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Rusty

Sixteen months ago

The only thing worse than an unholy hangover was waking in a foreign bed in a room never before seen, trapped in six vise-like arms. Rusty’s entire body felt like it was dying.

Actually, he kinda wished he was already dead, because the nauseating agony pulsing through him was possibly the worst thing he’d ever experienced. Which, for him, was saying a lot.

His head throbbed like someone was taking a mallet to the inside of his skull. An angry sea sloshed in his stomach, and he tasted bile on the back of his tongue. He hated throwing up, but the warning lights were already flashing, and he didn’t think he could stop it.

Nope, he was definitely about to puke, which was highly inconvenient given that he was completely incapacitated by six dark gray limbs locked around him.

Someone was breathing heavily behind him, each exhale ruffling the fur between his ears. As he squinted down at the familiar striped fur coating every arm holding him captive from wrist to elbow, a different kind of nausea bubbled to life.

“Oh my gods,” Rusty said, though it sounded less like actual words and more like a garbled whine.

His next inhale hitched, turning into a desperate gasp. It brought with it the damning scents of cinnamon and coffee beans and the sharp tang of stale alcohol.

“Oh my gods,” he said again, and the exclamation of horror was much more recognizable this time.

If the current situation wasn’t so dire, he would have been proud of himself for forming real words.

But there was no room left inside him to feel anything but the hangover and the sickening realization that he was lying naked in an unfamiliar bed with none other than Gemae Akyllo snoring behind him.

Fighting the urge to scream, he took inventory of himself.

Okay, yes, he was most definitely naked, but that didn’t mean anything.

He didn’t feel recently fucked, but that was barely a comfort given that Gem was a very loud and proud power-bottom.

So he wouldn’t even know if they’d… if they had actually…

Oh deities, he couldn’t even finish the thought.

With a gag, Rusty struggled in earnest to escape the many limbs keeping him confined to the bed—a bed that wasn’t his. A bed that wasn’t even Gem’s. Actually, where were they?

Not that their location mattered right now. All that mattered was getting as far away from Gem as he could, finding his clothes, and escaping before the Araknis woke up.

Unfortunately, the comatose Gem had no intention of letting Rusty go quietly. The moment he tried to wriggle out of his confinement, Gem tightened the coil of his arms, dragging Rusty back until they were pressed disconcertingly close.

Rusty could feel the soft lines of Gem’s chest and stomach against his back, and he swallowed down a yelp when one of Gem’s ridiculously long legs slipped between his.

His tail was stuck between them, but when he tried to free it, Gem shifted just enough that something stiff and phallic brushed against Rusty’s ass, right under the base of his tail.

Gem’s dick. Gem’s dick was touching his ass!

“Oh fuck that!” Rusty cried as he started to flail wildly.

Normally, he was much cooler under pressure, but Gem’s cock was right there, Rusty was hungover as balls, and his brain wasn’t braining.

His body didn’t even feel like it was bodying.

He was nothing but mortified survival instinct as he shoved at Gem’s arms, chittering madly as the Araknis recoiled from him with a shocked and confused wail.

“What in the holy hooved goddess?” Gem shrieked in Arakni as he bolted upright, the movement of his colossal ass causing the mattress to bounce the still-flailing Rusty right out of the bed.

With an embarrassing yelp, he tumbled to the floor, landing hard on his shoulder. He rolled with the momentum, hissing angrily as yet another form of pain shot through him.

“Your dick,” Rusty whimpered as he attempted to crawl away, but since the room was spinning, he gave up quickly, instead focusing on his shallow breathing as another flood of bile coated his tongue. “Oh my gods, your dick touched me.”

“What’s happening?” Eight eyes blinked discordantly down at him as Gem pressed his upper hands to his head. “What the—Rusty?”

They stared at each other in stunned silence before several of Gem’s smaller eyes lowered to take in Rusty’s unclothed body. A choked noise sounded in Gem’s throat, his thin brows rising impossibly high, and Rusty squealed, trying to cover himself with the sheet hanging over the side of the bed.

“Don’t look! I’m naked,” he snarled, and they both winced at his volume.

“Shh, stop yelling. And don’t take this the wrong way, but does it matter that you’re naked? You’re covered in fur; it’s not like I can see… anything,” Gem said—in Hellia, this time—gesturing vaguely at Rusty’s fur-covered groin.

Baring his canines, Rusty bunched the sheet around his hips. “I don’t care if you can—don’t look at me!”

Gem slapped a hand over his many eyes and whimpered. “Oh em geez, I wasn’t even looking. But seriously, you need to stop yelling. I am so fucking hungover. Or maybe I’m still a little drunk. I honestly can’t tell.”

