{"sf1_id":772777,"sf2_id":null,"title":"The Dogs: Litany - Episode I","author":"Aux Chiens","words":11729,"posted_at":"2014-10-25T02:47:00.000Z","tags":["Character Development","Cooking","Cuddling","Gay Relationships","Hybrid","Kissing","M/M","Male","Male Pregnancy","Plot Development","Story Progression","Transformation","Weredogs"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/772777-the-dogs-litany-episode-i","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/772777","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=772777\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":"            It was very late afternoon that Sunday, the September Sun languid and\nbroken through the blinds, and Andrew was in the kitchen, cutting up chicken\nfor a dinner, on the bamboo board he had bought at Publix the last time he had\ngone there with Bligh and Cody - next to it was a bag of flour, some shakers of\nspices they had gotten from that family-owned Italian deli down the street, and\nhis phone, with its insistent blue light telling him that his brother Stephen\nhad texted him for the third time that day.            From\nthe living room over the tall separating counter floated in sounds of a\nfootball game - the Browns at the Ravens, Bligh in a state of quiet tension as\nhe watched his team play. He was naked, save for his cap, as was Andrew...nothing\nunusual, it seemed that barely after the first few days of living together\nthey, with Cody, had decided to forgo the use of clothes in the house, the\nunspoken honestly toward each other about being abhuman, furred and tailed and\nfanged, the great secret that dwelt in their apartment.            Andrew\nshould have been used to the sight - he should have been used to seeing his\nfriend naked, he had seen him naked more times than could be counted since they\nwere children growing up - but every day when he woke up in the bed the three\nof them shared, in between him and Cody, Andrew found himself in love again\nwith both of them, transported, if only for a moment, when the day had started\nand begun anew.            Bligh\n- Bligh still dazzled him. After two decades, nearly - Bligh, his best friend\nin the most literal sense of the word, his deepest connection even compared to\nhis own brother to the pieces of West Virginia that they were made of...Bligh\nstill dazzled him.            As\nhe continued to slice the chicken breast, piece by piece, to drop into a\nsandwich bag of flour and shake about after seasoning in a bowl and\nrefrigerating to let it set up, he found himself drifting to what had happened\na month before, when the world and everything in it, but him especially, seemed\nto hinge unwieldy on the faintest of fragments - he slowed his motions with the\nknife against the cutting board as he remembered, quite without meaning to, how\nhe used a knife like it to try and kill himself...his last defiant act as a\nhuman, his last despicable stand against the happiness he had since found.            It\nwas not an abrupt thought, but it caused him to act abruptly - he stopped what\nhe was doing as his eyes came to the sink, where they rested, a sense of\nimpermanence, cosmic and gravitational, creeping into him...a helplessness, that\nso much could have easily have been lost that day, now more than a month past,\nmade him deeply uneasy. He felt his ears flatten and his tail - no longer new\nto him, an accepted part of him, something Bligh and Cody had taught him to be\nproud of - grow still.            His\nsudden, unwelcome introspection did not go unnoticed.             \"Hey\n- hey y'aight?\"            Andrew\njerked his head to look up at Bligh's worried expression from the couch where\nhe was lounging.             \"Yeah,\"\nhe answered - a smile of relief coming to him. Bligh, Cody - his life, their lives,\nas a pack of dogs - was a reality, tangible, palpable. \"Y-yeah, I'm\nfine.\"            Bligh\nhalf-nodded - Andrew saw his eyes, icy blue, the color of ocean which polar\nbears swim in, regard him gravely for a moment before turning to the\ntelevision, and Andrew frowned, back to the quick labor of slicing up the\ncorpulent chicken breast into manageable pieces, as he wondered to himself\nabout the state of Bligh's emotions, and how tense and nervous he had become -\nhow, since the wild theory Cody had himself put forth had been proven true with\na bulging tummy, Bligh had discovered he would soon, become a father.            Cody\nhad hidden his pregnancy in the depths of an old Abercrombie hoodie that Andrew\nhad brought with him from West Virginia, where the weather was more suited for\nit - he had hidden it because the world would not understand it, as much as\nCody himself could rejoice to the idea, as he much as he knew his place in the\nuniverse as that which creates the mystery-miracle of birth...he had hidden it\neven as he continued to go to work, every day his lithe, toned skater's stomach\nbecoming just slightly more stretched and distended with the progeny that Bligh\nand probably Andrew had provided.             It was something he, Cody, had always wanted, very much\nin spite, or perhaps because of, being born a human male and enjoying being\nborn that way - the role play he and Andrew used to do that masked his desire\nto serve Andrew and become a vessel for someone he truly loved and was grateful\nfor. But now that he was a half-dog, as Andrew and Bligh were also, he was no\nlonger human - and the strange possibility for him to be actually pregnant had\nslipped from fantasy to reality. \n            There was the question of what\nwas growing inside of Cody - if they were half-dog children identical in form\nas the three of them, or if they were normal infants...or if they were puppies,\njuvenile dogs, fully formed canines. Bligh had opted for the latter because\nCody had, on faith, said it to be so, and Bligh had inferred it was an instinct\nnone of them could, or even should, understand. It was left to Andrew to do\nsomething anathema to his nature - believe something, assume something, with no\nscientific evidence at all. But that was the point - he, too, was about to be a\nfather, his and Bligh's offspring dwelling in the body of someone who had been\nborn male.\n            Sometimes he thought this was\nthe case - sometimes Andrew would be bothered at the thought that whatever what\nwas growing in Cody's stomach was all Bligh's, and not his...that his own seed\nwas too diluted, too late, or both, for Cody to carry his young.\n            He, after all, was the savior\nof the boy from homelessness and misery - and by rights, at least to most\npeople, whatever was inside Cody should, necessarily, only be Andrew's alone.\n            But he, Andrew, was no fool -\nhe still knew his destiny, his choking strands of DNA too tightly bound around\nthe neck of his reproductive capabilities. He was still physically strong - the\nyears being out of playing football had been kind to his body, he was very fit\n- and he was mentally strong, about to graduate in December cum laude from the University of South\nFlorida. But he could not overcome the last mocking laugh of karma that echoed\nout of the valley of the Greenbrier River - his four-hundred year old Lightfoot\nfamily name. \n            There was a chance, a chance\nthat bothered him too much if he considered it too long, that it would be\nBligh, alone, responsible for the continuation of both of their family lines,\nfor their respective generations of doom.\n            There were days Andrew was not\nsure this would really work - he would catch himself craving the chocolate\nwhich would now poison him, he would get too irritated at having to buy Drano\nfor the amount of fur clogging the shower drain, he would cut his lip on one of\nhis fangs, he wished he could go swimming again without the killing fear that\nsomeone would see his furry lower half and his tail and his ears...\n            But then he would see Bligh come\nhome from his new job at the car mechanic's shop down the street, his brow\nslick with sweat and his hands filthy with the grime of automobile innards, his\nface in a scowl from the interminable heat and stress of working all day...a\nscowl which disappear when he would raise his head and see Andrew waiting for\nhim, melting away into a grin, grateful and relieved, with his fangs peeking\nover his lips. He would see Cody, too, when he would come home on cooler days\nfrom his job at the Green Room, the skateshop where he had worked for most of\ntheir relationship, throw off the hoodie that hid his pregnant body, and run\nforward to hug him, that solar powered smile luminous at Andrew's touch.\n            They were worth it - for\nAndrew, they were worth it. And if they could work as hard as they did for him,\nhe could make it work, for them, as well.