### Ronnie Gets A Flea Bath

With a noise not entirely unlike a fart, but inside out, Arlo popped through a time portal into an apartment that was notably larger and notably less weed / piss / death scented than the one in which he had last seen Ronnie. Ronnie was doing about the same thing he had been the last time Arlo saw him -- lying splayed out shirtless on the couch with an Xbox controller in his lap, swearing at an unseen adversary on the screen. Arlo hoped that he wasn't on voice chat. Presumably Ronnie probably was in an PVE campaign, or at least didn't care if he lost, given that as soon as he noticed Arlo's entrance, he bounded up off the couch and forward to hug him. Arlo's face flushed feeling Ronnie's chest and the ruff of fur in the top center thereof push into his own, with their contours palpable even through a hoodie.

"Hey! Great seeing you, dude! Uh...why are you here? I mean, obviously, you want to see me because I'm your super cute dogboyfriend, but like, why are you visiting me here, in the past? There's no show or anything this weekend. At least not from me. There's always a show going on somewhere. Uh, that's not really on task, but, uh, yeah? I'm used to you inviting me to the future. Not objecting. Just not your usual shit, you know?"

"I figured this was the easiest option since Spark doesn't want you in the house."

Ronnie's hair / fur poofed out on every part of his body, and his shoulders immediately tensed. Arlo could swear that his fingernails got longer and sharper. He wasn't quite sure if Ronnie in mostly human form exactly had hackles, but the intent was clear, especially coupled with the growling under his breath.

"What. The fuck. Do you mean, Spark doesn't want me in the house?!"

"Woah there, boy. Calm down. It's not --"

"This is one of those 'it's not you, it's me' things, isn't it?!"

Ronnie reflexively lunged forward and across his chest with one hand (yeah, his nails were definitely sharper than usual, and it seemed to have a covering of fur and paw pads that hadn't been there before) as though to take a swipe at Arlo, then realized what he'd done and grabbed his hand at the end of its arc, staring at it in horror before slapping it with the other one and wincing in response.

Arlo approached closer and put a hand on Ronnie's shoulder.

"Breathe. Look at me."

Reluctantly, the semi-transformed werewolf's eyes stopped darting around looking for an escape route and settled on Arlo's.

"I promise it isn't anything personal. If it was, I would have told you before and ideally, had Spark tell you himself."

"...I guess I believe you. So, if it isn't that Spark doesn't want me around because he thinks I'm a bad influence or some shit, what is it? Is he getting the place fumigated?"

"That isn't too far off, actually. There's been an outbreak of fleas in the house, and Spark thinks you might have been the vector. He doesn't want you in the house until he's gotten all the Pokemon treated and is sure that it hasn't spread to Instinct HQ."

Ronnie paused and took a step back, abruptly deflating. Pretty much literally, given his hair returning to flat position and the covering on his hands and forearms receding.

"Hmm. I have been itchy lately...wait, would the Pokemon even get fleas? Wouldn't Spark's cat thing set them on fire or something since it's full of electricity? And yours all have, like, scales and metal plating and shit."

"Pokemon don't usually get normal parasites, but we don't know exactly what you are, so out of an abundance of caution, Spark wants to make sure everybody's clean, including you, before you come back."

"Aren't there different fleas for humans and dogs? Wouldn't they jump off when I transformed?"

Arlo made a sweeping gesture across Ronnie's body, emphasizing the ears twitching at the top of his head and the patch of fur on his chest.

"You've still got fur even when you're in human form. Fleas can probably stay on the parts of you that stay covered when you turn back, and that's if they aren't a kind that also would live on humans anyway."

"Yeah, but I take showers. Dogs don't."

"Are you using human soap and shampoo?"

"Yeah. I don't like how dog shampoo smells."

"Most shampoos and soaps you can get at the store designed for humans don't specifically kill or repel fleas, since people usually don't get them. Plus, your fur's thick enough that they can probably burrow down into it so they don't drown, or at least enough don't to maintain a breeding population. Unless you're getting down to the roots everywhere you have hair, you're probably not getting all of them when you shower."

"Hmm. Well, I guess I should do something about that before my next show out of town. The guys would probably appreciate if I didn't give them fleas on the bus. So, what, do I need one of those special baths?"

"Yes. Do you have a bathtub now? I know your last apartment didn't."

