Pancake withdrew from Angel slowly, pulling out on the flesh of his pucker. It felt like it took forever to come out while they stared in each other's eyes, shivering. More and more emerged until finally it sprung up free, pulling a long, gloppy strand of cum with it that quickly fell, draping itself over the top of Angel's big, fluffy poofball tail. Angel cooed, stretched asshole still clenching rhythmically, oozing the sticky mess that had been put inside him out all over his tailbase, making its own strands.

"Oo-oooh... It's still warm," Angel lidded his eyes up at Pancake, swimming in pleasure. "You... you mated me. You really do forgive me. Thank you."

The Alolan Raichu lay down on the table and cuddled against the Mega Audino's left side, wrapping his arms around Angel's, holding it against his chest, the back of Angel's paw curled against his warm, plump belly. His long, pink erection still pressed up the side of Angel's leg, pushing into the thick fur. Angel's eyelids drooped until they were almost closed.

It felt like everything was perfect or nothing mattered or... no, something even deeper than that. It was a repeat of the feeling he'd had lying under the tall Pine, but it was more intense this time. The shapes, colors, and things around them only meant what they were, nothing else. They weren't a swimming mess or a blend or anything like that. They were distinct from each other like they usually were. They just didn't have associations outside of themselves. The long, metal slotted spoon hanging on the wall was still a spoon, but it wasn't for stirring.

This was peace itself. Angel closed his eyes, and he lay there together with Pancake for a long time as the late afternoon sun shone warm on them through the kitchen's tall west-facing windows.


When next he opened his eyes, Custard was sidling around the perimeter of the cake, leaning over it with the piping bag in his paws, squeezing the same dark pink frosting they'd used for their lube around the border of the top cake round. Angel giggled when the Surpuff came around front of it again and showed them his backside. His bubble butt was absolutely plastered with chocolate sauce sticking down the fur, the two biggest splotches curved around the fattest parts of his cheeks.

Angel sat up, breaking out in a little closed-mouth grin. "You're okay working like that?"

Custard stood up straighter and turned around to give Angel a wink. "Don't worry. I'll get Pancake to clean it off later."

Angel smiled.

"...with his tongue, of course." he added.

Angel snickered. "You two get back to work, then. I'll see you at dinner tonight, maybe?" he asked.

"Yeah," Custard said, turning back to continue his frosting, "for sure."

"Oh, hey, Angel?" Pancake said, sitting up next to him, wrapping his right arm around Angel's back, and laying his paw on Angel's right shoulder.

Angel crossed his left arm over his chest, laying his paw on Pancake's and squeezing. "Yes, my Monster 'Chu?"

Pancake chuckled. "Take it easy, okay? We've got it all handled."

"Okay. I will." He scootched to the edge of the table and hung his legs over, ready to hop down on the chair, before looking back. "Maybe I'll take another walk around, try to get used to the new me."

Pancake smiled. "Sounds good."

"Just don't get yourself into any more trouble, or we'll have to come bail you out," Custard looked over his shoulder, tail and tongue both wagging.

Angel hopped down on the chair and turned back to them, wagging his own tail. "Thanks, Guys," he said and climbed down onto the terra-cotta-tile floor, which had been warmed all over by the sun. It felt so nice on his bare paws as he walked across it back around the corner to the kitchen's side door, where he'd stood that morning making his mistake. "Well," he said to himself with the same smile still on his face, "what's done is done. Things are definitely different now. ...better now."

He opened the door, put his paws behind his head, and started to walk down the north hallway, gaily swinging his hips and tassels. The French doors at the end of this hall led outside, to the sparring grounds and guardhouse, where Fussy and Ribbon had come in from duty this morning while he was hiding in the stairwell. He grinned, remembering the view, their long, knotty dog cocks thwapping their bellies as they came and their big, pink tailholes squishing between their thick, light-furred cheeks as they went.

"Ooh, what is wrong with me?" He looked down at his own hard, pink tip beginning to peek out of the sheath again and reached his left paw between his legs to juggle his already well used equipment. His nuts had easily doubled in size since this morning. He seriously blushed when he felt how pendulous and heavy they'd gotten, and his persistent erection only pushed out tougher the more he felt himself up. "It's been like twenty minutes, and I already want to cum again...?"

He started breathing hard, remembering the way Burnard had grinned at him earlier, telling him he was "insatiable." It was true, he was normally a pretty horny guy, but to this degree? "No, there's definitely something wrong with me today. Did Gertrude ACTUALLY poison me or something?" He let out a nervous chuckle. "...No, no, Sweet Scent should only make it harder for me to avoid things. I, uh, think I'll just go watch the sun set, see if I can ignore it."

Despite his heavy breathing and the swollen nuts swinging and slapping between his thighs, he managed to make it to the end of the hall without his dick slipping out any more. He opened the right French door, and stepped out into the fresh air of the outdoor sparring arena. He looked around and chuckled, not realizing they'd set up pegs and posts in the sand to set out the bounds of each side's legal play area in lieu of more professional and permanent markers.

The brick guardhouse sat to his right in the corner of the grounds, front door on the far side from him, facing out into the arena. A grass path just a few feet wide separated it from the house, serving as an alleyway providing access to the rear of the brick building. The remaining side was joined with a taller brick wall that enclosed the grounds.

The tall brick wall had a raised planter bed running around the entire perimeter at its base about two feet tall and four or five feet in depth, with a cobblestone front topped by curved, polished stone tiles. It had totally grown in with lush grass inside the unused bed, and he bet if he crossed to the opposite wall, he'd find a very nice place to sit in while he watched the sun slowly setting over the top of the house's northwest tower.

"Good," he said, smiling to himself with a small nod, "nice and peaceful. Exactly what I need."

He made up his mind and started crossing the arena, paws sinking into the deep, warm sand, and managed five whole paces before thin green vines as strong as steel wrapped securely around his middle, yanking him back.

"What are you doing?!" a girl's voice came from his right in a harsh whisper. "Get back here or he'll see you!"

"Wha-?!" Angel's eyes went wide as he was whooshed into the air, spun around, and whipped at lightning speed in an arc to his right, behind the mossy rear wall of the guardhouse.

Rose set him down in front of her, and he stumbled back and forth in the grassy alleyway, eyes spinning. "Ooogh... Rose... Rose, why...?" he moaned, almost stumbling into Holly, who slammed her legs back together and shot to her feet with a cough and a nervous cluck.

"Hiya, Angel," Cooties whispered, nonetheless in her usual upbeat, sing-song tone, smiling and waving at him from the outside corner.

"Oogh, hiya, Cooties," Angel groaned softly, head spinning.

"Yeah, maybe keep your voice down," Holly suggested.

"What? Why?" Angel whispered, snapping back to attention.

"Come where Cooties is, and you'll see," Rose winked.

Angel blinked. "Well you seem to be in a better mood," he almost said out loud, before he clamped his mouth shut and stopped himself.

Angel, Holly and Rose joined up with Cooties, and they all peered around the corner of the building, heads stacked.

"H- hey, that's Ribbon!" Angel whispered. "...and boy is he hard," he added with a raunchy twist, immediately and totally dropping his peaceful sunset plans.

"He comes here every day to suck himself," Cooties giggled, looking up the stack at Angel.

"Ooh, my," Angel looked back down the stack, breaking out in a big grin like his old, perverted self. "...and you guys come out here to watch every day?"

"We usually do a lot more than watch," Cooties replied with the same exact grin. "What, you didn't see Holly?"

Holly blushed hard. "H- hey! C- Cooties! Shush it!"

Angel shivered all over and drew a quick breath. Were they actually flirting with him, inviting him to speculate? "What... like you guys all spy on him and touch each other?" he teased, snickering.

"Sometimes," Cooties giggled. "Mostly just ourselves, though," she added with a shrug.

Angel went bright red and looked back up, biting his lip.

Holly curled her tongue onto her upper beak, staring at Ribbon's bobbing, knotty erection squirting a trail of pre in the sand as he padded toward his spot. "Don'cha just love how he looks so pink and girly with those bows and all, but then you look underneath, and he's packin'?"

"Yeah!" Cooties enthusiastically agreed, clutching her wings against her chest. "It's like, he's prancing around on his long legs, waving that prissy tail, and you don't expect to see it, but there it is just BOUNCING, and it's so frickin' HUGE you can't ignore it!"

