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Description
The day was quiet, peaceful, and pleasantly warm when Spencer was supposed to meet up with Kiri... Eijiro for lunch. When he thought about it, one would probably consider it their first actual date, but he was explicitly trying his best to not think about it. It made him feel nervous when he wondered if he could ever whole-heartedly return the feelings Eijiro had professed, and if he was making the wrong choice here by leaving himself open for later hurt.

And that was why he just considered it another day where he and Eijiro were hanging out and talking to each other. There was nothing more to it, no, nothing at all. That's what he was telling himself when he saw the shadow darting down an alley, about the size of a wyngling, from the corner of his eye.

Spencer was quick to turn around to try to catch a good look of the thing that seemed like it might be a wyngling, but might now, depending on what features said wyngling might have. He took a step towards the alley, wondering if this was a feral wyngling, like that strange character Reed had discussed so long ago. Of course, Spencer had seen the scrappy wynglings on the street before, but they tended to make themselves scarce. Whatever this thing was, it caused a bang in the alleyway as it knocked over a crate, making Spencer jump a bit.

It didn't seem right to just leave it despite the loud noise startling him. If it was a homeless wyngling, wasn't it his duty to take it to the Nook if he encountered it? And if it wasn't, then, well, Spencer wanted to keep the town safe from danger. Whatever it was, if not a wyngling, it might be dangerous.

He edged closer to where the crate had been knocked over, peering behind the boxes that were left standing. Behind them he saw a... rather ragged-looking form hunched over a discarded bone, gnawing on the ends and tearing off whatever scraps that it could. When it noticed Spencer's shadow falling over it in the already dim light of the alley, it looked up and gave a hiss, bolting away.

Before Spencer's brain even finished processing that what he'd found was not a feral wyngling, but a feral coatala, he bolted after it, date with Eijiro momentarily forgotten as some strange instinct led him to pursue the small beast.

The sound of his hooves clacking against the cobblestone of Wynsiph's streets drew more attention than it might if he had soft paws to make his movements quieter, but Spencer was too focused on his current task to pay any mind to the strange looks that he was drawing. The coatala easily bobbed and wove through the crowd, and a few times Spencer almost lost it in his unconscious prerogative to avoid hitting as many wyngrew as he could. It led him down unfamiliar alleys and streets he'd never explored despite seeing them on the maps of the town he'd studied. At some point the thought crossed his mind that there was no real reason to be chasing down this coatala - it wasn't as if it belonged to him - but it was too late to quit now. Another part of him whispered that this would be... not a good excuse, but some kind of excuse for missing the date that was causing him so much worry.

Finally the chase was over when the coat decided it had had enough of running and, claws out, skittered up the side of a tree, just out of Spencer's reach. It was just one of the trees on the sides of the street used to beautify neighborhoods and not on someone's actual lawn, thankfully, but Spencer still felt a bit too aware that this was probably a spectacle as he stretched his arms out towards the coat. He made soft noises at it even as it clung to the bark, staring down at him with a baleful expression, sides heaving in order to catch its breath. Spencer, thankfully, had gotten used to getting some exercise since he began training with Eijiro, so he wasn't as worn out as the underfed coatala.

"Pspspspspspsps," Spencer cooed, clicking his tongue and gesturing with his hands. "It's okay. It's alright, little urchin. Come down from there before you hurt yourself."

"Is that his name? Urchin?" Spencer jolted as he turned to look at who was speaking to him and found himself face-to-face with a pink wyngro. She gestured towards the coatala, her brows drawn in concern. "Do you want some help getting him down?"

"Oh, if... that wouldn't be too much trouble, yes," Spencer responded sheepishly, though he wondered what she could do. She was short and rather stout in comparison to most wyngrew, while Spencer himself was on the taller, lankier side of things. Perhaps she was some sort of coatala whisperer.

To Spencer's surprise and wonder, her magic glands began to glow a bright, pale yellow, and he watched as the coatala was plucked off of the bark as if by its scruff. Spencer's heart dropped as, for a moment, he thought the coat was going to hit the ground, but it hovered down to be at shoulder-level with Spencer. It seemed surprised for only a heartbeat before it started to twist and struggle, hissing and spitting madly at the wyngrew looking at it and lashing out with what limited movement the hold granted it.

