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The silence between the three of them was deadly - Andrew standing in the kitchen, Bligh, his Ravens cap back on, in a chair at the kitchen table a few feet away, Cody beneath him on the floor, the white shirt he had been wearing clutched to his chest. Aside from this, they were all still naked - together, in the secret sanctuary of a suburban one-bedroom walk-up, they could, as marvelous and terrible as everything that the phrase meant, be themselves.

Andrew had turned the faucet on to wash his hands - but had not moved otherwise, and he stared at the soap dispenser, listlessly, as though in a trance. The water from the spigot never stopped running, so that its tinny drone became the only sound that carried through the apartment.

In a spontaneous gesture, Andrew's arm jerked outward to slam the sink's lever to turn off the water - the lack of noise was shattering and eerie...he was jarred by how quiet it was, and how, even in the same silence, his thoughts, the angry torrent of guilt and confusion, could be so deafening.

His face must have reflected that - and maybe his ears, laying flat, the new instinct - he heard Bligh stir in his chair, leaning forward.

"Are yew - okay?" he asked of Andrew.

Andrew nodded - an automatic response that meant nothing. He glanced to the both of them. "Are y'all?"

Cody nodded back slowly to him. "Y-yeah."

Bligh shrugged. "I'm aight," he murmured.

"G-good, that's--" He tried to catch himself but failed, and he let out a small cry, the back of his hand going to his eye as though to stop the budding tear there. "--that's g-good..."

"Andy..." Cody rose, still hugging the shirt to his chest. "Don't cry...it's okay."

"No it is not." It was a near-tearful outburst. "It is not - it is not okay."

Another round of silence, shorter than the first, as Andrew gripped the sink as hard as he could, as though even a micrometer of give would send him hurtling backward.

It was left to Bligh to speak up once more, in the same tone of loving concern - Duke in the thunderstorm. "Yeah it is, Drew. It wudn't yew. It wudn't us."

"Then who was it?" Andrew looked to the two of them. "Who else? Who raped--"

"No," Cody protested, shaking his head. "Don't - don't. You didn't rape me - don't - don't say that."

Andrew looked at the boy sternly. "Cody, don't apologize for me! I know what I did--"

Bligh seemed to want to add something also, but Cody persisted: "It wasn't your fault - it was - how we were feeling and - and I - I--" Yet another pause - Andrew and Bligh waited for him to finish. "It hurt, but you - it was - it was you, I know you'd never really hurt me..."

Andrew felt himself tear up again - harder this time, but still no match for him to stop the flood before it grew too uncontrolled.

"N-no - no, I'd - I'd never - never hurt you. I love you." His hands relinquished their deathgrip on the sink - he stepped back some, trying to keep his balance - he could bear no more, and he lifted his arms: "Come - get - get over here."

Without hesitation, Cody scrambled and nearly ran to Andrew, who closed around him in a tight hug. The shirt had been discarded where Cody had been sitting, and the slickness from Cody's nipples, although abating from their peak some minutes before, still rubbed off on Andrew, a moist feeling which had a discomfort he at once pushed out of his mind...it was the lactiferous mystery that bespoke of the most primal and most beautiful parts of mammals, coming from, perhaps, the only person who could complete it, that wild beauty. And Andrew owed Cody this.

The guilt that had shook him as he stood at the sink - the memory that even now still played out, the horror of what he had done, the trust being broken, the animal instinct that overrode the last clingings of his humanity - at last, faded, slowly, until, with the final brimming-over of his eyes that at last allowed for tears, they disappeared.

"I'm sorry," he whispered into Cody's ear. "I'm so sorry - I love you, okay?"

"I know Andy - it's okay, I love you too..."

Andrew looked up to see Bligh smirking at the two of them bemusedly - he rose from his chair to scritch the back of Cody's neck, and the boy turned to kiss him, an action that would have excited deadly jealousy in Andrew only a few days ago, but which now brought relief.

"I love ya too, Pup."

Cody briefly broke Andrew's hug to nuzzle Bligh's face and kiss his beard, before returning to Andrew's arms. "I - I love you - Bligh." He smiled.

Bligh cackled in spite of himself. "Aww, s'now yew can say it?"

Andrew smiled bittersweetly at the display, remembering Cody's hesitancy to say it the night before - it was an upsetting memory for several reasons, and the pain was only still slowly abating.

Cody blushed some. "Y-yeah - sorry, I - I do love you, Bligh. I'm sure."

Bligh gave one of his quick nods, smirking. "Aight, Pup." The smirk faded into something like worry. "But - listen, bout what - happened--"

"It's okay," Cody cut him off. "I told Andy, I - I meant it, it wasn't your fault...or mine."

