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Tutor - Halloween

The morning had that crisp edge to it that warned that the season was turning but was just not quite ready to, yet. Ham not only did not mind the autumnal chill, he delighted in it. It was the kind of weather that let him get into working on his cars without breaking out in a pouring sweat. It also sent the worst of the biting insects into hiding, so not only would he not sweat while body deep in the guts of an engine, he would not itch. Considering that most of the work he did was in an open garage bay, if not in the bright sun of the repair or salvage yard, banishing the bugs was a blessing.

Such thoughts were not on the forefront of his mind, however, as he leaned idly against a tree in the park across the street from his high school. Many other students were hanging out there as well, engaged in their various morning activities. Small clusters of students lingered around him, protected from the bullies that made their respective high school lives a living hell by his mere presence. But they did not intrude upon his solitude, however. He glanced up at the distant hiss of air brakes to spy the city bus rounding the corner at the top of the hill. As it slowly coasted down to the bus stop at the park Ham watched, remaining in the shadows under the trees.

When the bus doors opened a gaggle of students spilled out with either the raucousness of friends or the introspection of solitude. At length three distinctly unique forms moved toward the front of the bus and slowly stepped down. The first was tall, willowy, and mostly blonde in hue from floppy ears to unshod toes. She carried herself with a regal air but even from his distant vantage Ham could see by the set of her long, golden furred jaw and hardness about her deep brown eyes that she was not at all pleased, not introspective; she was seething.

The next off the bus was quite a bit shorter, much darker of fur, and likewise bristling. Glasses rested askew on her very inhuman head and, as she half stepped, half stumbled off the last step she unconsciously reached up to straighten them.

The last of the trio to disembark the bus caught Ham's eye and made him forget the first two - despite the fact that all three of them were dogs.

Not the normal sort of dogs one might see walking down the sidewalk on four paws and sniffing at hydrants, no. These three walked upright on two stout paws and, though all three were distinctly different from one another, were fully dressed. Their choice of clothing, as well, was distinct to all three. The first wore a long, clearly second hand, dress like a gown, snugged about her slim waist with a wide black leather belt. Not buckled like the perfectly normal belt Ham wore, but tied primary to define her narrow waist, the ends dangling to her unseen knees. The second wore a skirt just as second hand and much less prim and proper, above that a thin tee shirt with a Def Leppard logo, and a sleeveless, purposely ragged denim vest festooned with pockets.

The third, like the first, wore a full-length dress of pale chocolate cream that accentuated the dark browns and russet of her coat fetchingly, if not so regally as that of the first humanoid, bipedal dog. It was not belted and did not define her form in any marked way, but Hammond found it fetching all the same for the body upon which it was draped.

Tia.

And she looked as put upon as the first of the trio, though the second and shortest of them merely looked annoyed.

Ham sighed; poor dogs. Poor Tia.

Ahh, Tia. There was a conundrum that had taxed his brains to their limits the past couple of days. He could not figure himself out concerning her. Or, rather, he had figured himself out and that, alone, left his wits in a flat spin.

Friday he had learned something about Tia she had kept hidden from him for months, and would have always kept hidden from him but for one accidentally purposeful glance in the middle of a particularly intimate carnal bliss they had been enjoying.

He had discovered that Tia was, after all, not a girl. Or bitch, as the more crude bullies said of the three dogs as they were, for all outward appearance in demeanor and dress, females.

But she was not. She, it turned out, was physically a he. Psychologically, however, she was as female as her sisters and it was that female that Ham had fallen hopelessly for. Even after discovering that she was physically male he found he was still head over heels for her. And that shook him to the very foundation of his being, for he had utterly no desire whatsoever for guys, in that way. Never had, and knew he never would.

But Tia, Ahh Tia.

After the fright and chaos of her unwanted revelation it had taken Ham the better part of an hour to convince her not to flee from his home slash workshop. She alternated between soul wrenching weeping that their relationship had come to a crashing end and furious at him for causing that end.

But it had not, he had assured her, over and over again, and he would not let it because of, what she saw, was a flaw in her creation; female within, male without.

After a while he helped her get her dress back on and led her up to the loft of his workshop. While he still had a room at his parents' house, where he normally slept, his loft was perfectly suitable to live in. There was an old, comfortable couch, recliners, salvaged but perfectly serviceable protection TV, and bed tucked over in one corner with a mosquito net canopy.

They had retired to the couch while Tia slowly calmed down, sitting morosely in one corner while Ham fearfully occupied the other. He did not want to loose her, but was profoundly rocked by what he had discovered. His thoughts were a welter of confusion.

Unspeaking, they had turned on the TV for lack of anything else to do. They watched a re-run of Knight Rider, then a Nova program about satellite communications, and then the latest episode of Babylon 5 because Tia profoundly enjoyed anything scientific, even fiction.

Exhausted from the emotional roller coaster, however, Tia fell asleep half way through B5. Ham carefully gathered her from the corner of the couch and carried her to the bed. For a time he lay with her, snuggled close against her back, both of them fully clothed though he knew, now, the secret she had always hidden by her demand never to be seen naked. After a couple of silent, sleepless hours Ham retired to the couch and slept fitfully.

Hours later she had gasped awake and Ham shot up from his own fitful slumber so swiftly he tumbled from the couch. By the time he managed to figure out up from down and right himself Tia was sitting on the edge of the bed, on hand holding back the netting while the other rubbed her face. She glanced down at herself and across at him through the dark.

"I'm still dressed." Half statement, half question in a soft, exhausted voice.

Ham blinked and nodded, "Of course, why wouldn't you be?"

She chuffed a raggedly rueful laughing sigh. "After all the effort -" she trailed off. Standing, ham crossed to kneel beside her at the side of the bed.

"I would not do that to you, Tia."

"But you did!" She snarled.

Ham sighed and nodded, "I did, and I'm sorry, really. I didn't know."

"You weren't supposed to!" With a shake of her head she looked around. "What time is it?" Ham tilted his wrist to check the cheap timex digital watch he wore, thumbing the tiny light on.

"A little before three."

"I need to get home, Ham, it's horribly late."

"I thought they didn't care when you got home. And, besides, the busses stopped running at ten."

"They don't, but my sisters do. Will you take me home, Ham, please?" She asked plaintively, ears down and tail low.

"Of course, Tia, if you want to go." He did not really want her to go, but considering the tumult of the previous evening it was probably for the best, for her if not him. "I'll take you."

Standing from the bed Tia stood unmoving for a few moments before nodding. Then she reached up and drew the shoulder of her dress down her arms, exposing herself to the midriff. In the gloom all Ham could see was the softening of her silhouette as the fabric fell. Crossing quickly to her he laid his hands on her forearms before she could draw it down further.

"No, love." He admonished quietly.

She chuffed softly, "Why not? You went to all that effort,-"

"I did, yes, and I am so, so very sorry. But, Tia, no. Maybe, another time, but on your terms, when you are ready, if ever. Not because you think you must." Gathering up the spilled fabric he drew it back up slowly.

Without another word she drew the dress back up and he helped her zip the back up.

The drive back to her house was slow and silent, no music on the radio as he cruised down the back roads at the speed limit, for once. He stopped a block from her house so that Leo's noisy growl did not wake the neighborhood and, more importantly, her foster parents.

He walked with her down the poorly lit residential street to the back door of the ramshackle, though not really small, old house. At the door he reached up to touch her shoulder lightly. "Will you come over, later today?" He asked with quiet hope.

She shook her head slowly without turning, standing in the threshold. "No, not today, Ham. I.. I've got to… think. I need some time to think."

"Tia, what happened, what I saw, I know you did not want me to, and why, now. But that changes nothing, T. I do not love you any less for it."

Stepping through the door she turned to face him, ears back and muzzle dipped morosely. "Nor more." Not meeting his gaze she slowly pushed the door closed.

Ham stood for several moments after the quiet click of the latch, frowning. He had ruined everything, as she had said, truly. And he did not know what to do, how to remedy his monumental fuckup. Shoving his hands in his pockets he turned and walked away, into the darkness.

