded himself.

He wanted to run outside and explore his new surroundings, maybe build a snowman and dress up like a punk rocker. But his dad had been clear about the rule: on Christmas morning, the whole family had to go downstairs together. And across the room, his two stepbrothers were still sleeping soundly in their shared bed. They looked so peaceful too: Star the fire-puppy tucked into the crook of Tobias’s wing, the two even wearing matching sleep masks. Did he dare wake them?

No, they were too cute to disturb. He could wait. Watching the snowfall was calming, even mesmerizing. It was a sight he could get lost in… if not for a nagging pang from his bladder. He’d had a lot to drink before bed last night, and it was honestly a surprise that he hadn’t wet the bed. Waiting around with a full bladder wouldn’t be fun at all.

Fortunately, there was a solution to that, and he was already in the right place for it.

It was a game that his Dad had come up with: relieving himself on purpose while looking out the window, smiling and waving at passersby. He took joy in knowing that those neighbors would have no idea that just below the windowsill, things would be getting more than a bit damp.

He braced himself against the window sill, arms straight against the frame, legs spread, knees bent, and there he prepared a Christmas gift for his pants: the gift of wetness. His body relaxed, but that wasn’t quite enough to get things started. So taking a breath, he started to push a little. For a few seconds nothing happened, but then he felt a trickle tickle his urethra. His pull ups began to take on moisture, becoming clammy and clinging to his thighs and groin. Looking down, he could see that there wasn’t any visible sign of his accident, but it wouldn’t stay that way for long. His pull ups were a compromise between him and his Dad: thick enough to offer nighttime protection, but thin enough to not obstruct his movement or be obvious. Which was to say, they weren’t designed to handle a full on-purpose. And indeed, he soon saw a blotch of color appear at the front of his pajama pants, which slowly spread across the front, carrying with it a relaxing warmth. Soon a thin stream was running down his legs, pooling on the varnished wood floor. He sighed, his muscles going slack, only his arms keeping him upright against the windowsill. Anyone who looked in the window would have no clue he was currently making a puddle on the floor… but it would be pretty clear something was up: no one was this relaxed without a reason.

“Oh wow. Snow!”

Somehow, in Derek’s reverie, he hadn’t noticed that Star was now awake and standing, the pup’s messy mane peeking out between his blue polar-bear patterned sleeper. Derek noticed the puppy looking his way and yelped, trying to figure out how obvious it was that he had soaked himself. He quickly found three pieces of evidence:

The puddle of urine that glistened in the morning light.
The pee stains on the front of his PJs that painted them a much darker yellow than the dry spots.
Star was sporting an erection under his thick nighttime padding.

Conclusion: it was pretty obvious.

Derek tried to think of something to say to distract from what he’d done. Fortunately, Star seemed sufficiently distracted already by the snowfall: “It’s so much fuggin snow!” the puppy shouted as he made a beeline for the window. Then his paws slipped on the piss puddle and he fell to the floor in a mess of tangled limbs and pee. A few seconds of anxious silence followed, before:

“I’m okay!” Star hopped back up onto his feet. “Snow! Look at it!” He pressed his snout against the window, the surface quickly fogging up from his puppy panting. “Hey Fuzzy! Bet you never saw snow like this before, huh?" he shouted at the scrub jay who was now pulling off his sleep mask and rubbing his eyes. “We gotta go sledding in this."

Tobias rubbed his wings, already beginning to shiver from the imagined cold. “Okay, sure! As long as we get to drink cocoa by the fire and play board games after.”

“Duh! Come on, get up already!” Star ran back to the bed and began dragging the bird out by one wing. Tobias didn't resist, and the covers slid off him. Unlike Star's thick sleeper pajamas, Tobias was just in his tighty whities. He took stock of Derek and smiled. “Hey. You, uh…” he gestured toward the rat boy’s soaked pants.

“I know.” Derek chuckled as he watched his new siblings. Star had a liveliness that was entertaining to watch, and Tobias was just a big cuddlebug. There was no point in trying to get cleaned up now. Star and Toby had already caught him… and Dad would be bummed to miss out on a pair of wet pants.

The three boys headed downstairs (okay, Star dragged the other two down the stairs), and as they stumbled into the kitchen, Derek’s sensitive rat nose picked up on the scent of eggs and meat. Alex the wolf, the trio’s surrogate father, was up and about checking on the oven and sipping from a steaming mug of coffee that proudly boasted “#2 Dad”. The wolf was wearing only an apron and a pair of tight white briefs. He must have heard the pitter-patter of not-so-little feet, because as the boys filed in, he set the mug down and leaned back against the countertop. “Morning, boys. Sleep well?”

“We’re gonna build a snow fort!” Tobias not-answered as he attempted to pass through the kitchen and out the front door.

