"Wooloo, Wooloo!" The wiggling ewe brought Angel gently out of his afterglow. He raised his head out of her fleece with a woozy, pleased smile, and she stepped forward, pulling off his cock with a final slippy stroke that made Angel gasp and twitch his tail. His cock slapped down, soft, sticky, and satisfied against his nuts, slowly starting to recede into his sheath. She wobbled back into the herd, dribbling more of his mess down the middle of her soaked, sheared rump with each step.

"Nice- hrk- job with your sheep!" Burnard congratulated him.

"Heh, thanks," Angel beamed, wobbling a little bit himself as he turned to face. "Whoa..." Angel's gaze traveled down Arcanine's wide shoulders to his thrusting, muscular shanks. "You're... still going on yours, huh?"

Burnard had a tight look on his face, desperately whapping his full knot against his ewe's backside. Her belly lewdly elongated each time his massive nuts swang forward and slapped her in between her hind legs, his shaft-shaped bulge pushing out her fleece. The Wooloo could barely take his rut, front end down in the grass. She was bleating and struggling, thick juices running down the backs of her legs, then she shoved her hindquarters against the Arcanine's knot and splattered all over it.

Burnard kept himself buried, shaft tensely pulling up in her belly as he rode out her tight orgasm. Burnard whimpered at Angel, teeth grit, wincing with each one of her squeezes. He lifted his right hind leg, displaying the throbbing knot he hadn't gotten the chance to get inside her, dripping with her juices. His giant, brown-furred nuts clung up behind his rolled-up sheath, visibly pulsing like they were ready to explode. He shuddered hard as she finished, dropping his muzzle into her fleece with a whine. "Well," Burnard sighed, "that's her done."

"...You didn't wanna cum?" Angel blinked.

"I wanted to," Burnard panted, tongue lolled across her back, "but it's hard when I can't knot, and most of them are too small to get it in."

"Oh..." Angel nodded, looking a little worried.

"...can be done," Burnard reassured him, "but you have to loosen 'em up just right or else they go over first and get too tight again."

Angel blushed hard at his frankness. He didn't really know how to respond to that, so he just nodded again, fiddling his paws.

Burnard lay his right cheek in the Wooloo's fleece, turning his head to face the Audino, and chuckled. "You turned out to be a good sheepdog though, didn't you?"

"Yeah..." Angel coughed quietly, then slowly looked up and proclaimed, "...yeah. Yeah, I guess I did."

"Yup. You did good, Buddy," Burnard nodded. "All you had to do was keep control of yourself and put your best foot forward." With that, he slowly pulled his hips back from the trembling Wooloo, causing his thick shaft to smoothly re-emerge until it sprang out of her with an audible pop. It whipped up right away, spraying a powerful jet of pre, and slapped his belly. It held there for several seconds, full of tension, before dropping back down under its own tremendous weight, bobbing several times, and jumping up to thwack his belly again. His tail flagged as his cock bounced like that continuously, swinging up with its huge, double-barreled knot as a pivot, yanking his nuts in against his taint.

The Wooloo tried to push herself up out of the grass on her trembling front legs, but before she could get away, Burnard rolled over onto his back, taking her with him and swinging her hind legs apart. Angel's breath caught, presented with the perfect view. His pink monster shaft rose far above her fleecy belly, standing tall, shooting watery arcs into the air as it repeatedly jerked back toward her, knot squishing her cooch against her stifles with each pull. Her smooth, black teats and their two elongated nipples puddled around the base of his shaft, hanging over the top of his knot. 

She bleated and kicked her legs in the air, wiggling her rump and flicking her little stub tail, but Burnard kept a firm hold of her with his paws around her middle. He allowed his hind legs to swing apart as well and lay his tail down in the grass, revealing his massive nuts still pulled up hard between his knot and large, pink asshole. Angel raised his brow, gulping. He loved the shape of Burnard's nuts, two tall, smoothly rounded ovals pressed together, his sack tensed around their girth. They barely fit between his thighs, yet despite their weight they pulled up against the underside of his knot every time his cock jerked toward his belly.

"Wanna help?" Burnard grinned, staring straight at Angel. "I can see you want to touch."

Angel jerked his head up, his cheeks on fire. "N- no... I don't think I..." he stuttered, voice wavering.

"You can fit me in her if you want," Burnard grinned harder.

"Oh." Angel paused, conflicted. On the one paw, it's not like he'd really be getting involved, at least not in a gay way. He'd just be returning the favor and helping the big dog have sex with his ewe. But on the other paw... "No... I don't really like males ...that way," he concluded, deciding he was too nervous even to lay a paw on another monster's cock.

Burnard frowned. "What is it with you?"

Angel didn't reply for a few seconds, eyes locked on the Arcanine's jerking, pink precum fountain. "...with me?" his voice cracked.

"Yeah, you," Burnard said. "You have no problem pushing yourself on females, but males, you just stare and keep your distance even when you have an offer."

"I stare at everybody," Angel insisted, looking back up at Burnard as if that was a good excuse somehow.

"Yeah, you do, and you clearly want to grope members of both sexes. So why do you push yourself on females but keep your distance from males?" Burnard repeated.

Angel paused, meeting Burnard's narrowed eyes. No one had ever asked him a question like that so directly before. "I... ah..." he tried, but he didn't really have an answer. "...maybe I..."

Burnard frowned harder. "Just say you don't know."

"I don't want to get fucked!" Angel closed his eyes and squealed, fists clenched against his sides. "You're all too big! It's gonna hurt! I can't take a knot, especially not yours!"

Burnard pulled his head back, stunned for a second. Then he slowly closed his own eyes, trying to think how to handle this. "I guess... we don't think about it that way, and no one expected you to think that way about it either, so no one's ever told you what you needed to hear. I feel like someone has to apologize for that, so I will. I'm sorry, Angel. It must have been hard, having to hold back."

Angel just looked at him, confused. Something about what Burnard had said made his tummy feel tight and achy.

"No one's going to make you take it up the ass if that's not what you want."

"They ...won't...?"

"They won't."

Angel's voice wavered. "Not even if I do them up the ass first?"

Burnard shook his head. "No. You don't have to trade your ass for theirs. You find something that satisfies you both without going beyond what you're comfortable with. Besides, lots of guys cum just from getting fucked, did you know that?"

"It... it feels that good?"

"To some, yeah."

"Not to you?" Angel almost whispered, wringing his hands.

"Not really," Burnard replied in a casual tone.

"Oh..."

"I like other things, just like you."

Angel pursed his lips. That made sense. "...so what do you like?"

Burnard grinned. "Good question to ask."

Angel closed his eyes and sighed as though he'd just taken a direct hit. He knew what Burnard had meant by that. ...but he was right. That was a question the Audino never did ask anyone.

"It's okay," Burnard said. "You're learning. We've all gotta learn."

Angel stayed silent, biting his lip.

"I liked hearing you whine real loud when you were cumming in that Wooloo," Burnard grinned. "You've got a real sissy whine. ...and I liked watching you. You were really into it."

"Sex is the best feeling in the world," Angel blushed, his sticky cock starting to rise up out of the sheath again.

"Damn," Burnard glanced down Angel's front side for a second before flicking his eyes back up. "You're insatiable."

Angel fiddled his paws together in front of his tummy again, eyes darting away before they returned slowly to meet Burnard's.

"It's alright. Come here," the sheepdog smiled, motioning Angel over with his right forepaw.

Angel's eyes darted to the right again before he took a single step, putting his left boot forward. He hesitated, looking down. A cold gust of wind snapped up. Angel watched the grass swishing around his ankle, lost in his head. "...I can really just touch it? ...like, JUST touch it? I don't have to do anything else?"

Burnard nodded gently. "You can do anything you feel comfortable with so long as I don't say 'stop' when you try it, and you don't have to do anything you don't want to. How's that?"

Angel nodded without looking up, continuing to hesitate. Burnard stared at him, and Angel stared at the ground for over a minute, both hoping the other would take the next step. The sound of the wind took over, rushing around the hills, rushing between them, blowing Burnard's tail up and lifting the back of Angel's jacket-like fur coat. Angel's left boot was sinking into the mud, his ankle stinging with a shooting pain up the front of his leg, he had it tensed so hard. He hadn't meant to put so much pressure on the one he'd twisted last night tripping down the stairs when he was rushing to find Anna.

"What if I don't get you off?" Angel blurted out suddenly, rushing the words.

"Then I have her right here," Burnard responded calmly, squeezing the Wooloo around her midsection.

Angel smiled a little. "Heh." He'd been so focused on the male Arcanine he'd basically forgotten the female Wooloo was there at all. "...but she's satisfied already, and I'm not," Angel said, giving a hesitant smile.

"Thought you'd come around," Burnard broke back into his usual grin.

Angel took his left foot back, shifting his weight uneasily in the mud.

"Come on," Burnard nodded. "You can do it. It may not feel quite right, but it's just like before. ...when you came up to me for help getting yourself a Wooloo, right?"

Angel nodded too and suddenly steeled his features, putting his right foot forward instead this time. He took a few slow, wobbly steps towards him through the muddy grass.

"Good." Burnard's tongue hung out the tip of his muzzle. "That's the way."

Angel lifted his left leg but stopped short of setting it down again, startled by the Wooloo wrestling herself free of Burnard's grip. She galloped back to the herd on her stubby legs, blending into the pile of fleece at the base of the hill. Angel turned back to see Burnard relaxing back into the grass and casually humping his giant erection in the air.

"It's okay," Burnard encouraged him. "We don't need her, do we?"

Angel felt his whole body grow hot. He gulped, mesmerized by the Arcanine's dick swinging front to back and back to front, sticking way up in the air. After a moment, he shook his head 'no' and resumed his approach. Like before, it hardly felt real. His vision narrowed, and their surroundings seemed to grow darker. It was as if a tunnel had formed between him and the Arcanine, as if the world had been limited to just the two of them and the breezy, grassy corridor between. Angel took another step forward, then another.

The wind changed direction and rushed into his lungs, but it didn't knock him back. Instead, he felt himself start to breathe naturally again. He could admit it. He'd wanted to do this all day. No. If he was being honest with himself, he was going to be honest with himself. He'd wanted to do this for a long, long time. He'd been fantasizing about what it would feel like to hold a knot in his paws for years. Just because he kept pushing the thought out of his head while he was pawing didn't mean it wasn't still there, haunting him.

Burnard's grin grew fuller as the adorable, blushing Mega Audino got to his knees between his hind legs, His tail lifted out of the mud and started to wag.

"...so ...so how do I...?" Angel asked, leaning to his right to meet Burnard's eyes around the side of his shaft.

"Just do whatever you wa-" The big guy cut himself off with a gasp, staring down at what Angel had started to do. "h- hey...!"