"What's got you so glum?" His mother asked that morning when he went up to the house for breakfast. They were alone in the kitchen, his father having risen, as was his norm, well before dawn to work in the garage all of a quarter mile away at the bottom of the hill.

"Tia." He responded flatly, stirring the eggs on his plate without making any motion to actually eat them. Taking a long breath he let it out with an explosive sigh. "We… had a disagreement."

Turning, she leaned back against the sink, drying her hands on a towel. "A disagreement? The look on your face says a whole lot more than that."

Ham frowned and nodded, "Yeah, a whole lot." Setting his fork aside he pushed the plate away and crossed his hands on the table. "We… well, we've been... " He broke off, at a loss for words. He had always been able to talk to his parents about pretty much anything, they were both surprisingly patient and open minded.

But how open minded?

Unexpectedly, his mother let out a soft chuckle. "Fooling around?"

"Ah… yeah." He muttered quietly.

Again that low, rueful chuckle. "And? So? What happened? You didn't do something when she said no, did you, Ham?"

Grimacing, he nodded woodenly, "Yeah, actually, I did, mom." He looked up toward her, eyes narrowing. "You're not angry?"

"That you two were 'Fooling around'?" She air quoted, "No. You're teenagers, hon. It's not unexpected. Hormones, first love, and all."

"That she's a dog?"

His mom shrugged and hung the towel back on its rack. "Well, that does, I guess, complicate things a little. But she's not a dog dog, after all. She's a person who just happens to look like a dog." Leaning back against the counter she crossed her arms and looked archly at him across the kitchen. "But this thing you did, even though she said no… that does concern me. What did you do, Ham?"

"Nothing like what you're thinking, mom, no. I looked."

One eyebrow went up quizzically, "Looked?"

Ham nodded slowly, looking back down at the rapidly cooling eggs. "Looked. We've been… Fooling around for a couple months, and she always refused to let me see her, you know? I figured it was self consciousness, being that she's a dog, with dog stuff, yeah?"

"Yes?"

"Mom, I'm really, really confused. Tia's a girl, right? I mean, here," He touched his temple, "and here," He rested his hand over his heart for several long seconds before drawing another long breath and letting it out explosively. "But not there." He waved his hand down, indicating what was hidden below the table.

His mother blinked, her mouth opening, closing, and she blinked again before finding her voice. "Oh. Oh dear. What you're saying…?"

Ham nodded jerkily, "Yeah, that's what I'm saying. That's what I saw, what she did not want me to see."

"He did not -"

"She, mom, even for that, She." He looked down at his hands. "I loved her, mom." Slowly he looked back up, "I still do! Even for what I saw, I still do!" He groaned, dropping his head and clutching it with both hands. "Is that wrong?"

Surprisingly, she shook her head. "No, Ham, it's not wrong. Confusing, certainly, but not wrong."

"But… I don't… I mean, guys? No, I've never had even the slightest…"

His mom let out a soft grunt, "Well, Ham, now you do, and you've got to deal with it. She hid that from you, how I can't fathom, because of that. Now she's probably damn scared of you, how you'll treat her because of this." Crossing to the table she drew out a chair and sat down resting her forearms on the polished wooden surface. "And, Hammond Capelli, you best think hard and long about it. You'll do no wrong by her; girl, guy, or dog, understand? No blathering it out at school, or anywhere outside this house, no matter how mad or disgusted you might feel about it."

"That's the thing, mom. I'm not mad, I'm not even disgusted! I'm just… scared."

"Scared? Of?"

"That she'll turn me away, mom! Because I hurt her, I destroyed her trust."

"Well, then. You'll just have to earn her trust all over again, won't you?"

"Yeah." He sighed with a slow nod. Leaning back, he leveled a speculative stare on his all too understanding mother. She had just learned that her son had been intimate with a half-dog person, and the dog was not even, physically, female and had not batted an eye. "You're taking this amazingly well."

She laughed warmly and gave him a rather rougish grin, "Dear, I grew up in the late sixties. There's not a lot that you could dream up that would ruffle my feathers. Even if you'd told me you were to the core gay it wouldn't make a difference. To me, or your father. You're our son, and we're here to help you grow, and help you through these sorts of pitfalls." Leaning across the table she laid a hand atop his, "And Tia, too. She's a charmer, regardless of what's under her skirt. You let her know that, okay? Now, eat your breakfast."

And so, through an agonizingly long weekend, Ham thought, and decided on what to do. He begged out on the usual Saturday movie jaunt with Jake as he sat I his workshop, staring at the 'cuda he could not bring himself to touch. She had been there, on its hood, where they were making love or, rather, fucking like rabbits, before he had looked down ant touched off a stick of dynamite.

So, Monday found him posted against a tree in the park where he could see the bus arrive. He feared that she would go fully into hiding and find an excuse not to even come to school. He was prepared to wait, in that case, as long as it took.

But there she was, stepping off the bus into the chilly October morning, the wind whipping at the lush fur of neck ruff and tail, drawing it into cinnamon streamers that glistened in the Wan morning light, folding the thin material of her dress against those strange canine legs. Ham felt himself smile at the beautiful sight.

And then Deric Singh stepped off the bus behind them, a look of sadistic delight drawing the dark features of his face. "C'mon, doggies, at least try it, wouldya? It's a treat!" Ham heard him lilt in his nasal Indian accent. Considering he was, at most, five feet tall and whip cord thin, seeing him in the role of bully was unusual. Yet, with his razor-edged tongue he could reduce even secure targets to whimpers or rage in short order. Before he had found the edge of his tongue as a weapon he had been among the flock that lingered around Ham for security.

As he approached Ham noticed that he was waving some sort of dog treat like a Slim Jim. At least it wasn't a dead rat, Ham had to accept. He had seen that noisome little stunt more than a few times.

Maneuvering through the disembarking crowd, who for the most part ignored the taunts, Ham curved around behind Deric and the three similarly jeering spectators bracketing him. When his heavy, work calloused hand fell heavily on the much smaller youth's shoulder he came to an abrupt, startled halt.

"Well, Deric, good to see that you've graduated." He drawled conversationally, his hand tightening firmly to keep his quarry from slipping free. His cronies melted aside instantly and the crowd, predators sensing a prey animal in extremis, slowly began to form a small circle of spectators.

"Huh?" Deric managed after a quick turn, and then upward track, of his head identified the owner of the hand weighing down his thin shoulder.

"From bait to bully. Nice to see someone step out from under my wing." Ham smiled, not kindly, down.

Deric had the good sense to look embarrassed, "It… it's not like that, Ham." He hedged.

"'S what it looked like to me, Deric. So, what is it?"

Deric lamely held up the slender stick of some sort of meat product, "Something my dad's working on, at Hormel's lab at UofC."

Ham held out his free hand and, grudgingly, Deric laid the stick in his palm. By now everyone nearby had stopped, including the heretofore silent dogs. Pressing his thumb in the center of the stick he forced it in half; it was not rigid enough to actually break. With a deft flick of hands well skilled at spinning tools about he preferred one half of it back to Deric. "What's it supposed to be?"

"Dog treat." Deric muttered, not taking back the piece Ham held toward him.

"Ah, ok, so… what? You thought you'd force it on them as what, a product test?"

"Yeah, I guess, kinda?"

Motioning at him with half of the treat Ham quirked a half smile, "Then why don't you try it?" Deric made a moue of disgust but, after Ham all but shoved it in his face, took it from his hand.

"Because I'm not a dog, man!"

Ham just stared hard down at him, "Try it." Deric almost seemed to turn green, at least as far as his pale mocha complexion allowed. Raising the remaining half of the stick Ham bit a sizeable portion from it. "You should know by now I would not tell you to do something I would not do, myself." He said around the firm, but not hard, substance in his mouth.

It was not tasty; far too strongly flavored of what he could only imagine raw liver might taste if freshly removed from its original owner's body. Salt, pungent meat, pasteurized blood tasting almost metallic, all swathed in far too much beef bouillon. "Well?"