"And he walks around everywhere with it out all the time like he's so proud of it," Angel added, sucking in another breath.

"I knooow," Holly swooned, "and don't you just love-"

Suddenly, Ribbon's ears perked, and he twirled around in a flash. Rose barely managed to yank them all back behind the wall before they were seen.

"Be quiet or he'll hear you!" she snipped, staring all three of them down with a major blush.

Cooties covered her mouth with her right wing and gave a silent giggle, not looking guilty at all, more like she was going to keep talking anyway. Rose wasn't having any of that and continued to stare Cooties down in particular until she uncovered her mouth and gave a solemn nod. Only then did Rose loosen her vines, letting them peer around the corner of the guardhouse again, and this time they were quiet.

Ribbon was walking along the short border wall of the raised garden bed, head hung and tilted like he was looking for something along the cobblestone surface. At a certain point, he stopped, turned his tail to the guardhouse and mounted the wall, putting his front legs over the hewn stone perimeter, paws in the grass. His hind paws remained planted in the sand in a spread stance, presenting the girls and Angel with the perfect view of his thick rear. It became clear from this angle just how wide his hips were rounding the outside of his significant rump.

His fat butt cheeks, normally squished together when standing, were now pulled apart, stretching his plump taint between them. He had his short, pink tail hiked stiff into the air, showing where the pudge pulled back in at the top of his taint, white fur giving way to a clenching pucker tucked in below his tailbase.

His full nuts featured prominently, pulled up against the bottom of his taint in their tense sack. He picked up his hind paws, alternating as he took little steps to get into the perfect position, slapping his balls between his thighs and making the curves of thick knot visible behind them. He looked around one more time to make sure he was alone, glancing several different directions.

Deciding he was, he slid his front paws forward in the grass and raised his right hind leg, lifting and scrunching that butt cheek. It took several tries to get right, but he managed to secure his paw on a prominent stone on the front of the short border wall. His nuts hung out of the way against his left thigh, revealing the whole length of his cock pressing in up the center of his belly fur. He'd rested the base of his shaft on the smooth, curved stone, angling his cock up toward his muzzle.

His massive, veiny erection kept hopping up off the stone, squirting long arcs of pre into the grass between his front paws. His knot pulled in against his belly each time it did, lifting his nuts along with it. Finally comfortable, he dipped his head between his front legs and repeatedly flicked his tongue out to lap up his continuous spurts like he was drinking from his own water fountain. He visibly shuddered, ears wilting as his tongue encountered his tip. He took a few more laps of pre then opened and pushed his muzzle down his shaft, tongue slipping out and hanging off around the left side.

He pulled and pushed his muzzle, slowly blowing himself with stretched, pursed lips that barely fit around his girth. He swallowed his pre in time with his smooth, practiced motions, always gulping when he was pushed deepest. He gently swung his head from side to side, swaying his shaft back and forth as well and kissed a third of the way down before he sucked his way back up, releasing multiple thick inches of slippery, pink hardness.

"Hmm, this is nice..." Rose smiled, pulling everyone behind the wall again, "but you know what would really turn me on enough to touch myself? If Angel went and fucked him for us."

"Ooh, yeah, I bet he'd let you do him up his butt," Cooties agreed with a giggle.

Angel's eyes went wide.

"But you've gotta pretend to be shy," Holly quickly added, "like you were this morning, so he doesn't catch on we're watching."

"Ooh, okay," Angel said, the corners of his mouth curling. "I get it. I'll act like THIS is my first time with another guy, and he'll want to give me something special, right?"

Cooties clasped her wings together with a big, excited smile. "Yeah, he totally will!"

"Sounds like everybody gets what they want that way," Angel nodded. "Just make sure you touch each other this time, since it's special and all," he added with a wink.

"Sure thing," Rose grinned, looking up at him, and it actually seemed like they connected for that moment. "My vines have more than one use."

Angel blushed hard, and they stared at each other for a few seconds.

"You can go through the guardhouse this way and come out the front," Holly said, nodding at the rear door. "You'll be right on top of him that way."

Rose unwrapped her vines from around his middle and nudged his side with their bulb tips. "Go on now, that's a good boy."

Angel's ears twitched at the tips, antennae curling. "I'm a good boy now?"

"At the moment, you are," Rose smirked.

"Okay!" Angel jumped up to his feet. "Here I go then!" He turned and opened the backdoor to the guardhouse, little puffball tail waggling as he slipped inside. He could still hear the girls giggling as he carefully closed it, turning the knob before the rusty, old latch connected and putting his paw against the solid wood so it wouldn't slam as he pulled it to. A moment later, he appeared out the front of the guardhouse, left the door ajar, and strutted into the sparring grounds with his usual decisive swagger.

Ribbon had finished his warmup by this point and was now going at himself full pace, whapping his nuts against his thigh as he bobbed his head. His whole body undulated, cock swinging back and forth as he repeatedly pushed his muzzle down half his wet shaft and slipped it smoothly back up in a continuous, fluid motion.

Angel broke out in a big, naughty grin. He shivered and slid his paws down his belly, his full, bullet-shaped erection shooting out of his wrinkled-back sheath, stiffening up into his belly fur. "Look at him go," Angel thought. "Really hope this works."

He whipped his paws over his eyes. "Oh, no... I'm sorry, Ribbon!" he squealed, even taking a step back. "I don't know why this keeps happening today!"

Ribbon's ears perked, and he slowly pulled up off his cock and looked back over his left shoulder. "Oh! Angel! ...it's you!" Ribbon paused, seemingly to assess the situation, then chuckled after a moment. "No problem, Dude."

Angel gulped and turned his back, trying to act like he would have this morning. He took a stiff step away, then another. "N- no, I'll t- t- talk to you later," he whimpered quietly, making himself sound as nervous as he could.

Ribbon must have eaten it up. "You get back here," he said, and Angel stopped and turned back to face him.

Ribbon grinned, set both his hind legs back in the sand, and rolled over so his back was to the wall. He stood there on his hind legs panting, leaning back against the wall with his front legs supporting him in the grass, front paws hanging over the edges of the curved stone tiles. His erection was stuck out in front of him, shaft raised at a slight angle, large, wide knot squooshing his sheath back.

His cock was just as heavy as Burnard's had been, bobbing dampened by its own weight. It kept jumping up every couple of seconds, slinging out arcs of pre that landed in the sand feet in front of him with audible splatter as it pulled up high into the air. His little tail stuck out down between his legs, stiffly twitching each time his bouncy nuts jerked up against the underside of his sheath.

"Oh...! Uhm..." Angel shivered, clamping his paws over his arousal and looking away. The fact he could hear the splatters of pre was getting him really, really worked up, and he started panting hard, throbbing erection getting his paws sticky.

Ribbon licked his lips and grew a toothy grin. "Heheh. Can't resist this time, can you?"

Angel whined. His eyes kept darting back over and over again to catch another glimpse, but knew he had to keep up the act if he was going to get what he wanted out of this.

"Yeah so um," Angel rushed out, slowly backing away with his cock stiff up in his belly fur. "Like I said, I'll talk to you later," he whimpered, voice cracking.

"He- Hey," Ribbon chuckled, eyes narrowing as he wrapped a couple of his ribbons around his shaft and aimed his spurts into Angel's chest tuft, "don't you want to help me out?"

Angel froze in place. "'Help?!'" he squeaked, visibly tensing himself up. "But I-!"

"I'll let you fuck my ass if you want," Ribbon cooed.

Angel's ears, tail, and toes all hiked up in excitement. Perfect. He slowly approached, unable to hide his wavy grin. "You... want me to do you?" The pre started hitting his chin as he got closer, then his nub of a muzzle-nose. He lifted his paws to reveal his cock dribbling a thick, sticky drool down its smooth, tapered underside.

"But... but what if someone comes out here and sees us together?" Angel whimpered, knowing full well there were already three spectators behind the guardhouse. He fiddled his paws, trying to keep up the act, but he could not stop staring at Ribbon's display. Angel's nuts were growing uncomfortably heavy, and he had started dropping thick strands into the sand off the end of his sticky, hanging pre drool.

"Oh no," Ribbon smirked, "then they'll see us together. Everyone will find out you stuck your cock up another dude's butt. What a horrible fate. Not like anyone else does that around here."

