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Chapter Nine: Living with a Lamb

The first scent to assuage Vernon's nostrils was the pungent smell of percolated caffeine. Blearily, one eye shot open, narrowing on his bedroom door. With a groan, he pushed himself off his bed with one arm, sliding to the edge. Vernon wiped his eyes and let out a yawn, mentally preparing himself to make that final push off the bedside. He brought his feet to the floor softly, and with a grunt he shakily rose to a standing position. Another yawn and he began an involuntary shuffle toward the kitchen. He trudged forward, the delicious aroma leading him by the nose down the hallway.

Finally arriving in the kitchen he could see the source of the intoxicating scent, as well as the little ewe standing on the stool and putting the finishing touches on their respected brews. She was still in her night gown, and he was at the perfect angle to catch her raised rump bent in the air as she fiddled with the percolator. Her stubby tail waiving as she hummed and fixed the drinks. Vernon caught himself staring and quickly turned away, blushing in shame for leering at the little ewe.

"Ahem." He coughed awkwardly, causing the ewe to turn around.

"Oh, good afternoon Puppy!" She said joyfully. "I've got your coffee here, two sugars." She nodded reassuringly, sliding a coffee mug over to the stool next to her and sitting down. After taking a moment to scratch herself, the lamb patted the adjacent stool, giving Vernon a comforting smile.

Vernon in turn, moseyed his way over to the seat and sat next to Dawn. The ewe grinned expectantly at him as he took a sip of his drink. A grin crept it's way across his muzzle as he relished in the flavor.

"Less than a month here, and you make my coffee better than I do." He joked. The lamb simply beamed in response. As he took another sip, he began to reflect on just how the last few weeks of living with Floofy had gone.

It still surprised Vernon how quickly the two had adjusted to life as room mates. It had only been about three and a half weeks since the apartment fire. But to Vernon it felt like they'd been living together for years. Their various habits and idiosyncrasies managed to match up almost perfectly, causing very little instances of friction between the two. The best part, at least in the wolf's eyes, was being able to pick up wherever they left off at work when they got home. Whether it was an engaging conversation, a spirited game, or whatever, the entertainment could continue when they got back to the apartment.

But there was so much more. They read together, had movie nights, and even went out to eat from time to time. Albeit Dawn was quite insistent on disguising herself heavily before doing anything outdoors, despite Vernon's protest. They had even gotten to the point where they could nearly read each others minds.

"Turf tart?" Dawn asked, snapping the wolf out of his quiet reflection. The ewe held a greenish tinted breakfast pastry toward Vernon.

The wolf scrunched his nose up at the food. "Eh, no thanks Floof, I'll stick with the-"

"Lucky Chomps?" She said, sliding the already poured bowl over to him. He hadn't noticed it earlier, and simply chuckled.

"I guess I'm getting predictable huh?" He smiled, taking a spoonful of the cereal.

The lamb grinned, idly scratching herself again before taking another bite of her pastry.

Moving the ewe in had been easy, as she brought very little. But what she had brought managed to fill out the barren sections of the apartment nicely. The style clashed a bit, but made the place feel more lived in, and it made Vernon enjoy being at home far more often.

Vernon had a long history of living with others. Starting with being forced to share a space with six rowdy pups, and eventually rooming with Gus. But each previous experience was laden with more negatives than positives. Sharing a room with six growing pups offered no privacy, and no silence. This was of course not a problem with Dawn, who was so quiet that sometimes the wolf would forget she was home. And despite the long friendship with Gus, living with him was more of a strain than anything else. Gus had been very quick to establish very complex apartment rules, and tended to be quite a nag if you failed to keep up with them. Not to mention the goat had a plethora of allergy and humidity machines that made rooming next to him sound more like rooming next to a subway station. Again, Dawn was the opposite. Both of them doing whatever happened to need doing in the apartment without asking or forcing the other to do it. Needless to say, Vernon was thrilled that living with Dawn had turned out to be as enjoyable as predicted.