With an aggrieved sigh Deric raised his remnant piece and took a small nibble, the expression on his face one of revulsion, and embarrassment. "Uagh." The young man gagged, but did not spit it out since Ham had not. In fact, Ham choked down the first revolting mouthful and popped the remainder in after it. A chuckle rippled through the crowd at Deric's comeuppance and, seeing no other discipline forthcoming, began to drift apart. Ham watched silently until Deric had managed to choke down the remainder of his half of the treat. Giving the kid's shoulder a parting squeeze, he released his heavy grip and strode away, directly toward the trio of dogs.

"Tia!" He called after them, hurrying across the street and into the student parking lot. He saw her ears rotate back at the sound of her name, and then flatten into the deep fur atop her head. "Tia, wait up a sec!" Idly Ham noted a knot of letterman jackets off to one side slow, and then stop, their intercept course that would have brought them to the dogs in the shadow of the vocational building. Tia and her sisters slowed, eventually stopping to face him in a unified front.

"Hammond." Tia said, neutrally. The tall, regal one gazed imperiously down the length of her long muzzle at him, being the only one of the three coming close to his own height. Tia was actually half a foot shorter and the last sister shorter still. That one just gave him a glare from behind thick glasses.

Glancing around, seeing that the restive crowd had grasped that he was going after the pariahs of the school, Ham squared his shoulders and strode up to them. "Hey, Tia, I just wanted to say thank you."

Tia's russet brows furrowed, backed ears lifting curiously before backing again. "Thank me?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry, too, for trying to act like I didn't know you and all, after what you've been doing for my grades. Your tutoring has really helped me pull them up." Beside her the tall one snorted derisively and the shorter one just adjusted her glasses again, they were poorly designed for the bridge of her muzzle, and crossed her arms over her chest. "And, well, I missed homecoming, but the Halloween masquerade dance is coming up and, well, I was wondering if you'd like to go with me?" He said it all loud enough for those not too far away, like the knot of school colors lingering near the closed refreshment stand or the trio of sci-fi geeks at the rear of a Dodge Caravan watching intently, could hear everything clearly.

"Me? Go with you? To a dance? In public??" Tia sounded almost disdainful but Ham could see something else in the posture of her body, the twitch of whisker and ear.

"Well, yeah, in public. Is there a private dance?"

A guffaw erupted from the refreshment stand by the entrance to the football field but Ham could not hear anything that was actually being said. The opinions of the bully brigade meant nothing to him, though he imagined that it would come to a head eventually.

The other two dogs just rocked in place, jaws hanging in surprise. Ham stepped closer, "Can I'm walk you to class, talk more about it?" He cast a meaningful glance toward the gaggle of school colors and back. At Tia's jerky, wooden nod he fell into step with them. The shortest of the trio held back, if slightly, and fell into the trio of comp geeks trailing in their wake. "I mean, if you don't want to go,"

"Oh, I would like to, Ham, but… dogs and all. If those Neanderthals know any of us might go, every one of them will try to dress up as animal control, trophy hunters, and shit like that."

"What if all up us went?" Interjected one of the trio walking along with the shortest sister. One of his friends, more stoner than Radio Shack chique, shot him an evil look when Ham glanced back. "If we all went together it would… well…"

"Spread the angst around a bit, thin it out?" The shorter dog asked, if sarcastically.

"Cause a riot?" Their tallest sister opined laconically. Everyone ignored her.

"What do you say, Tia? Make it a date?"

Tia gave him a level stare and a shrug, "Sure. It's not like we have to stay if the Cro-Magnon crowd gets imaginative with their trite humiliations."

Ham frowned and nodded, "That should stop, now that they know I'm in your corner. Most of them do not want to cross me, and the rest are too stupid to be problems. I doubt they could even think up an animal control costume." Reaching the entry of the vocational wing Ham held the door. "Oh, Tia, I've got first quarter calculus exams coming up Friday, I could really use some help." He said, quite truthfully.

"Tonight?"

"'Probably best." He nodded and she nodded back. "I don't have extended vocational hours today, so, meet you in the lot after school?" She nodded again and moved down the hall, walking a little taller. Ham admired the swish of her luxuriant tail for a moment until he sensed that he was not alone. Looking down he found that, but for the smallest of the dogs, the door had cleared. She was actually glaring up at him which was quite a long lift of her head for she barely topped five feet tall.

"What are you up to, Capelli? She was a wreck all fucking weekend, but would not tell us anything. You said, or did, something that really hurt her." A short distance away the three guys who had been walking with her lingered, though far enough away not to hear her. "Well?"

"Yeah, Brigette, I did."

"Rory." She snapped, "Brigitte's my sister, dope."

"Oh." Ham winced, realizing that he had never bothered to learn which of them was whom, beyond Tia. "Yes, I did. I found out." He knew she had to know; they were siblings after all, after a fashion. Rory's eyes went very wide and her ears pinned flat back in surprise as she goggled at him. Ham nodded slowly, abashed.

"So that was it. God, that'd do it." She scowled at him, "What'd you do? What are you going to do?" She challenged firmly. For such a diminutive creature she sure seemed feisty.

Reaching out, pausing when she reflexively flinched away, he lightly laid one hand on her shoulder. "Make it right, Rory. I'm going to try to make it right."

"What's that supposed to mean? For you, or for her?"

"For her, Rory. Or haven't you figured out I haven't said 'him' at all?"

She seemed to ponder that for a moment before nodding, "Okay then, you just do that." And, her mind spoken, she turned and walked back to the trio waiting out of earshot, the four of them falling into a comfortable cluster as they made their way toward the primary studies building, Ham following along some distance behind, dreading first hour calculus II.

At least automotive, his last two-hour block, was no more complicated than a tune-up on an old Chevy step-side and replacing a worn belt on a teacher's Volvo. Drying his hands, he looked in on Jake whom was finishing up a rather problematic radiator patch. "Heading up to the main building, Jake, I'll catch you tomorrow."

"Huh, why?" His friend set aside the soldering iron and glanced at him before bending to examine his work.

"Going to catch Tia before the usual escorts do, she doesn't have late classes today."

"The dog?" Jake scowled as he picked up the radiator and carried it to the fill tank so he could test it for further leaks. "Really, man, did you ask one of them to the dance?"

"Tia. Yeah, I did."

Jake chuffed a derisive snort of laughter, "Hammer, man, you're either masochistic or you've snorted way too much brake dust. Why the dogs, for cripes sake?"

"Why not? They need someone in their corner, why not me?"

"There's plenty in their corner, H, you just don't know who they are. But I guess if someone wants to put their face on it, you'd be about the best choice since no one sane messes with you." Setting the radiator in the tank he began filling it, of course forgetting to close the petcock as he always did. "But I thought you didn't care much for the dogs."

"I was faking it." Ham shrugged and picked up his heavy, though he did not notice the weight, book bag. "You're leaking."

"Shitfuck!" Jake swore and Ham laughed, leaving his friend scrambling to shut the valve on the radiator, juggling the still flowing hose, without getting soaked.

He and Tia got plenty of sidelong looks, and no few hard stares, as they walked side by side down to the student lot from the main building along the longer, but open, sidewalk rather than the corridors which would pass the gym and weight room before emerging under the football stands at the back of the parking lot. They did not talk much, beyond schoolwork, as they walked and Ham could sense a wary reticence about her.

It was as if he could read her mind and found the thoughts within as tumultuous as a summer thunderhead.

What is he about? Does he mean to expose me? To out me? Why does he even want to be seen with me, what I am? Is he going to hurt me because I duped him? Does he really mean what he says, that he accepts? No, there's no accepting that! Maybe he just wants to let me down gently, rather than just plunging the knife in for a quick end of it; us.

She had trailed off into silence, lost in her own thoughts and forgetting Ham's question about a particularly unpleasant calculus equation, before they reached the lot. One of the other kids from the automotive class, Seth Hurley, a senior who was only going to graduate by the dint of clawing for the thinnest margins at the bottom rungs, stepped out with a couple of his cronies. He was well known for aiming his childish sadism at the dogs especially, and the two with him were cut from that mold as well.

