“That was awkward,” Charlie said once Lexi left them alone. He shifted somewhat under the vulpix, trying, and failing, to find a comfortable position as his sore vent was pumped to the brim with his boyfriend’s seed. Which felt super weird, by the way. “Can we go back to cuddling? I know you said this feels more comfortable for you, but I’m really not seeing it.”

“Um, alright,” Lance said. “But I think my knot’s shrinking anyway. You can try pushing me out, maybe? You know, just pretend you’re laying or something.”

He grimaced. “Do you really have to compare it to that?”

Lance glanced over his back at him apologetically. “Sorry.”

"It's okay," Charlie said, letting Lance off lightly. It didn’t really bother him. "You know, it's nice going back to being a boy after what we did. I get to enjoy the moment, experience all my feminine bits, and then when I'm just not feeling it, bam, I'm a guy again."

Lance laughed. "Is that how that works?"

"Heck if I know," Charlie said, giggling along with the extra fluffy vulpine. "But that's how it feels, so I'm sticking with it."

There was more to it, but it was hard to communicate. Being a girl was exhausting. Not only the physical reality of being a girl—that was getting easier by the day with one notable exception—but also the mental component. Earlier, he really wanted to try it out, to think of himself as a girl, not just someone who technically had all those parts. Thinking of himself with female bits wasn’t too difficult but latching onto the mentality that he was female, through and through, proved less natural than he had hoped. So once the high of sex had faded to a dull throbbing, courtesy of Lance’s pulsing knot under his tail feathers, he couldn’t quite hang onto the concept. It was like grasping a smooth rock with his wings. 

In a way, it was freeing to know he had something to fall back to. That he could just pretend nothing had changed. Embracing his feminine side was fun and all, but he had no idea how he’d do it outside of small bursts. He figured it would get easier. That he could just not think about it. Right now, though, he honestly just wanted to be a boy. Even if he knew, deep down, he was only pretending… 

…Wasn’t he?

"In that case,” Lance replied, taking him back to the current moment, “can my boyfriend push me out? I'd tug, but I don’t want to hurt you. Or your, uh, vagina."

"Aww, you don't want to hurt your boyfriend's vagina, how sweet.” Charlie squeezed down, and enjoyed the little squeak Lance let out. “Hehe, boyfriend's vagina. Never thought you'd hear that, huh?"

"Heh, yeah, heading you say it is honestly pretty hot," Lance said. "I think I squirted extra hard into my boyfriend's vagina when you said it. Now I don't think I want to slip out." Swiveling around, Lance flopped over onto him, tugging on their tie in the process. Chests flush and faces close to touching, he swore his heart was trying to escape his chest to fly away.

"You're the one who asked me to push your knot out, you dork,” Charlie said, nuzzling him with his beak. “But sure, let's stay like this for a few more minutes. Mhm, I can still feel you squirting…"

He really could. Honestly, for how long Lance had been pumping warm seed into him he was a little worried about how long he'd be leaking. What would that even feel like, Charlie wondered, burying himself into Lance’s fuzzy chest fluff. Squeezing cum out of there all night?

“Hey, Lance?” he murmured.

“Yeah?”

“It was a lot of fun doing this with you. Even though I’m probably going to be sore tomorrow, I’m glad we did this. I’m glad we’re still doing this. I like feeling you inside me. It’s weird, but good weird."

“I like being inside you too,” Lance agreed. “It’s perfect, you know? I’d do this every day if I could.”

“Heh, I bet you would. Might be too much for me, though. As fun as it sounds." He grinned as he imagined it. "Everyday being stretched by your monster knot, I bet laying eggs would be a breeze. They'd slide riiiight out. If only it were that—" Charlie’s eyes widened. "Oh my gosh, Lance! Your silly comment just gave me an idea! If you knot me every day before I lay my next egg, maybe even a few minutes before too, I'll be loose enough that it won't hurt as much! Like, I'll still feel the contractions, which ouch, but that final stretch won't be as hard. I won't have to almost pass out from pushing."

