Growing Closer

This is a short work of erotic fiction containing furry, or anthropomorphic, characters, which are animals that either demonstrate human intelligence or walk on two legs, for the purposes of these tales. It is a thriving and growing fandom in which creators are prevalent in art and writing especially.

All work is fiction intended for fantasy only, regardless of content, and consent must always be acquired when engaging in any sex act with another adult.

Please note that all characters are clearly over eighteen and written as such in all stories.

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The white fox smiled, tucking his tentacles, the magical appendages that sprouted from the upper part of his back, away. They were a little annoying for Sandor, but he had gotten used to them over the few years that had taken place since Alyssa and he had had their encounter with the magical tree, the ancient being that had sought to absorb and control them. Even then, he was surprised that they had gotten out of there alive, after the trauma, but forever grateful that they had been able to heal.

And yet they had been left with remnants as he slung his bag off his shoulder and opened the door with a flourish, ready to run into the arms of his doe-taur lover and partner. It had been too long since he had seen her, though he'd only been away for a week to train other, lower-level mages, his skills having improved in leaps and bounds since "the incident". It was not a duty that he particularly enjoyed, when it meant that he had to leave Alyssa at home, even if it was comfortable for her there, but it had to be done, he had to pass on his knowledge to all the generations of mages that were already following him.

"Alyssa! I'm home!"

He smiled widely, entering the hallway and scurrying through to the living area, as excited as he had been when he'd been a teenager, tentacles flickering out from his upper back, as much as he tried to quell them. Sandor simply couldn't help himself when it came to being with Alyssa again and, oh, how he had missed her!

The doe-taur sat on the sofa, large and plush with tight seams and stitching, though she only smiled at her partner as he ran in and hugged her. Her arms came up automatically to hold him and yet Alyssa could not have honestly said why she did not feel quite right in her body. She was still eating fine, more or less, but she had been a little out of sorts, feeling uncomfortable with prolonged physical contact. Even her partner could not fail to notice that the deer-taur, brushing her hair back behind her shoulders, the light brown, flowing locks, breathed a sigh of relief as they separated, more relaxed when there was a little space between them.

"I'm so glad you're home, sweetheart," Alyssa said, clasping her hands before her chest, trying to show her pleasure at having him home more openly, even if there was something worrisome inside, something missing. "It's so long when you're away... Did you have a good trip? How was the teaching?"

Ah, yes, those were questions that she was better able to ask, questions that she had asked so many times over before that they were second nature to her.

And yet Sandor drew back, his brow furrowing, worry curling in his chest.

"You don't sound like yourself, Alyssa," he fretted, coming in closer, pressing his palm to her forehead as if to take her temperature. "Is something wrong? Did my mother come by again while I was away? I know we added magical protections to the locks, but she can be ever so insistent..."

"Oh, no, no," Alyssa said, holding her hands up feebly, not as convincing as she would have liked to be. "I'm just... Well, I'm not right, Sandor. I haven't been unwell...but I don't well lately either."

Swallowing hard, her little doe ears splayed out, a look of helplessness crossing her face, if only for a moment.

"I feel strange, Sandor... I'm worried."

That was all he needed to do, leaping into action.

"I will speak to the doctor."

Of course, as one of the tier one mages in the growing town of magical students and more, Sandor was able to get the doctor there in no time at all, which was just as well for how the fox was fretting. Even though he knew that he should have been sitting with Alyssa, comforting her, reassuring her that everything was okay, he couldn't help his heart from pounding, the palms of his hands slick and body sweating where his body strained to release excess heat.

The doctor examined her thoroughly, from head to toe, a stoat with a sharp look in his eye and he was certainly clear in his examination. He did afford Alyssa privacy for the more intimate parts of the examination, such as when he had to lift her shirt, buttoned at the front but only to the middle of her ribcage in the modern style, to listen to her heart and lungs. Even though Sandor had seen her naked a hundred times over, it was still embarrassing to have someone else examine her, even though the stoat was kind and respectful, murmuring softly to her. He even asked Alyssa about her life, getting her to talk and relax a little more, for her heart was racing from the worry of everything.

"What is it, doctor?" Sandor asked when he was called in, Alyssa sitting on the bed with her legs tucked under her from the doe half of her body, arms gently wrapped around her torso, holding onto the elbow of the opposite arm. "Is she okay? Alyssa, how are you feeling?"

He didn't know who to talk to or turn to, but the doctor had a smile on his face. That had to be good news, right?

"It is well, Sandor, quite well," he said, quietly packing his equipment away, the stethoscope and tools he had used to look into her throat and ears, magically infused. "I would need to take her to the medical centre for a scan, of course, but it appears that your partner is pregnant. I would not offer a premature congratulations, but all the signs are there and everything, as it appears, is perfectly fine and normal. There is nothing to raise any concerns with me, but we would, of course, like to confirm the pregnancy so that you may receive the proper care, Alyssa."

