"Are you sure you don't want me to leave?" The witch asked quietly.

  She was still crouched just beside the bed that she'd pced him on, right next to the pants that she'd fixed and by extension his legs. It was a position that continued to make it really easy to see down her shirt, which Ash was still doing his best not to notice.

  She just had a really interesting neckce okay? Which happened to hang in a pce that was distracting and not entirely covered by her clothes, along with the all other stuff in the vicinity that was distracting, like her colrbones. And her shoulders. And her forearms, gosh she had nice forearms, did he know he liked those yet?

  … What did she say again?

  Ash shook his head once he remembered she'd asked him a question, because he’d maybe zoned out a little bit, and then shook his head again once he’d remembered he had to answer said question, because he really, really didn't want her to leave. And his answer wasn’t even because of all those things he found distracting, she was just really comfortable to be around and he was feeling small in a tired sort of way.

  And possibly more easily distracted, also in a tired sort of way. Those wards were no joke.

  Not that being seated on a very soft bed in a room filled with warm lighting with a comfortable person sitting next to him was helping much. Maybe the right word was ‘sleepy’.

  "Okay." The witch agreed, not looking entirely convinced by his admittedly slow head-shaking but agreeing nonetheless. “Okay. But you let me know if that changes, alright?"

  Ash nodded, even though he knew that it wouldn't.

  "Okay." She repeated.

  She sighed, turning around and taking a seat against the bed, her back leaning right up against the bed beside him and also just a little bit against him. Her shoulder was remarkably warm, even through the fabric of his borrowed pants. Her already comfortable pajamas were significantly more comfortable when they were warm. It was like part of one pant leg recently came out of the dryer.

  Ash resisted the urge to press the rest of his leg a little more firmly against her. What would a hug be like?

  She turned her head, still seated, gncing up at him in a way that probably wasn’t reted to the leg thing or his other thoughts, but still made him freeze.

  “Then if you want me to stay, how did you want to do the tail?" she asked.

  Ash blinked at her.

  Do the tail?

  Oh! The tail! His tail! Because they only got halfway through putting the pajamas on properly and uh – he wasn’t sure he followed. Didn’t he just do it? Just put his tail through the hole?

  "Don't you just put it through?" Ash asked out loud.

  "Well... yes." The witch said, blushing. "It's just that... it's a bit tricky. And, um. You're going to have to pull your pants down to uh, are you sure you don't want me to leave?"

  "I do not want you to leave." Ash stated firmly.

  "Okay." She said, for the fourth time in less than a minute. Still seated on the floor just beside him, she y back, resting her head on the bed and looking up at the ceiling.

  Her shoulder was so warm.

  They sat in silence for a moment.

  "Then. Um. Do you think you’ll need help?" she asked, after he still hadn’t done anything for another minute of sitting there not thinking about the bed he was sitting on.

  Ash blinked, gncing down at her before turning to look at the actual subject of their conversation.

  His pants (or rather, her pants) were pulled almost all the way up, still low-riding slightly but at least covering everything important, with the waistband tucked in right under his tail. Looking at them together, his tail really did match the pink-and-orange pid of the fabric, though the hole in the pants looked rather small. Okay, it actually looked much smaller than his tail did, but that was just because he was fluffy now, right? His tail was mostly fluff? It would still fit okay?

  The witch seemed to think he was going to have trouble with it, but it also couldn’t be that hard. Right?

  Ash gnced back at the witch and then accidentally made eye contact again, which also made him feel some things again.

  “It is definitely harder than it looks.” She said, as if reading (some of) his thoughts.

  “Oh.” Ash said.

  He gnced down at himself again. His tail wiggled completely involuntarily because he was thinking about it, followed by completely voluntarily because it was nice to wiggle. He wiggled it a bit more before trying to words again.

  “… Can you show me how to do it then?” he asked, gncing back at the witch.

  She was trying to hide a smile with her hand but froze when he looked at her. “Oh. Um. Are you sure?” She asked.