Rusty pressed his forehead to the floor and groaned again. “What happened last night?”

“Um, I think it’s safe to say we drank a lot,” Gem said, and Rusty swallowed convulsively as his swirling stomach gave a dangerous heave. “We were playing Hellahoola, and… Unholy shit, I think we trafficked Tad!”

A vague memory surfaced, and Rusty winced. “Pretty sure she was into it, though.”

“That doesn’t make it better,” Gem hissed.

“Shh,” Rusty snarled back.

“Oh, don’t you dare shush me!” The bed creaked as Gem hooked a hand over the edge and glared down at Rusty with bloodshot eyes. “You’re the one who rudely woke me up with your shrill caterwauling—”

“Your dick was on me, Gem!” Rusty roared back, and Gem cringed. “It was—oh my gods, it was fucking on me. And now”—he gagged—“yeah, I’ m gonna puke.”

Gem made a noise of offense. “Well, that’s a bit of an overreaction, don’t you think?”

Rusty’s fear of puking on the floor overrode his embarrassment over his nudity, and he abandoned the sheet in lieu of scrabbling across the ground to the empty trash bin by the desk. He’d barely gotten his chin over the lip of plastic before he was retching violently.

“Oh for deities’ sake!” Gem sniffed as he sat back up. “You’re being so dramatic right now.”

“I can still feel it,” Rusty coughed out between bouts of vomit. “It’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.”

“Are you seriously throwing up because my dick was in your general vicinity?” Gem accused, and Rusty angled his head just enough to glare at the Araknis with one eye.

“I’m throwing up because I’ve never been this hungover in my life and because your dick was in my general vicinity.”

Somehow, Gem had the audacity to pout. “That is shockingly hurtful, even coming from you.”

“Shut up, Gem,” Rusty spat before heaving into the trash can again.

“Stop yelling at me, Rusty. I’m still too drunk to deal with getting yelled at.” Gem cradled his head between several of his hands. “And you’re so loud. How are you making puking sound angry?”

Spitting into the trash can, Rusty wiped his mouth on the back of his paw before rounding on Gem, baring his canines again. “Because I’m an angry person!”

Three of Gem’s eyes watered. “You’re being so mean.”

“I think I’m entitled.” Rusty motioned aggressively between them. “Seeing as I woke up naked with you . And you’re naked. And—please tell me we did not fuck last night. Shit, I’m gonna puke again.”

“Again, surprisingly hurtful,” Gem whined. “But I don’t think we fucked, so that should bring you some peace of mind, apparently. Didn’t realize I was so repulsive to you.”

“Are you seriously getting offended?”

Crossing two sets of arms over his chest, Gem scowled. “Yes. Because you seem to find the thought of being with me sexually legitimately nauseating. I think I’m allowed to be offended by that.”

“You should find it nauseating too. Everyone alive should find that idea nauseating,” Rusty bit out between clenched teeth, and Gem looked, impossibly, even more offended.

“Oh, calm down. It’s not like we actually fucked.” He wiggled, like he was double-checking. “I’m wearing underwear, and I’m pretty sure I’d feel it if you had fucked my ass. Unless, you know, you’re on the smaller side? Which is totally fine. Absolutely no shame, babes. Size doesn’t matter.”

“You’d feel it!” Rusty insisted as the skin under his fur warmed in a blush he was thankful Gem couldn’t see.

“Yeah, a lot of guys say that, but very few actually prove it.” At Rusty’s mutinous expression, Gem raised several hands in placation. “Easy, furball, take a deep breath. We didn’t have sex last night, so you can stop throwing up at the mere idea of it. Honestly, it’s insulting. On many levels.”

Shooting him one last glare, Rusty gave the Araknis his back so he could vomit with whatever dignity he still retained. Before he had a chance, Gem released a shrill cry of dismay.

Rusty spun around immediately. “What?”

Gem had two hands covering his mouth, two clutching the sheet to his stomach, two fidgeting with the bedazzled shorts Rusty recognized from last night. All eight eyes were wide and horrified, unblinking in an unsettling way .

“What’s wrong?” Rusty asked, but Gem just shook his head. “Gem?”

“It’s nothing,” Gem whispered between his fingers, and Rusty’s eyes narrowed.

His tail thumped in annoyance as he settled on his knees, claws digging into his furry thighs. “What is it?” he demanded a third time.

Another shake of Gem’s head was followed by a barely audible, “I don’t wanna tell you; you’ll just yell at me some more.”

“Gemae,” Rusty growled out, and Gem cringed.

“The bus!” Gem cried as his middle arms hugged his own torso like he was comforting himself. “We were on the bus, remember?”