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The Chew Toy Bites Back (Or Does It?)

Sussurro's relationship with her bed wasn't a terribly complicated one, really. She liked to lie down on it only when tired or sleepy, and sometimes when she felt like watching a movie but couldn't gather the energy to go to the landship's movie theatre for one reason or another, resorting to the small tv she had in her room instead. On all other occasions, the doctor had other ways she'd rather spend her time, even though she actually hadn't had many of those occasions to begin with in the past while. And what a remarkably long while that one was. Mostly because of that, Sussurro never saw the need to change her bed from the standard-issue one all dormitory rooms had aboard Rhodes Island. It was comfortable enough, the sheets were kind of soft and were neither too thick nor too thin, and the size was just fine too. Well, not quite entirely, in truth. Sussurro had insisted on receiving a standard bed for an ordinarily sized adult but, given how vertically challenged the doctor was, that resulted in her sleeping in what functionally was a bed quite a fair bit too large for her. Which wouldn't have been a problem under normal circumstances, no. Granted, it did remind her that she looked almost ten whole years younger than she truly was -which she would've considered awesome, had she not been only in her early twenties- but she had since long gotten used to such things.

No, the real problem was that it allowed a certain someone to simply claim a place in her bed and be able to fit in without pushing her off and to the sofa. Which... wasn't actually a problem either, in hindsight, but it did occasionally lead to Sussurro waking up to somewhat of a predicament. And, as it would turn out, that particular morning was one of such occasions.

5:13

That was the time her alarm clock was currently displaying. She still had nearly twenty minutes before it would ring, but in her current position she just couldn't picture herself reaching it to turn it off once it started buzzing. Now, the mattress was comfortable, but not so much so as to keep her glued to it. The sheets were soft and warm, but the air wasn't so cold as to make her wish to remain in their embrace any longer than she needed to anyway. She was still a little tired and still had way too many hours of sleep to catch up to, but that wouldn't stop her from clocking in on time at work, even a little early if possible. She had the morning shift that day, and had taken overtime for the afternoon shift as well, plus an extra half shift for the night, and the following day she'd have the morning off before resuming work with the afternoon shift again. And since the morning shift started at seven, she still had plenty of time to wash up, get dressed, have breakfast and then head over to the medical ward. She was kind of annoyed at her own inability to sleep all the way to the moment her alarm would ring, in truth, but she guessed that might've been a side effect of all the coffee she'd been drinking. Perhaps she could try switching to tea instead? The idea didn't sound terribly alluring to her, but she was willing to at least try.

With all of that said, the reason Sussurro wasn't able to reach her alarm at the moment was one which had nothing to do with her. Well, that was extremely debatable in truth, but we'll get to that later.

"Specter, are you awake?" she called out.

The huntress was lying in her bed almost as if she owned it, and she was holding on to Sussurro as if she was a sleep pillow which she happened to also own, which was... a lot of things, really, and Sussurro didn't feel like listing any of them at the moment. Specter's embrace was surprisingly soft, her pale skin warmer than the sheets around them, and since she was spooning Sussurro while having twenty or so centimeters over her, her breath was currently tickling the doctor's head and ears every time her chest moved up and down, chest which also happened to be pushed against that very same doctor's neck.

It... wasn't annoying, no.

"Specter?" she called out again, turning around a bit to get a look at the huntress' sleeping face, taking care to adjust the position of her ears as she did so.

Specter always slept with her mouth open and her teeth on display, if only partially, which also did to Sussurro a whole lot of things she had no intention of thinking about at the moment.

"You're awake" she said, but the huntress offered no reply, her breathing calm and steady, her arms wrapped around Sussurro in a tender and yet unmovable embrace.

Truthfully, Sussurro believed herself to have around a fifty percent chance of figuring out whether Specter was truly sleeping or simply pretending to. She also believed Specter to be faking it around half the time, and she was almost sure she could tell when the huntress lied about being already awake or not with around a fifty percent success rate.

In other words, Sussurro had no clue whether Specter was truly asleep or not at the moment.

"... come on, I have to get up" she said, even though her alarm hadn't even began ringing yet.

Specter shifted a little, but she didn't let the little doctor go. Quite the opposite, if anything, she pulled her further in. The fact that she didn't start nibbling on her ears -asleep or not- almost startled Sussurro, who then spent the next couple of minutes trying to pry the huntress' arms open, to no avail. She was sure she'd have a better shot at reaching the twin moons with a ladder than she had at winning a contest of strength with Specter after all. And so, with her performative resistance meant probably for only herself and maybe for the one cuddling with her too done and gone, Sussurro simply resigned to the oh so terrible fate of enjoying the soft warmth of her bed and the odd comfort of having someone to share it with, a sensation she had grown more accustomed to than she'd have ever expected.

At least until her alarm actually started ringing.

For a moment, Sussurro saw the poor helpless alarm smashed to tiny bits, little pieces flying everywhere as the bedside table collapsed under the impact of a palm slamming down on it with an amount of force which would've looked excessive even for a strike performed with a war hammer, let alone with a bare hand, the plain, metallic piece of furniture collapsing on itself under an impact strong enough to make even a safe break.

