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This story occurs the morning after my FANG 4 submission, The Rule of Four, which you can read here: http://www.sofurry.com/view/280417. Read that one first if you haven't already, then come and read this one if you enjoyed it. I appreciate all the feedback I can get, so please rate all the stories you read, and leave comments everywhere you can!

The Rule of Four:

Jaron's Awakening

© 10/27/2011 by Lycanthromancer

http://lycanthromancer.sofurry.com

The Tasmanian devil realized he was awake when the luminescent green numbers of the alarm clock flipped from 9:04 to 9:05. He'd been staring blearily at them for a while, but he'd been balancing on the fuzzy edge of unconsciousness for some time and wasn't fully aware of his surroundings. He couldn't recall having any of his customary nightmares last night; in fact, he felt lazy and rested and relaxed, more so than he could remember ever having been before.

Jaron glanced woozily around the room, noting the Dark Side of the Moon poster tacked to the wood-paneled door and the Michael Jackson: In Concert one next to it, the animal-print blankets nailed across two of the walls, the small cherry-wood entertainment center and bookshelf squeezed into the corner, and a number of potted plants on shelves in front of the big inset window with thin curtains that let in enough light to see by, even when closed.

It didn't surprise him, waking up in Rubric's room; he spent his nights over here whenever he could manage it. What did surprise him for a moment was what he realized shortly thereafter: him, naked, in Rubric's house, in Rubric's room, in Rubric's bed, in Rubric's arms.

Rubric.

So it wasn't a dream after all.

He lay curled up against the big red panda, his mostly-black body wrapped snugly in the panda's own mostly-maroon one. The large male that held him breathed deeply and evenly, his broad muscular chest rising and falling in a slow rhythm that made Jaron smile. It felt...good...snuggled into the hollow of his lover's washboard stomach and against the young man's thickly furred chest. Better, in fact, than he'd ever expected when he'd followed Raz, Chaz, and him down to the beach last night and interrupted their foreplay with his lonely confession.

The devil's muscles lay still, lax and calm, and he shifted lazily to snuggle farther into the warmth of the blankets and Rubric's body. When was the last time he felt this good waking up? He thought back to all the mornings he'd practically jumped out of bed to get up and out, to get the hell out of his room and the hell out of his house. Nope. Nothing came to mind. He even had a rock-hard erection, and morning wood certainly didn't happen to him often. He liked it. With luck it would stick around awhile. It might even become a regular occurrence.

It was so much easier when he wasn't driven away by the memories of the past and the realities of the present. That had all changed with everything that happened last night, partially because of the man whose arms were around him now. Now he could just kinda float there, drifting on the edge of sleep and happiness.

A devil could get used to this.

He ruminated dreamily about the ways in which his world had turned upside-down in the last twelve hours, and about what it all meant. About everything it took to lead to him and his best friend snuggling together, naked, in this big warm bed.

It all started with secrets...

...

He'd been nervous -- damn near terrified -- at the prospect of telling his friends how hard he'd been crushing on them. The Tasmanian devil wasn't gay, but he'd realized some time before that he had fallen hard for all three of them, and that left him in a very awkward position. He didn't want to scare them off, but he'd tortured himself for so long, and it hurt so much to keep it all inside. Jaron felt like a letch for lusting after his friends, and like a coward for hiding it from them. But how do you tell not one, but three other males that they make you so horny that you can't sleep at night even after rubbing one out a quarter-dozen times; that you lay awake at night dreaming about kissing them, touching them, rubbing every square inch of their bodies with every square inch of yours, and candlelit dinners, and slow-dances, and all the rest of that lovey-dovey crap the movies say you're supposed to do with someone you...someone you...

And there it was: that word. He hadn't felt anything like it since his mother died: the warmth and safety and security of being in someone's arms, like nothing bad could happen to you if they were there, even if it was a lie. And with his mother it certainly wasn't accompanied by these other feelings, the ones that left him panting and sweaty and sticky late at night, and the whole jumble was a hot, weird, confusing mess. Especially since he didn't know if any of them would even be vaguely interested in what he felt for them. Yes, the twins flirted with him mercilessly, but they did that with anything that moved. It was just how they were. And Rubric was always so considerate of everyone that Jaron had never once taken it for attraction of any kind when directed at him.

Then he learned that the towering wall of muscular red and black and white fluff was gay, and that both he and the rabbit twins found Jaron attractive -- adorable, as the brothers put it -- and it left the devil surprised and off-balance. So he acted like he normally did, gruff and annoyed at the world in general, and he died a little inside because of it.

He just needed time to sort things out, to think, and having Chaz's hands all over him all evening made that flat-out impossible. It kept him in such a state of high anxiety that he'd done his best to ignore the white French lop, even if that was the last thing he wanted to do.

Chaz had even asked him to be his prom-date, his actual date, and he'd waved it off dismissively. God, what a fucking coward he was, and he knew it.

Jaron's gut had churned as he watched Rubric and Raz molest each other near the snack tables, and again as they danced with the crowd outside under the stars. It wasn't jealousy. Okay, so maybe it was -- a burning envy that left his stomach so queasy that he nearly threw up several times -- but not for the reason any of them would think. He saw the brutal honesty of their attraction to each other, and he wanted to share in that more than almost anything. But one thing after another happened, and before he knew it Raz had disappeared and Rube ran off to find him.

And then it was just him and Chaz.

He'd tried to distract the rabbit with conversation, while the rabbit tried to distract him by touching him everywhere he was allowed to in public (and then some), and by that point Jaron didn't have the heart to even try and stop him. And that was how Raz and Rubric found them when they returned.

Looking back, he could see exactly what had happened: the twins pushed at their boundaries and chafed at their limits as a matter of habit, and they wanted Jaron in their little ménage à whatever-the-hell-it-was. The twins had always been incredibly astute and crafty, and they had a way of knowing just what he was thinking, sometimes before he did. With hindsight backing him, the only thing that surprised him now was just how long it took for them to reel him and Rube into their little web. Jaron didn't doubt that they'd planned and plotted the whole thing, and neither he nor the red panda stood a chance from the beginning.

Raz kept Rubric busy with Prom stuff, probably to accustom him to the whole gay thing in public, while Chaz laid siege to Jaron's emotional walls for a very similar reason. The rabbit took the devil's lack of rejection for exactly what it was: a silent admission that he wanted it, and badly.

They'd likely known exactly how both he and Rubric felt better than either of them did despite their protestations of ignorance, and Jaron had to admit to himself that if things had happened any sooner, or under different circumstances, the twins might have scared them both off.

So by the end of the evening, Jaron took the opportunity to slip away unnoticed and ran home with his tail between his legs. He texted his friends to tell them he'd left, and slipped into his house, into a darkness which went way beyond a mere lack of light. As usual, he didn't bother with any of the lamps; they'd all been smashed or burned out years ago, and he'd long ago become accustomed to the gloom. He changed out of his tux in his darkened bedroom, and then collapsed into a heap on the dusty living room couch. He noted again how utterly full the house felt in its emptiness. Full of furniture. Full of darkness. Full of nightmares. Full of nothing.

The only signs that it had ever been his home were the memories and a few faint, washed-out scents from his past life. The more recent odors he'd left faded quickly until they were nearly as dull as the old ones. The place hadn't been his home since he was 13, not really. Not since his family burned to ashes around him.

He hated it. He hated it all.

The pressure building up in his chest squeezed his heart until he thought it would burst. It hurt like someone had clubbed him with a baseball bat, and he could barely breathe.

He wondered miserably if he would die there in that house, like his happiness, like his mother. He reached down and out and touched the barely-visible stain on the floor where he'd found her, the only vestige of her not buried under six feet of dirt, and he only noticed his tears when they splashed against his forearm. He scrubbed at them, ashamed of his own weakness, and he couldn't even summon any of his regular stockpile of cynicism for it; he hurt too much for that.

God damn this whole house and everything in it, and that included him. He almost laughed. God had damned him a long time ago: this was Hell if anywhere was. He would have picked up the lamp and hurled it against the wall in frustration, shattered it into a hundred thousand pieces, but the broken shards of pottery still on the carpet and the dent in the wall above them (one of many that pitted the house's interior) attested to the fact that he'd done that exact thing already, a long time ago.

Jaron wished he could burn it all down. Burn the house and the furniture and the photographs and the scents and the memories... But no. For every dozen memories that made him want to scream in pain or in anger, another made him smile -- almost. Those memories made the pain almost tolerable. They almost made it worth the lonely hours spent sitting in the darkness by himself on a couch covered in five years' worth of dust and isolation, feeling sorry for himself.

He sat there for what felt like weeks, reliving the tedium of the last several years. Day after day he woke up early, got out of the house as quickly as possible, went to school, then stayed out as late as he could. He would come back at night only to sit in the darkness for an hour, maybe two, then shower and sleep before leaving again early the next day. He spent his evenings, weekends, and summers away from that house, busying himself with his studying, his workouts and practices, his friends, and all the charity work he could find in order to keep his mind off of the reality of things. It helped, but at the end of the day he still had to go back there, to the loneliness and the shadow of death.

God, I hate this house so much.

And then, as he sat there in the middle of nothing, his thoughts turned to the events of the night and to what they meant. He remembered his bewilderment when he learned that Rubric was gay, and that the red panda and Raz and Chaz all three were attracted to him. He recalled that brief ray of hope when he thought that maybe he could tell them his own secret. Maybe Chaz would respond. Maybe one of the others would. Maybe...

...maybe...

Dammit.

He'd lost his chance. The whole night he stood around like a moron while his 'date' pawed at him, literally begging for attention. Jaron ignored the young man he'd wanted so badly for over two years now, and instead of sweeping him off his feet and showing him exactly how much he wanted him, he let him walk away to partner up with Rubric and his own brother, because Jaron would hardly look at him.