Dimly, Sandor was aware of a start of surprise, his lips smiling but the smile not being one that reached his eyes. He shook the doctor's hand and let him out, shaking his head, the solid clunk of the door closing after the doctor's tail oddly loud in the sudden quiet of their home.

He moved as if in a dream back upstairs, rubbing the back of his hand over his eyes. It was good news -- yes! Really! But...he hadn't expected it, not for them. Not because there was anything wrong with either of them, of course, but because it was unusual, very, very much so, for a taur and an anthro to be able to conceive. Actually, in that town, as far as he was aware, it was utterly unheard of.

The fox gnawed at the inside of his cheek until it bled, making his way back upstairs, though he wanted to be happy, reeling from the shock of it all still. Was there something else wrong? Had the doctor missed something and was Alyssa, in fact, sick?

He had not been himself since "the incident", warier, perhaps even to the edge of being paranoid. He knew what people said about him, but did not worry too much. They had not been attacked by an ancient being, after all, and nearly lost their lives and the love of their life too. If he was a little more worried about life and the world after that, what did it matter? As long as he and Alyssa were fine.

And yet Alyssa knew too that the fox was not the same -- she was not the same as she had been before, but she didn't think that she had changed to the extent that Sandor had. But the fox's face appeared dark and thunderous when he re-entered the bedroom to find her, confirming her worst fears.

"Please!" She cried, hugging a pillow to her chest, the urge and instinct to protect herself impossible to shove away, however forcibly the part of her that loved and adored Sandor wanted to. "I haven't! Not with anyone else!"

The fox paused, though she couldn't read his expression. Although his lips were curved up in a smile, he leaned on the doorframe as if unsteady, sure that there was fury behind it, anger. He couldn't think that they had honestly conceived -- even if that, of course, was what had happened! She hadn't slept with anyone else in her life, let alone since she had entered a committed, monogamous relationship with him! It would not have felt right, to say the least of it.

Tears built in the corners of her eyes and she shrank from the fox, sobbing into the pillow, wailing. She barely even understood her own words, something about him frightening her, fears and worries tangled together, pouring from her lips where they should have been said many months ago, if not years. The fox's arms went around her and she stiffened as if expecting the worst, but her mind was such a mess then, as it had been for months already, that she didn't know what to expect, whether the fox was going to cast her out onto the streets for supposed infidelity or if...

No. The doe-taur didn't think she could think clearly if she considered the other option, the better option. She wasn't so sure that she was ready to let hope into her heart.

"What... Alyssa?"

Sandor blinked, drawing his head back a bit, even though he wanted to keep her in his arms, safe and secure. Surreptitiously, or perhaps not as discreetly as he would have wanted, he checked her over for injuries, running his hands down her back. Once again, he wondered if something had slipped by the doctor's attention, if he really was mistaken, if he had done something even to hurt Alyssa.

Anger boiled in the cauldron of his stomach, bubbling and roiling like a potion concocted for nefarious means.

"Alyssa... Tell me clearly... What's wrong?" He whispered, not daring to raise his voice, though he was so close that she could not see his face, let alone have her read his expression, the emotion in his eyes. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? Whatever is wrong, we can get through it together, I promise."

Alyssa blinked, pulling back, teary-eyed, her hair mussed up and sniffly.

"It's just..." She struggled to begin. "I didn't... It's yours, if I am pregnant, Sandor, I promise you, with all my heart and soul. I never was with anyone else and I never slept with anyone else. I never would do that to you. I know it's so...so rare for this to happen, but..."

She gulped, trying to pull away again, though he held onto her more tightly, unconsciously restraining her. Of course, Sandor didn't know the truth of it, only acting in her best interests.

"You..." She gulped, her heart pounding, ears standing up straight as if to remain alert for danger. "You've...been...scary. Threatening. You're darker than you used to be, Sandor, the tentacles... You scare me and I don't want that to turn on me. You're so much stronger than me, I don't... I don't ever want to do anything to make you...to make you..."

She couldn't get the words out, but the truth of it remained in what the doe-taur could not say, Sandor gasping faintly.

"Oh..."

Oh... So, it was him that was the problem, not Alyssa. The rush of relief that she was well was short-lived as bitter guilt clawed at him, dragging him down. But that was something, at least he hoped, that he could make right.

"Alyssa, darling..." He breathed softly, no longer restraining her, but stroking her face with his fingers, brushing away her tears, allowing her to move away from him if she wanted to. "I'm so sorry, I had no idea... I should have known, but... But I never thought for a moment that the child would not be my own. Like you, I just never thought that something like this could be possible, that something like this could come to us. It is a gift, Alyssa, and there is no one that I would rather share it with than you."

