It was dark, nearly jet black. Only the headlights of the rare passing car gave the bedroom a few moments of fleeting illumination. The sound of gentle tired heaves filled the space, their pattern of occurrence always giving Balty a sense of calm when he heard them. It’s a sign that his partner is fine, quite literally healing according to his biological needs of sleep. Balty would usually be asleep along with him during these small hours, unless something set him at unease or piqued his curiosity. At this moment, it was something of both.
        	Balty could still smell it. He washed his claws over and over, pretending that would make it go away, but he knew what the real source was. And even worse, he could still see it too. He could see it every time he blinked or found his mind wandering for mere moments. His claws fiddled involuntarily, trying to recreate that warm, smooth, full meaty feeling of each stroke…what’s happening to him?
        	Varley always slept naked, not much less clothing from when he’s awake, with only a light cover for any modesty. His cock sweat and manly scent have no issue soaking through the thin fabric. Balty never paid it any mind until that moment earlier awakened his senses, and now he couldn’t unsee it. He stood at the foot of the bed, sniffing the air and staring intently every time a passing car gave him a teasing glimpse of that semi-erect bulge under the covers, he swore he could see it twitch. It smelled so strong and familiar, like a friendly welcoming musk wafting his nose forward.
        	No, no, he can’t be obsessed like this. It’s not natural for males to have these fixations even if purely out of curiosity. He peeled himself away from the bed and decided to investigate the other nagging scents in the room, a much more sensible curiosity.
        	There was something similar in the air, it had that now familiar flavor of sex and masculinity with a hint of…cherry? Balty followed the odd scent to Varley’s closet, where he found its source in a small box beneath the rows of occupied hangers and hidden under layers of dusty leathery smells. Inside was…oh good grief, it’s one Varley’s dildos. Pink, just a bit smaller than Varley’s actual length, and…fully humanoid. Seems Varley has a curiosity for different types of genitalia as well. The dildo still carried the vague scent of the flavored lubricants he used for it, and the fact it’s flavored gave Balty the idea that it was used for more than just anal insertion.
        	Another pair of passing headlights briefly revealed more of its details. No knot, no sheath, but it seemed to have several unrealistically sized veins to give it texture. Balty stared at it for a while…h-how on Earth does inserting something…there, cause any pleasure? Especially something with so many intricate surface details. Balty imagined the sensation of silicone just pushing and scraping at Varley’s inner walls on every movement, and the jarring stretch the wide glans must make on its entry and exit.
        	Eugh, it made Balty’s knees shake. That was beyond unnatural, straight up barbaric. Literally extracting sexual pleasure from an inanimate object. Same-sex acts, while still bending the laws of nature, at least involved another person. This…this is just pure delusion.
        	He looked back at his digi-partner, still sound asleep as if having this object in his room was perfectly normal. Balty could understand the fetishization of urine, there’s logical connections to feelings of pleasure. And maybe even a non-sexual interest in the differences between genitalia within your own gender could be excused, but, truly, what is there to enjoy about using this object? His dear partner, despite his homosexuality is rational. He doesn’t like pain or mutilating himself for the sake of it…right?
        	Balty got that confused shiver up his spine again. It scared him, the thought, the feeling, the curiosity clouding his mind once more, but…he had to know. He had to know first-hand what logic there is to the sex toys Furries use. Like Varley said earlier, this isn’t homosexual, this isn’t for pleasure, and this isn’t defaulting on his values, this is…only a mere trial. Simply out of curiosity.
        	With a trembling claw, he pulled it out of the box. The silicone was dense, firm, surprisingly light, and of course lifeless. Balty was surprised by how little it had in common with the solid hot girth of Varley’s own member. He dragged his claws against the veins and divots that formed the details of the head. It felt…awkward. He kept looking for some familiarity, maybe some fleshy softness, or even a characteristic lean like Varley’s, but he found none. It was simply a phallic piece of plastic. He sighed and shook his head, both at his strange digi-partner, but also trying to shake off a subtle feeling of disappointment. Well, at least as plastic it shouldn’t be able to do much harm.
        	He placed it on the floor, it stood upright on its flattened bottom surface. It was probably meant to be inserted by hand, but Balty was short enough to sit on it. He didn’t know where the lube was, but he did know same-sex couples often performed coitus without it, so he assumed the experience would likely be just as pleasurable. He stepped over it, the tip of its head just inches from his crotch. He looked back at Varley once more, still asleep and unable to give any guidance or judgement. He inhaled and slowly bent his knees, letting his body gently glide down.
