Matching "Hearts" (Twokinds)

Upon reaching the tavern Rose mentioned, Red sighed in relief as he noticed a barely lit lamp hanging overhead the tavern’s front door. From the gentle breathing and dead weight on his back, Raine had peacefully fallen asleep long before he arrived, and he hoped that would make what came next easier. After kicking the door a few times to try and get anyone who was inside’s attention, a tired and grumpy looking snow leopard opened the door. A few awkward seconds passed as neither party wanted to speak first, but luckily for Red, he didn’t have to.
“Can I help you, mister-?”
“Erhya-ow...” He couldn’t help but notice the stinging pain on the side of his tongue, he knew his teeth were starting to sharpen, but not his tongue getting bigger.
Despite not being a master at reading keidran expressions, Red was around Rose long enough to know what an annoyed keidran looked like. “Mister, I’m going to be frank, I was just about to head to bed, and then I hear you kicking my door hard enough to nearly wake up everyone inside my tavern. The main reason I haven’t called the guards yet is I’m afraid you’ll start yelling and actually wake everyone up.”
“Thorry, ah juth need a ruom fo tha night.”
The snow leopard scanned the mostly wolf up and down with a cold blue gaze, “I don’t rent out to drunks, I have more than simply earning money to worry about.”
“I ahin’t drunk!” he said, almost being loud enough to wake the sleeping Raine on his back. Adira just leaned her head slightly to the left and raised her eyebrow at a half empty “potion” bottle hanging out the side of his pant pocket. Red knew he had to be very careful with his next words if he still was planning on sleeping here tonight. “Ih taeks moh thin a bouhtle tuh mack muh drunk!”
The internal self scolding was immediate.
The middle aged keidran’s eyes furrowed before she grabbed his white neck and yanked it close to her face, much closer than Red was comfortable with. But before he could even ask what she was doing, he noticed her pink nose twitch a couple times. Red knew keidran had a strong sense of smell, but how she could tell how much he had to drink was still a mystery to him.
The moment she let go of his neck, she sighed, “Alright, I’ll rent you a room… but only for tonight, and I want you gone early in the morning, got it?”
The redhead could only nod. “Yea.” He wanted to start cursing the snow leopard the entire journey up to their new quarters, but quickly submitted to the fact that she was being far more lenient than he could ever be.
Upon closing the door and finally leaving Adira alone for the night, Red couldn’t help but notice that it was a rather small but cozy room with a single bed, he hoped Raine wouldn't be bothered too much by it. The room did have one thing that caught the redhead's eyes after a quick peek inside for curiosity’s sake: a small wooden tub fit for one person... or two, if they didn't mind being close.
After shaking away the “pleasant” thoughts, he managed to lay Raine down and pull the blanket over her without waking her up, mentally high-fiving himself as he slipped off her mask…
There was one thing that immediately brought him out of his self celebratory state, there was a wall mirror above the dresser over in the corner of their room, a beast looking at him in the reflection. His back fur had already stood up straight as a sharp coldness took hold around his neck. Everything but his face was wolf, his once round pupils were slashed, the back of his cheeks were already long since fluffy with white fur, and his body felt like it was on fire. He couldn’t help but wonder if Mary went through the same thing... probably quicker and more painful than what he was feeling.
His teeth had fully sharpened into canines before he’d entered the tavern, which made talking to the snow leopard downstairs a fun game of masked speech and hand gestures.
And to make matters even worse for the once human man, he felt a fiery surge build up within him that slowly crawled towards his face. In preparation, he shakily made his way to the dresser to at least have something to balance himself on while the spell finally completed after a night of slow and dreadful progress. Red once again lowered his mask… and waited for what little humanity he had left to be stripped away.
Raine tiredly cracked her eyes open to the sound of heavy panting. At first she thought she had transformed into her wolf form and overheated, but the lack of a dog nose obstructing her vision told her otherwise. After a few moments of scanning the room with her pair of wolf ears, she sourced the noise to be coming from somewhere in the room she was in… and then scolded her exhausted brain for producing such an obvious answer. Though, not knowing what was making that noise was putting her mind slightly on edge, she was in a completely new room afterall. It was only as she slowly turned towards the panting did she truly realize who it was coming from.
Her keidran like eyes went wide in excitement, since that night she’d always wanted to see his wolf face, “Red? Are you finally a wolf!?”