Angel jerked to a stop and looked up from what he was doing, eyes wide like he'd made a big mistake.

"S- sorry, it's okay." Burnard looked back with a deep blush, propped up on his bent front legs. "You just surprised me. I didn't say 'stop.'"

Angel nodded and looked back down, leaned in, and went back to kissing the underside of the Arcanine's cock where his shaft met his knot. Face hidden, he took a chance on sniffing too. It was like his own musk but fiercer and dirtier, an addictive, overpowering smell that wrinkled his nostrils. So good... Angel got comfortable, nudging the tip of his own twitching erection against the underside of Burnard's nuts. He leaned in, angling the big guy's cock toward his belly, and dragged his tongue up the underside of the smooth shaft.

Burnard's tall, jerking shaft was firm and hot, so wide the Audino's tongue couldn't cup it. It was coated in pleasantly sour, slick Wooloo splatter with a distinctively sweet aftertaste just like his own pre. Angel swooned and pressed his squishy lips all around the shaft, kissing up the streams of precum that kept trickling down, shivering in pleasure as more splattered down on top of his head. He dropped his head back down, tilted it to the right, and sniffed at the knot again. The musk had gotten even stronger.

He kissed the top side of the knot tenderly, catching the shaft in his paws before it could bounce away this time. Pulling it to him, he made one more slow lick up its underside, raising himself up on his knees so he could get all the way to the sweet squirting nub at the tip. He secured his grip, cupping both paws around the thicker middle of the shaft, letting it bonk him on the nose after each twitch.

"Angel... Angel!" Burnard huffed, tail wagging faster between Angel's legs.

Angel couldn't hear him anymore. He was giving the flat of Burnard's tip kisses, suckling and smacking his lips on the spurting nub and swallowing the pre. Suddenly he pulled the shaft toward him and hunched over top of it, fitting it into his mouth. He closed his eyes the rest of the way and gave a small squeal of excitement as the hot pre squirted straight down his throat, dripping and running down the back of his tongue.

Gulping, he licked around the underside of the tip and sucked another inch in, letting the warm, slick firmness press against his palate. He cooed, shoulders falling in relaxation as he finally, finally let himself go. He didn't expect this would feel so right, but it felt so, so right, warm and pulsing, filling him, like it completed him.

He tried to slide his lips another inch down over the fat, sticky bone but had to yank his head up and off, coughing as it popped out of his mouth. It tried to jerk away from him, but he quickly tightened his grip and pulled it back toward him, not dissuaded. He pressed the flat of the tip back against his pursed lips and tried just suckling again, flicking his tongue up and down, back and forth, across the squirting nub.

"Tha- That's okay," Burnard gasped, pulling his legs up tensely. "You did really well for your first time. You don't have to d-"

Burnard's breath caught as Angel pursed his warm lips around the Arcanine's tip and kissed insistently back down around the portion of the shaft he'd taken before. He leaned over it as far as he could so he could get down farther, sticking his butt out in the air. He shivered, asshole exposed to the cold wind, but he didn't care. This was heaven. He fitted Burnard's jerking squirter firmly against the back of his throat, gulped, and slid his tongue out as far as he could against the underside.

He took another inch, then he pushed again and took another, putting a huge lump in his throat as he reached the halfway mark. He held still there for a moment, swallowing with his nostrils flaring, before pulling back up to his tip with a firm, constant suck the whole way. Burnard yipped and shivered, gently humping on instinct, and Angel began letting out little muffled cooing noises as he began to bob his head.

Burnard gasped in disbelief, ears wilting in pleasure. "Angel...! You're taking so much!"

Taking the compliment as a challenge, Angel's ears wilted too, and he bobbed harder, the bells around his neck jingling frantically like he was a little lost Wooloo happy to have been found. His red eyes sparkled as they flashed up submissively to meet Burnard's for just a moment before the Arcanine's head fell back in the soft grass, tongue hanging out the right side of his muzzle. Burnard's body kept spasming, and his breaths came shallow and quick.

Angel slid his paws down Burnard's shaft and leaned on his knot for support as he scooted even closer, nudging his kneecaps into Burnard's butt cheeks. He slid his paws down and pulled up on the sides of the knot, gulping down as much shaft as he could. It had become far too slippery for him to hold onto, and it bounced back right away, squooshing down the loose folds of its furry sheath. But the Audino wouldn't give up. He slipped his paws down farther, wrapped them around the underside of the knot, and began tugging Burnard's whole massive cock sharply upwards. He just kept stuffing more cock down his throat, each tug harder than the last. He drooled down the Arcanine's massive shaft, lips stretching and tightening as he passed the halfway mark for the second time.

Burnard moaned hard, his legs beginning to pull in towards him. "...ohhh, Angel... You're- GAH! -you're doing it-" His cock started to pull towards him too, with some new stiffness rising up from the base. "Don't let go- HRK! Get ready-!"

This was it. Angel firmed his stance and braced himself, big puff tail held high and stiff above his tight, pink asshole. He held on hard, pushed his slippery lips down, and closed his eyes, preparing to be filled for the first time. He secured the tip down his throat, swallowing firm, kissing the massive shaft, tugging the knot. Burnard snorted. A jet of very gooey pre shot out of his tip. "Hnk-!" The whole cock pulled back, building up, paused, and froze up stiff. "Hnk- HNK-!" Angel stuffed it in his little, hot mouth.

"-GAH-!" Burnard blasted up huge, long cum ropes, flinging them and splatting them all around Angel's tender, clamping throat. His body seized up, cock jumping as it rocketed off, firing semen into the Audino's tummy in huge globs. Angel shivered, clung, and gulped over and over.

"GR- GRAAH!" The massive Arcanine cock yanked, but Angel kept hold, cheeks blowing up with sweet goo. Burnard's knot pulsed, nuts clenching and pulling in hard against his taint, squeezing out more and more, too much. It burst out of the sides of Angel's mouth, sticking in the fur of his cheeks and hanging off in sticky strands.

Splort after huge splort flew out. The little Audino squealed, desperately swallowing and trying to pull off. Burnard's teeth grit, and his head thrashed, splatting both sides of his muzzle in the mud. His tail rose up dirty off the ground, asshole clenching. He growled low, kicking his left leg, cock pulling in towards his crotch with a second-long pause.

It quivered, threatening to shoot again, and did, twitching hard, pushing up into Angel's mouth to fire off the last spurts it had loaded inside the shaft, each one a little shorter until there was nothing left to give. Burnard's balls relaxed, emptied and satisfied, sack slumping limp over his tailbase.

His cock yanked itself out of Angel's mouth, twitching hard a few more times before bobbing around in heavy ovals, resuming its spurts of pre. His mouth hung open as he released a long, happy moan into the air. Angel was bent over between his hind legs, mouth also hanging open as he coughed and gagged loads of cum into the grass.

"Hwooooah..." Angel groaned, looking up at Burnard in a daze with cum falling off his lips in strands. "I... I'm sorry I couldn't swallow it all, Sir."

Burnard slowly lifted his head off the ground. He stared at Angel's sticky face, a hot blush filling his muzzle. "'Sir,' huh? I don't think I've ever had anyone call me 'sir' before. You ...really enjoyed that, did you?"

"Yes," Angel responded almost unnaturally quickly, staring into Burnard's eyes with conviction. "THANK you." His stomach growled so loud both could hear it over the whipping wind. Maybe it sounded like it was from hunger, but it was really the knots inside finally starting to loosen.

They stared at each other, panting in silence for what felt like a very long time, Angel with cum dripping from his messy lips, Burnard with his tongue hanging out.

"Thank YOU, Angel," Burnard finally said. "There's no way that was your first time. You're good. You're really good."

Angel sat back on his butt in the mud. "You were just close already," he mumbled, looking down and fidgeting his paws.

"Exactly. Don't you ever get really close but then lose the moment, and then you can't cum?"

Angel looked back up, nodding, and they stared at each other again. Finally Angel giggled a little, and Burnard laughed, just out of happiness.

"You know, Angel," Burnard smiled, "Maybe there are some situations where your instincts aren't right and it's best to push past your nervousness."

"Maybe there are," the Mega Audino answered him with a matching wavy smile, vulnerability still glazing his gentle, red eyes.

The big, powerful Arcanine nodded. "I hope you remember that we all love you, and so does Jenn. We're a big team. No matter how hopeless things feel, they can still turn out right if you believe in us." Burnard pressed his right front paw to his chest, smiling bigger.

Angel looked at him for a couple seconds, nodding slowly. He wondered what he did in the first place to deserve being treated so nice, but then it clicked, what Burnard had just said. He didn't have to do anything to deserve his friends treating him nice. He just had to try to see who they were and respect whatever that was. That's what made them a team. Angel nodded again, blowing Burnard a kiss with a little, V-shaped smile. "So what now?"

"Well, now I lie here in the sun until my knot goes soft," Burnard chuckled, lying back. "Don't you have work or something?"

Angel's eyes opened wide. "Oh, no! The rounds!" he gasped, scrambling to his feet in such a hurry he lost his balance, stumbled, and fell on his ass in the mud.

"Hey!" Burnard barked, though not loudly. "Calm down."

Angel looked up at him through his legs, wearing an embarrassed, dizzy smile.

"Don't freak out," Burnard commanded. "No one expects you to be perfect, Angel. It's not really fair that Jenn put you in charge of everything anyway, when all you've ever done before is take instruction from her. No one's going to mind if you take a day off. Maybe you should just relax and have a shower."

"Oh... yeah, huh?" Angel replied sheepishly, looking down at himself over the patches of mud coating places both obvious and intimate.

"Yeah," Burnard snrked.

Angel's smile returned, and he held his stomach as it growled for easily ten seconds.

"Whoa," Burnard chuckled. "There's that tummy again. Have you even eaten today, Bud?"

Angel shook his head.

"Go, then," Burnard waved. "I'll see you around. You can always come back later, have yourself another sheep ...or sheepdog," he added with a wink.

The corners of Angel's mouth curled upward. "See you, Burnard," he cooed, scrunching up his pose like a cutie and waving back, then turned and started to make his way back up the hill toward the stables.

Well, there was one thing he was sure of after all that. He only ever got in trouble when he didn't really think things through and kept pushing for what he thought he wanted. He got relief when he faced his fears and just let himself take what was offered to him. He realized he'd been so tense and anxious since Jenny left that he just hadn't been able to think straight. Or maybe he'd always been that way. But things felt different today, like he'd finally found a way to flatten out his emotional rollercoaster and stop freaking out. He wasn't great at it yet, but he could practice. And in the meantime, he could practice eating more dick!

