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The caves in the Constant. The air is moist and stale, but thick from the vegetation of solely fungi. Being a furred creature in such an environment is not a pleasant experience. Lacy, being a fox himself, knew this well. His fur always felt damp and itchy, and he missed the feeling of the sun on his muzzle, but he had a good reason to stay within the caves. That reason was named his favorite name in the world.
Charlie. The shadowy queen of the Constant, the one with control over the whole world. His whole world. She meant everything to him, absolutely everything. When he first fell into the Constant, he also fell for her. He would have followed her to the end of the earth, with how attached he was to the woman. She found him endearing, and charming as all hell, leading her to the same path he took. Falling for the other, Lacy.
Lacy set up himself in the caves to be closer to Charlie. He knew the other survivors a bit, none of them super well, but they definitely knew him as Charlie’s doll. There were rumors among the survivors that he had been lured in by her like a siren to her prey, and with his recent disappearance to the caves, that he wouldn’t be returning anytime soon, or if ever. Not that the survivors knew exactly where he was.
But Lacy, unlike what those rumors said, was not anywhere close to death by the queen, but exactly the opposite. He planned to see Charlie today, and he was very, very excited about it. He was like a schoolgirl, blushing and kicking his feet and giggling as he thought about his love. He thought deeply about her beautiful eyes, and how he looked forward to staring at her pupils all evening long. He would meet her by the ruins, save from any nightmare creatures- as Charlie specifically demands them to not attack. Perks of being the queen’s favorite.
He had a few hours to kill in his little poorly made camp before he could see his Charlie. He paced around, thinking and thinking about Charlie. His girlfriend- ooh! That title made him squeal with delight. Just thinking about her, the most beautiful woman in the Constant, got him very giddy. He flapped his hands as he paced, eventually coming to a stop once he spotted spare papyrus on his bedroll.
He trots over to the paper, grabbing the quill that Charlie most generously gifted him. It was scarlet red like the feather piece in her own hair, giving him all the more reason for him to adore it. He grabs the ink from a small log table, and dips the quill, turning it into the perfect utensil to create. On the papyrus, he starts drawing her face. Her pretty hair. Her beautiful curves, and her eyes. He draws her deep, loving eyes, staring at him, and he gushes at the illustration. He colors in her dress, and her hair.
He grins as he holds up his drawing of her, and excitedly puts it near his bedroll- next to tens, maybe even a hundred drawings of her. All in different poses, different looks on her face, but all the same beauty. Someone would probably say he’s wasting precious paper, but Lacy would argue ‘it’s not a waste if it’s Charlie’. He lays on his bed, gazing at all his pictures, and buries his muzzle into the bedroll, blushing red over his gray fur. His tail wags without him asking for it too, swishing near all his doodles and displacing them. He was so ecstatic to see her later.
Charlie stood by the pulsating ruins, waiting patiently for her favorite fox to show. She had told Lacy they would meet for a little time together, like they do nearly every day. Charlie always found a way to get away from the responsibilities of being the Queen of the Constant, always a way to slip away to be involved with this foolish little romance. He was taking a long time to show, and Charlie speculated he had gotten distracted or lost track of time, which is not a concept foreign to Lacy. He wasn’t the most aware man in the world, especially not in the Constant. Charlie pampered him exponentially. She spoiled him so much, the harsh survival of the Constant was barely a threat to him. She brings him gifts and food, demands the creatures under her command to leave him be, and she watches him like a hawk at night to make sure he doesn’t get into any accidental trouble.
She cared very deeply for this idiotic fox. She hasn’t cared for someone like this for a long time, not since Maxwell, before the Constant. She hasn’t felt in love with anyone since, not like she had been given the chance, when she was trapped here with everyone else. She knew how much he cared about her, almost a nauseating amount. He was so pathetically adorable it annoyed her.
That annoyance washed over her as she stood waiting. His sense of time was usually off, but she still wished he would be on time. She rolled her eyes, beginning to walk further into the caves, until she was interrupted. A loud, echoing voice called for her.
“Charlie!” it echoed through the caves, surrounding Charlie with sound as she recognized who it was, the gray furred fox she was there for. She saw a little light from the darkness, growing closer and bigger as quick footsteps reverberated in the area. Charlie smiled warmly as she saw the fox running toward her, running out of breath as he sprinted. As she watched him, her eyes widened as he slowed down and stopped, dropping his lantern and resting his hands on his knees. He wheezes for breath, looking up at her and holding up a finger to indicate he needs a moment. Charlie snickers as moments later, he starts jogging up to her again. Still wheezing, struggling to run. Part of the reason he was so cute was because he was a chubby man. She, having last dated a stick figure of a man, loved his weight and found it quite loveable.