But that didn't mean everything was perfect. Vernon could sometimes feel a tension or reluctance from the ewe. Sometimes she wouldn't look him in the eye, or be hesitant to touch him. He wasn't sure what to make of it. Perhaps she was still somewhat afraid of the wolf. It wasn't a hard notion to understand, that fear is sort of ingrained in most sheep. Or perhaps she still felt like she was going to ruin his life somehow, which he adamantly refuted. Either way, he was certain with time that problem would pass.

What troubled him more was the strange scent he had been picking up around the ewe more recently, and what it was doing to him. He surmised it was some sort of new perfume, or something to that effect. But lately whenever he found himself near the lamb, he would catch a whiff of a flowery and fruity scent made his blood boil. He had already been having thoughts about Dawn that he found to be very inappropriate, but the odd scent seemed to compound them further. Needless to say, the lingering stare at her rump this morning was not the first, nor would probably be the last time to wolf would feel hot and bothered around Dawn.

"So what's going on today Puppy?" She asked, having finished her pastry.

"Lessee'" The wolf glanced at the digital clock on the stove which read four fifty-eight. "Welp, I've got a night class at eight." He took another sip of his coffee and sighed.

"Then we go on shift at ten, as per usual. So I've got probably about two hours to loaf around before I have to do anything." He smirked.

The wolf could sense the lamb shift uncomfortably next to him, most likely due to more wolf jitters.

"I'll be back in time to pick you up for work, so no worries there." He reassured her.

"Oh erm...I-it's not that." She muttered.

The wolf turned to look at her, curious.

"What's up Floof?" He queried.

"Well..." She twiddled the hooves, keeping her eyes to the floor. "It's getting close to summer now." She scratched her chest in clear discomfort.

"Ugh, don't remind me." The wolf muttered, taking a swig of his drink.

"Yeah." She mumbled. "Well...around this time my wool tends to come in kind of thick." She scratched again.

"Ah, so that's why you've been scratching so much." Vernon briskly scratched her hair poof.

"Yeah." She began to swing her legs idly on the stool. "I usually shear myself around this time." She looked up at the wolf, visibly distressed.

Now Vernon was concerned. He placed a paw on her leg. "Hey Floofs, what's the problem?"

She looked away quickly, rubbing her arm in embarrassment.

"I had this great shaving kit I used to use back at my apartment, but it went up with the place. So now I only have a really basic set of shears." Her voice quavered.

"And...?" Vernon pressed, unsure as to what she was getting at.

"Well, It can do the job just fine but..." She tapped her hooves nervously. "I-I, can't reach my back with them." She stuttered.

The wolf retracted his paw, still somewhat confused with what she was getting at.

"V-vernon, I really hate to ask this but.." She shuddered. "would you help me o-out?"

The wolf simply smirked. "S'that all? I can do that no problem. Not like I ain't helped out a few of my woolly friends with a spot shear before." Vernon finished his drink.

The lamb seemed somewhat relieved by his answer, clapping her hooves together.

"Oh thank you so much Vernon! I didn't want to ask something so personal but my new set has been taking forever to get here and I've been itching like crazy." She pantomimed vigorous scratching.

"Didn't realize it was so 'personal'." He said, getting up from his stool. "Like I said, I've helped some friends before. When I was rooming with Gus he broke his arm and I had to shear his back once, so it's not a big deal."

The ewe slid off her stool, and started for her room. "Well It's just that, I-I uh..." She stopped walking, rubbing her arm again. "I'll won't be wearing a top." She mumbled, her voice nearly inaudible.

Vernon felt his heart leap into his throat and grasped his muzzle in response, as if he were trying to keep it from escaping.

"I mean the strap would get in the way." She quickly chimed in. "But you won't see anything anyway, the wools grown in on the front so everything's covered." She sputtered out.

His thumping heart eased slightly. "O-oh ahem." The wolf coughed to cover his cracking voice. "Yeah, that's fine. Totally fine. Great. Yep fine." He rambled off.

Dawn turned back to Vernon, causing him to quickly turn away in an effort to hide the growing blush beneath his fur.