"I like this plan!" Lance said, a dumb grin slapped onto his muzzle. "I'll get to knot you all week, wow…"

Charlie rolled his eyes, but couldn't really blame the excitable vulpix. Sex was awesome. Of course Lance would be happy having it more often. "Yeah, yeah, you get the best part of this deal. This does mean you'll have to knot me right before I lay, though. I have no idea how to time that so my egg doesn't come out while your dick is in me."

Speaking of dicks, Lance’s penis jumped within him, squeezing out a particularly powerful squirt. Lance had the awareness to look bashful. 

"Uh, weird thing about that," he said. "I don't know why, but that sounds kinda sexy?"

Lance was right: that was weird. So weird that Charlie just stared at him for a few seconds before flatly responding, "Really?"

"Yeah,” Lance said. “The thought of you laying an egg is, uh, really exciting? I can’t explain it. I thought it was gross at first, and horrible, and it still totally is! I’m not dismissing how bad it is for you or anything. I just, you know earlier today when you told me about you and Nicky? That you helped her lay eggs? I was a little upset at first, but I thought about it while we were, um, you know, and thinking of you having an orgasm as you’re laying just… wow.”

Charlie considered his words carefully. “I don’t think that can happen with me,” he said. “Nicky’s special. She said lapras just sorta do that, and their eggs are really small. Mine are… ugh. Can I rant for a second?” Lance opened his mouth, but Charlie went on before he could butt in, “I’m jealous of Nicky. She lays a lot more eggs at once than I do, sure, but they’re squishy and tiny and she’s so BIG that I doubt it hurts that much. I guess we both get contractions, which really sucks, but I doubt they hurt as much for her as they do for me, you know? If I have to be a girl, why can’t my eggs be tiny and squishy? Why can’t my eggs come out during orgasm? Wh-why can’t my life be e-easy?”

Throat closing up and his eyes blurring, he feared that if he spoke another word he’d start crying. Fantastic job, Charlie. Ruining the moment by complaining and almost breaking into tears. Why am I so—

Warmth enveloped him as Lance blanketed his tails over his lower body. “I’m sorry you have to go through that. I’d go through this with you if I could.”

“That’s nice of you, really, but I don’t want you to go through this with me. It’s horrible. Awesome sex is so not worth the egg-laying.” 

Charlie leaned into Lance with a sigh. But as he embraced him, there was a sudden drop in pressure between his legs, and they let out twin gasps asLance’s knot plopped out of him along with a gush of their shared fluids. Charlie peered down at Lance’s crotch, but their closeness blocked the view. “Wow, that was weird… I thought you said I’d have to squeeze you out?”

“Owww, I’ve never done this before!” Lance protested, looking more than a little dazed by the sudden slip out. He wriggled away from their hug and lifted a hind leg, showing off his incredibly swollen length. So swollen that it was a deep, dark crimson, still twitching in the open air.  “Oh, Arceus, this feels— owww! I’ve never had it get this, hnn, swollen before! It kinda hurt when it was inside you, but the pressure was a huge relief. Now it won’t stop throbbing!”

Charlie couldn’t look away as Lance began licking his length, whimpering as it jumped and jerked against his tongue. “Oh, jeez, that does look bad. Is there anything I can do to help? This is normal, right?”

He stopped licking to say, “Y-yeah, it’s normal. My dad told me about how I might feel after my first time, but he never said just how red it would look!” He dragged his tongue across his knot, and groaned in what seemed to be relief. 

As Lance took care of his, uh, burden, Charlie lifted a leg of his own to peek at his own reddened flesh. What he saw made him wince. He wasn’t as swollen as Lance, but he definitely was puffy, his folds puckered outward as though preparing for a deep kiss. Various fluids oozed out of his occasionally contracting hole, and he knew without a doubt that cleaning this up would be impossible. 

“How am I gonna hide this from my Dad?” he whispered.

Lance heard him anyway, as he looked up. “Do we have to hide this? I think he’d be cool with it. He likes me, and he’s never been controlling, right?”

“But it’s embarrassing!” Charlie replied, hating how whiny his voice sounded. “I don’t want him imagining his son getting his cloaca knotted.”