"...Heh, yeah..." Angel chuckled.

"Come on," Ribbon teased, "I can see how ready you are. Your body's telling you what it wants, and I think you'd better listen."

Angel's shoulders hunched, but that wasn't part of the acting. It was too damn hot the way Ribbon was trying to convince him like he was begging for it.

"...Okay," Angel gulped, "but you have to promise not to tell anyone."

"Hell yeah, Dude," Ribbon grinned and pushed himself up into the grass in the border area. "Whatever it takes. I've been waiting for this for a LONG time."

Ribbon dropped forward on all fours, turned around, and jumped up in the border area. He lay back in the plush grass with his front paws resting on his chest underneath his erection, which lay up the center of his belly, so long it reached up to his neck bow. He eyed Angel staring, giggled, and winked. "Here, let me give you a good look," he said and bent his hind legs to push his cock forward toward Angel with his footpaws. He stroked his paws up the topside of his cock until his legs were fully extended and his cock was straight up in the air, pulling in against their undersides.

"Oh my gosh, you're so beautiful..." Angel cooed, stepping up against the front of the border wall, as close as possible. He was at the perfect height, his ears on the same level as Ribbon's paws. He reached out to touch, feeling Ribbon's details from the top down.

"Mind if I start with these?" Angel cooed, placing his paws flat against the soles of Ribbon's hindpaws.

"Not at all," the Sylveon accepted, curling his toes to grip Angel's fingers.

"Mmm, thank you." Angel wrapped his paws around them and squeezed. They were so warm, lithe and athletic with boney bumps running the length of their topsides. The undersides were incredibly soft, especially where he pressed his thumbs into the crinkles in their arches. He ran his thumbs up the centers of both paws at the same time, pushing the short fur aside until he reached the large pads two thirds of the way up.

He traced his thumbs around the heart-shaped pads where they pushed out from under the fur at a sudden, rounded slant. The pads felt like they were covered with tiny, inverted bumps and were somehow even softer than the arches. He pushed his thumbs in against them, left thumb in on the center of Ribbon's right paw, to measure how much it would give, right thumb nudging up from the crease in the heart shape of Ribbon's left paw, to see how much he could bunch it up.

Both thumbs sank easily into the dark skin of the pads. Ribbon's right pawpad pulled in around Angel's thumb where it pressed in, but his left pad remained sort of solid and in one piece, pushing up toward his toes. Both bounced back when he released like firm rubber.

"Angel...!" Ribbon curled his toes, paws twitching back and forth with a jumpy motion, "that tickles!"

"Then why is it making you squirt so much?" Angel grinned, rubbing the sticky splats into the mottled texture of the pads.

Ribbon huffed, crossing his front legs across his chest, and Angel continued, rubbing his now dampened thumbs into the crooks underneath and the crevices between Ribbon's six big, rounded toes.

"Nuuu!" Ribbon wiggled, curling his toes and trapping the Audino's thumbs, so Angel stood on his tiptoes and leaned in to sniff Ribbon's left foot, muzzle bump encountering the soft warmth of the Sylveon's toe pads. They smelled incredible, mostly grassy and a little bit strong, and the film of pre coating his pads added sweet spice to the blend.

"Ohhh... goodness..." A visible shiver ran down Angel's whole body, stiffening his tail.

"Pervert," Ribbon pouted.

"Fine, then. I'll move on to this," Angel teased and released Ribbon's paws, catching the bouncing cock beneath them.

Ribbon wiggled in the grass and slanted his hindpaws inward toward each other, sliding the right one behind and letting his cocktip pull in against the arch of the left. "Be my guest, Cutie."

Angel leaned in close to investigate, trying to hold its constant, squirty twitches still so he could take in all the details.

Ribbon's tip wasn't just a sudden flat end to the shaft like Burnard's had been, with a little bit poking out. Instead, Ribbon had a whole rounded tip area half an inch long, distinct from the rest of the shaft like an extra dollop on top. It was almost as wide as the shaft itself but not quite, and it curved back in at the bottom where it connected. He slid his paws up and wrapped his furred palms around the warm, firm extension, fingers barely meeting around its width.

"Whoa..." Angel swooned in admiration, ears wilting, "Even the tip is huge!" He shivered all over a second time, this time curling his toes in the sand and shooting a long, excited splat of pre on the wall out of the center of the rounded tip of his smoothly tapered, pink, veiny, bullet-shaped erection.

He slid both his thumbs up the smooth underside of the bump at the top of Ribbon's shaft, investigating the nub the pretty Sylveon was shooting from. It was shaped and placed differently too, compared to Burnard's. Burnard had had sort of an angular, spiky nub coming out very close to the underside of his shaft, but Ribbon's nub was smooth, curvy, and much longer, rising out near the center of his tip bump, only very slightly closer to the underside of the shaft. It twitched as it fired, and it was long enough to tilt and spring back when Angel used his thumbs to push it around.

Angel was enraptured, mouth hanging open, and drooled down his chin as he moved on, pulling Ribbon's hard shaft against some resistance out of the crease it had made in the soft, white fur of his thighs. Angel slid his cupped paws slowly down the smooth, taut flesh of Ribbon's shaft, gulping when he saw how far apart they got when he reached the middle. Ribbon's shaft didn't widen along the underside like Burnard's had but along the top side instead, curving up and out from the tip to form a long, ovular bump along the length of the shaft that curved back in at the bottom to join his knot.

He pulled the shaft toward him harder and hugged it in his chest tuft, looking down from the top as it squirted him up the underside of his chin. "I have to taste it," he moaned, antennae curling as he tilted his head down, and popped the whole tip bump into his mouth, pursing his lips around the valley at the bottom, where it connected. The pre squirted his palate over and over, some dripping in hot, sugary-sweet droplets on his tongue, the rest running down the back of his throat. His eyes closed in deep, self-indulgent pleasure as he suckled it like a nipple, fingers gripping into the widest part of the Sylveon's thick shaft.

Ribbon curled his body at his midsection and watched through lidded eyes around the right side of his legs, shoulders hunched and the toes of all four paws curling and uncurling. "Hah... haah..." he panted, feeling his nuts tighten. "What a good boy, Angel... Wha-" he whispered in a breathy rush, "what a good boy...!"

Angel made sure the cocktip was secure in his mouth, keeping it angled toward him, before he moved his paws down to support himself on the curved border tiles. He climbed up into the grass and knelt in front of Ribbon, giving himself freedom to push deeper on the Sylveon's tense cock. He slipped his lips smoothly down the shaft's long taper until just above the widest point then held still with the tip's flexible nub pushing and squirting down the back of his throat. He moaned, breathing hard as he swallowed on the firmness, tummy filling up with that addictive warmth again.

He gradually slid his paws the rest of the way down the shaft as he suckled and grabbed Ribbon's pulsing, double-barreled knot, fitting his fingers between it and his furry thighs. He squeezed the fat eggs that stuck out the sides of the knot, moving his paws around and pumping them nice and hard in different places, savoring their rock-like firmness, then released the pressure and held them as they pulsed with energy against his palms. He pushed the pulps of his thumbs underside of the knot at the center, then dragged them slowly back down over the subtle hump that connected the two outward extensions. Finally, he moved his paws to Ribbon's tender thighs and scritched through the fur, cooing and suckling up and down the shaft, swallowing sweet goo for at least a few minutes.

"Eyn-... Angel..." Ribbon finally moaned. "If you tease me any more... I- I'm gonna go off..."

Angel giggled around his shaft and fluttered his eyelids, looking down at the Sylveon's desperate expression over the tops of his curled hind paws. The Mega Audino cupped Ribbon's big, spherical nutsack in his palms. Wow, he wasn't kidding. It was so tense, pulling in hard against the pudge of his taint. Angel nodded and slowly pulled his tight, slippery lips up and off the top of the springy shaft with another pop.

"Don't you want to fuck me?" Ribbon begged, and Angel nodded, strands of pre hanging and swinging down out of his cheekfur. He lowered himself to sitting on his legs, looked down, and curled his slippery thumbs into the pucker pulling in at the base of Ribbon's short doggy tail.

"H-ohh... It's so tight..." Angel moaned, shuddering so hard his cock jumped up against his belly, shooting a huge, wavy strand of pre all over his thumbs and the pink flesh of Ribbon's clamped butthole.