  Ash nodded.

  “Ah. Well. Um.” She said. She blushed, then looked at the floor again. “Uh. I mean. …I mean I guess I’ve already seen you, so it would only be fair if… uh… …Sorry, one sec.” she said.

  She stood up, once again reminding him just how tall she was because somehow he’d forgotten again, before stretching in a way he also really appreciated and totally for respectful reasons. She walked over to the same dresser he’d borrowed his clothes out of, grabbed a pair of sweatpants, and then brought them back towards him.

  Her heart rate was very high now, and Ash still did not follow.

  “So, uh. You’re sure its okay?” the witch asked.

  “Yes?” Ash said.

  “Okay.” She said. She turned around, facing away from him and once again reminding him that shoulders were good. He liked them.

  She gnced over in his direction again. “Are you sure you’re sure?”

  “Yes.” Ash said ftly.

  “Okay.” She said quietly.

  She hiked up her robe.

  This of course revealed her legs, and also her butt.

  It was a nice butt.

  They were nice legs.

  aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

  Distantly, Ash became aware that she was talking, and probably had been for a while. Her tail was wiggling around too actually, in a manner that was almost more distracting than the background now that he’d noticed it. The background that was her legs. Her very, very toned legs, that were bare, and muscur, and really nice, and ended in fancy underwear and which Ash had definitely been completely prepared to see on absolutely no notice at all.

  There was no notice.

  Ash honestly, truly, did his very best to listen, it was just hard to hear her over the shape of her butt. There was a thing about how you hold the pants and some words about what you did with the tail and actually now that he’d noticed it the tail was definitely the more distracting thing, he just absolutely could not stop himself from tracking the end of it as it moved. Just – flick, flick, flick.

  At this point, Ash realized that the witch was already wearing said pants even if the tail had kept flicking, and also that she had stopped talking and was looking at him with concern.

  “…Hello?” she repeated.

  Ash blinked. That was – he was here now. Kind of. Maybe.

  “I’m sorry, was that too fast? Do you need me to show you again a little bit slower?” the witch asked.

  Ash was not actually sure he would survive that, so he decided to attempt to copy her instead.

  He did not have anywhere near the control she did. He felt like he had a lot of control – because it was was his body and he had control over it – but actually getting his his tail to cooperate when it didn’t really feel like being confined by a small hole in some fabric proved to require significantly more tail-eye coordination than he actually possessed. He was definitely doing it wrong, or at least had no idea how to even start trying to do it right, and his repeated attempts to copy what he thought he’d seen her do did not bear much fruit.

  Ash tried to do it three times in the way he kind of sort of thought she’d maybe demonstrated just by moving his tail before deciding that this wasn’t going to work. Instead, he tried to just grab it with his hands and put it through the hole manually.

  This was even less successful because tails really didn’t like being grabbed, and while the first time he didn’t know that and couldn’t be bmed for jumping or the noise he made in response, it did mean his subsequent attempts were much harder. No matter how hard he tried he was having trouble surprising himself, and Ash kept accidentally pulling it away at the very st moment with an embarrassing sound and then it would escape and he’d have to try again except it was very slippery so even when he did manage to catch it he kept wiggling it out of his grasp and it was very hard to actually put in the hole before it got away again because he didn’t have enough hands to hold it and the pants at the same time and he probably should’ve at least rolled up his sleeves because they weren’t helping but he didn’t and he kept trying because he had to get it eventually except this chase was going on way longer than it should’ve and the witch was trying not to giggle but Ash’s hearing was very good and she was definitely only trying and aaaa.

  Ash gave up, burying his face in his hands and also his sleeves again as the appendage he had almost full control over taunted him with its continued freedom.

  “Can you help me?” he said in a small voice.

  At this point the witch rgely failed in her attempts to contain her ughter, which didn’t help Ash’s embarrassment. He was trying. It was hard!

  “I’m sorry.” The witch wheezed. “I’m sorry. One sec. I’m sorry.”

  Ash let out a pintive little whine.