"You may want to swaddle him in your shirt before taking him home," the pink wyngro said, brushing some blue hair back, away from her eyes. Her three eyes, all of which still had glands glowing the yellow of light magic. "It looks like he isn't going to go without a fight. He's not yours, is he?" The observation startled Spencer as he looked over at her, in the middle of slipping his shirt off to do as she suggested. "He's definitely not used to being handled by wyngrew. It might be a bit of a hassle to tame him," she said in response to his look.

"Ah," Spencer mumbled, reaching forward to wrap the coatala tightly in his shirt. "No, I... found him in an alley near my home. He seemed malnourished so I wanted to try to care for him, but he ran."

The sweet pink gro gave him a smile, reaching out to pat the disgruntled-looking coatala on the head. It had stopped struggling, too tired to keep fighting, but it was still staring at the both of them with a certain hatred in its glare.

"If you chased after him, you must really be determined to nurse him back to health. I wish you good luck." She reached into her bag and pulled out a small square of paper, offering it to him. "If you need any help, Kalypso is probably the first person you should ask, but I have a book store in town. If you want, I can give you some advice and introduce you to my coatala, show you how to handle one. Argenti's shy, but he's sweet. Come visit any time you'd like - within business hours, of course."

"Thank you," Spencer said gratefully, taking a step back. "I'd better get going before he starts getting restless again. Goodbye!"

He turned quickly, not really waiting for a response as he retraced their path back to his house, grateful for the many uses of his eidetic memory. He walked fast but didn't run, starting to feel tired himself after chasing the coat down. Besides, it was starting to squirm again, and it was all he could do to hold it tightly and keep it swaddled to prevent it from biting or clawing and escaping.

Spencer came to his porch just as Minnow was leaving, Lance waiting for them by the front steps. Both of the quads turned to look at him, their conversation stopping. Ebb, Lance's coatala, was perched on her back. She sniffed at the dark-furred coat in Spencer's arms, but recoiled as he hissed loudly at her, wiggling even more vigorously now.

"Minnow, please open the door," Spencer said through gritted teeth, feeling himself start to perspire. This was tougher than it looked. He didn't know how in the world Kalypso did it with all of those coatalas of hers.

Minnow obliged and stepped out of the way, blinking as they watched Spencer enter the house. "Um... Spencer? What... where did you get that? Do you need me to stay and help? I was gonna go get lunch with Lance today, but we can take a rain check."

"It's fine," Spencer said, shaking his head as he started upstairs. "I've got it, go enjoy your lunch!"

The quad looked doubtful, exchanging looks with Lance, but they shut the door quietly and left. Spencer was barely able to make it to his own room and shut the door before the coat wormed its way out of his shirt and his arms and skidded across the floor, making a beeline for the dark space under Spencer's bed.

Spencer sighed as he looked down at his shirt, picking it up and silently lamenting the holes that marked the coatala's struggle. At least it wasn't one of his good shirts, really.

Getting down on all fours he peered under the bed, seeing the dark shape of the coat hunched in near the center of the bed. Its orange eyes glinted maliciously and a low growl rumbled through its chest when it saw Spencer. He held up his hands in surrender and got off the floor, sighing. What could he do to get this thing under some semblance of control...?

The thought came to him suddenly: food! Of course, the thing looked half-starved, it made sense that food would be the first step in earning its trust.

Spencer was careful to make sure the coatala stayed in his room as he shut the door behind him, making his way back downstairs and to the kitchen. What did coatalas eat? He knew they liked meat, so... puckoo? He also knew that coatalas were fond of gurp meat (for some un-chii-ly reason), but it wasn't like he kept that handy in his icebox. Thinking about it, was actually pretty sure that puckoo was the only type of meat that he had right now. And it would need water, right? Well, access to that was more readily available when it rained, so it may not be in as urgent a need for that. He did suppose that it would still need some, though.

He was in the middle of chopping a piece of puckoo meat into small bits when there came a knock at the door. The orange biped's brow furrowed - did Minnow forget their key? That wasn't like them. Besides, they should remember where they put the spare key last time, and they hadn't been gone long enough to already be finished with lunch with Lance.