Lacy made it to her and caught his breath, staring up at her with his tail wagging behind him. He had a humongous grin on his face, and he stood on his tip-toes and gave her a peck on the lips. Charlie blushed, putting a hand on her cheek and began to rhapsodize about him. She twirls her black hair, and smiles, “My, you’re quite forward this evening.” Lacy smiles.
“I can’t help myself when your pretty face is left wide open!”
Oh, Lacy. So incredibly cheesy. Another thing that made Charlie's heart flutter. She takes his hand, holding it tight, and begins walking him to the ruins. The domain she’s claimed for herself. They walk past a few structures of the ancients, and a few cracks spewing out shadows. They hissed and growled, aggressive as ever, but they backed down as their queen was watching them. The ruins begin to glow with red, shining on the two of them.
As they walk, they can’t help but flirt with each other.
“I like how the light here makes your feather glow,” Lacy begins. “It’s as pretty as you.”
“Likewise with your hair. Your wonderful red hair, that’s so fun to play with…”
“You’re fun to play with.”
Charlie pokes him in the back. “Lacy!”
“Hehe, sorry. I was being foolish.”
“Yes, you’re my foolish, darling little fox. What am I going to do with you, hmm?”
“Hug me really tight and kiss my troubles away?” Lacy bats his eyes at Charlie.
“Hmm,” Charlie thought for a moment. “Very well.”
Lacy looks up at her to say something, but Charlie scoops his smaller, chubbier frame up and holds him tight. She holds him in the air as she hugs him intensely, and starts planting kisses on the top of his sweet little fuzzy head. Lacy squeaks out a protesting “Charlie!” before being muffled by her chest. Charlie noticed his tail was wagging much faster than before. She feels Lacy’s hot breath on her body, as he is compressed against her. She savors it for a few more moments, before setting Lacy down and patting his head. Lacy is disoriented, and Charlie couldn’t tell if he was red from blush or the reflection of the ruins' light. His eyes are droopy and his smile was wide and gooey.
“That was… wow.” he giggled. Charlie smiled fondly at him.
“Didn’t expect I’d actually do it, huh?”
“I didn’t expect it to happen like that,” He grinned. He seemed so lovey-dovey he was sick. ”That was amazing.”
“I’m glad you enjoyed, dearest,” She shot him a sly grin. “and I have much more in store for you tonight.”
“Well you should have told me! I should’ve came prepared!”
“Don’t worry, I promise not to overwhelm you. I know how you are with that.”
Lacy’s face went redder from embarrassment. He, admittedly, had a few mental issues that made this relationship harder for him. Charlie, on the other hand, only found him more endearing for his disorders, which Lacy didn’t understand. He was happy to hear Charlie taking account of his little problems. “Thank you, Charlie.” Charlie nodded, and the two continued on their walk.
The red light of the ruins faded, and the cracks of fuel aggressively spewing out seemed to calm down. Charlie let go of Lacy’s hand for the time being. “Stay here for a moment, please,” she softly spoke. “I need to get something for you.” Lacy smiled and asked what it was, but Charlie shushed him and told him, “it’s a surprise.”
Charlie, with her heels clacking on the ruin tiles, waltzes her way to the area of the abandoned, destroyed clockwork pieces. They were abandoned by Maxwell, but they're hers now, as they began to be seeped with nightmare fuel. Anything the fuel could touch could be considered hers.
Charlie walks past a worn down Rook. It opens its eyes to her, becoming alert. It stares, making a mechanic cry as she looks back at it with the death glare. She struts by with a huff. She hated Maxwell's creatures, even if they were hers now. Worst of all, the clockworks were his favorite. It annoyed her greatly.
Bending down to a pile of scrap metal, she dug with her hands, her face twisting with disgust as oil got onto her hands, but she pressed on to get the item she promised Lacy. She has watched survivors hammer these scraps down, getting all sorts of goodies, like the one she felt in her hand after a grab.