“Come on, Charlie, he’s—crap, one sec,” Lance licked himself a few more times, letting his tongue linger. The swelling appeared to be going down already, but Charlie couldn’t be sure. “Sorry, it’s just really annoying. Anyway, he’s your dad. He loves you. You’re old enough to make your own decisions. So even if it is embarrassing that he knows what you did, he’s not going to think too hard about it. Like how I know my parents, uh, mated to have me and my siblings. I just don’t think about it. Your dad would do the same, I think.”

“I’ll consider it,” Charlie decided. “Anyway, let’s go eat when you're soft. I’ll scorch the evidence.”

“Won’t you be leaking?” Lance said.

“I’ll squeeze as much out as I can,” he said, already not looking forward to it. “I can hold in the rest. How hard could it be?”

Very, apparently. 

Charlie wobbled into the main cave where Dad was watching with amusement as Lexi dug into the sawsbuck. Dad glanced up at his arrival, sending a rush of anxiety through the fletchinder. Don’t look guilty, he thought as he made his way over to the sawsbuck, you did nothing wrong, keep squeezing and don’t look guilty. Easier said than done. The increasing pressure against his vent made holding in Lance’s cum very hard. Because apparently you couldn’t simply 'squeeze it out’. Who knew? Lance’s cum threatened to spill out of his poor vent with every step. One mistake, and it would all come gushing out. 

"Charlie, Lance!” Dad said, his grin sending shivers down his spin. Surely he didn’t know? “You boys took your time. Lexi and I caught dinner nearly half an hour ago!" 

Charlie and Lance glanced at each other. "Hi, Mr. Ninetales," Lance said, pawing at the rocky floor. "Sorry for the wait. We were, um… kissing?"

"Lance!" Charlie hissed dramatically, feathers billowing. "Don't tell him that!"

This was all part of the plan. They knew Dad would think something was up, so they decided kissing was the lesser of two evils. It would also explain the obvious stretch of arousal. Probably… Hopefully.

At least he didn’t have to fake his embarrassment.

If anything, Charlie admonishing Lance only made Dad grin even more. "Don't worry about it,” Dad said. “I was your age once, I know how it is. Just be careful not to slice Lance’s muzzle with your beak" 

“D-dad!” Arceus, how was this still so embarrassing? He could just die.

Chuckling, Dad leaned down and nudged the sawsbuck's single intact leg. “I’m just messing with you. Come on, it’s still fresh!” Charlie’s stomach didn’t care about his reservations, and he licked his beak despite himself. "I see you’re hungry! Saved your favorite part. Lexi here couldn’t wait," he nodded at the weavile, who was oblivious to the attention as she gnawed on one of the sawsbuck’s ankles, "but I made sure she stayed away from the thighs."

Charlie stumbled over to the leg, intending to eat his share as fast as possible, but the ninetales' nostrils flared as he passed. Oh no, he smells it, I knew he'd smell it!

To his surprise, Dad didn’t bring it up. To which he was very thankful for as he dug into his meal. He could only half-enjoy as he kept having to clench his muscles. Which was hard. They weren’t designed to be clenched like this, for this long, and it was only a few bites in before he felt his vent relaxing against his control. 

He was about to excuse himself to take a flight before something unfortunate happened when Dad said, “Hey, Charlie? Mind if we talk outside for a bit?” Charlie’s feathers puffed out, and his heart threatened to stop. Apparently sensing his reaction, the ninetales quickly added, “You’re not in trouble! But I do need to discuss something with you in private. It’s important. Meet me outside?”

Dad got up and left, headed for the exit before Charlie could mount an excuse to stay inside. When he was out of earshot, Lexi chimed in, “Good luck, dude.”

“Shut up,” Charlie growled as he followed Dad without another word. Lance looked his way sympathetically as Charlie exited the cave and into the open sky. It was snowing less than before, the sun just barely peeking out over the horizon with dark purples and lovely pinks painting the sky. The sunset would have been pretty enough to sit down and watch if not for the looming talk in his immediate future.

Dad sat down on the edge of the cliff and let out a deep, lengthy sigh. Uh-oh. "You can talk with me about anything. You know that, don't you?" A growing knot filled his insides as Dad pierced him with gentle eyes. 

"Yeah, totally," was his response. Because what else could he say?

"I've had a long life,” Dad continued. “I've raised sons and daughters, watched my grandchildren grow up to give me plenty of great-grandchildren, most of them still alive and kicking today." Looking out into the distance, Dad sighed again. "So trust me when I say I know what kids your age get up to, and it wasn't only kissing."