Peeking out into the hall towards the door, Spencer's heart nearly stopped. Oh, Chii.

Fuck.

A familiar red silhouette was outlined by the midday sun behind the curtain that blocked passersby from seeing through the door's window into the house. The first thing that Spencer noticed was that his hair wasn't spiked today, casually worn down in the way that made Spencer's stomach do strange things. The second thought that ran through Spencer's mind was that he had really put their lunch all the way to the back of his mind to chase down a stray coatala.

He fidgeted in the kitchen doorway for a bit, chest squeezing tight, finding it a little hard to breathe. Chii, would Eijiro hate him for missing their very first date? He paced back and forth a bit, but there came another knock, and Spencer drew himself upright, knowing he could not avoid this forever.

Spencer opened his mouth to speak at the same time that he was opening the door, but he was cut off before he could utter a single noise when Eijiro's solid form barreled into him. His breath was knocked out of his chest, and for a moment he believed that he had just been tackled in retribution for standing Eijiro up. Then he realized that the constriction around his chest was actually Eijiro's arms, and he was squeezing him tightly in a hug. "Oh my Chii, Spencer, are you okay? When you didn't show up I got so worried, I -" He paused as he let go to hold Spencer at arm's length, eyes drawn to Spencer's chest and arms. "Spencer, what in Chii's name happened?"

Ah. At first, Spencer wasn't entirely aware of what Eijiro meant, but he looked down to where Eijiro's eyes were being drawn and discovered thin scratches crisscrossing his body. Only when he noticed did he finally feel the sting and realize that he had, in fact, gotten caught a few times by the coat's claws through his shirt when it was struggling.

Spencer sighed, removing his glasses to rub at his eyes with the heels of his hands. "... Come in. I'll tell you about it."

Eijiro was led to the kitchen as Spencer began to tell him how his day was going so far. It wasn't a long story, but Eijiro began to look more and more confused as Spencer went on. If he rambled a bit out of nervousness, well, that couldn't be helped too much. When Spencer finished both telling the story and cutting up the raw puckoo, Eijiro was looking absolutely puzzled. "So... you chased after a coatala and brought it home? Where is it now?"

Spencer pointed up. "My room. I locked it in so it couldn't slip out, but it just hid under my bed anyway. It's... definitely not happy." He ladled some water from the bucket by the basin into a small bowl, then picked up the plate which contained the puckoo. "Can you come with me and open my door? I want to see if it will eat."

The other gro fidgeted for a moment, looking like he wanted to say something, but he finally nodded. Once the two of them were in Spencer's room, the door shut securely and food and water placed by the bedside, Spencer gestured for Eijiro to sit beside him on the bed. Silence stretched between them for long moments, both of them unsure of what to say.

Finally, Eijiro spoke. "You know, I think it's really nice of you to try to bring in this coatala and rehabilitate it, but this isn't exactly... in character for you? You've never liked animals that much." Spencer was shocked by the observation - that wasn't untrue, as he didn't dislike them, but he'd never really had an interest in keeping a pet of his own before. His stunned silence spoke enough to Eijiro, who continued, "If you're nervous about this, or it makes you uncomfortable, we don't have to... be dating. I might need to take a little time away to get over it, but...."

Spencer surged forth suddenly, something in him snapping as he pressed his nose to Eijiro's, nuzzling him intensely with his eyes squeezed shut. Perhaps he was simply driven by the feeling of fear that filled him at the thought of Eijiro leaving, or maybe it was his desperation to prove to Eijiro that he didn't need to look so despondent. "Spencer - Spencer, okay, okay!" He heard the soft laugh in Eijiro's voice as he was pushed back, only now noticing that he'd tackled Eijiro down in his haste to boop him. "What was that?"

"I don't want you to think that I don't want to date you," Spencer said, voice low and ears dropping. "I know I still can't say... that... back to you and feel confident in its meaning, but it doesn't mean I don't care for you immensely. I want to keep going until I know whether or not I will ever be able to say it. You are my most important person now, Eijiro. Please don't go."

