CHAPTER TWO

“They’re cute.” 
“Yeah.”
“Still, I can’t believe you. Freakin’ blabbermouth.” 
“Sorry bear, sorry. But you gotta admit, it was funny, right?” 
“Yeah, I guess. Lucky for you they were cool about it else you’d be sleeping alone tonight.” 
“Ooof, bullet dodged there.”
“Look, Taffy’s a pretty shy girl about that stuff, at least as far as I’ve seen. Honestly I’m really surprised she outright asked about the deets.” 
“You were loving it, you had your storytelling face on.” 
“Oh, absolutely! But otherwise I woulda never brought it up, it’s a load off my mind but maybe lets’ be a little more tactful about that stuff from here on.” 
“Says you, you tease her all the time.” 
“Well yeeeah! Because it’s cute as shit watching her flummox around like that!” 
“It really is, huh.” 
“But yeah, whatever pace her and Randal go at, that’s their business. She don’t need to know any more details than you’ve already let on about.” 
“Fine, fine. ...So, would you? If they asked?” 
“Noooooo…?” 
“So, Yes, then.” 
“Okay yeah I would rock that puppy’s world.” 
“Nice.”
“You?”
“Yeah, I think so. If you were cool with it.” 
“You -think- so? Come on, you’re not blind. She’s a babe! And she’s a bunny too! You of all people should know intense that would be.” 
“Uh, no, I wouldn’t. I’ve never been with another rabbit. ...Or a clone of myself.” 
“...Huh, never thought of it that way. But hey, first time for everything.” 
“Bear, you’re daydreaming again.” 
“Can you blame me?”
“No, please do continue. Just, two conditions.”
“Yeah?” 
“First, lets’ not get too weird here, they’re our friends first at the end of the day.” 
“Totally.” 
“Second, get your hand off of there, I’m trying to stay on the road.”
“So pull over.”
“What am I ever gonna do with you.” 
“I’m sure you’ll figure something out, my sexy chocobunny.”

--- 

When you know someone well enough, you can usually tell when something is wrong, without anything even needing to be said. Between their facial tells, their little nervous habits, and even the way they sit, a good friend can always tell when one of their besties has something on their mind. 

Cocoa knew Taffy more than well enough to divine as much from her on that sunny Friday the next week, though she didn’t need to be Sherlock to know something was up considering how the girl hadn’t said more than a handful of words to her since she and Graham had come in that day. Coming from as proud a hostess as Taffy, that meant a lot.

“Alright, what’s up, bun.” Cocoa commanded, not so much a question as a statement, firm but fair. She set her coffee down on the counter and looked Taffy straight in the eye, before she had a chance to pick up the tray of sweet treats they’d put together to bring up to the attic while the boys had been left to assemble the game board. 

Taffy went pensive, her posture retreating, hands scrunching up her dress as she leaned against the kitchentop uneasily. She could still sometimes be a terribly closed book when something was troubling her. She wanted to help her friend, of course, but she had to help Cocoa help her.

“I-Is it that obvious?” The bunny said, her posture wilting. 
“Well yeah, you’re usually raring to go with the ol’ D&D.” Cocoa joked with a quick chuckle, but still stepped closer and put a hand over hers as Taffy wrung her fingers into the kitchen counter top. “What’s wrong?” 

“N-Nothing’s wrong, it’s just…” Taffy began, dodging Cocoa’s sparkly stare. “...there’s something we kinda need to ask you, and Graham.”
“Oh, you mean the thing you texted about? Yeah, I remember.” Cocoa nodded, causing Taffy to flinch, blinking a few times in self inflicted surprise. 
“Oh, r-right, I forgot about that.” Taffy quietly replied, followed up by an awkward laugh. 
“No worries.” Cocoa said offhand, as she glanced aside. Now she really was worried. “Okay, then lets’ get these up to the boys and you can tell us all about it.” 
Taffy nodded, as they made their way back up the stairs with a couple of trays of goodies. The whole way, Cocoa felt her heart rising to her throat. Was there something really wrong? 

--- 

“We want to do what Pepper does. W-With you. Both of you. With, um, us.” 

Okay. 
Huh. 
That was… 
Huh. 