A sparkling, fiery crimson gem was pulled from the pile of rusted and ruined steel. Charlie's face was filled with a wide, satisfied smile as she held the gem and admired it. It was red, like many things between her and her partner. Red like her feather, rouge like his hair, and scarlet like the color of love. It was the perfect gift for him, representing her royalty and their ever-burning love for each other. Charlie felt proud of thinking of such a profound present, much better than anything a simple rose could ever offer. But as Charlie was pondering, she was interrupted by a loud screech.
Charlie turns around in a flash, seeing the rook ramming into a thulecite wall. It growled a mechanical roar, shaking the debris of itself as it steadied itself for another attack. She looked up to see a Crawling Horror arching its back with its spines sticking up. Why were the two creatures fighting? They both were sided with Shadows. Charlie scowled at the two monsters as the rook charged towards the Crawling Horror, completely missing as the shadow monster dissipated. The nightmare creature appears behind the machine, its see-through fangs somehow biting into it and ripping off a plate of rusted, worn metal. Uncharacteristically brutal for a Crawling Horror, despite the name. They usually laid low until someone went insane, but rooks don't go insane. Perhaps the two had just pissed each other off, because these two creatures were normally docile to each other.
Charlie grimaces as she avoids the fighting monsters, grumbling with annoyance as she hears another crash, presumably the rook bashing into another wall. The queen strides, smiling as she looks down at the gift in her hands and thinks about how happy Lacy is about to be. She spots a Terrorbeak this time, snarling as it runs away from… something. Its form is dripping from fuel, leaving a trail of goop in its wake. Charlie gives it a puzzled look, wondering what it was running from.
Another screech violates Charlie’s ears, but she is far away from the rook who she thought to be causing it. She froze in her tracks, realizing the noise was coming from the very place she was walking to. Charlie’s eyes widened in horror, and bolted towards the owner of the shriek, Lacy.
Upon seeing him, he was wheezing, out of breath and in agony. He was holding his leg close to him, which was dripping with deep red and a wispy black infested in the wound. The wound itself looked like a large maw had caused it. But never mind the wound, Lacy was screaming and in need of a little… moral support.
“Lacy?” Charlie rushed to his side, sitting down on the dirty floor. “Sweetheart, tell me what happened-” but she was interrupted by a pained squeal of his. She wrapped her hands around him, squeezing him to maybe calm him down. Lacy cried into Charlie’s chest, letting go of his knee and letting his bloody leg rest on the ground.
“C-charlie-” he whimpered, wheezing. He must have had the wind knocked out of him by the same thing that bit him. “It was- nngh-”
Charlie peered closer at the black sludge oozing from his injury. It was, to her horror, nightmare fuel. Nightmare fuel was a substance of dark power, and it typically corrupted the user of it. Maxwell was the first, it turned his forearms and hands a dark black from his consistent use of it. Charlie’s hands were now stained black as well, and even Wilson, who merely spent a day on the nightmare throne, had black fingertips. Nightmare fuel being directly in the bloodstream was not something Charlie knew how to handle. She hasn’t been exactly human for a while. She’s been queen of the world, nothing had been able to harm her since she’d claimed the throne. She didn’t know what to do for a wound period, let alone an infected one. She was so panicked and worried- her beloved is crying in pain and she has no idea how to help.
With her limited and extremely basic knowledge of healthcare, she knew she had to get some kind of disinfectant- But she couldn’t just conjure up a cure, she needed to find something, and quickly. Charlie put her arms under Lacy’s body, heaving him up and lifting him off the ground. Lacy, grunted, looking at Charlie with pained and worried eyes. Charlie stared at him with guilt, which soon turned to anger.
“I will personally make sure whatever wounded you gets a severe punishment,” she growled. “No creature should be hurting you under my rule.” She scowls, looking through the dark for the monster that did it.
“It was a Terrorbeak,” Lacy gasps. “I didn’t do anything to it- It just lunged for me!” He looked horrified.
“I know, you wouldn’t do anything…” Charlie sighed. “You’re much too sweet for that.”
She wanted to smile, but she was far too worried to. There was nothing to smile about in this situation, keeping a large frown on the queen’s face. Lacy doesn’t smile either, he just looks away from Charlie and winces. Charlie carries him through the pitch black, desperate to find some kind of help.
