7.5. Hellhounds in the Winter

	Christmas morning.
	That morning every year where it’s almost impossible not to think about what has happened in the past 365 days and beyond, or reminisce about what brought you to this moment.
	Has it really been a full year since your first Christmas with Tai and Tia?
	It’s insane to think about how so much time has passed so fast.

	The two Hellpups have grown and matured quickly too, both mentally and physically. Even though they’re still just twelve now, they have grown a few inches and their facial features have started to mature ever so slightly. You’ve found yourself having to stretch to reach their butts when cuddling in your usual position lately, but gently stroking their lower backs and petting their thick, fluffy tails is almost as good. It’s been impossible not to notice how their charcoal black hips have started to widen a bit or that their flat little breasts have become squishy little obsidian discs that fit into your hands just perfectly.

	Seeing them go to school and make friends and start forming hobbies makes you happier than you thought possible. Not much seems to make Tai happier than sitting front of the television slaying evil monsters for hours, and the abstract geometric paintings that Tia creates make you want to bathe her in a warm sea of praise. From the way her large, fluffy black ears twitch and droop while her tail swishes back and forth silently whenever you hang her most recent work on the wall in your bedroom are a dead giveaway at how proud she is of herself. Even though she’s still silent and expressionless most of the time, those bits of emotion you do see are just beautiful. You also try to join in with Tai on her games when she lets you, but you and she both know you aren’t very good at all. She doesn’t seem to mind though, she keeps up and endless babble of commentary and instructions and happy dog noises as the two of you have your virtual adventures.

	Right now, you can only imagine what they’re up to. The young pups had insisted you stay in your room for at least fifteen minutes before coming to meet them in the living room for Christmas morning; you hope that whatever they have planned isn’t too terribly mischievous. You can’t help but remember their last escapade, where Tai and Tia had pinned you down on the couch under their burning black, tantalizingly naked bodies and nearly force-fed you four hardboiled eggs that you are certain had been in their pussies. The sour, spicy, musky smell and taste of those eggs had lingered with you for days after that. You still have no idea how long it takes for a Hellhound pussy to hardboil an egg, but you’re certain that the process isn’t instant at all. Either way, they were delicious.

	You feel butterflies tap-dancing in your stomach as you lay back on your bed and ponder whatever is going on in the living room. A quick glance at your clock tells you that you still have seven minutes left.
	Dammit, it’s been that way the last two times you looked.
	Trying to force yourself to ignore the clock, you think instead about the gifts you had purchased for your twin daughters.
	A basic gaming computer with Smog™ preinstalled on it for Tai, and a new easel and a set of 30 paints and 12 brushes for Tia. And then there’s the smaller present you got for each of them. You know that they know what it is; you had discussed it and agreed upon it on their birthday in mid-November. Before you have time to think any more about that part, your alarm beeps once telling you that you’re agonizing wait is finally over. Before the alarm has a chance to get louder or beep anymore, you shut it off and get up, almost uncontrollably eager to see what’s in store.

--  --  --  --  --

	“Merry Christmas daddy!” The sweet, melodic chorus of two happy voices greets you as you arrive in the living room.
	You’re grateful that everything is as you left it; the tall fir tree decorated with red, white and gold baubles, neatly wrapped presents adorned with colorful ribbons under the tree, the three stockings with your names on them over the hearth, Tai and Tia in Christmas outfits…
	Tai and Tia in Christmas outfits?
	You smile.
	“Merry Christmas, girls. You’re looking cute today!”
	Tai giggles and grins at you while Tia’s ears twitch and she flashes you a small, shy smile before going deadpan again.

	Their strapless red velvet dresses trimmed with white fur at the tops and bottoms give off an incredibly festive aura; seeing them in such cute, unusual outfits makes your heart leap and start to pound in your chest. The fuzzy, deep crimson fabric clings tightly to the pups’ young, petite bodies, complimenting their perfect black skin and dark maroon fur beautifully, nicely accentuating their slight, developing curves. Each pup has a little Santa hat on too, Tia’s is perched precariously behind her ears and looks like it might fall off with any sudden twitch or movement. Tai’s hat looks a little more secure, she has it pulled jauntily all the way over her right ear.