"Uh, yeah, actually. I haven't been able to find a drain plug the right size, though, and it didn't come with one, so I've just been blocking it with a wadded up towel."

"That should work. If you were a normal sized dog, I could do this in a laundry bucket, but, well, you wouldn't fit. Either of you."

"Does the other me also have fleas?"

"...it sure wouldn't surprise me, but I mean wolf and human you. I'll try to get as much as I can with you in human form since I know you can't turn back until the morning, but since we don't know where they're hiding and coming from or how exactly they interact with the shapeshifting, we should probably do a full cleanse on both forms to be safe....wait, this place does allow pets, right?"

"Yes. That's something I specifically looked for, because, well. And, wait, why are you talking about what YOU need to do, if you're giving me a bath, and part of it's in human form? I can bathe myself."

"Ronnie, have you ever tried to dye your own hair? It's really hard to get down to the roots by yourself, and with a flea dip, we're dealing with every part of your body that has hair. Including places like your armpits and your tail that you can't really reach. Because of where fleas live, we need to go down to skin everywhere that has fur and you can't do that effectively by yourself."

"I guess if I have to have someone do that, I'd rather it be you. Would be hard to explain to either a spa or a vet. But, well, I'd be...."

"You have used me as a prop for a striptease, and you're naked every time you transform back from wolf form and are usually in bed with me when that happens. Your point? Besides, you've got fur and there will be bubbles and stuff. Not like I can see anything. Think of it like a massage. I got some scented candles and bath bombs and stuff to try to make it as pleasant and romantical as possible. At least while you're sapient and can understand why I'm doing this. Wolf you, I'll probably have to hold down."

"So, if you're going to try to make it all romantic and shit, are you gonna be...in there...with me? With you pressing up against me and everything glistening with water and bubbles and you rubbing shit into my skin and..." Ronnie caught himself blushing and held a hand up to his face. However, said wasn't very effective because he couldn't cover his tail wagging. "That actually does sound pretty nice. Maybe it'll be fun if I ignore the parasite part."

"That's the spirit! I'll start drawing the bath and you can get, you know, prepared. I brought a waterproof speaker with a headphone cable if there's anything you want to listen to. Probably wouldn't be a good idea to try to watch anything on your laptop, and my phone can't do much without WiFi, but you can at least get audio. Was really hard to find a speaker that worked in the bath and also had a wired cable, by the way. Bluetooth is backward compatible, but I couldn't remember if any of your devices had it."

"Fuck, I love it when you talk tech."

"I know, honey. Now go get undressed unless you want me to do it for you."

\*\*\*

Arlo found it rather amusing that despite what they were about to do and the conditions in which they'd be in contact with each other, when Ronnie returned from getting undressed it was wrapped in a bathrobe.

"Dude. You do know that... that being said, if you're really uncomfortable with it, I can not --"

"No, I want to do the thing you suggested, you know, with the you getting in there with me and rubbing it into my skin and it being cute and stuff. That sounds...nice, and you're right that I probably can't get a good coverage on everything myself. It's just that...I dunno, force of habit, I guess? I'm used to living with a bunch of other guys who didn't especially want to see each other naked."

"I'm also not used to cis guys covering their chests with towels. Hmm. So, are we --"

"How about we both agree not to talk? It's hotter if you don't."

Ronnie rather curtly and abruptly dropped his towel and entered the tub, beckoning Arlo to come with him. Arlo did as he was instructed and Ronnie scooted forward so that he could reach. Arlo squeezed out a small lump of flea shampoo into his hand and started rubbing it into Ronnie's hair. At first contact, Ronnie reflexively shook, splattering shampoo and water over Arlo and the walls, but he settled down once that reflex was settled. Arlo carefully ran his hands over each individual strand, getting them covered with the flea-controlling shampoo down to the root, and considering how even when damp, Ronnie's hair (fur?) was still extremely soft and noticeably fluffy; he could swear that rather than the typical human shape, each individual strand was fluffed out in itself, although he couldn't prove anything without a microscope. With his fingers fully immersed in Ronnie's hair, Ronnie making the vibrating noise he refused to admit was purring, and Arlo pressed up against Ronnie's back to reach everything, feeling the vibrating and every contour of the other man's back against his skin, he agreed that yeah, it was hotter if they didn't talk. He closed his eyes and continued to work, alternating between rubbing the flea shampoo in, letting it sit and working on skin soap while he waited, and rinsing off each section before moving to another patch of fur.