“Not before breakfast I hope. And not before putting some layers on.” The bird boy looked down at his body and remembered that he was dressed only in his underwear. “You boys should also have full bellies before you head out.”

“Oh.” The bird immediately reversed course, backstepping to the kitchen table and climbing into a chair. Star and Derek followed, hopping into their seats, each with an audible squish. It sounded like Star hadn’t kept his pants dry either. Not that anyone had expected him to. Or maybe that was just residual wetness from the pile of rat pee he’d slipped in before, which was starting to stink up his clothes.

Soon Alex carried over a large casserole dish between thickly mitted paws. The smell of meat and cheese was nearly overwhelming, and Derek’s mouth watered. Alex set down the bacon, ham, and cheddar omelette casserole in the center of the table. While he was down there, he leaned in and said to Derek: “And someone definitely needs a change before he heads out in the cold.”

Derek blushed. Was it that obvious? He peeked between his legs again, remembering just how thoroughly he’d stained the front. The entire crotch area had turned dark from pee saturation, and the liquid had already made his chair damp. “Oh. Sorry,” he mumbled.

“Don’t be,” said Alex, his voice sweet and calming. “You smell great.” He placed a paw over the front of Derek’s pants and gave a playful squeeze, and the boy’s hips eagerly pressed back against his daddy’s paw. Alex kissed his cheek then stood back up to portion up the food, leaving Derek desperate for more teasing. But it seemed that the wolf was done pleasuring him now, and the rest would have to wait until the change. 

Nothing to do now but enjoy the food. Derek took a bite of the omelette casserole, the gooey cheese and umami egg and ham flooding his taste buds. “Thish ish amashing!” he said, spewing crumbs back onto his plate.

“Yeah, this is really good!” chirped Tobias. Next to him, Star was tearing into the casserole without using utensils or even his paws, his tongue and canines scraping the plate. The puppy gave a sultry moan of agreement, then promptly moved on to the coffee cake.

The wolf was beaming. “Glad you like it. Oh, before you head out, I got a little something for each of you,” Alex told them.

What was this? Derek put his fork down and listened attentively.

Star looked up from his slice of coffee cake, crumbs slipping off his snout. “You didn’t have to get us anything!”

“I know. But I wanted to. It’s your first Christmas here, after all.” The wolf ducked under the sink, and when he popped back up again, he was carrying three wrapped boxes: one for each of his new favorite boys.

Star grabbed his gift and pulled it into his lap. His fingers were clean, mostly because he hadn’t been using them to eat. His sharp claws sliced the wrapping paper into ribbons, then he tore the remaining shreds off with his teeth. “Oh my gosh, it’s a collar!” He reached into the box, lifting out the orange and black striped collar with one finger. “I’ve always wanted one!” He practiced putting it around his neck, showing it off to the others for his approval.

“Looking good,” Alex told him, offering the pup a thumbs up.

Tobias locked eyes with his package like it was a shiny new ornament, breathing quickly as he held it in his hands. His breathing only got faster when he tore the wrapping paper off and sliced open the box with a talon. “It’s a hoodie!” He showed off the grey hoodie before squirming into it, the hood pressing down on his head feathers. He tucked his claws into the unified front pocket, hooking his talons around each other while his hands rested comfortably against his belly.

Now it was Derek’s turn. He looked up at Alex standing next to him, and graciously took the present into his own hands. He slowly unwrapped the box with trembling paws, and squeaked when he realized what it was.

“It’s a Rat Bastards jacket!” He lifted the denim jacket high overhead. It had the metal band’s signature logo on the back, and was adorned with the perfect number of sequins.

Seeing his boys' enthusiasm warmed Alex's heart. He lived for moments like this. “Don’t think I wasn’t paying attention when you said it was your favorite band. We can put it on you too, but that comes with a change…”

Derek continued to admire the jacket, turning it over slowly in his claws. “This is incredible…” he said. No way he was going to say no to putting it on as soon as possible. Getting changed wasn’t even a downside: the wolf daddy’s changes were the best! (And honestly, the wet pants were starting to get clammy.)

But on the other hand, he’d seen how excited Star and Tobias were to get out of the house and into the snow, and he didn’t want to keep them waiting. Even now, Star was tapping his unused fork against his plate to burn off nervous energy. Tobias seemed more withdrawn and fidgety. “Uh, okay!” Derek finally decided, smiling at Alex and giving the jacket back to him. He addressed his brothers: “You two can go ahead and start making snowballs or something.”

Alex pulled out Derek’s chair and lifted the rat boy up, cradling his wet behind with a hand. “I’m sure they won’t mind waiting. Besides, one of your brothers could use a change too.” He gestured to Star in his rat-piss-soaked pajamas. "And we might have a third before long." He knew Tobias's body language: the boy was definitely going to need a bathroom break soon… or a new pair of briefs. He could have drawn Tobias’s attention to his need… but this was more fun.