"...so Fussy and Ribbon weren't just teasing after all," Angel grinned to himself. "Hope the offer's still open. Aw, who am I kidding? They've been offering every day this week!" He closed his eyes, growing a big grin remembering their thick knots, cocks wagging back and forth as they padded towards him down the hall that morning, Nuts, butts, and tails swinging as they walked away. He felt himself licking his lips and let himself moan into the wind.

This was like a whole new world opening up. He simply had to try them out. It would be amazing just to hold them, to feel them, but what if he could sniff and kiss and suck on them until they blew, just like with Burnard's? What if he could play with their other parts? He crested the hill sliding his hands down his belly and shivered with happiness.

"I love... cock!" he exclaimed at the Wooloo herd in front of the stables, surprising himself with another rush of relief. Another weight had been lifted off his chest just saying it out loud. "And I love pussy too!" he shouted as loud as he could. He felt warm tingles running through him in the cold wind. No shame. "I just... love... SEX!"

He could suddenly see that whole jumble of confused emotions for what it really had been, unrealistic fear and stupidity. It seemed so clear now. Even though he liked females, there was no reason he couldn't like males too. Being with someone was just that, two animals enjoying what they naturally do together, what they were born to do. If they enjoyed it, why wouldn't they do it? If either one of them didn't, they didn't have to. That's just the way things worked. Just ask them!

He started back toward the stables with a happy trot, glancing up at the sun for the time. Already after noon. "I think I'm going to call today a personal day," he declared to no one in particular, remembering how many times Jenny used to say it to herself. "...She sure did take a lot of those."

Angel came around behind the stables again. A draft blew up the back of his fur coat, exposing him as he bent over to collect his things. He shivered. It all felt so good now. He'd thought sex with Gertrude had been the most amazing feeling in the world. No. This freedom was. No shame.

He picked out his notepad, checked Burnard off the list, returned his notepad, and threw his bag over his shoulder. He started back to the road, bending over several more times to pull the toes of his boots out of the mud. After fifty or so such paces, he stepped up the embankment onto the wide dirt road that ran across the entire length of the estate.

Angel inhaled, slow and deep, and felt himself standing there in the open expanse of rolling hills, master of all he surveyed. Southern Galar was perfect in March. The breeze was fresh from the sea. It had a strange and dank but good smell to it that he'd never experienced the other places they'd lived. The ambient temperature was warm, but the sun wasn't baking, and everything shone under the cloudless sky with a beauty he'd never taken the time to notice before. All the trees up around the house just shimmered with raindrops from last night's storm.

He looked down the road in both directions to see what he could see. This was the route he took among the different outdoors areas he was supposed to check on every day. He'd walked it every day this week, but standing here now, it all felt new, like a place he'd never been before. The road mainly ran north-south, dividing the grounds roughly in halves, but it curved like an S at the center, taking an east-west jog along the north wall of the estate house.

The house sat on the land's highest point about ten minutes up the road to his right. If he were to continue on past it, he'd reach the greenhouse and orchards across the road from the house's west face, which was technically the front of the building. Going farther that direction would take him downhill towards town, where Jenny had gone to catch her ferry.

Turning left from here instead, the same ten minutes would take him to the farmhouse and its several hedge-enclosed crop fields. It had been so long now since the fields were last tilled that they'd become a patchwork of grasses, clover, and weeds. Perfect for grazing, yes, but the Wooloos did not need more space. Pretty much the estate grounds consisted of the same open grasslands on gentle hills.

Though it wasn't completely open space. Thickets of varying width and height bordered the road in certain places. The two really dense ones lay just out back of the main house, about 200 meters off the courtyard, and along the outside of the northwest curve in the road, just before the greenhouse.

Both of these groves were made up of tall trees with great, wide trunks, parts of old forest, rather than the younger ones that had been planted elsewhere more recently to indicate boundaries between square parcels of land. He figured these hills must have been totally covered hundreds of years ago, before they had been cleared for human use, forests replaced by grasses and wildflowers.

Angel turned right and started walking up the road back toward the house, tummy rumbling for lunch. He climbed the gentle grade, avoiding the pebble-heavy puddles that remained after last night's storm, though the whole road was still kind of mushy and bouncy. He watched the gravely dirt pass by under his boots, the shadows of clouds, the flocks of birds far above, the boughs swaying in the tall, gnarly Birches and fat, scattered Elms, until he found himself at the entrance to the grove behind the mansion.

The trees leaned over the road here, forming a low tunnel all the way through the thicket, with a few older, taller Pines guarding the entrance, leaning over in a shady natural archway. The sun itself disappeared above the canopy as he entered. Only strips of light made it through, dotting the way. The wind that had been strong out in the open was muted here too, producing an even deeper quiet.

Angel slowed his pace a little, staring down the straight length of the corridor. "This place is magic," he whispered to himself, tingles running through him. "Maybe Jenny really did know what she was doing, leaving us here to practice being by ourselves." He felt like he was changing inside, really quickly gaining new eyes. He suddenly didn't feel like any of the deep, sick sadness he'd experienced since she'd left had gone to waste, not one bit. He smiled softly to himself, breathed a gentle, easy sigh, and veered to the side of the road to have a seat on a patch of moss against the base of a great, old Pine.

Resting his small arms on the armor of its massive, curled roots, he leaned back against the trunk and looked up into all the maze of crossed branches and their blankets of needles. He smiled and defocused his eyes, letting the deep browns and bright greens of the canopy blend together. He didn't know how long he lay there, and he didn't care. He just let the world happen. He just let himself happen.

...

"zzz..."

......

"ZzZzZZZZzz..."

"Hi, Angel!"

"Hgmf-mm- Hmm...?" Angel snorted himself awake and opened his eyelids halfway, watching a Swoobat swooping down.

"Having a nap?" Cooties landed on the road in front of him, all smiles as usual, clutching a bundle of small, dead branches against her chest.

"I WAS having a nap," Angel mumbled.

"...Wow." She made a face as she approached him, ignoring his quip. "Where have YOU been? You're all dirty, and-" She leaned in to sniff him, just about touching her heart-shaped nose to his right cheek. "-and BOY do you smell like SEX!"

Angel blinked at her, not sure at all how to respond to that after just waking up. "Um, yeah, I was just- ...what are YOU doing out here?"

"Working with them," Cooties giggled, nodding kind of behind her and to her left. Several other monsters were walking toward them along the road from the direction of the house. Rose was at the front, pushing a wheelbarrow that was taller than she was, vines curled around the handles. She was flanked by the brother-and-sister Heracross twins, Bumblefoot and Honeybug, both carrying their own bundles of sticks. Musa, the powerful Tropius, brought up the rear yoked to a wood-plank cart with spoked wheels that probably contained the larger limbs. His footsteps sent tremors through the earth that bounced Angel's tail clear off the moss blanket. The world was finally coming back into focus.

"Oh, hey!" Angel grinned as they all came up close and stopped next to him. "It's you guys!"

"Hi, Angel," Rose said flatly, dropping the legs of the wheelbarrow solidly in the dirt with a sort of half grimace.

Angel looked back and forth between her and Cooties, amazed the same exact greeting could sound so different. What bee had crawled down her pistil? "...You're all taking my advice, I see?" he offered neutrally.

"Yeah! You had a really good idea," Cooties reassured him, walking back to the wheelbarrow to deposit her sticks. "There's a lot more than we thought there'd be," she continued, looking at Angel over her shoulder. "It didn't seem like a big problem at first, but after talking to you, we started looking into the source of the problem. These trees haven't been trimmed in ages!"

"No one's been around to tend to this poor forest," Bumblefoot said in his nasal Heracross voice, depositing his own faggot of small branches in the wheelbarrow.

Honeybug followed suit, nodding. "It takes a lot of work to make a forest healthy again."

"Yup, and they'd been at it by themselves since the day after we got here," Rose said, "without telling anybody."

"Barely made a dent until we got help," Honeybug said.

"Didn't know what to do with the branches," Bumblefoot said.

Rose nodded. "There's a major wood shed attached to the storage shed out back of the farmhouse, so we're going to process and stack it there now. I do have to admit, Angel, we never would have gotten involved if you hadn't suggested it."

"That's great!" Angel said, a grin rising in his cheeks as he rose to his feet. "I had no idea I had this kind of power."

"You do, you do!" Cooties sang, rubbing behind his left shoulder with her right wing. "Jenn made you leader for a reason, after all."

Angel looked down at her, gulping and blushing when he saw her actually looking back up into his eyes. "I'm the leader?"

Cooties nodded at him vigorously while Rose avoided eye contact, clearly on purpose.

Angel was not sure what was going on between them. He quickly turned and looked up to Musa, pleading for a distraction with his eyes. The Tropius met his eyes and said nothing. "You- you wanna show me what you've got?!" Angel blurted out.

Musa nodded with a silent smile, produced a vine from his back, and wrapped it several times around Angel's waist. He lifted Angel up above the cart so he could see it was already mostly full with large, filled-out limbs that had such clean ends it looked like they'd been sawn off by machine. Still holding Angel there, Musa wound two more vines around the legs and handles of the wheelbarrow and lifted it up next to Angel, inverting it and loudly dumping the contents.

"...Cut." Angel said as Musa set him back down facing the group, divining the method used to remove the branches. "Smart. So you're all heading to the woodshed now?"

Rose shook her head. "Musa is. The rest of us are going to start on this section. What about you?"

"Heading... back to get lunch," Angel said tentatively. "Didn't even get breakfast this morning." He couldn't take his eyes off Rose. Something about her hard expression was making him nervous, yet he still couldn't resist giving her his advice. "...but why are you wasting time taking the cart all the way out there? That's a good half-hour walk at least, there and back! Why don't you just make a temporary woodpile somewhere out here? ...or in the courtyard! There's plenty of open space there. Then you wouldn't be spending your time picking up only the stuff that could fit into the wheelbarrow either."

Rose looked away with a hint of a scowl. Then she just sighed. "...Fine. That is a better use of our time. Do it, Musa."

Musa nodded and began to plod, making a wide U-turn with the cart.

Cooties giggled happily, waddling up and planting a pink heart mark on the Ivysaur's right cheek. "See? Told you we should listen to him," she teased.

Rose nudged a curled vine against her middle and pushed her off only half jokingly.

Angel absolutely beamed, standing proud with his paws on his hips. "Thanks! Hey, if Musa's going back, why don't you all take a break and have lunch with me?"

"We ate together before," Rose snapped, shooting him a look that made the excited grin drop right off his face.

"Hey..." Angel complained, "why are you so-"

Cooties flapped and jumped in between Angel and Rose just before he could ask Rose that very dangerous question, forcing an even bigger smile. "S- Sandwiches today! H- Holly, Anna, and Julienne made tons of them," Cooties stammered, leaning back and forth along with Angel to try to keep his attention off of Rose. "...buffet style! On folding tables out front. No need to go in the dining hall! Ahaha..."