He didn’t turn to her as he paused a few seconds before answering, “Yea.”
A little bit of concern pricked at the back of her head, “Can you show me?”
His ears were down alongside his tail, “...”
She knew something was wrong, Raine quickly transformed back into her full human self, hopped out of bed and walked over to the new wolf, she paused a second before laying her head on his fluffy arm, “Are you okay?”
She couldn’t help but notice his snarling mask was still on his face, she could tell he was finally fully transformed, but couldn't make out any details underneath. “Yea, just a little… warm.”
The silver haired girl slipped her hand under his black shirt, and rubbed her fingers through his warm and thick coat. Upon finally meeting the skin underneath, she was greeted with a scorching  hot surface. “Oh! How long have you been smoldering like this?”
“Not long,” he lied.
“It feels like you’re about to overheat!” She needed to get him cooled down immediately, if only Rose had taught her the spell to bring back his human form.
“Raine, I’m… alright, really.” he said while restraining his panting.
“Red please, what’s wrong?” She tried to take off his mask only for him to catch and gently hold her hands away, “Oh, is there something wrong with your face?”
“Yea.”
Raine couldn’t help but remember when he first truly looked at her wolf face. It wasn't a pleasant time for either of them, but at least she had an idea of what to do. “Hey, look at me.” With his hands still gently holding her wrists, she shyly brushed some of his long red bangs away from his masked green eyes and placed a shaky hand under his chin. “Uh, I know it’s strange, I know you probably think you’re ugly now… Gods know I did, but you still found me attractive enough to keep me around.”
His hands wrapped around hers as his tail slowly wagged a bit, “Heh, don’t sell yourself short Raine, you’re… really cute in your wolf form.”
“And I’m sure you’re really cute too!” she said while playfully tugging a little on the mask, not really trying to take it off.
But he still kept it firmly in place anyways, “Tch, cute? I’d say I’m more handsome than cute, Raine.”
She was rubbing his fluffy cheeks under the mask at this point, “You could be both, you know. And you could be even more handsome!”
He cringed a little under his mask, but still appreciated the effort, “You mean like how you’re both cute and… curvier in your wolf form?”
She kinda regretted not transforming fully instead of turning human, just to hide the rosey pink cheeks on the side of her face, “H-heh, we should get you a cold bath or something mister.” she said while feeling his ears.
He groaned in delight at the strange new feeling, “There’s one in that room over there.” he said while he pointed a clawed finger at the room he scanned earlier.
“Think there’s water in the tub?”
“If it’s like how Maren ran her inn, there should be fresh water in a tub every time before someone rents a room.”
“Oh yeah… ” She looked at the mask and thought of an idea, “So, we should take off that mask, it shouldn’t get wet, the paint might stain your white fur.”
“Snrk, Raine, I was there when Maren applied the waterproof coating, it ain’t going to get ruined by the water.”
Raine was determined, “Well what about the nose?”
“The nose?”
“Yeah, when we tried to...” Her cheeks flushed red again, “you know, we chipped the paint on each other’s noses.” She let go of his shoulders and quickly went over to where Red had set her mask down and picked it up, she hoped he could see through the moonlit room, “See?” she said while pointing at the chipped nose, a little red paint shavings were still laying on the pink background.
“No.” he honestly couldn’t see through the dark room, even with his keidran eyes.
“Oh uh,” she quickly found a candle next to their bed and tried lighting it, snapping her fingers together like Red had taught her and emitting tiny sparks in the process. It warmed the wolf’s heart to see it, especially the determined look on her face. After a couple more attempts of snapping her fingers, she managed to light the small wick, “There! See see!?” she said while holding the candle a little too close to the mask.
Red knew far too well the damage the masks took during their snoot boop, but still wasn’t fully comfortable with seeing what his face was morphed into, “I see it… I’ll just keep my head above water, and be careful getting in is all.”
She wasn’t giving up, she had one last thing to pull, something both the Taverndatter sisters had both suggested on a night long ago: acting cute, “Please take the mask off?” she said while giving him a small hug with her chin flat against his chest, she couldn’t help but notice the still very intense heat coming off his body.
It hit home perfectly, “Raine, I really don’t want to, uh, give me til morning?” She knew of another way to solely get that mask off... without any other reason behind it either, “Besides, I’ll probably have to take it off when Rose does her thi-” he was cut off by Raine standing on her tippie toes, and placing a rather long kiss on the front of his mask.
