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Dave had a tail. It was scaly, off putting, and all too reminiscent of a snake; something Jack hated. By all accounts, he should hate Dave's tail too. But… he couldn't help but find it all too endearing. It moved like a dog's tail most of the time, giving away when Dave was happy or when he was focused. It was also purple; a color that had become Jack's favorite over the years.
Dave would occasionally wrap it around Jack like a snake, sure, but Jack honestly didn't care when he would since it was his own way of getting even more physical touch from Jack. It was also warmer than Jack would imagine a snake would be, so he just saw it as another limb Dave could wrap around Jack.
Fredbear knew how much Dave loved wrapping both his arms and legs around Jack; what was another appendage to add to the list?
That being said, Jack had noticed a behavior that was slowly becoming increasingly more common. Dave had kept his tail to himself for so long that when it was finally free and out, he spent most of the time just letting it do whatever it wanted without trying to control it too much.
As he became more comfortable with it, he started moving it around a lot more. That included rubbing it against the furniture. He wouldn't do it for too long, but Jack would frequently catch him doing it briefly before he started doing something else with it.
He'd always liked it when Jack would pet his tail, so Jack chalked it up to him just chasing more touch.
But, one day while petting Dave's tail, Jack decided to try petting the bottom as well. Dave almost exclusively would rub the bottom on the furniture, so maybe he just wanted to be touched there. The bottom of his tail didn't have scales and looked more vulnerable; maybe it just felt better since it felt more personal.
When Jack did so, however, Dave seemed to freeze as he started breathing a little deeper. Jack briefly freaked out and thought he'd done something that had made Dave feel uncomfortable, but, then, Dave asked him to do it again and it clicked for Jack.
“Are you, uh, sensitive there?” he asked, dancing around what he actually wanted to ask. They'd had sex multiple times already, but it was still a relatively new thing.
Dave looked down and fidgeted with his hands. “I mean… I guess it kinda feels good,” he replied, still looking away from Jack. Jack supposed it may have been similar to petting underneath a bird's wings for Dave.
Jack didn't know how he felt about Dave rubbing his tail on their couch to get off, but he supposed it was better than him rubbing anything else on there to get off. He was honestly more intrigued by thinking about how this would change things up in the bed. “Do you… want me to continue?” he asked, going back to petting the top of Dave's tail.
Dave finally looked back at him before shaking his head and laying on Jack's shoulder. “Not right now,” he answered, his tail coiling on Jack's lap.
As time went on, Jack came to understand more of how Dave's tail would make Dave feel. It seemed like the closer to the base of the tail he got, the more of a reaction Dave would give. The further he got to the tip, Dave told him he felt less and less. Once at the tip, he barely felt much of anything when Jack would touch the bottom.
Dave had been reluctant to bring his tail into their sexual encounters for a while. Jack didn't particularly care as long as Dave felt comfortable. The first time it was ever purposely involved, Dave just rubbed it against the bed to get off quicker.
Over time, he would start rubbing it against Jack. He said it felt better when it was touching something warm.
That wasn't all Jack had discovered about Dave's tail, though. It was a common experience for him to wake up with it curled up around him, obviously, but Jack would always just pet the top of it until it let go.
One day, though, he got bold and decided to kiss it since it was close to his head. That quickly got Dave to retract it, way faster than when Jack would just pet it.
From the close view he got of it, though, he noticed a few scales had grey covers on them. He knew that it would occasionally shed, but he'd never seen some get stuck like that. Maybe that had been why Dave felt more irritated than usual yesterday. He made it clear it was never comfortable to shed, but his mood had been noticeably worse.
He didn't know what to do when that happened, so he called Caroline since she'd kept reptiles before and had expressed being very interested in them before. She briefly got excited thinking that he'd wanted to keep a reptile before he politely shut her down and said he was just asking because he'd ‘found a snake with a stuck shed’ and was just curious how they dealt with it.
From what she explained, he decided his best course of action was to soak Dave's tail somehow—likely by getting him to take a bath—and carefully start removing them. Trying to tell him to rub his tail across something hard didn't seem like it would accomplish much, especially since most of it had already shed and he'd probably just hurt the rest of his tail.
He didn't know why Dave hadn't told him he was having trouble, though maybe he wasn't even sure what was wrong. He had decided to let it go for the moment, though, and convinced Dave to let him help.
Jack had looked up additional ways to help and told him that he could use a toothbrush, but Dave said he'd just prefer his hands if he could help without it.