The Sylveon wriggled his hips forward until his butt pressed against Angel's knees and spread his legs, curling his ribbons around his heels. He bent a little at his midsection, nudging his cock closer to his muzzle until he could wrap his tongue around the bulbous tip. Angel shuddered and got into position too, leaning forward between Ribbon's legs and fully extending his own, anchoring himself with his footpaws back against the smooth, cool rounded tiles behind him.

"Come on, push in," He giggled, winking up at Angel as he kissed his nub. "Make me suck myself."

"I'll try, but I don't know if I can," Angel moaned, nudging his tip into the dip above Ribbon's tail and shooting hard splats of pre on his pucker. Ribbon was squeezing down tight enough he was just going to push Angel's slippery dick right back out even if he did manage to get it in. When Angel did try to push, he only pulled Ribbon's butt fur in around himself, and his tip just bounced back off the soft, sproingy flesh. He understood now what Pancake had gone through with him. He could feel that heat and wanted in so bad.

Ribbon wrapped his ribbon-like feelers around himself just above his knot, angling his tip toward his face, lips pursed and ready to accept his tip. Angel pushed his paws down on Ribbon's thighs and tried again, pulling his hips back and bashing his tip against the resistance.

"D- don't thrust either," Ribbon panted, clamping down and pushing back. "It'll go in, especially with your taper. Just put your cock on it like you were before and push in slow without giving up."

"Okay, I'll try," Angel shivered. His nuts felt like giant bombs waiting to blow, swollen up between his thighs. He nudged his slick tip in against the warm, fleshy pucker, tensed his hips, and made one slow, constant thrust. Ribbon closed his eyes tight with his muzzle hanging open, curling his toes tighter and tighter until he yipped! The pressure suddenly released, and Angel shoved in all the way to the hilt in one go, yelling in an intense mix of pleasure and surprise. "OhhhHHHH FUCK!"

"Ohh, f- fuck!" Angel gasped, "it's so tight and smooth! And so much softer than a pussy!" Ribbon nodded, shivering all over as he looked up at the thick Audino who was buried inside him, muzzle closed into a sneaky smile around several inches of his cock. "Ooogh..." Angel moaned hard, pulling his hips back hard to force his turgid member to slide slowly out against Ribbon's hard squeeze. He moaned again as he gradually pushed himself back in to the hilt against Ribbon's fantastic, rhythmic clamping, spreading the Sylveon's butthole with his slick taper.

Ribbon pushed his muzzle down his shaft, stretching his neck to get as far down as possible, and slowly pulled back with his slippery lips tight. Angel watched Ribbon cup and curl his tongue around his shaft, dripping out the corners of his mouth. His cock encountered a warm, pulsing wall of flesh at the back of Ribbon's tunnel, and it almost felt like he was the one being licked. He squeezed the fur on Ribbon's thighs in his paws as he slowly withdrew for the second time, shuddering as he slipped out of the Sylveon's perfect hole.

He pulled almost his full length out and winked down at Ribbon, "I'm gonna give you some more lube." Leaving just the tip buried, he made short, airy gasps, cock twitching hard and squirting long strands of pre inside. Ribbon looked up at him, slowly blinking his beautiful blue eyes. Angel's tummy tightened with passion, staring back into those eyes. He pushed his hips, this time giving himself a full, slippery coating as he buried himself full and smooth in the Sylveon's hot butthole again. He kept pushing forward even after he'd hilted, nudging his tip against that warm wall of flesh where Ribbon's tunnel curved up, making his ring clamp down around Angel's cockbase.

"Audinoooh..." Angel cooed, hunching his shoulders, pulled back, and started to make full thrusts, slapping his nuts against Ribbon's soft tailbase. Each time he pushed his hips, it rocked Ribbon's hips up, pushing his bone into his mouth. Each time Ribbon swallowed his pre, Angel would pull back, letting Ribbon's cock slip out until only the tip dollop remained stuck inside his muzzle. He made a low, pleasured growl, staring intensely up at Angel as he was made to pump and pleasure himself.

"Ohh... yes, Ribbon," Angel shivered, pumping with the slow but decicive rhythm he wanted to see the Sylveon fuck his muzzle with. Angel grinned, whapping his big balls against Ribbon's tailbase while Ribbon's whapped firm against the underside of his knot. Panting, Angel buried himself repeatedly with long strokes against the firm, fleshy squeezing until his cock lifted up Ribbon's flexible tunnel. He paused, fully buried, and spasmed, shoulders shaking as he splattered thick pre around Ribbon's insides. He held there, craned his head back, and moaned into the air, digging his knees into the grass while he tried to hold back his cum.

Ribbon went wide eyed at Angel, glanced down at the penetration and then his own cock for a moment, and lidded his eyes, ears wilting against his scalp as his shaft flew up against the roof of his mouth. It held there as his toes curled up. He must have seen something in Angel's expression that really excited him because he was doing the same thing, trying not to cum. It held up stiff like that for ten or fifteen seconds before it relaxed, and Ribbon made a big gulp as it sprayed a bucket of pre down his throat. He then opened his muzzle, pulled his head back, and let his cock spring out, too sensitive and close to the edge to take the self suck anymore.

Angel's tail lifted up as he started thrusting again, his own pink little pucker twitching, half buried between his own plump cheeks but displaying itself each time he hiked his ass into the air. His cock lifted Ribbon's insides, sticking up and gliding along the Sylveon's prostate with constant upward pressure. Ribbon started to moan out each time he was pushed in, butthole squeezing down firm and warm on the base of Angel's taper. He squeezed himself with his ribbons wrapped around from the underside of his cock, rubbing frantically up and down just above his knot, and began to undulate his body, making his massive cock swing toward Angel when he bucked his hips down and swing back up in the air when he pulled off, slinging thickening pre in arcs all over himself.

"I'm close, I'm close!" the Audino whined, the pitch of his already feminine voice continuing to rise as he moaned out, bells jingling as his thrusts became erratic. Ribbon giggled as he watched Angel's expression tighten, closing his left eye in a wink and sticking his tongue out a little to give Angel a cute image just before the Audino's eyes closed all the way. When they had, Ribbon let his eyes close too and his mouth hang open, panting with a big, happy smile as his nuts clenched firm and the hot pressure built and built behind his knot.

"Sylveon- syl- SYLVEON! SYLVEON!" Ribbon began painting his face, squirting cum audibly up the middle. "Whaaaaaah!" Angel squealed, clenching Ribbon's fur. "AudINOOOHHH!" he screamed, his cock whipping up against Ribbon's prostate and blasting two giant, wavy splorts up the back of his tunnel. "Eon! Sylveon!" Ribbon shivered, ejaculating a long, powerful spurt on his own tongue. "Shilvy- Shilvy-!" he cried out stickily. Angel gasped, bullet cock pushing forward and firing thick cum in repeated, firm shots. "AUdino- AUdino- AUdino- ...AUdiNOH! Audinoooohh..." until it was a leaky dribble. Shock waves ran through both of them as Ribbon's cock continued to jump up firm, blasting off creamy arcs into the air until all that would come out anymore was a long sticky drool off his tip nub. Angel held himself firmly inside, sheath pushing against asshole, to make sure he'd drained his balls completely this time, shooting out tiny spurts with the aftershocks.

"Ohhhh... YES......" Angel gasped out, collapsing on top of the soft canine's hard cock.

"Mmm..." Ribbon murred, reaching his front paws up to pet back Angel's ears a little and hold him around his heaving shoulders. "You were so good, Angel."

"You... you too..." Angel panted, shuddering against Ribbon as his cock slipped slowly out of Ribbon's sticky asshole and back into his creamy sheath. "That was... amazing..."

"Yeah," Ribbon nuzzled his right cheek, "a perfect first time."

Angel giggled, only now remembering the little trick he'd been playing. "Yeah," he cooed, "it was. Thank you."

"Mmm," Ribbon licked his cheek, "thank you too."

They pet each other lovingly, cuddling until Ribbon's knot started to soften. Angel pushed himself back to his feet and climbed down from the planter border, stumbling a little until he regained his balance.

"Whoa... careful, there," Ribbon giggled, curling his body and looking at him.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Angel smiled back. "I'll see you at dinner?"

"Yeah, Dude," Ribbon grinned, "of course. I'm eating at your table tonight."