	Before you have a chance to react, Tai bounds over to you, closely followed by her sister. They latch on to your arms and look up at you expectantly, tails fanning their heat all around you.
	“Can we open presents now daddy? Can we? Can we pleeeease?”
	“Sure Tai, yours have the orange ribbons, and Tia’s have the yellow. Merry Christmas!” you say again.
	“Thank you daddy!” Your arms are released as quickly as they were captured as the excited Hellpuppies dart back over to the tree to sort out their gifts. Smiling widely at your daughters’ happiness and excitement,  you go over to the couch and take a seat.

	Over the next few minutes, all that can be heard is the ripping of wrapping paper, the swishing of tails, and Tai’s exuberant yips and barks. Tia doesn’t make any noise at all, but after every gift she unwraps she comes over to you, places her paws on your shoulders, and affectionately licks your cheek with her boiling hot tongue.
	You’re smiling so much that it’s almost painful.
	Eventually, each pup has a neat stack of unwrapped gifts sitting by the tree. You take a deep breath to prepare yourself as you reach under the couch for the two small, velvet boxes you had stashed there the night before.
	“Okay girls. If you come over here, I’ve got one last gift for each of you.”

	Curious, Tai and Tia approach you, stepping carefully around the massive pile of torn wrapping paper and ribbons that had accumulated in the middle of the floor. You smile and make eye contact with each of the pups before resting the flat, square boxes on your knees and prying them open simultaneously with your fingers. Your Hellpup daughters gasp audibly as they see the contents of your expensive looking gifts.

	In the boxes are two nearly identical collars made of dark red leather.
	Each one is about an inch and a half thick and has pale gold buckles; you’d had them and their tags made for your daughters as symbols of your love for them and theirs for each other, almost like marriage or engagement rings. The two, heart-shaped golden tags on each collar have your name and each pup’s sister’s name on them, you just have to make sure they get the right ones. The little Hellhounds look at their final gifts in awe with quiet elation painted on their round, adorable ebony faces.

	After a moment or two of this happy silence, Tai finally speaks.
	“Can… can we put them on daddy?” Tia nods in agreement.
	“Of course you can girls. That’s why I got them! Let’s see here…” you gently pick up the first collar out of it’s box and checking it’s tags, “…this one is yours Tai.” Tai eagerly spins around and squats down in front of you., carefully holding her fluffy tail out of the way. You gulp as you unbuckle her collar and lean forward to position it around her from behind; her tight red Santa dress is so short that her translucent white panties and beautiful black butt are fully visible. As soon as the thick collar is buckled snugly around your first daughter’s neck she bounces right back up again, pinching the jingling metal tags between her stubby onyx claws and craning her head down to read them.

	Still struggling to look at her tags, Tai steps back to allow her sister to approach you for her collar. Tia seemed a little anxious as she watched you collar her sister, but she is more than enthusiastic in kneeling in front of the couch with her soft, poofy tail twitching deliberately in your lap and her back to you. The heat from her tail almost immediately causes a stirring in your crotch, but you force yourself to ignore it as you buckle her collar around her thin, petite neck to match her sister.

	“There we go. How do they feel, girls?” Tai finally drops her tags as Tia takes hold of her free paw.
	“Good, daddy! They’re a little tight, but it feels like you’re hugging me from all the way over there!” Tai’s comparison makes you smile. Even though they’re still within arms reach, her statement is no less adorable.
	“…Thank you, daddy.” Tia’s whisper is barely audible, but the eye contact you keep with her while she expresses her gratitude makes it impossible to miss.

	The pups then turn to each other, still holding paws, to look at each other’s collar and tags. You are more than happy to watch them smile at each other and hold hand-paws for a few moments, so much so that you almost miss the knowing look they flash each other before breaking and dashing back to the Christmas tree.
	Two thick, poofy tails stick up high in the air and wave like fluffy black flags as the two Hellhound puppies get down on all fours to rummage around behind the tall festive fir. Although you are confused, you don’t mind the view of their tight white panties and little black rumps swaying from side to side as their tails wag excitedly.
	It doesn’t take you long to realize that you probably weren’t the only one up hiding presents last night.