I'm such a fucking coward.

That was when something inside of him broke. He couldn't do this any more. He couldn't continue to allow parts of him to die little by little in this place. He couldn't keep haunting this tombstone of a house which marked the shallow grave of what used to be his life. He had to do...something. He had to go find them, tell them how he felt, plead for them not to leave him alone, beg them to rescue him and take him away from this grief-ridden hell, something!

Jaron found himself backing out of the driveway before he even realized he'd stood up. He didn't even stop to ask himself where he was going; knowing the twins like he did, they would've co-opted Rubric's car and driven him down to the beach, both as a romantic gesture and to bookend the evening with irony. And they would've gone prepared for the big moment with condoms and such, but of course they'd get so excited at reeling in their catch that they'd forget to bring them along. Typical behavior for the Edwards twins.

So Jaron stopped at the corner gas station and dropped over a hundred bucks on different-sized condoms and lubricant. He supposed he looked like he was gearing up for an all-night, all-male orgy to the wallaby attendant, but he hardly cared at that point. He kind of was, after all.

He found them down on the beach, just like he figured, and the twins were already stripped naked. He watched enviously as they dragged Rube's dress pants off eagerly and threw them away. Then they groped and kissed and Jaron's shorts got so tight and he smiled a bit before remembering why he was there and his nerves killed his boner instantly.

He wondered how to interrupt without... Well, there really was no way to interrupt without seeming like a creepy stalker, but he could hear the twins arguing about having left their condoms in Rube's car, and he felt a subdued satisfaction as he tossed the plastic bag he carried next to them to catch their attention.

The twins peered at him with wide eyes over Rubric's suddenly stiff shoulders. "Oh!"

"Uh...hi Jaron."

"We were just...ah..."

The devil's voice rang hollow. "...about to have sex. Yes, I know."

And then he told them everything. Well...not everything, but enough.

And instead of rejecting him, instead of condemning him for a creep or a liar or a coward, they embraced him in an honest-to-god group hug that left his head swimming and his heart aching. He laughed in actual happiness for the first time in years, and the pressure in his chest, that lump that had weighed him down for over half a decade, drained away, leaving him light-headed and practically euphoric.

And then they fucked repeatedly over the course of the next three hours. No, not fucked -- it was too intimate for that. He managed to get off six whole times before they were finally done for the night, with another six for Rube. He lost count at thirty for each of the twins, and they'd barely reached the halfway point by then.

Damned bunnies. But the thought was delighted rather than annoyed, not that he'd ever tell them that.

Between bouts of sex, they talked about their plans now that they were officially a -- Couple? Quartet? Whatever. -- now that they were together, now that they were leaving high school, and what their collective relationship meant for them and their futures. He wasn't 100% sold on selling his place and moving in with them, though the more he listened the more he liked the idea. He did hate the hell out of that damned house, but...he'd never lived anywhere else, and the only happy memories he had of his mother still lived there, though they were buried under everything else that'd happened within those god-forsaken walls.

Eventually even the rabbits gave out under the weight of sexual exhaustion, and they said their goodbyes after they all dunked themselves in the ocean to wash the sand out of their fur. The twins took Jaron's car after he extracted a few promises to drive carefully, while Rubric insisted he spend the night with him.

Not that he had to insist very hard.

Jaron didn't want to sleep by himself anymore if he could avoid it, though maybe it wouldn't be so bad now that he didn't feel so alone.

Maybe... Maybe he'd never have to sleep in that damned corner of hell ever again. The thought left him almost giddy.

The two of them finally snuck into Rubric's house at just after 2:00 am, stripped down to their fur, and collapsed into Rube's bed. Their bed. God, it felt so good when Rube said that.

The last thing that filtered through Jaron's hazy thoughts before he drifted off was that Rubric's warm weight curling around him felt safe, and warm, and wonderful, and...

Just perfect...

...

And now here he was, in that same big comfortable bed, naked and aroused with another male, another man, and he felt nothing but happy about it. Even so, the devil wasn't gay. He knew that, knew it deep down as a fundamental aspect of his existence. He had no problems with those who were, but that wasn't him. Of course, he didn't consider himself straight either, or even bi. The only attraction he felt for anyone was for the guy who held him, and for the twins undoubtedly snuggled up together a few miles away in the room they shared. The fact that the three of them were all male was irrelevant. His love for them and trust in them drew him to all of them, and he found them all so attractive, inside and out, in all the ways that counted.

If anyone else had problems with it and got uppity he'd be more than willing to throw them the death-glare he'd perfected, which promised a very painful beating to anyone who didn't knock it off, and that usually made people with any sense of self-preservation shut the hell up. But if some of the stupider ones actually tried anything, he could put all those years spent mastering aikido to good use for an actual beating.

The devil relaxed even more, snuggling deeper into Rubric's unconscious body, enjoying the warmth at his back and his own hot hardness between his legs. He pushed in to get as much of his body into contact with Rube's as he could, and he felt a stiff lump poke him beneath the tail.

Jaron stopped. He knew exactly what that was. He hadn't let anybody touch his tail-hole last night, as there were some things he didn't feel ready for just yet. But now he wiggled his rump a bit, and the friction felt nice. Really nice. To Rubric too, apparently, since the red panda made a happy noise in his sleep and shifted his hips, and Jaron's eyes went wide as at least three feet of Rubric's maleness slipped inside of him. That's how it felt, anyway.

It certainly didn't hurt, though it probably should have, according to the twins. He must've been more relaxed than he thought because it went in easily, even without lube or stretching, and Rube was by no means small, on any level. It felt...wonderful. Not world shattering by any means, not yet, but it definitely warranted further exploration at some point. Maybe even this morning, if his...err...his boyfriend felt up to it. And from the quality of the erection poking up Jaron's tailpipe, he certainly would be.

He'd have to get used to the idea of having a boyfriend. Well, boyfriend s , since he was now the proud owner of three of them. The relationship itself would be easy, he thought, since they were Rubric and the twins. Thinking about them in 'boyfriend' terms and saying it out loud, though, were another matter. He'd have to work on it.

He jabbed the boyfriend currently stuffed up his backside with an elbow -- gently, of course; he didn't want to break any ribs -- and felt him stir as he awoke. "Hey, Sleeping Beauty. Wake up."

Rubric snuffled as his eyes popped open, and he grinned drowsily for a moment at the black-and-white-furred boyfriend he held in his arms. "I'm more of a Prince Charming, actually," he murmured in a lazy rumble. "Good morning, Jare. Sleep well?"

Jaron looked back with a half-smile on his face. "Yup. And I woke up to a big surprise." He clenched down on the hot, hard flesh invading his posterior. "Though I'm amazed you could even fit part of that thing in there, Rube. It's huge."

As planned, the red panda gasped at the squeeze, and his ears turned a flaming shade of crimson. "I...I'm sorry, Jaron. I didn't mean--"

But Jaron's hand reached back and clamped down on his muzzle before Rubric could say anything else. "It's okay, Furball, don't worry about it. Feels kind of nice, really. Weird, but nice."

Rubric chuckled. "That describes so much of the last twelve hours, doesn't it?"

The devil agreed. "So," he said as he trailed a claw over his boyfriend's shoulder, "do you think we can experiment with it, or will your family try to poke their noses in if they hear something?" His dragged his claw down Rubric's arm, making the red panda shiver. Casual touching usually wasn't his thing, but he felt he could get away with it now, all things considered.

Rube took a deep shuddering breath. "N-No, it should be okay. My parents work on Saturdays, and it's--" He glanced at the clock. "--9:35, and my sister never wakes up before noon on the weekends. I think we're good for awhile, so long as we don't make much noise." He pulled Jaron closer and wiggled his hips just a bit, pushing himself in a little deeper before flicking his tongue across the tip of the devil's ear (which made his ear twitch), nuzzling around in it for a second (which made his cock twitch), and murmuring into its recesses, "So, how do you want your eggs and sausage, Mr. Fitzgerald: hard-boiled, or over easy? How about both?"

Jaron rolled his eyes. "You've spent too much time around those rabbits. That was a patented Edwards-twin comment if I've ever heard one."

"I can't help it. They're really good at rubbing off on me."

The devil had to chuckle at that one. "Quiet, you." Both of them groaned as he pulled off of Rubric's cock. Jaron felt funny back there as he checked to make sure everything beneath his tail was in proper working order. Far as he could tell, it was. He rolled out of bed and stretched, working out all the kinks that came from lying around and doing nothing for nearly eight hours.

Rubric gawked at him openly, taking in his dark, compact, muscular body from head to foot. The devil's form was entirely monochromatic, black and white from the tips of his ears to the bottoms of his feet, with the only visible color anywhere on his body being his emerald eyes. White blotches dotted his eyebrows and the tip of his tail, and a bright white ribbon curled around his neck, dripped over the hollows of his throat, curled down between his nicely developed pectorals, and then wrapped under his armpits to spiral around on each shoulder blade. All of this complemented the big white splotch that stretched from between his thighs up to his navel, which completed his pelt's design. Everything else was black, even the large, almost canine erection jutting brazenly from between his thighs. Jaron's thick, coarse, dark fur, rather than looking lifeless and dull, almost shimmered when exposed to the light filtering through the curtains, glossy and sleek. It wasn't fine and manageable like his own, or soft and fluffy like the twins', but it had a certain je ne sais quoi, a nobility about it, that always made Rube stare, and now he didn't have to hide it.