Angel smiled big, wagged his tail, and blew Ribbon a kiss before turning and starting to make his way back across the arena through the significantly cooler sand. He poked his head around and checked behind the guardhouse before going back inside, but the girls were nowhere to be found. "Yeah..." Angel said to himself. "Of course they wouldn't still be here. Probably finished up quick and ran before they got caught." So Angel just stepped back into the house and pulled the door shut behind him.

It felt like he was finally tapped out, and the north hallway swam a little in front of his eyes. The Oak floor stretched out from where he was standing, tinted by the same calm, quiet, late-afternoon shade blanketing whole tall, empty hallway, the thin table along the right wall that looked low and small in comparison, its lamp and empty vase, its two upholstered, curve-backed chairs, the dark doorways lining the grey painted walls. At the far end, a little soft sunlight shone in from the main hall adjoining this one from the left.

It was so calm here, just like his room had been after sex with Gertrude, the glade after sex with Burnard and the Wooloo, and the kitchen after sex with Pancake and Custard. He sighed and smiled, satisfied with a little temporary peace. The feeling was addictive, especially when everything outside of this safe little world was so stressful. He waggled his tail and wandered down the hall, for the first time in a long time not at all concerned with what he was supposed to be doing.

He pulled out one of the chairs and stared vacantly across the hall at the longcase clock that no one had come across the winding key for. A large portrait hung on the wall above it of an unfamiliar human family almost regally dressed in velvety, expensive formal attire, a tall man and a shorter woman sitting with a young daughter standing in the foreground between them. Previous owners? He didn't care for the pompous expressions on their faces. Maybe people like that belonged to a place like this, or ghost pokémon, but not Jenny's pokémon. He got the feeling that, despite it being theirs, this manor wasn't theirs.

Jenny had taken Regality with her on her trip, suggesting she was going to meet a new client. But if that was true, why hadn't she taken them all along like she had twice before? Everyone had especially loved spending last summer at Violetta's mansion, which despite being even bigger had just felt like home. Violetta's team saw that place as theirs and had long established their favorite crannies and sofas. Everyone on Jenny's team had fit right into place, and it had been fun and new every day, with lots of places to go and things to investigate together. Maybe Jenny was trying to give them the same experience here, but it hadn't worked.

Violetta's mansion was already made up, staffed, beautiful, and they were free to do as they liked there. They hadn't had to clean up each other's muddy bootprints, and they'd had their cakes and sandwiches made for them. Here they were supposed to do it all themselves, only given the frustratingly vague instructions "fix this place back up." So what had Jenny exactly intended for them to do while she was gone? Clean the house, arrange it, refurbish it, make it home?

Well, they were doing that, slowly, but no one was interested in it. Everyone was treating it just like he was, as an empty task. Everyone was so busy repairing the wall paneling upstairs on the middle floor, the vase next to him hadn't been afforded a single flower. He was fairly sure he was the first one to sit in any of these chairs. Angel suddenly felt lonely again, looking down the same empty hallway.

They had been left by themselves in a giant house built for humans. Everything stood at the wrong height. If Jenny had stuck around, everyone might have felt more like they were cleaning the place up for her. It would be in that scenario where he could see everyone getting used to this kind of life and starting to see the estate as home. They had lots of experience helping her clean her apartments, and it was in that same spirit she had taken the first week they were all here to explore the ins and outs of the entire property with different groups of them, happily assigning them different functions.

No one doubted that entire time that it was her plan to live there with them, and then suddenly, she was gone. Something must have come up that she couldn't avoid and couldn't take her team with her for, but even then, why keep it all a secret? The only way it made sense is if she hadn't ever planned on leaving and then found out she had to at the last second. Anna rounded the corner from the main hallway, silently. Angel remained lost in thought and didn't notice until she was right on top of him, whereupon he did a double take and jumped ten feet in the air.

"Anna! Don't DO that!"

She ignored his request, looking serious. "Angel, can I speak with you? ...somewhere we won't be heard?"

If Anna was approaching him instead of the other way around, it had to be a big deal. "Okay," he said and stood up, and she led him into the north stairwell, where Angel had tried unsuccessfully to hide himself that morning.

"Um, there's a Salandit hiding spot in here," Angel said.

"I know." Anna tossed her head at the musty gap under the first flight where still more of the low light was blocked out. "Under there," she said, giving him a sneaky, little grin. "I already shooed him out. Sit with me."

They crawled into the dark space, where the stairs hid them from view. As long as they kept their voices down, they probably wouldn't be heard, and even their scents were somewhat masked by the smell of old house. Angel sat down facing the underside of the stairs, and Anna sat down facing him in the gap underneath the lower stairs, much shorter than he was.

Angel considered his situation. On the one hand, it was pretty dark here, and they were pretty close to each other. On the other, Anna had her second mouth in her lap so he couldn't peek, as usual, and had only asked to talk with him. Even though he had been getting surprise invitations all day, this probably wasn't one of them. She'd asked to be his friend last night, and unlike last night, he wasn't going to be blithe about it. He looked at her face respectfully and didn't let his gaze wander about.

"Angel," she started, looking directly up at him with a businesslike expression, "how have you felt about your encounters today?"

"Wow, everybody knows already?" Angel sighed a little. "She works fast."

"No, it wasn't Gertrude this time. I know for a different reason."

"Oh... I, um... you do mean all the sex, right?"

"Yes, I mean all the sex." She wasn't teasing him or really making fun of him in any way, more like she was letting a little concern show.

"That's strange..." Angel thought, and said, "I, uh... liked it?"

Anna looked very uncertain. "Are you sure? There's no, well, you don't see any problem with it?"

Angel hesitated, honestly unsure what she was getting at. "Um... no?"

"You don't feel wrong about it now, or... it didn't sort of... surprise you?"

All of a sudden, he did kind of see what she meant. "Actually, it did kind of come out of nowhere."

Anna nodded. "It was too easy, right?"

"Yeah," Angel said, straightening out his ears, "it was! No one gets that lucky all of a sudden. Everybody hated me up till this morning!"

"Keep your voice down," Anna said.

"Oh... right, sorry... um, because with Gertrude, it felt like I'd kind of convinced her? And she wanted drug money in exchange, so I thought that made sense..."

"Oh, DID she." Anna's second mouth clenched its teeth in a low growl.

"Yeah, and then Burnard offered me a Wooloo, and I thought maybe he just did that when other monsters were confident enough to ask. But then he wanted me to give him a blowjob, and I did it..."

"Did you like doing that?" Anna asked.

Angel paused, looking down to his right. That was a really direct question. But for some reason he felt he could trust Anna right now. "...Yeah, I really, really did. I didn't think I would, but he convinced me to give it a shot."

"...did he," Anna said, completely unamused. "Were there any more?"

"Yeah, uh... there were two more times. But... why do you want to know? I thought you wanted nothing to do with my sex life."

"Yeah, well, this is a special case. Just tell me for now, okay?"

"Um, yeah, okay. I don't mind you knowing. ...well, then I did it with Custard and Pancake, which was weird because I pissed them off really bad this morning. Actually, it was weird that Holly forgave me so easily too. I thought that was because you spoke with her, but-"

"I did, but she really didn't sound like she was going to forgive you at all."

"Okay, Anna. Now you have me really freaked out," Angel said, again struggling to keep his voice down.

"You didn't have sex with Holly, did you?"

"No. I WISH."

"Mmm."

"...no, because Cooties has been really nice to me all day, and Rose was at my throat all day before like an hour ago, when she turned really nice all of a sudden when she was trying to get me to have sex with Ribbon."

"...and you had sex with Ribbon."

"Yeah, I did. Anna, what's going on?" Angel asked, nervous now.

"Yeah, I definitely should have warned you last night, stopped this whole stupid thing from happening."

"What?" Angel clenched his teeth. So something really wasn't right around here.

"Everyone you talked about, plus me, got together last night after you'd struck out at dinner and retreated to your room like you usually do. You'd been acting out, and we agreed we needed to teach you a lesson before things got any worse."

"O- okay..." Angel gulped, bracing himself.

"Nothing we'd ever tried with you had ever worked. You'd pushed us away, ignored us, and continued being self centered and putting your paws where they shouldn't go. Just because we don't wear clothes like Jenn does doesn't make that an invitation to touch us."