Andrew shook his head. "I still don't like thinking about it that way - I could feel, I could--"

"But could you think?" Cody interrupted. Andrew opened his mouth to reply, but shut it, knowing Cody had a point. "See I couldn't," the boy went on. "I couldn't think. I just - said whatever was on my mind." His ear twitched. "It felt...good to say those - really - messed up - slutty things out loud but..." He shook his head. "I wasn't thinking. At all. I'd never do that kinda stuff normally..." His eyes became suddenly worried. "You - you know that, don't you?"

Andrew nodded slowly. "Y-yeah, Cody - I know."

Bligh glanced at Andrew. "He's right, yanno. Even though it was yew, ya really weren't...actin like--" He seemed to struggle with the concept. "Like yew. And be real man - I weren't actin like me neither."

"Sex and - like... like hate, it felt like," Cody added. "I wasn't thinking - but I was feeling. All the time."

Andrew weighed Bligh's words. "Like we were all - affected by - something..."

"We - didn't have no control over - what we done," Bligh went on. "It was jest our bodies, man..."

"Bodies..." Andrew whispered to himself. He pressed Cody against himself as tightly as he could, his mind racing as his heart seemed to sink to his stomach. "Then...then it'd make sense - if what I think happened - happened.":

Bligh's ear seemed to want to twitch underneath his cap. "What - what would that be?"

"And something else, too - if what I'm thinking is correct, Cody wasn't pregnant before - but he's pregnant now."

He felt Cody's face brighten against his shoulder, and his tail wag beneath him. "I - I am?"

He separated from Cody to nod at him, putting his arms around the boy's waist. "Because you were in heat. The throwing up, the - the lactation, um - it was all because of that huge surge of hormones that put you_into heat. And then...your body was giving off a chemical, a pheromone - I mean -_dogs in heat, you know, ain't you ever seen a male dog go crazy when - there's a girl-dog and she's..." He couldn't finish the sentence.

Cody seemed perturbed by the idea - his wagging tail came to a halt. "Wait - so that's how this happened? I'm - I'm a bitch, then?" He blushed. "Like...like I said I was..."

"W-well, Pup--" Bligh was attempting to backpedal. "N-now that ain't--"

"That's exactly what I'm saying," Andrew continued. The two of them looked at him in shared surprise. "I told you Bligh - what did I tell you? I said, every part of our body our - phenotype is the correct word - has a purpose. And Cody's body - what it's doing - that has a purpose. You and me..." He paused, shifting his feet uncomfortably, grasping his tail with one hand. "...doing what we did - that - our behavior served a purpose."

Bligh stared at him, eyebrows furrowed askance. "What - what purpose was that?"

Cody's eyes widened as it occurred to him what Andrew meant. "To - to make me have - babies." He looked to Andrew for confirmation. "Right - right?"

Andrew's eyes grew distant, and he slid his tongue over the back of his front teeth, curving over the still-new sharpened ends of his canines, deep in thought. It made sense - the rage, the surge of sexual violence, Cody lactating before the fact, and now seeming to return to normal...

But hard answers still eluded him - he was giving hard answers, definitive answers, without evidence, the unforgivable sin of academia. He wanted to be the scientist, again, and to observe, and to conclude - but Cody, but Bligh, they were not silkworms in his lab that he could study radiation doses in. They were the people he loved most - they were the same as he. How was he supposed to experiment on himself?

"I - I don't--" He shook his head, his glance snapping back to Cody to frown. "It's my best guess."

Cody leaned against the threshold of the kitchen, dissatisfied - Bligh retrieved the previously discarded shirt near him, which Cody took to mop his nipples with.

"So...y'ain't really sure?" he asked.

"Not--" Andrew shook his head rapidly. "No. I'm just guessing at this point, dude. I study bugs--" He flitted his hands like wings. "Little - fluffy - flying things, that spend all their lives eating and eating and then--" He slammed his hands on counter's edge behind him. "They get a few days to fuck and then they die. And they look amazing doing it, with their big - beautiful wings..." He turned to look helplessly at Bligh. "That's me. I don't know - I don't know shit about mammals, okay? I don't know - I don't know shit about myself." He saw Bligh frown, but he shook his head, a mirthless little laugh escaping him. "If I'd known this'd happen I wouldn't have shown up hungover all the damn time to that Mammaology class--"

"Oh right," said Cody. "You used to drink a lot."

Andrew rolled his eyes. "Missing the point, but--"

Cody shook his head. "No - well, you talked about going out to Ybor and stuff, but you never really talked about those days from - you know, before us."

"I told you I partied."

"Yeah, but before that." The boy frowned disapprovingly. "You never told me you got ­_drunk­-_drunk."