"Wait here for a few moments, okay?" She said awkwardly.

And with that, she disappeared into her bedroom.

Vernon stood there awkwardly. The situation had become very odd, very quickly. And for some reason he found himself shaking like a leaf at the mere thought of helping with this simple task.

"Get a hold of yourself Vern, she's your friend." He mumbled to himself quietly. "It's no big deal." Vernon was not the type to find sheep attractive in any way. He had been around sheep folk his whole life but had never thought of such a thing. He had always been attracted to she wolves. And yet this whole notion of Dawn's exposed form was making him shiver like catching the smirk of a gorgeous wolfess.

"It's just the awkwardness of the situation, that's all." He thought to himself. "Nothin' more, nothin' less."

"O-okay, I'm ready." He heard Dawn call.

Gulping audibly, the wolf reluctantly entered to see the woolly back of the ewe facing him as Dawn sat on her bed. With what seemed like agonizing slowness the wolf made his way across the room. His breath was hitched, and the silence pervading the space was deafening. Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity to the wolf, he made it to the bed side. Taking position behind the ewe, all the wolf could hear was his own heart beat. He could feel sweat brimming to the surface of his skin as he continued to stare at her back.

"T-the...um." She stuttered. "The shears should be right next to you."

It was at that moment he realized he had completely forgotten why he came in there. Dawn's comment had pulled him back to reality. He grasped for the electric shearer, fumbling with it a few times before getting a proper grip.

"A-any preference on where to start or...?" He trailed off.

"A-Anywhere is f-fine." The ewe was stumbling on her words. Clearly this was an embarrassing experience for her.

The wolf inspected the shears, feeling around dumbly for the on switch. Eventually his pads ran across the raised toggle after tracing around the device several times. With a simple press, the electric shears noisily hummed to life. the ewe flinched sharply at the sudden noise.

"S-sorry...it um." she mumbled. "Startled me."

The wolf let out a heavy sigh, and carefully brought the buzzing shear to the nape of her neck. As it touched the surface and lopped off a particularly fuzzy clump, the lamb visibly shuddered causing the wolf to swallow hard. With the second gingerly swipe, the familiar flowery smell seemed to return, causing the wolves heart to clench in terror.

"No, no, not now. Please not now." He thought to himself as his paw holding the shaver began to tremble_. "Focus on something, something other than Dawn."_ A third clump of wool was free, and he was beginning to see the smooth pinkish skin underneath.

"Make conversation, something!" His mind screamed as his tongue glided across his lips in hunger. "It's just getting worse!"

"So u-um." Dawn broke the silence. "I heard some howling in the building last night. B-but not from your room." She hesitated. "I was wondering..."

"Why didn't I howl?" The wolf regained some of his focus.

He saw the lamb briskly nod. "I mean, I don't want to offend, I just hear-"

"Yeah, that wolves can't resist a good howl." He chuckled lightly. Sighing, his paw seemed to steady as he continued to shear the ewe.

"I'm not offended Floofs. It takes a lot of effort actually to resist the urge when something like that happens. But it's not impossible." Vernon shrugged, continuing to shear down the lambs back.

"I think it's kind of a left over from ancient wolves, so I'm not fully sure what it's full purpose was then. But these days it's sort of like a solidarity thing. Wolves these days tend to howl when feeling a strong emotion, like joy, fear, sadness or something like that. When another wolf hears the call, they get the urge to call back to them." He mused.

"Oh." The ewe seemed to shudder again.

"It can be useful though, wolves can generally tell by the call what the howler is feeling. And if they needed help they could go and help them out I suppose. A good howl can ring out as far as three miles, or so I've heard." Vernon concluded.

"B-but, why don't you do it?" Dawn asked.

Vernon sighed heavily as he made another pass at her shoulders. "Honestly, it's embarrassing. Mammals see a wolf howling and think they're just big dumb dogs with no self control. So I work really hard to suppress it." Vernon shrugged again.