Angel turned his focus back to the Swoobat, a strange expression on his face. "Cool... thanks, I won't," he said. "Why not?"

"Pancake and Custard are working hard," she said.

Angel blinked then slowly nodded, nonplussed. Cooties stared at him saying nothing, not in an unfriendly way, he didn't think she was capable of that, but still in a way that made him feel tense and like he should go. He turned and began to walk back towards the mansion with his lips pursed, ignoring everybody else. What even had just happened? The conversation had started off really well, he'd thought, then it looked like Rose wanted to fight for no reason.

He didn't see what he'd done wrong. Everyone had accepted his decision, and Musa was already following along behind him, pounding the ground as he wheeled the cart back. Angel thought he'd done his job well, like he'd made up for some of the slacking off he'd done, so why'd he feel like complete shit about the whole thing? He'd been on top of the world after coming in out of the fields. He sighed and lowered his head as he walked. "Thanks, Rose," he mumbled to himself, under his breath. "Now I'm stressed again."

"...Oh! Angel!" Cooties fluttered in an arc off the ground to catch up with him, running the final few paces on her stubby legs to touch her right wing to his left hip.

He stopped and turned to look down at her.

"Don't worry, we'll deal with Rose," Cooties said.

Angel nodded with some concern. Maybe the Ivysaur was just having a bad day like he had been. Maybe he should just forget about the near altercation. So he brushed it off and smiled instead, encouraged by the platonic contact with Cooties.

The thin membrane of her wing was unexpectedly soft and warm curled around his hip. He stared for a bit too long, long enough for her to notice. Cooties broadened her smile then gestured at him with her left wing, curling and uncurling the tip several times next to her face like he was supposed to come closer.

Angel bent down, and Cooties stood on her tiptoes to speak into his ear, wings on both sides of her mouth so no one else would hear. "Just a friendly tip, okay?"

A frown appeared on Angel's face for a split second, but he nodded, "okay."

"When you get back to the house," she said, "I don't think you should bother Custard and Pancake again, alright? Um, I think you should try your best to avoid them for now. Word is they're really rushing trying to get Brewster's hatchday cake decorated in time."

"Oh!" Angel nodded, relieved she hadn't meant anything more sinister. "Right, okay." On the other paw, she'd said "don't bother them AGAIN," meaning the whole house probably already knew about the incident he'd caused that morning. That was just outstanding. He assumed Gertrude had been busy using her Salandit army to spread the stinky gossip around, aiming to prove there was no limit on how often she could screw him in the same day.

"I..." Angel hesitated. He still felt like had to face them and apologize directly, the sooner the better, but now it was looking like that might be another mistake. He fidgeted with indecision, brow wrinkling. What WAS he supposed to do when his instincts said one thing and his reason said the opposite?

He got down on one knee to bring himself to Cooties's height and brought his face within inches of hers, so he wouldn't be heard. Cooties looked in his eyes with a blush growing in her cheeks. "I... fucked up real bad, huh?" Angel said. "Like, so bad they might not ever want to be friends again after that."

"I don't think that's true," Cooties said, confirming she knew what he was talking about. She reached out and rubbed his left arm for a second, then kept her wing pressed against him, cupping it around his shoulder for encouragement. "You just need to cheer up sometimes. Nothing's as bad as you think it is at first."

Angel closed his eyes. Now that sounded really similar to what Burnard had said. As a matter of fact, everything everyone had been saying to him, Anna, Gertrude, Burnard, and Cooties, all lined up. "Hey, okay. Maybe you're right," Angel let his smile grow back yet again.

"Yeah!!" Cooties nodded twice all the way up and down, vigor renewed. "You should take your own advice and help out where you can."

"Yeah," Angel smiled. "Nobody's good at everything."

Cooties abruptly turned to look back to Rose and company, like she thought she should get back to them. Angel looked over too without really thinking about it, just because she was. Rose immediately seemed to tense as they turned to look, hunching up and curling her vines. Everybody else was watching and waiting for them to finish too, except for Musa, who had already passed by them on the way back to the house.

"Um, I have to catch up with the others now," Cooties said quickly. "I'll see you later, Angel!"

"Sounds good," Angel confirmed. "I'll find you at dinner, okay?"

Cooties beamed. "Yeah," she said, scrunching up her face in a genuine smile before turning and flapping back to join the others. Rose turned away from her as she landed, in a way that was noticeably huffy even from this distance, and stomped around the back of the wheelbarrow, lifting the handles and hiding herself from view. Angel waved, turned, and started toward the mansion again.

Musa swung his neck around as Angel caught up on his left, facing down to give the Audino a silent smile. Angel looked back up at him and simply returned the smile, not really knowing what to say. Even if the big guy had something brewing in his brain, he wasn't about to offer up what it might be, and Angel wasn't brave enough to ask. The two had had almost no contact... ever, really.

Musa was sort of a legend on the team because nobody saw him outside of official battles. He'd always lived on ranches, receiving private training, or been kept in the PC. The two times they had been in the same place, Angel had opted not to approach him, intimidated by the size difference. He used to be twice Angel's height back before Angel was a Mega, much longer and heftier too.

Angel supposed he wasn't really intimidated anymore, but he still had absolutely nothing to say. So instead of taking the opportunity to get to know each other, both simply faced forward as they walked next to each other, merely going in the same direction down the same road through the tunnel of trees. The awkwardness continued for several minutes, then several more, until Angel couldn't stand it, broke down, and said something stupid.

"-Can't you fly, anyway?!" He spat out as they exited the glade into the bright, open area behind the house. He had not meant his tone to come off so rude.

"Yes," Musa nodded calmly, looking down at him again, then back up at where he was going.

...nothing. Angel winced. They were already on the cobblestone path in front of the sparring grounds, within view of the courtyard. The cart creaked, wheels banging loudly in the grooves among the stones. No point in trying conversation now. They continued to walk along together even though they didn't have to until they were right out back of the house, in the dirt between the rows of leafless shrubs.

Musa stopped walking, swung his neck around, and looked down at Angel, slowly opening his mouth in preparation to say something while bending his knees and lowering the cart to the ground.

"Wow..." Angel thought, looking up at him and waiting at least ten seconds for words to come out. "This guy really lives life at his own pace."

"......How about you take off the back for me," Musa smiled.

"Oh! Sure!" Angel nodded quickly, plastering the friendly grin back on his face. "I guess we're in the courtyard already, aren't we? Ha, ha..."

"Yes, we are," Musa continued to smile with inexhaustible patience, expression completely impenetrable.

Angel just barely resisted facepalming in shame by looking up at the house instead, feigning interest in the annoying drilling noise coming out of the open second-story windows.

"Ready." Musa wrapped his vines underneath the cart's handles, staring directly at Angel while Angel stared at the house.

"......"

"......Ready," Musa repeated unemotionally, snapping Angel's attention back.

"Oh... oh, right!" Angel let out a self-conscious giggle and hurried around back of the cart, where he undid the four drop latches securing the rear to the sides, climbed up on top, and from above easily pulled the thick Oak plank acting as its rear gate up and away. He hopped down off the cart with the gate in his paws, lay it carefully on the ground, looked around to make sure no one had gotten in the way, and came back around front, where he saluted the tall Tropius for no reason. "All clear!"

Musa nodded and smoothly lifted the handles, dumping the branches in the dirt with a great, sustained crash. Angel jumped, startled, then stared blankly at the great, tangled mass of leafy boughs tumbling out. Musa lifted higher and paced forward to get the last ones to fall then calmly set the cart down, lowering the front wheels back into the dirt.

"......Thanks," he said well after he could be heard again. "You're strong."

"Um..." Angel squeaked, backing away towards the back-door stoop with a fierce blush. "You're welcome...? I'll, uh, see you later!" he rushed out, giving a little wave that he immediately felt foolish about and nearly tripping backwards over the bottom step.

"Bye," Musa said, effortlessly lifting and replacing the rear gate with his vines, flipping and locking the latches, and beginning to turn himself and the cart around in a slow semicircle.

Angel took in a slow breath, turned, and climbed the five stairs to the mansion's back entrance with his teeth grit, whipping his satchel off his shoulder in disgust. It swung off the strap in his right paw as he pulled the heavy, Oak door open with his left. "Damn, that was awkward."

He stepped inside and immediately dropped his satchel, clasping his paws over his ears. The drilling was much louder in here, shaking the plaster off the ceiling directly above his head. Some fell in his eyes. Angel winced in pain. Then came the sunlight, shining down the grand staircase ahead of him, suddenly reflecting straight into his eyes off the swinging chandelier, bannister ornaments, and every other shiny surface possible. He jerked his head away, clamping his eyes fully shut. A cloud must have just finished passing in front of the sun, allowing it to shine directly through the round window at the top of the stairs.

"Uggg... hghhgh, you idiot!"

The Audino hunched his shoulders, trembling on reflex. A male voice like gravel that Angel didn't recognize had risen up out of nowhere, yelling at him clear as day.

"You're such an IDIOT!"

He pressed his paws harder against his ear holes, but it didn't make the slightest bit of difference.

"So stupid!" The voice modulated into a snotty female. "He didn't need you. He picked that gate up all by himself. He did the latches all by himself. What would he even bother asking you for? Useless."

Angel tried to look up to see who was there, but his eyes were stinging with plaster. Even if he forced them open, the hallway was invisible behind the blinding light. The heavy door creaked and slammed behind him, making him yelp and jump out of his fur.

"You always have to make an ass of yourself right at the end," teased a third, nerdy male voice, inside his head.

Angel seized up in terror, shaking and whispering to himself. "No... Not this... Not... not this! What IS this?! Why does this happen to me?!" He stumbled backward into the smooth, cold surface of the wood door, barely aware of himself, with stress tears building at the corners of his clamped eyelids. He could feel every itchy detail of his fur blowing around in the wind whistling through the gap between the French doors.

"You were so AWKWARD!" screeched a voice.

"Musa probably thinks you're GAY now."

"Haha, fag."

"Fag! He's a FAG!"

"NO!" Angel yelled, cowering, huddled with his right shoulder trembling against the door.

But then. Then something magical happened. He did something he'd never done before, something he'd never even thought of doing before. He stopped and stood back up straight, relaxing, physically bracing himself and widening his stance. "This isn't happening to me," Angel said, in a whisper at first.

"RE-tard! PER-vert!"

"...These voices can't surround me." Angel grew louder and more matter of fact, drowning out the other voices with his own conscious speaking. "There's no one else here. I'm doing this. These are my thoughts! Deep down, these are things I think about myself! They're just pretending to be someone else. I'M pretending to be someone else!" He opened his eyes, finding his tears had washed the plaster out. He withdrew his paws from his ears, finding the drilling had stopped.

