VII. Girls talk
VII. Girl's talk
As told by Nina
"Well, since the boys survived the water, maybe we should take a dive as well. Are you with me, Lily?" I asked.
The Shepherd shrugged her shoulders. "Sure, I guess I didn't come all this way just to lay in the sun the whole time."
"The water is a bit cold at first, but you'll get used to it soon enough. It's usually a lot more comfortable by the end of August, after so many weeks of warming up," Milo said.
"I trust it won't be as freezing as it is in January?" I asked jokingly, handing him his puppy bottle.
"You guys go to the beach in the middle of winter?" Kaeden queried, cocking his head to the side.
"I grew up in Sandshire. New Year's diving is a tradition there. I joined once, but I questioned my decision as soon as my paws touched the water at the shore. However, you're in a big group of people who are all running towards the sea, so you can't exactly turn back without getting ran over."
"Why would anyone _willingly_go swimming when the ocean is below freezing temperature?" Lily asked, but I couldn't figure out whether it was a rhetorical question or she was just mocking me.
"That's the exact same question I asked myself. Now let's go, we're not getting any wetter standing around here."
Lily glanced at Kaeden's crotch, and her facial expression gave away she was considering saying something along the lines of 'no, we won't', but she ultimately remained silent. I did understand the hint, though, so I chuckled and shook my head.
"Milo, be a good boy and finish your bottle before you continue playing, okay? We don't want you to get a heatstroke."
"Ish okaysh, pwinfess," he mouthed around the teat.
"I didn't know you were his mommy." Lily commented as we walked to the waterline.
"That's because I'm not. We, um... it's a bit complicated, actually. When Milo and I had our first playtime, I acted as his caregiver. We ended up switching roles about every other play date."
"So half of the time, he's your daddy?"
"I guess you could call it that, although we never address each other as 'mommy' or 'daddy'. It sounds wrong to me, because of the relationship I have with my real father. I've been told a wife is the most special girl in a guy's heart, until his daughter is born. My dad loves me a lot, and the feeling is reciprocal. It'd just be weird for me to call Milo 'daddy'."
My paw carefully checked the water temperature, and I concluded Milo was right. I proceeded slowly, so I could get accustomed to the cold. Even though it was uncomfortable at first, being in the water felt refreshing.
"And for Milo?" Lily continued.
"He did tell you about his parents, didn't he?"
She shook her head, then tilted it somewhat.
"They're, um, how do I put this delicately..."
"Is 'dead' the word you're trying to avoid?"
I let myself drop into the water, suppressing a yelp as the cold surprised my upper body. Lily did the same, but the temperature didn't seem to bother her as much.
"How did you know?"
"Well, when we first met him, he said something bad happened to him when he was ten years old. It was a guess."
"You guessed right, though. It's a very touchy subject for him, and we hardly talk about it. If we do, though, I try to phrase myself as gently as possible. Deep down, Milo is quite a sensitive guy."
"Then why doesn't he feel the need to call you 'mommy'?"
"I guess it'd only confront him with the fact his mother is dead. What did you expect?"
"Kaeden's mother left him when he was still a newborn, and he feels a strong need for someone to fill that empty space. I thought Milo would feel the same."
"Fair enough, but the difference is that Kaeden never knew his mother, while Milo does. He misses his parents a lot, you know. After they died, his grandparents took care of him, until he moved out. However, last year, a few weeks after I met Milo, his grandfather passed away."
"Oh, wow, that's harsh."
"He was such an emotional wreck, he didn't even want to play puppy."
"Wait, that's actually possible? I couldn't imagine Kaeden ever being like that."
"There are times when I don't feel like being little either, but in this particular occasion, I thought it was the only thing I could do to be there for Milo. My suspicions were right, by the way. When he feels bad, he sometimes wants to shut the world away, so nothing can hurt him anymore, but that's not how it works."
"Why not? From personal experience, I know it does work."