"But I thought we worked that out last night, kind of..."

"Yeah, kind of," Anna said. "It was a start. It was good, but it wasn't like- I mean, you groped me too, during that conversation."

Angel covered his eyes with his paws and hung his head. "......yeah."

"I came up to your room last night to warn you about the plan," Anna sighed, "but you insisted on- on being the way you were, and I got mad and decided I wasn't going to tell you. I really, really should have, though. Instead I cuddled you like an idiot."

"Why did you, if you didn't want to?"

"I don't know. I was stupid. It's not like everybody but you is flawless. We all make mistakes. At the time, I felt like it was just easier, and... I dunno." She paused, trying to work out her thoughts. "I don't know! It was just really bad, okay? I had mixed feelings after you told me about your dream, so maybe I felt sorry for you, or maybe it was guilt, or- ...I don't know, alright?! It was clear you were actually having trouble, but I didn't like how you were just complaining about it and not trying to do anything about it yourself. With the way you were acting, I thought maybe everybody was right, and I stood by and watched the plan play out."

"I don't get it," Angel said. "What 'plan?'"

"Last night, we thought maybe we were trying too hard to fix you and not hard enough to help you. Well, at least that's how we rationalized it. Some of us volunteered to give you what you were always asking for, to see if it would help. And they were going to take the opportunity to try and teach you how you were supposed to treat other monsters, along the way."

"The sex," Angel said. He stopped and hesitated, and Anna stayed quiet, letting him process. "...It was all planned out? They didn't want to do it with me?"

"They were probably attracted to your body, at least," Anna reassured him, "and that's why they volunteered. Not all of us did."

"Oh..." Angel said, smiling a little. "Well that's okay then."

"No, it isn't," she sternly whispered. "They didn't do it out of affection for you. They don't- They manipulated you. I realized after everyone had left that's how it was going to be, and that's why I came to warn you. Sex shouldn't be like that. It should be like it is with you and Jenn."

Angel gasped. "You- you knew that-?!"

"Yeah, of course. And I'm fine with it, Angel. Everybody's fine with it."

"...you approve?"

"Yeah, I do. You seem to make her really happy."

Angel hid his face again, trying not to let her see how big he was smiling. That had kind of felt like Jenny had accepted him all over again. He didn't think he'd been so tense about it, but maybe those worries had resurfaced after she'd left, like she'd abandoned him. The rush of relief was significant, and he felt like he was floating in the air.

"...but that's my point," Anna said after a moment, bringing him back to Earth. "Sex sucks if it isn't a special world that those of us who are very close decide together to share, for the pleasure of both parties... or all parties, you know? It may feel good while it's happening and you're horny for it, but if you're not having it respectfully, to express mutual affection, you're always going to regret it after. You should never treat sex like a game or a bargaining chip, or else you're going to start having a bunch of problems, and you're not going to know where they're coming from."

"...I really don't want to give Gertrude that money..." Angel whimpered. "Jenny gave us that money for emergencies. ...or go up for lessons with her every night on becoming one of her brood."

"That's right," Anna said.

"I don't want to be another Wooloo in Burnard's flock... or his buttboy," Angel said, voice getting stronger, "and I don't need a girl to be in heat to be attracted to me."

Anna nodded. "Good, Angel. Go on, stand up for yourself."

"I don't like Custard giving me as a gift because Pancake hadn't had a virgin ass in a while."

Anna blushed. "Didn't know you were capable of... putting it that way."

"Well I am," Angel assured her.

Anna nodded. "Good, then. What about the girls and Ribbon?"

"They tricked me into thinking they wanted to watch. They said they were going to be touching themselves, but they must have lied, because they were already gone when I came back to find them. And if Ribbon was in on the whole thing, then I wasn't even fooling him into thinking I was still shy. He was fooling me and making fun of me like he usually does."

"Yeah," Anna said. "That's right."

"I see what you're saying about problems..." Angel's ears drooped. "Those monsters probably think I'm a total idiot now and they can use me whenever they want. But the worst part is, I felt like I really was learning things from them."

"Well..." Anna hesitated, "you do seem different, but I think that's because of your efforts in spite of theirs. You can learn from any situation as long as you're paying attention. Thing is, Angel, the lessons were simulated. Everything they did 'for you' came out of their negative feelings toward you. That's why it felt like you always had to trade something away to get sex. You had to give up your money for Gertrude, your principles for Burnard, your shame and self control for Custard and Pancake, and your dignity for Ribbon and the girls.

"You should never have sex with someone just because you want to get off. That's what your Chu toy is for. And you shouldn't want to touch someone else just to find out what they feel like either, even if they do offer. It'll still make them feel bad deep down underneath where they can't find out what's bothering them, and it's also just going to cheapen the moment for you when you finally do get a girlfriend." She coughed. "...a pokémon girlfriend."

Angel looked down at his flabby sheath and almost started to cry.

"...And you will too," Anna assured him. "You will get one, but there's a reason it's so difficult. You've got to figure out how to treat a lover properly and show them you can do it so they know they're safe with you. It's not gonna be like it was with Jenn. They're putting their feelings on the line, making themselves vulnerable, and lots of things you thought nothing of doing when you were single are going to end up hurting them. You need to respect their character before expecting them to respect yours, right? I think that requires making a lot of mistakes before you find success, and I think it should."

"......"

"Okay?"

"I'm sorry for how I treated you, Anna."

Anna gasped and looked down into her lap. Her second mouth was contorted in a wavering frown, like it wanted to cry. She closed her eyes and felt tears in her cheek fur. "I... I accept your apology, Angel."

Angel sat looking into the shadow underneath the stairs, averting his eyes as Anna quietly cried. His breathing got a little heavy, maybe out of nervousness, maybe for deeper reasons he couldn't explain.

"Do..." He stopped, hesitating. "...do you want a hug?"

Anna didn't verbally respond, just shook her head.

"I'm just gonna go, then."

Anna nodded a couple times, eyes shut, and shifted her position so her feet were flat on the floor, her bent knees pulled up under her chin. Angel crawled out from under the stairs, got to his feet, and stood still, staring at the flat cut-stone wall of the stairwell. Anna's quiet sobbing continued, and Angel started to feel guilty about just up and leaving, about not knowing what to do, about how he never even understood her reactions. But it was okay. He'd accepted her, and she'd accepted him.

Angel stepped back into the hall, where Brewster the butler Indeedee was standing opposite the archway, waiting for him.

"Videophone call for you, Sir," Brewster whispered.

Angel perked up immediately. "Jenny?!" he gasped, thankfully retaining the presence of mind to keep his voice quiet as well.

Brewster smiled a little and answered with a clear nod. The tension left Angel's shoulders, and his antennae unfurled.

Well, something good was going to come of today after all.

"How did she sound? Is she okay? Where has she been? What-"

Brewster stopped Angel short, putting up his right paw with his palm flat. "She's requested to speak with you and only you and that you keep the fact of her calling a secret from everyone. Is that agreeable to you, Sir?"

Angel nodded, tight lipped.

"In that case, please follow me."

The two turned left into the main hall and walked in silence to a narrow door on the right side about halfway down, where they stopped, standing on opposite ends of the frame. Angel kind of awkwardly stared at him, just because he didn't know what to do next, and Brewster took that as a signal to open the door. He reached out his left paw and turned the knob, letting it swing open on its own.

It was a ridiculous, little room maybe twice the size of a broom closet with no windows, and its dingy forest-green wallpaper made the depressing sense of claustrophobia all the worse. It was dimly lit with a simple upright wooden swing-arm lamp on the surface of a nevertheless ornate wooden desk that stood against the left wall. The desk was also equipped with a notepad and a pen in holder off to the right side, under the lamp, and an ancient videophone in the center. Angel looked back at Brewster.

"Trust me, Sir. I will keep watch from a safe distance to make sure no one listens in."

That wasn't really what was on his mind, but Angel thanked Brewster nonetheless, stepped into the room, and closed the door behind him. He took a slow breath and pulled out the chair, sat down, and stared for a few moments at the lonely image of Jenny waiting for him inside the screen. She was looking down and off to her left, staring into space, tired. He could see her deep brown eyes and the long, brown hair framing her smooth, white face with its gentle lips. But her smell was gone, and even when he put his paw out, he didn't touch anything but glass.