"D-dad, I—"

"You're not in trouble," he interrupted. "I wish you'd be more careful, but I get it. It isn't only my experience raising kids; I was your age once too, back when everyone thought of me as Nathanial, instead of that old ninetales who lives in the cave. I still have that drive occasionally, it’s not like I forgot what it’s like."

"Ew, Dad, gross!" His feathers ruffled from the implications of his dad doing that. Just, no. 

Dad just laughed. "What? If I have to smell your kissing across the cave, you can handle knowing your dad is just as much of a pokemon as you are." Everything stopped. The snow, the wind, even Dad's back vanished into a blur. His worst fear—that Dad could smell it this whole time—finally proven correct. 

"Y-you can smell it?"

"Oh, Charlie." Dad turned around, and Charlie squirmed under the older ninetale’s soft gaze. It almost would’ve been better if Dad was mad at him. He didn’t know how to react to the ninetales’ weird understanding. "I'd have thought Lance would tell you I’d be able to smell. You’re adorable together, and I’m very happy for you two, but the scents you’re making while kissing,” the ninetales dramatically wrinkled his nose, “are less than adorable. You should know how good our sense of smell is. Stop doing that in the cave, for both of our sake’s."

"Lance did tell me!" he squawked, feathers ruffled in all the wrong ways. "I just thought… I dunno. Can we please stop talking about this? I promise I’ll do it some--won’t do it again!"

"You’re not getting out of this that easily," he said, smirking as though enjoying Charlie’s obvious discomfort. "Besides, I have important things to tell you. I don't know exactly what you're doing with Lance, and I do not wish to know the details, but if it is penetrative sex, be careful. Knotting can be dangerous. I may not know much about fletchinder anatomy, as we both learned the hard way, but I do know that most bird pokemon are not designed for penetration. You could tear something."

"Ugh, Dad! I was—" He clamped his beak shut when Dad's smile deepened. Weakly, he continued, "I will be careful!" The thought of anything tearing down there was horrifying, so he’d absolutely keep that in mind, but it was still horrendously embarrassing to hear his dad mention it. 

Dad just rolled his eyes at his poor attempt to cover up his slip. "Uh-huh. But if you are letting him knot you, and it starts to hurt, stop. I’m confident Lance cannot fertilize your eggs, but there are other other problems you could face. My first piece of advice is one I know you’re going to scoff at, but please come to me if anything hurts or worse, especially if it hurts for more than a few hours.” 

Charlie shrunk into himself, mortified at the thought of coming to his dad with that kind of problem. 

“I figured you’d hate that!” Dad said, laughing. “In that case, just tell Lance to stop if it ever starts to hurt, and tell him to be gentle next time. There is no shame in being honest with him. My first mate and I learned that the hard way, and she had the right genitals to handle it."

"Ewww!” Charlie cried, mortified not for the first time during this discussion. “All of it was bad enough, but did you really have to mention that last part?!"

"Not really," Dad said with a laugh. “Think of this as payback for stinking up our cave. Imagine my embarrassment knowing what you two were getting up to and unable to do anything about it.”

“Ugh, you’re the worst!” Strangely, Charlie found himself smiling at his dad. He felt better now. More free, somewhat. Less stressed. Dad was treating him normal. He wasn’t being careful with what he said, but giving him exactly the info he thought he needed to hear, no matter how embarrassing it was for both of them. Charlie pressed his beak against Dad’s neck and said, “Thanks, Dad.”

“It’s what I do,” Dad whispered, nuzzling him back… before pulling away with an exaggerated wrinkling of his nose. “Okay, now shoo! Go take a flight and clean up in the snow. And the next time you do something with Lance, do it somewhere else." He wrinkled his nose. "For my sake."

Well, that was a nightmare.

Okay, it wasn’t actually a nightmare, but it was really awkward, which was a whole different class of bad dream. Dad always liked to do this, teach him some ‘wise’ life lesson or two whenever something big happened. The only exception was laying the egg. That talk proved much less involved, likely because Dad just didn’t know much about it. But sex, especially vulpix and ninetales sex, Dad knew loads about, apparently, and that was not a reminder he needed. He was not looking forward to any more talks, even if he felt a little less stressed now that it was done and over with. Knowing Dad could smell him leaking was bad enough. 