"Yush, it does a decent job keeping out negative feelings, but it also closes most doors for happy thoughts. I insisted to treat him as a puppy, and it turned out that was the right way to fight off his sorrow and loneliness."
Lily whistled through her teeth.
"I really didn't expect Milo to be that sensitive. Guys like those are rare, y'know?"
"Trust me, I do. The tougher the species, the harder it is to find a guy who's not afraid to be honest about his feelings. Imagine a Doberman or a Rottweiler being all sensitive and saying how they really feel. Can you picture that?"
Lily scrunched up her nose, as though she was having difficulty figuring out how to answer the question. I thought it odd - although perhaps she had a friend or relative who defied the stereotype. But after a few moments, she finally shook her head 'no.'
Before I could continue, I felt my paws hit something. I looked down and saw we were swimming in shallow water, although there was about thirty meters between us and the shore.
"There's a sandbank here. Want to sit down for a while? It should be shallow enough."
"Sounds good. I guess I'm not nearly as rambunctious as Kaeden," she laughed.
We soon found a spot where we could sit down, while keeping most of our bodies in the water. A comfortable silence lasted between the two of us, while we looked at the beach. Milo and Kaeden were still busy building their sand castle, and it looked like they were having great fun.
"Our boyfriends seem to enjoy themselves, don't you think?" Lily asked with a smile.
"Yush. It's good to see Kaeden warm up to us. Is he always this shy?"
"No, not really. I mean, he can be a little shy, even at home, but for the most part, he's relaxed and content. I think he's just having problems because he's outside the safety of our home, and his puppy side isn't hidden away like it usually would be," she said, with a small laugh and an amused flick of her ears.
"That's what I wanted to ask you about, actually. I noticed Kaeden was diapered the first time we met, and he was wearing one when you guys arrived today as well. I thought he said he only needed diapers at night. Is that just a coincidence, or is he always diapered?"
"Yeah, always. I did wonder why neither Milo or you were, y'know, wearing one today, but I guess it'd be more usual for puppy playtime to just be occasional, wouldn't it? I'm still getting used to all this, I guess. I am surprised you noticed, though; I thought we were pretty discreet the first time."
"Well, it wasn't too hard to figure out when he started whining and you glanced down at his... well, his diaper, I guess. And then he stopped being so fidgety."
"Hah! Yeah, I suppose so. He's not like... completely without control during the day, but he probably still needs to wear them, since he's, well... I guess you could call him a 'lifestyle puppy'. It's something he found out that he enjoyed, so we're trying it out, I suppose. It seems to be working pretty well for the both of us, so far, though it's not without its rocky moments, like the first time he had to go to work, and I told him he still had to wear a diaper."
The Shepherd gave a toothy grin at what was obviously an amusing memory.
"But with Kaeden being so shy, and you being, well, not... you're quite the opposite actually. How did you guys meet? You can run into anyone, but this isn't the kind of stuff you have a conversation about with a stranger. How did that go?"
"Oh, well... that's kind of a long story, actually. And I kinda feel like I should ask Kaeden if it's okay to share, too, since it involves him and all. It'd be better if all four of us were together for that story, anyway. That way Milo isn't left out and Kaeden can fill in his part, too. I don't really fully understand why he - or you two, for that matter - want to be puppies, so his perspective is pretty important. I mean, I'm learning as I go, and I'm totally fine with it and all, but, still, having his perspective in the story is probably pretty important."
Lily shivered.
"I'm getting a bit cold. You too?"
"We've been sitting still for a while now. Let's go back to the beach and check out the sand castle, okay?"
"Sounds like a plan."
"I'll race you there. First one to hug their boyfriend wins!" I said, and started swimming like my life depended on it. Lily was right about her being not as rambunctious as Kaeden. She was unable to keep up with me in the water. Once we had both his shallow water, however, the initial distance between the two of us got smaller by the second.
Maybe I had underestimated Lily, or perhaps she could just run faster than me. Eventually, we pounced our boyfriends almost at the same time. They both saw it coming, though, and they had heard our paws thumping the sand as we came running towards them.