"I won't," Eijiro promised, arms sliding around Spencer for his fingers to link together behind his neck. "If you say that, how can I?" He pulled Spencer down for another boop, this one slower but just as intense. Spencer's body trembled as he leaned into it, almost losing track of his surroundings before -

"MOTHERFUCKER!" Spencer jerked up, breaking Eijiro's hold, as a sudden pain stabbed through the tip of his tail, like a lot of pins and needles sticking him all at once. He instinctively jerked it up and away from the edge of the bed, realizing that it had draped over it in the course of his movements. "Son of a...!" He grabbed his tail to squint at the little bleeding scratches at the end, feeling a sting that also meant that a chunk of the long fur on his tail-tip had been yanked out. "You little...!" He rolled onto his belly to look over the edge of the bed, locking eyes with the coatala, a chunk of puckoo in its jaws, right before it growled and retreated back under the bed.

Eijiro, who had rolled with him to see what was up, laughed from right beside Spencer. His anger melted almost instantly at the hearty laugh from his boyfriend. "So which one of those is his name?" he chuckled as he started calming down, running his fingertips soothingly over Spencer's shoulders.

That was right. This thing would need a name if it was going to stay here. Spencer thought for a moment, then his mind flashed back to the conversation with the pink wyngro. "His name is Urchin," Spencer said, letting out a small sigh as he leaned against Eijiro's shoulder.

"I like it." Eijiro twisted his neck around to try to glimpse Spencer's tail. "Is your tail going to be okay?"

"It'll be fine, I'll disinfect it in a minute." Spencer didn't seem like he was going to move anytime soon, though, shifting to pull Eijiro closer to his chest and closing his eyes.

"As long as you remember to." Eijiro hummed, guessing that Spencer was more tired than he realized from the earlier pursuit and struggle with the coatala. He dozed off with Spencer, feeling a little grateful to the coatala - he was still hungry since they had never gotten to go out for lunch, but cuddles with Spencer were way better.

He still wanted that lunch date, though.

eijiro belongs to mercuryoverload !

max wyn

Description
The day was quiet, peaceful, and pleasantly warm when Spencer was supposed to meet up with Kiri... Eijiro for lunch. When he thought about it, one would probably consider it their first actual date, but he was explicitly trying his best to not think about it. It made him feel nervous when he wondered if he could ever whole-heartedly return the feelings Eijiro had professed, and if he was making the wrong choice here by leaving himself open for later hurt.

And that was why he just considered it another day where he and Eijiro were hanging out and talking to each other. There was nothing more to it, no, nothing at all. That's what he was telling himself when he saw the shadow darting down an alley, about the size of a wyngling, from the corner of his eye.

Spencer was quick to turn around to try to catch a good look of the thing that seemed like it might be a wyngling, but might now, depending on what features said wyngling might have. He took a step towards the alley, wondering if this was a feral wyngling, like that strange character Reed had discussed so long ago. Of course, Spencer had seen the scrappy wynglings on the street before, but they tended to make themselves scarce. Whatever this thing was, it caused a bang in the alleyway as it knocked over a crate, making Spencer jump a bit.

It didn't seem right to just leave it despite the loud noise startling him. If it was a homeless wyngling, wasn't it his duty to take it to the Nook if he encountered it? And if it wasn't, then, well, Spencer wanted to keep the town safe from danger. Whatever it was, if not a wyngling, it might be dangerous.

He edged closer to where the crate had been knocked over, peering behind the boxes that were left standing. Behind them he saw a... rather ragged-looking form hunched over a discarded bone, gnawing on the ends and tearing off whatever scraps that it could. When it noticed Spencer's shadow falling over it in the already dim light of the alley, it looked up and gave a hiss, bolting away.

Before Spencer's brain even finished processing that what he'd found was not a feral wyngling, but a feral coatala, he bolted after it, date with Eijiro momentarily forgotten as some strange instinct led him to pursue the small beast.