  “Okay. Okay. I’m sorry.” The witch said. She really did seem to be trying, and also Ash maybe liked seeing her ugh even if he was also super embarrassed right now. It was actually very easy not to be upset with her.

  He was still very embarrassed though.

  She took another moment to get control of herself, shoulders and maybe some other stuff shaking before she managed to actually stop with the out-loud ughing part, hand semi-successful covering the smile she wore as she looked over at him.

  “Okay.” She said, “Whew.”

  She took another deep breath, dropping the hand but not the smile.

  “Okay. Sorry. So, did you just want me to just put it through for you?” she asked, looking over at him.

  Ash nodded. He was definitely incapable of words again. He would embarrass himself a second time if it meant he could keep seeing her smile. That smile was much nicer than the guilty ones she’d been showing tely. Actually, it was kind of getting nicer as he watched it. His heart was doing the flippies again.

  “You’re smiling.” She said.

  aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

  Ash buried his face in his hands, which prompted another bout of ughter, except this one quickly became guilty and that’s not what he meant to do either and aaaaaaaaaa. Why was social so hard?

  It took a minute for the Witch’s ughter to trail off again, by which point Ash had mostly managed to gain control of himself too. He still really appreciated being able to swish some of his overwhelmdedness out, having a tail was amazing. He always felt like there was too much feeling to just vibrate it away.

  “… Sorry.” She said, once she’d gotten control of herself again.

  “Mrnnnhgh.” Ash said.

  He wasn’t quite sure what he was expressing either.

  They stood in silence for a moment, Ash tentatively letting his hands fall away from his face once he was sure he wasn’t making an especially embarrassing expression anymore.

  A little embarrassing was okay.

  The witch was standing a couple steps back from him, looking off to the side at her pnt collection instead of at him and definitely looking guilty even if she hadn’t entirely managed to lose the smile yet, so they were both sort of sitting there trying not to smile but doing it anyways like dorks.

  “Sorry." The witch repeated.

  Ash still didn’t know how to react to that.

  She gnced back at him.

  “Do you want me to-" she started, which Ash interrupted with his best 'stop asking me if I want you to go!' gre, which was also mostly a 'please stay' pleading look, and those might’ve been slightly contradictory feelings and they definitely cshed a little bit, but the point was there was a lot of meaning in the look he was giving her, he was trying!

  "I um. I don't really know what that means." the witch admitted.

  Which was also fair, because Ash was no longer sure what message he was sending.

  "Stay." he said quietly.

  “Okay.” The witch agreed.

  They stood there for another moment, the witch still working on her guilt and Ash just not really having an idea of how any of this worked on like any level. It was awkward. Why was he always so awkward?

  “Did you still want help with the tail?” the witch finally asked.

  Ash nodded, because words, and also because saying yes could potentially lead to a way out of just standing there awkwardly.

  “Okay.” She agreed again.

  She took a deep breath, then stepped over to him.

  Ash was once again reminded of just how much taller than him she was, which was one of those things he definitely knew and had been shown several times already but somehow kept forgetting? It was like every time she stepped away the feeling of being smaller stopped feeling real even if that was not how retive heights worked, but then she’d come back and he always felt tiny again but in an extremely good way that was warm and fuzzy and cozy even if that wasn’t quite always the right word for what he felt when she was towering over him – but it was definitely warm in a very positive way which he was going to keep thinking of as cozy for the moment.

  It was interesting how you could feel small in so many different ways.

  She stopped a step or so away from him, still looking looking down at him.

  Ash liked it when she looked down at him.

  Um, in a normal way.

  “So, um. I think if we’re going to do this, then you should lean on me for it.” The witch said, somehow managing to look guilty about the idea. “You seem to jump when you get surprised, and I really don’t want you to slip again.”

  Ash was very okay with that pn.