Once Dave was in the tub, Jack sat on the edge and waited for a while before starting to try and remove some of the shed. Dave slowly moved his tail out of the water and close enough for Jack to reach without getting water everywhere.
He didn't look too bothered when Jack gently grabbed his tail, but that was because he was grabbing near the tip. There was some shed closer to the base that Jack would need to get, though.
When Jack started picking at one of the scales, he made sure not to pull. He moreso wiggled it a little to see if it had become loose and found it basically came off all by itself.
“Does that feel better?” he asked, putting the shed in the trash. That was easy.
“It certainly felt better to let it soak. I should do this more often,” Dave replied, closing his eyes. That didn't exactly answer Jack's question, but he'd just have to assume that having dead skin still clinging on to you didn't feel well.
The second one went pretty similar to the first. It was a little satisfying to watch it come off, but Jack was more concerned with just getting it off.
The third one was near the middle of Dave's tail, so Jack had to adjust his grip. He tried not to do it too abruptly and gave Dave a warning before doing so. Still, he could hear the sigh Dave let out as Jack grabbed the middle of his tail.
“Sorry,” Jack apologized. There wasn't much he could do about that since Dave didn't really want to do it himself. “Uh, when's the last time you've soaked it, though?” he asked, slowly taking the third one off. Two more to go.
Now that he saw more of the tail, he noticed how light bounced off of the scales, almost making it look iridescent. They did need to do this more, because it looked way healthier after just one soak.
“Fuck if I know,” Dave responded. Usually, his tail would move with him as he spoke and would accentuate what he was saying. Unfortunately, Jack was holding it right now. “I'd assume it was getting most of its moisture from when I took showers,” he added. “I mean, I knew it felt good to let it stay in the water, but I didn't realize it needed to actually soak.”
Jack hummed, working on the fourth one. It wasn't coming off as easily as the others, so he told Dave to soak it for a little more. Again, it was still a little harder, so he just told Dave to tell him if it hurt when he applied a little more pressure.
Thankfully, it came off without making Dave uncomfortable, so he didn't have to worry about hurting the skin underneath.
The last shed piece, though, was very close to the base. Even if Dave had agreed to take care of it himself, he would've needed help for this. Jack told him to turn around and lay as much of his tail as he could on the edge of the tub.
The base of his tail was still under the water, but he didn't want to make Dave stand up since he'd be cold, so he just decided to reach down and literally get his hands wet.
Thankfully, even this close to where the tail met Dave's back, the top of the tail wasn't sensitive, so he didn't have to worry too much about where he was touching. It wasn't like he had to hold it up anyway since it wouldn't do much for him.
Again, the shed was easy to take off. It was even easier than the other ones, but Jack assumed that was because it was in the water for the most time and was still under water while he was doing this.
“There we go,” Jack said, showing the scale shed to Dave for a moment before throwing it away. The scales got bigger as they got close to the base, so this was the biggest shed piece he'd taken off.
Dave's tail went back under the water before wagging and splashing some water at Jack. He knew for a fact that Dave had done that on purpose.
“Dude, what the fuck? I just helped you,” Jack replied, holding his hands up.
Dave laughed, turning back around. “Sorry, I couldn't resist,” he apologized, laying his elbows on the edge of the tub. “You should join me the next time I soak like this,” he suggested.
Jack rolled his eyes. “If you want me to take a bath with you, just ask,” he replied, grabbing a towel and handing it to Dave. “I don't have a tail to soak.”
“Oh, c'mon,” Dave whined. “Won't you humor me for once?” he asked, tilting his head as his tail dangled slightly from the tub.
Jack gave him a deadpanned stare. “I humor you too much,” he replied, though he did hold out his hand for Dave's tail to lay on. It, instead, wrapped around Jack's arm and pulled him closer. Damn. It was still very wet, too.
Jack raised an eyebrow before giving Dave's tail a kiss again, which made it unlatch.
“Are you consciously doing that, or is it doing that on its own?” he asked as Dave slowly stepped out of the bath.
“Eh, it's a little bit of both,” Dave replied, shaking his tail over the tub to get some of the water out. Jack wasn't exactly sure if he was planning on actually drying it with the towel or not. “I did mean to let go there, but it seemed to let you before I meant to,” he explained.
Jack hummed. “You do it in your sleep too. Maybe it's because your brain knows it wants to do something and decides to just do it.”
Dave shrugged before shivering. “Okay, I'm going back to bed,” he said before quickly leaving the bathroom. Jack sighed and grabbed another towel to mop up the water that had gotten on the floor. Afterwards, he opened the drain so the tub would start to… drain.