When their predatory stares shifted from Tia to Ham, and then to the positively murderous expression he aimed at them, they quickly changed course to avoid that confrontation, and the letterman jackets emerging from the gym hallway. To that group Hurley was just as likely to be bullied as the dogs were. But Hurley and his huddle could blend into the crowd easily, the dogs could not.

Yet, all the jocks and their sycophants did was cast withering looks and comments behind their hands. Ham had finally committed himself to a side; he would no longer stand on the sidelines.

He actually opened the GTO's heavy passenger side door for her when they reached the car, much to the apparent cruel humor of the jock jumble. As he circled the back of the car he paused, sketched a bow toward their snide looks, and then flipped them a bird. No sooner than he had closed his own door when a presence appeared on the other side of the window; school colors and varsity letters over expensive, stone-washed 501 button fly jeans.

Damn.

A moment later the owner of said jacket and jeans bent to look in the window, his arm on Leo's roof. Reginald Baylor, quarterback and Captain of the football team. With a quick mental tally Ham realized that Reginald had never joined the school color clique in their regular belittlement and humiliation of the dogs, nor anyone else that sprang to mind. They had never crossed paths before, there had been no need to, and their respective social circles never intersected. Ham was blue collar, Reginald was blue blood.

Leaning a bit forward he cranked the window down. "What's up, Reg?"

Reginald squatted a bit to look in the window, "Hey, Hammer, Tia." He smiled a charming, perfect smile as if genuinely pleased to greet them, despite the fact he reeked of Drakkar Noir and Ham reeked of grease and sweat. "Hey, Ham, I just wanted to say I saw what you did this morning and I think it was a great idea, stepping up like that. You're good people, I've always known that. Even more, now. Taking her to the dance is an ace idea. I wanted to ask, though, do you know the other ones?"

"Rory and Brigette? No, not really, why?"

"Damn." Reginald frowned slightly and chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment before shifting his gaze across the car. "Tia, can I ask you?"

Quirking her ears she looked over, distrust clear on her features, "Ask me what?"

"Put in a word for me? With Brigette?"

"What do you mean?"

Reginald looked embarrassed but plowed on, "Ham's asked you to the dance, and I think one of the comp-Sci guys asked Rory afterward. No one's asked Brigette, and she deserves to go, too. I… could you, maybe, see if she'd be okay with that?" He sighed and looked away for a moment, toward the stadium and ostensibly the other members of the jock jamboree still loitering there.

"Why, for whom, you?" Tia openly scoffed, following his gaze out of Leo's back window.

"Yeah. I mean, look, I know the team's been razzing you guys hard for months and you don't trust them for shit. Nor me, as a result, because I'm wearing letters, right?"

"Of course! And you've done nothing to stop it." Tia retorted levelly. "Even Ham didn't do anything for far too long." She shifted her pointed stare at Ham who only nodded mutely as the conversation shot back and forth past him.

"Yeah. Call me a coward, because I am, but it was me against them. I got coach Frank on my side today, he saw what happened this morning, and he's been listening to the team's chatter all year. He agrees, they need to drop their shit. After today, if any of them say or do anything to you or your sisters they're going to get benched. The rest of the season, if necessary, same goes for baseball. Don't know about basketball, those are coach Gene's teams."

"Benched?" Ham grunted, "We're number three for state! If you start benching guys you won't make finals. A lot of those guys are depending on that for college!"

Reginald nodded, "If we slide, we slide, I'm don't care and they know it. I'm already accepted at Princeton Law, football is not my only way to make it like it is for most of them. Coach says putting their prospects on the skids will shut their Bullshit down."

"If you say so." Ham was still dubious, but not about to discard any help that appeared. "What's this about Brigitte though?"

Reginald shrugged sheepishly, "She's hot? And she's insanely smart. That's even more hot." He offered Tia a Wan smile. "I just haven't had the balls to say anything to her. Every time I try my tongue turns into lead. Could you… ?"

Tia shook her head, "No. If you're for serious, ask her yourself." With a lift of her muzzle she pointed toward a distant corner of the rapidly emptying lot. Rory and her recently acquired coterie of geeks was standing behind a Caravan with it's rear hatch lifted poring over what looked like random bits of electronics. Brigette, the tallest of the dogs, was leaning against the side of the van, clearly among them but not a part of whatever geekiness they found in that assemblage of spare parts. "I'm going with Ham to review classes he's falling behind in, and apparently Rory's going with those guys. Brigette did not want to ride the bus alone, so Rory's friends said they'd swing by the house. If you really want to ask her, now's the time."

Reginald followed her gaze and frowned, a look of panic crossing his face. "Shit. Hammer? I could use a bit of your confidence."

"Says the captain of the football team and ivy league enrollee." With a humorous sigh he pushed the heavy door open, Reginald quickly dancing aside. "Come on, at least I'm not a face she'll instantly distrust. This is going to make you a pariah on the field, you know. Be right back, T."

"Know it, and don't give a shit. State is theirs if they want it, or not if they'd rather pester the dogs all damn year." Reginald groused as they crossed the lot.

"If they don't make state they'll blame the dogs."

"No one to blame except themselves in that case, beyond what the other teams throw at them."

Ham could only shrug as they approached the Caravan. Rory and the others were exclaiming over the innards of a dusty, half gutted computer tower. Brigette, looking bored with it, noticed their approach first and hammered the side of the van with a fist, jerking one canine and three human heads up in surprise.

"Hammertime!" The apparent stoner of the group quipped merrily with a mocking salute. "Whatup, homie?" For a white kid he sounded amazingly inner-city ghetto colored.

"Reggie wanted talk to Brigette, cool?"

The kid, and the others, all looked a little surprised. "Yah, mon. Cool, bra, cool." The others, however, looked instantly suspicious at the jersey tagging along. Stoner dude was probably so lit he didn't care.

"Hey, guys. Reggie here wanted a word." He hooked his thumb at his shadow, directing his look to Brigette, then back to Reginald. "Well?"

The football jock immediately gained an expression of mortification so woebegone that Ham almost laughed. "I, uh, I wanted, um, wanted…" He trailed off lamely and actually blushed, hands shoved deep into the too tight pockets of his Levi's which only made them all the more form-fitting.

"Oai." Ham snorted with a shake of his head, "Look, what mister twister tongue wanted to do was make your acquaintance, Brigette, and ask you a question."

"Me?" Brigette asked with a slight lift to her drooping canine ears. "What?" At least she did not laugh or snarl, at any rate.

"Well, um, Brigette, I was, uh, wondering if you would, like, want to, maybe, uh gooutwithmesometime?" He finished in a rushing gush of words that left him breathless and panting, not looking at the canine, who actually stood a couple inches taller than he did.

"Go out with you?" Now she seemed genuinely interested, dark canine eyes pinning on Reginald, though he was staring at her paws and could not see her curiosity.

"Yeah."

"Where?" That lack of immediate refusal brought his gaze up tentatively, "Why?"

"Uh, to a movie, maybe, at the drive in? Or to eat? Maybe the Halloween dance?" Trying to shove his hands even deeper into his pockets, broad shoulders slouching forward, he dropped his gaze to her paws again. "Why? Because you're so damn smart. I need to be around smart people more, like you guys. Most of the guys on the team call it good to eke out a C. I need A's, and you're mostly A grade guys. Brigette I don't think has ever gotten below an A, except in Bachman's English lit, because he doesn't like dogs in class; you." Looking back up he took a breath and met Brigitte's steady, regal look. "And you're gorgeous?" Rory tittered behind her paw and the three boys with her grinned hugely.

"Okay." Brigette replied quietly, a strange expression on her face that Ham read as astonishment.

"Okay?"

"Yes, okay, Reginald. Since you asked nicely, and politely, I'll go out with you." Her eyes snapped momentarily to Ham, "But somewhere public. If you want to go out with me, you must be seen with me." Rebuked, Ham grimaced and nodded.