  On the witch’s direction, Ash tentatively stepped forwards and kinda-hugged her. It wasn’t completely a hug since it was sorta one-sided since she still needed her hands for the tail wrangling, but it was also basically a hug on his end except with more leaning. He actually wasn’t sure how much leaning he was allowed, but it was supposed to be a lean so it it had to be at least some, and that meant he had to decide how much he could do, so he chose lots.

  And she didn’t say he should stop and in fact didn’t seem to react at all to the amount of weight he was putting on her other than the heart rate thing, so he decided that was probably okay. She was warm. Her heart rate had never really come down from what it had been before the first tail thing, which was still relevant because in hugging her he could feel it in her chest and also maybe feel that her abs were incredible which he also knew already but was still worth repeating again because his own heart rate was maybe not that much lower and her abs were incredible. It really did feel like his pajamas had just come out of the dryer.

  She had much better success with tail-wrangling than he did.

  Ash did just about fall over again, and he might’ve made some embarrassing noises when she first grabbed him, but this time it was okay because she was already there and maybe helped catch him instead of just letting him fall over. He took that as permission to lean on her even more to remain steady during her subsequent attempts at tail-wrangling, but he was maybe not unhappy to have to do this, and also maybe not unhappy that in leaning over during the half-hug thing he was also pressed up against her side, which was super firm and also really nice to hold yourself steady on and also super firm. Super firm. He was not fixated on this.

  The situation was not what he’d imagined it would be like to have a girl's hands in your pants.

  Her second attempt did not go any better, mostly because she was too nice to keep going when he yelped again, but the third time did. Despite the retive heights and the fact that they were at eye level, the pair had thus far mostly managed to keep the witch’s chest out of Ash’s face by having him hug her just slightly to the side, but this time, when his tail escaped again she’d leaned back a bit and misaligned them and then in leaning over to reach for the tail that was the actual object of her focus at the moment, that did not happen.

  Ash found himself very pressed up against her, her arms around him and his arms around her and his boobs squished against her abs and his face fully buried in her boobs and quite a lot of weight pressing the two of them together while her incredibly warm hands were in his pants wrangling the tail that she’d given him.

  Ash had some feelings about this.

  “Sorry.” She mumbled, as he made a strangled noise. “Sorry, one sec, I know it feels weird to have your tail grabbed, but I’ve almost got it. Just give me a moment.”

  Pants that had tail holes were actually very comfortable once they were on the entire way.

  Ash was choosing to focus on that part because it had already taken him at least a minute to reboot and doing otherwise would probably cause some sort of critical failure, and he wasn’t sure that would be socially okay when the witch was physically stopping him from falling over. He'd already been carried once tonight. The journey to get said pants on was kind of terrible because the tail needed to be grabbed and that was bad, and then also there was this sensation of aaaa confinement during its journey through the tail-hole that was also bad, and then there was that other thing that happened but was no longer happening which he was intentionally not thinking about even if he couldn’t stop thinking about it which was not bad but he needed to not be thinking about it, and then at the end of all of that stuff the weird disappeared and you basically couldn’t tell the pants were on except for the part where you weren’t as freezing and your tail was still free. Free to swish as much as you want!

  Swish!

  Swishing was good.

  “Okay um, it’s done.” The witch said, after he maybe continued swishing for significantly longer than it was socially acceptable to keep doing a thing while being physically held up by another person.

  In his defence it was rgely because he was still definitely not thinking about anything else that had happened and tail swishies were really good for feelings of overwhelmedness.

  They kind of held that position for a moment, Ash awkwardly leaning against her with a lot of weight even if he maybe in theory didn’t need to anymore but also probably couldn’t trust himself to stand, the witch still holding him steady even if she also maybe didn’t have to either but also might’ve figured out that he would probably fall over if she didn’t, before she stood up all the way.

  She did not, however, back away or let him fall over, which meant that the previously very awkward bent-over leaning hug thing became a significantly less but still awkward half-hug sort of lean thing instead of ending.

  Ash liked that better than ending.