After breaking the kiss with a loud slightly wooden sounding “smeck”, Raine looked away and giggled a little to herself, “N-next one, will be on your lips, if you know, heheh.”
Somehow his face was even hotter than before, aaaand he was pretty sure he was fully in love with her at that point. With a slight ‘here goes nothing’ smile, he slowly pulled off his mask.
Raine couldn’t help but smile at the sight, his muzzle had a slight bump in it, like a dorsal hump on a human’s nose. His face wasn’t as triangularly fluffy like Raine’s, but it still was full of white fur, much to her delight as she began rubbing his cheeks. He couldn’t help but let a small but still sad smile spread across his new wolf lips, he returned his girlfriend’s affection, letting his own paw pads gently rub her fair skinned cheeks.
“See, I knew you’d still be handsome.”
But before Red could place a kiss on her soft lips, he suddenly fell a little backwards into the dresser. “Hng, okay… that bath sounds a little good right now.”
She was immediately concerned, grabbing him by the arm to make sure he didn’t fall over, “Are you okay? Uh, scale one to ten, how bad is it?”
“... Seven… and a half.” he lied.
“That’s still way too high! Come on, lean on me.”
“Okay.”
Despite trying to carry himself, he still ended up leaning most of his weight on her shoulders. Raine didn’t mind it at all, he was extremely warm and fuzzy after all, only the whole situation was a little awkward, trying to carry a big wolf and a candle at the same time was a little more than difficult. Upon reaching the bathroom, the couple sighed at the sight, a wooden tub filled three fourths of the way full of water. Red immediately began stripping, first his shirt, then his belt and pants… and that’s when he remembered who else was in the room.
“Uh, you okay with me taking these off?” he said while tugging his waistband.
She hid her eyes with her hair in response, “G-Go ahead.”
Red huffed out a hot breath of air, and pulled off his underwear, he noticed the bathroom had another mirror in it, smaller and clearly meant to be used for styling your hair. But he wasn’t focused on his own hair, but on a yellow eye peeking out through silver locks. He smiled, at least he was still good looking enough to steal her eyes. His entry into the tub was less than graceful as his stilt-like paws slipped and he tumbled down into the cold water, splashing it all around him… and a small gasp to his right was all he needed to know about the extent of its range.
“Sorry, Raine!”
“Oooooh, at least I know it’s cold for you.”
The water quickly soaked his fur with nearly freezing temperatures, he could only grunt in delight as the overwhelming heat was sapped out of his body. Though, it made him think about who else could be “enjoying” the cool temperatures.
“Your clothes wet?”
“Yeah… We didn’t bring any others either.”
“You can wear some of mine while yours dry, not like I'll need them for a while… Besides my pants.” Red had an ambiguous thought, “It’s a little cold in here, you could also… turn into your wolf form… or...”
“Oh yeah, I’d at least be warm and a little more covered… wait, or what?” she said while setting the surprisingly still lit candle on the windowsill next to the bath.
“Or, do all that later and...” he hoped he wouldn’t regret this, “join me?” Raine blushed with a blank face, grabbed a towel and slowly backed into the bedroom. “Uh, was that a yes?” there was no answer… He couldn’t help but scold himself a bit: “Can’t get through one night witho-”
“Uh, can you close your eyes?”
“... You’re in the other room.”
“I know but, still?”
He still was a little dubious on her intent, maybe she didn’t want him to see her transform? “Okay, here” he flopped a towel over his face, “I have a towel over my head, I can only see darkness.” he said while leaning back into the tub.
After waiting a few minutes and hearing a couple of random fumbles in the other room, Red finally heard two keidran feet step into the room, “Snrk.”
“What?”
“You look ridiculous,” He just smiled and began flopping his wolf ears up and down as quickly as he could, flopping the cloth on his head around a bit.
Her chuckles evolved into quiet laughter as the towel finally fell off his head and into slightly less cold water. Red quickly inhaled through his nose at the sight before him, a fully wolf Raine wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around her body, and she was absolutely adorable. Her laughter stifled a bit when she noticed his awed gaze on her body, she couldn’t help but shyly look away as she immediately began rubbing her hair.
“So I uh, how will we… I-Is it hot in here?”
“Open a window if you want, it won’t bother me.” She nervously opened the small window, immediately letting in a small and cool gust of air into the room. “You okay, Raine?”