        	He flinched. The tip of the head just barely breached his anus. He took a few anxious breaths and added just a tiny bit more of his weight until the head popped in. He huffed an exhale. W-well, this is sure a…sensation. It didn’t evoke pleasure nor pain, just a slight pressure in his ass.
        	Balty stood back up and gasped at how the dildo’s head so easily fell back out of him. The toy was so light its thumping on the floor didn’t even cause a stir out of Varley. Balty looked down at it sideways, he couldn’t have done it right. He remembers hearing Varley singing moans of pleasure behind a closed door on the occasions he used it. He kneeled to set it back vertical to the floor. Perhaps he didn’t go deep enough? The lesser fetish aligned porn Varley watches sure seems to imply that, the participants’ melting voices yelling “deeper!”, “harder!” and other scandalous verbs. Perhaps that was the key.
        	He stepped back over the dildo and spread his ass, feeling the cool air in the room tickling his exposed tender pink hole. It added to his nervous shivers. He reminded himself…this won’t hurt, this isn’t homosexual, he’s doing this to simply learn. He took a deep breath once more, and let gravity thrust him downwards.
        	“Oh-” Balty covered his mouth to keep from shouting out. He was hit immediately with an explosion of sensations from his asshole. His insides clenched to stop any progress, squeezing the dildo tight and pressing his virgin prostate against the textured silicone. His eye twitched, his breaths bordered wheezes, and he found his feathery shoulders straining against his neck. It was too much, his body was going to give out on him if he went any further. 
        	He stood back up on faltering legs, but the dildo held tight in his clenched cheeks and lifted off the floor. He groaned from underneath his claw, his soft walls squeezed the toy even harder while upright. He gripped the plastic between his legs with a trembling claw and tugged. “Augh!” It barely budged, but he could feel the textures dragging along his insides. He squirmed against the wall behind him, feeling ripples of overwhelming pleasure tear through his core.
        	Balty panted, his heart racing as fear started to kick in. Did he really get this cursed object stuck inside of him? No, no. He shook his head in frustration, this is what he gets for even trying to understand such unnatural behaviors. He spread his legs and squatted slightly, gasping as he felt subtle shifts in his ass. He squeezed his beak shut in one claw, gripped the dildo tight in the other, and gulped as braced himself. “Hmmmng!” It’s out. In one fast, hard tug, it popped out with a slick squelch. Balty dropped to the floor, his insides on fire and completely numb below the waist.
        	Ok…Ok. He leaned up against the wall as he caught his breath. He looked over at Varley’s still sleeping form, so grateful he didn’t see any of that calamity. Suffice to say, he could understand why Varley and those pornographic actors yelled so much during penetration. Good lord…he shivered looking over at that cursed toy, still feeling those roaring sensations in his ass, and a new stiffness from his crotch. A passing car lit up the room again, making something between Balty’s thighs sparkle. He looked down, his cock had sprouted out of his slit and stabbed 3 inches into the air. Thin dribbles of pre crept down his pulsating shaft.
    	He stared at them for a moment, too stunned at himself to speak. He…no, his body…liked it? Oh god, Balty held his head in his claws. No…no, no, no, this doesn’t make sense! He didn’t even like it! W-well, he did have to admit, while indeed overwhelming, it did introduce some rather…fascinating sensations that he wouldn’t mind feeling again. Dare he say, some of it felt…g-good…m-maybe even pleasurable…and maybe when done with a much more careful touch…possibly extremely so…oh god.
        	Balty let out a shuddering exhale, a claw on his pounding heart. Ok, so he couldn’t deny Varley’s logic…the act of anal penetration had the potential to be pleasurable. But…that isn’t necessarily homosexual. Balty didn’t do said action with another male partner, only himself and a piece of textured plastic. Of course, a harmless act of pleasure in no way goes against the sensible laws of nature. Neither does curiosity for simple anatomical differences. Right…he shook his head, staving off that rising panic.
        	He got on all fours and slowly pushed himself back onto shaky legs, feeling a new determination. He stumbled over to Varley’s desk and turned on the lamp. With a click, a gentle hue lit up one corner of the room and cast orange-yellow shadows throughout. Varley was still fast asleep, good. Balty headed over to the foot of his partner’s bed, now that he’s firmly established the limits of logic and healthy exploration, he’s free to continue the examination his intellectual mind has been screaming for.
        	Balty slowly lifted himself onto the bed, keeping his steps soft and his huffs of effort low. Before him, Varley laid flat on his back, his cracked open maw panting out soft snores. The thin sheet was pulled up to just above his navel and did little to hide the subtle contours of his lower body, and even less so of his manhood. His digi-partner was always a hot sleeper, the greasy sweat of his cock, balls, and taint seeped into the sheet, making it translucent.
