Plin Ch 2.21
by Aoi“Oooh…”
At first, the brush moved over the fur like a cloud, but now the ends of the bristles were deeply embedded and touched the hair roots. Plin shuddered at the feeling, somewhere between a tickle and an eerie coolness.
Seeing Plin squirm as if he were electrocuted, Hugo smiled like a mischievous child. He leaned his upper body forward and whispered as if he were telling a lover to sleep well before bed.
“Did you miss me?”
The breath that touched his ear was hot. He was at a loss for how to answer. He felt like he had missed him a little. But more than that, he felt strange. A sensation that felt both good and scary ran through his entire body.
The unfamiliar scent of the man approaching him, his body temperature, his voice, his still-tight grip on his tail, all these sensations seemed to cause a chemical reaction. He felt like he was bound by an electric wire, but he didn’t want to run away.
“Do we have to act like we’re really dating even when we’re alone?”
“Of course.”
He barely managed to change the subject, but Hugo was unfazed.
“If you act half-heartedly, you’ll get caught. For three months, don’t think about anything else, let’s pretend we’re really dating.”
“…When are we going to see your father?”
He asked because he thought it would be better to learn some upper-class manners before then. Hugo averted his gaze, as if embarrassed to introduce the lower-class fox to him.
“Ah, we can go slowly. It’s not urgent.”
“But I thought you said he was on his deathbed…”
“Is your hair always this thick? No matter how much I brush it, it never ends.”
He picked out Plin’s fur that had been thinned by brushing. He placed the fallen hairs neatly on a handkerchief and folded it three times before putting it in his jacket pocket. Plin wondered for a moment why he was taking the fallen hairs instead of throwing them in the trash, but he let it go.
“It’s not usually this much, it’s because it’s winter.”
“Why winter?”
“I’m all fluffed up…”
Plin said, and then he made a small, embarrassed face.
“Fluffed up?”
“Because it’s cold.”
“Ah. I see.”
An awkward atmosphere hung in the air. Hugo tried hard to keep the conversation going, but he couldn’t think of anything to say. In fact, at first, he was going to say, “Oh, if you’re a fox and a commoner, that’s a double bonus. You can stay warm even when you’re poor,” but he realized that it wasn’t appropriate and shut his mouth.
What should he talk about? ‘I want to tell him that I mast*rbated last night thinking about him. And the night before, and the night before that.’ He barely restrained himself from blurting out such things. He had to think of a different topic. Something not too boring.
“I shed my skin.”
“Shed your skin?”
“Once every two months. I have to sit in a sauna then. If it’s softened enough, it comes off in one go. Then I become even more handsome.”
His skin also becomes better, and his muscles become more defined, so his libido increases too. He wanted to show the fox his shed skin.
“Even more…?”
“It’s amazing, I’ll show you next time I shed. Have you ever been to a Swedish sauna?”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“Let’s do it together next time. It’ll be nice.”
It was awkward again. Hugo endured the silence and meticulously collected the fox’s loose fur for the second time. Plin just let it happen.
***
[Ah, fuck. Hugo, that bastard. Fucking bastard. Ah, fuck!]
“Pfft.”
Hugo couldn’t help but laugh at the sound of Ethan’s furious outburst coming from the bug. Did he really hear his own farts, what did he hear to make him act like that? He covered his mouth and tried to hold back his laughter, but Ethan continued to make him laugh.
[Fuck, why is a dragon acting like a fox? Argh! And that useless fox bastard.]
“How rude. Why would my white fox be useful to you?”
As much as Ethan was always trying to attach bugs to Hugo, Hugo was also always bugging Ethan. The difference was that Ethan always failed, and Hugo had never been caught.
“ASMR is not a thing, so how long are you going to listen to that?”
Thibeau, who had come to report to Hugo, heard Ethan’s outburst and asked.
“I’ve heard it all.”
“It seems that he did indeed instruct Mr. Plin to attach a bug. Fortunately, there are no other peculiarities. What are your plans for the future?”
Thibeau asked a little seriously.
He had already thought about that from the beginning. Hugo revealed his serious aspirations while stroking today’s spoils, the fox’s tail fur, more specifically, the dead fur that had fallen out from brushing, with his index finger.
“I can’t forgive him. I’m definitely going to make the fox fall in love with me.”
The seriousness of his intentions seemed contradictory, as did the meager spoils he was stroking with his finger. At best, it should be mutual, and it seemed unlikely that the fox would ever fall in love with his master. Thibeau just smacked his lips, tsk tsk.
“What are you reporting, hurry up and report and get out.”
After drinking the fox’s love potion, Hugo’s nighttime routine was to imagine the fox and mast*rbate. He was getting annoyed that Thibeau kept hanging around.
“Tomorrow, there will be a meeting to review the production of The Scope’s original drama. It will be your first time meeting these people, so please get to bed early to manage your dark circles.”
“Stop acting like a nanny.”
“I’m in the process of searching for the Andrea Fallfox you mentioned, but something is strange. There are signs that the data has been intentionally erased.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I will gather more information and report back to you after organizing it.”
Thibeau finished his report and left. He hoped that his master would at least go to bed early today.
***