Reginald's jaw hung a moment before snapping shut, "Okay, great, thanks, Brigette! Someone told me Rory and these guys were going to take you home? I could take you, if you want, if they have plans."

The kid Joel actually opened his mouth to say something, probably concurring, but a slight lift of one regal hand from Brigette silenced him. "No, Reginald, not today. You see, Rory knows these boys, and Tia knows Hammond. I do not know you, yet. Not that well."

"Oh yeah, sure, sorry, that makes sense." He bobbed his head with a rueful half-grimace. "Joel, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I bum a ride? You got an extra seat?"

"Say what?" Joel blinked, "Where's your wheels?"

Reginald hooked a thumb toward another area of the lot, "Escort's over there, but, like, I'd like to get to know y'all better, right? I can bus back here and pick it up later, if it's cool with you?"

"I guess, but it'll be cramped as hell. Maybe you can squeeze in the third row." With the rear hatch up it was plainly clear that the Caravan's third row seat was crammed with school bags and random bits and pieces of computers. "But it's Brigitte's call, really."

"You're the driver, Joel. If you're willing, I am as well."

"Oh, gods. We're turning into the damn Adams family here." One of Joel's friends, not the stoner, groaned, then glowered. "Nintendo or Sega?"

Reginald blinked, "Huh? Neither! PC all the way. D2 or Warcraft?"

Ham could feel the ice thawing, and could not begin to follow the conversation rapidly outstripping his limited vocabulary of geek speak. Bumping Reginald's elbow with the side of his fist he turned and walked back toward his car.

"How'd it go?" Tia asked when Ham slid back behind the wheel and started the car. Her question was almost lost under Leo's coughing roar when he woke up. Ham quickly cranked the window back up for a bit less noise.

"Well enough, I guess. She said yes, with reservation." Navigating out of the lot he did not gun the engine along the road past the end of the football field, letting Leo merely growl, petulant to exert his horsepower. "She seemed… I dunno, astonished. And somehow, elated."

"I don't think she expected him to ask, but I think she's wanted him to since their first day in chem. He always seemed civil, but when he's got that mob of chauvinistic testosterone around him he never stepped in like you would."

"It's expected of me, has been for years. Teachers generally turn a blind eye when I kick a bully's ass. Reggie is from a completely different, almost alien, social norm. He's not supposed to get in fights, it's below his status." Ham shrugged, swinging to the on ramp and letting his foot down. Their conversation was stifled by the throaty roar of the GTO'S twin pipes.

Swinging off the highway five minutes later they all but coasted the last mile. "I think you need real mufflers on this thing." Tia opined with a frown, cautiously lifting her ears.

"Probably. I'll put some on this weekend." A couple of his father's mechanics were smoking by the compactor when they idled past, both of them doing a double take at the sight of his passenger.

"I'm sorry." He said at length, easing in between the parts racks to park.

"Again? For what?"

"Making you walk that quarter mile from the bus stop, through the woods, often in the dark. Talking about chauvinistic, it was unconscionable!"

"Ohh, big words, Ham. You might get a headache!" She chided humorously, giving his knee a gentle squeeze before he levered himself out of the driver's seat. Circling around the car he pulled her door open. "But, yeah, I guess. Took you long enough to figure it out."

Ham chuffed and let the heavy door swing closed with a thud. "Your sister pointed that out, when she was talking to Reggie. If he wants to see her, he has to be seen with her. I should've been doing that all along."

"It's okay, now you are. I'm surprised, really." Setting her book bag on the table she turned to look at him. "After… well, after it, I thought you would tell the world. I was terrified!"

Ham's reply was cut off by the phone ringing. Lifting it from the wall mount the stuck it against his ear. "Hi, mom."

"Hello, dear. Dinner will be in two hours, baked chicken and corn. You'll bring Tia, right? Dennis just told me you pulled in with a dog in a dress."

"Oh, heh. Yeah, sure thing, mom. Two hours, but call if you don't hear Leo, I've got calc to review, I might be unconscious." At her laugh he hung up the phone.

"Well, I did tell one person." Tia halted in digging his calculus homework from his bag, a concerned look backing whiskers and ears.

"Who?" She rasped fearfully.

"Mom." He admitted, "I needed advice, she's the only one I could ask who would say nothing."

"What was her advice?" Tia looked down at the textbook to hide the fear in her eyes but Ham could read it in her ears, whiskers, tucked tail, and shaking hands.

"She was mad at me for not heeding your No, dear. She told me to apologize and to make it right. To earn back your trust."

"That's all? Nothing about…?"

"Not a blink. And she told me that you're invited to dinner in a couple hours; chicken."

Tia's reassured smile quavered, just a little, with not a tooth visible. "I like your mom. So much better than the fosters." Holding up the book she waved it at him, "Calc, then? What else?"

"Bio." He added with a sheepish smile, tapping the requisite book still in his bag.

Rather than driving the goat they walked up the gravel drive, Tia quizzing him as they went. Full dark had fallen by that point and the salvage yard was dark but for one light over the now closed gate and two more in front of the garage across the road. The Capelli household was set further back from the road on a gentle hill. It was a sprawling affair, built about the same time as the parts barn and added to extensively since. Now it was a mishmash of styles that spread across the hilltop like a sleeping cat, but in good repair.

When they came in through the side door Mrs. Capelli looked up, setting a large tray of baked chicken on the countertop. Shucking the oven mitts she crossed the large kitchen to embrace her son. "Hello, Tia, dear." She smiled warmly, offering the dog a hug which was accepted. "Ham, dear, lay out the table. It's just us tonight, the guys from the shop went home a while ago."

Dinner was a talkative affair; about school from Ham and Tia, and business between his parents. There were no awkward silences and his mother carried on as if her son had not told her the truth about Tia. If she had informed his father there appeared to be no sign from him, acrimonious or otherwise. He did not dote on Tia as his mother did, but he had never said anything negative about her, either. He treated her as politely as any of the friends Ham had brought by over the years.

Even when she gnawed the knuckle off of as leg bone no one made much note, other than chuckle at her self-conscious wince when she realized what she had done in front of them by habit.

Once dinner was over and the kitchen cleaned, which Tia helped Ham with, they walked back through the darkness of the salvage yard to Ham's barn.

Rather than stopping to resume their review at the table, however, Tia proceeded up the stair to the loft. Ham followed, expecting she wanted to be more comfortable than the chairs around the table.

Stopping in the center of the dimly lit room, she stared at the dark projection set for a few moments before taking a long breath and letting it out. Ham did not bother with the light since she had not, and just stood at the end of the sofa, where they usually reclined to review his studies or watch TV, and waited. Only the light from the room below gave wan illumination that neither of them moved to brighten. She took another breath and let it out.

Then, reaching back, she caught the zipper up the back of her dress and drew it down; all the way down, to the base of her tail. "Tia?" Ham faltered, seeing the fur, dark in the dim light, spill out as she rolled her shoulders to let the dress down. About her waist was at the narrow, snug looking girdle he had spied, ever so briefly, when he sent everything to hell.

The dress spilled to the floor at her paws and he did not move, rooted in place while she stood in the center of the room, likewise immobilized. "Tia, I-"

"Don't want to see, now?" She asked, not turning to face him, her ears back and tail low.

"It's not that, hon. It's… it's for you to decide, not me. When you're ready, when you want to."

She shuddered a bit, "I don't want to, really, but it's time to." But she did not move, her back to him. Finding his feet Ham crossed to stand behind her, slipping his arms around her and sliding his fingers through the fur he had never before touched, just above the top of that confining material embracing her waist. The fur was quite soft, and warm, though a little thinner than the fur of her flat chest. He nuzzled into the thick fur of her scruff and simply held her, smelling the warm mustiness of clean fur, letting his fingers splay into the fur of her midriff but not roving.

"Now, tomorrow, next year, it will be fine, love, now that I know." Lifting his head he brushed his chin atop her head between your ears. "And, really, I have to thank you for that."