Honestly, the degree of coverage Ronnie had even in nominally human form was impressive -- far beyond the solely ears and tail he'd started with, a large tuft of fur sat in the center of his chest (perfect cuddling height for Arlo's purposes, but that wasn't important right now), despite his best efforts at shaving his limbs his leg and arm hair were pretty thick and also purple, and he had yet another reason to be mostly fine with nudity: the extra length and fluff in his pubic area had produced a tuft that completely covered his crotch, preventing anything from view even if it wasn't underwater and covered in bubbles. Arlo briefly contemplated whether the contents within that tuft were closer to canine and human anatomy. Finally, the tail had been enhanced with a trail of fur leading most of the way down Ronnie's back which spread out at the bottom. Arlo wasn't convinced that he wasn't more wolf than man at this point, and also found it mildly surprising how much he was into it. After all, Spark wasn't especially hairy, and that had never been part of his particular gender goal, but something about seeing it on Ronnie was deeply satisfying both as a trans guy and as a guy interested in other guys.

Although, seeing as Arlo found everything Ronnie was and did intrinsically interesting and rewarding...

While he was aware that Ronnie had valid reasons to keep his arms and legs tightly shaved, what with his penchant for tattoo sleeves and super-tight pants, Arlo kinda wanted to see now what he'd look like with maximal fluff. Maybe after he turned back from wolf form? Would shaving persist when he shifted back?

On that subject, after about an hour (hour and a half? Arlo wasn't keeping track of time, and was intentionally going slow as much for his own enjoyment as for either of their sensory comfort) of rubbing gels into hair / fur / skin, purring, giggling, and the odd weird little squeak or bark coming from Ronnie, everything that could conceivably be accessed with Ronnie in human form had been accounted for, so it was time for the less enjoyable part to begin. Hopefully Ronnie was one of the kinds of dog that didn't mind water, but somehow Arlo doubted he'd be that lucky.

\*\*\*

Ronnie stepped out of the tub in order to shift. While both of his forms had about the same body mass and both would fit, and the process had become faster as he got used to it, there was no way to rapidly convert someone from a biped to quadruped body plan and plantigrade to digitigrade feet without some very uncomfortable looking changes in position. As Ronnie got more experienced, the process was faster and there was more Pokemon evolution or form change-esque light obscuring the gory details, but the cracking of bones and contorting of human features into positions they couldn't naturally assume remained. Arlo couldn't help but look away.

Once the transformation was complete, the newly re-minted black and purple wolf-dog looked at Arlo, then at the tub...and immediately grabbed the shampoo bottle out of Arlo's hand and bolted with it in his mouth. Arlo, still naked, ran after the creature before remembering that he was a pursuit predator. If he waited long enough, Ronnie would get his zoomies out and could be carried with little resistance. And, well, he was big enough to be difficult to carry with resistance. Arlo did move into the living room area of the apartment so he could keep a better eye on where Wolf Ronnie was going and make sure he didn't hurt himself. The doors were locked, so he probably couldn't escape.

After about 15 minutes of running in circles while Arlo read a science news column on his phone, Ronnie stood at his feet, dropped the shampoo bottle onto them, and barked. Arlo couldn't stop himself from reaching down to scratch him behind the ears.

"You're lucky you're so cute... so, ready for your bath?"

Arlo ended up having to lead Ronnie into the bathroom with a trail of Pokemon treats (he kept some in his pockets for each type just in case, and had found that Ronnie liked the Dark type ones), since despite returning the bottle like they were playing fetch, Ronnie first went limp and then started squirming when Arlo tried to pick him up. Even with all of his strength and training in handling Pokemon, there wasn't much he could do about that with a dog who outweighed him.

When he needed to lift heavy loads at home, he sent out Mr. Wiggles. His Dragonite from back in Kanto wasn't much of a fighter, but was more than happy to help his trainer in exchange for hugs and show off the strength of his arms. And was Arlo's only Pokémon that really had arms. Gil's pincers were capable of surprisingly fine operations, but unsuitable for carrying loads since if he put force into them, said heavy load would end up more likely crushed than transported. But none of his Pokemon were options since he didn't feel safe bringing them to the past -- even though they weren't technically in Orre, he didn't have a valid trainer card in that timeline and existing near Orre within 5 years of the XD001 incident with strong Pokemon was asking for trouble. Even if they weren't also Shadow Pokemon. Of course, Arlo was pretty sure that was what Ronnie was at this point, since he'd seen both forms give off aura, but since he couldn't use moves and didn't resemble any known Pokemon species, he just got identified by bystanders as a "weird dog".