Future Charlie’s problem, he decided mid-air after excusing himself from the cave at Dad's insistence, That was Future Charlie’s problem. 

While that may be Future Charlie’s problem, Present Charlie was having issues of his own, namely how bizarre leaking cum during flight felt. He could feel Lance’s seed trickling out of him with every flap of his wings, and that odd sensation kept his cloaca in motion. He figured anyone looking up would be able to see his vent puckering and relaxing as droplets of vulpix rapidly cooled and sprinkled down onto them as lewd snowflakes. 

At least, that was how he imagined it. Reality was probably a lot more boring. It felt very annoying regardless, like he was aroused without actually feeling horny. 

Then there was the stomach ache. He should not have eaten so fast, but alas, Past Charlie decided that was Future Charlie’s problem. Flying didn’t help, either. Each wingbeat sloshed his food around, making him more and more nauseous. 

It took a while before he stopped leaking. By the time he no longer felt anything leaking out, it was already sunset, light barely illuminating the cliffside that was his home. He landed behind a snow-covered shrub to take care of an urgent bodily function, rolled around in the snow to get as much of Lance's scent off of him as possible, then flew back to the cave. Inside the entryway, he found Lance leaning against Lexi with his tails tucked around his legs, looking way too adorable for someone who caused Charlie’s recent cloacal issues. 

Had he mentioned his vent hurt too? Because it was throbbing something fierce about now. Maybe he should take a break like Dad insisted? 

“Hey, Charlie!” Lexi greeted him, stirring Lance from beside her. He stretched out all four of his legs and yawned, emitting a squeak that melted his heart. “What took you so long?”

“Ask Lance that,” he deadpanned. 

Lance just blinked at him sleepily. “What’d I do?”

Mindful of Lexi’s presence, Charlie just sighed. “Never mind,” he said. “So, where’s Dad? Is he in his cave?”

“Probably, dunno, he just left after dinner,” Lexi said, letting out a yawn to match Lance’s. Smacking her lips, she added, “By the way, you left some Lance goop by the sawsbuck. A whole trail and everything leading out of the cave. If your Dad didn’t know you and Lance boned before, I’m pretty sure he knows now. You really should have cleaned up better before dinner if you didn’t want him finding out, you know. Even if I’m pretty sure he’d smell the jizz no matter what.”

“No, really? I didn't notice.” Lexi squinted at him, then her eyes widened in realization. “Yeah, cleaning up after sex is not easy at all. You try being knotted to Lance for half an hour and manage to clean up in any reasonable time. Also, Dad already knows. He told me. Ugh."

“Oh, so that’s why you were gone for so long!” Leaning back, Lexi giggled. “Ha! Did he tell you not to get your vent stuffed or something? And were you leaking your entire flight?”

“I’m so sorry!” Lance rushed over with an apologetic nuzzle, burying his head under his left wing. Charlie almost melted from the intimacy. “I hope you didn’t get into trouble! I didn’t realize we would make that much of a mess.”

“It’s okay,” he said, ignoring Lexi's question about his talk with his dad. “But, uh, let’s go back to my room. I’m tired, and I just want to sleep. We can talk as we wind down, okay?”

Lance almost immediately fell asleep upon entering his part of the cave. The little furball swore he wasn’t going to just crash, that they’d be able to have a little discussion before bed, but here he was, curled up on Charlie’s nest of shedded feathers with his nose under his tails, snoozing away. 

Charlie made it to Lance’s side, feeling no less tired as he slipped a wing over him with the intention of following in his footsteps when Lexi made it very clear sleep was not on her mind. “Now that Lance is asleep,” Lexi began, practically bouncing on her claws, “how was it?”

“Uhh, how was what?” Charlie knew exactly what she meant, but he played dumb to try and get her to drop it and let him sleep, too. He’d talk about this with her tomorrow… maybe. But right now, he just wanted to stay snuggled up next to Lance and crash.

“Sex, duh,” Lexi said.

There it was. 

“It was good, I guess?” Charlie replied.