“Y-Yeah, I just, never have done something like this...” Her voice was a mumbling whisper, “I don’t really want to mess tonight up, you know?”
The sounds of very early morning flow through their ears from the window as Red held out his hand, “Heh, oh boy do I. Here, just get in like you normally would and… slowly lean back.”
She grabbed his paw and let their padded fingers interlock. She shivered a little as her toe touched the water, how he was laying in the liquid so calmly was impressive to the wolfess.
She was just standing in a bathtub now, a very romantic sight indeed, “How should I?”
He scooched a bit up to let his arms rest on the rim of the tub, “Uh...” This was going to be awkward no matter how he put it, “Lap or a little in front?”
He could see her tail start to wag a bit in excitement, “W-what?”
“Do you, wanna sit in my lap or between my legs?” Raine could only answer by slightly patting her own “lap”. “Alright, just… follow my hands.”
She turned around and let her other hand lock with his, and ever so slowly let her body be submerged in the lukewarm water. The silver haired wolf squeaked once she felt her bottom brush his body.
“You’re okay, just ease into me a little.” She immediately felt his effect on the water as she began to let herself start to unfold onto him, raising the water level up to the rim of the bowl as she finally laid back into him. “Better?”
After a few moments of adjusting to being close, she reached her left paw up to cup his cheek behind her head, “A little.”
Red wrapped his own around her toweled waist, and gave her a slight squeeze as he tried to kiss her cheek. “Pfth, peh! How do you kiss with these lips?!”
“Heh, I don’t know, maybe that’s why keidran lick and nuzzle.”
“Hm.” Red did his best to nuzzle her cheek, it came out more as him just smooshing his nose into the side of her fluff, though she still enjoyed the feeling.
As more of his warmth started to flow into her, her tense and tired muscles relaxed more onto his body. Both of their submerged tails were slowly wagging, Raine closed her eyes and sighed happily, she’d thought her perfect night had ended, but it seemed a private encore was due.
She couldn’t help but listen to nature’s music still pouring through the window. “Mmh, what time is it?”
Red was doing a similar act, only difference was focusing on the new scent coming from before him with his new keidran nose. “Couple birds out, mmmm, at least four in the morning.”
“Huh, I thought songbirds came out later.”
“Most do, some like to do it early, but never before four.”
“Why?”
He smirked a little, “Probably because not even wild animals want to do anything that early.”
She finally let the back of her head sink fully onto his right fluffy shoulder, “Snrk, well, that didn’t stop you.”
“Yeah yeah, man are we gonna be feeling it tomorrow. Walking back into the estate is going to be fun.”
“Hey,” She rubbed behind his ear a little, Red didn’t know how to feel about the amazing sensation he was getting, “we can just go into the garden from the back and have Rose transform you there, like in the maze or something.”
“Huh, If we’re lucky enough, everyone else will probably still be tired if we get there early enough.”
“Mhm, might be a little hard, I’m still pretty tired.”
Red fastened his grip on her waist, “You can take a little nap if you want, I got you.”
Raine peeked her eyes open as she smiled, “And who will keep you from drifting off?”
“I wouldn’t miss a second of- yaaawwww-ah shit, wouldn’t miss a second of this pretty sight in front of me.” he said with a slight rub to her belly.
She felt the slight heat from her body drift away into the barely heated water, “Mhm, I’ll be fine for a few more hours, er... hour.”  There was a certain thought that had been floating around Raine’s head, and she figured that he wouldn’t mind the tease. “Have you noticed your voice has changed yet?”
He huffed a bit at the question, “Yeah, a bit scratchier.”
She smirked as she prepared to make him proud, “You could also say it’s a bit… wuffer?”
…
…
…
“Raine... ”
“...Y-Yeah?”
“You’re awesome, you know that?” he said with a dopey smile across his muzzle.
As the minutes passed by in silence, the water they laid in began to heat up to a more comfortable temperature. Red had finally cooled down despite being and having a fluffy wolf resting in his lap, so long as Raine was with him, he had nothing to worry about. Meanwhile the silver haired wolf was slowly beginning to find a similar comfort, by the time the water had become warm enough for her, her entire body had relaxed and practically melted into his.
Raine’s heart fluttered as she remembered the unfulfilled promise she made earlier, “H-hey,” she shifted a bit onto her side, just so she can be face to face with the redhead, “You’ve taken your mask off, you know what that means?”
Red tried, “Uh, it won’t get wet?”