\n            But perhaps the crystallizing\ndisconnect from his old life to his present one after barely a month was still\ntoo much - because he was thrown out of the worries and the memories and the\nresolutions deep inside his own head with a shooting sting from his finger as\nthe knife's blade bit into it, straight down, leaving a deep, bleeding cut.\n            He cursed in profound\nirritation - but he barely had time to look up when Bligh was beside him, hand\nwrenched from him so Bligh could see, the blood trickling down his finger as\nthe cut from whence it bled sealed itself scarlessly back into skin.\n            Andrew stared at where the cut\nhad been, the only evidence that any violence had taken place the drying\ntrickle of blood that painted his finger a faint scarlet...his eyes trailed from\nit to meet Bligh's, seeing his mouth curved into an embarrassed half-smirk.\n            \"I...uh...\"\n            \"Dude I'm okay - you\nforget that happens?\" His smile was wry but kind.\n            His accent, living with Bligh,\nhad settled back into the amniotic Virginian border noises that he heard his\nfather and brother use - he sounded different, he sounded more, he thought some\ndays, like he was supposed to.\n            Bligh hesitated, prefaced by a\nnervous titter. \"I, uh...jest heard ya--\"\n            \"And I'm fine - don't\nhave to worry about infection, neither - same reason...\" Andrew put his hand\nbehind his back and came forward to gently kiss Bligh on the lips. \"Would\nyou - would tell me what's wrong?\" he asked softly. \"You been so\ntense...\"\n            Undeterred, Bligh took Andrew's\nformerly injured hand by the wrist, grabbing a paper towel off the roll on the\nwall as he did so - Andrew let his arm slacken as it was led to the sink,\nwatching bemusedly as Bligh wetted down the paper towel and gently, tenderly,\nwashed away the blood from his finger at last. \n            As a final gesture, he took\nthe still-wet finger and kissed it - their eyes met for a moment, and Bligh\nseemed as though he was forcing a smile, the smirk that he would have given not\nquite reaching up his face where it should have been. The expression faded as\nhe tossed the damp mass of paper towel over Andrew's head, into the open closet\nto plunk squarely in the trashcan...his eyes followed it before returning to meet\nAndrew's.\n            \"Yew - yew know why,\nman...\" he said in a low voice.\n            \"I wanna hear it,\"\nAndrew answered, matching his volume.\n            Bligh opened his mouth to\nanswer, but shut it, shaking his head, looking away. \"I...I--\"\n            \"C'mon,\" Andrew\nurged, wiping the residual moistness on his hand into his leg fur as he took a\nstep forward to kiss him on the cheek. \"We need to talk about this.\"\n            Bligh's eyes did not move from\nwhere they had fixed on the floor below him. \"It's...Cody, man. He shudn't\nbe workin.\"\n            Andrew smiled, putting his\nhand into Bligh's coal-black beard to ease his face so that their eyes came\nback to meeting. \"I know,\" he said gently. \"But he ain't gonna\nstop, dude, he's - he's always been\nthat way, he wants to work, he wants to - to help out, to help us out--\"\n            Bligh shut his eyes, sighing\nirritably. \"But he dun hafta.\"\nHe shook his head again. \"I'm workin, and yew got yer Granddad's\nmoney--\"\n            \"Then explain that to him,\" Andrew\nanswered, still gentle - he knew, he sensed, that this had festered for far too\nlong. \"He'll be home soon we - we can talk about it.\" His smile\nbrightened. \"As a family.\"\n            \"If'n he'll listen - last\ntime I tried that he wudn't hear a word...\" He shook his head again, and\npulled Andrew into a hug. \"This is new fer me, man.\"\n            \"What, you don't think\nthis ain't new for me too?\" Andrew chuckled, his tag giving a slight wag -\nhe slid his hands to Bligh's shoulders, kissing him. \"I thought you told\nme - the first day, you - you told me not to worry.\" He cocked his head\nwith a small smile. \"What happened to that?\"\n            \"That, uh--\" Bligh\nsniffed. \"That was afore I - afore, uh, we--\"\n            \"Knocked him up?\" Andrew\nfinished for him.\n            Bligh coughed - he pulled out\nof the embrace with a titter that was audibly mortified. \"Y-yeah -\nthat.\" The half-smirk that had come to his face with his strange little\nlaugh vanished, returning back to a worried frown. \"I was - I was okay\nwith the, yanno the idea, man, cuz -\nit was all - new at first but shit, man - this is real.\"\n            \"It wasn't real\nbefore?\" Andrew asked, the small smile never leaving as he folded his\narms, the chicken forgotten for the time being. \n            \"It was - o-okay it - yeah but--\" \n            Andrew chuckled again, running\na hand through Bligh's feathery hair to cease his best friend's struggle with\nwords. \"I get it, dude - I get it, trust me, I - I'm right there with\nyou...\" His smile finally faded. \"They're my pups too--\" His\nsubconscious overtook him, and he finished the sentence with the hesitant truth\nhe had been dreading to reveal. \"--at least I hope they are.\"\n            Bligh balked at the remark.\n\"What, that again?\"\n            \"Maybe,\" Andrew said\nat once with a shrug. \"It, uh - yeah.\" Andrew let out a mirthless\nlaugh. \"I think about it - uh, still.\"\n            Bligh took Andrew's hand out\nof his hair and put it on his chest, amidst the forest of chest hair he had\nawoken tickled by every morning - Andrew could feel his heart beat, the strange\ncanine heart that he had not been born with.. \n            He seemed to begin to say\nsomething, but Andrew spoke first:\n            \"You - know--\" he\nbegan. \"Um - I was just thinking about this but, listen - if - they're not\n- mine, if they don't look like me, if they have...\" He looked into Bligh's\neyes - diamond dust, blizzards over the taiga, every balefully beautiful image\nof a mythic wonderland of cold Arctic purity. \"...your eyes, and not mine -\nI don't care.\"\n            \"Yew sure?\" Bligh\nreplied, his voice soft. \"Yew - mentioned that a couple o'times - n'right\nnow, too, that - that they might be all mine--\"\n            \"I know - I know. But\nit's, um - it's okay. They're yours -\nand - I don't love anybody else in this world, more than I love you...and\nCody.\" He stopped, suddenly annoyed, but smiling. \"And Stephen too -\nyanno, kinda obligated.\"\n            Bligh sniffed. \"When yew\ngonna tell em he gonna be an uncle?\"\n            Andrew shook his head - Bligh\nhad given voice to a question that had vexed him, rather suddenly, for the past\nfew days, as reality had set in, and the texts his brother sent him grew more\nexasperated and insistent on seeing him.\n            \"I - fuck dude, I\ndunno.\"\n            Bligh pulled him into a quick\nhug. \"S'okay,\" he said, trying to reassure him. \"It'll happen -\nn'when we gotta be ready fer it.\"\n            Andrew sighed against Bligh's\nwarmth - the mixture of musk in his nose and the softness of body hair and fur\non his hands calmed him some, and let he himself be washed away in his\npresence, to let go, even for a moment, the exacting fears that had waxed\nferocious because his scientific mind could not know, could not observe. His\ntail wagged slowly, bumping into the cabinets below the sink.\n            \"And Drew...\" Bligh\nsaid softly, Andrew feeling the vibrations in his chest as he spoke. \"I'm\ngonna have a talk with em and I ain't gonna\nhear no lip from em.\" He separated the two of them so that they were\nfacing each other, eyes locked. \"He needs ta know - no matter how much he\nwants ta help he can't be puttin the - our puppies in danger.\"\n            Andrew nodded slowly, feeling\nhis ear flutter in concern. \"I - I know. I've been driving him to work so\nhe don't get overheated, and - I mean today, it's been cool out--\"\n            \"That ain't enough,\"\nBligh declared. \"What if he - man, what if he fell down, or some--\"\n            \"Okay,\" Andrew\nstopped him, catching his breath as a new, utterly foreign sensation yet\nmaddeningly familiar feeling crashed into him with Bligh's words - protectiveness, the panic at the thought\nof his puppies being harmed. \"Okay - okay, yeah, we'll - we'll do\nthis.\"\n            \"Y'aight?\"\n            Andrew glanced away, shaking\nhis head. \"Just you - talking about - him and - what if something\nhappened--\"\n            \"I'm sorry,\" Bligh\nblurted, taking a hand to Andrew's face. \"Drew, I didn't mean--\"\n            \"It's fine,\" Andrew\nsaid, rubbing Bligh's hand. \"You're right, you're - really, really right.\nI been - kinda on autopilot, just adjusting to everything, but--\"\n            \"He's showin--\"\n            \"Yeah, yeah, um - I dunno\n- I dunno when he's due...