  And then she turned and sat down on the bed, which Ash had to too because he was maybe still putting a lot of weight on her so he just kind of fell over a little bit, which was also okay because the bed was right there and he totally just sat down kinda normally and therefore it wasn’t embarrassing even if it wasn’t entirely on purpose.

  And then they were sitting on the bed, side by side, with him still leaning on her.

  Ash was okay this too.

  They sat in silence for a moment.

  Ash wondered if it would be okay to rest his head on her shoulder. It would be, right? She was still so warm and there was also all that other stuff currently frying his brain still and she was so comfy to lean on and he was sleepy. And warm now. And sitting on a soft bed. And he was pretty sure she just said something and he should try to remember what it was.

  “... Hey.” the witch repeated, interrupting his absolutely not delusional nap fantasy.

  Ash blinked up at her.

  “Um. So. I’m sorry.” She started. “I know this is a little awkward, but I feel like it’s only going to get more awkward the longer we wait, and especially if you’re staying overnight it feels wrong to keep calling you little cat in my head since that’s like almost a pet name and we’re total strangers and I feel like I’d need permission and okay I’m rambling again and uh. Sorry. Hi, I’m Tessaria. Well, Tess, nobody really uses my full name. That’s what I should’ve started with. But uh, yeah.” The witch said.

  She offered him her hand.

  … She was calling him little cat?

  Tentatively, Ash put his hand in her hand. As with so many other things his hand was just so much smaller than hers, which continued to be nice in a way he didn’t fully understand. His hand was cute.

  “Ash.” Ash said.

  “It’s nice to meet you.” She said, smiling down at him.

  Ash nodded shyly, because he was feeling shy again and this was a normal response to eye contact while leaning on someone while kind of sort of holding her hand even if the specific hands that were holding weren’t quite right for holding hands because it was more like a handshake that just hadn’t quite stopped instead of like holding hands but they were still sort of holding hands and also he was leaning on her still and the angle of the handshake sort of meant he was leaning on her more and she was so warm and just the general situation and as;hdfkhg.

  “…Thanks.” Ash said, realizing that he’d never actually said it.

  “Hm?”

  “I mean, um, for the tail thing.” Ash said, swishing it for emphasis while still refusing to stop leaning on her. “And for the pajamas.” And for a lot of other things he didn’t really know how to say but was thinking right now.

  “Oh, uh. No problem.” The w- Tess said.

  They sat in silence for another moment, still kind of holding hands while Ash leaned on her.

  She was actually looking a tiny bit lost now that he was looking at her, which felt a little strange on someone who otherwise seemed to have so much of her shit together. Then again, it seemed like nothing about tonight had gone to pn, and he had no idea what was going on either, so he couldn’t really bme her for a being a little confused.

  He was very confused.

  Also comfy.

  She sighed. “Sorry, is there anything you want to do right now? Are you hungry? It’s been a while since I’ve entertained, and I wasn’t really expecting guests.”

  Ash shook his head. He actually had eaten dinner for once, since his friends had insisted on getting food before going to a party that probably contained significant quantities of alcohol and not necessarily any food, which reminded him that his friends were probably still worrying about him while he was hanging out with the witch, which was… not something he really wanted to be thinking about right now.

  Was there a subject change that could be made?

  “So um, do you like movies?” Ash asked. That was the normal thing to do when you were stuck together for an evening, right? He hadn’t like, officially entertained before but that was usually what happened when friends came over, and she’d definitely had movie-adjacent stuff in the room she’d done his makeup in.

  Ash actually knew Tess’s answer before she’d even opened her mouth, because it was clearly a yes. He’d never seen anyone light up quite so brightly or so fast at a suggestion.

  She looked away for a second, biting her lip and gazing at the wall before returning her gaze to him with a far more measured expression.

  “I do like movies.” She said, in an even tone.

  “So um, would you maybe like to watch a movie?” Ash asked. He already knew the answer, but he was trying to be polite.

  “…Yes.” Tess agreed, after another moment.

  Giant demons were cute when they were trying not to look too excited.

  UnluckyPerspective