"Ah - well." He sniffed. "Guess Stevie gets it from me, huh?" His mouth twinged as he looked to Cody. "Yeah - Cody, I - I should have told you, I'm sorry."

"Why'd you keep that from me?"

"It was - in the past, I didn't--"

Bligh snickered. "Used ta drunk dial my ass every Saturday."

Cody's disapproval escalated with a still deeper frown. "Seriously?"

Andrew blushed some. "Thank you Bligh."

"Jest sayin."

"I don't like when people get drunk, Andy. My dad did..."

Andrew sighed. "Baby, I - I did that, but - it was so long ago--"

"And it won't happen anymore, right?" Cody leaned forward some in expectation. "Right?"

Andrew was humiliated - mortified at the idea he had disappointed Cody. "No - it...won't."

"Good on ye," said Bligh with a smirk.

"Y-yeah - might as well put it all on the table while we're at it." Andrew rolled his eyes. "I'm surprised - Bligh, I - I'm surprised didn't just burst out with how much I--" He chuckled at himself, a little sad. "God, do I have to say it?"

"How much ya loved me?" Bligh guessed with a smirk.

"Yeah...yeah, that--" He looked to the ceiling. "Yeah. That I was in love with you."

His eyes returned to Bligh, whose smirk had faded - he let go of Cody, who seemed keenly interested in this new exchange, to step forward until he and Andrew's noses met, his expression unexpectedly serious.

"Kept sayin how much ya missed me, but - why didn't ya say the other?"

Andrew looked into Bligh's eyes under the bill of his cap, where errant strands of feathery-black hair splintered the icy blue - the same action as before, and with all the comforting, yet accusing feelings that arose from his eyes, which penetrated him, which went through him, which laid bare all his follies of adulthood.

"I don't know," Andrew muttered back - he slid his arms around Bligh and drew him close, so that he could the silky chest hair against his skin. "But - while we're being honest - I don't know, I - I don't know where the years have gone, or--" He leaned to beseech Cody, who was still watching them curiously. "--other than - you, Cody, I - I think I said this, I can't remember, but honestly, I - I don't know what the fuck I'm doing." Bligh kissed his cheek, a small reassurance, and Andrew gave a soft little laugh, his tail wagging some, feeling the tingle of Bligh's beard. "And now I - I really don't know what the fuck I'm doing."

Bligh shook his head gravely. "Dun say that. C'mon - yer the smartest guy I know, Drew."

Andrew blushed at the compliment, bringing Bligh yet closer to put his head on his shoulder. "Th-thanks, Bligh but I - I don't really feel like it right now."

"He's right," Cody added, moving to situate himself between them. "He's right, Andy - you're really smart. I've never met anybody as smart as you are - Tim even said Davey wouldn't be doing as good as he is without you. You're amazing - and you can figure this out."

Andrew leaned from Bligh's embrace to give Cody a small kiss, before stepping back to give himself some room from the two of them - he cleared his throat and moistened his lips, trying once more to gather his thoughts.

"Thanks - I don't deserve y'all thinking I'm so - special but - thanks. Alright - alright then. But first - what exactly are we trying to figure out?"

"What's goin on with us - why--" Bligh seemed to consider his words. "Why what happened...happened."

Andrew nodded. "I still think that - Cody went into heat after he - yanno, changed." He glanced to Cody, who shrugged.

"So I wasn't pregnant before?" the boy asked, his ears going flat.

"No - but that brings me to my next point, and I said this before, you went into heat, like I said, um - and you were releasing all those...pheromones. Like a--" He cleared his throat again, this time out of discomfort, feeling his own ears flatten as well. "--a bitch in heat..."

Cody blushed, distractedly starting to play with his tail in what could have been embarrassment.

"Um, so that--" Andrew tried to finish. "Bligh and me could - do what we did - so that you'd--"

Cody looked at him to finish the thought. "Get pregnant..." he said softly.

Andrew nodded once more. "And now that you are - now that we've, uh, conceived - things are back to normal." He reached around to feel his own tail. "What passes for normal I guess," he muttered ruefully.

A creeping smile overtook Cody's face, which flashed a quick shade of red. "Makes...sense..." He held the shirt he had been clutching out from him, stained in nearly every spot with creamy-yellow milk - examining first it, then himself. "Hey...look at that. I think it stopped."

"Your milk?"

Cody nodded. "Yeah."

Andrew beckoned him with his hand, and the boy stepped forward - Andrew placed a hand on Cody's nipples, and he shivered as though tickled.

"H-hey--"

"Sorry Baby, I'm just having a look..."

True to what Cody had said, his torso - although still latently sticky - was dry, with no more milk coming from any of the boy's ten nipples.

"Huh...he's right."

"Told you," Cody said.

At this, Bligh hugged the boy from behind - with a startled giggle, Cody held on to his arms with a broad smile.