"Go away, Voices." He demanded it loudly and firmly, striding into the empty hallway, out of the direct sunlight. "You're of no use to me. Why would I even make you up?! I don't have to. I don't want to think these things!" Angel planted himself and clenched his fists hard by his sides, biceps facing front. No shame. "I am who I am. I control my SELF," he shouted, slamming his right boot down on the last word, making a mud print on the hardwood floor and growing a wicked grin as he listened to his words echo down the hallway. "...and nobody else controls me unless I say so." Then the voices were gone.

...

"...Angel?" The name sounded strange, soft and wavy like the last of the voices fading.

......

"Angel?" A low, gentle male voice was calling, smooth and soothing like the ocean. Pawsteps came pattering down the stairs above his head. Cyclone the Vaporeon came around and stood on the mezzanine landing, looking down. The two stared at each other. Cyclone turned his head to look up and down the first-floor hallway and, not seeing anyone but the Mega Audino at the bottom of the stairs, started down the lower flight. "Angel. Are you alright?"

"Y- yeah, I..."

"Everyone heard you yelling upstairs, over Dragoon's Horn Drill. Are you in trouble?"

Angel paused for a long time then slowly shook his head. "No, not anymore."

"Was there somebody here? Were you fighting somebody?"

Angel stared straight in Cyclone's eyes, stress tears clinging in the fur below his own, then shook his head again, rubbing them away with the backs of his paws. "Just me." Angel looked up at Cyclone again, chuckling in strange relief. "I, um... ...really need a shower."

"Heh. Yeah, you do," Cyclone chuckled too, assuming they were sharing one over Angel's strong smell and muddy fur. "I can provide," he smiled, not pressing the previous issue any further.

"Heheh," Angel hesitated, still shivering a little. "I'm not sure that's the kind of shower I want right now. I was hoping to relax some."

"Come back outside and take those boots off before you track mud everywhere," Cyclone insisted, eyeing the trail Angel had left from the entryway to the middle of the gallery.

Angel looked down and to the right at the print he'd just slammed into the floor and nodded. "S- sorry... I didn't think about the work you guys would have to do cleaning up after me." He turned and tried to match his prints as he made his way back to the French doors. He pushed the left one open against the wind, holding it open for Cyclone as the Vaporeon slipped past him, left side stroking his right hip. "I think I've been making a real ass of myself the past week," he continued as he stepped out on the wide, hewn stone stoop, where he started taking his boots off, left first.

Cyclone turned and looked up to face him from the opposite side of the stoop. "Honestly, you've always been kind of an ass," he said.

Angel grew red in the face and clamped his mouth shut, stifling his indignation.

"...but that's alright," Cyclone smiled. "You can change. Time was when you would have blown up at me right away for what I just said."

"Have I hurt anyone?" Angel asked, gritting his teeth in preparation for the answer.

"...I don't think you have, if I catch your meaning," Cyclone swayed his wide tail. "Anna talked with Fruit Punch and Holly for you."

"Yeah..." Angel breathed. "Yeah, I was stupid. But I'm done defending myself when I was the one who did wrong. Even if I'm a defensive fighter in battle, that doesn't mean I have to act the same out of battle."

"Heh. Yeah," Cyclone agreed. "I never thought of it that way, but I guess we do all act on our training like that, to some extent."

"It's not always easy getting along with other monsters," Angel admitted.

"Angel..." Cyclone started, "did something happen to you today? When I heard what you did in front of Pancake and Custard this morning, I thought, 'oh, here we go again, typical Angel,' but now you're... not sounding like yourself. It's like you've done some sort of one-eighty or something. You're not even mad at Gertrude for sharing your personal business, are you?"

Angel shook his head 'no.'

"...I hope this isn't temporary, Mate. It's a good look on you."

"I hope so too," Angel said, kicking his right boot off next to the left with a splat, out of the way by the corner of the house. He turned back to see Cyclone smiling up at him.

"So you're the defensive type, right?" Cyclone grinned. "Brace yourself."

"Wha-?"

In one fluid motion, Cyclone stuck his tail out straight and leaned forward on his front haunches, opening his mouth and blasting Hydro Pump.

"Hwagh!" Angel's mouth came open on reflex as the sounds and pressures of a tornado surrounded him, instantly matting all his fur, front and back. "Wagh! Cold!!" he screamed before gagging on the torrent and clamping his mouth shut, making it burst out of his nostrils. He attempted to brace himself, stand up to it in his newfound strong pose with his arms turned forward by his sides, but that only got him pounded straight in the belly, quickly making him sore.

He stumbled backward, his right foot came off the ground, and he spun around in the powerful stream, getting pushed forward into the railing that was previously behind him. He held onto the banister for dear life and tried to blink the water out of his eyes, catching a glimpse of the blast shooting way out ahead of him in a wide, powerful arc, off the stoop and onto the ground in a great rush. His bells kept clanking against the underside of his Audinite, both blowing forward out of his control, threatening to rip themselves off his choker.

He grabbed them instead, holding both to his chest as hard as he could. The force of the water bent him over the railing as soon as he was no longer supporting himself on it, repeatedly clapping his butt cheeks together while a waterfall ran down between them. Suddenly, the water stopped after less than a minute, leaving him shivering in the wind. He looked down at himself clutching his baubles against his drooping chest tuft, and he realized. He didn't care about himself.

It might look to everybody else like he did, but when it came down to it, without even thinking about it, he'd sacrifice himself for the trinkets Jenny gave him. ...no, for the way she wanted him to be, pretty and special and strong, all at the same time. ...a Mega. Maybe it should have been obvious, but he'd never put it together this crystal clear before. Everything he did, he did to maintain her image of him.

He'd never, ever lived life for himself as long as he'd known her. That's where the voices in his head had come from too, this past week. Jenny had left, so he'd been filling in a constant commentary on his own actions in place of hers. As long as someone else would approve of him, he didn't have to be scared. But that wasn't a healthy way to be. He had to decide what he, what he himself wanted.

...Cyclone had taught him something about himself too.

Angel stood up and turned back around in the ankle-deep pool Cyclone had created on the surface of the stoop, water drizzling off the dozen and a half clumped-fur spikes hanging off various parts of his drenched body.

Cyclone snickered, a sly grin lifting up his right cheek. "Looks like you enjoyed that."

"You know?" Angel blinked the water out of his eyes. "I did enjoy that. Thank you."

"Relaxing?"

"Not at all," Angel stared, bending down to retrieve his soaked boots.

Cyclone laughed, a great big belly laugh.

Angel turned to the door, but upon touching the knob he thought better of bringing the boots back in the house with water running off them and turned back around, placing them up on the flat top of the stoop's corner column to dry in the sun instead. "Just gonna go take a walk to dry off, see if there's any lunch left," he said, holding the stone railing as he hobbled down the stairs so he didn't slip in the cascade.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do," Cyclone flicked his tail, padding around and absorbing the remaining puddles through his paws.

Angel didn't look back but waved over his right shoulder, then looked up to check the time as he rounded the pile of branches in the courtyard. About... well certainly past three o' clock now. He brought his right paw in and scritched the back of his head, starting to talk to himself, out loud this time rather than internally.

"Time really goes by quick when you're wandering around without a plan, doesn't it? Plus I've taken two naps already, unintentionally. I hope there is still some lunch left. ...though I suppose I don't regret spending today like I have," he smiled.

He stepped up onto the cobblestone path out back of the sparring grounds for the second time that afternoon and began to move forward more carefully, curling his tender footpaws as he tried to pick the smoothest stones to step on. He'd only have to take this until it met up with the road, turn left down the concrete pavement, and then left again once he'd rounded the front of the house. That's where the picnic tables were supposed to be set up.

At least the sun had been out all day today. The air was warm, and the chill from his shower was gone by the time he'd passed halfway along the ivy-clad red-brick wall behind the barracks area. Tiny patches of his fur were already fully dry here and there and had sprung back up itchy, wisping around in the wind. But for some reason, he didn't feel like he needed to scratch them. Nature felt like it was doing a fine enough job by itself.

It reminded him of last night, when he couldn't stop itching no matter what he did. "That was only, what, ten hours ago? ...and I've been asleep for most of it. Cyclone's right. I've done a crazy one-eighty. ...but who would have thought it was all as easy as 'just don't force it?'" He decided to try the same strategy with the cobblestones, letting his feet fall wherever they did.

"..."

"......doesn't feel any different."

He stared down and watched his feet move forward instead of making them. He was picking the smoothest stones anyway, without thinking about it consciously. Before he knew it, he'd turned left and was padding along on the concrete. "...oh." He'd made himself blush. "It is that simple. I can trust myself because I already know how to do it. So I can stop thinking about it. I can think about new things!" He looked up and around him.

Everything felt lighter, brighter. There was this neat, prism-shaped stone extension built out of the mansion on this side connecting the second and third floors. "What's that? A staircase connecting two rooms on the north end somewhere? Gotta go looking for that later."

A jet-black crow took flight out of the trees opposite, angling itself to the left as it swooped down and landed on the road in front of him. "Hello there," Angel smiled with a nod. The crow cawed back.

He could hear the waves rolling onto the seashore half a mile away and realized for the first time he could just see the blue of the ocean through the trees from here. This felt different. All of life felt different.

He turned left again, coming around into the much more open space in front of the house, where Holly the Delibird was tipping the second of three long tables onto its side. He stopped and bit his lower lip, watching her kneel down to fold in the table legs. She leaned forward as she pushed each one into place, pushing her rear end up and out in the same motion.

"Mother Lugia, her hips..." Angel whispered to himself, then looked away, turning his head to the right. "No, screw that. I'm not gonna get Anna to apologize for me a second time. So Holly's hot. I can ask her on a date later, AFTER I'm sure we're cool."

Holly stood up, put her wings on her hips, and bent backwards, stretching her spine.

"Hh-" Angel's word caught in his throat, and he swallowed the wrong way. He doubled over coughing but reached his right paw up and waved anyway. "Hey- Hey, Huh- Holly!"

Holly ran up to him, pulling a waterskin out of her tail along the way. "Here! Water!"

Angel wasn't sure what his position with her was yet but knew it wasn't a position to argue. He grabbed the skin in both paws and gulped down half its contents, belching into his closed mouth afterwards as he handed it back to her. He felt better.

"Sorry, Holly," he blushed.

She slung the skin over her shoulder. "You're excused."

"Where did you get that thing, anyway?"

"It was hangin' up in the greathall when we got here." She crossed her wings and smiled, putting her weight on her right foot. "Appeals to my sensibilities, anyway."

"Heh. Sorry."

"You're excused," she smirked, lowering her beak. "There somethin' I can do for you, Angel?"