\" His eyes searched Bligh's face. \"Could\nbe...anytime, yanno.\"\n            Bligh nodded gravely.\n\"Yeah...\"\n            \"So we, uh - we gotta\nmake sure everything is - everything is perfect for him and help him when\nhe...when he--\"\n            \"Whelps,\" Bligh\nfinished for him in a murmur.\n            Andrew opened his mouth to\nprotest that the term was wrong, but stopped, swallowing back what he wanted to\nsay - it fit, however grotesque, it fit them, the three of them...Cody was not\ngiving birth to human infants, he was whelping,\nas a dog would.\n            \"Yeah - he - yeah,\"\nAndrew managed. \n            He gently pushed Bligh's hand\naway, chuckling to himself as the absurdity, the categorical surrealism of the\nmoment, this moment, all the moments that had preceded it and all the moments\nthat were to come amidst the three of them, reached a point he could no longer\nbear. The chuckle turned into a laugh.\n            \"I can't believe I'm\nhaving this conversation,\" he murmured as Bligh's eyebrows furrowed at his\nreaction. \"Can we - can just take a minute to talk about how fucking\nstrange this - all this is?\"\n            And now Bligh, picking up on\nAndrew's cue, smirked, peculiarly confident. \"What, we gonna be dads?\"\n            \"Yeah!\" Andrew\nexclaimed. \"To - to dogs!\"\n            Bligh managed a low cackle,\npulling Andrew into another hug - Bligh was like that, he was a hugger, his\ngrandfather had been a hugger too - gripping tightly, pressing them together in\nmutual adoration.\n            Andrew expected Bligh to say\nsomething, some affirmation, but there was none - and he realized this was all\nthe affirmation he was willing to give, the only thing that could be done, that\ncould be said, in the absence of words.\n            Bligh nudged him back, gently,\nand Andrew could see curling in his mouth was something new, something furtive.\n            \"Hey...\" he began.\n\"Yanno - if Cody can have puppies...\"\n            Andrew raised an eyebrow.\n\"Y-yeah?\" He glanced to the chicken, the knife that cut him still\nlaying next to it on the bamboo board, before he slowly shook his head,\nglancing back to Bligh.\n            He froze at what he saw - the\ncurve had grown, the furtiveness had become something tangible, a lechery,\ntinged with dark humor. He laughed, a nervous, breathy wisp. \n            \"Bl-Bligh, c'mon--\"\n            But Bligh neared back to him -\nAndrew felt against his groin the growing pressuring of Bligh's penis...he looked\ndown to see it fully emerge, each beat of Bligh's heart bringing forth the\nglistening canid virility that he had been so repulsed by a month ago and yet\nhad learned to love, had learned to lust,\nthe transcendently eldritch beauty of the tapered tip, the swollen knot--\n            \"C'mon man, I'm feelin\nit...\"\n            Bligh took a single step\nforward so that they were once again pressed against each other - Andrew found\nhis breathing quicken, and he swallowed back his abrupt arousal in a single\ngulp as he struggled to find his voice:\n            \"Hey - y-you were feeling\nit when Cody went to work--\"\n            \"Now I'm feeling it\nagain...\" His voice was unchanged, the action of a request - firm, like the\nbaculum in Andrew's penis that guided it to stiffen as well, tapered, pointed,\nhis knot, fatter than Bligh's but coupled to a smaller shaft, slipping out of\nhis sheath as he felt his best friend intoxicate him, musk and warmth and\nsecurity and love, there in the kitchen, with the dim roar of the football game\non the television as sole accompaniment. \n            His defenses at once became\nnothing, and he grabbed Bligh by the back of the neck, his hand inside his soft\nmane of hair, and kissed him.\n            Bligh's mouth tasted\ndisgusting, a noxious mixture of still-unbrushed teeth and nicotine, but Andrew\nwas used to it, he did not care, it was Bligh's tongue that was inside his\nmouth and he enjoyed it for what it was.\n            Wordlessly, he felt Bligh take\na hand and stroke the area about his navel, pressing a palm to it, and he knew\nwhat Bligh was thinking - why, he could not venture, he could not guess, with\nall the fear and anxiety that Cody's pregnancy had produced, why Bligh would\nfetishize the idea of doing to him what they both had already done to Cody...\n            In the moments where they\ncontinued to kiss, Andrew considered the thought - it was impossible not to be\naware of the raw power that Bligh's\npenis and testicles held, the divine secret of masculinity, the ability to warp\nsomeone's body in new ways with the simple act of intercourse. He had already,\nwith that same penis, transformed them from humans into half-dogs - but that\nwas a novel ability, never to be replicated anywhere else. \n            Getting Cody pregnant was the\nmost ancient thing that a male, of any species anywhere, could do - perhaps it\nwas that, in addition to superior size, Bligh was proud, keenly proud, of his\nown penis, of his own testicles, their larger size, their superior fertility.\n            Or perhaps - they stopped to\ncatch a breath, and Andrew flashed a punch-drunk smile at him, his tail happily\nawag with the break from preparing dinner, rewarded with a titter and a wet\nlick across his lips - it was because Bligh, taking the idea of family a step further, wanted to put\ndown roots in Florida, wanted to create a family of his own...not merely the\nfamily of he, and Andrew, and Cody, but a biological family as well.\n            He loved Cody, but his\npregnancy was an accident - he loved Andrew, had said so and acted so in ways\nthat, still, maybe always, dazzled. Was it that Bligh wanted to share something\nwith him, something sacred that would bond them even deeper than near-twenty\nyears and becoming a different species?\n            Andrew gasped aloud - the\nthought, only latent and a distant possibility until now, shook him, excited\nhim, as nothing approximating had before - he\ncould bear Bligh's offspring...\n            The thought was overpowering,\nand his tail was sent into a frenzy of wagging as the too-familiar fullness in\nhis groin appeared - gripping Bligh's sides and shooting his head up with a\npowerful, immodest moan, a volley of precum erupted from his penis, spurting\ninto the forest of Bligh's body hair on his abdomen.\n            The sudden burst broke the spell\n- Andrew shut his eyes, sucking in a mouthful of air and taking a step back,\nflush with embarrassment, as the sound of Bligh's cackle filled his ears.\n            \"Dammit - dammit Bligh!\"\n            In the melting heat-haze of\nhis arousal, leaning onto a counter lest his legs gave way, he saw Bligh taking\nhis fingers and stroking them into the silky sable body hair that covered his\nchest and abdomen to obtain the stray pearls of fluid, his penis still\nmagnificently out.\n            \"Mmm,\" said Bligh\nwith an unkind, lecherous snicker. \"Too good fer ya, Drew?\"\n            Andrew took several more\nbreaths, all broken with the broken, embarrassed laughter of afterglow, before\nhe could answer:\n            \"C-C'mon Bligh, I gotta\nmake dinner--\" \n            Bligh cackled. \"Nuh uh!'\n            \"N-no--\" Andrew\nleaned harder into the counter, trying to be serious. \"Bligh I have raw chicken on the damn counter--\"\n            \"Well that ain't my\nfault!\" Bligh's cackle was raucous.\n            \"S-stop!\" Andrew\nsaid, trying to whine. \"Dammit Bligh!\"\n            Another snicker - less unkind,\nbut still with a hint of surreptitious sexuality. \"Aight - aight,\nfine...\" \n            Bligh moved from the kitchen,\nback to the living room, stopping to watch bemusedly at the counter as Andrew\ntried to regain himself.\n            Andrew tried to glare at him,\nbut his face crumpled into more helpless laughter, and he heard Bligh do the\nsame. \n            \"Fuck - fuck you, Bligh--\"\n            \"That's the idea, ain't\nit? Cept I'd be the one fuckin yew--\"\n\n            Andrew, with a defiant,\nplayful grin, returned to his station at the cutting board and took the knife\nback in hand. \"You're so horny lately!\"\n            Bligh shrugged, the lechery\nreappearing in his smirk. \"I work hard all week, maybe I wanna\nlittle--\"\n            \"Tail?\" Andrew\nguessed, his tongue going into his cheek, feeling his own tail start to wag.\nBligh's long, malicious snicker was the only answer he gave - and Andrew shook\nhis head, sighing, but still grinning. \"Dammit, Bligh...\" \n            With a final laugh, his composure regained, he looked down at the\nchicken breast and, trying to concentrate, made another slice to it - he looked\nback to Bligh, who was observing with interest.\n            \"Ya like that\nboard?