4 — Puddles
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“Homey,” Star said as she slid her white cloak off her shoulders. With her free hand, she tucked her hair behind her ear, then, glancing around, smiled. “It’s nice. Warm, too. Why is the floor all wet, though?”

“Err... the snow earlier?”

“Riiight. Umm, is there a place to put my coat?”

I shrugged dumbly, barely registering what she was saying.

“Nevermind,” she said. “On the wall.”

“Oh,” I agreed. I watched as she hung her cloak, then pulled off her boots and socks. 

“Brr! The floor’s a bit cold... But my socks are wet, so I can’t keep wearing them...”

I didn’t say anything. She laid the socks over the lip of her boots, then stood back up and looked around, her ears twitching. Wiping her dripping hands on her pants, she reached up and brushed her pretty blue hair behind one of them, then glanced in my direction. “We should light the fireplace.”

“Mmm,” I agreed.

“Are you okay?” she asked, her thin, sculpted eyebrows furrowing in concern.

“Mmm,” I agreed again.

“Yuuuuuki.”

“What?”

“Why are you just standing there?” She tilted her head.

“Because... umm...” I started. She probably knew I was all distracted by her... What could I say...? “You’re really pretty,” I finally shrugged.

She instantly turned beet red. Hah! Now it’s not just me that’s embarrassed! Good, good. Yeah, and I wasn’t even distracted by her in the first place! Definitely not. No, it was definitely all according to plan... My plan to... umm... get her to blush! We were alone now, so every moment was another opportunity!

I giggled evilly, and she turned even more red. Perfect.

She sputtered. “Y-you... Oh my god.” 

“Hehehe,” I giggled again.

“You know your ears are all puffed up? And your tail is swishing back and forth like crazy?”

Now that she said that, yeah, I could feel my tail swishing back and forth like that. It was okay, though — even if it wasn’t intentional, I was pretty sure it made me cuter. I grinned, playing with muscles I hadn’t had before to swish it even faster. Blush for me moooore, Star, blush for me moooooooore.

She did.

“You’re dancing in the palm of my hand,” I giggled.

“Yes, I am.” She covered her face with her hands. Hehehe.

“So this must mean you have a crush on me. I always knew I’d be the cutest girl ever.”

“Since fudging when,” she complained.

“Well, we just met today, how would you know?” I winked.

My friend rolled her eyes, her blush finally fading. Nooo! Give me back my rosy cheeks! Well... maybe it was okay. She was still pretty when she was all pale like that, after all. “I... o-okay, so you’re really leaning in to the roleplay, huh? Well... in that case, Miss Yuki... umm... what was your last name again? Falls? Fall? Miss Fall, umm, tell me about yourself. How did you happen to start living in a cabin in the woods?”

I think she expected me to be stumped, but it wasn’t like my character’s backstory was particularly complicated. “Grew up in this cabin. With my father.”

“Oh. Where is—” she started, but widened her eyes and shut her mouth.

“Yeah, he... uhh, passed away eight years ago.” I paused for effect, then sighed dramatically. “It’s okay, I may still miss him, but I’ve moved on.” 

How was that roleplay, Star? Am I on-hecking-point or what? I thought so. Well, mostly. I might have gotten the number of years wrong, I was only working off of the single skim I had done of my backstory.

“Well... umm... regardless, I’m sorry for your loss,” she apologised.

I started feeling a little awkward, she really did look sorry about it... it’s just a game, Star... Okay, okay, now I have to fix this. Idiot. “Like I said, it’s okay,” I backpedaled. “A-anyway, yeah, we should probably light a fire like you said. I’ve... uhh, I’ve been feeling a little forgetful lately and don’t actually know how to light it, though... wanna help me... uhh, figure it out?”

Star glanced to the fireplace for a moment, before looking back at me and sighing. “I feel ridiculous doing this.”

Yeah, I did too, a little bit. I didn’t say it out loud though. Besides, if we weren’t roleplaying, why were we even these characters? “You don’t want to be Star?” I asked.

“N-no,” she shook her head. “That’s not what I meant. I just... I think the roleplay is silly.”

Wait, what? “I don’t understand. What’s the difference? Why would you want to play a girl character outside of roleplay?”

“I... uhh...” my friend blushed. “I don’t know... Maybe a fetish or something?”

I blinked.

She opened her mouth, but then closed it.

I blinked again. “What?”

Wow. Now that was a blush — her cheeks were so red. Hmmph. Why couldn’t I get her to blush like that? My skills were obviously lacking. I frowned.

“F-forget I said that!” she stammered. “It’s not a fetish, I swear! Ahhhhh I’m so stupid, I shouldn’t have said anything, I’ll keep roleplaying, just ignore me, please.”