With Arlo's entire canister of Dark type treats dispensed and plenty of coaxing and noises, plus one chew toy, Ronnie finally got into the tub and was willing to accept the flea dip and water being rubbed into his fur, provided they also got everywhere else. At least when he shook himself dry, Arlo was already soaked. After shaking himself dry, the werewolf was fitted with some flea bracelets, to which he strenuously objected. (his neck was occupied by the spike collar Arlo had bought for him at Subject Debate when they first met. By sheer force of luck, it perfectly fit both his human and werewolf forms, so the locket had been engraved with Ronnie's and Arlo's identification on the inside in case he ever got lost while in wolf form.)

After the application of the flea bracelets, Ronnie shook himself one more time, just to shed water and fur on any surface he missed... and then started shivering and looked pathetically up at Arlo.

"Oh, let me guess, you're cold and you want to cuddle? You know, I'm not really sure I believe you don't have any of your cognitive faculties in wolf form... come on. Let's head out to the living room and find something to watch, and I'll get you a treat since you didn't bite me."

\*\*\*

After clicking through several cable channels that didn't look especially interesting (or seemed like the kind of teen horror schlock that Ronnie liked, but Arlo could just as well have done without given his partner's presently not being sentient), Arlo eventually settled on a documentary network which seemed to be showing something about polar exploration. It wasn't something he would have typically watched, but he didn't usually... watch TV much at all; the only reason he was here was that all his usual digital recreations didn't exist. Besides, Ronnie seemed into it (or maybe just their sled dogs? looking at them, Arlo wasn't totally sure they weren't a previously undescribed Houndoom variant; he could swear they had horns) and the purpose of this was so they had background noise for cuddling. Unsurprisingly, Ronnie stopped shivering after Arlo beckoned him up next to him on the couch, contemplating how much of the shivering was performative and if wolf Ronnie even had the cognitive faculties for that. Arlo reached down to scratch him behind the ears.

"You're lucky you're so cute. You'd kinda be an asshole if you weren't."

This state of affairs continued for about half an hour, until Ronnie got bored, jumped off the couch, and started barking. Arlo looked around the room, and pulled out his phone to check the time.

"Let me guess, you want food? I don't know where human you puts the stuff here...or for that matter, what werewolves should eat. Let me check the kitchen, okay?"

Arlo wasn't sure why he was talking to the creature, seeing as it understood him even less than a Pokemon would. Well, that would be the case if this were a normal dog. Arlo couldn't really tell if Ronnie understood, since he stopped barking but did trot off behind him towards the kitchen, looking up at him pathetically and making high-pitched noises. After a search of the cabinets failed to yield anything clearly designated as dog food, Arlo settled for a few slices of non-salted lunch meat and placed them down in front of the improbably colored canine.

"Don't come crying to me if you return to human form and don't know why you can't make a sandwich. If you don't want this you eating your people food, you need to put actual dog food somewhere I can find. I'm not buying it for you. After all, you're an adult and can shop for yourself. ...wait, do you have the same flavor preferences? Does canine nutrition even apply to you? You clearly don't have any issues with chocolate in human form, even when you have the ears and tail and such... gods, you just open up so many biological questions by your very presence, don't you, honey?"

Ronnie looked straight up at Arlo, wagging his tail and licking the remains of the lunch meat off his lips. Despite all plausible evidence, Arlo was pretty sure that the were-wolfdog had understood him.

\*\*\*

Several hours later, it was approaching midnight and Arlo would have been thinking about getting ready for bed, if not for Ronnie incessantly barking at the apartment's front door. With hesitation and a Pokeball at the ready, Arlo slowly opened the door, figuring that anything that wanted to visit Ronnie at this time of night and knew where he lived couldn't be good.

Instead of the expected assailant aiming to fight Ronnie, what faced Ronnie in the doorway was another large, implausibly colored and proportioned dog with scene hair. This one had long black bangs on both sides of its head, highlighting large ears that were rounded on one side and pointed on the other. An overbite revealed two prominent fangs, standing out from a head that seemed just slightly too large for the creature's body. Also oversized in comparison to its lean body of comparable length to Ronnie's were its front and back paws, which contrasted with an excitedly wagging tail that looked more like a rope or something you'd see on a rodent than any kind of dog save the fluffy tuft at the end.