\"\n            \"Yeah, I do - thank you\nfor getting for me.\"\n            \"Well shit, the Pup\npicked it out--\"\n            \"I know, but it was a\npresent from both of y'all, right?\"\n            \"Yeah, yeah purdy\nmuch.\"\n            \"Yeah he - probably heard\nme say I needed a new cutting board, um, awhile back...\" Andrew chuckled to\nhimself. \"He, uh - first guy I been with who actually listened to me,\nyanno?\" \n            \"He loves ya a whole\nlot.\" Bligh tittered. \"We both do, man...\"\n            Andrew smiled again, feeling\nthe warmth of being loved by the two people he cared most for in the world\nspread over him - Bligh smirked at him, tittering.\n            \"Hey...\" Andrew motioned with his head to the television,\nstill surrounded in the ambient roar of the televised stadium and the inanity\nof the color commentary. \"You're missing the game.\"            Bligh\nshrugged, smirking, folding his arms across his chest on the counter. \"S'aight.\nI can stand here n'talk ta yew.\" The smirk grew larger, and a fang popped\nover his lip as he tittered to himself.            Andrew\nsighed with a smile. \"Suit yourself then...\" He made one final cut to\nthe chicken breast and laid the last piece in the bowl, the bottles of seasonings\n- basil, marjoram, paprika - waiting patiently nearby. \"What, uh--\" He\npaused, suppressing back the memories, like a stir of echoes from a dream one\nhas freshly awoken from, of how he, Bligh, and Cody came together.           \"What\nyou do with that knife - the one that had the--\"            \"Yeah,\none I had the poison on - that's Pappy's knife, man. I take it with me\neverywhere - put it back ere when me n'Cody got Checkers the next day - that\nwas a dang good burger, too...\" He sniffed. \"I still got it in the\nglovebox, warshed it off here last week.\"            Andrew\nstood with both hands on the counter - he tilted his head and gave Bligh a\nclosed-mouth, mocking smile.            \"Wh-what?\"\nBligh tittered, suddenly offguard.\n            \"Just - remembering how\nyou left me at the house, paralyzed - like that!\"            Bligh\ntried to literally shrug it off with a smile that failed to failed to hide an\nold shame. \"Man I thought - thought there was enough on the knife ta keep\nya - keep ya...\" He did not finish - Andrew knew what he meant, how\nproblematic and how awful it sounded, when verbalized. \"...why ya - why ya\nbringin it up now, man?\"            \"Just\noccurred to me the other day - never told me what those herbs up on the mountain were - you said Pappy used to use them to\nslaughter hogs?\"            Bligh\nnodded. \"Y-yeah - they grew back on our--\" He corrected himself, a\nflicker of grief crossing his face. \"--my\nproperty back behind the house where - right up there on the mountain, bout\nhalf-mile up.\"            \"Where\nthe mountain lion was...\"            Bligh\nsmirked - the two shared a moment, eternal, wordless, the mutual recollection\nof a time when they were young, and Bligh had saved Andrew's life from one of\nthe elusive mountain lions that still prowled the West Virginia wild.            It\nwas another glimpse of forever, transience within the intransience, and it made\nAndrew direly uncomfortable - and he cleared his throat, abruptly awkward.             Andrew\nthought for a moment, his eyes drifting down to the counter, letting his ears\ngo flat. \"So they were endemic to the mountainside?\"            \"Yeah.\nBack when Pappy used ta raise hogs he use ta gather em, or - what he told me\nanyhow - and that way - make it so they wudn't feel nuthin when him and his\nbrothers slaughtered em...said it was more humane.\"\n            \"I\nsee...\" His eyes flicked back to Bligh. \"How come I ain't heard of it\ntil now?\"            Bligh\ntittered, a little sarcastic. \"When did yer family ever need ta raise\ntheir own food, Drew?\"            Andrew\nchuckled, taking the point, feeling his ears right themselves. \"Well - we did have the cows--\"            \"Them's\nother people's cows!\" Bligh\ncried with a cackle.            \"Yeah,\nyeah I know...\"            \"And\nthere, too, ya gotta think - weren't on yer side o'Tempest, only grew on the\nmountain - Pappy's mountain...\"             Again\nBligh's face reflected a grief, a sadness, that not yet settled - the pain of\nlosing the grandfather who raised him too fresh.            \"Mmm,\"\nAndrew intoned in response after a moment of respectful silence. \"Um...yeah,\njust got me thinking, how - what kinda plant would cause paralysis with high\ntemperature as catalyst, entering through the dermis...\" He shook his head.\n\"I know the State of West Virginia considers hemlock to be invasive--\"            \"Hemlock?\"\nBligh repeated, with a quick breath of recovery. \"Dun that shit kill ya, though?\"            \"Yeah,\nexactly - so this - but hemlock, see, causes major paralysis too. And that's\nthe best I can think of - maybe - what's growing there is some sort of\nundiscovered species.\"             Bligh\ntittered again. \"C'mon now, Scientist-Man...\"            \"I'm just saying...\" Andrew smiled. \"By the\nway, speaking of hemlock, you ever been to Cricket?\"\n            \"What, out near Smithers?\nYeah, I had a second cousin lived there--\" Bligh glanced away. \"Shit,\nwhat was her name...\"\n            \"Anyway, I heard this -\nuh, it's like an urban legend - there's a diner, up yonder, and it's called the\nAmerican Grill?\"\n            Bligh nodded. \"Yeah, me\nn'Ricky Jack ate there the one time - Sheila!\"\nhe cried suddenly. \"That was her\nname - Ol Crazy Sheila, swore up and down her lawnmower was gonna kill\nher.\"\n            Andrew's ear twitched with an\neerie feeling that belied logic at Bligh's words. \"Well...did it?\"\n            \"Nah,\" Bligh\ntittered. \"But she nuts, I think they put her in a mental hospital cuz she\nwas gettin so bad.\"\n            Andrew frowned. \"That's a\nshame.\"\n            \"Yep,\" Bligh said\nwith a small sigh. \"Anyway, what yew sayin about it?\"\n            \"Yeah - yeah, Pa's\nlawyer, uh - Arnold-something, he died here awhile back--\"\n            \"Snodgrass?\"\n            Andrew laughed. \"Bligh,\nwhat - how did you remember\nthat?\"\n            Bligh smirked. \"He\nweren't jest yer daddy's lawyer, Pappy took em on ta settle some inheritance\nonce.\"\n            \"Really...\"\n            Bligh nodded. \"Yessir. He\nwas a good man--\" He paused. \"Seems like all the good'ns are\nleavin...\"\n            \"Y-yeah - yeah.\"\nAndrew frowned. \"Now that you mention it...\"\n            \"Anyway, what was yew\nsayin?\"\n            \"Right, uh - so Mr.\nSnodgrass, when Pa had him over for dinner when I was still in junior, he tells\nthis story which - it's weird, I've heard this story other places, too...\" \n            The memory of Arnold\nSnodgrass, with his brisk words flowing over a Kanawha Valley accent in tandem\nwith his dark darting eyes, his dinner beneath him forgotten in the immediacy\nof one his many stories, played faintly in his mind's eyes before he shook his\nhead, shooing it away, to finish:\n            \"...anyway, Mr. Snodgrass\nsaid that, um - there's this group of men, come into that place, sit down, have\ncoffee together, right? It's like a ritual - happens every year.\"\n            \"Yeah?\"\n            \"And they all wear these\nheavy overcoats and ties - the ties have to be green - and they meet once a year, like I said, um - September, I\nthink.\"\n            \"This month,\" Bligh\nmuttered, apparently impressed. \"What's so special, though? Jest a bunch\no'guys sittin round drinkin coffee.\"\n            \"Yeah, that's the thing -\nI said speaking of hemlock. They sit\naround drinking coffee late at night, talking for hours and hours and hours\nabout - life, death, the universe, immortality, that kinda shit - but what they\ndo, and here's the thing - they add hemlock to their coffee at the beginning,\nand then an antidote at the end.\"\n            Bligh's eyes widened in\nastonishment. \"The fuck?\"\n            Andrew laughed - he felt his\nfangs pressed into his bottom lip and moved it, subtly, so that they were\nproudly out in a toothy grin. \"Hand to God, that's what Mr. Snodgrass told\nme - that's what I heard.\"\n            \"Yew...yew believe\nem?\"\n            Andrew's laugh softened to a\nchuckle. \"I mean - everything we know, now, about the - um - kinda weirdness\nthat was going on in Tempest, and - Lord don't you remember all that Mothman\nstuff?\"\n            Bligh sniffed.\n\"Shit...\"\n            \"That Braxton County\nshit, too, and that bigass jail in Moundsville - and dude, you know me, I'm not\n- super convinced about any of that,\nbut...\" He paused. \"It don't sound too\noutlandish.