"He don't smell different anymore, neither," Bligh said, rubbing his face in the boy's hair.

"W-wait, I smelled different?" Cody asked through another laugh.

"Yeah..." Andrew affirmed, embarrassed from having to explain this to him. "You - did. You know how we have a different smell and you can tell who is who?"

Cody nodded. "Yeah, we talked about that."

"W-well--" Andrew hesitated, wincing. "Cody - Baby, you - um--"

Seeing that he would unable to finish the sentence, Bligh did so for him: "Ya smelled a li'l different, Pup. Like...sweeter...I reckon be the best way ta describe it."

"Sweeter," Cody repeated.

Andrew laughed, his nervousness betraying him. "Bligh, um - yeah. Bligh's right."

Cody smiled again. "Like my milk, huh?"

"Sorta," Bligh said. "I mean, that could be why--" He looked to Andrew. "Right, Scientist-Man?"

"It's possible," Andrew said with a shrug. "_Possible_that's what we were smelling."

Bligh nodded at Andrew - then, taking his hand, rubbed a finger beside Cody's top nipple, and the boy nearly collapsed in a full-body sexual shudder that overtook him - having obtained a small residue of lactation, Bligh took the finger he had used and sucked on it thoughtfully.

"Bligh what the fuck--" Andrew wanted to scold Bligh, but found to his own personal horror that he was mildly aroused by the sight.

"Oh my god," Cody breathed. "That - that felt so good--"

"Ya taste good, too." Bligh snickered - he felt Andrew's eyes on him. "What?" he demanded teasingly.

Before Andrew could answer, he saw Cody nod his head vigorously. "I know, it - it was hard to not keep licking it off myself in - in the bathroom..."

Andrew wanted to be repulsed at the notion, but his ancient scientific instinct - the innate curiosity - reappeared:

"Really?" he asked in wonder.

"Yeah - it's - is that bad?"

Andrew looked to Bligh, who smirked at him. With a shake of his head, Bligh snickered, leaning back on the stove with his arms folded.

"No..." Andrew answered slowly. "No, Baby - your milk _has_to be tasty - so - so your pups will drink it."

Cody laughed, suddenly euphoric - like his smile, it was sunny, so full of happiness that it could heat a cold room.

"My - my pups..."

"Uh - bout that," Bligh said. "Who's - uh, who's _pups_would they be?"

"Um..." Andrew weighed his own knowledge. "From what I remember about canines - presuming we are canines, um..." He cleared his throat. "...it's called superfecundation- don't worry about that word just know it means, um, basically a mother can give birth to offspring by two or more different fathers. So--" What Bligh had said before they rushed into the bathroom came back to him, and he grew somewhat sick at the thought - he came out of his contemplation to see Bligh and Cody were waiting for him to finish, and so he pressed on: "--both of ours."

Cody squeezed Bligh's wrists, still around his chest, and made another noise that sounded like a suppression of utter delight - turning completely red, he covered his mouth with his fist obscure an enormous smile.

Bligh nuzzled the boy's hair with his face, his nose lovingly moving along the edge of Cody's ears. "Zat right, now..." He tittered.

Andrew raised an eyebrow. "You seem pretty mellow for someone who - I mean think about it, dude."

Bligh shrugged. "Ya said we was a family, right?"

"Wait, when did he say that?" Cody asked.

"You were at work, Baby," Andrew said. "But yes, I did say it."

"You mean--"

"Me, you, Bligh..." Andrew held up a hand as though to offer the concept to him. "A family. Just like you - you said you wanted."

Cody smiled. "I...I like it."

"So if we family," Bligh went on, "then we'd have kids, right?"

Andrew was taken aback. "Y-yes, but - we don't know what they'll look like, or how--"

"It don't matter, Drew." The finality in Bligh's voice was unmistakable. "Aight? It don't matter. Whatever they is or - whatever, man. It don't matter. They ours."

Andrew sighed again - he glanced to Cody. "What about - what about you, Baby, ain't you scared--?"

Cody shook his head with a softer smile. "No - Andy, I'm really not. I'll have you two - why should I be scared?"

Andrew stared at Cody, floored. "You - where are they supposed to come out, for one thing?" He saw Bligh furrow his eyebrows at the question.

Cody's smile died on his face. "Of...me?" he guessed. "Out of my - you - you know--"

"Ass?" Bligh finished for him dubiously. "Uh..." He seemed to ponder it a moment "Huh."

"Is that what you think?" Andrew asked.

Cody nodded, blushing. "P-pretty much, I mean I don't--"

"So it's either," Andrew went on, "that yeah, it'll come out the - um, the butt, or you'll need a c-section from--" His face grew grim as he sighed through his nose. "--a veterinarian that can keep a secret..."