“If it’s not a fetish, what is it?” I prodded.

“Please. Please just ignore me, okay? I want to do the roleplay! I’ll do it!”

“I... uhh... okay, I can, I guess...” I tilted my head, then shivered, and finally started stripping off my own stuff. “Okay, well whether or not we’re roleplaying, we really do need to get that fire started. I think I’m going to freeze otherwise.”

“Y-yeah,” she agreed.

 


 

A short while later, we’d actually managed to start a fire. Impressive, huh? Okay, well, I had almost set the cabin on fire in the process... Courtesy of pointing a fire-starting tool we’d found in the wrong direction. I’d been surprised by a flame, and dropped it to the floor, and we’d had to stamp it out. Star had scolded me quite a bit for doing that, but, like, how was I supposed to know which end the flame came out of? Anyway, we got the fire started, so it didn’t even matter!

Unfortunately, even if the firestarter was probably magic, the fireplace was not. It was a short while after lighting the fire, but we were both still shivering in front of the fireplace, holding our cold hands out towards the warm flame. I think it was the fifth time I whispered, “Jeez, it’s cold,” and Star had agreed with a quiet “Mmm,” that I’d finally given in and ran off to my bedroom in search of a blanket.

I’d grabbed the thickest, fluffiest blanket I could find, and I’d brought it back, careful not to drag it through the entryway where the floor was still wet. I wrapped the blanket around us, only leaving my hands out so that I could continue holding them in front of the fire. “That better?”

“Yeah,” she smiled, obviously content. My heart fluttered again, still incomprehensibly. Wait... wait wait wait. Okay, so this was maybe a long shot, but what if the randomiser actually put me in a body with a heart condition? Some kind of... uhh, bonus challenge? Or something?

“It’d be nice if it was under me, though. So that I wasn’t sitting on the cold floor anymore,” she said, starting to shimmy in order to do just that.

One awkward tug happened to knock her towards me, and suddenly I found her leaning against my shoulder.

It was like my entire body was hit with a bolt of lightning, then. I suddenly had so much adrenaline pumping through my veins, my heart was beating faster than I’d ever felt it before, and I felt redness returning to my cheeks. (Okay, maybe the last one there was due to the fire, but still.)

Why was her touch affecting me like that? Seriously. It looked like she hadn’t even noticed, because she was still shimmying, so it must not have been static electricity or something. No, there was something wrong with me. Or wrong with the body the game had given me. Something like that.

I was, like, drawn to her or something. Like a magnet. She leaned away from me again, having finished her shimmying, and made a quiet, contented sigh as I saw her toes wiggling underneath the blanket. She was contented... but I was not. 

That wasn’t good enough for me. 

Instead, my heart was telling me that I’d just lost what had made it good enough — that I’d been content during that short time when she’d been leaning against me. Now that she wasn’t leaning against me anymore, it was clear just how much I needed it — how much I needed her touch.

Could I lean against her, instead? Was... was that allowed? I hadn’t managed to hug her earlier, but if I hadn’t been interrupted by those mooslin things, I definitely would’ve. Could I... could I make up for that missed opportunity now by leaning against her?

The mental struggle continued for minutes — agonising minutes where my mind slowed to a crawl, struggling to ponder anything besides whether I was allowed to do it. Whether I was allowed to lean against her, allowed to feel her touch again. And then, all at once, my brain turned off, and the struggle ended. It had probably short-circuited — too much feedback it didn’t understand. My resistance utterly destroyed, and with zero qualms, I leaned in, laying my head against her soft shoulder. While she gasped in surprise, sputtering, I finally sighed my own contented sigh. 

“Y-yuki?”

“Mmm,” I found myself agreeing. “Not that other name. Not in here. In here I’m Yuki.”

Star didn’t say anything for a while, and she didn’t shrug me off of her shoulder, either... which was nice, because it was really comfortable. I didn’t know why this felt so... right... but it did. I felt my muscles relaxing, the tension from the mooslin adventure slipping away, along with other tension I didn’t even know I had... tension from real life, probably...

My friend, on the other hand, seemed to be getting more tense. Was it because of my touch? I couldn’t really tell why, but her shoulder seemed a bit tight and her long ears were shaking. Every once in a while, they’d bump into one of mine, startling me a bit and causing me to flick them involuntarily. 

She didn’t seem to mind her ears getting flicked, though, and... eventually... she breathed out a shaky breath and rested her own head against mine, trapping me between her warm cheek and her soft shoulder. I... I felt... safe... Safer than I’d ever felt before... And my insides were all warm and bubbly... as if at any moment I’d melt into a puddle just like the ones we’d left at the door.

“You’re r-really leaning into th-that roleplay, then?” she asked hesitantly.