The impression that whatever this was, it wasn't a normal dog was fully carried about by the color scheme: mostly layered black and grey, except for sharp and nearly luminescent blue-green highlights on the beast's fluff (of which there was quite a lot despite its slender body and neotenic proportions), starry patterns dotting its back, and the tips of its bangs. Arlo was certain that he'd seen the creature somewhere; its hair and overall presentation seemed remarkably familiar, but he was pretty sure that if he'd met this dog before he would remember. After all, Ronnie was the only sparkledog he knew of, and this wasn't any species of Pokemon he recognized.

Regardless, Ronnie definitely did know the other dog, since while Arlo stared at the green beast in disbelief, the two sparkledogs had transitioned from excited barking and wagging their tails at each other to rolling on the doorstep wrestling like they'd been together since they were puppies. Arlo couldn't help but smile at the display, although several more pressing matters were still at top of mind: why were there two implausibly colored emo dogs in Las Vegas, did this have to do with Ronnie, and what was he going to do with another one? (And if Ronnie had been running around biting people, they'd need to have a chat about that when he returned to human form.)

Arlo ducked back into the apartment, keeping one eye behind him at Ronnie and his mysterious friend, and dug around the vicinity of the couch until he found Ronnie's favorite squeaky bone, a sparkly red number albeit darkened by dirt and wear and covered in slobber and teeth marks. Returning to the doorstep where Ronnie and his little friend were still engrossed in each other, Arlo squeezed the bone a couple of times, making it produce a blaring and ear-splitting series of squawks that got Ronnie's attention, his tail wagging rapidly as he ran around Arlo's legs trying to get him to throw the toy.

"You can have your squeaky bone after we go to the front desk, okay, boy? I see you've made a friend, but we need to check to make sure he doesn't already have a person. After all, someone might be looking for him and be worried sick that he hasn't come home!"

Arlo usually tried to avoid using gendered pronouns for nonhumans whose sex he didn't know, but something about the green dog, looking at its face and hair, gave him the impression that this was definitely a he.

Where have I seen that before?

Temporarily putting that thought to rest in favor of more pragmatic aims, Arlo squeezed the squeaky bone all the way to the apartment complex's front office, Ronnie following the sound and the other dog following Ronnie. All the way, they occasionally sniffed or barked at each other for no discernible reason.

\*\*\*

The balding, greying-brown-haired man at the apartment office front desk reminded Arlo a bit of a male version of Blanche's book club friends, although his physical build was closer to Cliff's. He barely had a neck, but in the organic way that came from years of hard physical labor rather than whatever OTL Ronnie had been doing. Based on the bags under his eyes, the man at the front desk would rather have been just about anywhere else. A nameplate on the desk read "Clyde". He raised one eyebrow upon seeing Arlo approach, followed by two absurdly colored dogs.

"Oh. You must be Ronnie's boyfriend. I've heard a lot about you... See you've got his dog with you, but what's the other one? Ronnie knows he can only have up to 200 pounds of dog, and that purple thing is pushing it on its own."

"That's what I was hoping you knew. This other dog was sniffing around the front door. Ronnie...uh, Ronnie's dog really seems to like him, but I've never seen the green one before and there's no collar. Do you know if anyone in the area's missing a dog that looks like this?"

Clyde got up from behind the bulletproof glass-shielded desk and walked around the green creature, both dogs barking and sniffing at him all the while. He returned to the desk with a dramatic shrug.

"The kids these days and their body mods...tattoos and hair dye on you are one thing, but leave the poor animal out of it! There aren't that many dogs in this complex, and except Ronnie's monster, they're all a lot smaller than that and not, uh, green. I can call a vet to put up neighborhood notices for a missing weird dog, but they won't be open until the morning."

"So, what should I do with this thing until then? Should I keep him here?"

Clyde sighed. "Don't make a habit of it. I'm not convinced Ronnie isn't over the weight limit for dogs already, and that purple thing makes enough of a mess, but they do seem to like each other and if it's in his unit it isn't digging through the trash and at least it's supervised. Keep it with you overnight and then bring it back here in the morning and we can figure something out."