Cocoa was definitely, thoroughly relieved to know that it wasn’t some terrible affliction or personal tragedy that had befallen Taffy and Randal that had caused them to be so quiet and reserved the whole day until that point.

However it was hard to feel much of anything when she was coughing, hacking and spluttering up a poor, wasted slice of apple crumble. It was such a shock that even Graham was so stunned it took him a moment to find the sense to pat her on the back. 

“What we mean by that is, we were thinking that if it was alright with both of you-”
“YEAH I GET IT JUST-” Cocoa coughed, still recovering her breath. “Gimme a sec…” She took a deep sigh, then finally looked back at the couple who’d blindsided her with the world’s most polite indecent proposal. She opened her mouth to speak, to applaud them on a prank well done, but then with a few blinks she finally took in their body language in full, which forced her to change gears on a dime. 

Taffy was a fidgety mess, curling her hair in one hand and wringing one of her long floppy ears in the other. Randal had the dumbest grin on his face, hands planted like anchors into his thighs where he sat crosslegged in front of the tabletop. And both of them had cheeks redder than cherries. They were for real.

“You’re… not kidding, huh?” Cocoa asked instead, softly. 
“I’m sorry, didn’t mean to blurt it out, it just didn’t feel right telling you just over text.” Taffy said, drumming her hands on the table. 
“No, yeah, I mean I get it…” Cocoa continued, fumbling around with her words. She looked at Graham for a life preserver in as she flailed in the waves of this turbulently awkward conversation, only to find her fiance sat stiff as a board, staring off into thin air. Come to think of it, he had had a similar look for a moment when they’d had their first night with Pepper, though he snapped back to the room much faster than it was taking him now. She supposed she’d just have to wait for him to reboot, and handle it alone for now.
“Huh, look at that, I think you broke him.” She remarked, laughing a little louder than she’d intended at her own gag. Taffy and Randal just gave noises of amusement out of a sense of courtesy. That didn’t do much to alleviate the awkward air, it seemed. 

“Okay well, first off, thanks? That’s really flattering to hear, especially from you. Uh, sorry for snapping just now too, I didn’t mean to scare you… it’s awesome to hear you’re so curious, I just don’t quite know what to say but…” 

“Wow.” Graham simply added as a period on that particular rambling sentence, now that his brain had apparently finished recovering from its’ sudden software crash. 

“Yeah, that.” 

“So it was, uh, our thing with Pepper that got you thinking about…?” Graham posited, letting his sentence drift away so as not to get too graphic with his language. Cocoa caught his eyes uneasily flitting over Taffy. He looked like he was seeing her in a completely different light for the very first time, whether intentional or not.
Far from being jealous, she felt her heart speed up a little. She didn’t blame him, after all, it was abundantly clear where this would lead them, if they all really wanted to take the plunge. Randal was quite the canine catch himself. It wasn’t like she’d never thought about it. But thinking was one thing, doing was quite another.

“Mmhmm.” Taffy replied, looking like she was giving Graham the occasional curious glance too. “We’re not expecting anything here, but it didn’t feel right to keep this to ourselves. We wanted to at least bring it up, cuz it didn’t feel right just thinking about you two in, um, that way, before we even knew if you would want to, to begin with.” Taffy said, the usually bashful bunny speaking her mind with admirable courage, even if she had to furiously fiddle with a pen in her left hand to maintain the mental momentum needed to speak the words. 

“Taffy and I have been talking about trying some new things for a little while now…” Randal began, placing his hand over Taffy’s, both lovers meeting eyes with a smile. Taffy’s busy fingers settled a little. “...and hearing all about you and Pepper before made us think, maybe it would be kind of fun, if it’s with good friends. People we can trust. We’re not looking to do this stuff with anyone else: we’ve thought a lot about how to do this in a safe and fun way. And, uh, also because we kinda don’t know what we’re doing here, so…”

That, at least, summoned up a quick bout of nervous laughter that helped the four of them melt the conversational tension.

“So um, anyway you don’t have to answer now! I know it’s a lot all at once, but just wanted you both to know.” 

Cocoa and Graham shared a look, while Taffy and Randal sat there hand in hand, like a couple of singers at an audition desperately waiting for the thumbs up. 