"For what?" Her hands came to rest atop his own, lacing between his fingers.

"Not showing me."

"Not?"

"Yes. Because, if you had shown me from the get go, I don't know how I would have handled it. By not showing me, you let me come to know You, how wonderful a person you are. You let me fall in love with you, even knowing the great risk you were taking, with a back road, corn-fed blue-collar hick like me."

"That was not my intention."

"Nor mine, but it happened. Now everything is clear between us, open." Raising his hands from beneath hers he drew them to her furry shoulders and gently turned her to face him. "And what you said at the door, when I took you home. I do not love you any less."

"'Nor more', I said."

"Yes, but you were wrong. I do."

"More?" She looked up to meet his eyes, her ears still backed in quavering self-consciousness. "Even with," she dropped a hand to the girdle still snug about her waist. Ham saw that it was tied at the front, laces drawn tight. "This?"

"Even with that, dear. Because of that."

"Because of?"

"The risk you took, that you take every day you go to that torture at school. It shows that you are unbelievably brave!"

"Brave?" She scoffed, "I'm terrified out of my wits most of the time!"

"But you go, anyway." Slowly he let his hands down from her shoulders to settle upon her hips, "That shows incredible courage." Bringing his hands in before her he caught the loops of the tight cinched girdle. "And If you're still not ready, I can wait."

Not moving to lift his hands she slowly shook her head. "No, it's okay, Ham."

Without looking down he lightly tugged the laces loose, shifting downward to ease the binding until the girdle slipped down. Still holding her gaze he took a slight step back so she could slip it over her hips, the material making a soft chuff as it landed atop her shed dress. He took another step back, drew a deep, steadying breath, and let his gaze rove downward.

Tia, his Tia, stood naked before him for the first time; vulnerable and exposed to his scrutiny.

What he found was not in the least unexpected. She looked, down there, like any of the male dogs they had ever kept around the yard or at the garage. A slender ridge of thick, long fur darker than the aged maple hue of her stomach and chest, below which was that pair of respectable orbs his eyes had discovered, which had led to their row. In the dim light and deep shadows it was just a shape, a shadow outline that he could almost convince himself was not there. Yet there was no denying that; it was there. Ham just stared, marking how what she - truthfully He - had was so very different from what Ham had. It was both fascinating and, at the same time, revolting.

And he had fallen in love with its bearer! And he knew that he still loved her, mahogany hued furry sheath notwithstanding.

"More." He heard himself mutter. "Not less; more." With a tremulous smile he looked up to meet her gaze, noting as he did how fearfully tense she was. Fear? Excitement? Both? "Now I can love all of you, entirely, as you deserve." Before he could stay himself he stepped closer and brought one large, work roughed hand to rest against that warm, firm ridge from base to tip. Tia let out a startled gasp and twitched back in surprise.

"Ham, god, you didn't have -" He silenced her with a warm laugh and stepped closer again, once more letting his hand come to rest against that strange, warm, firm yet softly furred ridge. "I didn't think -"

"I'm not." He did not curl his fingers, grasp or stroke at that solidity. "Never have been, nor will be. But this," He tapped lightly with his fingertips, "This is a part of you, Tia, and I am in love with you. That means all of you, this included."

Choking on a sob and gasp at the same moment she threw her arms around him, barely giving him time to raise his own arms back about her waist, and hugged him with surprising strength. "Damn car!" She sobbed and laughed into his shoulder in turns while he just held her close, smelling the Her of her.

"What car?" That curse from left field caught him off balance.

"The fosters' car, breaking down out in the sticks and landing me in your lap!" Drawing her head back she planted a very canine kiss upon his lips. "Hammond Capelli, you saved my life! Damned car!"

"What? Tia, what? Saved your life?"

"It's the damn Crying Game… only you didn't beat me when you found out. That is what I have lived in terror of for years! That, eventually, someone would find out… perhaps like you did, perhaps some bully boys finding out the bitch they meant to rape wasn't, perhaps someone I thought I loved who would run away in disgust, or even kill me in rage! Or that i would let them know, first, and that would end what could have been. But you, oh, you! No, you accept! No anger, no disgust, just… accept! You have no idea how it feels to be accepted for the freak that I am!"

"You're not a freak." He admonished, staggering mentally under her fusillade of words spoken in an almost dog-like yapping, her tail sweeping wildly back and forth. "You're Tia. My Tia."

Abruptly lurching back she grasped his shoulders and held him at alarms length, "Ham, dear, I could just love you right now. Suck your balls utterly dry and want more!" Dropping her hands, she grabbed at his belt, pulling so firmly he staggered closer as she vigorously drew the loose end from the loops, hauled it back, and twitched the metal fastener free. He staggered in place under her eager ministrations, the belt whickering loudly as she yanked it from about his waist and throwing it… somewhere. Dragging his shirt free she slid her hands up his front and over his shoulders. When he cast it free she leaned in to press her soft, furry lips against his and dropped her hands to his pants. Working entirely by feel, and much practice, she quickly unfastened his jeans and tugged them down, never breaking her kiss.

It was more awkward for Ham to maintain the kiss and shuck the denim, and his briefs which never willingly just fell off of his muscled thighs. Tia helped, though, hooking her thumbs under them and easing them down as far as she could reach and keep her long tongue dancing with his. Her help was enough and he managed to kick them free after a few awkward, dancing steps.

Grasping his naked hips she pulled at him as she backed up toward the bed, "Love me, Ham." She growled softly, drawing her head back meet his gaze, the tip of her long tongue lolling from her muzzle between long canine fangs. Three days before those same teeth had been flashing in fury, snapping inches from his face like a bear trap. And, many times before that, those teeth had lovingly held his cock between them making Ham's head spin.

The stopped when she fetched back against the edge of the bed, her swaying tail stirring the mosquito netting. Raising his hands to her shoulders, adopting a serious expression despite his own breathless panting, he shook his head. "No."

She blinked, ears twitching and tail stilling. "No?"

He continued to shake his head, "No, Tia. This has been months coming. No. Since that day when we went from kissing to those teeth caging my dick, I've wanted something. Since before you let me under that goddess tail of yours. Something you always denied me. Now I want it, and I will have it."

"What, Ham?"

"You."

Tia blinked, at a loss. "But you already have me?"

"You, love. The you that always pleases me, pleasures me, and is ever denied." Pushing gently at her shoulder with one hand he swept the curtain aside with the other, draping it out of the way over a hook, his knees against hers preventing her from stepping back up onto the bed. "Love, what I have wanted above everything else, for all these months, was your pleasure. IS your pleasure." As he continued to gently push back she sat down upon the edge of the bed and looked up at him in alarm. "Now I will have it." Dropping to his knees on the coarse wood or the loft floor he let his hands drop to rest upon her thighs. "I always thought I would be pleasing that 'spade' I thought you had, and hated. Now I know you hated it because you did not have it. Well, you do have something, and I can work with that. After all, I have one too."

"Hammond! No, you don't have to!"

He found enough past his trembling fear to laugh, "Too right, I don't have to. Scares the hell out of me, truth told. But, Tia, love, I want to! I want to make you howl like I do, feel what you make me feel. You." He glanced down at the apex of her thighs but everything there was lost in shadow. "Though, I admit, I do not have a clue." Questing one hand up the luxuriantly soft fur of her shadow dark thigh he found the prominent ridge at her crotch and drew his thumb up it lightly. He felt Tia tense, felt quaking paws caress his shoulders.

"But, love, you do pleasure me." She affirmed softly.

He chuffed a soft grunt, his thumb still stroking the dense soft fur of her sheath, the scent of her filling his nose. It was not the same scent as the fur of her head, or hands, or throat. It was deeper, more robust, but lighter than his own. Not very unsettling and certainly not as repulsive as he thought his own musk was once released from his pants. And it wasn't doggish, though he honestly had no idea what an aroused male, normal, dog smelled like. Not so clean, he imagined. "Maybe I do, love. Leave your fur all sticky and matted under that girdle of yours. I can't imagine how uncomfortable that is when you get aroused."