"All right, boys, I guess you're having a sleepover!"

Both sparkledogs wagged their tails in Arlo and Clyde's direction, looking for all the world like they were feigning innocence.

"Tell Ronnie that if those beasts tear up his room, he's footing the bill." Clyde made a final remark before directing his attention back towards a blocky grey LCD monitor.

\*\*\*

With little else to do, Arlo made his way out of the apartment lobby, squeezing the bone all the way back to keep Ronnie on track, the other dog following behind. Arlo made a note to himself that at some point, he'd need to get Ronnie fitted for a leash, although it might have to be custom commissioned given his wolf form's unusual size. Then he giggled to himself upon thinking about getting Ronnie a leash / harness in human form, but there was no reason not to... after all, he seemed to enjoy being Arlo's simultaneous boy-toy and pet, and the collar, at least, was conveniently sized so it fit his neck even through shifts...

Of course, at present, Ronnie was just Arlo's pet and that was it, and as soon as they got back to the apartment, Arlo and the green sparkledog seemed more interested in each other than otherwise. They resumed rolling around with, wrestling, and licking each other like they hadn't been interrupted at all, taking advantage of the oversized dog bed and stack of old shirts (or possibly just laundry?) and dog toys that sat at the corner of the living room opposite the couch. Arlo didn't see any reason to intervene, but didn't want to leave two oversized beasts of unknown capabilities unsupervised, so pulled out Ronnie's phone from the end table to order himself a pizza and settled into the couch, absentmindedly clicking through cable channels trying to find something tolerable.

While Arlo eventually settled on a cartoon he vaguely remembered Candela mentioning (he didn't recognize it; presumably it didn't air in Kanto), he spent about as much time looking at Ronnie and his friend as at the screen, still trying to figure out what about the green dog's hair looked so damned familiar, and considering why they were acting like they knew each other. Arlo knew that Ronnie wasn't going around socializing with other dogs in werewolf form -- most of the time, he was in the future when he turned; the only reason he wasn't tonight was the fleas. (Hopefully the other dog didn't have fleas itself, or they'd have to repeat this whole process again. Of course, that certainly wouldn't be the worst thing in the world...) Even when he'd been in wolf form in the past before, Arlo was always with him. They'd gone to the dog park a couple of times, but it didn't tend to work very well -- other dogs and Pokemon both tended to respond to Ronnie with fear. Neither of them were sure if that was because of Ronnie's size, not quite being either a human, wolf, or Pokemon, or Shadow aura-boosted power level. So, mostly, when Ronnie got the zoomies, Arlo just brought him on walks or runs around the block, where they didn't encounter many other dogs and those they did tended to hide behind their humans. So, Arlo knew that they hadn't met another implausibly proportioned and colored emo dog, and was pretty sure he'd remember it if they had. Maybe Ronnie had run into the dog when he was in human form? Would a normal dog be able to recognize that human and wolf Ronnie were the same being? He did still have some fur in his default human form, so maybe the smell was consistent...

Arlo shrugged and supposed it didn't really matter as long as they were having fun and Ronnie didn't catch fleas or get sick from his new friend. About a half-hour later, Arlo's pizza arrived, and by the time he'd consumed half of it and put the rest in the fridge for breakfast, Ronnie and his little friend had fallen asleep, curled up with each other on the base of the dog bed, burrowed in the pile of laundry. Before Arlo headed to bed himself, he made an undignified noise under his breath and snapped a picture with his phone. They were so fucking cute.

Then, at about 4:00 AM, Arlo staggered his way towards the bathroom, squinting after finally finding a light switch while feeling up the walls in the dark. Outside, the slightest hints of sunlight peaked behind the building line and a few enthusiastic birds had started chirping. Arlo didn't pay much notice to that until his biological business was attended to, but realized its relevance when on his way out of the bathroom, he caught a silhouette that shared the hairstyle, but not the body shape of the green dog still curled up with a returned-to-human-form Ronnie, Ronnie's body and the haphazardly placed pile of laundry the only things preserving the other figure's modesty.

Arlo tiptoed his way back to the end table where his phone was charging to take another picture (thanking his phone's developer for the night vision camera roll) and quietly, let out another high-pitched noise. Also, why Ronnie and the other sparkledog had gotten along so well made itself quite clear... then once Arlo returned to thinking with the head on his shoulders, he realized that once either of the former canines woke up, things were going to get awkward at best and violent at worst. Before going back to bed and awaiting the explosion, Arlo removed two outfits from Ronnie's drawers and laid them out on either side of the nest, where Ronnie and his companion were still intertwined with each other without a care in the world...

