VIII. Wet dogs
VIII. Wet dogs
As told by Kaeden
I didn't quite turn around in time to avoid getting tackled to the ground by Lily. Evidently the two of them had been racing to see which would get to us first - and I honestly didn't know who had won. Everything happened so fast. I sputtered and spit as her wet fur drip dried right onto my face.
"Ugh, Lily, get off! You're all wet!" I said, pushing at her shoulders.
Being bigger than me, though, she had a lot more leverage and wasn't going anywhere. I let out an embarrassingly puppyish yip of surprise as I felt her fingers slip inside the legband of my diaper, checking me for wetness. Not that the gesture was necessary given the brand Lily had put me in.
"Hmm, I'm not the only thing all wet, puppy. Your diaper is missing a couple bones," she said with a grin. I whined in embarrassed frustration.
"Lilllyyyy!" I protested.
"Oh, don't worry hon. You don't need changed yet. Why don't you show me your guys' castle?"
Of course, that hadn't been what I had gotten all flustered over, but I was still disappointed that I wasn't going to be changed. Regardless, I was glad to have a distraction from... well, that topic of conversation, and with the condition of my diaper now forgotten, I eagerly showed off what we had made with Milo.
Given my construction experience, I was able to help him make a pretty complex creation. We even had an arch going between a couple of the towers, which I was particularly proud of. I'd used some small pieces of driftwood to stabilize certain structures like that throughout the castle, allowing us to do much more interesting things than just a typical wet sand construction.
After we'd properly shown off our creation, both me and Milo got a devilish look in our eyes, and nodding to each other, we stood up, arms in the air, and stomped our sand fortress back into the ground.
"Oh, Kaeden! It took you so long to build that!"
I just shrugged. "I can always build another one. Um... do you wanna build another one with us?"
I looked at both the girls, although I didn't let my gaze linger too long on the Bernese. I was still a little shy around Nina, but in that way little dogs are shy around their puppysitters. She had been nothing but nice to me - I just hadn't had a chance to really get to know her like I had Milo.
"Actually, what about a game? Volleyball?" Nina suggested.
"That sounds good," my girlfriend laughed. "I'm afraid my expertise is all up there," she said, pointing at the sky. "Anything I tried to build would just be rubbish. How about after the game, huh? You can teach me," she said to me.
I wasn't too sure about that suggestion. I was strong, given my line of work - or at least, my occasional line of work - but I wasn't very athletic in a sporty sort of way. Plus, it required a lot of moving around, and given my... well, my present attire, I wasn't really sure I wanted to do that. It had gotten easier to forget about my diaper, but every now and then when I had been moving around our castle to sit in a new spot, the ever-present padding had made itself known, and I couldn't suppress the flush in my ears.
But, it hadn't really been a question, either. Lily was good at taking charge, and even though it meant that sometimes I had to do things I wasn't comfortable doing, it did make me feel safe and loved regardless. It seems my input had pretty much been decided on as a 'yes,' given that Nina and Lily were dragging what looked like a washing line out of the brush.
"It's not a net," Nina said, "but it should still work for our purposes."
Nina and Milo had evidently brought a ball with them, so soon we were engaged in a game of beach volleyball. To make things more cooperative and less competitive, Lily suggested that I partner up with Nina, and Milo team up with her. I half suspected that it was just to embarrass me. Either way, it wasn't a bad idea, and it would allow me to get more comfortable around her.
Still, for the first ten to fifteen minutes of our game, it was hard not to feel very_self-conscious. Every time I went for the ball I could feel my wet diaper restricting my movement, or making what sounded to me like a very loud crinkling noise, and it didn't help that I knew both Milo and my girlfriend were looking _right at me. At least when we were building the cas-
"Ow!" I exclaimed, the ball striking the side of my muzzle and pulling me from my thoughts.
"Pick up the pace, Kaeden!" Nina said, laughing, once she saw that I was okay. "They're six points ahead!
I tried to shake myself out of my stupor, and get my head in the game. I didn't want to disappoint Nina. It took some mental effort, but I managed to push all the self-doubting and uncertain thoughts out of my head, and just watch the ball and my game partner. Before too long, we managed to pick up the slack. During the last serve, I managed to leap up and smack the ball down right into the sand in front of Lily. She stopped, hands on her knees, to catch her breath.
"Yes! Alright!" I said, pumping my fist. "Haha! We're ahead now, right?" I said, looking at my girlfriend. She grinned back at me and I felt my ears flatten a bit - I'd probably be paying for my showboating later. All in good fun, of course.
"Actually, I think we're tied, right?" Nina said, panting.
"Well, that won't do," Milo added. "One more round, and whoever scores, wins."
"Who serves?" I asked.
Me and Nina had started the game, but that was just because Nina had already been holding the ball. The game had gotten a bit more competitive since we started. I looked around the nearby vegetation, and picked up a bundle of twigs. Snapping eight of them off so they were all the same length save for one, I held them out in my paws.
"You and Nina draw," I said, looking at my girlfriend, "until you get the short twig. Short twig serves."
Lily ended up drawing the 'short straw', so to speak, so the final match was their serve. It actually lasted for a couple minutes, until Nina managed to spike the ball at a hard angle - Milo dove for it, to send it back up over the line. He made contact, but wasn't able to send the ball up high enough. Game point went to us.
"Yes!" I said, grinning, and jumping in the air, giving Nina a high five. She also seemed pretty excited about our win.