The sound of his hooves clacking against the cobblestone of Wynsiph's streets drew more attention than it might if he had soft paws to make his movements quieter, but Spencer was too focused on his current task to pay any mind to the strange looks that he was drawing. The coatala easily bobbed and wove through the crowd, and a few times Spencer almost lost it in his unconscious prerogative to avoid hitting as many wyngrew as he could. It led him down unfamiliar alleys and streets he'd never explored despite seeing them on the maps of the town he'd studied. At some point the thought crossed his mind that there was no real reason to be chasing down this coatala - it wasn't as if it belonged to him - but it was too late to quit now. Another part of him whispered that this would be... not a good excuse, but some kind of excuse for missing the date that was causing him so much worry.

Finally the chase was over when the coat decided it had had enough of running and, claws out, skittered up the side of a tree, just out of Spencer's reach. It was just one of the trees on the sides of the street used to beautify neighborhoods and not on someone's actual lawn, thankfully, but Spencer still felt a bit too aware that this was probably a spectacle as he stretched his arms out towards the coat. He made soft noises at it even as it clung to the bark, staring down at him with a baleful expression, sides heaving in order to catch its breath. Spencer, thankfully, had gotten used to getting some exercise since he began training with Eijiro, so he wasn't as worn out as the underfed coatala.

"Pspspspspspsps," Spencer cooed, clicking his tongue and gesturing with his hands. "It's okay. It's alright, little urchin. Come down from there before you hurt yourself."

"Is that his name? Urchin?" Spencer jolted as he turned to look at who was speaking to him and found himself face-to-face with a pink wyngro. She gestured towards the coatala, her brows drawn in concern. "Do you want some help getting him down?"

"Oh, if... that wouldn't be too much trouble, yes," Spencer responded sheepishly, though he wondered what she could do. She was short and rather stout in comparison to most wyngrew, while Spencer himself was on the taller, lankier side of things. Perhaps she was some sort of coatala whisperer.

To Spencer's surprise and wonder, her magic glands began to glow a bright, pale yellow, and he watched as the coatala was plucked off of the bark as if by its scruff. Spencer's heart dropped as, for a moment, he thought the coat was going to hit the ground, but it hovered down to be at shoulder-level with Spencer. It seemed surprised for only a heartbeat before it started to twist and struggle, hissing and spitting madly at the wyngrew looking at it and lashing out with what limited movement the hold granted it.

"You may want to swaddle him in your shirt before taking him home," the pink wyngro said, brushing some blue hair back, away from her eyes. Her three eyes, all of which still had glands glowing the yellow of light magic. "It looks like he isn't going to go without a fight. He's not yours, is he?" The observation startled Spencer as he looked over at her, in the middle of slipping his shirt off to do as she suggested. "He's definitely not used to being handled by wyngrew. It might be a bit of a hassle to tame him," she said in response to his look.

"Ah," Spencer mumbled, reaching forward to wrap the coatala tightly in his shirt. "No, I... found him in an alley near my home. He seemed malnourished so I wanted to try to care for him, but he ran."

The sweet pink gro gave him a smile, reaching out to pat the disgruntled-looking coatala on the head. It had stopped struggling, too tired to keep fighting, but it was still staring at the both of them with a certain hatred in its glare.

"If you chased after him, you must really be determined to nurse him back to health. I wish you good luck." She reached into her bag and pulled out a small square of paper, offering it to him. "If you need any help, Kalypso is probably the first person you should ask, but I have a book store in town. If you want, I can give you some advice and introduce you to my coatala, show you how to handle one. Argenti's shy, but he's sweet. Come visit any time you'd like - within business hours, of course."

"Thank you," Spencer said gratefully, taking a step back. "I'd better get going before he starts getting restless again. Goodbye!"

He turned quickly, not really waiting for a response as he retraced their path back to his house, grateful for the many uses of his eidetic memory. He walked fast but didn't run, starting to feel tired himself after chasing the coat down. Besides, it was starting to squirm again, and it was all he could do to hold it tightly and keep it swaddled to prevent it from biting or clawing and escaping.

Spencer came to his porch just as Minnow was leaving, Lance waiting for them by the front steps. Both of the quads turned to look at him, their conversation stopping. Ebb, Lance's coatala, was perched on her back. She sniffed at the dark-furred coat in Spencer's arms, but recoiled as he hissed loudly at her, wiggling even more vigorously now.