\*\*\*

"Gyah! What the fuck -- how did I get here?!"

"Oh. Hi, Max."

Arlo didn't need to look over to the living room to tell what had just happened: at about the crack of noon, one of the two former canines woke up and the other one woke up with him. Arlo decided he'd stay back at least until they were both wearing clothes, or he had some scientific explanation to do. Max abruptly running into Ronnie's boyfriend would probably make matters worse.

"HI, MAX?! That's all you have to say?! Tell me. Right now. How I got here and what you did to me last night, because I don't remember shit."

"Sorry, dude. I don't remember anything either."

"This is your apartment! ...at least, I think it is. I recognize some of your posters."

"You're right about that, but I don't remember anything from last night either. This is the first I've seen of you since my first concert with the new lineup."

"Please tell me there was a show last night."

"There wasn't. I might not remember what we did last night, but I do remember my schedule."

"I thought you had gotten clean. Of course, I guess it's just like you to break every promise you've ever made."

Max tried to dramatically turn away and flip his hair in the process, but the effect was cut short by how they were both still naked, having been too preoccupies to get dressed. They both made that realization at about the same time, Ronnie noticing the outfit Arlo had laid out for him the previous night and donning it. Max, meanwhile, paced around the room, even looking under couch cushions and in drawers, before returning to Ronnie, looking like he was about to boil over.

"Ronald? Where the fuck are my clothes?"

Ronnie made a few half-pronounced syllabic noises. Arlo decided that the time to intervene had come and emerged from the bedroom, after peeking through the door to make sure that Max had noticed the set of Ronnie's clothes provided for him, even if he was still audibly growling.

"Uh, hello, boys. I think some explanations are in order. I promise there's a perfectly innocent reason for all this."

Max looked at Arlo, then back at Ronnie, then back to Arlo again, before opening his mouth in a silent scream. Even once his mouth had closed again and he'd regained something like composure, his eyes still spelled out murder.

"Oh. Ronnie's boyfriend. I remember you. Well, since he claims to not remember anything, you're the only person who can answer. If you set all of this up for some fucking threesome fantasy..."

\*\*\*

Arlo showed Max (and Ronnie, who was looking over his shoulder but didn't seem too inclined to react, tail literally and figuratively in between his legs since he knew he was in trouble) a series of 3 images on his phone: the picture of wolf Ronnie and Max curled up together, the picture of their human forms doing the same, and a video of Ronnie transforming. Max was given the phone, and after ogling its screen resolution a bit, swiped back through the images making no audible response, but looking increasingly confused and no less enraged than he had been before. Arlo half expected Max to call him some homophobic slurs and demand the pictures be deleted, but instead he rounded on Ronnie.

"You're a fucking WEREWOLF?! Since when? Why didn't you tell me!?"

"You don't know everything about me. Besides, it's a recent development. Happened after we broke up."

"When did you bite me. And why. Is this some sick attempt to make up? It's not going to work, 'buddy'. In case you've forgotten, \*you\* abandoned \*me\*. Instead of just walking out on Escape the Fate, you kicked all of US out so you could 'find yourself', and this guy, apparently." Max dismissively gestured towards Arlo.

"I don't get why the others seem so nonchalant about it. Maybe they think you've changed, and that you really did need to leave for your own good, but that's a lie and we both damned well know it. I've known you since high school. You haven't changed. The only time you bother to pretend you have is if you don't want someone you like to be mad at you. That's the only reason you ever vaguely acted like an adult around me."

Max briefly turned back to Arlo.

"I don't know why you're still here. I expected you'd barely last past being his eye candy at that bullshit Epitaph awards show. But take this from someone who knows Ronnie better than he knows himself: the whole sensitive guy trying to atone thing? It's a fucking joke. The only thing he cares about is himself, and he'll drop you without a second thought if he thinks it'll make him look better. Just like he did to me."

Ronnie stood with his entire body tensed up, completely still save his lips and eyelids quivering. A few whimpering noises escaped his lips; evidently he didn't want to be seen crying in front of Max. Arlo didn't really feel much better, and couldn't think of an eloquent response that would actually work -- he could give plenty of citations of his Ronnie displaying self-reflection and accountability that other versions never would, but somehow he suspected those wouldn't sell the case.