“Um… that’s not my pee,” Star insisted, trying to pull his shirt down over his pants to hide the damage. It didn’t work.

Alex's comment about Toby appeared to go over the bird boy's head. “We don’t mind waiting!” Tobias insisted. “Hey Star, want to play a round of ‘Happy Scrappy Hero Pup?’”

Alex chuckled. So predictable, these three. He gave Derek a playful pat on the head to let him know that he wasn’t mad. “Sure it’s not, Star,” he said, which got a grumble-whine out of the puppy. 

“We won’t be long,” the dad-wolf promised. “You two be patient.” He turned to Derek. “You want to get changed in the bathroom for privacy?”

Derek shook his head. “I don’t mind. It’s nothing that they haven’t seen before.”

That was true. They’d all been changed in front of the others before. And had explored each other’s bodies plenty on many sleepless nights. There wasn’t much that they hid from each other.

Alex picked up his changing bag off the counter and carried Derek over the threshold into the living room while Star and Tobias swarmed past his legs and hopped up onto the couch. Derek leaned into Alex’s shoulder and closed his eyes.

The four of them congregated by the TV where Tobias booted up the game console, and Alex laid Derek down in front of the couch, just close enough to the lit fireplace to feel its warmth. Turning his head to the side, Derek saw Tobias climb onto the couch and snuggle against Star's side, the bird's head resting on the puppy's conspicuously thick padded crotch. Star gave the beak an affectionate rub as Toby put on his game face. Meanwhile Alex whistled to himself dutifully as he extracted all the changing supplies from his bag. The fire cast a warm glow over everyone.

 It was a picturesque moment.

A paw on the front of Derek's pull up stirred him from his serenity… and stirred some liveliness between his legs.  “You really soaked these, huh?" asked Alex. "Couldn’t stay dry last night?” Bedwetting wasn’t a problem in this household. In fact, it was the exact opposite of a problem, so the question carried no shame.

“I woke up dry,” Derek clarified, eager to regale his daddy with the story of his naughtiness. “I peed in my pull up while I was waiting for everyone else to wake up.” Alex likely already suspected this, but there was something special and intimate in the retelling. 

The rat boy watched Alex close his eyes and take a deep breath, savoring the scent and no doubt forming a pristine mental image in his mind. “Good boy,” he said. 

Derek didn’t resist as Alex pulled his pajama pants and shirt off of him, the wet fabric sliding against his legs and making him squirm. The wolf dad’s fingers were soft, fuzzy, and gentle as they slowly pulled against the waistband of his training pants. His erection had been steadily forming all morning, and now it sprung loose to meet the cold morning air.

“Enjoying this?” said Alex, his lilting voice taking on a teasing edge. He smiled as he finished removing Derek’s pull-up, and then he held them up and took a good sniff. There was something exceptional about the smell of wet rat.

“Well, yeah…” From his position on the floor, Derek looked up into the eyes of the wolf he called Daddy. He could see the wolf’s intense focus and desire, the way he couldn’t tear his gaze away from the rat. But what was notable was that there wasn’t even a whiff of aggression: Alex was completely at peace, and happy to be with Derek, on Derek’s terms.

This was far and away different from any of Derek’s sexual partners prior to Alex. The thing about being a latchkey kid with a rebel attitude was that most of your learning came from mistakes, and Derek had made many of them: his sex education had come from the School of Hard Knocks, with lessons frequently held with anonymous partners in public bathrooms. He didn’t necessarily regret those experiences, but it made him appreciate Alex all the more.

Although Alex acknowledged Derek’s arousal, he didn’t let it change his behavior: soggy boys needing cleaning took precedence. He diligently cleaned up Derek’s clammy legs with a wet wipe. Despite the chasteness of the cleaning, Derek still couldn’t help but twitch and pant. Each time the wipe brushed up against his inner thighs, the rat’s hips twitched. He bit his tongue, doing his best to cope with the neediness.

The cleanup came to an end, with Alex giving one last respectful wipe over the rat boy’s privates that made him shiver. Then he watched with a ragged breath as Alex pressed a single finger against his erection, his whole body stiffening.

“Do you want me to take care of this?” asked the wolf.

They both already knew the answer to that question, but that wasn’t the point. Alex always asked before touching Derek beyond what was necessary for a change. And he was always conscientious of the boy’s comfort: he never used any physical force or put Derek in any position he couldn’t easily get out of. It was the number one lesson of the household: consent was serious business.

But Derek knew what he wanted. “Yes. Please.”

Alex crawled around behind his lovely rat, hoisting the boy’s shoulders and pulling his head into his lap. With one hand resting on Derek’s belly (providing a comforting touch but in no way limiting the rat’s ability to move), his other hand dipped into a jar of lotion, which he began to slowly and gently rub onto Derek’s cock.