Cody blanched, his ears going flat in fresh horror. "They're gonna cut me open?"

Bligh hushed him. "Naw, darlin, that won't--"

"Well what if he's right? I never--" Cody stopped, almost seeming self-aware at his own pitifulness. "Never really thought about it..."

"Wait," Andrew blurted. A thought had occurred to him, and he paused, turning it over in his mind - Bligh and Cody seemed to focus their attention on him as he remained visibly pensive. "This...ain't new. If Duke--" He looked to Bligh. "If Duke chose you, if he - if he changed you deliberately, this must have been going on for way longer than just him - you, us."

"Whattya mean?" Bligh said.

"I mean - if Cody's pregnant then nature has already figured out a way to have him deliver his offspring and live - if he's a mammal, anyhow, which - uh - well with the milk and all he obviously is. I mean, um..." He sighed. "Women used to die in childbirth all the time but - technically they're not supposed to. They're supposed to keep reproducing to make sure the species lives."

"So then...what'll happen to me?" Cody asked - he bit his lip, his fang making a reappearance.

Andrew thought for another moment before shaking his head. "You don't have a vagina--"

"No, no I don't," Cody interjected with a giggle.

Bligh tittered. "Oh man..."

Andrew rolled his eyes with a gameful smile. "Right, so - yeah, they'd have to come out of your...your butt."

Cody's face, which had regained its normal shade, seem to creep back to being pallid once more. "But won't that hurt...? I mean - I'm not super-tight but - a whole puppy--" He stopped, his ear twitching. "I just never...I thought about it all the time but not all the - real - gross parts..."

"Yeah, it would hurt," Andrew said, "if your new body didn't produce a hormone to loosen the anus first."

Bligh furrowed his eyebrows once more. "Do what now?"

"My body'll make my butt loose to - give birth," Cody guessed. "Right?"

Andrew sighed - he did his best to give an encouraging smile. "I - that's my theory. It'd be similar to - um, how human females give birth with being induced and all that." He frowned. "But we'll just have to see..." Cody nodded, as did Bligh. "That's why...I asked you if you were afraid. Because I--" He felt his ears go flat. "I'm afraid. There's - I know how much we played and - how much you like it, but - birth, mammalian birth, it's no joke. It - a lot of things can go wrong."

"But you'll be there, Andy," Cody said. He smiled - he put his hand to him, which Andrew, looking down at, took to put on his own heart. "Right? You'll be there, so I won't be scared - even if things get bad - you'll be there with me."

Bligh grinned, watching the two of them - they stayed like this for a small length until Andrew, with a profound, final nod, answered him:

"You're right," he said, trying to recover as the needles of poignancy pricked his heart. "You're - you're right, I'll - I'll always be there..."

"Okay then," said Cody with perhaps the wriest smile he could muster. "I don't have anything to be scared of."

"See?" Bligh grinned at Andrew, squeezing Cody with a hug from behind. "C'mon Drew--"

"Alright...alright." Andrew gave a sheepish little laugh - shaking his head, he folded his arms to think. "But it - I hafta stress this really is just a guess. I mean all the clues lead in that direction but we could still be wrong."

"Still sounds like an aight guess, tho," Bligh said, sliding his arms off of Cody. "Yew n'me both had dawgs afore, the thang about the mama havin two dads, n'then seein how they act--"

"No, I had Walker," Andrew sharply corrected him, his fear of being wrong making an insidious reappearance. "And he wasn't even my dog, he was Stephen's, and he creeped everybody out claiming they could talk to each other or some shit. I didn't - you had the dogs - well, before Duke you did--"

"Calm down man," Bligh answered, undaunted. "It don't matter if yew had dawgs, ya seen how _mine_acted. S'why I'm sayin it's a good guess."

Andrew shook his head exasperatedly. "I didn't mean to snap, I just - I'm tired of guessing. I want to know--"

"Ya can't jest yet, Scientist-Man." Bligh smirked. "None o'us can. Didn't ya say we ta do this tagether?"

The remark gave Andrew pause - he searched Bligh, his smirk knowing and unyielding, letting his eyes drift over to Cody, who had resumed leaning against the threshold, and who straightened himself at Andrew's gaze, his tail wagging slowly...

Andrew chuckled to himself - soft, self-deprecating. "Sharing - sharing everything now, huh?"

Bligh came forward to embrace him in a tight bear hug - Cody not far behind, his arms coming around them both, in another group hug, which Andrew, shutting his eyes, let himself become affirmed and loved in.

"I love you guys..." he whispered.

"We love ya too, Drew," Bligh answered - Cody let out a muffled laugh, to finish.