Within moments, Cocoa had leant forwards with renewed conviction. Much like Taffy and Randal, she and Graham possessed the uncanny ability to make an agreement without sharing a word; an ability that could only be honed by truly knowing one’s partner and being known in return, inside and out. Impressive, considering how they’d only been together for the better part of a year, compared to the two-and-a-bit years Taffy and Randal had been an item, and the years before that they’d spent as close friends.

“You know what? Sure.” She simply said.
“Really?” Taffy asked, quietly.
“Yeah, why not.” 
“Really?” Randal repeated.
“Yes, geez.” 
“I mean, we can work out some ground rules for this stuff first, but…” Graham added, with a comforting smile. 
“So how do you wanna do this?” Cocoa said, elbows on the table and head rested in her hands. Their trusty Dungeon Master looked far more invested in this new game they’d brought to the table than any campaign that they might’ve been running before. 

“Wait, you mean right now?” Randal enquired, innocently enough, even if he was trying not to look down at Cocoa. Or perhaps at her pronounced cleavage, now visible beneath the neckline of her t-shirt thanks to her current pose. 
“O-Ohh, uh, did you guys not?” 
“Ummm, well…” 
“...Oh.” 

You’d have thought that all four of them had suddenly started sucking on lemons from how much they all curled up from the awkward air that’d suddenly and completely immersed their conversation. 

“Ohh, hahaha, of course not, my bad, sorry, haha…” Cocoa mumbled, her words petering off into mutters while she took sudden inexplicable fascination in the cobwebs amongst the attic ceiling and twirled her hair about her fingers. 

Graham played the faux-pas off by silently sucking on his bottom lip through clenched teeth, not wanting to make his bear beau even more flustered when she was already black, white and red all over. Still, he wasn’t ignorant to the irony of Cocoa being the one to dig them into a conversational mud pit this time, the likes of which made him feel slightly better about having gotten them into this mess in the first place the previous week. 

“N-No, don’t worry, we should’ve been clearer! Like I said, noooo clue what we’re doing here!” Randal joked, gripping his hands together so firmly it looked like he was in a one-man arm wrestling match. “Just, y’know, an open invitation, not like we gotta do it now…”

“Well, why not?” 

A fair enough, if rather confident and impulsive suggestion to make, but that wasn’t what caused Randal to go abruptly rigid and silent; rather, it was the fact that Taffy was the one to say it. 

“Ohoh, Taffy! You frisky minx!” Cocoa said in coy applause.
“Come on Cocoa, I’m serious.” 
She was right. She had that sharp glint in her eye, the likes of which Cocoa had only seen a handful of times, but Randal knew like the back of his hand. The kind of stare that only the ‘momma bunny’ of Las Lindas could pull off. There was a reason that when push came to shove, no one dared to cross the usually sweet maiden. 
“If we’re all down for it, what’re we waiting for? It’ll be fun. Let’s just work out a few ground rules so that we’re all completely on the same page here.” 

She placed her hand on Randal’s thigh, and leaned near his ear, whispering something unintelligible that made the collie’s expression melt into that of a goofy grin, and coaxed him to hug her sensually around the waist with a quick kiss to the lips. Needless to say, it seemed like she’d convinced ‘Rannie’ without a fight.

Cocoa didn’t know where Taffy was getting this sudden dose of sexual confidence from, but it was hard to look away from, and she had a feeling Taffy didn’t want her to flinch from this anyway. She wondered if perhaps the girl was taking advantage of the moment to actually snatch back some conversational control from her. Would have been fair game considering all of the times she’d pressed Taffy’s buttons over the years. 

Touche, ‘Lady Lux’, Cocoa thought, calling Taffy’s bluff by resting her head atop Graham’s shoulder. Nevertheless, Cocoa was raring to go with this new campaign, and by the way Graham was quietly palming her ass just out of their friends’ view, it seemed he was just as ready. He was certainly in no position to complain after all, given that he was getting a night with this new, carnally confident Taffy out of the deal. Cocoa had always wondered what genuine rabbit-on-rabbit action would be like, if the stereotypes about their species were true.