That was Holly. Friendly. Straightforward. Northern.

"No." Angel shook his head. "...Well, yes. I'm sorry for last night. I was a tool, and I got in your space after you told me to get out of it."

"Yeah. I was sitting with my friends, Angel."

Angel paused, looking guilty.

Holly jumped up, grabbed him by the choker, and pulled him down to her level to look him in the eyes.

Angel didn't struggle and managed to maintain eye contact. "..."

"......" Holly rested back on her heels, looking satisfied. "No big deal. Forget about it." She let him go.

Angel stood back up. "Really? You're gonna let me off that easy?"

"Yeah. Last night's the past, eh? Anna vouched for you, said you were sorry. Now you say you're sorry. I'll forgive you. Here. I've got your leftovers." She fished around in her tail and extracted a sandwich. "Fairy paste for a fairy." Holly thrust the sandwich into his left paw, leaning in giving him a peck on the same cheek as he closed his paw around it. "You're doin' a good job, Angel. Little ol' Holly can tell."

Angel looked at his feet, blushing and tongue tied ...actually, shaking a little, and he must have stayed that way for longer than he realized, because by the time he looked up, Holly was already on her way back to the tables. The waterskin was slung over her right shoulder, bouncing against her thick hip as she walked. Her white tail swished behind her, surprisingly long and elegant when it was unfurled like this. He watched her a minute then carefully took a small bite of the leftover sandwich. Nothing had ever tasted so good.

He gobbled down the rest, a couple of relief tears forming at the corners of his closed eyes. No one hated him. He had friends. It was all going to be okay. Energy renewed, he ran towards the house. He knew what he had to do.

"Thank you, Holly!" he grinned, dashing up the steps to the front door.

"Take 'er easy!" she smiled, looking up from bending in the table legs.

"You too, ya old snowbird!" Angel called back, grinning as he entered the house.

Angel carefully closed the front door behind him and ran to the corner of the north hallway, stopping at the kitchen door. He knew he was supposed to keep out, but this was important. He needed to apologize to Custard and Pancake while he still felt exactly this way and could explain himself and his thinking.

Knock-knock-knock-knock... knock-knock!

After a minute of bobbing up and down on his knees, impatient to get this done, his face fell. No answer. "...so they really are busy. I am going to have to apologize later," he decided, looking down. Then footsteps. Angel's ears perked back up in excitement.

Pancake answered the door, sporting a full, twitching erection that drew Angel's eye immediately to his crotch. "Ah. How'd I know it was you?"

"Oh, no!" Angel recoiled a step, clasping his paws over his eyes. "Not again!"

Pancake rolled his eyes. "It's fine, Angel. At least you knocked this time. Did you need something?"

Angel brought his paws down and fiddled them in front of his own crotch, averting his eyes and trying to decide how best to respond. "......no... It can wait till later if you-"

"-if I what?" Pancake frowned. "I'm already here now. Just spit it out."

"I wanted to apologize to you and Custard for this morning," Angel said, mumbling out the words meekly.

Pancake sighed like that was a real bother. "It's alright, Angel. Just-"

Angel didn't like how this conversation was turning out and looked straight down at the Alolan Raichu, summoning up all he'd learned today. "No. Don't brush me off. Please. I did wrong to you and your boyfriend earlier. I made a real ass of myself, like I'm always doing. Please. I'm doing better today. I'm changing. You can ask anyone, apparently, since Gertrude sends her minions to inform the whole house except me. Anyway, I'm trying to do good now. I'm tired of only being Jenny's pet. I want to take things seriously and be a leader-"

Pancake frowned, erection drooping. "Stop, Angel."

Angel stopped, and Pancake continued,

"You're just rambling. If you're really changing, prove it to me. Tell me what you learned."

Angel closed his eyes, trying to breathe, considering what he could possibly say. This felt like the match at the end of a training session, when Jenny would spar her monsters to test if they'd learned the improvements in technique she'd been trying to teach that day.

"I can't just take what I want," Angel started but cut himself off. "-no, even if I can, I shouldn't just take what I want from anybody. I should ask them first to see if they want to give it to me."

"That's... good," Pancake nodded, and Angel could see his expression relax a little bit. He opened his mouth to pass his final judgement, but Angel was faster.

"Wait," the Mega Audino said. "That's not really it. ... I... Let me explain. I'm not just here to control everything and get my way. I'm a functioning part of a system! And I'll get my own due if I behave that way alongside every other monster on our team. I should have been working with everyone upstairs all day, or doing really anything to help. Instead, all I've done is wander around thinking about myself as usual, acting selfish. It felt like I was changing, but maybe I wasn't."

"You remember," Pancake asked, smiling a little, "when you used to push your doubles partner out of the ring, screaming about how you didn't need them?"

"...I did?" Angel looked up with vulnerable eyes. "I don't remember doing that at all. I try not to think about training. I guess there's a lot I don't want to remember."

"That's because you were trouble to train," Pancake said bluntly, "but now that you mention it, Jenn never liked talking about it either, or doing it. I don't think she believed she was very good at it. ...but don't you think truth is there were just too many of us for her to pay attention to all at once?"

"Yeah, you're probably right," Angel nodded.

"She always tried to take responsibility when WE fucked up," Pancake shook his head, "like everything was her fault. Without her here, a lot of us are struggling with the feeling that everything's our own faults, not just you. You'd know that if you'd talk with us at dinnertime instead of trying to hit on everybody."

Angel slowly nodded. "...I'm sorry, Pancake," he said calmly. They stared at each other. Then they hugged through the doorframe, Angel bending his knees and Pancake standing on his tiptoes.

When Pancake drew back again, his expression was soft. "It's okay. You are making progress if you can admit your mistakes now. ...and, Custard and I made up and are having sex again."

"Yeah, I saw that," Angel said, glancing down at Pancake's sheath. "...but I want to apologize to Custard too." With a determined expression, this time Angel made sure he did not divert his attention from Pancake's eyes.

The Raichu hesitated a moment but then folded his ears back, stepping back out of the entry. "Okay. You can come in."

Angel almost giggled when the two of them rounded the corner into the main gallery of the kitchen. The Slurpuff was sitting on the large wooden table in the back corner on top of two giant, stacked cake rounds. He was somehow light enough he didn't fall in or crush them, and he was smearing his paws in the chocolate sauce that covered the top layer almost like that's how he'd spread it over the cake in the first place. His legs were comfortably spread, and his disproportionately large, furry, white nuts hung off in front, his sheath still sporting a little, pink peek.

"Where have you been?" Custard growled, his arms crossed over the scarf-like fur around his collar. "...and what's HE doing here?"

Pancake and Angel both started to reply, ready to excuse their behavior, but Custard quickly cut them off.

"Naw," he said, expression lightening all at once. "I heard what you guys were saying. Kitchen has good acoustics. Both of you, get up here."

Angel and Pancake both climbed up on the plain, wooden chair that was in front of the table, half tucked in at an angle, then from there up on the surface of the Oak table itself.

"So, will you forgive me?" Angel bit his lip nervously, slowly approaching the cake and its Custard topping.

The Slurpuff shrugged. "Yeah, sure," he said, smiling his usual smile with his tongue waggling out the right corner of his mouth. "But next time, just ask, would you? This all could have been avoided if you'd just said you wanted to join in the first place."

"Custard!!" Pancake immediately went beet red.

"I don't think I would have-" Angel started. "-wait, wha?!" He glanced between the two of them, seeing how they were staring at each other.

"This guy," Custard grinned, facing Angel and tossing his head at Pancake, "never shuts up about your ass. It's like he's getting tired of mine and wants an even tighter one."

"CUStard!" Pancake coiled his tail around himself, holding up the curvy lightning tip in front of his blush with both paws. "I do NOT!"

"Oh, yes you do," Custard snickered, idly bouncing his nuts between the tops of his footpaws. "...and we're both still horny, aren't we?" he stated, staring at his boyfriend.

Angel squeaked, staring at Pancake's oversized Mouse cock with wide eyes. "Can I help??!"

"Well yeah," Custard wiggled his toes, corners of his mouth curling even more at Angel's happy gasp. "That's how Pancake and me always make up after our fights, don't we?" He looked at Pancake for a second, then back at Angel. "...but I thought you weren't into that stuff," he teased. "Something change your mind today? You want Pancake's big cock?"

Angel's erection sprung like a bullet out of his sheath. "But it's my first time!" he whined.

That made Pancake spring the same way.

"Don't worry, Sweetie. He might be pretty eager, but I'm gonna park my butt right here to make sure he doesn't go too fast. You can trust us because we communicate."

Angel nodded resolutely. "O. K." He grinned.

"Why don't you check out what you'll be getting first?"

Angel bounced happily on his paws and turned to the Alolan 'Chu, facing down at the table with eyes raised a little. The Audino's heart was beating out of his chest. He felt like he was floating as he made his way over. Pancake stood still, going red in the face. The Raichu ran both paws down through his belly fur and held his sheath back off his bobbing member, biting his lower lip the same way Angel always found himself doing. Somehow that was really comforting.

Angel got down on his right knee, then down on both. He stared down, gasping as his own cock bounced up into the underside of Pancake's. His barely reached Pancake's nutsack, but Pancake's tip pressed firm into his belly. The Raichu was half his height yet had a longer dick. "That's not fair," Angel whined out loud, drooling out of the corners of his mouth. Pancake's blush deepened, his cock jerking up twice and spraying hot pre in Angel's belly fur.

"...and it's really thick too," the Audino swooned, curling his right paw around the underside. Thumb on the smoothly rounded tip, he slid his palm slowly towards the Raichu, grip loosening as it grew thicker up to the middle. Everything from that point on was a uniform width he could barely wrap his paw around, except the very, very base, where he could feel it curving back into the sheath as his paws met Pancake's.

"Nuh uh..." Pancake shivered, watching Angel's paws slip around. "Yours is thicker..."

"But I'm a bigger Pokémon than you!" Angel whined. "Yours just looks lewd sticking out of you."

"L- lewd?" Pancake shivered at the compliment and tensed up, squirting another splat of pre on Angel's tummy. He started panting, hard. "I've gotta fuck you, right now."

Custard giggled. "Looks like that's enough foreplay. Come on over here, Angel, hun. On your back next to me. ...Pancake?"

Pancake looked up in time to see Custard toss him a pastry bag full of something pink and catch it in his tail fob.

"Watmelberry frosting. I think we can find a better use for this than decorating the cake," Custard winked.

"Heh. Yeah," Pancake grinned, cock sproinging, almost thwapping himself in the belly he was so excited. Angel had lain down beside the cake, on Custard's left side, and Pancake joined them, kneeling between Angel's spread legs and resting his cock up the center of the Audino's nuts.