"Great game," Milo said, fist-bumping my shoulder.
"No kidding. You really picked up the pace in the second half, puppy," Lily said.
"Yeah, I, uh... it got easier, I guess," I said, blushing a little. "Wanna build a castle now?"
I was kind of excited about the prospect. I rarely got to do things with my girlfriend that I had a natural knack for. I may be Lily's 'puppy', but I still enjoy being able to teach _her_things from time to time.
"I think you need a diaper change first, pup. You're soaked."
I looked down at my diaper, and much to my embarrassment, she was right. Not a single bone left. And quite swollen - it was a nothing short of a miracle that Nina and I had won.
"U-um... it was the sea air?" I said, sheepishly.
Lily rolled her eyes. "Come on, you soggy doggy."
"I, ah... hate to interrupt the moment," Milo said, as Lily took my paw. "But you might have to take a rain check on that. Literally."
He pointed over to the horizon, where dark clouds had started to form. It was then that I noticed that the breeze had begun to pick up since the start of our game. A breeze that was bringing the clouds steadily closer to the shoreline.
"Forecast was calling for a chance of a storm," Milo said, "but not until much later this evening."
"We'd better get packed up," Nina said. "Storms move in pretty quick here, and you two wouldn't believe how hard the downpour can be."
"C-can't I be, um.. changed first?" I said. "The clouds are still pretty far off..."
I glanced over at them nervously. I hated storms, and wanted to get out of there before it hit shore, but I wasn't sure my trunks were going to fit up over my diaper for the trip back. I didn't really like having to stay in a wet diaper, either. I liked being a dry puppy, even though that was hard for me to do.
"Can't you do that while she gets the car?" Nina asked, tilting her head.
"I-I... um..." I stammered, not sure how to answer. Luckily, my girlfriend came to my rescue.
"Kaeden isn't allowed to change himself," she explained. "Just part of the whole puppy experience." She turned back to me. "You need to wait until later, puppy. Sorry."
"There is bit of time," Milo added quietly. "But we have to walk back to the bus stop, too."
"We should probably listen to the experienced beach pups, Kaeden," Lily said, with a gentle smile. "I'll get my car. All four of us can fit in there, and we won't have to walk all the way back to the bus stop."
"Thanks," Milo says. "But it's still a ten minute walk back to the public beach, and probably another ten back to your car..."
"No worries!" Lily said. "I'm a fast runner." She turned to me, leaned down, and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. "Be good for Nina and Milo, puppy," she said. "I'll be waiting for you right at the end of the trail, okay? We can get your diaper changed once we check in at the hotel, alright?"
"O-okay..." I whimpered.
I didn't like the idea of the storm getting closer, and not having Lily around. Being stuck in a wet diaper was the least of my worries, right now. Lily quickly pulled her clothes back on, then gathered up our things and stuffed them into my diaper bag. She waved goodbye, then took off with it to retrieve the car. I let out a plaintive whine as her tail disappeared around the corner.
A still distant rumble of thunder made me jump. I started taking deeper breaths, trying not to panic. Ever since I was little, and a bad thunderstorm had landed a tree right through the roof and into my bedroom, I'd been terrified of thunderstorms. It was irrational, but I couldn't help the way my brain and body responded. I tensed my fists, and started to feel myself relax, until I felt a few specks of rain start falling from the sky - and another, closer rumble of thunder. I felt dizzy, and dropped to the sand on my hands and knees. I rolled over into a ball.
"N-no, no, no, no-" I mumbled. "Lily, c-come b-b-back..."
"Kaeden? Kaeden! Are you okay?" Nina asked. Both her and Milo rushed over to me, helping me to my feet. I still had my eyes closed, and my muscles tensed.
"I d-don't like, st-storms," I stuttered, whimpering.
"Hey, hey, hey there, it's okay," Nina said, giving me a quick hug. The gesture calmed down enough for me to open my eyes - bleary from tears I hadn't even known were falling.
"I... I uh, I get scared during storms too," Milo said, and for the first time, I noticed the tremble in his voice - and in his paw. "Maybe we should get moving?"
Milo went to grab their things, and when he came back, I leaned on the other two dogs for support. I'm not sure I could have made it through the trail on my own, especially as the storm and thunder grew closer. By the time we got to the end, the rain was coming down quite heavily, and I wasn't the only wet dog in the group, though I suppose I was technically still the wettest.
Nina pointed out the car a moment later - about fifty paces off at the end of the parking lot. We all took a dash for it, even me. I probably got a few odd glances, but I was far past the point of caring if anyone saw my diaper; I just wanted my girlfriend to comfort me. No, I needed her to.
I dared a quick glance, and saw that everyone else was already gone, or too concerned with packing up and getting back to their cars to worry about an overgrown puppy dashing across the brushline. At that distance, it was unlikely they would see anything anyway, especially through the rain.
As soon as I got in the car, I reached across the center console and hugged Lily tightly. I shut my eyes and whimpered - although this time it wasn't out of fear, it was out of relief. Lily always made everything better. I vaguely heard two car doors slam behind me before Lily gently nudged me back over into my seat, buckling me up.
"We'd better go," Nina said. "Milo's not too good in this weather, either."
I glanced up to the rearview mirror and saw that the Hare Indian was in the back, holding tightly to his girlfriend's paw, and shivering - not from the wet and the cold, either. Lily squeezed my paw for comfort, then backed out, heading out to the road.