And that didn't even count the devil's rock-hard physique. Despite being two feet shorter than Rubric and just over half his width, Jaron weighed within twenty pounds of the much larger red panda, and was actually stronger than he was. He wasn't at all large, but he was solid, a near-obsessive diet and weight-training regimen giving him a strength that belied his small stature, and years of practicing for aikido and competitive wrestling pushed him past nicely toned and into something else entirely. A fist to his gut was more likely to break the hand that hit him than bruise his stomach, and anyone on the receiving end of a serious punch or kick was liable to end up hospitalized for ruptured organs, or at least broken bones. What Rubric got mostly through his grandfather's ursine genetics Jaron had earned with tears, sweat, and blood. Rube wasn't entirely sure why he pushed himself so hard, but it certainly made him feel like the luckiest man alive to have such a sexy stud for a boyfriend.

Jaron pulled out of his stretch and glanced back. The goofy grin on Rubric's face said he obviously enjoyed what he saw. Points due south said something similar, rather more blatantly. "Why don't we go take a shower?" the devil said with a wink. "I feel like I spent the whole night fucking in the sand."

The red panda scratched at his balls unselfconsciously and then his side as he stood, and he grabbed Jaron's shoulders, bent down, and kissed the side of his neck as tenderly as he knew how. "I think that's a great idea, Jare. I'm feeling pretty dirty myself."

The devil poked him in the stomach and threw a flat look at him, but the edges of his muzzle curled up and ruined it. "You can stop with the innuendo now."

It was Rube's turn to roll his eyes. "What? I didn't do that one on purpose. I think you're just perving after I woke up impaling you from behind for the first time."

Jaron smirked. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Anyway, I've always wanted to take a shower with you properly, rather than just in the one at the school gym. Do you realize how damned hard it was when you or the twins were naked and only four feet away?"

"Now who's spouting innuendo?" The red panda returned a sarcastic smirk of his own. "I'm a healthy red-blooded teenaged male full of raging adolescent hormones. I think I can sympathize with you on that one," he said, grinding his rock-hard erection into Jaron's hip to emphasize his point. "Just a bit."

All of those condoms -- all $100-worth -- were gone, mostly thanks to those horny little lapin bastards, but both Rubric and Jaron had been virgins only yesterday and they'd used them last night with the twins (who definitely weren't), so they agreed that they could probably get away with not using any now. The chances of anything coming back to bite them on the asses later were practically nil, far as they could tell, though Rubric admitted wanting to take a nibble or two, if asses were to be bitten. They debated for a minute over clothes and decided to just dash across the hallway naked since the bathroom door was right there, but not before grabbing one of the last bottles of silicone XY Jelly and checking to see that the coast was clear.

Jaron waited for Rube to go before he checked the hallway and scurried out, shutting and locking the bathroom door behind him. He turned around, only to see his friend taking a swig from a bottle before shoving it into his hands. "What's this?"

It looked like a bottle of mouthwash. Rubric just motioned for him to use it, which he did.

Rube swished it around in his own muzzle without a word as he turned away. He set the bottle of lube on one of the shower's shelves, and started the water running in the rather large built-in tub. It looked about five feet by eight feet, and was tiled in a mosaic of light greens and blues, with a wide raised seat in one corner and modular Plexiglas panels for when it was used as a shower. Steam began filling the room as the hot water kicked in, pouring from the showerhead in a hissing torrent.

The big maroon-furred wall of muscle adjusted the temperature to his liking before he turned back and spat his mouthful of mint-flavored alcohol into the sink. "I'm going to kiss you," he promised in a tone of absolute assurance. "Neither of us brushed our teeth last night, and I don't want to deal with double-morning breath."

Jaron could only smirk before he graced the sink with a second shot of mouthwash, and it left the insides of his muzzle tingling. Not quite as good as a thorough brushing, but it was better than nothing. He padded up to Rubric and reached up, pulling him close. "Is this better?"

Rubric's answer was to grab him roughly and pull him into an electrifying kiss, his tongue invading the devil's mouth and his hands invading the devil's body. They stumbled into the tub, and they hardly noticed when the steaming water hit them from the heat that ran through them already.

Jaron's hands found their way to Rubric's thick rump, kneading the heavy lean muscle there, and he found Rube's hands running along his own well-muscled back and then downward, massaging and squeezing, and generally making his life a helluva lot more interesting. The devil groaned into his boyfriend's mouth as those hands worked his backside, and he groaned louder when those fingers worked their way under his tail, caressing his pucker in a way that sent an electric jolt all the way up his spine.

Their muzzles locked together as he ran his tongue over the roof of Rube's mouth, caressing the ridges there, and he tickled the man's soft palate. He drew his tongue back, letting its tip slide along each ridge, and then curled it around Rubric's tongue before drawing it into his own mouth.

Meanwhile, hands explored bodies as they clutched at each other, desperate for as much flesh-to-flesh contact as they could get their hands on. They massaged and squeezed and groped and grabbed, and Jaron dragged his claws through Rubric's back-fur hard enough to make Rube shudder. The devil moved to the side a bit without breaking contact, and ground his cock into Rubric as he straddled his thigh. Lucky for them both, it was also a perfect position for Rubric to do the same to his hip.

They both grunted and growled, swallowing each other's muffled noises of pleasure lest they escape to the rest of the house. The clear panels of the shower fogged up, and the roaring sheet of steamy water pouring down on them drowned out the sounds of their ardor, though Jaron found himself not quite caring at this point, and it became harder and harder to keep quiet.

He didn't want to -- god how he didn't want to -- but he pushed back and away, breathless and with his groin hard and aching. His heart raced, and the rush in his ears wasn't all from the spray of the shower. He stood there for a moment, sopping wet and panting, propping himself up against the wall with one hand, his knees weak. Water flooded over his fur and ran down onto the blue-green floor tiles, leaving a runnel of brown as the remainder of last night's beach sand and sea salt made its way down the drain. "I think...we'd better...clean up first. Otherwise...we'll never get done..."

The big red panda looked just as winded and weak and bedraggled as Jaron felt, his waterlogged tail twitching down on the bottom of the tub like a furry candy-striped snake, one too exhausted to move but too agitated to lay still. "I don't think...I'd mind...staying here...for awhile..." He'd gotten his share of the water as they swallowed each other's tongues, and now the water running over his body slicked down his fur and left his musculature in stark relief, sexier than Jaron had ever seen it.

Those giant panda genes from his grandfather had done their job magnificently; the young man weighed damn near three hundred pounds, every ounce of it solid muscle, blood, and bone. His broad shoulders tapered to narrow hips, though only by association. His entire body was one thick slab, perfectly proportioned to his six-foot-six frame. Jaron's eyes roved downward to his hips and lower, and if he ever saw a finer pair of legs on anyone, he'd be lying to himself. And there, between the thighs, he saw Rube's ponderous maroon-colored balls, drenched and dripping just under his beautiful eight inches of hard, slick, dark pink flesh. He wanted to touch it, taste it, and now that he knew some of what it felt like, he wanted it inside him.

But that would have to wait. They had to clean up before they could get dirty again.

Jaron grabbed a bottle of lavender-scented fur shampoo and pumped a generous squirt into his hand. "C'mon, lover-boy. Let's get you washed."

He started up at his boyfriend's shoulders, working the soap into the dark fur there and using his claws to really dig in, then inched his way down each arm, coaxing them to a thick lather. Rube refused to let him scrub his armpits when he tried due to being ticklish, and Jaron relented for the moment, but not before filing the information away as blackmail material for later. He worked his way over those wonderfully hard pectoral muscles and into the thick fur in the cleft between them, and he felt accomplished when he made Rubric jump as he rubbed his fingers (and then his tongue) against each of the man's soap-slicked nipples.

Then he scrubbed his way down his panda bear's wonderfully textured belly, dipping a blunt claw into his navel with a twist of his digit. It made Rube cry out with an involuntary thrust of the hips as a line of fire shot from that claw straight to his crotch. He'd hit a nerve, and it was something to remember the next time he went down on him. Which shouldn't be too much longer, now, come to think of it.

Jaron worked his hands around Rubric's flanks, up his muscular sides and back (taking special care to run his claw-tips over those ticklish ribs), and over his beautiful sculpted ass. He could worship that ass, if given the chance. Maybe he'd be able to later -- god, he hoped so.

He directed the red panda under the showerhead, rinsing him off to keep the soap from drying in his fur, and suggested that he wash his own head-fur while he was at it. Reaching up that far would be awkward at best. Jaron didn't normally dislike his own lack of height, though he was starting to see that being a four-foot-six man with a six-foot-six boyfriend could have a few downsides.

Jaron pulled him away from the water and he scrubbed Rube's thighs next, down his calves, along his feet and in between his toes, and the big man giggled -- actually giggled! -- when he ran his fingers through them.

Then came time for that twitching red-and-white-striped tail. Jaron knew from past experience -- namely, last night -- that Rubric's tail was especially sensitive, and so he used it to best effect as he stroked his fingers down its heavily saturated four-foot length, making the red panda shiver and groan. He worked his way down to the end, then went back up to the base, stroking his claws over the top of his rump and around the sides. "Lift 'er up, Furball." And then he ventured underneath. Rubric's knees nearly buckled as Jaron massaged his soap-slick finger-pads over that spasming pucker, and the devil grinned. He'd definitely be leaving an offering there later today, if he had his say.

His ministrations paid off as he saw Rubric's cock fit to burst when he turned him back around. The red panda's knees wobbled, and given what Jaron had in mind for his next trick, maybe it'd be best if Rubric weren't on his feet. "Sit down, Furball. I don't want your legs giving out."

Rube did so, nearly collapsing on the raised portion of the shower floor, as all the blood in his body seemed to have drained into his fully engorged nether regions. He leaned back on the shower wall, with his arms resting comfortably on the edge of the tub. "Damn, Jare. You really know how to work a guy up."

He grinned. "I try."