"What... better use?" Angel asked.

"Getting you ready," Pancake smiled, holding the bag nozzle-down against the underside of Angel's nuts and spreading his cheeks with his paws. He squirted a thick line of it into the crack before pulling it away, replacing it with the rubbing, nudging index tip of his right paw.

"Haahn..." Angel squirmed, suddenly feeling very slippery, even feminine. He looked up at Pancake, fluttering his eyelids, and slurped the pawtip up inside his butt as far as it would go.

"Whoa... nice!" Pancake grinned in the right corner of his mouth. He began to rub the top of Angel's tunnel while Angel squeezed down, keeping him in. "You're a natural! You sure you haven't done this before?"

"Nuh... Feels... weird..." Angel gasped, closing his eyes tight as his cock receded into his sheath.

"Don't tease," Custard said.

"...sorry," Pancake said. "I didn't mean it that way."

"Just be gentle," Custard reminded him.

"Hgohhh..." Angel moaned, shoulders hunched as he pushed against Pancake's palm, trying his best.

Pancake fingered him, pulling up against the top of his tunnel to keep him hard while gently running his left paw over his belly, up against the fur grain. Angel shivered. The pushing pawtip sort of made his whole abdomen feel big, but he could take the pressure. The bellyrub felt good, and he appreciated the loving treatment. But the pawtip? It just felt sort of wrong, like dull pressure pushing in on him and pulling up on his belly from underneath.

"Is this what girls feel like when they have sex?" Angel whimpered, not knowing what to think anymore.

"I- I don't know!" Pancake stammered, worried this wasn't going well.

But Custard smiled calmly, looking down. "Don't worry, Sweetie. It's just like that the first time. It doesn't really 'hurt' hurt, does it?"

Angel opened his eyes halfway and looked up, shaking his head slowly.

"Then relax and let it happen. You'll get used to it, and it'll start to feel good in a minute. Pancake's going to add some more frosting now."

Pancake nodded, squeezing more out of the bag in a lukewarm, gloppy line down Angel's buttcrack, and his pawtip started to work it inside. Angel's features relaxed as the pushes got easier to take, and since he had his footpaws flat on the polished surface of the table, he tried pushing his butt up in the air a little, making the angle of penetration easier for both of them. The pressure on the top of his tunnel did start to feel a little good, at least not bad, warm like it was loosening his sheath. But every time he squeezed on the mass moving around inside of him, it started to feel weird again, and he was squeezing a lot.

"Okay..." Pancake breathed, pulling his pawtip out. "I think you're loose enough for my tip now. I'm gonna try my cock," he said, squirting frosting on it and rubbing it in with his right paw curled around the underside.

Angel didn't feel loose enough for that. He grit his teeth and braced himself.

"Don't." Pancake gently scritched Angel's belly. "Just relax and breathe."

Angel's eyes slowly came back open, with an almost confused expression like that had been the last thing he'd expected. He took a breath, belly rising and falling unevenly under Pancake's left paw.

"You have the jitters," Custard smiled down at him, "but that's okay. I promise your butt's loose enough now. Pancake's cocktip isn't any bigger than his pawtip. You saw that earlier, right?"

Angel nodded, biting his lip. He did want to know what it would be like once it was all in. He remembered what Burnard had said. "Some monsters can cum just from having it up their butts, right, Custard?"

Custard chuckled. "If you've got an experienced partner, yes. I do all the time."

Pancake blushed hard.

"Don't you worry," Custard pet Angel between his ears. "It's normal to feel nervous your first time. ...or when taking anybody new, really. You don't know what you're gonna feel exactly until you do, but that's half the fun of it."

Angel arched his back and neck to look up at the Slurpuff. "So you weren't always with Pancake?"

Custard smirked and shook his head. "Not exactly what I meant, but you're still right. I used to fuck around," he said simply with a shrug, "until Pancake and I made a real connection."

Angel wasn't quite expecting that. "I... see," he stared. Custard was being so frank with him. So that's what he'd meant by "communicate." He got a little bit more comfortable and looked up at Pancake. "I am nervous, but I trust you not to hurt me," he told the Raichu, as straightforwardly as he knew how.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Pancake assured him, looking back into Angel's eyes. "You tell me what to do, and Custard will help."

"That's what I'm here for," Custard said, behind him.

Angel breathed out. He looked down at his belly being scritched. He stared into Pancake's eyes. "Okay. We can do it." Pancake couldn't help showing his excited smile. Angel's eyelids drooped in comfort from the bellyrub. The world closed in around just the two of them, feeling warm and safe. "I'm ready," he said. "Put it in a little bit."

Pancake nodded and pulled Angel's legs up, bent so his pawpads rested flat against the Raichu's shoulders, and leaned forward, pressing his warm, rounded, slippery-coated tip against Angel's butthole. He waited for the pucker to stop clenching, then he pushed against the remaining resistance, using gentle but steady pressure until it spread, sliding open around his tip. The skin and fur dipped in up the center of Angel's crack, and the pink ring of his tailhole half disappeared, pushed inside him along with the Raichu's member. It slid in, one inch out of five.

Angel made a powerful clench, eyes closing and brow furrowing, curling his toes over top of the Raichu's shoulders.

"Slow, now," Custard said, watching Angel's reactions. "You get big quick, Pancake."

"He's- just really tight-" Pancake gasped up at Custard, pushing more of his hot rod through the pucker.

Angel cried out, squeezing and pulling the loops of the bow around his neck.

"I said slow!" Custard growled.

Pancake stopped and groaned with just over two inches inside the Audino, just before the real thickness started.

A visible shudder ran down Angel's body. Pancake started to shake all over too as if absorbing the same shudder through Angel's soft paws. Angel slowly opened his eyes again and tried to breathe. He clenched again, putting a tight, outward pressure around that third of Pancake's dick.

"How are you doing?" Pancake looked Angel in the eyes, wearing a gentle expression in spite of how hard he was breathing.

"I think it's okay," Angel said, tail pulling in against him with each clench. He looked down between his legs and blushed, staring at Pancake's big pink poker sticking out of his sheath then disappearing between his own thighs. "I- I like this position," he said.

"Excellent," Pancake said, unable to suppress a grin as he licked his right paw clean of frosting, unintentionally seductive. He started running both up Angel's belly, cream-colored fur between the pawtips.

"You... can do more," Angel swooned, lidding his eyes.

"But go slow," Custard warned.

"Okay, I'm going in slow this time," Pancake nodded. He adjusted himself, pressing his toes against Angel's cheeks, and pushed his hips forward smoothly. He shuddered hard, sproinging hard over and over as he pushed in through the Audino's rhythmic clamping. "Ohh... yes... Aaangel..."

Angel started to groan. It was getting really, really thick, especially around the underside, and it was going way up there. He grit his teeth.

"Stop there!" Custard exclaimed, Pancake did, and Angel's features relaxed again as he got used to the spread.

"But it's almost there!" Pancake whined, gasping with his eyes closed almost all the way, tailbase stiff. Every time he stopped pushing, Angel's soft, virgin hole started putting on that constant, hot pressure again. He had to really struggle not to push in against it.

"I know you're just complaining because he feels so good around your dick," Custard smiled, "but you don't want to hurt him, do you?"

Pancake shook his head but also bit his lip, tan-furred nuts tense between his equally tense brown thighs.

Custard shook his head too, looking at his boyfriend. "You get really thick halfway down. Angel and I know that. Why don't you?"

"...'cause I've never really taken the time to look at it," Pancake mumbled.

"Aha, see? Maybe you could stand to be gentler with me too?"

Pancake blushed, then he nodded.

"Um..." Angel arched his back to look up at Custard's face around the side of his nuts and sheath. "...if it's okay, I think I'm used to it now," he said even though he was still clamped down with the same force.

"I can go?" Pancake gasped, cock whipping up inside.

"Yeah," Angel nodded, looking up at the Raichu between his own legs and adjusting his hips, managing a little smile.

Custard giggled and made some motion with his paws, and Pancake thrust his hips, injecting the rest of his meat with a shove. Angel's eyes flew open, then he immediately clamped them shut again, arching his back with a happy squeal. "Oh, FUCK!" He gasped, mouth hanging open. That was amazing, how nothing had felt good until that point, and suddenly it was perfect, buried hot and firm, pulling up against his soft insides. "It's hot! It's poking my tummy from inside!" He looked down at the bump running up the middle of his lower belly. "Oh, fuck! The last inch!"

"Hohh..." Pancake's hips tensed, cock jerking hard, pulling up on Angel's insides with each squeeze. "Ohh... you got it all in, Angel, you got it all in!"

"Good job trusting!" Custard exclaimed, tongue hanging out of his wide open smile. "It's only the stretching that feels weird, but once you're used to it..."

"It- hngf- it, ah, does still sting a little, around the opening," Angel admitted.

"He needs more lube," Custard translated.

Pancake nodded. "Okay. It's coming out now, Angel," he said, slowly pulling his hips back. Angel gasped, his soft, pink butthole squeezing down along the slippery surface of Pancake's dick, clinging against its curves and jumping along with it as it twitched up on the way out.

Angel released a loud, raw moan into the air, arching his back as his tender hole clamped all the way down on itself, quickly pushing out the slippery tip. A long strand of very thick, off-white pre emerged with it, pulling away from Angel's hole and swinging, dangling off the end of Pancake's Watmel-coated tip. Pancake's cock suddenly jerked up hard, shooting out another strand through the frosting that doubled the length of the first. The thick goo rope drooped onto the table under the added weight and started to pool between Angel's legs. Pancake's cock continued to angle up for another ten seconds at least, filled with all the tension he hadn't been given the opportunity to release yet.

It had barely come out when Pancake whined, squeezing Angel's ankles in his arms. He stared down at his dick twitching, so close yet so far from that cute, little Audino butthole underneath it. The little Audino hole was pulsing, still puckered in so tight on itself despite the warmup, leaking pink frosting out of the center with every squeeze. Pancake lowered his hips, breathing hard, and thwacked the underside of his cock against the quivering pink flesh half hidden in Angel's creamy fur. Strands of Angel's otherwise silky-soft tail puff began to stick up on both sides of a soupcan impression, hardened with dried frosting.

"Lube," Custard reminded with a snicker.

"Right! Pancake blushed. "Lube, yes," he agreed, bringing the pastry bag back around front of him, curled in his tail fob. Angel blushed too, watching the Raichu's nutsack jerk all around as his tail manipulated the bag, drawn up firm and tense between his thighs. Pancake hung the bag upside down over his own cock and squeezed, returning his pink coating to full slipperiness. The excess frosting dripped thick off the bottom of his fat taper, really making a mess of Angel's tail. He then lowered the bag, fitted the piping nozzle up Angel's tailhole, and squeezed down on the middle, giving the Audino a sweet berry filling.