\"\n            Bligh stared at him for a few\nseconds before he, too, flashed a grin, full of his own fangs. \"Ya ever -\njest git the feelin our whole dang state's\nhaunted?\"\n            Andrew beckoned Bligh's sight\nto his own tail, which he wagged for effect. \"Sometimes,\" he said\nwith a small smile.\n            There was a brief lull in the\nconversation, a span where the Gothic glories of West Virginia were allowed, as\nthough by acquiescence to a silent demand, to flourish, a ghost, summoned and\nthen flown away, to remind them that even in the tropic charm of Florida they,\nhalf-human creatures of fur and flesh sharing a direct lineal kinship from some\nas yet unexplored mystery of the Greenbrier Valley, were pure children of their\nroots.\n            Bligh, whose attention from\nthe football game had become entangled with the dark turn of the back and forth\nbetween he and Andrew, broke the new silence at last:\n            \"Yew, uh - yew dun mind me keepin ya\ncompany, do ya?\"            \"You\njust letting me talk you up cuz you want sex,\"\nsaid Andrew playfully.            Bligh\nbalked, feigning offense. \"Scuse yew,\nLightfoot! I's jest standin here tryin ta talk ta my husband, I dun need this!\"            Andrew\nraised an eyebrow, but his tail began to wag. \"Husband?\" he repeated\nback.            \"Well\nyeah...dun yew think so?\"            Andrew\nsearched Bligh's eyes, which glinted gelid in the fluorescent light of the\nkitchen before smiling back at him - he felt his ears twitch, his face flush,\nhis tail go still.            \"You\nuh...you never s-said that before, though. I - I mean we - we just been - yanno,\ndoing what we been doing, and not really--\"            \"Callin\nit what it is?\" Bligh shrugged. \"Thought it was time. Yew, me...Cody\ntoo.\"            Andrew\nchuckled - bashfully at first, then happily, taken aback at the moment.\n\"Wow...\" he said at a brief length. \"Wow.\"            \"What?\"\nBligh asked with a bemused titter.            Andrew\nshook his head. \"Nothing, I just...um...it - it makes a lotta sense.\"            \"Dudn't\nit?\"            \"Y-yeah\n- yeah. It does.\"            \"I\nmean - weren't ya gonna propose ta Cody?\"            In\nthe vast seachange of a month, Andrew had nearly forgotten the promise that he\nhad made his brother, Stephen, keep secret - that, the day he got his\nbachelor's degree, he would give Cody a ring in a tiny box, and ask him a\nquestion...            The\nsense of cosmic impermanence crept into him again as he realized that world -\nhollow, meaningless beneath the saving graces of how much he and Cody loved\neach other - was too far away to even consider anymore.            But\nthe memory lingered - and Andrew sighed with a slow nod.            \"Y-yeah\n- yeah I do.\"            \"So\nwhy not now, man?\" Bligh shifted where he stood, his ears going halfway\nflat as his smirk faded slightly. \"Instead o'just - yew n'him it'd be -\nall three o'us. Not jest family, man, but - married.\nThat - that sumthin ya want?\"            Andrew\nsought Bligh's eyes one more time as he nodded again, gravely. \"Yeah...yeah,\nBligh I - I do.\"            Bligh\ntittered happily, grinning, his fangs coming out. \"Awesome, man - fuckin\nawesome.\"            Andrew\nsmiled, looking down at the knife in his hand and the chicken he had still yet\nto finish cutting. A thought - a shameful thought, which made him blush as his\nears hesitated, summoning a familiar stirring in his sheath, occurred to him,\nand he voiced it as carefully as he could.            \"I...but\nI'm still your bitch, right?\"            Bligh's\neyebrows met over his nose, his smirk tinged with something new and dark.\n\"Do what now?\"            \"You\nuh - you heard me,\" Andrew said, trying to be assertive, but a nervous\nchuckle escaped him. \"I - wanna know--\"            \"Yeah.\"\nBligh cut him off with a low cackle, with a grin that took up his whole face,\nfangs and all. \"Oh Hell yeah. Yer still my property. I still own\nyew.\"            Andrew\nshut his eyes tightly as he felt his ears flatten and his tail start to wag\nagain as Bligh cackled again, louder this time, and his face go hot to the\ntouch with embarrassment - and gratitude.            \"Oh\ngod - oh man--\"            He\nheard Bligh's incessant titter as he opened his eyes to see him smirking slyly.            \"Hey...\"\nBligh said softly, leaning back, relinquishing his hand's hold, his arms\nfolding before his hairy chest. \"Tell me sumthin - what - why yew like\nthat so much? I mean one time yew said it's cuz nobody ever called ya that\nafore...\"            Andrew\nmoistened his lips, surprised at how sheepish he was becoming, before he\nanswered: \"Don't - don't you like\nit?\"            \"Yeah\nman, I do - I try ta live it. I try ta - keep yew as close as I can, n'do what\nI can fer ya...\" The smirk faded into a line of tender seriousness across\nhis mouth. \"Take care o'yew best I can.\"            \"Because\nyou were scared I'd leave again,\" Andrew hazarded.            Bligh\nnodded, seeming reluctant - Andrew smiled at him, looking into his eyes, the\nway he would when he needed to reassure either him or Cody of something deeply\nimportant.            \"I'm\nnever gonna--\"            \"I\nknow, man...\" Bligh seemed to force a smirk. \"I know.\" He sighed\nsomewhat, his arms coming back down to the counter. \"But that dun answer\nmy question.\"            Andrew glanced away - his\near twitched as he tried to search his feelings, to come up with something more\nthan the first thing that had sprung, fully formed, into his mind, something\nthat bore a more profound meaning...but perhaps there was none. All of it - the\nparamount security, the immeasurable safety, for both him and for Cody by\nindirect extension, was indeed encompassed in something so simple:            \"...because I love you\nthat much.\" He saw Bligh's eyes light up, and he let the remark sink in\nfor a passing moment before he continued: \"I love you - that much to - let\nyou own me. To be someone's property and--\" He smiled, feeling an odd\nweight lift from having spoken the truth. \"--let you care for me...like that.\nWe might be - m-married now but I--\"            \"I git it,\" Bligh\nmurmured, his grin returning. \"I git it man.\"            \"I love you,\" Andrew\nsaid, now grateful.            \"I love yew too,\nDrew.\"            An awkward pause fell\nbetween them, and Andrew took a deep breath as he willed his erection, which\nthankfully Bligh could not see, to cease its growth at the notion that he was\nstill Bligh's - that, against all sense of decency or any kind of American\nequality, Bligh owned him, as one\nwould own land, and cherish it, protect it, the same way.             It was strange - in the way\nthey acted almost everywhere save the bedroom, no one would ever know that this\narrangement, which Cody was still not privy to, even existed. They acted - all\nof three of them - as equals...and yet it was not so. He loved Cody nearly more\nthan anyone - but even he could not break the hold Bligh had over him.            Very strange indeed - but\nstrangest of all was how pleased Andrew was with it. Cody was his, and he was\nBligh's - the latter, far more brutal, more primal, more canine, than the former.            Andrew smiled at Bligh,\nchuckling - Bligh smiled back at Andrew, tittering.             Andrew tried to swallow\nback his emotions as he took another slice off the chicken breast, trying to\nchange the subject:            \"What - who - uh,\nwho's ahead?\"            Bligh craned his neck, his\nhair moving with his head in a feathery cascade, before jerking back with a satisfied\nsmirk.\"Ravens,\" he said. \"Yanno, we - uh - hadn't talked bout - serious\nstuff--\"\n            \"I know we haven't talked about it, we, um--\" Andrew sighed, a\nlittle heavier than he expected. \"We haven't talked about anything serious like - like that since\nyou...since you came down, actually.\"\n            Bligh frowned. \"That a\nbad thing?\"\n            \"No, I - I actually would\nsay it's a good thing because shit has gone...really, really well.\"\n            Bligh nodded, his smirk\ngrowing. \"Yeah...yeah yer right.\"\n            Andrew took another cut of the\nchicken breast before glancing to Bligh with a small, knowing smile.\n\"You're still missing the game.\"\n            \"I told ya I wanted ta\ntalk ta yew.\" His smirk turned into a grin, and Andrew chuckled,\nconceding.\n            \"Alright - I don't\nmind.\"\n            Bligh leaned in to see what Andrew was doing. \"Fried\nchicken, right?\"            \"Yessir.\nJust like Ma used to make.\"            \"Oh\nHell yeah!\" Bligh exclaimed. \"Yer Mama's chicken was the shit! Even\nPappy said so.\"            Andrew\nraised an eyebrow, feeling his tail wag behind him. \"Really? Pappy said\nthat?