“Snrk, after that.”
“Oh!” Upon remembering, he squeezed her tightly against himself, and took his once resting hand to caress her face, his clawed thumb rubbing her fluffy cheek with affection. “Guess now would be a good time to learn ‘kissing with dog lips.’”
The two closed their eyes and tried going a head on route at first, only for their noses to gently smoosh together, Raine couldn’t help but nervously giggle at the “snow leopard kiss.” Learning from their initial mistake, they tilted their heads slightly to the side and pressed their front muzzles together, Raine let her hands run through his chest fur as Red squeezed her snug against his body. They slowly broke their kiss with a small “smeck,” the lovely sound joined all the noises from outside that were still filling the room.
Red nuzzled her cheek again, this time it was a more accurate form of a nuzzle, “Mmh, I still like kissing with my human lips more.”
Raine’s face had long since been heated by her concealed blush, “I don’t mind either pair… solongasthey’reyourlips.”
The tired redhead caught just enough of what she said, “Hmm,” a playful thought popped into his mind as he stuck out his long tongue, “Uh onna dathh?”
Raine smiled a bit, she understood what he said, but her face still couldn’t get any less red from his previous antics, “M-Maybe when we get back to the estate… if you first carry me into bed first.”
“Mhm, I’ll carry you all the back to the estate if I have to~”
“Hmm, that does raise the question of how we’re getting back when you’re a...”
“Yeah... you can always try teleporting us, or we can just walk.”
“Walking sounds the safest.” she said while shifting over again to rest her back against his belly.
“Yeah but teleporting sounds funner… I’ll hold your hand if you get scared~”
She sneaked her paw into his with a small squeeze, “If I’m not too tired then, I’ll think about it.”
While the two tried to enjoy their position as much as they could while trying to stay awake, they eventually came to the realization they should get back to sleep, they had to at least try to get up early. After a couple of seconds of silently debating whether or not just sleeping in the tub was a good idea, Raine slowly made her way out. Red draped a soaked towel over his face, but left a small crack open to spy on the girl currently transforming into a human, fair is fair after all. She had to pull out water from her long hair manually with magic and splashed it back into the tub. The water logged in her fur just simply fell off her skin as she transformed.  After stepping into the other room, she dropped the towel onto the floor and set the nearly burnt out candle on the bed side table, she couldn’t help but blush a little at her own nude body in the mirror, all it would take is a couple steps back into the washroom to “spice things up” after all. But the tired girl shook her head free of those thoughts and slipped Red’s “evil hearts” boxers and black shirt on, Raine quickly realized both were a little big on her… and covered in his white fur, which might be hard to explain to the others if they don’t see the “new wolf” among them.
She tried to rub some off, but was interrupted by her boyfriend’s still soaking wet form in the doorway, “Wanna pull this water off me? It’s ah, a little too cold now.”
He was wearing a much too small towel around his waist, too small in the fashion that he had to hold it up so it didn’t fall down, a “quitter” if she remembered a previous rant of his correctly. Raine, of course pushed the thoughts out of her head and began pulling a lot of water out of his fur… liters upon liters of water actually, far more than Raine had in her fur, she wondered if there was any left in the tub when he got out.
The moment he was dry she couldn’t help but stare at his chest fluff; it was inviting to say the least. The human girl stepped forward a little bit… before burying her face into his fur, it was thick, soft, and still plenty warm, she figured there was no need for blankets or pillows that night.
The tall wolf hugged her back, practically lifting her up into his arms in the process. “Raine, I still need to put on some pants, you can snuggle me all you want when we’re in bed… Raine?” He caressed her face a little… but her eyes were closed tight. “Oh, heh, guess we found your limit… heh heh, good night Raine, I’ll see you when you wake up.”
The redhead laid her onto their bed and snuffed out the candle with his black paw pads before finding his pants and sliding them on, not his first time he’d sleep in his day clothes, and judging how things were going overall in their lives, it wouldn’t be his last. But none of that mattered, especially if he had her by his side. As the new wolf joined the Silverlock on the bed, and pulled her sleeping form close to keep her warm, he guessed that this whole wolf form wasn't as bad as he thought it'd be.

(Twokinds, and all the characters in this story © Thomas Fischbach)
Thanks you Mr. 3D glasses for editing my story, (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/mandag)
Always remember,
“Oh, is there something wrong with your face?” - Raine
-Aimbot.exe