The two were quiet as Vernon continued his work. Dawn's shoulders were now fully exposed, and he was working the shear down her back. The wolf did his best to keep his eyes averted from the supple flesh.

"D-do um...?" Dawn seemed to pause. "Do wolves howl when they are with their mate?" Vernon could barely hear her mumble over the buzzer, but upon realization his blush returned.

"Well, when I had one...I err. That only tended to happen when we were..." The wolf shifted uncomfortably. "intimate." Vernon as starting to feel uncomfortably hot.

"Oh." Was dawn's simple response.

There was a lingering silence as the wolf cleared the upper area of her back. Vernon's focus was slipping, and his paw was beginning to tremble again as he looked at the ewes glistening pink skin.

"Hmm." Dawn broke the awkward silence. "I'm kind of surprised you don't have a mate." She stated.

"Well, I kind of stopped for a while a when I started school. I don't really get on with the ladies to be honest, so I figured I'd just focus on work." The wolf shrugged.

"Oh." The lambs tone sounded deflated. "I u-uh, didn't know you were..."

It took a moment for Vernon to catch on to what she was implying. He immediately leapt to defend himself.

"Whoa now, I'm not good with the ladies, I never said I wasn't into them." He chuckled. "That would be my brother Xavier. His boyfriend is nice though, damn fine cook too."

The ewe giggled. "I'm sorry, Its just still so surprising that a nice wolf like you doesn't have anyone."

"Pfft." The wolf grunted. "I get that enough from my parents, they want grand pups desperately, and they've pretty much only got three shots left at that."

"What? Why?" Dawn shuddered as Vernon buzzed free some more fluff.

"Welp, four of my brothers are in relationships that ain't fit for bearing pups. Zachary is with a tigress, Yuri is with a hyena, Trenton is with an arctic fox, and then there's Xavier, the only one with another wolf, but they are both fellas."

"Y-your family..." Dawn stuttered. "Seem to like t-to date out of their species huh?"

Vernon suddenly felt very uncomfortable, the sweet scent had returned full force and the topic continued to make the problem worse. Vernon coughed awkwardly, he was nearly done with the shearing and desperately wanted to flee.

"Well...erm." Vernon sputtered. "Well, I've mostly stuck to wolves myself. But there's nothing wrong with that. The heart wants what it wants as my ma would say."

"Oh..." The lamb sounded disappointed.

Vernon buzzed the last of the wool free, exposing Dawn's now smooth back to the open air.

"There we are!" Vernon said, scrambling off the bed quickly, and standing up. "You are all set Dawn."

The lamb didn't speak for a moment, then suddenly piped up as if coming out of a daze. "Oh! Oh thank you so much Puppy, this feels so much better!" She chirped. Her back had been glistening with sweat from the heat, and she suddenly shimmied her body most likely to shake off any excess wool. The wolf averted his gaze as he quickly backed out of the room.

"Hey not a problem!" The wolf awkwardly barked, grasping the door frame in desperation. "Welp, I'll leave you to it!" He said abruptly before taking off back into the living room, leaving the lamb alone. He bolted across the room, darting to the nearby computer chair and collapsing into it. Throwing his head back, he let a deep and mournful sigh escape his muzzle.

"Gods be damned, what the hell is wrong with me." He thought to himself, bringing a paw to cover his face.

"Gotta be my season or something...or hers. Can't be anything else." He mumbled, slumping his head back down. For a while he simply stared at the adjacent computer screen, watching the cartoonish screensaver play absentmindedly before the filthy thoughts returned. "I wonder what she looks like completely..." The wolf shook his head violently at the thought. "Vernon, stop this now!" he mentally scolded himself.

He continued to stare at the monitor as another lurid idea passed through his head. "Well..." he reasoned. "It wouldn't really hurt to get an idea." With that, the wolf slowly grabbed the mouse and began to move it.

Bringing up the Zoogle home page, he quickly looked over his shoulder to re-affirm he was alone. With the coast clear, he cautiously typed in his search.