"Minnow, please open the door," Spencer said through gritted teeth, feeling himself start to perspire. This was tougher than it looked. He didn't know how in the world Kalypso did it with all of those coatalas of hers.

Minnow obliged and stepped out of the way, blinking as they watched Spencer enter the house. "Um... Spencer? What... where did you get that? Do you need me to stay and help? I was gonna go get lunch with Lance today, but we can take a rain check."

"It's fine," Spencer said, shaking his head as he started upstairs. "I've got it, go enjoy your lunch!"

The quad looked doubtful, exchanging looks with Lance, but they shut the door quietly and left. Spencer was barely able to make it to his own room and shut the door before the coat wormed its way out of his shirt and his arms and skidded across the floor, making a beeline for the dark space under Spencer's bed.

Spencer sighed as he looked down at his shirt, picking it up and silently lamenting the holes that marked the coatala's struggle. At least it wasn't one of his good shirts, really.

Getting down on all fours he peered under the bed, seeing the dark shape of the coat hunched in near the center of the bed. Its orange eyes glinted maliciously and a low growl rumbled through its chest when it saw Spencer. He held up his hands in surrender and got off the floor, sighing. What could he do to get this thing under some semblance of control...?

The thought came to him suddenly: food! Of course, the thing looked half-starved, it made sense that food would be the first step in earning its trust.

Spencer was careful to make sure the coatala stayed in his room as he shut the door behind him, making his way back downstairs and to the kitchen. What did coatalas eat? He knew they liked meat, so... puckoo? He also knew that coatalas were fond of gurp meat (for some un-chii-ly reason), but it wasn't like he kept that handy in his icebox. Thinking about it, was actually pretty sure that puckoo was the only type of meat that he had right now. And it would need water, right? Well, access to that was more readily available when it rained, so it may not be in as urgent a need for that. He did suppose that it would still need some, though.

He was in the middle of chopping a piece of puckoo meat into small bits when there came a knock at the door. The orange biped's brow furrowed - did Minnow forget their key? That wasn't like them. Besides, they should remember where they put the spare key last time, and they hadn't been gone long enough to already be finished with lunch with Lance.

Peeking out into the hall towards the door, Spencer's heart nearly stopped. Oh, Chii.

Fuck.

A familiar red silhouette was outlined by the midday sun behind the curtain that blocked passersby from seeing through the door's window into the house. The first thing that Spencer noticed was that his hair wasn't spiked today, casually worn down in the way that made Spencer's stomach do strange things. The second thought that ran through Spencer's mind was that he had really put their lunch all the way to the back of his mind to chase down a stray coatala.

He fidgeted in the kitchen doorway for a bit, chest squeezing tight, finding it a little hard to breathe. Chii, would Eijiro hate him for missing their very first date? He paced back and forth a bit, but there came another knock, and Spencer drew himself upright, knowing he could not avoid this forever.

Spencer opened his mouth to speak at the same time that he was opening the door, but he was cut off before he could utter a single noise when Eijiro's solid form barreled into him. His breath was knocked out of his chest, and for a moment he believed that he had just been tackled in retribution for standing Eijiro up. Then he realized that the constriction around his chest was actually Eijiro's arms, and he was squeezing him tightly in a hug. "Oh my Chii, Spencer, are you okay? When you didn't show up I got so worried, I -" He paused as he let go to hold Spencer at arm's length, eyes drawn to Spencer's chest and arms. "Spencer, what in Chii's name happened?"

Ah. At first, Spencer wasn't entirely aware of what Eijiro meant, but he looked down to where Eijiro's eyes were being drawn and discovered thin scratches crisscrossing his body. Only when he noticed did he finally feel the sting and realize that he had, in fact, gotten caught a few times by the coat's claws through his shirt when it was struggling.

Spencer sighed, removing his glasses to rub at his eyes with the heels of his hands. "... Come in. I'll tell you about it."