Angel arched his back, moaning hard as more of the mellow, lukewarm goo squirted in. He'd not expected it to feel that good, that pressure, that creaminess splatting all over his walls. Immediately the stinging was gone. He looked up at Pancake with a little, V-shaped smile and inched himself down the table, bending more at the waist and nudging his spread butt crack up against the underside of Pancake's eager cock.

"Chu..." Pancake whined, his monster member so hard the thin, little veins were showing through the frosting.

"Mate me," Angel cooed, wiggling under him submissively.

Pancake and Custard shared a big grin, then Pancake locked eyes with Angel. He tossed the pastry bag aside and wrapped his tail around his own cock instead, angling it down so the throbbing, pink tip pushed against Angel's little hole. He held it steady so it wouldn't slip. It went in right away. Angel squished down hot on that first inch of his member, but no matter how hard he clamped this time, it kept going in. Pancake lidded his eyes and shoved in against the pressure all the way to the sheath, making the Mega Audino's bullet-shaped cock shoot out in the same motion. Angel lidded his eyes, leaned back on his elbows, and pushed his butt firm against the Alolan Raichu's crotch, feeling himself squeeze over and over.

"Ohh... ohh, Angel... Tie-! Tight!" Pancake let out a shuddering gasp, buried and twitching, then readjusted himself, taking another small step forward and lifting Angel's footpaws to rest full on his shoulders, securing himself inside. To test, he pulled his slippery member back until just the tip was in. Angel clamped down firm, shuddering with pleasure, and Pancake maintained the forward pressure this time so it didn't get squeezed out like before. Each time his cock twitched, his own asshole clenched, and his whole tail pushed out stiff. "Ohhh... YES, Angel," Pancake groaned.

"Good boy, Angel!" Custard encouraged him.

Angel grew a little blushy smile, chest rising and falling as he panted. Maybe he'd try teasing Pancake the same way he'd teased Burnard. "Please, more, Mister Pancake," he wiggled.

Pancake grinned. "Hmnf!" He gasped, shoving back in to the hilt and jerking up inside Angel's warm belly. Angel moaned hard. Pancake stayed buried until the twitching stopped then pulled back halfway this time, to the edge of his taper. He started to thrust, pushing his hips forward firm to hilt then shivering as he withdrew halfway. He made the same motions again, a little faster, and picked up a rhythm, shoving in against Angel's hot pressure, pulling out when the Audino loosened up between squeezes. "Ohh... chu... chuu..." he whimpered, lidding and closing his eyes with pleasure.

"Au-dinooo..." Angel let out an airy, high-pitched moan, cock visibly stiffening up rock hard and releasing a constant drool of pre in his soft, creamy belly fur. "Au-di-no!" he squealed, clutching his bow and letting the Raichu rock him, bells jingling with every thrust. His fat nutsack pulled in against his pudgy taint, bouncing up against his sheath. His cock began to bounce too, pulling strands of pre out of his fur and whapping back down against his taut, rounded belly.

"So, doesn't hurt anymore?" Custard grinned down at him.

"Nuh-uh!" Angel happily squealed, twisting his upper back to look up at him. "Thank you, Custard," he cooed.

"Want to repay the favor?" Custard suggested, looking down and petting the top of Angel's head with his left handpaw.

Angel nodded eagerly, gasping with every firm thrust rocking him back against the cake Custard was sitting on.

Custard grinned, lifted his left footpaw, and held it up, wiggling his big, round toes as he presented it to Angel. The underside was coated in chocolate sauce, fur all matted down. A thick stream came oozing off the heel, drizzling back onto the surface of the cake, while smooth rivulets ran down from between his toes and around the curves of his pads.

Angel stared at it with a deep blush spreading in his cheeks. "Well yeah, we can't let Pancake have all the fun," he agreed with his happy, little grin before running his tongue up the center of Custard's paw to taste. It was very sweet chocolate, almost oversweet, but smooth, with a touch of Mintberry in the aftertaste. Custard giggled at the little tickle, and Angel moaned against Custard's twitching arch before pulling back and looking up again, eyes aflutter.

"Gosh, it's yummy," he swooned, whining while sliding his paws down his belly to hold himself just above his crotch, where he felt Pancake's long, firm penetration poking up from the inside. He shivered and stared up at Custard, eyes losing focus as a strange pressure started to build up from the base of his bouncing nuts. It spread constant and slow from the center of his crotch out to his tensing hips, totally unlike the sudden need to cum he normally felt. He didn't feel like he was getting pushed over the edge, just full and warm like he was gently approaching, making it feel like it was going to last forever. This was paradise.

He leaned back in against the front of Custard's thigh with a deep blush, smacking his lips up the left side of his footpaw until he got to his toes. He gobbled up the closest one, sucking off the ganache. "Nohhh, Audinohh..." Angel began to let out repeated, crooning moans as he licked the last of the chocolate off Custard's first toe and moved to the second, slipping his tongue around in the groove to make sure he didn't miss any. He suckled it slow, moving his head back and pulling at it with his lips before letting it pop out and moving to the third.

Custard gave a series of gasps, each louder than the last, handpaw shaking as he scritched gratefully in Angel's headfur. His sheath began to spread open at the top, its soft fur curling back on itself, widening around the pink taper pushing up hard out of the center with a bead of pre crowning its rounded tip. Angel finished his third toe and pulled back, curling an antenna around the underside of the Slurpuff's equally tense nuts and pulling at them with the bulbous tip. He giggled as they slapped back against the short, white fur of his right thigh.

"Ooh, what's this yummy fruit?" he teased, nuzzling his right cheek against Custard's twitching erection. "A Rawstberry that makes its own cream?" The Slurpuff licked his lips, wide tongue hanging out the right side of his open-mouth grin. Angel sniffed Custard's cinnamon spice approvingly, dragging his tongue up its underside of the firm yet oozing-ripe little berry. He looked up with a swoon and pulled back with a sugary pre strand the color and consistency of meringue draping between tip and tongue.

"D- dessert before dinner?" Custard shivered as Angel leaned over him, slipping his lips down the twitchy treat. "Nawwty Audino, you'll spoil your app- appetite!"

Angel curled his toes with a happy moan, eyes fluttering above his warm blush. He pulled Custard's cock down toward him and salivated heavily, suckling it up to the base. Pancake opened his eyes to Angel bobbing his head in his boyfriend's lap and went rock hard. His cock pulled up incredibly tense and wouldn't relax back down, sliding in and out against the top of Angel's tunnel with a constant, firm pull.

The pressure in Angel's groin was getting hotter quick now and spreading up through his midsection. His hips were tight, and suddenly the biggest load of his life was ballooning up at the base of his cock. He held back as hard as he could, lifting his head off Custard's cock with his mouth hanging open in a frozen gasp. He grew an extra inch out of his sheath, rising up stiff at an angle off his belly, and closed his eyes tight.

"AUDINO!" he shouted, blasting cum on his right cheek. The same hot strand draped all the way down his belly in a single, thick line. "AUdino!" His cock pulled in, preparing itself, then shot out that extra inch again, rapid firing overlapping shots onto his arm and shoulder. "Audino! AU-diNOH!!!" he cried as it rushed up through his shaft. He clamped hard, over and over, on the thick poke way up inside him. It was like a steady handle he could hold onto for support, getting him extra power and range. "Auudino! Audino!" He painted his belly and side, thrusting his hips at himself. "Ohh, YES!" he cried out, tensing his hips up again. "WAH!" He squealed, propelling a thick rope all the way across his cheek and forehead, onto Custard's paw, then another. "WAAUGH!"

Pancake stared at Angel shooting cum ropes all over himself and froze with a spasming shiver, buried in him sheath to butt. "Chuuu!" he wailed, whacking up into the squish of Angel's tunnel and spurting a single long rope of pre with the same force as a full jet of cum. "Rai- Rai... -CHU!" he squeezed Angel's ankles against his sparking cheeks, tail pushing out stiff, butthole clenching just above his giant nuts as he repeatedly slapped up in the Audino's belly. He looked down at Angel's tight hole spreading as he pushed his thick cock in. It was warm and soft around him, yet it kept clamping so hard. He fucked it, slapping his hips against the Audino's butt, shaking as he watched his large, pink shaft emerge halfway only to be pushed back in against the squeezes. "Rai......" At the last second, he looked up to see Custard pull Angel's head back down in his lap.

"CHUUUUU!!!" he blasted up cum in Angel's belly, completing the electric arc between his cheeks. "CHUU! RAICHUUU!!!" Massive splorts fired out of his tip in long ropes as it slapped the top of the squishy tunnel, coating Angel's insides. He could see the bump rising up in Angel's belly every time he made a shot. "CHUUUU. CHUUUU." He moaned low, clutching the Audino's ankles, pushing his tail out and rolling out burst after burst. He withdrew halfway then slammed back in hard, firing a long, wavy shot deep inside. He shivered, feeling his hot load splash back on him, shut his eyes tight, and fired through it, blowing so much that it came burbling out around his dick, clinging in Angel's tail.

"Hwoooah... Puff..." Custard moaned, spattering Angel's palate with pre as he watched the cum show. Angel was flicking his tongue up the underside of his dick, and Custard was thrusting deep, holding Angel's head down with his cum-splattered paws and bumping the Audino's chin with his nuts. "Ohhh... SlurPUffff..." He tensed his shoulders, eyes closing. Angel's tongue was so flicky, so slippery and warm, pushing down hungrily into the folds of his sheath. He loved when they ate up his sweets. His nuts clenched against the underside of Angel's cheek. He held onto his rising load of cream, hips rising up, tip sliding along the roof of Angel's mouth, underside wrapped in his tongue.

"Slurpuff!" he cried out happily, decorating the back of Angel's throat with ribbons of sweetened cream, holding the cute Audino's head down and humping up in his mouth with each shot. "Slurp! Slurpuff!" He curled his toes over the edge of the cake, finally putting pawprints in the sponge as he pushed himself up, splattering with repeated, thin spurts. "Puffpuff! -puff!" He shivered, firing over and over with the same force, no breaks in between. Angel swallowed but couldn't do it fast enough. Custard pumped the Audino's mouth full, making it bubble and ooze out the corners. It clung in his cheek fur, and it dangled off his lips in droopy strands, giving the side of the cake an extra topping of fresh cream. "Puff! Puff! Slurp- PUFF!" He gasped, firing off the last with a strong shiver.

Angel was swimming in serotonin. He pulled off Custard's berry with a smack of his lips while Pancake kept himself buried inside, similarly pleased.

"Ooh..." Angel moaned, "I think I'm full..."

Custard giggled with a wink. "Told you so."