        	Balty leaned in close, he could see the shape and colors of Varley’s half hard dick as if it were placed under a faint white filter. He took a deep breath, a strong salty, sour, manly scent flooded his nose and clouded his head. It was a struggle not to huff, the scent was so oddly satisfying, he wanted to greedily gulp all of it. No doubt, a closer inspection was needed.
        	With no inhibitions, he flipped back the bottom of the sheet, leaving Varley fully in the buff. His half-swollen cock casually laid against his right thigh, slithered mid-way out of his out of his sheath and making little movements on each breath. His knot hadn’t yet inflated, Balty wondered how quickly it would appear with his touch. Varley did give him permission to satisfy his curiosities, and he clearly liked that inspection more than Balty himself—who of course only enjoyed it for the educational value. It’s reasonable to assume Varley would have no issue with any further exploration.
        	Ok…Balty raised a shaking claw and gulped. This is…perfectly within bounds of normal male interactions. Using two claw-fingers, he inched in and plucked his dick like a fat moistened worm. Balty tensed, he didn’t expect it to be so soft. Even while half erect it felt so squishy and tender, he was afraid he was hurti-
        	“Mmmmm…” Balty froze as Varley moaned. Under his fingers, Varley’s pulse sped up and his flesh stiffened. Balty held his breath, Varley shifted his hips upward, nudging his hardening dick into Balty’s palm, who carefully changed his grip around it. Varley kept shifting in place, rubbing his sweaty cock in Balty’s claw until his knot inflated, and his length had grown to its full twitching mass. His sleeping expression briefly seemed to smile before his deep breaths resumed.
        	Balty exhaled a sigh of relief through his nose. He gently rubbed Varley’s shaft with his thumb claw and cupped his knot in his other palm. That hot, hard flesh was so much more satisfying to the touch than some brightly colored plastic. The thumping rhythm through Varley’s girth was clearly an approval to continue exploring.
        	Precum easily spilled from around his glossy cockhead at Balty’s touch, it must have been building up all night. He shivered thinking how much his digi-partner must desire his touch at this moment. Learning his lesson from earlier, Balty used his other claw to waft over the scent of Varley’s sex. The air was flavored with those deeply manly scents of sweat and musk, with the added cheesy precum undertones and stinging ammonia of dried urine. He gasped, it hit his sensitive nose so strongly.
        	Balty gently wrapped his claw fingers around the base of Varley’s knot, and slowly stroked up, tugging his sheath over Varley’s knot in that peculiar way he enjoys, getting it coated in a fresh layer of sweat. He then glided his sheath back down and stretched the skin outwards, airing out more funky moisture from its tender pink insides. He hungrily sniffed it up, a continuous excited shiver ran down his back. Heavens, who knew a male could smell this good.
        	 “Mmmm…ah…” Varley moaned and squirmed, his cock twitching in Balty’s grip for more attention. Balty squeezed his knot to give him a tease of sensation, eliciting more bothered rasps. Balty couldn’t hold back a bit of a smile, it was so very satisfying to know what potential he held in giving him pleasure. His partner was deserving of a ‘thank you’ for giving him such fascinating scents, perhaps Balty could humor him with a rub or two. He pulled Varley’s sheath back up to where it engulfed his knot, and then with one claw on his sheath, and the other on his exposed cock flesh, he gave a deep stroke downward, differing the pressure in his palms as he went along. “Ohhhh…” Varley exhaled with a gasp, his toes spasming in pleasure. Yes, Balty must’ve hit the right spots. He tugged back up for another stroke down, and another, and another, until both he and Varley were huffing in a constant rhythm.
        	His strokes grew slick from the constant supply of precum, it lubed the inside of his sheath and made it all too easy to speed up. The room filled with shlick-shlick sounds from his fast-working sticky claws, Varley’s moans transitioned into a pant as his tongue lolled out of his mouth. Balty shifted one claw to Varley’s white sagging balls, palming the heavy, sweaty weights, making his partner’s hips shift. He brought that claw to his nose and couldn’t resist huffing that rich musky flavor.