Eijiro was led to the kitchen as Spencer began to tell him how his day was going so far. It wasn't a long story, but Eijiro began to look more and more confused as Spencer went on. If he rambled a bit out of nervousness, well, that couldn't be helped too much. When Spencer finished both telling the story and cutting up the raw puckoo, Eijiro was looking absolutely puzzled. "So... you chased after a coatala and brought it home? Where is it now?"

Spencer pointed up. "My room. I locked it in so it couldn't slip out, but it just hid under my bed anyway. It's... definitely not happy." He ladled some water from the bucket by the basin into a small bowl, then picked up the plate which contained the puckoo. "Can you come with me and open my door? I want to see if it will eat."

The other gro fidgeted for a moment, looking like he wanted to say something, but he finally nodded. Once the two of them were in Spencer's room, the door shut securely and food and water placed by the bedside, Spencer gestured for Eijiro to sit beside him on the bed. Silence stretched between them for long moments, both of them unsure of what to say.

Finally, Eijiro spoke. "You know, I think it's really nice of you to try to bring in this coatala and rehabilitate it, but this isn't exactly... in character for you? You've never liked animals that much." Spencer was shocked by the observation - that wasn't untrue, as he didn't dislike them, but he'd never really had an interest in keeping a pet of his own before. His stunned silence spoke enough to Eijiro, who continued, "If you're nervous about this, or it makes you uncomfortable, we don't have to... be dating. I might need to take a little time away to get over it, but...."

Spencer surged forth suddenly, something in him snapping as he pressed his nose to Eijiro's, nuzzling him intensely with his eyes squeezed shut. Perhaps he was simply driven by the feeling of fear that filled him at the thought of Eijiro leaving, or maybe it was his desperation to prove to Eijiro that he didn't need to look so despondent. "Spencer - Spencer, okay, okay!" He heard the soft laugh in Eijiro's voice as he was pushed back, only now noticing that he'd tackled Eijiro down in his haste to boop him. "What was that?"

"I don't want you to think that I don't want to date you," Spencer said, voice low and ears dropping. "I know I still can't say... that... back to you and feel confident in its meaning, but it doesn't mean I don't care for you immensely. I want to keep going until I know whether or not I will ever be able to say it. You are my most important person now, Eijiro. Please don't go."

"I won't," Eijiro promised, arms sliding around Spencer for his fingers to link together behind his neck. "If you say that, how can I?" He pulled Spencer down for another boop, this one slower but just as intense. Spencer's body trembled as he leaned into it, almost losing track of his surroundings before -

"MOTHERFUCKER!" Spencer jerked up, breaking Eijiro's hold, as a sudden pain stabbed through the tip of his tail, like a lot of pins and needles sticking him all at once. He instinctively jerked it up and away from the edge of the bed, realizing that it had draped over it in the course of his movements. "Son of a...!" He grabbed his tail to squint at the little bleeding scratches at the end, feeling a sting that also meant that a chunk of the long fur on his tail-tip had been yanked out. "You little...!" He rolled onto his belly to look over the edge of the bed, locking eyes with the coatala, a chunk of puckoo in its jaws, right before it growled and retreated back under the bed.

Eijiro, who had rolled with him to see what was up, laughed from right beside Spencer. His anger melted almost instantly at the hearty laugh from his boyfriend. "So which one of those is his name?" he chuckled as he started calming down, running his fingertips soothingly over Spencer's shoulders.

That was right. This thing would need a name if it was going to stay here. Spencer thought for a moment, then his mind flashed back to the conversation with the pink wyngro. "His name is Urchin," Spencer said, letting out a small sigh as he leaned against Eijiro's shoulder.

"I like it." Eijiro twisted his neck around to try to glimpse Spencer's tail. "Is your tail going to be okay?"

"It'll be fine, I'll disinfect it in a minute." Spencer didn't seem like he was going to move anytime soon, though, shifting to pull Eijiro closer to his chest and closing his eyes.

"As long as you remember to." Eijiro hummed, guessing that Spencer was more tired than he realized from the earlier pursuit and struggle with the coatala. He dozed off with Spencer, feeling a little grateful to the coatala - he was still hungry since they had never gotten to go out for lunch, but cuddles with Spencer were way better.

He still wanted that lunch date, though.

eijiro belongs to mercuryoverload !

max wyn