“Well now, that sounds like a plan to me.” She agreed, getting her head back in the game as both couples shuffled a little closer together, to let negotiations truly commence.
“So, where are we going to do this, and how exactly d’you want to get this party started, huh?” Graham flirted, the dark haired and hazel furred lapine giving a handsome smile to both their ‘friends with benefits’.

“O-Ohhh raspberries, let me think…” Taffy squeaked out that little catchphrase of hers with such timidity that it sounded like she was liable to shrink out of existence. How she was able to go from a spicy momma to a squeaky mouse within moments, and with such endearing charm, none of them had yet to truly comprehend.

“Yeah, to be honest we never really thought about the ‘practicalities’ of it… didn’t even know if you’d say yes, let alone so soon!” Randal laughed. He was furiously wagging his tail, his excitement a lot less subtle and doused in shyness than Taffy’s.

“Well, If you don’t mind, I’ve got a suggestion.” Cocoa replied with a sing-song voice. 
“Sure.” Randal said, crossing his legs together a little more tightly. 
“Well, I take it your idea here was that Taffy and I would ‘swap partners’, right? Cuz just so we’re 100% clear, you’re pretty and all Taff, but-” 
“Yes that’s right thank you!” Taffy yelped out as quick as a single word, desperate to swerve the conversation away from them giving off the wrong impression as to what exactly they were looking for here. 
“Okay, cool. So in that case we probably wouldn’t want to all be in the same room, at the same time, if you catch my drift.”
“Wait, how’s that different from what we do with Pepper?” Graham added. 
“Hon, when it’s just us three, we’re -all- into each other. But put it this way, I don’t think you’re Ran’s idea of eye candy.” 
“...Okay, case proven.” He said with a slow nod, glancing at the ground and trying not to meet Randal’s eyes all of a sudden.
“Yeah, thought so. So, if you have a couple of rooms going spare, where you uh, wouldn’t get in trouble for loaning them out...” 
“W-Well, Taffy does all the housework around here, so I reckon she gets dibs on the spare employee bedrooms!” Randal said, probably to be helpful, but possibly also to clean his mental palette from the very idea of what a foursome would even look like, considering that for the first twenty-odd years of his life he’d not even had so much as a twosome.
“Good thing I’ve got about a million spare keys, we wouldn’t want to be interrupted, right?” Taffy giggled. 
“Well, it wouldn’t be the first time, right lovebun?” 
“Oh stop!”
“Ooooh, now there’s a story you’ll have to tell us sometime.”
“Not without buying me a tall glass of cider first, I won’t.”
“Hah, deal.”

The conversation fizzled out for a moment, and in place of the momentum that had kept the curious couples focused, came a bout of nervous laughter, initiated by Graham, which looped around the table.

“How about, uh, the stuff we need… to not, like…” Randal flailed, words failing him in the midst of his apparent desperation to not surrender to suffocating, awkward silence, lest he and Taffy lose their mettle, spoil the mood and miss out on the fun. 
“Pro tip, ‘Rannie’, we just call it protection.” Cocoa absolved him.
“Y-Yeah, that.” 
“It’s cool, I have an IUD.”
“Oh, wow, so I don’t need any…?” 
“Yup, you’re all good, puppy.” 
Randal said no more, but he could’ve roasted a marshmallow with his wide, dumb grin. 
“And I have a condom or two somewhere in my wallet if you want, Taffy.” Graham added outright, meeting Taffy’s eyes. 
Her expression curled in bashful fascination. It looked like the penny was finally dropping for her. About the reality of the one on one campaign her fiance was gearing up to set out on with their fiendish flirt of a DM. And crucially, about what she and the dark, tall lapine were going to be getting up to, if she had the walk to back up that prior brave talk of hers.
“Oh, right…” She mumbled. “You, uh… don’t have to…” She buried her gaze down to her lap, crinkling up her dress again in her hands.
“Come on, love.” Randal said, leaning in close. He lifted one of her endearingly floppy ears and peppered feathery words that were too quiet to be heard by anyone in the room but her: “It’s okay. I trust you. I know what you want. Go ahead and ask for it, my naughty girl.” 
Even without hearing what was said, the way Randal said it turned up their friends’ eyebrows and added further fuel to their fires. They waited patiently for her reply, and when Taffy finally lifted her head, she had their rapt attention. 