"I don't think he bit you. Every time he transforms, he's with me, because he doesn't remember anything he does when he's a wolf. For all intents and purposes, his mind is out somewhere else when he turns and he's just a dog, so I keep him with me to make sure he doesn't hurt anybody or himself. We go for walks sometimes, but he's never bitten anyone as far as I know."

"Yeah, as far as you know is the big one. How sure are you that he isn't just faking being your cute little dog boytoy when you see him once a month and is going out fucking girls and killing livestock when you're not around? He could be transforming on his own outside of the full moon and you wouldn't know."

"I'm also confident that you would remember if you'd been bitten by any oversized dogs recently, and that even if you didn't, he's got sharp enough teeth that it would definitely leave a mark. Have you been bitten by any dogs lately, or seen bite marks on your body of comparable size?"

"...no. So, then, why the hell am I also a werewolf?"

"I don't know. I don't really understand why Ronnie's a werewolf, but if you're willing to come back with me, I can run a scan and --"

"No."

"You realize that I'm the only person who knows anything about this scientifically, so your only shot if you want a cure."

"Ronnie walked out on me and replaced me with you. You're fine as long as you don't bother me, but I don't want anything to do with him or his weird science werewolf bullshit. I don't care if it's that my subconscious primal animal self wants to be his friend again, or if his transformation was carried to me through our deep spiritual bond, or if the devil he sold his soul to so WE could get famous TOGETHER, not with some other fucking losers and the same band name, decided to turn me for a laugh. I'm handling it by myself regardless. Ronnie never did anything for me, besides; I was always the one doing damage control for his junkie ass."

Ronnie abruptly ran off to the bathroom, covering his face with the sleeve of his shirt.

"Typical. Runs off to cry instead of owning up to the problem he caused. I don't know what you see in him. You seem like a reasonable enough guy. I guess I hope this doesn't go badly for you. Which, if my girlfriend doesn't buy the werewolf thing and I don't have a girlfriend anymore because I came back 24 hours late wearing Ronnie's clothes, it will. ...actually, is there any way that you can email those pics to me? Not the one of me and Ronnie sleeping together naked, but the transformation and both of us as wolves. Maybe Saskia will buy that."

Arlo paused for a few seconds, considering the resolution and file size of his video as compared to how much space Max's phone would have. If he had a 4 or 8 gig model and didn't have too much on there already...of course, even though Ronnie's apartment HAD WiFi...

Arlo had installed an aggressive JPEG compressor on his phone a while back because while Blanche had upgraded the time portal PC interface enough that he COULD send photos to Ronnie via text (email was out because it required a central server), his camera's base resolution meant that just a few photos would blow Ronnie's data for the month and no online host let you view things that wouldn't be posted for 17 years.

"Uh, the video is too big to email, but I can send you stills of the important parts which should be enough to get that werewolves are real and the green dog with your hairstyle is you. What's your email address?"

After some very aggressive file compression, the pictures successfully made it to Max's adorable sliding-keyboard-phone and he started out the door with something between a sigh and a snarl.

"Uh, do you want me to drive you home? Ronnie lets me use his car and I don't know how far away you live, and it's pretty hot out."

"No. If I want to still have a girlfriend after this, I think it's best if I go alone. Tell Ronnie he's not getting this outfit back, by the way. If he really is saving all the money he'd otherwise be spending on drugs, he can replace it."

Max stormed his way out of the front door, unnecessarily slamming it behind him. After the vibration of the door closing reverberated through the walls, the bathroom door creaked open, revealing Ronnie, sitting fully clothed on the toilet, face red, eyes puffy, and tail darting with agitation.

"Is he gone?"

"Yes. How much of that did you..."

Ronnie got up from the toilet and started rapidly pacing around the room.

"He doesn't really mean that. I know he doesn't. He's just still hurt, and he has every right to be... I didn't want things to turn out like this either, and I just wish... I didn't... Not that I don't love you, but I realized when I was cuddling with him again, he's just so --"

Ronnie paused facing Arlo in front of the bedroom door, whimpering under his breath.

"Would you like me to do everything to you I can think of to shut your brain up?"

Ronnie vigorously nodded, with only a squeak escaping his mouth.