“Mmmmmmm.”

It felt really nice... really nice... This was the strangest experience of my life... Since when was it possible for roleplay to feel this... normal? To feel this... sweet? So warm? It was... ridiculous, and incredible, and amazing, and I couldn’t help but want more.

“I guess,” I finally replied, my voice barely a whisper.

She didn’t say any more, but that was okay. I liked her company just leaning against me like this... words were unnecessary... We stayed like that for a long while, maybe an hour or more... A peaceful, companionable silence, during which the wind outside got louder and the last remnants of sunlight disappeared. By the time our silence was broken, were both feeling very nice and toasty. I myself was so comfortable that I thought I could have stayed there for hours more... that is, if the silence hadn’t been broken by my stomach growling.

Star snorted in response. “Time for food, huh? What’s for dinner, little fox girl?”

Maybe not thinking totally clearly, I saw an opportunity and I took it. “You.”

She turned bright red, pulling herself out of the blanket, flustered. I grinned, and she pouted. “YOU...!” She pointed her finger at me, shaking her head. “Stop that!”

“Whaaat?” I smirked.

“You know exactly what you’re doing!”

“It’s just so easy.”

She pouted again. “Anyway, I’m guessing you aren’t actually going to make dinner just ‘cause I’m a guest in your virtual house, right?”

“Star, in the real world I know how to cook toast, microwave meals, and hydrator meals. That’s it. It would seriously be a mistake to rely on me, even if it is a game. I’d find a way to screw up the most basic stuff and you know it.”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t worry, I’ll find something,” she sighed. “Keep me company, though?”

I sighed and pushed myself to my feet, leaving the warm safety of the fireplace. “Okay, okay.”

“This isn’t as good as the stuff you make at home,” I complained, dubiously prodding the meat in my stew with a wooden spoon.

“What did you expect? This is a cabin in the woods, it’s not like I have the best ingredients here. You’re lucky it tastes as good as it does.”

Hmmph,” I grumbled, spooning a vegetable in my mouth. The texture was a little grainy and it didn’t have enough salt. It didn’t have any salt, in fact. Blech.

“Spoiled brat,” Star rolled her eyes, drinking the broth. “I don’t think it’s too bad, honestly, for a first attempt. As I level cooking and we find more ingredients, I’ll probably do better.”

Hmmph,” I grumbled again. “I guess. Sorry. Thanks for making this.”

She smiled. “Took you long enough.”

“Sorry,” I apologised again, dutifully slurping up the broth. “Eeuggh.” I shivered. “That meat goes down like... like a... like a slug... or something.”

She snorted, then stared at me for a moment and smiled again. “It’s kinda cute when you swear.”

I blushed. “I... uh... Sorry, maybe I shouldn’t, I’m failing the roleplay...”

“You’re the one that decided we needed to roleplay, Yuki,” she said softly, putting her hand on my shoulder. “It doesn’t have to be.”

Again with the roleplay stuff. I still didn’t really understand what she was talking about. Wouldn’t that mean we’d have to make new characters or something? I didn’t want to call myself Orr in here. Please no. 

I was so confused as to what she was trying to say, and gosh was her touch not helping. Seriously, why did I get warmed up more from her touching me than from hot stew? That didn’t even make sense. She didn’t have like, fire abilities or something. 

Maybe the game was bugged, actually. Maybe that explained all the weird things I’d been feeling.

She pulled her hand away to finish her stew, and I felt a sense of loss. Why did her touch mean so much? I didn’t understand. This couldn’t be a bug. Right? The game couldn’t be putting emotions in me or something? Yeah, no, that was ridiculous, it didn’t work like that. Being someone that liked to play around with hardware when given the chance, I did know that much.

But why, then? Why was I feeling... so... much?

“Are you going to help me with the dishes?” she asked, standing up.

“Y-yeah...” I said, grateful for the opportunity to escape my addled mind. I drained the rest of my stew, then curled my lip at the gross veggies and meats remaining in my bowl. Sighing, I tossed them down, and coughed once, shivering. Ugh.

 


 

“You’re kidding me, right?”

I chuckled nervously as Star pulled her head out of the door to the artificing room. “Yeah... it’s a bit—”

“This is a disaster! What the hell happened! You didn’t do that, did you?”

“Of course not!” I shook my head, kind of hurt. “You should know I’m not that bad.”

“Yeah, yeah. You’re not. You’re bad, but this is like, the worst mess I’ve ever seen. Yuki... I think the character you’re playing is a hoarder.”

“Hehe...”

“Well, I guess we know what we’ll be dealing with tomorrow,” she sighed, closing the door.

“What?!” I exclaimed. “But...”