“What do you mean ‘you guess’? I want details!”

Charlie sighed, though not loud enough to wake the snoring vulpix snuggled under his wing. He expected this, given how much Lexi looked at him during dinner. He just hoped she’d leave him alone until tomorrow. He might have beena little excited to discuss his first time with Lexi, just not when he was so, so tired, and when his stomach still hurt.

“Can we talk about this tomorrow?” he whispered. “I’m full from dinner, my butt’s sore, and Dad just told me he could smell everything. I just want to sleep.”

If anything, that only made Lexi more curious. He should have figured. “Sore? He’s big, then?”

“Um, yeah. Big.” The soft glow from the ceiling crystal illuminated Lexi’s face enough to catch her grin. Her interest felt a little too inquisitive, Charlie realized, so he asked, “Why do you want to know about this so badly? You’d had sex before, this should be normal for you.”

Her grin fell. “Right. That. Uh, I’m gonna tell you something, but you have to promise me you will not tell anyone. Not even Lance. Got it?”

Now she had him curious. What secret could Lexi possibly have to make her nervous about sharing it? “You’re one of my best friends; of course your secret is safe with me.”

She took a deep breath. “I can’t believe I’m gonna say this… but… I’ve never actually done it.” Charlie cocked his head to the side, staring at her in confusion. She groaned. “I’ve never had sex, got it?”

“What!?”

“Shhhh,” Lexi hissed. “Dude, keep it down. I don’t want Lance waking up and hearing this.”

“Oh, so now you’re worried about waking pokemon up?” He giggled softly at Lexi’s guilty look. Carefully extracting Lance out from under his wing, Charlie sat up to better give Lexi his attention. “How have you not had sex? That’s, like, all you talk about.”

“Ugh, I know,” she said. “I just—look. I love the idea of it, and I thought if I act like I’m experienced I’d get loads of dudes trying to get under my tail, or maybe a few asking for a peek under it.”

“Does what you have even count as a tail?”Charlie interrupted with a grin.

“Hey!” she replied in a harsh whisper. “If your tail feathers count as a tail, so do mine! I’m opening up to you, jeez; don’t mock me.”

“Sorry,” he said. “Couldn’t help it. It’s fun teasing you for a change. Seriously though, who cares if you’re never had sex? I haven’t had sex until today.”

Lexi sighed. “I care,” she said. “I’m horny all the time, but I never get to fix it, you know? I just—maybe I should ask Lance’s brother out. He’d probably be down to fuck. Ugh, but he’s so annoying.”

“He’s not that bad,” Charlie countered. “If you’re looking for a quick, um, you know, I could think of worse pokemon. Just be careful. Unlike me and Lance, you and Sam can make babies.”

Lexi shuddered. “Don’t even say that. I can’t imagine having children with him.”

Charlie rolled his eyes. For the life of him, he didn’t understand why Lexi didn’t get along with Sam. If anything, he thought they’d be perfect for each other. Both were crude, both loved sex, and both were not shy about that. The only difference between them was that Sam definitely had sex before, while Lexi apparently hadn’t. 

…It just hit him that he lost his virginity before Lexi had. How crazy was that?

“What about someone else?” Charlie leaned in. “A lot of pokemon across the island would be down for it.”

“Yeah, pokemon who’d jump me then leave.” Looking away wistfully, lexi sighed again. “Honestly? I was sorta hoping I’d get lucky with Lance… or you.” When Charlie blinked at her, Lexi crossed her arms with a huff. “What?It’s not that weird! I trust my friends, not some random pokemon looking to get tail. So of course I had my eyes trained on you guys. You’re, uh, special to me.”

Charlie always suspected not all of Lexi’s teasing was faked, but he hadn’t realized until now just how real it was. Just how much she wanted to, uh, do that with him. It was flattering, but also a little awkward? “Oh… That’s sorta sweet. It’s nice to know you feel that way, really! But why didn’t you say anything? If you did I might have, um, been respective?”