The doe-taur blinked, gulping down the remnants of a sob that no longer had much of a place in her heart.

"You... You really mean it?"

"Yes, yes, of course, darling, of course," he murmured as soothingly as he could, stroking her hair, inviting her to lay her head on his chest, cradling her as gently as he would a new-born. "I love you, dearly... There is more to talk about here and I am so sorry that I've frightened you. This magic...new magic...it is strange to me too and I know that I must have better control over it, the tentacles too."

The tentacles... He could control them, though he shouldn't show them so much, it seemed. He had thought it natural, without thinking about it really, a part of him that was so often visible, simply him. Maybe more of that tree's magic had changed him than he had realised. He frowned, shaking his head softly, rubbing her back, even as the doe-taur relaxed a little more, nestling in a little closer. It was only a little, but it was enough. Enough for them to get started, enough for them to be a little bit closer again.

"Yes, sweetheart... I always trust you, always and forever, with my life," he reassured her softly, holding her gently. "I... I will try to work on myself, but we need to talk about it, I need to see your side of it to best make this right for you. I am so sorry I ever frightened you, before and now. I think I know a little of what you mean and I will keep the tentacles hidden more, of course, but I know they will still be there..."

He sighed and shook his head. There would be an answer, but it would not come easily. Alyssa pushed against his chest a little more firmly, resting her weight on him, eyelids heavier than she could have anticipated.

"I... It's not the tentacles, not always, just...difference..." She struggled to get the words out, tiredness dragging her down. "Maybe... Could you hold me? And we'll talk?"

That was something that Sandor was more than happy to do, holding her warmly and nuzzling the back of her head as he spooned her, curled around her body as his tail brushed her body, flicking over his hip.

"It's going to be okay," he breathed. "Everything is okay. Everything is well. And we're going to have a little one to join us soon..."

He could not resist resting his hand on her belly, even though there was nothing to be felt right then and there, his tentacles slipping out faintly from his upper back, towards her. The doe-taur stiffened a little when they first touched her, but he had avoided "using" them with her, perhaps seeing in some subconscious way that she had not been quite happy with them prior. He persisted though, very lightly, stroking her fur, caressing her, showing her, without words, that there was no fear to be had from him and his body, regardless of how he had changed.

One night was not going to fix that, but he could take the first steps towards fixing it, moment by moment.

"The baby..." She smiled faintly, genuinely. "I can't believe it. Do you think they are going to look more like you, or me? Or maybe we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves, we don't know if I'm pregnant, truly, yet..."

"I want to get ahead of myself," Sandor said, nuzzling her hair. "I want to have hope for you. I don't care how they look, if they are happy and healthy. I will love them with all my heart anyway."

Alyssa smiled, relaxing into his arms. That felt more like the old Sandor, but maybe there was just a little work to be done between them both, learning how their new selves fit into their relationship, speaking more openly. Alas, not every relationship could be without its obstacles. But they would face them, as the fox had said, together.

"I think they'll look like you, Sandor," she breathed, breath slowing down as she came back to herself again. "I think...they'll be a great mage, just like you."

"But hopefully not have quite the early experiences that I had, with magical entities, hm?"

She giggled at that, lightening the moment between them even further.

"Yes, I hope that too... I can't wait to watch them grow up, but not too quickly," she said. "I want to savour every moment of it, to see them grow up big and strong. I want to give them a better life than I started with. Though my life was forever made better for finding you, all those years ago."

Sandor blushed a little and tucked his nose down into his shoulder, squirming a little. His tentacles stroked lower, caressing the sensitive fur and skin of her tail, the doe-taur murmuring a little. He'd never done that before. And, just like that, with a little communication and connection, he seemed like the fox that she had fallen head over heels for all those years ago, even though the years themselves were not as long as Alyssa might have liked to think.

Time did not heal wounds, but communicating did, at least in that case. That was something they could do, finding each other all over again, for they could not live a life and a relationship where the big things, or the little things, were not spoken about. That was not for them, not as he slipped down against her, relaxing, drawing her into the bed and his chest as the weight of his arm lying over her grew increasingly heavy.

"You're falling asleep, sweetheart," Alyssa murmured, though she was not far behind. "Goodnight, Sandor. I love you. I'm glad...we talked."

Even if there was more to talk about, it was a start. And that start, together, was all that they needed.

"Goodnight, Alyssa," he said, kissing the back of her head and neck. "I love you too. We will talk more again, about how to make things better. But I am here with you, I always will be. I promise."

With that, they slipped into a sweet, dreamless sleep. And, after so many months of worry, it turned out that it was the most restful sleep she had had in months.

In growing closer, sometimes that too was needed.