### 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."

\*\*\*