"Sheared Ewes." Slowly filled in the search bar, and the mouse shakily made it's way to the search button. With an awkward double click the browser was off and running, and in an instant it had turned up thousands of results.

The wolf eyed the first one. "Sheared.com; Zootopia's number one site for naughty ewes who know more than one way to use a shearer." Each time the wolf re-read the line silently to himself his heartbeat grew louder, and his excitement grew. Paw trembling, he clicked the link.

Immediately his screen was filled with ewes in erotic poses, in various stages of shearing. A few were playfully licking the end of their respective shears, eyeing the viewer seductively. Many of them looked a great deal like Dawn, in fact the wolf found himself super-imposing the ewes face on the various models. Vernon's tail began to wag vigorously at the sight.

"Cl...lick here..." He was nearly breathless as he quietly spoke. "To see o-our resident leggy lamb in action." The wolf had come too far to back out now. His urges pushing him onward, his paw moved the pointer over the link toward the link.

The double click was forceful, and deliberate. The video launcher rapidly opened, and after a few moments of buffering the advertised ewe appeared on screen. She looked so much like Dawn it was almost startling, then again the wolf was now seeing Dawn as almost every ewe he looked at. Her eyes were even the same piercing green as Dawn's were. Her legs and shoulders were already sheared, and she was wearing nothing other than a black pair of pad covers that made their way up to her mid calf. As the video played, the lamb fiddled with an electric razor . After a few moments of toying with the device she winked at the viewer, and seductively licked the non-bladed end of the shears.

Then, in one swift motion she drove the shears down the center of her chest, cleaving a clean path between her bosom. As it continued down she uttered a soft, pleading bleat. Just before reaching her most forbidden of areas the wolf snapped out of his heated fervor. Sanity returning and guilt fiercely gripping him, he shook his head violently and quickly closed the window.

Shooting straight up out of the seat, he wiped his forehead repeatedly as if he were trying to wake up. The beat of his heart rang deafeningly in his ears.

"I...I need." He was panting desperately, as if he had just run across the city. "I need a cold shower, NOW!" He barked.

Vernon took off in a desperate sprint, heading for the bathroom in a mad dash. As he cleared the hall corner and turned to enter the bathroom, he lost his footing, coming down hard against the door. As the full weight of his body slammed against it, it gave way allowing him to fall straight into the bathroom. On his way down, he spun in a frenzied effort grasp something, anything to break his fall.

Unfortunately, the only thing his flailing paw managed to grasp was a towel, which easily pulled loose under his weight. A towel which was previously being held around the torso of a very familiar lamb. As the wolf slammed into the ground, his eyes fell upon the newly revealed sight.

There was Dawn, horrified and embarrassed in all her sheared glory. Her arms were free of wool, as was her chest, and all the way down. It appeared Vernon would no longer need to imagine what she looked like. She quickly clasped her hooves over her exposed places, but the damage had been done.

"VERNON!" She said in a startled tone.

The wolf quickly stood up, slapping a paw over his eyes.

"DAWN!? DAWN! I-I'M" He sputtered, blushing furiously. "I"M SO SORRY!!!" He began to blindly back out of the room.

He could hear Dawn clambering to retrieve her towel. "No! It's my fault! I should have said I was going to use the bathroom!" She sputtered.

The wolf bumped into the doorway hard, sending a stinging pain up his back. He yelped in response. "No! No! I should have knocked!" The wolf used his free hand to find the door knob, and groped it shakily. "I'm-I'm." He stuttered. "I should head out!" And with that, the wolf escaped the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

Again he was running, fleeing to the apartment entrance. Once outside, he slammed the door behind him loudly, panting hard and fast. As he leaned against the front door, his legs gave out from under him. Slowly the wolf slid down the door, eventually crumpling into a heap on the floor of the vacant and silent hall. The wolf clutched his chest, praying for his heart to stop. Vernon stared blankly across the empty hall, trying to gather his breath.

"Teeth to Tails." he mumbled to himself. Dawn's lithe form was dancing across his mind. "Th-This." He shook his head briskly to try to shake the image away. "This ain't good."