Steam billowed in the shower cabinet as Jaron adjusted the spray onto Rube's lower half, leaving him even more drenched than before, if that was possible. The red panda shivered as the hot water pelted his rock-solid cock and it twitched hard, as if anticipating what came next. The devil pumped another palmful of fur-shampoo into his hand, and knelt between Rubric's sprawled-out legs, blocking the spray of the water with his body as he did so. He ran his soaped-up fingers along the young man's lower belly just below his navel, dipping his claw-tip into the indent with another involuntary thrust and a wicked grin. He worked his way lower, rubbing small frothy circles in the patch of pale fur in the area between the red panda's hips just above his cock sheath, and Rubric made a pleased rumble to reward him for his efforts.

And finally, finally, he stroked that throbbing dark pink length of flesh with his finger-pads, the moisturizing soap coating it in a thin slickness that left Rubric whimpering with his eyes screwed shut. A jet of clear sticky precum shot from his length and landed on Jaron's black-and-white-furred chest as soon as he wrapped his hand around it, and the devil smiled approvingly. This was just how he wanted his boyfriend: all worked up and only one place to go. So long as Rube didn't blow his wad before they were done, anyway.

He stroked Rubric's penis gently with his palm and the ends of his fingertips, careful not to scrape it with his claws. He wanted to get it completely free of any sand that may have escaped the flow of water, and working the suds from just inside the fuzzy sheath all the way to the drooling slit at the far end seemed both prudent and rather enjoyable. Rubric's breathy grunts and pleasured groans were testament that he at least found the idea a pleasant one.

The devil worked his other hand between the red panda's thickly muscled thighs, lathering up Rubric's pendulous red balls and the fur in the area behind them. He snaked a finger into the edge of the crack he could just barely see, and Rubric shifted his hips so he could access it more fully.

Meanwhile, Rube's long, lanky, thoroughly soaked tail snaked across Jaron's thigh. Once he'd positioned it where he wanted, the large muscular male flicked its tip against Jaron's black cock while the devil slowly pleasured him with his hands.

Jaron pushed it away, even if it did feel really good. He wanted to express his gratitude and adoration for this wonderful man, and he didn't want to be distracted from it, aching cock or not.

The heated water continued streaming down his back and off his backside as he rubbed and stroked and steamed up the shower room as much as the water did. By this point he could only see a handful of feet in any direction, and the thought crossed his mind briefly that they might run out of hot water before they were done, but he ignored that, too. Rubric's family had a notorious love of water, and if they didn't have an industrial-sized water heater somewhere in their house he'd eat Rubric's fishing hat.

Once Rube's groin was thoroughly clean, the Tasmanian devil moved out of the way and the red panda got the full brunt of a deluge of water, flushing away all the suds and the remaining sand and salt. Jaron grabbed the fur shampoo again, this time giving himself the quickest scrubbing he could manage and still get clean.

Rubric objected, of course. "Hey! It's my turn! What if I wanted to do that?"

The devil would've smirked and rolled his eyes, but they were closed under the soapy assault on his head-fur. "Too bad. I want this done so we can get to better things." But then he turned away from the red panda and made one concession. "Though I guess it'll be faster if I let you scrub my back. How's that?"

"Oh, fine," he sulked, but whining was out of character for him and it came out half-hearted at best.

Jaron felt those soft, strong hands rubbing the muscles under his fur, working more soap onto his body while he lathered his face, neck, and chest. His boyfriend went slowly, lovingly, but he was having none of that. "Hurry it up, Furball."

The hands on his back sped up, and they worked their way downward. "So that's your lovey-dovey nickname for me, huh?"

Jaron's scrubbing paused, his ears flicking back in confusion. "What?"

"'Furball.' You've been calling me that all morning. If you get a nickname for me then I want 'Binky' for you."

The scrubbing started up again. "No. If you call me that you'll be 'Dipshit' from now on. Find something else, Furball."

Rubric chuckled. "Okay, okay. I'll think about it and let you know."

"You do that."

Less than two minutes later, a good rinse-off left Jaron feeling much better. The hot water was still going strong and the steam filled the room so thickly he could barely breathe, but it still felt fantastic.

He turned to find his soggy waterlogged boyfriend right behind him, the man's still-stiff cock brushing his belly. "Now, where were we...?"

The two of them kissed again, rubbing against each other, with Jaron gripping Rubric's muscular ass and Rubric kneading Jaron's sides and back. Their erections were trapped between their wet, dripping, grinding bodies, Rube's on his stomach and his on Rubric's thigh.

Jaron pushed Rube back to where he was before the rinse-off, sitting him against the side of the tub on the raised seat. The devil pushed hard into the other man like he wanted to tear in and eat him from the mouth down, their tongues lashing out and struggling against each other between their muzzles.

The lingering tingling of the mouthwash they'd both used at the start of all this made their lip-lock even more interesting. He wondered how it would feel when he moved from Rubric's mouth to Rubric's cock. He supposed he'd find out in a minute or two.

The faucet rained over them in a hot flood as he reached down and cupped the red panda's still-hard erection, gripping him tightly and giving a good squeeze. Rubric barked out a loud shout, and Jaron's mouth on his swallowed the roar before it could escape. He jacked the cock in his hand hard and fast, his jerking strokes making Rubric's entire body spasm beyond his control and drawing a series of pants and muffled groans from his lover a half-dozen times before he broke the kiss and moved down to transfer that wonderful piece of meat to his muzzle.

The tingling on Jaron's tongue hadn't abated yet, and from the gasp and the hard thrust into his maw, it wasn't just his imagination. Jaron gagged from the involuntary attempt to mate with his throat, but he recovered quickly enough. He couldn't fit all of Rubric's length into his muzzle since it just was just too long, and he didn't want to risk the inevitable gagging and heaves of deep throating since he'd never done it before, so he managed what he could. He ran his tongue along its underside and rubbed the top against the ridged roof of his mouth, careful to avoid scraping it with his teeth. A quick prod into his navel and slick, sticky, salty fluid flooded his muzzle. He let it pool on his tongue before smoothing it all over the cock it came from. He cupped his broad, smooth tongue around it firmly, and bobbed his head a few times, using his hand to squeeze and massage the rest of its length, and the other to play with the fuzzy balls below.

Rubric panted and groaned and his tail spasmed and writhed, and Jaron could tell he was having trouble not just grabbing his head and face-fucking him. "God, Jare! God! That's... Stop! Stop, or I'm gonna...!"

He pulled off quickly. The cock that felt so at home in his muzzle throbbed dangerously a couple of times and a gob of pale white welled up at the end before it settled down. That was a close one. He wouldn't have been opposed to the idea of sucking Rube off 'til he came, except he had other plans for their morning. Lucky for him, Rubric knew that too.

Rube gasped in the humid air; he looked near to having a heart attack, worked up as he was. But he calmed down after a few moments, and pulled Jaron close to him in a big wet hug, the drenched fur of their naked chests mashing together between their sodden bodies. He backed off a little and kissed Jaron on the end of his nose, his eyes serious and a bit suspicious. "You're damned eager this morning, Jare. Too eager. Any reason in particular why you're not letting me give you any attention back? Or why you wouldn't let anyone touch your ass last night, but you're all gung ho for it today? I know how hard you push yourself when you're making yourself do something you don't like. Do you really want this?" Rubric held him firmly -- the grip strong enough that he couldn't escape his gaze unless Jaron fought his way out and possibly hurt him -- and it forced the devil to look him square in the eye.

The devil wasn't one for lying or beating about any handy nearby bushes; in fact, he'd once been accused of being the most brutally honest person on the entire western seaboard. But there were...things...secrets...that he'd never shared. Not with Rubric, not with Raz and Chaz, not with anyone. Stuff he'd struggled with for years. Stuff that made him realize how valuable and precarious trust was, and it left him clinging tight to his friends-turned-lovers, the three people he trusted more than anyone else. And that meant keeping them happy. Rubric's cock stuffed up Jaron's tailpipe had felt nice, but was his subconscious throwing his ass at the man just to make sure he didn't want to leave?

Jaron had a sneaking suspicion that it was.

Rubric would never knowingly hurt him by forcing him to have sex, but was it actually voluntary if Jaron really didn't want it? He hadn't really realized the magnitude of his abandonment issues until that point. He wanted his friends to stay, didn't want them to desert him, and he would do damned near anything to keep them there, including things he never would've willingly done otherwise, things he hated. What was a bit of anal violation or even submission to unwitting rape compared to the torture of being alone?

Did that make him weak? All the signs on his internal Magic Eight Ball pointed to 'Yes'.

Dammit all to hell.

But...

The thing was...

The thing was, he trusted this big lug enough to let him in, even if there were things he held back. Rubric had stuck by him through all the years when they'd been 'just' friends, and Jaron didn't need to let the guy stuff his junk up his backside to keep him there. He knew he didn't have to, and yet he still wanted it. He really did want to give this aspect of his virginity to his friend. He wanted to submit, to let the man mount him and stake claim to his body. A part of it was desperation, yes -- a small part -- but most of it was trust, lust, and...yes, love. Even if he was coward enough that he stumbled over the word in his own head.

"Rube..." He took a deep breath and released it in a heavy sigh, steeling himself for what he was about to say. It wasn't easy. He'd bottled up so much for so long, and the cork was wedged in tight. But he still managed absolute sincerity in his voice when he cleared his throat and said, "I meant it last night when I told you how I felt about you, just like I do for the twins. My life is so empty without you in it, and you fill it right up to the top when you're there. I want to show you what you mean to me. I want to share what I have with you, and that includes my body and all it can offer. I just wasn't ready last night. Now I am." His voice dropped to a murmured whisper as he leaned in to nuzzle into Rubric's ear. "And now I want you inside me. I want you to fuck my brains out, tell me how much you care about me, and scream my name while you cum."

And all of it was 100% true.