The three of them remained this way for a minute, maybe less, before Cody, as though remembering something that was been said earlier, retreated back to where he had been standing - Andrew shifted his head, heretofore pressed against Bligh's shoulder.

"Wait - wait. You said your brother - Stephen - he could talk to his dog?"

"Oh - no," said Andrew flatly, stepping back out of Bligh's hug. "My brother - Stevie, um,Stephen - he's crazy. I love him to death but you really need to understand--" He hesitated, and he involuntarily put a hand to his cheek as he remembered Stephen's kiss the day he left. "Stephen is - he ain't right."

Cody leaned forward, as though skeptical. "You said he was weird - like, he weirded people, you didn't say--"

Andrew's hand dropped to his side as he felt his ear twitch again. "No he's - he's nuts, he's really nuts. He's been that way since he was small."

"So why didn't you say that before?"

Andrew sighed. "Baby he's - he's my brother. Even telling you he's crazy now is--" He shrugged, reluctant to go on. "It ain't something I really like to admit. I love him a lot, it's - hard to talk about, yanno?"

Cody leaned back, his ear giving a slight twitch. "I never had a brother or sister, so..." He reached down to once again play with his tail. "I have no idea what that feels like...I'm sorry."

Andrew shook his head. "It's alright - I just didn't want you to know the truth until, I dunno, it was time to actually meet him, if he was, yanno, interested - then you could find out he was a weirdo who thought he could talk to dogs."

"Well--" Bligh tittered to himself, as though something had just occurred to him - his tail had begun to wag some. "Maybe he could."

"Wait, what?" Cody asked.

Andrew, too, tilted his head askance. "Uh, yeah - what?"

"Maybe Stevie wudn't jest goin on bout bein able ta talk ta Walker," Bligh clarified. "Walker was from Tempest too, man. Remember?"

Andrew raised an eyebrow once again. "Well - yeah, Pa got him from - um - Papa Sandoro, that old Italian guy who was Granddad's accountant. He raised hunting dogs."

"Yup." Bligh grinned. "Used ta give all the kids li'l chocolates from Italy - remember?"

Andrew shrugged. "Well he_said_ they were from Italy, we were kids, how would we even--" He stopped. "Anyway where're you going with this?"

"Well, I - Duke used ta - yanno he'd talk to ya like a person."

"Wait," Cody said. "Your dog could talk?"

"Not really talk," Andrew clarified. "But like, especially, uh, a few months after Bligh took him in..."

Bligh tittered. "He'd talk, though! He'd nudge ya n'bark n'whine - the usual stuff - but it seemed _different_than other dawgs..." His grin faded, and he gave Cody a squeeze, as he seemed to grow sad. "He was...damn...I still miss em, Drew. Yanno?"

Andrew frowned. "I - I do know. I'm sorry." He raised an eyebrow. "So you're saying Stephen wasn't just being - yanno, Stephen? I mean he'd make a lot of strange dog-noises, but - you're actually saying Stephen was telling the truth?"

"Why not?" He reached into his hat to scratch his ear thoughtfully. "Maybe there's sumthin weird bout the dawgs in our part o'the county?"

Andrew thought it over - Bligh did have a point. Duke was a strange dog - a gorgeous dog, yes, more like a wolf than a proper dog, but did that mean he was sentient, did that mean that he was a different species altogether, thinking, communicating, in ways far more advanced than what a canine is thought to be capable of...?

"Part of the county, part of the country - part of the world..." he murmured to himself. "Bligh, listen, were you--" Andrew huffed, shutting his eyes and trying to pull together his words properly. "Were you tellin the truth when ya said that Duke - that Duke changed you?"

"Yeah I was but - wait. Yew jest say tellin?!"

Andrew immediately went red. "I mean - I said--"

Cody cocked his head. "Your accent's slipping... "

"N-no," Andrew protested. "No. It was jest--"

His eyes widened in self-alarm as Bligh patted his shoulder. "Y'aight?"

"What's wrong?" Cody asked.

"N-nothing, Baby--" Andrew gave a soft chuckle, still embarrassed, and in a low voice, to Bligh: "I'm fine, dude, I--" He took a step back, feeling his tail wag lazily. "I guess it's - now cuz yer back, it must be--" He hesitated. "Instinctual."

"Ya sure?" Bligh's voice was low to match as Andrew's had been.

"Dude, yes."

"Hey, don't leave me out, what's going on?"

Andrew ran a hand through his own hair as Cody neared him.

"When I started - listen, when I started goin crazy my, um - my accent started comin back..." He shut his eyes, mortified. "Like it is now..."

Cody grinned at him. "Well you're fine, right?"

"Yeah," Andrew affirmed with a nod."

"Then - don't worry about it. It's cute. You sound like Bligh."