He sighed and reached for the receiver hanging on the hook on the left side of the screen instead. Jenny snapped back to attention the instant he picked it up and she could see him.

"Angel?! Angel!"

"JENNY!" He leaned forward, squeezing the receiver. "I missed you!"

"Angel-" she started, then opened her mouth, looking like she wanted to say something more but didn't know how, and closed it again.

"Jenny! Are you okay?"

"I'm okay. ...I'm safe, at least," Jenny said, pacing her response like she was trying to convince herself more than him.

"You're... you're in a booth. Who are those other humans behind you?"

"I'm at a Pokécenter. Regality's with me, but she's being healed up right now. Um... things didn't work out where I was going, so..."

Angel gripped the monitor. "You're coming home?!"

Jenny nodded, sniffling and smiling. "Yeah. We've already left, and we're on our way. We're only a couple of days out now."

Angel sat back and slid down in the chair, waves of relief washing over him so powerful he couldn't even move. He stared at the screen as his vision went blurry and his eyes defocused on their own. His ears drooped, his antennae unfurled, and his mouth hung open. Though that must have made him look sad about it, because Jenny looked concerned and asked,

"I- is that okay?"

Angel sprung back up. "Yes! Come back as soon as you can! I miss you!"

Jenny looked relieved and sniffled again, nodding with a small smile. "I've really missed you too. I'm sorry I couldn't be there on your catchday."

Angel blinked. "When was my catchday?"

Jenny giggled a little bit under the tears she was holding in. "Today, you silly! I didn't expect you to remember, though. You never do."

Angel's eyes went wide. "That doesn't mean I don't like it when you do!"

"I know," she said. "I know, don't worry. You don't need to remember a date to be happy on if you're happy about it every day."

Angel smiled. "Yeah." That really was true.

"But I remember. It was twelve years ago today that I caught you in Unova and you became part of the team. I'm bringing back a present for you."

Angel's eyes filled with tears, and he shook his head, flinging them out of his cheekfur in drops on the surface of the desk. "The only present I want is you back in my arms."

"Angel..."

They stared at each other.

"Thank goodness you're coming back."

"Yeah..." She smiled at him, her genuine, beautiful smile, and fluttered her gorgeous eyes. Then those eyes flashed to the side. "H- how have you been while I was away?"

"Oh, ah... yeah, I'm okay," Angel stared into the monitor resolutely. "At least now I am. I... feel like I've changed," he said, oversimplifying because the experiences were just too vast to put into a few words. He'd been planning to tell her exactly what her leaving had done to him, but now that the moment had actually come, he saw no reason for it. "I'm just glad you're coming home. I'm so glad you're coming home!"

"I never wanted to leave, Angel. I promise I didn't."

"I know!" Angel replied instantly, squeezing the receiver again. "How could you want it this way? It's not your fault. You had a good reason for going away ...right?"

"I thought I had to, but I was stupid!" She burst out, her picture shaking on the monitor. "I'm so stupid! I made a big mistake! No matter what excuse I make, I made it all wrong for all of you! I bought the estate so we could live there together, free! Now I realize, it doesn't matter what else happens. That's where I'm supposed to be! I tried so hard for so long so we could all be together all at the same time, and then I almost got stuck somewhere else." She drew back from the monitor, closed her eyes, and sucked in her breath. "I'm sorry, Angel. It doesn't matter how scared I am anymore. I need to trust in myself and my team."

Angel pulled back, staring into the screen through blurry eyes. "You were scared?"

"Yes. Sometimes I get very scared."

"Why? Why did you leave without telling us? Where were you going? Where are you?"

She looked to the side. "There are reasons you wouldn't understand, Angel. ...not yet, anyway. I want to tell you, but I can't. I got myself wrapped up in something. They made me think I had to go places, do things for them. I found out some people's secrets, dangerous secrets, and I thought I had to."

Angel looked down, remembering what Anna had said. "Secrets can really hurt."

"......Yes, they can. I'm sorry, Angel. I should have stayed with all of you. It was a big mistake to leave, for you and for me. I didn't tell any of you where I was going because I knew you would want to follow, and I didn't want you wrapped up in this. I'll try to explain when I get home, okay? You tell them, I'll explain to everybody."

"Jenny," Angel raised his head and looked straight into her eyes, "we can handle danger. We're your team."

"No," she said, meeting his gaze, "no you can't, not this kind."

"..." Angel clenched his fists, then he remembered what he'd learned and let the tension wash away. "Okay. I respect your decision."

"...Thank you. You really have changed. It sounds like you know how to handle being a Mega now."

Angel sniffed in pride. "Yeah, maybe you're right. ...OH! Oh...... ...Hey, Jenny?"

"Yes, my fluffy boy?"

"Does being a Mega Audino make me Mega horny?"

"..." She hesitated, blushing hot. "You finally figured that out, did you?"

"I thought you said I was just at the right age."

"Um, yeah- yeah, that's true, um, too. You just need a lot of release. How's your toy holding up? Do you need a new one?"

"Yeah. It's got some rips in it."

"I'll bet it does," Jenny grinned.

"Yeah... I'm big for a pokémon and everything."

"S- sorry." She hung her head.

"Nah, it's okay. ...Can I ask you something else?"

She coughed and sat up straighter in her red hard-plastic chair. "Okay."

"What if I had sex with some other pokémon-"

"Well that's okay! I'm proud of you!"

"...but then it turned out they didn't even want to have sex with me?"

"...Oh. That's not okay."

"And What if they were doing it just to get me to act the way they wanted, or trade me for stuff, and they used sex as a bargaining chip? What if I kept doing it until Anna told me not to fall for it anymore? Is that a weird problem?"

"That's not a weird problem, Angel," she said. "Humans go through it too at the right point in their lives, and almost all of them fall prey to it, and some of them never recover. And those people cause a whole lot of problems in the world, especially the ones who manage to get themselves a family or get rich before they've really learned how to put other people before themselves."

Angel hesitated. "I... don't think I understand, Jenny."

"Okay, um... yeah, you monsters don't really understand the human world, do you?" She looked off to her right, taking a second to think. "Well, having sex isn't really the same as when you're watching another couple do it or when you're on your own later thinking about someone you find attractive. You can PRETEND anything you want as much as you want. That's what imagination is good for. Like, you can make up your perfect fantasy, right? ...the mood your partner is in, why they want it, what they're into... you can even change their physical bodies to suit your desires if you want, and your own body. When you're by yourself, it's all your decisions, and you don't ever have to let it escape your own head."

Angel smiled and nodded, and Jenny went on.

"It usually feels awesome to simulate the experience of sex when you're masturbating by choosing to forget it's not really their... their anatomy pleasuring you. You're getting physical pleasure from your paw or your toy, but you can choose to believe you're getting it from the situation playing out in your head. You're breaking down the barrier of coincidence, and that's fun. You're having sex with your own ideas.

"...but when there's someone else with you, for real, that's not true anymore, and you can't enforce your imagination on them. They've made their own decisions about their lives, their preferences, their tolerances, everything. Just like you can't change their body just by thinking about it, you can't change their mind just by pretending they want the same stuff you do. It's not going to work. Like, even if they evolve during sex or something and they change completely, that's them doing it, not you. Do you see what I'm saying?"

"Yeah," Angel said.

"If you want a deeper experience with them, you've got to cooperate, either compromise on something you both already know you like or decide to explore together. And if you don't know them very well, that's going to be difficult. It might feel exciting the first time, a new body, a new mood, but try doing it with the same person a second time. It's just going to feel awkward having someone else there with you while you're trying to fulfill your own preplanned desires.

"You have to find out what it's like to be with them first, change yourself to be better for them, adapt to them. If you try to rush past getting to know them, you try to skip all that and have sex with them when you're not even friends? It cheapens everything, and you don't end up AS friends afterwards either. You just end up with all sorts of drama that's are as real and factual as the sex was, and then your world is all messed up."

"That's exactly what Anna said..." Angel thought, lowering his head into his shoulders.

"The experience of sex with them wasn't even worth it, didn't even last very long, but you still have to push and struggle to work out all the bullshit problems it caused you that won't leave you alone, for weeks or months, when there are much better things in life you could be spending your time and effort struggling for. And some of those, Angel, like the time you and I spend together, are unimaginably deep and fulfilling."