The red-furred ear flicked across his nose before Rube grabbed him around the shoulders and pulled him into another kiss, soft and tender and needy, and again he felt light-headed as the room spun. A minute and a few years later, Rubric pulled back. "Daaamn, Jare," he panted breathily. "How long have you been sitting on that?"

Jaron swallowed and swayed as he found his balance again. "Years."

"I could tell." Rubric reached up and snatched the XY Jelly from the shelf built into the shower wall. "You're not the only one who wants to let someone know how much he cares." He waved the bottle under Jaron's muzzle. "Now I'm going to have my turn, and you're going to let me. Right?"

The devil huffed a sigh and rolled his eyes, as if he were making some terrible sacrifice. "Oh, if I have to. Jesus, ya big Furball. Being your boyfriend is so hard."

The big red panda reached down and stroked the backs of his claws against Jaron's full-masted cock, and Jaron shivered. "I can't argue with that." And then he frowned. "But seriously, if you don't feel comfortable we can do something else. You can take me, if you want. I don't mind at all."

He took one finger and laid it against Rubric's lips. "If you don't shut the hell up and get started on the 'fuck my brains out' part, you're going to lose that boner of yours and that's going to really piss me off. Do you want to be responsible for abstinence-induced homicide, Rubric?" He raised one white-splotched eyebrow. "Do you?"

His boyfriend chuckled. "No sir. I'll be sure to fuck your brains out right away, sir." He popped open the tube. "And now for trick number one..." He held up his fingers and Jaron watched as Rubric's inch-long nails slid right down into the ends of his fingertips, like a housecat sheathing its claws. He'd never seen anything like it before on a non-feral, and now Rube's hand just looked...weird...

Jaron's eyes went wide. "Holy fuck, Furball! How the hell did you do that!"

The red panda smeared some of the thick, slick, waterproof lubricant onto his now-clawless fingers. Even with all the hot water and steam it didn't melt, didn't wash away. "It's like crossing your eyes. Not everyone can do it, but when you figure out how it's easy. I'll try and teach you, if you want." And then he reached around and rubbed those fingertips up under Jaron's tail.

The stunned expression on his face melted away in a groan as his eyes closed from the shivering pleasure of that silky smooth lube rubbing over his pucker. The bottle had been in the shower with them long enough to warm up comfortably, and wasn't nearly as cold as the stuff they'd used out on the beach last night.

Jaron pulled himself into Rube and another sloppy, wet kiss, pushing the lengths of their bodies together. He twitched as Rubric kept rubbing his fingers over and over Jaron's compressed ring of flesh, and he groaned as Rube used his other hand to massage the muscles in the devil's warm, water-saturated rump. Jaron rubbed his crotch against the much larger male, plunging his tongue into Rubric's mouth, raising his tail as far up and out of the way as he could, and the end of his heavy waterlogged limb slapped against his back with a wet splat. Those fingers continued teasing him, and each circuit around the entrance to his inner depths sent jolts of electricity up his spine and down his tail and legs, and all the way along the length of his cock, which twitched uncontrollably. God, but that felt wonderful.

The two of them made such beautiful music together, grunting and groaning and growling and snarling in an alternating rhythm, and making other animal noises of pleasure and happiness that neither had ever heard from the other before. And, in some cases, had never heard from themselves. All Jaron knew was that it sounded like heaven to him beneath the roar of the shower, and he reached down to stroke the hard hot flesh between his partner's thighs, eager to touch the man holding him and for more of those noises to swallow.

Rube's maleness felt different yet oddly familiar in his hand. They were nearly the same shape, and both cocks were almost exactly the same size; at eight inches long and two and a half wide, both were impressive specimens. Beneath them dangled two balls apiece, which managed to match each other size-for-size as well, and they jangled together loosely, erotic as all hell. With their two-foot difference in height, Jaron's tackle looked considerably larger, but they'd each performed in-depth comparisons, and they both agreed that the size difference was negligible. Each had their own color scheme, with Jaron's cock and balls almost a perfect black and white respectively, and Rubric's a dark pinkish-red and dark fuzzy maroon. Otherwise, the only major difference was the fact that Jaron's glans tapered to an almost triangular point, whereas Rube's was blunt and rounded. The similarities and differences were intriguing for sure, and warranted further studies that both agreed could take years.

He stroked Rubric's flesh, smooth and moist, and he let the soft pads of his fingers caress along it, bringing shivers and groans to the man he literally held in the palm of his hand. Rube leaned back against the shower wall and pulled Jaron with him, and their crotches pressed firmly together as much as the rest of their bodies. Since the devil now lay atop him nearly fully supported by his muscular frame and Rube's cock was in nearly the same position as his own, it felt, rather bizarrely, like he was stroking himself off. The sensation of touching without being touched was more than a little disorienting, but Rubric's groans and shivers made it worthwhile.

And then the finger under Jaron's tail pressed inward. He tightened up despite his attempts to relax, which made everything down there burn even with the silicone easing the way. Rube's finger wasn't nearly as wide as his erect penis and it was considerably slicker, which should have made this easier than the accidental penetration of this morning, but Jaron's body was on edge, and he couldn't manage anything resembling the relaxed, almost trancelike stupor of before.

Rube broke their kiss and leaned in, laying his muzzle alongside Jaron's face, his nose tickling the humid hairs in the devil's large black ears as that gentle pressure underneath his tail decreased slightly. "Relax, Jare," he murmured over the roar of the shower's deluge. "C'mon buddy. This shouldn't hurt at all if you just relax."

He knew that -- of course he did -- but the constant susurrating whispers put him at ease anyway, allowing him to release the tension in his over-taut muscles. And, accompanied with a contented sigh, that finger slid inside with no trouble at all. As with the member he'd had in there before, this felt...odd. Good, but odd, and a lot fuzzier than anything he'd had in there before. And for a moment, all it did was rest impassively within that warm back passage, allowing Jaron's body to acclimate to its presence. The longer it remained, the better it felt, and after no more than a handful of seconds Jaron started pushing himself down on that digit, forcing it farther inside ever so slightly, his tail waggling back and forth to produce some friction with his outer layers. That spine-tingling movement had stopped, and he craved its presence again.

Rubric took this as the signal to start moving, and he twisted his finger, working the lube around, coating everything within easy reach in a thick, slick film. He worked that finger in deeper, to a one-man chorus of moans in his ear, though this time there wasn't enough to go around. He pulled out, collected some of the extra which had accumulated along the outer ring, and pushed back in easily, smearing the film around as far as he could get.

Then that finger finally found Jaron's prostate, and the short-lived pressure sent a grunting, thrusting thrill from the point of contact all the way down the length of his dick. He felt a shot of slick warmth hit his hand and forearm, down where he'd almost forgotten that he held Rubric's cock between their soaked bodies.

He heard his own voice squeak out in a strained high-pitched squeal that didn't sound like him at all. "Oh god, Rube! That's... Wow..."

He could hear the teasing grin in Rube's voice, even though he couldn't see it on his face. "You liked that, huh? If you're a good boy you'll get a little more. And you'll get a lot more if you're very, very bad."

Jaron laughed, his voice reverted to his normal baritone once more. "Thank you sir, may I have another?"

"I guess that could be bad, considering what you're asking for." He did it again, and Jaron groaned and hunched his crotch into Rubric's, the drooling drizzle from the prostate massage matting their fur down into a nice silky smoothness to hump in. Rubric groaned and he panted into Jaron's ear from above. "See, that was bad, so you get it again."

They ground against each other a bit more, with those fingers rubbing over his prostate and his cock making a big sticky mess between them under his body. Gallons of water continued streaming their way over his back, washing away his troubles, and the near-scalding torrent made him want to melt right into his lover's wet, dripping, muscular, smokin' hot body. He could barely see the big man right below him from all the water and steam, and the murky haze insulated them from the rest of the world. It felt private and so very intimate, and the sounds they made were muffled to the point where it felt like they were utterly isolated in the universe. It felt wonderful.

Eventually Rubric's finger pulled out, and he prodded Jaron to stand. He moved them over to the side, off the seat and out from under the water, and slid down between the devil's legs so that he stared eye-to-eye with Jaron's oozing cock, his shoulders propped up on the side of the tub. This had the unfortunate side effect of pulling his cock out of Jaron's hand, but the devil was still eager to try whatever his friend had in mind.

His dick drizzled and drooled over Rube's chest-fur, and a long, soft, pink tongue flicked out and caught the next string of precum before it could break. It lapped along the sensitive underside of Jaron's tender black shaft, and he gave an appreciative, lusty, full-throated groan in return.

The red panda retrieved another generous squirt of lube and slathered Jaron's pucker again before sliding his singular digit back into its now-customary home.

"This still feels weird, Rube," Jaron grumbled as that single worming digit paused in its journey around his insides. "Not, y'know, the finger, but..." He waved a hand around aimlessly. "...all of this. Yesterday I wanted it so bad, and now I have it." He paused for a moment. "I'm afraid I'm gonna wake up and all of this will be a dream."

"Yeah--" Rubric kissed Jaron's pointed tip gently, and the tickling of those short, soft bristles from his boyfriend's muzzle sent shivers racing up his body. "--but you know what I think?" Kiss. "This really is a dream--" Kiss. "--but we're never going to wake up--" Kiss. "--because it's a dream come true."

"You're a fuckin' poet, Furball. That was beautiful." He waggled his hips a bit and rubbed that pointed tip along Rubric's muzzle, smearing it with a long string of drool. "Ah. That's nice. You know what else would be beautiful? I want to see my cum all over that face of yours. You're already gorgeous, but that would be perfect."

Rube chuckled. "You're a high-maintenance boyfriend, I can already tell. The demands just keep piling up, but I think I can manage that one."

"You better."