\"            Bligh\nnodded again. \"Yes indeed. Ya dun remember?\"            \"Eh,\"\nAndrew intoned. \"Try not to think about her too much...\"            \"Mmm...sorry,\"\nBligh said, frowning.            Andrew\nsmiled, trying to be reassuring, even as he felt his ear flutter. \"Hey -\ndude it's fine.\" He looked back down at the cutlets of chicken breast\nassembled neatly in the bowl. \"Just uh - felt like a little taste of home\ntonight, yanno?\"            \"What,\nyew feelin homesick?\"            \"Well...\"\nAndrew shrugged. \"Just, like, this time of year it gets - like it's\nsupposed to be - to be cool, yanno,\nwhen the weather turns and--\"            \"Football\nweather,\" Bligh murmured slyly.            Andrew\nchuckled, making another cut at the chicken. \"Is that what they call it?\nFucking - hoodie weather I heard,\npeople from up north who, uh - who move down here from like, Jersey and\nshit.\" He shook his head, his ears flattening. \"Football weather...you mean - you mean the time of year doing\ntwo-a-days and having Coach Anderson scream Richie\nRich at me every five seconds?\"            Bligh\nscoffed, cackling. \"Oh c'mon\nman! Yew know ya miss it!\"            \"Kinda\n- just some days.\"             \"Zat\nwhy yew didn't do football in college?\"            Andrew\nstudied Bligh for a moment before sniffing to himself. \"You really wanna\nwhy?\"             \"Yeah.\"            Andrew's\nears flattened as he paused, taking a deep breath: \"Because - you weren't\nthere with me.\"            Bligh's\neyebrows came together. \"What, we weren't on the same team, so ya--\"            \"Yup,\ncouldn't do it.\"            Bligh\nsmirked. \"Quarterback only as good as his guys up front - Coach said that\nall the time.\"            \"And\nI'm a guy up front...\" Andrew shrugged. \"I mean I - if you weren't\ngonna be who I was giving the ball to...didn't seem worth it.\"            \"Yew\nserious?\"Andrew nodded - Bligh let out a low cackle, shaking his head.\n\"Never told me that...\"            \"Never\ncame up,\" Andrew said with a roll of his eyes.             \"I\nasked ye once afore, though--\"            Andrew\nshook his head with a sheepish smile. \"Well I - I wasn't sure you were -\nhow you were, so--\"            Bligh's\neyebrows met over his nose once more. \"Yew think I'd take it the wrong way\nor sumthin?\"            Andrew\nnodded. \"S-something like that...\"            \"Nah\nman - I woulda understood.\"It was Bligh's turn to shrug, adding a quick\ntitter. \"Means a lot though.\" He sighed through his nose.\n\"Though I still miss the two-a-days - yew me n'Dan'd go to the Dairy\nQueen, remember?\"            \"Yeah\nI remember.\" Andrew thought a moment. \"Least two-a-days meant cooler\nweather - season's changing.\" He frowned. \"Ain't got that down\nhere.\"            Bligh\nnodded slowly. \"Yeah...I's - I's thinkin the same thing, ta be honest.\"            Andrew\nraised an eyebrow. \"Really?\"            \"Yeah\nman. It's - it's kinda weird gettin all hot n'sweaty and it's...September.\"            It was Andrew's turn to nod. \"I mean shit, Cody's lived here his whole\nlife - he's used to it, but--\"            \"We\nain't,\" Bligh finished.             Andrew\nnodded. \"Yeah - yeah he told you he ain't ever seen snow before.\"            Bligh\nlet out a long sigh. \"Man...yeah that do bother me a lot.\"            Andrew\nsniffed. \"I know - dude, I know - me too. The day you came, actually he,\nuh - we were talking about that he basically only seen the - the trees turn once in his whole life.\"            \"Yeah\nI remember yew sayin that...\" Bligh frowned, shaking his head, his ears\nfaltering.            Andrew\nglanced to the pieces of chicken awaiting him in the bowl, naked and pink and\nslimy - the chicken breast had yielded its bounty, and was ready to be floured.\nHe turned to another drawer behind him and pulled out a sandwich bag, holding\nit up for Bligh to see.            \"Wanna\nhelp?\"            Bligh\ngrinned. \"Ya sure?\"            Andrew\nsmiled. \"Yeah dude.\" He beckoned with his head. \"Come help\nme.\"            \"Aight...\"            Bligh's\narms slid off the counter as he paced briskly in front of the television, then\nback toward the kitchen a low snicker in his throat.            \"Ravens\nstill ahead?\" Andrew guessed.            Bligh\nnodded. \"Yeah man--\"             He\nthrew out his arms and thrust them behind his head, jutting out his torso in a\ndeep stretch - Andrew felt himself flush as he watched him, the hard, lean,\nsinewy muscles, that summoned a new stirring in his sheath that he willed just\nin time to cease...aroused by the very notion that such a beautiful, lithe creature\ncalled himself his husband.            With\na final half-cry, Bligh's arms fell to his sides as he appeared at the kitchen.\n\"Sorry man, little tense sittin so long--\"            \"It's,\nuh--\" Andrew swallowed back a grin. \"It's cool.\"            \"Aight,\nso what we doin?\"            Andrew turned back to the chicken, sandwich baggie still\nin hand. \"We'll we're\ngoing--\"            He\nwas cut off as he felt Bligh's arms around him from behind, and the soft silken\nbristle of Bligh's body hair graze his back, at once enveloped again by the\npreternatural warmth and the primal scent of ineffable safety his half-canine\nbody gave off - Bligh's face, the thick black beard, gently scraped Andrew's\nbare cheek and dug into his bare shoulder.            \"Yeah?\"\nBligh said as if nothing had happened.            Andrew\ntried his best to look Bligh in the face, chuckling the entire time as Bligh\nanswered him with furrowed eyebrows and a knowing smirk.            \"We're\n- going­--\" Andrew, still\nchuckling, took a fork that had been lying unused next to the bag of flour, and\nstabbed a piece of chicken with it. \"--to make fried chicken.\"            \"Mmmkay,\"\nBligh murmured.            \"And...first...\"            Still\nwrapped in Bligh's arms, still with his beard digging into his shoulder, Andrew\nreached into the open sack of flour to retrieve the plastic measuring cup that\nbeen resting inside it - full of flour of already, Andrew dumped the white\npowder into the bag.            \"Gotcha\nflour right here--\"            \"Mmmhmm,\"\nBligh intoned.            Having\ndropped the measuring cup back into the flour sack, he replaced it in his hand\nwith a fork next to his knife on the cutting board.             He\ncontinued: \"Now we...\" He stabbed a slice of chicken in the bowl and\nnudged it into the bag. \"See?\"            \"Coulda\njest picked it up with yer hands, man.\" Andrew could feel the rumble of\nBligh's words against his back. \"Y'ain't gonna git sick from it.\"            \"Yeah,\nyeah I know--\" Andrew eased out of Bligh's embrace so that they separated,\nregarding one another - he held up the plastic bag, now near-filled with flour\nwhere the piece of chicken had been submerged, pinching the corners with his\nfingers and thumbs. \"But this is how Ma did it.\"            Bligh\nnodded. \"Aight.\"            \"And\nthen--\" Andrew's tail wagged as he chuckled to himself again, and Bligh\ntittered back to him. \"--we gonna shake it, see?\"            He\nshook the plastic bag back and forth for a few seconds, peering into it to\nensure the piece of chicken was coated with flour.            \"Okay\n- and now--\"             He\nmoved back to where he had been cutting the chicken, and using the same fork\nfrom before, stabbed the cutlet once again and laid it into the bowl next to\nthe other, still flourless pieces.            \"Do\nthe same thang fer all of em?\" Bligh guessed.            Andrew\nnodded with a grin. \"Yup!\"            \"Aight\nwell then lemme try.\"            \"Okay\n- your turn, then.\"            \"Aight\nso first ya take the chicken--\"            Bligh\nreached into the bowl and pulled out a cutlet - Andrew tapped him on the wrist.            \"Dude\n- dude c'mon, use the fork!\"            \"We\nain't gonna git sick, Drew!\" Bligh retorted, dropping the chicken into the\nbag of flour. \"Yew c'mon,\"\nhe said with a smirk. \"It ain't like--\"            \"Why\ndo you think the flour stays on the chicken?\" Andrew asked, tilting his\nhead askance. \"Because it doesn't\nend up on my fingers - because I use a fork!\"            \"Well\ns'in the bag now, what yew want me ta do?\"            Andrew\nrolled his eyes, putting the sandwich bag in his hands so that they were both\nholding it - he let out a light sigh and smiled at Bligh, who smirked back.\n\"I want you to shake,\" he commanded.            Their\ntails seemed to wag in unison, and Bligh let out a happy titter, as they took\nthe bag they were both holding and, as Andrew ordered, shook it back and forth.            \"Alright\n- okay, yeah I think we're good,\" Andrew pronounced - he leaned some to\nindicate to Bligh he should take the bag, which to his immediate dismay Bligh\nopened from the top and removed the floured chicken...with his bare fingers.             Bligh\nheld up the piece of meat and wiggled it. \"Lookit! Like a dang ol\nworm!\"            Andrew\nchuckled. \"Bligh cut that out and put it in the bowl--\"            Bligh\ndid as he was told - he returned in front of Andrew, his smirk suddenly\nmischievous.\"Ey - ey lookit me!\" He held up his hand, wriggling his\nfingers, the tips white and greasy from having touched the floured raw chicken\n- he bared his fangs for effect. \"I'm a slime monster, I'm gonna slime\nya!\"         \n            \"We ain't five no more Bligh,\" Andrew\nsaid, unamused. \"Don't try to pull that shit like that, you're gonna end\nup spreading salmonella--\"            Bligh\nmade a skeptical frown. \"No I ain't!\"            \"Lab\nSafety 101!\" Andrew answered, unyielding. \"I said go wash--\"            \"Nope!\"\nsaid Bligh - lashing out a finger to smear a bit of flour and grease onto\nAndrew's nose.            Andrew\ncried out in surprise - he recoiled, his ears twitching in near-panic, clapping\nboth his hands to his face. \"Dammit, Bligh! Why--\"            Before\nhe understood what was happening, he felt his hands on his face thrust away by\nthe wrists, and something moist licking the chicken's residue from the tip of\nhis nose - he made an abortive noise to protest which was further overridden by\nthis same invader, Bligh's tongue, deep in his mouth again.             He\nstumbled back awkwardly until his back was to the sink - Bligh's hands\nrelinquished his wrists, and the tongue withdrew, slurping wetly past Andrew's\nlips.            It\nwas here that Andrew knew he was helpless - pinned as he hated to enjoy being,\nagainst Bligh and his fur and his mischief-drenched sexuality...he felt Bligh's\npenis, too large, too powerful, fully erect, pressing against his lower\nabdomen, tickling one of the supernumerary nipples that helped define him as a\nnew species, incessant, needy.             \"Bl-Bligh--\"\nAndrew managed - he swallowed hard, feeling his penis slip out of his sheath to\nmatch his new husband's. \"C'mon - why ya gotta--\"            Bligh\nsnickered, low and almost evil, as he withdrew, taking a step back, giving\nAndrew some space. \"I'm jest playin round, man...\" He snickered again,\ntaking a finger to rub the underside of the knot on his pigeon's blood-hued\nshaft, slowly and seductively. \"Less yew wanna hit the bedroom real\nquick...\"            Andrew\ndrew in several breaths before he could answer - after this first month\ntogether, he had been liberated sexually in a way that eclipsed even in the\nhalcyon days of his freshman year of college, away from the twilit homophobic\ndecadence of Tempest...he felt his most depraved with Bligh, when this creature\nof the wild, this perfect woodwose, supplied him with the strange canine semen\nthat looked, felt, smelt, tasted, so utterly divorced from its human\ncounterpart.            Bligh knew it. He knew that Andrew wanted it again - and Andrew wanted it now.            He\nknew Bligh was playing, but he was playing because he knew how easily Andrew\nwould give in, how the dynamic that had come together since they were teenagers\n- Bligh the leader, Andrew the support - would come back together, and Andrew\nwould happily surrender to him, once more.            There\nwas a vague awareness of the task before him he had not completed - making\ndinner - an awareness that vacillated between being pressing and being utterly\nunnecessary.            \"I\n- uh--\"            Again came that same strange little laugh of Bligh's, as he took another step back, his tail\nswishing commandingly behind him. \"Y'aight there, Drew?\" He smirked,\nand the evil he had hinted at was complete.            For\na second, a fleeting second, Andrew was stricken with a crawling awe - he\nremembered, still bitter, still jealous, the first night Bligh had arrived and\nit was Cody, not he, who tasted of what rebirthed them into the new tribe of\nhalf-dog men, how impossible he had looked as Cody knelt before him nursing at\nhis cock, like some unthinkable canine fertility god from an antediluvian\ntradition of nighted creatures that yowled and barked at the Moon...            \"I'm\nfine,\" Andrew said simply, even as his ears refused to stand back up - the\ncompulsion to mate, so much pressure and so much heat, had overwhelmed him too\nreadily for a Sunday afternoon - he didn't want to tell Bligh, but it scared\nhim to feel this way, to dive so deep into places he did not want to admit\nexisted.            He\nmustered a grin, and chuckled - to Bligh, and at himself - he straightened and\nstepped forward, letting his tail wag as he planted a long kiss on Bligh's\ncheek, his beard soft but bristling against his lips.            Bligh\nmaneuvered his head so that their eyes met. \"Yew sure? Seemed like yew\nwere bout ta--\"            \"I\ndo,\" Andrew cut him off gently, his hand in Bligh's beard. \"Just -\nnot - not right now, okay?\" His arms slid down to Bligh's waist, giving\nenough space between so that their penises, now both slowly retreating back to\ntheir respective sheaths, did not touch.            Bligh\nnuzzled Andrew's face, and gently licked the corner of his mouth - as a dog\nwould, a behavior Andrew had surmised was new and instinctual to him. \"Yew\nteasin me, now...\"            Andrew\nchuckled. \"Dude - we got stuff to do.\"            \"We\ndo?\" Bligh smirked.            \"Yeah,\"\nAndrew answered with a small smile. \"We do.\" He motioned with his\nhead to the still-waiting chicken. \"We still gotta do that - I wanted you\nto help, if you - if you didn't wanna go back and watch the game...\"            Bligh\nseemed to consider it, glancing away, still smirking, before he gave one his\nquick, decisive nods. \"Game's gonna be over soon anyhow, Browns ain't\ngonna come back from that, not long as--\" He tilted the bill of his cap\nslightly, tittering. \"I'm wearin this.\"            \"Oh\nyeah, good luck charm--\" Andrew raised an eyebrow. \"But you never take\nit off...\"            Bligh\nshrugged. \"Sometimes I do.\"            \"When\nyou go to bed--\" Andrew chuckled. \"Do the Ravens lose when you go to\nbed?\"            \"Ey\nnow, watch it.\"            Bligh\ntittered again, pulling Andrew into a quick hug - they kissed again, and as\nAndrew separated, his ear twitching in a safe, humble happiness, he moved back to\nthe bowl of chicken and the cluster of spices that sat near it.            The\ntwo returned as they were, Bligh hugging Andrew from behind, never once letting\ngo even as Andrew's tail kept happily wagging apace in the space between\nBligh's legs.             Some\nlength of comfortable silence passed, interrupted only by the occasional space\nwhen Bligh would kiss Andrew on the cheek or titter as he shook another piece\nof chicken in the bag - it took only a few minutes for all the chicken to be\nfloured.            \"Now\nI'm gonna season these...\" Andrew murmured. He moved his head to regard\nBligh, the icy eyes that pierced everything they saw soft and affectionate as\nthey squinted with his smirk. \"You're still missing the game.\"            He\nfelt Bligh shrug. \"Dun matter - I like doin this with ya.\"            Andrew\nchuckled, turning back to his task. \"What, watching me do this is better than watching the\nRavens?\"            Bligh's\nmouth came warm against his ear, which faltered as he heard the words:\n\"Any day o'the week, Drew...\"            Andrew\nchuckled again, his tail swishing happily with the abiding coziness.            \"Okay,\"\nhe said after a soft sigh, \"watch me now.\"            He took the shaker of paprika and dashed into the bowl, a\nfine crimson powder - then the pepper, the metal tin making a hollow puckering\nsound as he squeezed it - and now the delicate herby fragrance of the basil and\nthe marjoram. All the smells of the seasonings were richer, deeper, far more\naromatic to Andrew's evolved half-dog nose, as human and as normal though it\nappeared, than it could have ever been when he was merely a man.\n            \"Now I know you've seen\nme do this--\"\n            \"Yeah? So what?\"\n            The seasoning done, Andrew\nnudged Bligh back to take the bowl before him in his hands - he shrugged.\n\"I dunno. I guess I - still not used to you being all--\" He grinned.\n\"--affectionate.\"\n            Bligh let out a low, bashful\ncackle. \"Man - Drew, c'mon now--\"\n            \"We couldn't do it - we\ncouldn't do it back home, yeah, I know...\" He made his way to the\nrefrigerator and put the bowl full of seasoned and floured chicken on the\nbottom shelf - the refrigerator door shut, he turned back to regard Bligh with\nanother grin. \"I like it this way though.