        	Something took over Balty at that moment as he became hypnotized. Varley’s sounds of pleasure, his squirms and arched back, and all those heavenly scents filling the air, it excited Balty. He was determined to see just how much pleasure and action he can evoke from this unique male anatomy. “Oh…” He looked up and saw Varley’s sleeping face contort with a look of strain. How endearing, his digi-partner was trying to hold back his orgasm. It’s only natural for a male to ejaculate after such a rigorous stimulation. Balty’s arm was going sore, but he sped up just for his partner. He threw all of his energy into giving deep rapid strokes through his sheath, in tandem with an active claw on Varley’s balls. “Ah, ahhhh, ahhhh…” The furred dragon sung moans as he neared a crescendo. Yes, yes! Balty went even faster. That’s right…give in to your natural processes! Let go, let g-
        	“Ahhhhh!” Varley howled as the first wave of his orgasm rocked his core. High-pressure pent up cum pumped through his cock and shot his hawkmon partner right between the eyes. Balty flinched, suddenly blinded by a coat of hot thick slime. He opened his beak to gasp just as he took a step back and fell off the bed. A glob of cum stringing from both sides of his beak dropped into his open mouth. His first reaction was to gag but actually…it wasn’t that bad. Bitter, salty, and almost creamy…not his idea of a snack, but…but not unpalatable.
        	Balty laid frozen, letting the taste linger in his mouth, and listening as Varley’s moans wound down. His mind was absolutely frazzled, his heartbeat was too loud to put a thought together. Though at the moment, he really preferred not to think at all.
        	Balty peeled himself off the floor for the second time that night. He looked to see that Varley had already transitioned back to a deep sleep, his breaths interspersed by weak moaning exhales, feeling that afterglow tingling his system. The bed between his legs was painted with strings and mini puddles of spent dragon spunk, his thick half-erect cock still drooling remnants of his milky release over his thigh. He didn’t spend much time dwelling on the sight and hurried to the bathroom.
        	He hopped in the bathtub and turned on the shower, whipping the faucet to the hottest setting possible. Using too much soap he began washing his face, getting all of that sticky, clinging semen from out of his feathers. Unfortunately, it did nothing to stop his thoughts no matter how hard he scrubbed. The relief he could literally feel in the urination video, how excited he was to inspect Varley’s manhood, the incredible scents, the pleasure from the dildo, and now the taste of his partner’s seed. Why…why did he…like it? Balty held his face and let the hot water rain down his back. What happened to him? Did Varley do this to him? Was he just always like this?
        	He turned off the shower and shook out his wet feathers. He took deep breaths to stop his heart from beating out of his chest. Ok…Ok…just stay rational. So, he’s discovered that anal penetration activities do indeed have the potential to be pleasurable, and of course so does having your genitalia touched regardless of if the partner is male or not. And…there are certain male traits, like scent or…taste, or…p-penis composition, that can be desirable even to other males, so, perhaps, some homosexual behaviors aren’t that illogical. And, Balty had finally come to the conclusion that one of those ‘other males’ may include…him. But, that doesn’t make him any different. He still looks down on terrible acts like that done to his best friend, and he still believes Varley would be far happier with a woman.
        	Right, still the same Balty. Or at least he still feels the same, albeit with a heavy dose of anxiety…and a little fear…and a need to urinate. All of tonight’s drama had distracted him from his bladder’s growing needs. Well, he’s already in the bathtub. He only used it in cases of emergencies, where hopping in the tub saved him a few extra seconds that may have been lost fumbling up the step stool to the toilet. It’s not an emergency tonight, far from it, but it’s awfully convenient at the moment.
        	Balty was on the verge of relaxing his inner muscles, but then he hesitated. He thought back to earlier in the afternoon, where he learned of Varley’s fetish and was suggested to try withholding his urine. He wondered how much of that discussion was innocent and how much was an attempt to get him to indulge his perversions. Balty sighed, bitter judgements like that is what got his partner so upset in the first place, and what made Varley so eager to ‘educate’ him. Maybe he did want Balty to participate in his fetish…fine. After cutting his earlier inspection short, and seeing some of his assumptions proven wrong, this one-time trial of urine retention will be his true and final apology for their argument. Ugh, the thought of it was so unpleasant. The terrible pressure that would lead up to his release, the degeneracy of the act that Varley admitted himself. Awful, awful. But, it will only be this once.
        	He hopped out of the tub with the need of his bladder still nagging him. He felt a bit of guilt seeing the mess on Varley’s bed. He should’ve used a towel, that’ll be an unpleasant surprise when he wakes up. Add that to another reason for his ‘apology.’ Oh well, tomorrow will fix everything between them. Balty hopped onto the unsoiled part of the bed and curled up on a pillow. Though, with the scents of sweat and spilt semen, along with his mind still racing with questions and doubt, he didn’t find it very easy to sleep.