"It's too tight for that."

Ham winced anew, imagining his own agony if he had been forced to wear something so tight on his junk. Turning his hand he rested it upon the warm firmness of her sheath, noting that it had become markedly thicker. Her scent, as well, had deepened in a way he could not describe; rich and pungent but not offensive like sweat might be. "This isn't too tight now, is it?"

Tia giggled a tremulous laugh and stroked her fingertips across the back of his hand. "Oh, no, dear. If you just keep doing that like you are you're going to need a towel very soon."

"Really?" He didn't think he was doing all that much, just lightly stroking her through the thin flesh and dense fur of her sheath.

"Ham, nobody has ever touched me like that before. I've only had my dreams bring me half as far as you've done with just a touch." Cupping his hand slightly against that ridge, feeling within the subtle throbbing pulse of her arousal, he felt a strange eros of his own, and no little fear for what he was doing; fondling another male to arousal. Even if it was Tia, his Tia, his love. She moaned softly and writhed before him, a dark form in the gloom and shadows, her breaths quickening.

How far was he willing to go, to push through his fear and show her just how much he loved her, desired her, to feel her pleasure rise and peak as she had so often done for him?

Only one way to find out.

Shifting his free hand to the bed beside her hip he leaned forward quickly, his chest pressing against her tightly clasped knees, and exchanged the touch of his hand for that of his nose. Up close the scent of her fur, the musk of her masculine self and arousal, and the sharper bite of other scents walloped his nose like a spritz from the lady at the perfume counter - right in the face. She gasped and pushed her hand against his head, trying to push his inexpert though gentle nuzzle away but he was both stronger and heavier. He pressed closer, feeling a strange bulge at the base of her now quite thickened sheath and the soft, cool, yielding flesh of her balls against his chin.

Balls! His mind recoiled at that thought, but he fought the fear back, his entire body quaking with it. With both hands Tia pushed again, scooting back a bit on her rump before he caught her hips with his hands and inhaled deeply of the scent of Tia, aroused. "Ham, no." She whined desperately and he finally let her push his head away from her crotch. He had not heeded her No before, to disastrous results; he would not do so again. He settled back on his heels, feeling his own very awakened arousal thump against his thighs, and looked up. "God, love, you don't have to go that freaking far!"

"I'm going, love. I went, why stop me?"

"Because it's not you, Ham." She gasped breathlessly, "You're not… like that."

He nodded slowly and smiled, "You're right, it's not, I'm not. Except for you, no one else, just you." He leaned forward again but stopped when she touched her fingers to his brow. "Tell you what, love. Let me do this, just once, for you. Let me decide if it's something that 'is me' or not?" In the deep shadows of her groin he saw a muted glisten, as of light on wet flesh, nestled in the dark fur of her groin. He suddenly felt a strong desire to know it, as he now knew the fullness of her musk and scent. Her fingers traced from his brow to his cheek, caressing lightly.

"You amaze me, Hammond Capelli." She crooned lightly, eyes gleaming in the gloom imparted by the wan light coming up from the room below. Leaning forward she captured his head and drew it to her breast, embracing him desperately. "I love you." Leaning back, she drew his head up to look down into his eyes. "All weekend I was utterly terrified of you, not sure if I should hate you or love you for what you did, or might do. I never, ever, in my wildest thoughts, imagined this of you!"

"So Rory said, though she did not know the why of your despair. I told her what I had done, saw."

"What'd she say?"

"She looked like she wanted to claw my eyes out and shit in the sockets."

"She said nothing when I got in your car, though."

"I convinced her of my sincere desire to repair your trust, with one pronoun. 'She', not 'he'. I think she realized I accepted, and she's willing to give me a chance; one chance." He paused, leaning back to look up into those night dark eyes. "Rory, Brigette, are they… ?"

"Bitches, top to bottom, both of them. Though I guess I should've told you to find that out on your own."

Ham laughed, dipping his head to nuzzle into the fur of her midriff, feeling his fears lessened. Until of course, he spied that gleam of damp flesh a hand's length further down, caught then slightly sharp scent of it. "No, love. I think my mind can handle just so many unexpected surprises." With a quick dip of his head he darted down before Tia could move to stay him and brushed his lips across the tip of the blunt girth slightly exposed from the apex of her sheath.

Tia gasped a sharp yelp as he drew back up just as rapidly, his tongue tasting the moisture left upon his lips from that brief contact. Sharp, almost metallic in a subtle way, meaty and a little salty, but not very pungent and certainly not the foulest of things he had ever tasted.

That would be hominy, which he loathed so strongly the very smell of it would almost make him vomit. Yet grits, made from the same grain, were just fine.

In all, not repulsive in and of itself. It was the act, itself, against which his brain rebelled but his balls screamed at him to just have done so they could get some attention.

Fuck brain, this was Tia!

Dipping his head again he once more brushed his lips across the tip of Tia's sex, her very 'his' sex, earning an abrupt twitch from the she dog with the male body and a spatter of some thin warmth across his lips. That proved be remarkably tasteless and he did not draw back, letting her rampant arousal twitch against the feather light caress of his curious lips. It was broad and warm and firm but not hard. Unlike his own there was a slim, tapered tip to it. "Oh, Ham." Tia moaned, her fingers fishing into his hair but not pushing at his head, nor pulling. "When I say pull away, you should." Her breathing was swift and ragged, her body shuddering with the need to writhe under his teasing but held still while she let him discover the him of her.

All or nothing, Ham!

"No." He growled in kind, opening his mouth and letting his tongue dip, he captured the broad girth exposed from her sheath upon the cup of his tongue and dropped his head lower. He had intended only to try the first inch or so, since whatever was spattering his lips was relatively tasteless, but at that hot caress Tia let out a howl the likes of which he had never heard from her before, in passion or anger. Her hands flew away from his head to grasp the comforter upon which she sat and her hips bucked upward savagely, shoving half of her length into his mouth before he could raise his head.

That flavor was quite profound, not exactly pleasant in a sharp cheddar sort of way, and it almost made him gag before her hips dropped, but he persevered. He had been with enough human girls to know that the first few moments could be pungently unpleasant. That sharp funk went away pretty quickly, he just hoped that Tia's would as well. So, when the next shuddering jerk of her hips rose he was ready to meet it.

She was thick, he quickly discovered, past that sharp boquette, probably as thick as he was, and nearly as long before the bulge within her sheath bumped his lips. And she throbbed, and twitched, and the steady stream of what he figured was the canine version of pre coursed across his tongue, dribbling past his lips until he thought to seal them a bit around that striving girth.

His brain yammered dick, dick, dick! _ _you'resuckinga DICK!!! But he strove on, finding the atavistic fear fading, the voice of rationality and heteronormality gibbering in his mind fading to a static white noise. It was slowly being replaced with something else.

This was Tia in his mouth. Tia howling and writhing on his bed. Tia whose hands clutched at the covers, his head, the covers again, lost in canine ecstasy. An ecstasy that he, Ham, was providing her as he had wanted and wished to for months. Through that dick, her dick, jumping and throbbing and leaking spurts into his own mouth as his had in hers so many times.

"Up! Ham, up!" She grasped desperately at his head but he kept his mouth right where it was, hunching his shoulders to keep her from drawing his head up. All the way or not at all, Ham. "God, Ham, up!" Her growling voice scaled up desperately and he could feel how the muscles under her fur tensed, smell the now pervasive, rich musk of her arousal that filled his senses fully, and how her entire body shuddered. "Ham, pleeeaaase!"

He pleased, to be very sure, knowing that it was Tia calling his name, her voice scaling up to a desperate whine.