It wasn’t always easy for the rat to be comfortable, given the sensitivity of his body. But Alex was always patient, and Derek found himself melting into Alex’s warm touch. The wolf’s body was soft and warm, and his touch heavenly, and Derek did his best to take deep breaths and not pop off immediately. To distract himself, he decided to see what his siblings were up to.

Tobias was completely engrossed in the round of “Happy Scrappy Hero Pup”, paws working over the controller with energetic practiced movements, eyes focused on the screen, unblinking. He was squatting on the couch, body arched forward, tailfeathers raised. It was a look that Derek had seen too many times to not immediately grasp what was happening. In this state, nothing was going to distract the bird boy from winning his game. Not his brother getting a handjob right next to him, and not the call of nature.

Derek confirmed that Alex had noticed it too. The two shared a knowing glance, and Alex slowed down his massaging of Derek’s penis so that the two could watch what they’d been anticipating since breakfast: the slow and dramatic appearance of an amorphous bulge in the seat of of Tobias’s pants: evidence that he was in the process of making something that did not belong in the unprotected briefs of a boy his age… but no one here was complaining.

"He's cute, isn't he?” Alex murmured right into Derek’s ear.

The rat boy had to agree. “Uh huh. Not as cute as me though, right Daddy?” He shot Alex his best toothy grin.

“Hmm… I’d say it’s a tossup.”

Part of Derek wondered how his old friends would react if they could see him now. They’d probably make fun of him: proud street rats didn’t take handouts or open Christmas presents, and they never called anyone “Daddy.” They [i]did[/i] piss themselves, but they didn’t get cleaned up after, and they definitely didn’t get told how cute they were. The Derek of today was unrecognizable to the Derek of yesteryear, but he still felt like the same rat inside: just more fulfilled. And that’s what he would tell his old friends too if they were here right now: that everyone could use a daddy like Alex. He’d let them watch without shame, even invite them to join. He missed some of them terribly, and would be overjoyed if they could join him in his daddy's arms.

Star was watching Derek with some heavy breathing of his own. The puppy had one paw pressing into the front of his pants, and the other hand held his game controller, which was going completely unused in the presence of the much more appealing attraction in front of him.

Derek wasn’t embarrassed to have an audience. He felt blessed that he could share these moments together, without judgment, without shame. He couldn’t think of anyone he’d rather have in the room than these three.

With his member nice and slick, Derek gasped as he felt a soft and fuzzy paw press into it and rub. Derek didn’t last very long even on the least sexy of days. And today? Surrounded by the folks he loved and warmed by the fireplace? His whole body was melting, right from the start. He squeaked loudly, then covered his blushing muzzle with both paws. “Oh… gosh…”

“Mmmhm,” hummed the wolf. He placed his chin on the rat’s head, kissing his soft mohawk. Derek had chosen that hairstyle to look cool, but Alex had been very clear that it just made the boy more adorable.

Derek tried to take deep breaths and steady his breathing, but the attention was already more than he could handle. “Daddy… I can’t… I’m gonna…”

“It’s okay to feel good,” the wolf reassured him. “Let it all out, okay?”

Derek trembled, but he knew he was safe in the arms of his favorite caretaker. He tumbled over the edge, warmth flooding his body as he came, spraying several voluminous ropes of sticky seed onto his belly. The seconds blurred together, but he could see Alex looking down on him, smiling, letting him know that everything was going to be okay. And then, when it was all over, without saying another word the wolf picked up another wipe and began to clean the rat boy’s freshly cum-soaked belly.

He cuddled into the bigger wolf’s thick chest fur. “That was great,” he muttered. Warmed by both the fire and his Daddy’s love, he could fall asleep right here. But first, he said something that had been weighing on his mind: “You liar! You said it wasn’t going to snow on Christmas!”

Alex chuckled as he gently stroked his hair. “I said it [i]probably[/i] wasn’t going to snow on Christmas. I’m as happy as you are to be wrong.”

Unfortunately, as Star was quick to remind them: “[i]Now[/i] can we go outside?”

Alex appreciated the pup’s enthusiasm. “Not quite yet. I know two other boys who need to get changed. Derek, you think you can go get dressed for me? Find something that pairs with your brand new jacket.”

Derek’s eyes lit up. The jacket! He almost forgot about that! He leapt up, mind swarming with outfit ideas that were totally going to rock! He wasn’t ashamed of his nudity, or the fact that he had just blown a load in full view of his entire family. He had work to do.

Alex watched Derek’s cute butt retreat up the stairs as Star climbed off the couch and clambered over to take the rat’s place in his Daddy’s lap. And when they were done, it would be Tobias’s turn, although he might have to take the bird into the bathroom for that one and give that butt a good squeeze.

Looking after these three was hard work, but it was never dull and always rewarding. Alex loved his family; truly, there was no one better to spend Christmas with.