At this Bligh erupted into a happy cackle - even as Andrew facepalmed.

"Oh no," Andrew muttered as Cody, aware of the backhanded compliment, giggled at him. "Oh, no, no, no--"

"Ey now!" Bligh teased him in mock indignance. "What's wrong with soundin like me?!"

"Nuthin, nuthin--" Andrew gave a sheepish little laugh. "I jest um--" He cringed. "Fuck, I jest said jest­--"

Cody's giggles became louder and more infectious - as Andrew stood against the dishwasher he felt himself being overcome by them, and joined in the laughter.

It was a moment of welcome levity, the final act of a day that had veered out of control, with every emotion he had possibly ever felt in his life making an appearance, hour by hour, sometimes minute by minute. But it was over now - it was all over. They were alive, they were in love, and all they could do was laugh.

At some length however, and one by one, they stopped...they looked at each other, regarded each other, their strange half-human bodies, their tails that slowed their respective wagging, the dog's ears...Andrew felt something new, something he would have never thought to experience earlier that day, standing in this same kitchen.

It was pride - he was different from everyone else, not just in his family background, now, but on an astonishingly literal level...and yet, so was Bligh, so was Cody. They were different, yes - but they were beautifully different, they represented something new, something unexplored.

And who were the best explorers, after all? Scientists - a scientist. That's what he was - and what he would need to be, for Bligh, and for Cody. A scientist - and - a father.

Perhaps the strength of this epiphany was too much for him - he felt a crashing wave of exhaustion throttle him.

"Oh fuck," he said with a wooshing sigh. "I'm so fuckin tired."

Cody nodded, rubbing an eye with his fingers. "Yeah...what time is it, anyway?

"Time fer bed, man," Bligh said. "I'm feelin it..."

"How're we gonna sleep, though?" Cody asked. "There's three of us now..."

Bligh removed his cap, throwing it over the counter and into the living room, where it landed on the couch.

"Nice!" Cody said.

"Thanks, Pup," Bligh tittered - he gave his now-free ears a good scratch with one hand as he stretched with the other - a quick, hot surge of arousal flashed inside Andrew as he was struck with how strong, and yet how lithe and sinewy, Bligh was...how, even well after high school, his physique was still the perfect greyhound-like body that it was when he was the Adkins County quarterback. He shifted where he stood, hoping Cody would not see his sheath become firm at the sight.

"Damn..." he murmured. "Um - I can sleep on the couch, ain't a thang, I jest--"

"No - no." Andrew grabbed Bligh's hand, rubbing it with his thumb. "Yew gonna sleep with us. Y'ain't gonna sleep on the couch like yew a - a guest." He smiled. "Y'ain't a guest - yer family."

Bligh grinned at him, coming forward to plant a kiss on his forehead. "Yer sure now, though? I seen y'all's bed I dun--"

"No," Cody spoke up. "Sleep with us, Bligh."

Andrew nodded again. "Yeah. C'mon, dude."

Bligh rolled his eyes with another grin. "Aight, aight - let's jest hope we all fit, now."

"I - ain't never had three people in the bed but I dun see why not," Andrew said, trying to be confident.

"Well..." Bligh shrugged, smirking. "Yew sure three people can fit then - aight."

"Awesome!" Cody squeed as he departed the kitchen excitedly, tail wagging all the way.

Andrew followed him with a chuckle, Bligh some paces behind.

Cody was the first to get in the bed, assuming his usual position at the wall, with Andrew next, turning on the box-fan next to the bed as he did so, and the two of them worked out a compromise amongst the three pillows, as they usually did, getting comfortable before settling in for a snuggle.

"Ey Bligh, yew comin?" Andrew said as he gave Cody a squeeze.

A titter floated in from the doorway. "Yeah man - I'm here."

"Well then get in here!" Cody said. "There's totally enough room."

"Least I think there is..." Andrew murmured to himself as he felt around the remaining space with his foot.

He and Cody separated, and the latter turned over, putting a hand to his head, elbow into the pillow, raising an eyebrow. "So are you coming, Bligh?"

"Yep! Here I am--"

Bligh drew nearer to the bed until he was against it - carefully, with Cody and Andrew both scooting over to give him room, he laid down on the bed beside them, taking Andrew's hand, still in his hair, and kissing it.

"So three people can fit in this bed..." Andrew said, again to himself, before sitting up, letting go of Bligh's hand to ruffle Cody's hair. "Ya tired, baby?"

"Yeah - yeah I really am. But..." The boy's tail starting wagging again as he looked down into the bed, unsuccessfully suppressing an awkward smile. "Now that we're all here, it'd be cool if - uh - I mean, um--"

Andrew raised an eyebrow. "What're--?"

"I'd like to...be close with you two like that."