"I'm going for two fingers this time, Jare. Ready?" the red panda asked before he slid his mouth over Jaron's slick black length, the tingling of that mouthwash driving a loud gasping bark from him before he could stop it.

"Yessss..." And the devil's breathy hiss slipped away into the fog, tailing the muted echo of his shout off the tile. Jaron clutched at the back of Rube's head and scritched him behind those big maroon ears, eliciting a pleased rumble. The vibrations from it made him quiver from the cock up, and he shivered in the humid heat. That finger worked its way around inside him, and he hardly even noticed when the second one slipped in until the two of them spread apart, stretching his entrance wide open and massaging the muscle from the inside out. He gasped and cried out at the unfamiliar sensation, and he felt his cock twitch with an electric shock in Rubric's mouth, filling it with a jet of pre-orgasmic bliss as one digit pushed against his prostate, hard.

Rubric didn't bob his head up and down like Jaron had seen in the few pornos that he'd watched, but instead used his tongue to rub the bottom of his shaft while his fingers worked at the devil's porte-cochère and his other hand gripped and massaged the chiseled musculature of his ass.

Those fingers were immensely strong and quite thick, but managed a subtle grace even so, and Jaron could feel all that potential power smoothly sliding around in his backside. He found himself wanting to push back against those fingers, to force them farther inside, even more than he wanted to thrust into his partner's mouth. He gave in to the urge, wiggling his hips and the base of his tail against those digits. The hand stood its ground, even against two hundred and seventy-four pounds of densely muscled Tasmanian devil, holding steady while he ground hard against it. The movement resulted in friction in front and back, and Jaron's growls and groans filled the hot humidity of the room like those fingers filled his world.

"Oh god, Rube! Fuck this feels good!" And he rode the red panda's fingers and his mouth as he seesawed back and forth between them, the fingers slowly widening him out for the ride they'd intended from the beginning.

A rhythmic throbbing heat bloomed in his rear passage. With each beat of his hips it grew, and before he knew it his nerves exploded in orgasm, his muscles melting in liquid ardor. The racing fire thrummed between his ass and his cock and back again, making detours through the rest of his body several times. His cock twitched but he didn't cum, and it felt weird because that had never happened before. Another thing was that, unlike all the orgasms he'd experienced before this, it didn't leave him feeling worn out and lazy, but rather energized, as though his entire body was a living electrical circuit, and his libido practically vibrated with a need for more.

His strained cry died out before he even knew he'd screamed, and he stood for a moment, panting, his knees wobbling weakly. He felt fuller in his rump than he did before, and he could feel at least one more finger, maybe two, filling him up, tight yet comfortably so. His cock still strained in Rubric's muzzle and it ached for release, but he didn't want to -- not yet.

Jaron pulled out of Rube's mouth and his knees gave way. He let gravity take over, and he slid down the red panda's hot, soaking wet body, his cock giving a spasm as his boyfriend's fingers pulled out of him. His maleness dragged its way down through the man's drenched chest- and belly-fur, stuttered over his washboard abdominals and wedged itself up against his navel. Rube's own cock lodged tightly in between the cleft of Jaron's thighs, and chocked him in place like a doorstop.

Rubric chuckled. "You sounded like you really enjoyed that." He shifted his hips and that upright cock of his slid in and out between Jaron's legs and made him groan. "Ready for the real thing, Jare?"

Jaron laid there, his naked body plastered against Rubric's and his face nuzzled into his chest, the still-hot water splashing over them from the side, and he wondered: Am I ready? Sure, they'd fucked the twins last night, and they'd sucked each other off a few times, but this felt a lot more...invasive, more personal by far. He was letting his friend have his body, his virginity, in a way that nobody else had done before, and in a way that nobody else could ever again. This was a huge, huge thing, and once it was finished there was no going back, for either of them.

But this was Rubric. Along with Raz and Chaz, he was his best friend. He trusted the three of them more than anyone else in the world, and knew that he was in the best of hands. Really, there was no other answer. He nodded. "Yeah, Furball. I'm ready." He levered himself up using his hands on the red panda's hard, thick chest muscles and grinned. "Don't forget what I told you earlier."

Rubric leaned in and licked him on the nose quickly before grinning himself. "Yeah, I remember. I'll do my best to not disappoint you."

"I don't think you could disappoint me if you tried." And he pulled the man into a kiss.

God, was their first kiss really last night? It seemed like forever ago and mere seconds as the moments stretched out. Every time they ran their tongues together, pushed and rubbed and tussled between their mouths, it felt new and exciting, familiar and comforting, and it left him breathless with his heart pounding.

He swiveled his hips, humping his cock into Rube's stomach and Rube's cock against the fissure in his rump, and the man's fingers pushed their way into his tail-hole again, this time with almost no effort at all, and they both moaned into each other. Damn, but he wanted to just hump into Rubric's body and blow his load right there, but instead he pushed up and away and his haunches bunched as he stood, crouched, over Rube's thick, throbbing dick.

Rubric lubed it up with a couple of swipes of a newly slicked-up hand and held it steady while he lowered himself, and he felt that slick, moist, blunt tip touch him in a way it had done only once before. He let his tail droop a bit, funneling it into the perfect position before he sunk just a bit lower, and that dripping red cock-head popped inside him, as thick as all the fingers he'd used just a minute ago and then some.

Jaron and Rubric both growled and moaned and made other sex-noises that would be embarrassing outside of actual sex, as he wiggled his hips back and forth. He worked his way down, easing that cock inside him slowly, as he didn't want to risk anything in his tender innards until they'd worked all of that lube as far as it needed to go and his insides were accustomed to an intrusion much deeper than before. He felt the contours of Rubric's maleness rub against his prostate, and a thick dribble of pre-cum oozed down onto his boyfriend's stomach.

By this point the steam was so thick the air was nearly unbreathable, and if he didn't have Rube sitting up against the side of the tub right in front of him, he doubted he could've seen him at all. They'd moved out of the water's direct spray, and now their waterlogged fur emptied itself of its load. Rivulets of scalding-hot water ran down their soaked bodies, and even though he knew it was still hot, it merely felt warm. They'd been in here for a long time -- at least forty minutes -- and the water heater was still going strong. He'd have to ask Rubric's parents where they got it, since he planned on getting one for himself, or more likely, two of them. Shower sex was turning out to be worth the water bill he'd have to pay when he finally got a new place of his own.

Those thoughts flickered at the edge of his consciousness as he felt the rounded tip of Rube's shaft push against his inner ring, the odd overfilled sensation making him shiver, and he pushed down a bit harder until it slid through. It seemed to take forever, but his ass finally hit his boyfriend's lap as he bottomed out. It didn't hurt at all, but it was shoved so far in that he felt like he should be choking on cock at this point. How he'd managed to fit all of it in there he had no idea, but now that he knew that he could, he knew they'd be doing this a lot more often.

His maroon-colored boyfriend reached around him and pulled him into a hug. "Oh god, Jare. This feels amazing." He pulled away a little so he could look Jaron in the eye, concerned. "You're okay, right? I'm not hurting you, am I?"

Jaron laughed, and felt his ring tighten around Rubric's penis, which made them both shudder. "This feels awesome, Furball. It really does. As long as we don't start out too fast I'm good." He raised an eyebrow. "Now, I think you have some promises to keep."

Rubric grinned. "I think I do." And then he rocked Jaron gently from side to side on his hips, stretching him out just a bit more as he whispered sweet nothings into his ear that became sweet everythings before the third syllable finished passing his lips. "I love you, Jaron Fitzgerald. I've wanted to tell you that for years, wanted you for years, and I still want you now, even though I already have you. As a friend, as a boyfriend, as a mate. I'm going to do my best by you; I want to make you proud of me. And now I want to hear you scream my name as I cum inside of you." And on and on, as the rocking became rolling, and Jaron began lifting his hips and pushing down again, impaling himself on Rubric's long hot rod.

Jaron listened to Rube's declarations of devotion, and something told him the man meant every word. It filled him with a warmth only tangentially related to the one growing in his rump as that cock filled him before pulling out and filling him again in a smooth, flowing cadence. He hardly felt the strain in his legs from lifting more than two hundred and seventy pounds of Tasmanian devil repeatedly as his ass shoved its way down his boyfriend's cock, the speed of his rhythm increasing gradually as he felt more confident with getting reamed.

Other than Jaron himself, there wasn't a single living person who had ever heard the devil purr, and if it hadn't been Rubric doing this to him (or, he supposed, one of the twins), he wouldn't have heard it, either. Purring was such an intensely private thing for him, but what they did now hit the sweet spot in his heart so hard that he felt that he could let down his guard, if only for a little while. He didn't know if he had feline in his ancestry somewhere or if all Tasmanian devils did this, but it felt right, and so he did.

Rubric lifted himself up on his hands crabwise and matched Jaron's thrusts with his own. His words came strained as his breathing became ragged in the overwhelming humidity, and soon he had to stop altogether. After that, the only sounds in the thick mist were the sloppy, viscous sound of hips-on-ass and the rhythmic grunts and growls and purrs of their mating. Jaron braced himself against his left knee with that hand, and began furiously jacking-off with his right, and it felt so damned good in the heat and the warmth and with that long hard cock slamming against his prostate with each thrust. He didn't know if he could keep going much longer, but he sure as hell enjoyed himself while it lasted.

That warmth in his gut began its ascent to a peak similar to his earlier orgasm, and he knew it would be much, much messier than the first time. "Rube, I'm gonna--!" His voice rose in volume and decreased in pitch, and he cried out in a long, strained, drawn-out yowl. "AAAAAAAUGH!" He angled his hips upward and aimed the first shot of semen right onto Rubric's flushed panting face with a gigantic wet white splat. Jaron's orgasm exploded to life on his second shot, and he nearly collapsed from sensory overload, but only just managed to keep his feet while the red panda pounded his tail from behind and he painted cum over the man's face and in his mouth like he said he would, which Rubric licked up greedily.