\"\n            \"Yeah?\" Bligh\nsmirked. \"Ya like me - cuddlin yew while ya cook?\"\n            Andrew rolled his eyes as he\nleaned against the fridge, his tail thumping against it. \"Well you weren't\nreally helping like I wanted\nbut--\" Bligh tittered, Andrew shook his head. \"But yeah, that was -\nthat was nice.\" He smiled. \"Nice chill Sunday.\"\n            \"Yup.\" Bligh put his\narms behind his head, frowning some. \"Back ta work tomorrow, man.\"\n            \"Yeah, back to\nschool,\" Andrew affirmed.\n            From the counter next to the\nfreshly deployed spices came an angry buzz from Andrew's phone - the latter\nshut his eyes in irritation.\n            \"If that's Stephen again\nI swear--\"\n            \"Want me ta check it?\"\n            Andrew shrugged. \"You're closer,\nsure...\"\n            Bligh stopped in mid-reach to\nlook at Andrew askance. \"Dun even care?\"\n            Andrew opened his eyes again,\nshaking his head irritably. \"He's been texting me nonstop like - goddam,\nthe past week my phone has been blowing up\nbecause of him.\"\n            \"Yeah, ya said...\"\nBligh frowned. \"Thought he'd quit by now.\"\n            \"You know him - he's not\ngonna - he's not gonna quit just by\nhimself.\"\n            Bligh's frown deepened.\n\"He still goin on bout hangin out n'stuff?\"\n            \"Yes!\" Andrew cried,\nhis ears flattening in exasperation. \"What part of I'm busy doesn't he get?\"\n            Bligh smirked knowingly.\n\"Y'ain't that busy, man.\"\n            \"He doesn't need to know\nthat,\" Andrew answered with a shrug. \"I'm just - I'm not ready\nto...\" \n            Bligh grasped the phone,\nlooking up at Andrew with a sudden worry that they both - silently, wordlessly\n- shared. He paused there - the\nair had become uncomfortably tense very abruptly, and he nodded slightly,\nmurmuring, noncommittal:             \"Yeah.\"            He\nswiped to unlocked the screen - Andrew watched as his mouth opened with a grin,\nand a titter, that was broken in half-breath...the grin faded into a frown, which\nbecame the grimace of emotional impasse, all within a few seconds.            A\ncold feeling crept into Andrew as he saw Bligh's reaction - his ears still\nflat, his tail grew still as he neared him. \"Hey - hey what's wrong?\"            Still\ngrimacing, Bligh held up the phone so that Andrew could read.            It\nwas a text from Cody:            hey andy im really sorry im gonna be late today\ntim wants me to stay and do some extra invenytry i love you and bli tho more\nthan anythin!!!            \"Invenytry?\" Andrew repeated back\nincredulously, before correcting himself: \"Inventory.\" He sighed, a hot blast of air. \"Fuck - fuck\"            \"He\ngonna be all there night,\" Bligh murmured, handing the phone to Andrew.            Andrew\nsighed, again, another gust of irritation, training his eyes on Bligh, through\nBligh. \"How the fuck could he be so fucking irresponsible?\"            Bligh\nfolded his arms, his mouth bunched up in a corner as he was so wont to do when\nfrowning deeply. \"Well - like ya say, he wanna--\"            \"No,\"\nAndrew cut him off, \"no, fuck that, there's a fucking line. I know he wants to - to help out and pay his own way but\nI'm--\" He made a useless gesture to the refrigerator, to the mess of flour\nand spices on the counter opposite them, before shaking his head - he was\nlosing his cool, he knew he was, he was unable to think in this moment of slow\npanic. \"What - what time is it--?\"     He jerked the phone to his face - the text from\nCody was still there, the apologetic tumble of words in plain black on the LCD\nscreen.             \"Whattya\n- whattya wanna do, man?\"            Andrew\nconsidered the question - his glance darted from the phone, to Bligh, back to\nthe phone, before he shook his head, a brisk motion that made his frown furrow\ndeeper and deeper.            \"Fuck,\"\nhe pronounced again, at a loss.            \"Wanna\ngo git em?\" Bligh suggested, still the same low murmur.            Andrew\nran a hand through his hair with his free hand - it was longer, he felt, than\nhe usually let it get, but it made hiding his ears easier now...it was a passing\nthought, and as it came to him there was a surge of fresh outrage, that Cody, someone he trusted more than\nanyone except perhaps Bligh, and who trusted him the same way, would be doing\nsomething like this, that he would breach, willfully, even if it was not out of\nignorance, the secure enclosure they had built for themselves.            \"He's\n- fuck if he's gonna--\" Andrew shook his head again, feeling his ear\ntwitch, slapping a hand to it angrily. \"I don't wanna be like that, though - don't - don't that\nmake me some kinda stalker or--?\"            \"He\npregnant with my kids, Drew.\" Andrew was somewhat taken aback by the\nremark - he noticed Bligh's eyes, glimmeringly icy, were boring into the\nlinoleum, and there was a silent fury to his gaze, and to his words.\n\"Pups,\" he corrected himself, under his breath, and then, so that\nAndrew could hear: \"I dun care what it\nmakes ya - this ain't - this is--\"             He\nseemed to grow emotional for a moment, his mouth moving in a way that Andrew\nhad not seen for a very long time, as though he might lose control and weep.            \"Fine,\" Andrew said, inflecting the\nword with finality. \"Fine. We'll - we'll go pick him up.\"             He\nsighed one more time, trying to stave off the twisted evolutionary urges that\nhe knew he was having, the primal desire to protect the offspring of\nhis mate, that widened even further the gulf between him and the humans he was once\nlived as one of.            \"We,\nuh--\" Bligh coughed, hard, as though he, too, was trying to steady himself.\n\"We could, uh - jest tell - what's his name?\"            \"Tim,\"\nAndrew answered quietly. \"And - Gabby. Husband and wife - they, um - they\nrun the Green Room together...\"            Bligh\nnodded, but Andrew suspected he wasn't even listening. \"We can tell em, he\n- he gotta somewhere with us, yanno, it's important n'stuff--\" He paused,\nhis gaze drifting back to meet Andrew's. \"I told ya, I ain't gonna have no\nlip from em. I love em, but--\" He stopped, as though wanting Andrew to\nfinish...            ...and Andrew\nwanted to, he wanted to say And he's\npregnant with your puppies, and not add the rider that the puppies, the\nkids, the offspring, whatever they were, likely were not, and probably never could\nbe, Andrew's also.             He\nwanted to say that and not admit that, now, in this moment, he felt he was\nlosing himself even further from what he wanted to be only a few months ago,\nthat he still was not adjusted to anything Bligh had thrust upon him in the\nmost horrifically literal sense of the word, and that he was suppressing this,\nall of this, and this was one more lie he was unwilling to tell, having lied to\nsociety as a whole by appearing on a campus of 48,000 people as one of them, when every morning he looked in the mirror,\nand bared his fangs, and moved his ears, and wagged his tail, and it became\npainfully, dolefully obvious that he wasn't...            All\nhe could do was nod. Bligh was right - he didn't want him to be right, he\nwanted to protest and say that what they were doing was creepy, possessive,\nunnecessary...and it would have been were they, all three of them, still human,\nstill incapable of reproduction as males.            But\nthey weren't. They were different - and he was still, and would always be, too\nmuch in love with Bligh, with Cody too, to stop wanting not to be different.            He\nnodded again, trying to seem more decisive. \"Yeah - yeah, um - you - you\ngo get dressed - turn - turn off the TV, lemme clean up a little and we'll\ndrive over...\"            Bligh\nnodded back in turn, and turned to leave the kitchen - but not before\nhesitating, looking back at Andrew with something like an apologetic look in\nhis eye.            \"I\n- I love yew, Drew. Thank ya - thank ya fer doin this.\"            Andrew\nsmiled back - genuine, spearing through the fear and the mounting alienation.\n\"I love you too, Bligh.\"            Bligh\nsmirked - Andrew could see a fang pop out over his lip, before he moved swiftly\nto the couch to retrieve the remote to turn off the television, taking a spare\nsecond to appear satisfied at the score with the Ravens still ahead, and then,\nwith the same speed, came to their bedroom to find some clothes to put on.            Andrew\nwas left alone in the kitchen - he gathered the spices into one arm and folded\nback the top of the flour sack, feeling, as he had not since Bligh had\nreappeared in his life, dreadfully, unavoidably, alone."}