“What took you so long?” Dave asked from underneath their blankets. Jack couldn't see his body, but he could only assume he was contorted in a way that only he found comfortable.
“I was cleaning up your mess,” Jack told him, half-tempted to throw the towel at him for proof before deciding to just toss it back into the bathroom. He'd get it later.
“Oh,” Dave replied.
Jack made his way over to the bed before slowly peeling the blanket away to reveal Dave in a position that didn't look physically possible. Like he'd guessed; only Dave could find that comfortable.
“You're making me cold,” Dave complained, so Jack put the blanket back down and laid next to him.
In hindsight, he probably shouldn't have done that since he'd actually had things to be doing, but he realized that all too late as Dave wrapped his now shed-free tail around him and secured his fate for at least the next hour or so.
“Is there anything else I need to know about your tail?” Jack asked, deciding to join Dave under the blankets. Dave’s tail was still a little wet and was undoubtedly getting their bed wet, but Jack had already dealt with Dave doing worse.
“Uh… I dunno,” Dave replied, peaking out from the blankets as he spoke before disappearing again. Even his tail went with him, surprisingly letting Jack go. Maybe Dave knew he was already too far in to leave now.
Jack scoffed, watching as Dave moved away from him, resembling a cat that had free reign under sheets. “Dave, when do you plan on putting clothes on?” he asked, catching a glimpse of the towel he still had on. He’d assumed he put clothes on in-between when he'd had last seen him and when Jack came back.
Dave peeked his whole head out now and looked as if he’d just been reminded that clothes were a thing. “Oh. Y’know, uh, that’s a really good point, Sportsy,” he replied, sitting up. He kept the blankets around him as he did so, though, and wrapped them around himself.
“Did it feel that good to take care of your tail for once?” Jack asked. He motioned for Dave to show his tail again and he started petting it… again. It was, unsurprisingly, still a little wet, so he’d likely gotten a lot of the sheets wet. Eh, maybe it would motivate him to get out of bed.
Even the way it moved seemed more natural, so Jack could only assume that it felt immensely better. “Maybe we should look up more ways we could take better care of it,” Jack suggested. He was willing to bet that Dave had definitely never taken proper care of it, so he could only imagine how good Dave would feel.
Dave hummed. “Seems like too much work,” he replied, but he did seem to be considering it.
“Maybe, but soaking it wasn’t too bad, yeah? And, wouldn’t you want an excuse for me to handle it more?” Now that he was thinking about it, with how comfortable he’d gotten around the tail, this could maybe be considered a type of exposure therapy for his fear of snakes.
“You drive a hard bargain,” Dave answered, slowly letting the blankets fall down. “Can you—?”
Before Dave could finish, Jack went over to their closet and grabbed clothes semi-randomly. He laid them out in front of Dave and sat down next to him as he started putting them on. His tail had proven to be difficult to work around in terms of clothing. Dave used to just hide it underneath his clothing, but that was when it was smaller and less healthy.
Now, he just kinda tried to at least cover the base of it to the best of his ability. It was high up enough for regular pants to fit, so he just let whatever shirt he was wearing lay on top of it. Jack didn't pay much attention to it because he was so used to it by now, but he could only assume that it would look very weird to anyone besides himself.
“Are you ever…” Jack looked down, deciding if it was worth it to ask. “Do you wanna tell Caroline, at least?” he asked. While none of Jack's former employees knew, Dave had let his tail be known to Steven and Dee since they'd gotten close over their shared time in the Flipside.
Jack never wanted to push Dave to tell his brother, but it was difficult to keep the truth hidden since Dave could basically never turn his back to him or Caroline. Plus, Dee had threatened on more than one occasion to tell Peter herself. She never went through with it, but it was a threat nonetheless.
Dave looked at him after putting everything on before laying back on the bed. He immediately sat back up, though, and Jack could only assume it was because of how wet he'd gotten the blankets. Karma.
“I dunno… you're sure she's not gonna freak out?”
“She'd honestly likely be amazed more than anything,” Jack answered. “The only thing you should worry about is the questions, but I'm positive that she'd be helpful more than anything.”
Dave looked off to the side as if to consider it for a second before he moved to sit on Jack's lap. “I'm hungry,” he said, completely diverting their conversation. Typical.
Jack could only cave in, though, since Dave would keep pushing the matter until he got food. He stood up and carried Dave out of their room, making his way over to the kitchen. Dave's tail usually would've held on to Jack to keep some semblance of balance, but Dave was letting it just hang down this time.
Jack assumed it just felt better that way.