The climax lasted through eight incredibly hard and copious spasms before they even started to lessen, and his howl (and his orgasm) kept right on going as his mate slammed into his rump with repeated thrusts. Jaron's legs gave out on him and he almost fell over, but some quick maneuvering on Rube's part kept him up and safe.

"Not done yet," the red panda growled, and he wrapped his arms around his mate, pulling Jaron's exhausted body to him before leaning forward and quickly depositing him on the shower floor, his cock never leaving the drained devil's tail-hole. Rubric grabbed Jaron's legs by his ankles and pushed forward, arching the smaller man's back so he could drive himself into the devil's ass with impunity.

The harder he was pounded, the more his orgasm kept building, and Jaron's claws scratched at the tile, his body writhing uncontrollably, as he panted and yowled and lost himself in the process of being fucked.

Rube's breaths came in deep bellowing huffs, and it took all his effort to not pound too hard; he didn't want to damage the tender flesh he occupied, even if his body wanted to ramp it up a few more notches. Jaron's thrashing below him was so damned hot, and the spasmodic squeezes on his dick pushed him closer to the finish line with amazing speed. All the muscles in his body tightened as the climax built, and suddenly he was there.

"J-JARON!" he roared as his cock exploded, and he filled Jaron's ass with what felt like the biggest load he'd ever shot, and the inner walls of the body beneath him sucked it in even deeper. He couldn't see well enough to tell if his mate could even hear him at that point, because the intensity of the orgasm blinded him for a moment as he went light-headed and his vision went spotty. He collapsed onto his friend, his boyfriend, his mate, only barely retaining enough strength to keep part of his weight off of him with one arm.

They both lay there in the bottom of the tub, panting, with Rubric inside Jaron's tail-hole as the last twitches of Rube's cock subsided. It took several minutes before either of them could move as they basked in the afterglow.

Jaron nudged the big red panda, and it took a moment for Rubric to open his eyes, unfocused and hazy. "Hey, Furball. You're dripping all over me." And he was. Big dollopy globs of cum were falling onto Jaron's face, painting his black fur with his own creamy white. Some of it the devil lapped up with his broad pink tongue, but there's no way he could reach it all.

"Sorry."

"It's not really a problem. Just thought you should know." He paused, gazing up at Rubric with the most amazed look in his eye. "And Rube, you're just as beautiful like that as I said you'd be. I love seeing you covered in my cum."

Rube chuckled. "I have to admit, I liked when you did it."

Jaron's bright green eyes blazed through the stifling heat of the shower they'd just had the best sex of their lives in. "Thank you, Rube. For everything."

Rubric rolled over on his side, turning the devil with him so they wouldn't lose their connection, and snuggled up to him under the warm spray. "You're more than welcome."

...

Rube edged the door open and peered out of the billowing steam into the hallway. He nearly dropped his towel to his ankles in surprise when he came chest-to-face with his younger sister leaning casually against the wall by the bathroom entrance.

At sixteen years old, she stood about five-foot-four, slim and graceful-looking (she took after their mother), and she was just starting to really bloom into womanhood. Along with her developing curves, she had all the usual red panda trimmings: red and white mask, red head-fur, long candy-striped tail, and, from what he'd seen when they went to the beach, black-and-maroon back, belly, and limbs. Now, though, rather than a bikini she wore a comfortable-looking set of blue long-sleeved cotton pajamas. He normally would have expected her to be irate at having to wait on the bathroom, but instead she stared up at him expectantly.

"You were in there a really long time. You used all the hot water up, didn't you." If she'd been out in the hallway long, there's no way she couldn't have heard what they were doing. Despite their initial resolve, they'd been rather...loud.

Maybe she hadn't? He rallied. "Uh... Hi Liz. I, uh, didn't think you'd be awake yet."

"You know," Lizbeth said as she ignored his terrible attempt at morning pleasantries, "I always thought if you swung that way, you would've hooked up with those rabbits. The Edwards twins."

"Err..."

His sister shrugged, the shoulders of her PJs stretching out their wrinkles for a moment before she resumed her relaxed stance. "Hey, I'm happy for you. I'm just saying." She raised her voice so it reached into the bathroom and echoed down the hall, and her tone sounded cheerful -- too cheerful for anything involving both her, and any time prior to two pm. She was planning something evil. "Hey Jaron, your screaming woke me up! Did my brother pound your ass good, or were you faking it?" And her nefarious plan apparently involved carpet-bombing through humiliation.

It surprised Jaron that Rubric's head-fur hadn't caught fire, considering how brightly the red panda's ears burned. "Damn, and I thought I was blunt." He poked his head between Rubric's chest and the edge of the doorway, and the larger man moved aside automatically so he wouldn't have to squeeze. But the devil still leaned heavily against the doorframe to look out into the hallway; there just wasn't enough room. "Hi Lizbeth."

"Hello. So, real or not?" She didn't really expect him to answer honestly, did she? He made a calculated decision: no, she didn't. This was purely for their embarrassment. Lucky for him, he didn't embarrass that easily.

Jaron grinned fiendishly, and Rubric noticed it; his pained groan was loud enough to be audible from across the street, and the palm to his forehead told the devil he knew exactly what was coming. "I didn't fake a thing. Your brother here's a damned good lay. He rammed my ass so hard that I'll be sore for a week." He nudged Rubric in the side with a lewd wink up to him. "Our boyfriends will be so proud, Rube."

The two red panda siblings just stared at him, mouths agape. He expected the fire alarm to go off at any moment from the amount of smoke pouring out of their ears. Turnabout might've been fair play, but this was ridiculous.

Liz was the first to recover, if barely. "B-Boyfriends?"

"Yup!" he chirped cheerfully. "Raz and Chaz, the Edwards twins. We're a package deal: three for the price of one." And because there's no kill like overkill... "The only reason they didn't spend the night with us is because Rube's bed isn't big enough for an orgy."

"At least now we know what our son has been up to lately." The basso voice from the other end of the hallway startled them all.

Jaron flinched in surprise, lost his hold on the doorframe, and tumbled headlong into the hallway. He tripped up over the long towel he wore and it pulled clean off, leaving him spread-eagled and naked on the floor in front of Rubric, his sister, and both of their parents, whom Jaron could now see were standing in the doorway to the kitchen down at the far end of the hall. The bottle of lube he'd been holding clattered to the ground, skidding to a stop in plain view of everyone.

Their father (who was every bit as big as his son, though his giant panda features were easily more pronounced) looked on impassively, while their much smaller, slimmer mother scrutinized Jaron in microscopic detail. "Well, I can definitely tell what he sees in you," she mused.

Jaron had thought he was impervious to embarrassment. He was wrong. He blushed, and hard. Lucky for him he had a very dark thick pelt. Meanwhile, Rube's entire body glowed red so hard under his fur that he looked radioactive. He was sure the red panda was about to burst into flames any second.

"Oh, by the way," Lizbeth added, rather unnecessarily, "Mom and Dad are home."

They looked at their son and his suddenly naked boyfriend with twin deadpan expressions. "Surprise."

...

10:40 am.

Jaron sat with Rubric and Mr. and Mrs. Newbury around their kitchen table. One of Jaron's hands held a steaming-hot cup of strong black coffee, and Rubric's parents' did as well, though Mrs. Newbury drank hers with hazelnut-flavored cream and some sugar. Rube, meanwhile, had eschewed liquid consciousness in favor of an industrial-sized glass of fresh-from-the-bottle orange juice. Lizbeth had gone back to bed after grumbling something about 'dealing with gay drama at a reasonable hour.'

Jaron had finally gotten over his brief attack of mortification with the situation, which was the only reason he'd come out of the bedroom at all. He was dressed in the denim shorts and plain black t-shirt he'd worn last night, which were clean enough once he shook the sand out. Rubric wore a matching shirt that strained across his chest and shoulders, and jeans that stretched tightly around his thickly muscled legs and rump. Both were barefooted, neither one of them seeing any point to footwear at the moment.

So here he was, holding the hand of his boyfriend under the table while sitting in the dining room with a sore ass, a faded afterglow, and a cold lump forming in the pit of his stomach. Neither of Rubric's parental units had ranted at them yet; in fact, both seemed rather subdued.

But he still felt guilty.

The two teenagers fidgeted nervously under the calm gaze of the elder Newburys. Rubric clenched his free hand into a fist a couple of times, squeezed Jaron's using the other, and cleared his throat before he said, "Mom? Dad? I know this is probably obvious by now, but...I'm gay."

Mr. Newbury chuckled, though whether from amusement or ironic discomfiture they couldn't tell. "I think finding you naked with one of your boyfriends after listening to you have sex for almost an hour is a pretty clear sign, yes," he rumbled.

Jaron and Rubric both blushed. Rube, at least, managed a weak grin. "Hey, I had a towel."

...which made Jaron blush even harder. There remained a distinct possibility that he wasn't over his embarrassment quite as much as he'd thought.

He pulled his hand away from the comforting warmth of his cup to scratch awkwardly at the prickling on the back of his neck, and he stared at the steam wafting from the scalding liquid instead of meeting their eyes. "Thanks. Y'know, for not freaking out about all this. For not throwing me out on my ass for...for what I did."

"Tell me, Jaron: just what, exactly, did you do wrong?" A growl had entered Rube's father's voice, and those eyes bored into him.

This reminded him all too much of the years before his father went to prison. Certainty welled up within him that things were about to turn really, really ugly, and fear followed in certainty's wake. He suddenly found himself unaccustomedly without words and nervous as fuck.