And then swiftly dropping to a surprisingly deep growl as all of that pent tension suddenly found its release. The power and sheer amount of it was surprising and Ham did, at last, draw his head up a couple of inches. He was forced to swallow, and quickly, lest he choke on the thin, hot flood that exploded into his mouth. He found that, like the pre, it was for the most part rather tasteless, and quite thin compared to his own. And there was far more of it than his own, too. Other than that first unexpected font that almost went into his lungs it was not… horrible. Not even bad, really. He found that the taste was hardly discernable from the meaty sharpness of the flesh throbbing hot and swift in his mouth as her pleasure poured free.

And that he had caused it was arousing as hell.

While she gasped and growled, voice scaling up to a yearning whine and body tensing before him he kept his mouth where it was, suffering down the disgusting humiliation his oh-so-very-straight brain heaped upon him. Her hips shuddered and tensed, striving up against the face pressed to her crotch, until her whines became that deep predatory snarl and, once more, the cock captured in Ham's mouth twitched and sent another font of copious warmth gushing across his tongue.

The first had been a warning, the second something of a flood, and the third tense, rise, growl, and shudder was a positive torrent he could not gulp down fast enough. Some leaked from the corners of his mouth to trickle down his chin but, by that point he was beyond caring. He had offered her that gift, one he had desired to give her for far too long, and he was damn well going to let her enjoy it to its fullest. After the fourth gush the flood finally did began to fade, though not nearly so swiftly as his own did. For more than a full minute all he could do was clutch her hips and let it play out, until at length he felt the girth within his mouth swiftly… fading, growing thinner rather than pliant.

Shaky hands lifted to his head, running claws through his hair and across his scalp before dropping to his shoulders and pulling. Feeling her erection fading with astonishing speed he let himself be drawn up, shambling up onto the bed as her hands sought to hold and pull everywhere at once.

She was crying, or laughing, or trying to speak, all of those things at the same moment so that all that came out were needy, hiccupping, rasping whines of need. She pulled and clutched at him desperately, a drowning man at a piece of flotsam in a hurricane. He sprawled onto the bed and she rolled to him, her tongue covering his face in swift, hot swipes, delving into his mouth briefly as she sought to consume him and kiss him simultaneously. Continuing to shift she was soon atop him, straddling his hips, her hands pressed firm upon his shoulders as she panted down at him.

"Oh… oh, god, Ham." She huffed breathlessly, her body shaking with the force of her panting, balls grinding his still rampant erection against his groin. "Oh, Fucking God I want you. I want you right fucking now. I want you in me!" Shifting back she gazed down at his erection, easier to see in the gloom because his pale, furless flesh hid nothing. "I want that." Shaking fingertips reached down to caress the underside of his needy arousal, causing it to jump when he tensed. Bright white predatory teeth gleamed as she leered down at him. "I want that in my muzzle, Ham. But, right now, I think I want it so bad I might hurt you."

Pushing up she surged to the side of the bed, her tail a dark banner above the shapely fur softened curves of her rump; curves Ham had never fully seen before and delighted in simply watching as she moved. The end table shook noisily, almost upsetting the lamp, as she dug around in it and then turned back to him. Leaning down her nose was shoved against his groin and balls, drinking his own arousal musk hungrily before her tongue gave a solid lick upward along his dick. He actually felt teeth,if just a light brush, as she shoved something awkwardly into his hand. It was nothing more than the bottle of lube he kept in the drawer.

When he took it she quickly turned about sand sprawled out on her side, shoving her hips back against him, tail drawn lasciviously up to the side. She growled and whined softly while he popped the top on the bottle. "Where's the condom?"

"No, Ham, I want to feel you, just you, inside me." She turned her head to Leer over her shoulder at him, teeth gleaming. "Please, just you." With no further protest he slathered the cool lube upon his almost aching hardness and shifted to stretch out against her back. With his sliced hand he guided himself beneath that lustrous, wonderful tail, unerring lyrics bringing his blunt tip to press against the fur less heat of her need. "Oh, now, Ham. I need you, now."

She pressed back eagerly, the sickness of the lube making flesh slide easily against flesh, and slipping one into the other smoothly. Tia let out a soft, strained whine as his girth stretched her ring with the abruptness his blunt, human girth required. With one arm he hugged her, not pulling back, while he wiped his slimy hand dry on the sheets behind him. Hot flesh clenched and rippled as she pushed back against him, taking him slow, torturous inch by torturous inch. "Relax, love." He admonished in a strained hiss as she took him, "You're so tense it's almost too tight."

"Ham, love, I can't!" She groaned in turn, her muscles squeezing him like a vice. A hot, silken vice that grasped at his invading length eagerly. "I want you, so bad!" When he at last pressed his groin to her rump, bottoming out as much as her up raised tail would allow, she reached back and grasped his hip, staying him from drawing back. "No, just… stay for a little, like that. You feel wonderful, right there, like that, right now."

Slipping both arms around her he drew her back against him, draping his lower leg over her own and curving them both into a comforting, if carnal, spoon. "Are you all right, love?"

She laughed, that response transitioning directly through the muscles that clenched his cock. "All right? Ham, love, I am far, far more than all right."

"Then why are you crying?" For, indeed, she was weeping and choking on her own words, each body shaking sob grasping at their joining and coaxing his own release closer only to let it fade for a time.

"In delight, ham, in wonderful delight!" She turned slightly to look back at him for a moment before returning her head to the pillow she clutched tightly with one arm, the other still holding his hip. "So many first times, so very many, with you."

"Oh?" His fingers roved through the fur of her flat chest and stomach slowly as he kept her snugly pulled against him, feeling the tension that still gripped her, the quakes of her sobs interspersed with small bouts of breathy laughter.

"First time, for everything." Her ass clenched and rippled as she pressed back solidly, as if to take even more of him, then eased away slightly only to press her rump back again with a muscular squeeze along his entire length. "First real kiss. First time I wanted, and took, someone into my muzzle, and then the first time, too, taking you all the way to cumming. First time having someone under my tail, other than a doctor or scientist doing some exam or lab stuff with their instruments." Clenching firmly her upper body turned to face him. "The first time anyone, other than my sisters or those scientists, has ever seen me unclothed. Has seen the whole of me." She sob-laughed again, sending ripples of pleasure racing through Ham's loins and he fought down his balls' demand for immediate rightthefuckNOW! release to listen. "And then, I never imagined, never dreamed, that I would ever be so blessed, my man returning to me what I offered and never thought to desire in return!" She cried; wept, profoundly, in joy.

"I have one more thing to offer, love." He replied softly, groaning.

"Mmh?"

"Squeeze, love, and push." Immediately he felt her muscles clench at the head of his cock, relaxing at its base, and slip downward in a slow, mind-numbingly powerful wave. With a groan and cry of wordless pleasure he grasped her tightly and his release washed over him, and into her, in a hot explosion so potent he could not remember it's like, ever before. Even more powerfully than the first time he had filled a condom under her tail or spattered his seed upon her long tongue.

Perhaps it was simply a more potent release, or perhaps it was the feelings involved that had brought him to that point, but he did not care. It snatched his wits away and all he could grasp at was her pressed solidly against him, fur and flesh and heat; his Tia. And those words; first, first, first echoing about in his sex scrambled brain.

When he came back to himself it seemed as if an eternity had passed. Tia was a lax, if still quiveringly tense, warmth against him, her ass still stroking and grasping his now satiated, though still very erect, cock. "First that, too, feeling your seed in me and not a condom."

"You deserve it, love, all of it. For who you are, not what you are." He mumbled, fighting back his body's sudden desire for sleep. She murmured and shifted back against him, stroking his hip with one hand, the fur of her neck brushing his face.

"Even the blowjob?"

"Mmhmm, even that."

"Wow. Was it… bad?"

He chuffed a soft laugh, "Wasn't fantastic, mostly because my brain was having fits. But bad? No. I guess I'll figure it out, eventually. Might take trying more."

Her body tensed, clenched, making him groan. "More?"

"Mmhmm. Done it once. After that I guess, what's the big deal? If it's you, T."

"It will be. I love you, Ham."

"I love you, T."

After that, silence, as pleasure and tension eased dragged them into slumber, still joined under her tail, his hand coming to rest upon that long mahogany furred sheath.