“Scared, I guess,” Lexi said, looking at the wall. “It’s easier to be shameless and crude and stuff than to be open. I hoped one of you guys would pick up on it and ask to fuck me, I guess. But not even Lance did…”

Charlie looked at Lexi as though she were an idiot. It took a lot to not call her one, honestly. “You can’t just expect us to know when you’re being serious if you tease us constantly,” he said, keeping his voice steady. “It’s even worse when you claim you were ‘just joking’ afterward. Us guys don’t pick up on these things. You could literally flaunt your pussy in our faces and we’d chalk that up to your teasing again.”

“I did flaunt my pussy in your faces,” she pointed out. Shoulders slumping, she put her face in her claws. “Ugh. I fucked up. It’s too late to ask if you’ll be my first, isn’t it?”

“Yes, sorry.” He gently put a wing on Lexi’s hand, looking up into her disappointed eyes. “I am a bit curious what it would feel like, being with someone who has kind of the same parts as I do, but Lance would kill me.”

“Not if we have a threesome,” she suggested, the tiniest of hope in her voice.

“Haha, no.” 

Lexi slumped. “Can’t blame a girl for trying?

Charlie was going to say something snarky when he was overtaken by a sudden cramp. It flared up in his midsection without warning, and continued without respite even as Lexi asked him what was wrong. He hugged himself with his wings, whimpering softly, before letting out a gasp of relief when the wave passed. 

That could only have been one thing. “F-fuck,” he cursed, shaking as his feathers fluffed up. “That was worse than last time.”

“Is… is it an egg?” 

He nodded, still shaky. “I think so. It’s about the same intensity as the day before… last time. So, I think it’s coming tomorrow? Which sucks. I had cramps for a week before they worsened a day before I laid. Now it’s bad all at once.”

“Do you think knotting Lance has something to do with it?”

“What, no! Of course not!” Maybe. He wasn’t entirely confident in his knowledge of fletchinder anatomy, obviously. “This cramp wasn’t in my… uh, cloaca. It was deeper. Like in my guts. Where I felt it last time.”

Lexi’s eyes widened. “Oh! I get those sometimes when I’m in heat,” she reasoned. “Is that what it feels like? Heat cramps? They can get really bad sometimes. Remember that time I didn’t see you guys for a few days a few months back? Well, I got it really bad that time, bled more than usual too. I thought I was dying!”

“I so did not need to hear about that,” Charlie said, grimacing at the thought of bleeding from there. “Bad enough you sometimes leave red spots in the snow, I don’t need to know it can get worse than that. Ew.”

Lexi squinted at him as if he’d said something very stupid. “Dude, really? You laid an entire egg in front of me, I think you’re beyond thinking a little blood coming out of me is gross. Honestly, you’re lucky there wasn’t any blood from trying to squeeze an egg out of something so small.”

Charlie couldn’t argue with that. “Sorry.” Looking down at himself, he imagined an egg growing inside his belly, uncomfortable and terrifying, and added, “How do you deal with the pain? I don’t know why your body would hurt yourself when you don’t lay eggs, but it obviously hurts, right? I have no idea how I’m going to handle doing this forever.”

“I’d say you get used to it, but sometimes, when it’s really bad, I’m just cursing myself and wishing I was a boy. Not, like, actually wishing I was a boy, but you know.” Lexi chuckled, as though what she said was funny. If anything, he was left more unsettled by her words than comforted. “It’s ironic, since heat also makes you all horny, and before the full pain kicks in I love how I feel. Nothing like a good heat orgasm, you know? I just wish I could sit on a nice, big dick next time, you know?”

Charle recalled when he ate himself out, over and over, how wondrous it felt. How he chained his climaxes into a blur of pleasure. Then there was Lance. Just thinking about that dummy had his vent clench and his tail feathers flutter. “Yeah, I think I do…” He yawned, clacking his beak. “Can I sleep now? I’m still really tired.”

“Fiiine,” Lexi huffed, grinning between her claws. “But only if I get to snuggle you both~”

Charlie couldn’t help it: he laughed. “Fiiine,” he teased.

Lexi took the offer without hesitation. She went, “Yes!” and flopped over onto Charlie, making him squawk as she wrapped her lengthy arms around him and Lance, holding them snug, but not too tight. “Goodnight, my fluffy friends~”

The weavile was surprisingly comfortable. With her claws safely out of the way, her short fur and body heat felt pleasant against his feathers. “Goodnight, Lexi.”