He tried several times to speak, but nothing came out. The undertone to the older panda's voice made him want to lie so badly, but he couldn't do it, even if the man broke his neck for it. The Newburys deserved the truth, and it wasn't like he could hide it anyway. When Jaron found his voice, he was 9 years old again and it came out small and weak and more than a little scared. "I, uh... I screwed your son, Mr. and Mrs. Newbury. I'm sorry."

Mr. Newbury's deep voice turned harsh, the change abrupt and fearsome. The sudden wrath in his eyes turned his normally handsome face hideous. "Did you rape my son, Mr. Fitzgerald?"

Jaron's eyes snapped up and he blinked, several times. "What?"

Rubric's father set his mug down on the table deliberately, steepled his fingers, and glared him straight in the eye. "Did you force. My son. To have sex. With you."

"I..." Jaron couldn't process the thought. He just...couldn't. It brought up a jumble of images, things he had seen that he couldn't un-see, things that replayed themselves in the movie theater of his mind, and his brain just shut down. "I..."

Rubric stared wide-eyed between the two of them, shocked. "Dad, he didn't--!"

Mr. Newbury slammed his fist down on the table, making them both jump. "BE! SILENT!" Jaron had never seen the normally jocular man this close to losing it; he usually had an unshakeable calm about him, and sported a quietly amused smile whatever happened, even through things that sent most people into an utter rage. The rictus on the older male's muzzle now was...terrifying. "Jaron is going to answer me," he said in a calm, quiet voice that was far more intimidating than his earlier outburst, "and then I'm going to teach him a lesson in how to treat other men's sons." That glare continued drilling into him as Mr. Newbury rubbed the knuckles on one fist subconsciously, and a chill ran down his spine.

Jaron could count on one hand the number of people he knew that could well and truly frighten him and still have three fingers left over. One of them was in this room right here, right now, staring him down. He got the impression that the older male could snap him in half without breaking a sweat, but he wouldn't need to if he really wanted to break him. Jaron respected Mr. Newbury a great deal; all it would take was the right words. Or, rather, the wrong ones.

"Did you violate my son, Mr. Fitzgerald?" He waited for the devil to speak, but the silence dragged on as Jaron tried to find his words in his ever-escalating spiral of nerves. "Did you?!"

Jaron shook his head frantically, his eyes as wide as they could go, and he was very nearly crying at that point. "N-N-No sir! I would never do that. Could never do that! I swear!"

The rage in the older male's visage calmed completely, but now he just looked hurt. "Then are you just using my boy for sex, Jaron? After all the years you've been friends, is that all he means to you? A warm body to stick your dick in?"

Again, Jaron shook his head. "N-No sir! I... I love Rubric, sir. I would never hurt him...like...that..." And then he was left with his jaw hanging as Mr. Newbury raised an eyebrow at him expectantly, and sudden understanding dawned.

Mr. Newbury wasn't mad at him. The man wanted to teach him a lesson.

He loved Rubric.

He. Loved. Rubric.

Why should he ever apologize for that?

Mr. Newbury saw that realization and leaned forward over the table. His face gentled into solace and concern, his voice and brow soft and smooth now that he'd gotten his point across. "Then you haven't done anything wrong, Jaron, and you should be proud of it. Embrace it. Stand up for it, to me, to everyone. Don't ever be ashamed of it, no matter what. You wouldn't hurt him, and from what I've seen you would dive into Hell itself to keep him safe. You're both intelligent, consenting adults, and you're capable of making your own decisions about this kind of thing. The only reason I care that my son is gay and with you is that he's doing what makes him happy. And the fact that he chose you and two other wonderful young men to partner with, that makes us happy."

Mrs. Newbury reached out and gathered Jaron's hand in hers. "Jaron, neither of us is gay," she said, before throwing a smirk back at her husband, "or at least I'm not," which earned a sputter from her husband. "But we both know what it's like to love someone so hard that it hurts, and we've both known for a long time that you care about our son that much. We didn't know before a few days ago that either you or our son felt attracted to other men, but both of us knew -- a long time ago -- the way you felt about each other. The fact that you want to be together like this is just more proof we didn't need."

Rubric's gaping jaw snapped shut with a click. "Wait. You knew I was gay 'a few days ago' and you didn't tell me?"

Mr. Newbury smirked. "We thought you already knew you were gay."

Rubric's tail fluffed out. "That's not--!"

His mother reached up and gently laid her hand on his bicep. "Rasputin and Charles came to visit us and we all had a nice long talk about whether or not we'd mind if they made a go at you. They said they didn't know if you were gay, but they were interested, and it didn't take long for us to start putting the pieces together after that."

"What? Raz and Chaz asked you if they could--?"

"Yes, Dear." Mrs. Newbury nodded. "And they asked about Jaron, too. They're good boys, asking permission to be suitors and everything. That's chivalry you don't see every day, especially since they were careful to make sure they would take the heat instead of either of you, if we didn't take to the idea."

Their eyes widened at that. Mr. Newbury as a raging homophobe was a damned scary thought. Raz and Chaz faced that down for them?

Mr. Newbury growled sternly as he shifted to grab Jaron's attention. "Now, on to the issue at hand. You, Mr. Fitzgerald, are living here with us. You can stay in Rubric's room or the guest room, whichever you prefer." Jaron opened his mouth, but it snapped shut as the older male stomped his objections flat. "No. Arguments. The twins didn't have all the details, but they gave us some idea of what's happened to you over the last few years. You're living here until you find yourself a new place that's good enough for all four of you. No lover of any son of mine is going to live all alone in a big depressing house when we have more than enough room in this one. And the twins are welcome to spend the night any time. We'll get keys for you."

Mrs. Newbury patted Jaron's hand with her own, her eyes full of concern. "And you're to come to us if you have any problems we can help with, even if you just need to talk. Understood?" Mr. Newbury nodded once in emphatic agreement.

Jaron glanced between Rubric's parents before looking up at their son. Rubric was chewing on his lip -- the red panda apparently had more than enough to think about for the moment -- so his gaze turned back to the adults. They really approved of them being boyfriends? Really? And they even wanted the twins in on the deal? "So, you don't care that we had--"

"--sex?" Mr. Newbury broke in, and Jaron flinched. "You fucked our son in our house! Of course we care that you had sex!" He paused for a moment, and it left the devil wondering if they were about to experience the real version of the anger they'd seen during the first half of the conversation. The swirling vortex of confusion sucked him right in when the older male's muzzle split into the biggest grin he'd ever seen on the man. "It's about time our boy started learning first-hand about the birds and the...well, other birds, I guess. It's good cardiovascular exercise."

Mrs. Newbury's eyes sparkled. "Dear, we want you to have as much sex with our little boy as you can, as often as you can, and in as many ways as you can think of. That goes for the twins, too. Thank god they're rabbits; they'll keep you two worked up if nothing else will. And if that doesn't work, well, there's a porn store a few blocks away. We'll give you an allowance."

Jaron had to be honest with himself: Rube's father's grin was more than a bit creepy. "We'd started to wonder if maybe our son just didn't have any interest in sex. It had us a little worried, to be honest. It's a relief to find out that, no, he's just gay. Make us proud, Son; take it like a man."

Rubric's mother reached up to pat her little boy on his mortifyingly red cheek-ruff. "I'm sure you'll take it like a champ."

Rubric's jaw worked speechlessly as Jaron gaped at them. "Th-This is a joke, right?"

Rube's father overran his stuttered words. "You'll have wild gay orgies at least five days a week," he said as he looked at them with an air of utter seriousness. "Just make sure we aren't scheduled to have guests over, and don't traumatize your sister." He thought about that for a moment. "Too much, anyway. Either way, just try not to make quite as much noise as you did earlier, especially at night. We'll buy you an extra-large bed for sleepovers, and help you reinforce it to hold up and so it doesn't squeak, so don't get too rowdy before we get that done."

Mrs. Newbury continued where her husband left off. "Bedtime is eleven, but you're to be asleep no earlier than two in the morning, and if at least one of you isn't walking funny the next day, you're all grounded to Rubric's room until you are."

Mr. Newbury hmph'd gruffly. "Those are the rules of this house. As long as you live under our roof you will follow them. Is that clear?"

The devil looked from one parent to the other, both of which looked hell-bent on not taking 'no' for an answer, to Rubric, whose wide-eyed incredulity matched his own, and then back. For a moment he couldn't decide whether to be shocked or just mortified, but then he noticed the twitches at the sides of their muzzles, and he realized they were hazing him.

Oh. Duh.

And then he realized something else that hit him so hard the room spun: they'd just offered him a way out of the darkness and the nightmares, freely and without strings attached, out of the goodness of their hearts. Maybe that house, that compact corner of emotional hell, had finally shoved him out and into the best thing that had ever happened to him.

And he never had to go back there again.

As much as he wanted to hold on to some of the memories in that place, the knowledge that he was free -- free! -- lifted one of the weights from his shoulders. He'd carried it for so long and with so many others that he hadn't even noticed it in years. As awful as it was, he felt so relieved that he couldn't even find it in himself to hate it anymore.

If anything, he almost felt thankful. It had taught him to appreciate everything good in his life before it was gone, and because of that it may have been the best friend he'd ever had. And now that he knew, he would never let that lesson slip away again.

He started laughing so hard that his vision swam. It was too funny, though the tears in his eyes weren't due to the laughter. Not really. "This--is so--fucked up!" And it really was.

Rubric looked at him oddly, then broke into chuckles at his parents' prank, even if he didn't get the real joke behind it all. And Jaron wasn't about to clue him in.

"Good." Rubric's parents smiled. "Consider yourself a Newbury from now on, Mr. Fitzgerald, because you just passed your initiation with flying colors.

"Welcome to the family, Son."

~Fin

...

Thanks for reading the next chapter in The Rule of Four!

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