	The two finally approach you, each holding their whatever-it-is behind their backs.
	“Stick out your arms daddy, and close your eyes!” Tai commands.
	Wordlessly, you comply, sticking your arms out with your palms facing up and your fingers relaxed. You hadn’t expected any gifts from them at all; you wonder where they got the time to go purchase them. The world goes dark and butterflies start to whirl in your stomach as you wait for what seems like forever for Tai and Tia to do their thing.

	Two loud, metallic clicks sound at almost exactly the same time, and you feel two cool, smooth, somewhat tight presences on your wrists. These smooth bands are accompanied by what you know are the hot, soft pads of your daughter’s hand-paws.
	“Okay daddy! You can open up now!”
	You had been expecting the pups to put something in your hands and even though you felt things on your wrists, the inch-wide black leather cuffs around your them come as a bit of a shock. A pleasant shock, but a shock nonetheless.

	Tai and Tia are still holding the cuffs on with both of their strong paws, even though you’re sure you heard the magnetic clasps fasten themselves.
	“We couldn’t let you be the only one to get us a present, could we Tia?” Tia shakes her head semi-enthusiastically.
	“No, we couldn’t!” Tai continues, “…now look daddy! Mrs. Styx helped us get the good enchantments!”

	You look down at your wrists, and the Hellpups close their eyes as they remove all but their thumbs from your wrists. Their thumbs linger there only for another second though, right on the magnetic cuff-clasps. As they pull away, a bright purple glow emanates from the clasps, in the shape of each pup’s thumbprint. The thumbprints fade fairly quickly, but another purple glow flashes from the other side of the cuffs. Your canine daughters eagerly flip your wrists around just in time to see the second glow fade from the big gray capital letters embossed in each cuff; ‘TAI’ on the left, and ‘TIA’ on the right.
	“Look Tia, it actually worked! It worked!”
	From what you can tell, their names weren’t there before.

	You don’t know what the rest of ‘the good enchantments’ are , but you are glad that the pups still have a good relationship with their Hellhound teacher from last year.
	“So, Mrs. Styx helped you get these?”
	“Yep! She had a day off, so she let us skip school to go shopping!” You aren’t sure about the ‘let them’ part, but you can’t chastise them for such a thoughtful gesture.
	“I guess that’s okay then. I hope she doesn’t ‘let you’ skip school too often!” You wink, hoping that it and your comment were enough to get your point across.

	“How do the cuffs feel daddy? Do they feel like we’re hugging you too?” Tai seems a little embarrassed as she quickly changes the subject.
	“They feel nice, girls. They’re quite comfortable.” Now that your daughters have fully released your arms you twist them forward and back in front of your face to get the full view of your new cuffs. They look very well made; Tai and Tia must have been saving their allowances for a long time to afford them.
	“…We thought we wouldn’t be able to get our collars off without you, so we wanted you to not get your cuffs off without us! Right Tia?” The silent Hellpup nods in agreement.
	“Well… I guess that’s fair. That’s really thoughtful of you girls, I appreciate the gift.” They smile at you, wider than you’ve ever seen them smile before.
	“I love you, daddy!”
	“…love you daddy!” The pups chorus as they plop down beside you on the couch and lean lovingly into your shoulders, collars jingling as they affectionately nuzzle at your neck.
 	“I love you too girls. Merry Christmas.”

	As you sit there with your arms around your burning hot Hellhound daughters, you feel completely at peace. Sure there are a lot more holiday-type things you want to do with them today like drinking warm apple cider, or cuddling together by the fire under a big fluffy blanket, or watching silly Christmas specials like ‘Rudi the Red-Clit Reindeer’ on TV, but now you just want to sit here for a bit. To sit here and savor the warmth and love of Tai and Tia as you pat their heads and stroke their chest tufts and hold them close for as long as you want.