Charlie sets the bleeding Lacy down on his bedroll in his camp. Lacy said his leg felt numb now, but that didn’t mean the wound was looking any better. It was still infested with goopy black, which was running down his leg. The bleeding had slowed down from when it had started, but fresh red was dripping over dried blood. Charlie watched as Lacy moaned and laid his head back in his uncomfortability. As Charlie looked at him, she noticed written on papyrus surrounding and behind him. She gently grabbed a piece of paper, and her face shifted as she felt her heart melt.
It was a well done drawing of her and Lacy together, looking at each other with little lines that Charlie recognized as blush. The two figures were about to kiss, it seemed. Charlie felt her chest get warm. She was so flattered by him. He cared about her so much he had drawn this- and looking behind him, much more of them- and it broke her heart that she couldn’t stop him from hurting.
Charlie, unable to do anything herself, thought of the next best thing. The people who survived here, they knew what they were doing, or else they would be long dead. She could force one of them to help, whether they liked it or not. She felt guilty that she wouldn’t be doing it herself, but she was at a loss at what to do.
Charlie stood up, leaving Lacy’s side. He whimpers, and asks, “Where are you going?”
“I’ll be right back, dear.” she replied. “‘I’m going to help you.”
Lacy lets out a weak groan and leaves it at that.
Charlie leaves to dissipate into the darkness, praying that she will be able to find the right person to help. Or at least, a competent one.
As Charlie arrived to the dark night of the surface, she felt as her body shifted and changed into the night monster. Her hair turned into shadowy flames, and she felt much more alert while she took the form of a shadow monster. Engulfed in the dark, she slinks forward to find someone she can force to help her darling Lacy.
She slithers to the survivor's main camp. She knew it well from what her spying eyes, the nightmare creatures, have told her. There was a small fire lit, with only a couple of the survivors sitting near it. Wilson, the scientist, and her technical predecessor, was sitting on a log roasting a carrot on a stick with a backpack full of goodies on his back.. The other, Wortox, was snoring on the ground with a piece of carpet on him for a blanket. Not that he needed it, being covered with red fur. Charlie grimaced as she recalled the wound on Lacy’s leg that tore off some of his beautiful gray fur. Charlie creeped behind the scientist, feeling herself getting famished. A bit of drool leaked out of her mouth as she hovered above him. She thought of how easy it would be to kill him now, and to eat his corpse- but that wasn’t Charlie’s priority. Rather, the night monster’s. Charlie inched her black claws closer, closer to his head, ready to strike and feast on him.
But she pulls herself away and shakes her head. She’s not here for herself, or a meal. She was here for someone with decent medical knowledge. Wilson was a scientist, but he was the survivor who had been here the very longest, other than herself or Maxwell. The former performer and his ex assistant never had to do much surviving, Maxwell only had to begin to learn as he lost the throne. Charlie never had to.
Charlie grabbed Wilson, covering his mouth so he couldn’t scream. He dropped his carrot into the fire, eyes widening as it burned in the flames. He kicked his legs in panic as Charlie dragged him into the darkness. Wilson let out muffled screams as he thought he was going to die.
When light hit Wilson’s eyes, he opened them with confusion. He was not dead, despite being dragged away into the pitch black. He gazed around him, recognizing the pale, grayish blue of the cave's walls. Wilson scratched his head as he looked around. He jostled his backpack, making sure he wasn’t missing any of his things. He sighed with relief, before the queen of the constant jumped in his face, startling him and knocking him over. This was the same woman who freed him from the throne. The same woman who killed him just as easily as she freed him. Wilson looked up at her with fear in his eyes, terror not faltering as her face turned softer and less hostile.
“Survivor,” she spoke with worry in her voice. “You know how to heal wounds. I’ve seen it myself, so please. Heal my love for me.”
Wilson continued to stare at her, not daring to make a sound. A few seconds go by, and impatience flashes in Charlie’s eyes.
“Let me rephrase,” she growled. “You will heal him, or I will make you suffer like you’ve never experienced before.”
Wilson shivered as he opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He just nodded.
“Good,” Charlie looked relieved. “Now get up. He’s just over there.” She points a clawed finger towards a small camp in the caves. It’s a good walking distance away, but Wilson could easily see it. Wilson stood up, still trembling before the queen, adjusting his backpack on his shoulder and marching away from her to the camp, frowning as he saw her trailing behind him. Charlie looked hopeful, which was unfitting of her monstrous form.
Inside the camp was a gray fox, laying down. His tail was twitching and Wilson could hear his groans from where he stood. Wilson came closer to the fox, before recognizing someone he didn’t think he would see again.