"A threesome?" Bligh guessed.

"Y-yeah. I've never had one."

"Me neither," Andrew said.

The two of them looked to Bligh - who immediately balked.

"The fuck y'all lookin at me?!"

Andrew let out a hearty laugh, collapsing back into the pillow - Cody, also laughing, pulled Andrew into a hug, and they were joined at last by Bligh, cackling, who did his best to put his arms around them both, his messy mop of feathery hair tickling the back of Andrew's neck.

Andrew sighed heavily, as he felt the weight of the newest earthquake changes in his life overcome him. "Not - tonight--"

"Well, no, I didn't mean tonight--" Cody giggled. "Are you kidding? No way, but - yeah, sometime."

"I'm down," Bligh said with a soft darkness.

Andrew chuckled, well in spite of himself. "Fine, fine y'all - but oh _Jesus_I'm fucking exhausted. This day has been the weirdest in - my entire life, wow."

Bligh seemed to consider the comment - he sniffed, giving Andrew a squeeze. "Yeah - I reckon it is, idn't it?"

Cody stirred, his expression serious in the darkness. "Are you...happy, though?"

"Yeah Baby - I am. I didn't think I'd be, but..." He kissed the boy's nose. "I am."

Cody smiled. "I'm so glad..."

Andrew gave one final, tired, yet happy sigh. "Good night, Cody."

"Mmm..." Cody kissed Andrew before turning to the wall to settle in for sleep. "Good night Andy." He lifted his head slightly. "Good night, Bligh!"

"G'night, Pup. G'night Drew."

"Good night, John-Boy," Andrew muttered wryly.

Cody stirred. "Wait, what?"

Bligh cackled as he put his arm around Andrew's waist, stealing a kiss on his cheek. "Don't worry about it, Pup."

"Uh...okay." He giggled, nonetheless, and returned to his position against the wall, sighing contentedly, as he reached for Andrew's hand, putting it to his chest. "I love you, Andy. And Bligh too. I love you both."

Bligh leaned over - crushing Andrew in the process, who let out a good-natured grunt - to kiss the back of Cody's neck. "We love ya too, Pup."

Cody laughed. "This is great, it's our first night as a family."

"How bout that," Bligh answered, settling in to cuddle Andrew with his other arm as well. "Family," he repeated.

"Family," Andrew affirmed. "Just the three of us."

It didn't take long - thirty minutes, perhaps, of nighted silence, the only noise the safe and perpetual whirring rush of the box-fan near the bed - for the other two to fall asleep, leaving Andrew in the middle of two warm, furry bodies...wide awake.

Up against Bligh, under the covers he could feel his hairy chest, with its soft hair its own kind of comfort, rise and fall amidst his drowsing half-wheezes - up against Cody, he could feel the same, but the wheezing replaced with the gentle, almost imperceptible breaths, as he slept.

The day had opened with him, in this bedroom, in this bed - alone. Since then, as the hours had gone by, this day - it was a Saturday, the Tenth of August, the day after the anniversary of Nagasaki...an appropriate day for immolation, and yet within it, as all instances of unrestricted fires once they die out, the promising of rebuilding, and renewal.

He thought back to the conversation in the car, in the Checkers parking lot - what he had said was true, perhaps the truest thing he had ever said in his mortal existence: it did not matter if Bligh was a dog, as long as Bligh was still Bligh, he would love him, he would follow him. The same with Cody...it seemed perfect to the point of poetry that the two people who, together, comprised his world he now slept between...

Except, perhaps, that it was not perfect at all. Their inhuman biology - a werewolf, at first glance - and Cody's strange secrets that the three of them had promised to devote their collective time to...what did it all mean? Was it, perhaps, a kind of divine exchange - the romance of a lifetime, the fulfillment of a dream, but at the cost of being cursed as half-animals, with the eternal caveat of having to hide what they truly were?

And then - of course - the greatest question of all: what were they,_truly? Was Cody really pregnant, as was his own admitted best guess? And if he was, what would he give birth to? And _how? Could it really be true that they would never be able to die? And what did that mean for their identities, for their ability to live alongside humans...?

He sighed - there was much, entirely too much, for him to worry about it...and then again, perhaps, he should not worry at all. Prepare, yes, but not worry. The challenges would be steep, perhaps perpetual, but the two people he loved most slumbered, in one bed, on either side of them. Everything else notwithstanding, the fur that had erupted out of their skin, and the fangs that had grown from their mouths - was emerging truth. It was the coalescence of his true self: Cody's guardian, and Bligh's bitch - an ugly word, a crude word, to the uninitiated who could not know that, literally at their hearts, they were dogs.

His eyes grew heavy at the final, soul-affirming thought: that, with them, despite the obvious hardships, he could do anything.