“It’s a safe day… So you won’t need any.” She said with newfound confidence, her visage possessing that same fleeting yet fiery energy that she’d shown when first suggesting this impromptu hookup. “And, we wouldn’t want you to use any, either.” 

It was a tiny change of expression that Graham gave in reply. A narrower gaze, a lowered right brow, a loosened jaw and opened lips. Yet it marked the cracking of the facade of decency he’d worn until then. The way he looked at her now, with calm confidence, was like he’d seen her suddenly not as just a friend any longer, but as a woman. 

Graham gripped his hands into his knees, still meeting her eyes. 
“Cool.” 
Taffy chewed her lip. She felt Randal’s hand smooth over her ass from behind, caressing with a comparable passion that his eyes reflected, sandwiching Taffy with attention from both the men at once. She didn’t look like she minded. 

“Alright, Taff!” Cheered Cocoa, her exuberance much more pronounced than Graham’s. Or perhaps she wanted to redirect some of the attention back to her. “Sounds like we’ve got a plan.” She leered at Graham. “Alright, you, save it for the bedroom.” She chastised him, but without the same coy confidence that usually lay behind her words. Maybe it had something to do with her seeing Randal exert such initiative and control over Taffy, leaving her feeling a little shaken up as well. 
“So, we ready?” Randal added, leaning forwards over the coffee table, giving Cocoa the attention she was after. 
Only, now that she had it, Cocoa didn’t look like she completely knew what to do with it. For some reason all she could think about at that moment was how built Randal’s arm muscles looked, how fluffy his chest fuzz was, and how brightly his amber eyes burned into hers.

“Y-Yeah, sure…” She said unsteadily, taking her turn for an awkward laugh now. “By the way!” She snapped, changing the subject as a convenient way out of this mess she herself had invited in. “Lets’ make sure we all have our phones on us, and turned up in case the others call. If anything happens that any of us don’t like, then we can call it quits at any time, no questions asked. Though same deal for if any of us just change our mind, or just wanna cuddle up, chat, flirt a bit instead. I said it to Pepper and I’ll say it again now, this is all in good fun, no pressure or expectations whatsoever. Oh, and we should probably agree that anything we do today, is fair game to talk about later. No secrets, all cards on the table, so no need to be jealous or nothin’. So uhhh, anything else? We all good?” 

Cocoa asked, looking and feeling like a director setting to adjourn a meeting. As weirdly bureaucratic as she reckoned that that image was considering the indecency of the deal that they were proposing.

“Um, just by the way?” 
“Yeah, Taff?” 
“How do we feel about, kissing?” 
Cocoa and Graham shared a look, and a shrug.
“I don’t mind, do you bun?”
“Not if you don’t.” 
“Really?” Taffy and Randal gasped in accidental unison, leaning forwards a little over the table. 
“Well, sure.” Cocoa laughed at the couple’s cute reaction. “I mean fair enough, I get why you’d ask, and I’m glad you did. But, if that’s what you like…” 
“Yes! I mean, okay, um, yay, good. That’s all I had to say.” Taffy added with a sheepish grin, while she and Randal ran their thumbs over the backs of one anothers’ hands. 

Cocoa wanted to pry so badly, and find out what manner of illicit pillow talk she and her puppy had clearly been having, that they’d become so keen to try out partner swapping, and so certain of what they wanted, over the course of just a week. But needless to say, it was clear that they were all ready to get this latest ‘quest’ started. 

“Alright then.” She turned to Graham. “Catch you in a bit, babe.” 
“Have fun, bear.” 
They shared a soft, sweet, and sensual kiss… counteracted by his hands slipping under her top around her slight paunch to bring her close, and tight.

Perhaps it was the quiet of the attic or the fact she had her eyes while kissing her beau, but Cocoa managed to accidentally overhear the little smidgen of a whisper that Taffy shared with Randal, before they too shared a kiss: 
“Give it to her good, puppy.” 
“You are gonna blow his mind, beautiful.” 

‘Just goes to show I guess,’ Cocoa thought as they all got up and she took Randal by the hand, while Taffy gingerly did the same with Graham, ‘It’s always the quiet ones.’