Page 62 of The Forever Vault

“It’s called Google, Ezra.” I lifted my phone off the table.

“Oh.” He chuckled and let his knee rest. The table finally stopped vibrating. “That was thoughtful of you.”

“I kind of offered something yesterday without knowing a whole lot about it, so I did some research today.”

“And you’re still-”

“Fine with it? Yup.”

I heard the sigh of relief and smiled. “You about ready? I’m getting sleepy.”

Ezra nodded, so we left.

“I’m gonna change into my PJs,” I said. “I’ll be on the couch.”

Ezra nodded and headed to his room. I assumed he stayed silent on the way back and was continuing to be non-verbal because he was trying to get into pupspace.

It turns out the online puppy play community was extremely organized and informative. Some of the images were pretty arousing, but I had never been into furries or pup stuff. The role playing aspect sounded fun, and I could understand the headspace part of it too.

I changed into my go-to sleep shirt, the one with the baby rhino on it. At this point, it was practically threadbare, but it was so soft. I pulled my shorts off, but left my white briefs on and headed to the living room. After turning the TV on, I found a rerun of Friends and waited.

I heard a door open and then silence. Thirty seconds passed before I leaned over to steal a glance down the hall. Ezra was on all fours with his hood on, but his head was down. He was clearly embarrassed.

This was way out of my league, but here we were. Based on my research, I knew what to say. Or what I thought I should say, anyway.

“Hey Tadashi, it’s okay.” I watched as he lifted his head up. I could just make out the whites of his eyes behind the mask. “Why don’t you come in here and snuggle with me? Would you like that? I’ll even let you on the couch if you want.”

I watched as he closed his eyes, took a breath, then started to crawl forward.

I’ll admit, it was weird as fuck to see my teammate on all fours crawling towards me. In the past, Luke and I had played with the Dom/sub dynamic a few times, so it wasn’t entirely unfamiliar. Just not something I saw every day.

Ezra - well, Tadashi - made his way down the hall and onto the couch. He seemed uncertain, just kind of squatting there on his legs, then I saw him glance at my lap.

“It’s okay, Tad. You can snuggle in my lap.”

Almost before I finished the suggestion, he collapsed forward, head resting on my thigh, one arm wrapped tightly around my leg, the other nestled under his chin. He wriggled his feet under the pillow at the end of the couch, then settled down. He was wearing a sweatshirt and sleep pants, the kind I liked Luke in because they looked like a second skin. Very clingy.

And let’s stop thinking about that.

I didn’t need an erection making this awkward instead of sweet. This wasn’t supposed to be sexual anyway. Just a dude and his puppy, snuggling on a couch.

If Luke could do this, naked with Ty, I could certainly keep it casual, completely clothed.

My arm started to get numb with it along the back of the couch, but the only other place to put it was on Tad. Or awkwardly smush his head by putting it in my lap.

“Is it okay if I rest my hand on you, Tad? My arm’s getting numb back here.”

Tad nodded, so I moved it from the couch to the side of his torso. He twitched a little upon contact, then, for lack of a better word, rumbled. I assumed he was happy.

“That okay?”

He nodded, then rolled his lower half, so his body was twisted, stomach facing the ceiling with my hand on it.

“Does someone want a belly rub?”

He nodded again.

Tad was apparently ticklish because my initial rub became more of a convulsion for him, so I eased back the throttle and with a light touch moved my hand back and forth every few seconds.