Angel looked up at the end, letting out a little gasp. "I think so too! I... I love you, Jenny!"

"I love you too, Angel. You put the 'y' in 'Jenny.' No one else does that."

Angel stared at her, going all red under his fur, but wouldn't break eye contact. "I miss you. Come home soon?"

"I will. I'm already on my way. You'll see me in a couple days, okay?"

Angel nodded quickly, growing a little v-shaped smile. "Okay. Okay, good. Then... I can handle things until you get back."

"You can handle things for much longer than that, Angel. I have faith in you. But I will continue to give you the support I should have been giving you constantly, from the beginning."

Angel sniffled, almost whimpering out his next words. "Okay, Jenny. I'll see you soon."

"See you soon, Angel," she said, and hung up the call. The screen blipped into a uniform, glassy green.

Angel hung up the receiver, letting it weigh itself back down on the hook. He stood up as if he was in a dream, staring at the drab wallpaper of the tiny, dark, unfamiliar room. Just last night, he'd been staring at the wall of his own room, totally without hope, believing nothing was ever going to change again, that he'd been dropped into a stupid, stressful, useless life and that that's the way things were. But now... now he saw that things were far more complicated than that. The world was only as small as he believed it to be.

He turned to the door and reached his paw up for the knob, taking a breath before opening it on the expansive hallway in the late light of day. Every one of the tall windows lining the wall opposite him looked out on a different view of the same country scenery. "Yeah... that's right," he whispered to himself.

Brewster approached him from his right. "Now, if you'll accompany me to the dining hall, everyone will be waiting for you."

Angel turned his head. "Waiting... for me?"

Brewster gave him a mysterious smile, and once again Angel found himself following the Indeedee down the hallway. His mind felt like the pink and orange sky he'd just seen through the windows, his ideas clear and bright like the few gold-lined clouds blowing through. He finally thought he understood what had been going on today, and soon he'd find out if he was right. He stood opposite Brewster, waiting for the butler to open another door for him.

"Surprise!" Everyone he'd encountered that day was there with the exception of Cyclone, the Salandit, and the Wooloos, sitting under a big canvas banner that said "IT'S YOUR CATCHDAY!"

Angel smiled, not surprised. The honor of spoiling that surprise had gone to Jenny, as it should. Still, Angel looked around the room at all the smiling faces and squeaked. Well, maybe he was a little surprised and it had just taken a second to hit him. It was a surprise that all these monsters who, just last night and this morning, seemed to hate him, had come together to take this kind of time to do something like this for him in spite of how busy they were. He started to sniffle as Brewster led him over to the empty seat at the center of the closest long Oak table, overcome.

"This- this is for me?" he whimpered happily.

Custard and Pancake carried in the cake they had been making earlier together, now bordered with rawstberries and lit candles in addition to the frosting. Custard's pawprints had hardened in the ganache on the top, and a number of off-white lines of drizzle had hardened down the side facing him. They carefully raised it up to Angel in his seat. The top of the cake had writing in the same pink frosting that read, "Happy Catchday, Angel!" and then, in smaller cursive underneath, "Will you forgive us?"

He sniffled, closed his eyes, and leaned over to pick it up by the cardboard tray underneath, carefully lifting it out of their paws and turning to place it on the table. Brewster and his fellow maid Indeedee, Alice, followed with a stack of plates and cutlery respectively and set them on the table before politely taking their seats next to Holly on the bench on the opposite side. Pancake and Custard walked around to take their seats between the two Indeedees. Burnard was already sitting on his haunches without a chair at the head of the table to his right as was Gertrude at the head of the table to his left, in the most ornate chair, of course. Ribbon, Rose, Cooties, and Anna came up and sat on the bench at Angel's sides.

Angel looked around the room again now that everyone was seated, then down at his cake. "...so it was mine all along?"

"Mm-hmm," Custard waggled his tongue with a big smile plastered across his face.

"We, uh, don't have any presents for you like Jenn would," Pancake said nervously, "but, ah..."

Angel looked back at the cake and stared at it a moment. "I know. You already gave me your presents. I need to talk with you about that."

Pancake put up his paw the same way Brewster had before. "Anna already did, and as usual, she's been the calmest head and the voice of reason among all of us. I'm sorry, Angel I used you, Angel. I'm very sorry."

Custard bowed his head. "I'm sorry too. Will you forgive us? I just want to be friends."

Angel's eyes started to fill with tears.

Burnard lay his muzzle on the table and drooped his ears, looking up at him. "I'm sorry, Angel. You were more grown up than any of us."

Ribbon looked down at the table, and his tail stopped wagging. "I'm sorry too, Angel. I won't tease you anymore. You were awesome at doing it with another guy, but now I get you need to be ready too."

Rose unfurled a vine and placed curled the bulbous end on his right shoulder. "I'm sorry. I doubted you all day."

Cooties placed her wing on his left shoulder. "We were both mad on Holly's behalf, but I'm sorry I tricked you."

Holly looked to her right. "If you promise to be better, I'll let it slide how you acted last night."

Anna looked down at the table then back up at him. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you earlier and that I didn't have faith in you."

Angel sniffled, tears clinging in his cheeks. "Thank you, Everyone. I'm happy. You wanted to be my friends even though I've always been bad."

"You were never bad, Angel," Pancake looked up at him. "Well, yeah..." He glanced at Holly staring him down. "Sometimes you could get bad."

"Fruit Punch won't forgive you even if everyone is on your side now," Holly said.

"Well, I deserve that," Angel said simply. "Maybe time will heal the wound."

"Maybe," Anna said. "Either way I think it would be best if you stayed away from her."

"I understand," said Angel.

"Listen, Angel," Anna picked up. "You have a choice here. You don't have to accept our apologies. The way I figure it, you learned how to behave better, so technically the plan worked even if it was manipulative. Accept everyone's friendship now, and you're showing everyone that we can get away with that with you. Do you believe our offers of friendship are genuine even after we tricked you and misled you? If I were you, I would make us work for it, prove ourselves."

"Yes, remember what I said about respect, Boy," Gertrude hissed with a sly grin.

"You." Angel slowly turned to the head of the table. "You made a big mistake being the only one not to apologize just now. Now I know it was your plan. It's exactly your style, and it has your clawprints all over it."

Gertrude twirled her cigarette holder before taking a slow draw. "This is exactly the kind of lesson you need if you're going to be our leader."

Angel shook his head. "Just shut up." Then he lifted his head and grinned back at her, "When Jenny gets back, I'm going to tell her what you did, and she's going to punish you. And you're NEVER gonna get your drug money."

Gertrude snarled, and everyone watched in silence as she slowly got up out of her chair. "You're going to regret this," she said simply in a cold, dead tone, and held her head high as she strode out of the room on her long legs, thrashing her tail until it slipped through the doorway behind her.

Angel let out a long sigh before looking around at those who remained. "As for the rest of you... I think we could all use one of these."

He pushed his cake to the side, stood up in his chair, and climbed up on the table, where he made a little effort noise as he detached the bells from his choker, "Audi-noh," and held them in the air. They began to pulse with visible energy, golden waves that emanated from them in clean, concentric rings. He began to ring them, chiming pure, crystalline notes instead of their normal tinny jingles. The waves of energy formed into a musical staff, and holographic notes appeared on it following the melody played. Underneath the music, he could hear everyone begin to breathe more calmly.

"Audino," Angel cooed, closing his eyes in relief, letting all the remaining stress leave his body through the magic of his own Heal Bell, now that he'd finally figured it out and done the right thing. When he opened his eyes again, everyone was turned to face him, looking up in silence and smiling. He tied the bells back on his choker without any tension left in his shoulders. "Clearly," he said, slowly opening his eyes back up and looking down at his friends, "this is why Jenny put me in charge."

"It's not too hard to get tricked by those you trust, is it?" he said, and looked down at the writing on his cake. "Yes, I forgive all of you if you forgive me. I want to be friends. I really want to be friends," he said, tearing up.

He climbed down from the table to the floor, and everyone else hopped down from their seats and crowded around him, coalescing into a big, gentle hug. They held each other tight, nuzzling and squeezing, until the twilight sun outside the windows had dropped down below the trees.

When it grew dark, Angel broke free of the group and turned on the lights.

"Now," he said with a big smile to his friends' bright faces, "who wants cake?"