She raised an eyebrow. “Okay, let me spell it out for you. This seems like a starter area we’re in, right? So until we’re levelled a bit more, we’ll probably be sticking around in this area, right? Plus, you’ll be able to practice your artificing and I my alchemy. I didn’t explore that creepy village too much, but I... I grew up there, or my character did, I guess. So I’ll probably have an alchemy room somewhere, like you have this artificing room. We’ll spend a while levelling and then head out to explore the rest of the world. However... there is no way you’re going to get anything done trying to work out of a room like that.”

“Well... okay, yeah... you’re probably right...”

“What’s the bedroom look like?” she turned to go to the next and final door.

“Uhhh...”

She glanced back to give me an exasperated look. “That bad, huh?”

“I... I actually made the bedroom worse...”

She sighed, pushing open that door. “Of course you did. Well, this one isn’t as bad, at least. We should clean it up for tonight, though.”

“Wait, but... there’s only one bed in here? I’ll just sleep in here since the mess isn’t a problem for me.”

She stared at me, giving me a look that screamed, ‘Seriously?’ Shaking her head, she sighed again. “We’ll flip a coin for who sleeps on the couch.”

“And if I sleep in here—”

“We’re still going to clean the room.”

I pouted.

 


 

The wind got louder still as the evening wore on, the cabin creakier and creakier. There came a point where it was hard to tell if we were hearing the howls of wind, the howls of animals, or both... and then on top of that, I swore I was hearing growls, moans, and screams. What in the world was going on outside?

Neither of us had any idea, nor did we want to. It was a good thing we were locked safely inside, protected from the cold and the monsters. At least, that was how we felt, until we went to add more wood to the fireplace and realised we had run out. Instead, the fire began to dim, reduced to embers, and we had nothing. No way of continuing to heat the cabin.

“Now what?” I murmured, as I sat in front of the embers with Star. Once more we were wrapped in that thick blanket from earlier, trying to soak up as much of the remaining heat as we could.

“Well... we could burn some of the stuff in the artificing room...” Star suggested.

I gasped and glared. “How dare you.”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s not like you know what any of it does.”

“But that only increases the likelihood we’ll burn something valuable!”

She sighed. “Would you rather freeze to death, then? How do you think the game handles death loops? Do you think it’d spawn us back in the cabin, only for us to die again, over and over, because it’s too cold?”

“S-star, that’s scary...” I complained.

“Sorry,” she said, and after a short moment of hesitation patted my head.

Remember how earlier I’d been so warm and bubbly I’d felt like I was going to melt? Well, let me hecking tell you, the moment her hand touched my head, somewhere around my ears... Oh my gosh, I legitimately thought I was melting. In a way, maybe I was. In mere moments, I found myself falling onto Star’s lap, moaning quietly, my brain fuzzy.

“You really are just a little fox girl, aren’t you?” she murmured, scritching behind my ears. I couldn’t even think straight anymore, I felt everything just slipping away...

“Mmmmmmm,” I finally agreed, feeling a deep rumbling in my chest in tune with my contentedness. Star was nice... so very nice... I really liked her...

She ran her hands through my hair slowly, carefully, making sure not to catch her fingers on any tangles (there were probably a lot). Every once in a while, she’d reach her hand back up to my ears, scritching behind them again. As she affectionately stroked through my hair and fur, the sounds faded and every last one of my problems dissolved. Nothing mattered — not the encroaching cold, the howling storm, nor the weird noises we heard outside; not the messy rooms I’d be forced to deal with the next day, not the mooslins which seemed to have it out for me; not my college courses, nor my life’s lack of direction; not my issues with my body, my burgeoning issues with identity, my strange, new feelings for my friend... No. Nothing mattered, nothing... except for us.

I purred. I purred and I purred and I purred, and I had no idea how long I was doing it. Even the concept of time vanished. I was truly content to stay there for the rest of my life, safe in her arms.

I didn’t remember much after that. I remembered being a little bit cold — especially my feet; I remembered movement, or rustling around, during which I had to curl into a ball in order to conserve heat; I remembered being caressed; I remembered being in a warm nest... Most of all, though, I remembered that impenetrable feeling of safety.

Welcome back! Hope you enjoyed the gay. Things are starting to get pretty steamy...

If you want to read chapter 5 early, consider supporting me on Patreon! May also be worth noting that chapter 6 is about halfway finished, and will likely be posted on there tomorrow or the next day.

If you want more good stuff to read, and can't or don't want to support me on Patreon for whatever reason, keep in mind there's a bunch of other great stuff in the Troubleverse already!

Trouble With Horns by QuietValerie

Witch of Chains by QuietValerie

Illegal Alien in a MMO World by Trashlyn

If you want to hang out and chat, you can find me in the Valynverse Discord server.

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