“Lacy?” Wilson nearly gasps. Lacy used to live with the rest of the survivors, but he had been missing for weeks. Wilson and the others had assumed he had died, but the scientist felt shocked realizing the gray fox had been in the caves all along. Had it been Charlie who forced him down here? Wilson didn’t have a clue, but it was a little nice to see a friend instead of some terrible monster.
Charlie pushes Wilson further into the camp, to his annoyance. He approaches Lacy carefully, his eyes widening as he sees the nasty wound on his leg. Wilson winces and sits down next to the canine. Lacy smiles and weaky waves a hand. “Hey Higgsbury.” Wilson only responds with a smile, before immediately frowning at the wound. It was fleshy and open, with nightmare fuel drooling from it. Wilson felt his face contort in disgust as he imagined just how painful a nightmare fuel infected wound must be.
“It’s that bad?” Lacy chuckles. He has such a fake smile plastered on his face.
“It’s not pretty,” Wilson began with his trumpety, shaky voice. “You might die from this one.”
Charlie screeched a hiss from behind him. “NO! You will heal him, or your life is mine to take!”
“Charlie, honey, don’t threaten the guy trying to help us.” Lacy grumbled. “Dying isn't fun, but it's not permanent-”
“I'm not letting you die, Lacy!” Charlie growled. “Scientist! Get started, or so help me God-”
Lacy attempted to shush the shadow queen as Wilson took his bag off of his shoulder. He opened it, and started shifting through it. He pulled out a few things- honey, bandages, some kind of paste, and a handful of jelly beans. Charlie scoffed. “You're having a snack at a time like this? How dare you!”
“They aren't for me!” Wilson said defensively. “These were made with Bee Queen's honey. They're good for regeneration.” He glared at Charlie.
Charlie made a ‘hmph’ sound and turned away. Wilson rolled his eyes and offered the jelly beans to Lacy.
“Eat some.”
Lacy took the jelly beans and thanked Wilson. He popped one in his mouth, and smiled. “These are good! Thanks, Wilson.”
“No worries. I'm going to put some honey poultice on your leg. Just a warning, it's going to sting a lot.”
Lacy's ears flattened and one flickered. “Sting? It's honey. Healing salves would sting, but honey shouldn't, right?”
“Your skin has been torn off, it should sting just from the air. I'm surprised you're not feeling that. Anything I put in there is going to hurt really bad, so…” Wilson shrugged and gave him a nervous smile. “Be brave, yeah?”
“...okay. I trust you.”
“Good,” He nodded. “We should probably get this-” Wilson paused, looking for a word. He eventually decided on “-gook out of there. Lucky for you, my hands are already tainted with fuel, so I don't mind doing this at all.” Wilson held up his black fingertips. He made a little wiggle with his hand that made Lacy smile. He was like a kid at a doctor's office.
“Okay,” Wilson takes a deep breath and rolls up his sleeves. He moved away from Lacy's face and shimmied to his leg. “Let's get to work.”
Wilson scooped up some of the fuel seeping from his bloody leg. “This is nasty,” he commented. Lacy grunted and nodded. Wilson gingerly put the nasty, shadowy goo onto the ground away from Lacy, and went in for more. Lacy grunted once more, this time in pain, as Wilson touched the bare wound. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “It’s going to get worse.” Standing behind him, Charlie is peering over his shoulder, watching intensely and nervously. Every time Lacy makes a pained noise, Charlie looks sicker and paler.
Wilson takes the honey poultice and applies it onto the wound. It’s less infested with nightmare fuel now, but there are still tiny bits of it Wilson doesn’t have the ability to take out. He hoped it wouldn’t cause too much damage. As the sticky honey seeps into his leg, his fur, Lacy lets out a screech of pain. Wilson winces and frowns. He paused, trying to give Lacy room to breathe before he applied any more, but a clawed hand snatched his wrist.
“Don’t you dare hurt him further!” Charlie snarls. She’s incredibly defensive of her love, to the point there is spite towards Wilson in her voice. “I will rip your head off before you even get the chance to make him scream again!”
“
I’m not doing it on purpose,” Wilson gritted his teeth. “It’s not my fault his leg is so raw. Everything is going to make it hurt. It’s going to make him better, I swear.” Wilson used his free hand to apply more honey onto the wound. Lacy let out a sharp exhale. Fury raged in Charlie’s eyes as she watched Lacy stir.
“Unhand him!” She growled. “No healing should be hurting him more!”
Wilson dared to glare at her. “You asked me to do this,” he grumbled.
“You’re hurting him!”
“You know how many wounds I’ve had to treat since I’ve been here?” The scientist stared at her. “You know how many wounds that you caused I’ve had to treat?”
Charlie fell silent. She looked a tad guilty upon hearing that.
“I’ve been here for what feels like a decade. I know what I’m doing.”
Wilson sighs.
“It always hurts before it gets better.”
As he spoke, he began to wrap the fox’s wound with a thick wad of bandage. Lacy let out a sigh of relief, but whimpered as Wilson wrapped it tight.
“Thank you, Wilson.” Lacy smiles. He’s holding back a frown, and Charlie can tell he’s still in pain. “We owe you one.” He looked at Charlie, expecting her to say the same, but she looked more annoyed than anything.
“I’ll leave some medicine for you to reapply tomorrow,” Wilson instructed. “And if you need more, please don’t kidnap me. Just ask me, please.” He glanced at Charlie, who rolled her eyes.
“Just be grateful I didn’t kill you, survivor,” She grumbled. Lacy glared at her, and she added, “Thank you for your work. Now get out.”
“Yes ma’am,” Wilson automatically responded. He picked his things up like he was in a hurry, and left quickly. Lacy barely had time to squeak out a goodbye.
“Thank goodness he’s gone,” Charlie sighed, then smiled at Lacy. “It was unbearable sharing you with him.” she joked.
“He wasn’t that bad,” Lacy mumbled. “He gave me jelly beans. Not to mention this bandage…” He lifted up his leg to emphasize his point.
“I suppose.” Charlie looked unamused. “I will reward him by restraining myself from killing him the next time he’s in the dark. Does that make you happy?”
“I think that’s nice, yeah,” Lacy grinned. “Thanks Charlie.” Charlie leaned down next to the fox, and began stroking his back.
“Anything for you, sweetheart.” she cooed. Lacy started to make a purring noise, and Charlie had a somber smile on her face. She suddenly wrapped him tight in a hug, with a tear or two falling down her face. “Charlie?” Lacy whispered.
“I’m so sorry you got hurt to begin with,” she silently cried. “It shouldn’t have happened, and I swear I’ll never let it happen again.”
“I hope so,” Lacy chuckled. “This one was bad.”
“I had something to give you, love.” Charlie wiped tears off her face and pulled away from her injured boyfriend. Charlie smiled as she saw Lacy’s ears perk up with interest. “Think of it now as an apology gift.” Charlie pulled out of her dress- well, her bra, actually- the small red gem she had planned to give him earlier.
“Aw, hell yeah,” Lacy giggled. “Boob gem!”
Charlie very lightly slapped him and shushed him to ‘stop being silly’.
“This ruby represents my love for you, fiery and passionate. Gems of this color, they have fiery properties to them, so I thought it was perfect. If you hold it in your hands, you can feel the warmth of my heart.” The queen took Lacy’s paw and set the rouge gem into it. She smiled at him lovingly and fondly, and Lacy’s face was the same color of the ruby with how red from blush he was.
“I-it’s nice and warm. Not too hot to burn my hands,” Lacy smiled, with a stupid, mushy grin on his face. “Charlie, this is much better than a-”
“Lacy, if you say ‘boob gem’ again, I will have no choice but shut your mouth with mine.”
Lacy held his hands up defensively. “I was not going to!”
Charlie just giggled and took his hands. “You were. Go on, say it. See what happens.”
Lacy opened his mouth to speak, but the queen of the Constant leaned in and put her lips on his before he could get a word out. Lacy’s eyes were wide with surprise, while Charlie’s were closed. Lacy’s heart fluttered as he felt himself melt into the kiss.
His tail wagged rapidly, and his ears twitched with delight.
Charlie finished the kiss with a chuckle, witnessing Lacy’s cute behavior. She brought Lacy’s head to her chest, and whispered into his ear, “I love you.”
Lacy snuggles up into the crook of her neck, and giggles a "I love you too’.
They sit there in their embrace, just feeling each other’s warmth.
“I love you, Lacy.” Charlie repeats.
“I love you, Charlie.” Lacy reciprocates. Their hearts fluttered together as they stayed together for the rest of the night.