She blinked, and her brain readjusted what her mind had imagined with the information provided by her senses. An arm had truly lunged right past her the very same moment the alarm had started ringing, at such a speed Sussurro nearly feared the friction alone of it brushing by her cheek might leave a minor burn mark, but the hand which had reached for the little clock had only patted it softly, putting just enough strength into it to push the button on top of it down and silencing it.

Whether the scene Sussurro had pictured in her mind had ever truly happened at some point in the past or not, one could only guess.

"Good morning, little doctor"

"Good morning, Specter. I have to get ready for work, let me go"

"No can do" the huntress replied, pulling Sussurro a little bit further in.

It took a conscious effort on her part to keep her tail still as the huntress' chest pressed against her even more.

"Wha-why?" she asked, either trying to sound angry and failing, being too tired to be angry already or simply not truly having a reason to be angry in the first place.

"Your alarm used to ring ten minutes from now, little doctor, and you told me nothing about a change in your shift. That means we have ten minutes to cuddle, do we not?"

Sussurro cursed herself. Only mentally, but she did.

"Don't get so angry at yourself. I'd do the same if I knew I'd wake up to me sleeping in my bed and spooning me"

"You really do think highly of yourself, don't you?"

"I'm fully aware of my own qualities, yes. My, oh my, is there something you wish to tell me?" she then added in response to the gaze Sussurro threw at her.

"... why are you even here?"

Sussurro immediately reprimanded herself for having even asked that question, and this time she nearly did so vocally as well.

"Because I enjoy sleeping with you, and you enjoy sleeping with me. Could it be that you got engaged while I wasn't looking? Dearie me, little doctor, is your special one jealous?"

"You... know very well I don't have time for that"

"Oh, you do! You just prefer to spend it cuddling with me instead. I must commend your tastes"

Sussurro wanted to tell her off for how much she was praising herself but, for starter, that'd just be playing into her game, which Sussurro admittedly didn't dislike. Then there was the fact that it was just far too early for stuff like that. And lastly, Sussurro kind of couldn't entirely deny Specter's claims without lying at least to a degree. The huntress was truly built different, as she herself had once said, and in more than just one way.

"Just... let me rest for the next four minutes, ok?"

"I have no obligation to do so, and you have no need for this rest at this very moment. But I'll be good and indulge you" Specter said.

The middle part of that reply stood out to Sussurro, but then Specter pulled her even further in, the intensity of her embrace teetering exactly on the right side of the edge of being distressing, and the oddly intense pulses of her heart made Sussurro feel calm, at ease. Safe, even. So much so that she nearly -and only nearly- had to force herself up when her alarm rang a second time. Much to her delight, Specter let her go this time. The opposite would've surprised Sussurro, in truth.

"Another triple shift?" Specter asked as she rolled around on Sussurro's bed, ending up lying on her belly with her legs lazily kicking the air as she planted her elbows on the sheets and rested her head on both palms.

"No. ... almost. Listen, I have to hurry, I promised Ansel I'd help him sort out a few files this morning" Sussurro replied, making an effort to not look at Specter.

At Specter or at her lingerie. It was much, much too early for that sort of stuff. She distracted herself with a cup of coffee she had just taken from the fridge, and then with a second one too. Cold coffee wasn't exactly her favorite, but it was still coffee. She'd drink the third and the fourth at the cafeteria during breakfast, and she'd even make sure those would be hot too.

"Very well then, little doctor. I will see you later"

Sussurro stopped.

"You... will? You're not tagging along? Coming for breakfast? Nagging me about... anything?"

"You poor little thing" the huntress replied with a grin, the sight of her pearly white, razor sharp teeth almost sapping a bit of strength from Sussurro's knees "It would seem I have a better grasp of your condition than you yourself do. How very regretful for a doctor, isn't it? Don't worry, I happen to have quite a lot of time on my hands at the moment. I'll be available and eagerly waiting at the right moment" she said.

Sussurro spent a second processing those words, then another one trying to understand what Specter was even talking about. That apparently had been too long, since the huntress rolled around in the bed again and went back to a more proper sleeping posture, claiming the pillow and sheets for herself again.

... don't think about it for now Sussurro told herself, multiple times over as she got ready for her long, long day, ordering two more cups of coffee than she had initially planned before making her way to the medical ward, the usual hustle and bustle of that section of the landship somehow soothing her nerves a little bit as she began to make her way through it.

Only to be called over by Warfarin before she could even clock in, let alone make it to the specific ward she was stationed at for the day, the vampire staring at her with a gaze which promised trouble. Which was rather unusual, in truth, Warfarin only ever got, shall we say, problematic in her own private laboratory, or at least not when in active duty at medical.

"Dr. Warfarin, good morning" Sussurro greeted as she walked up to her senior.

Sussurro could never quite tell whether Warfarin was sleep deprived or not. Something about her natural paleness made it hard to figure out, which admittedly was the exact opposite of what Sussurro would've expected.

"Sussurro, you're scheduled for the morning, afternoon and half of the night shift right?"

"Yes? Did I get moved around?"

"Sort of. You're on paid leave, go back. Your shifts are covered already, don't worry about that"

Each and every single hair of Sussurro's fur slowly stood up, and her eyes shot wide open.

"What? I didn't request it" she said, taking care to not raise her voice.

"We know you didn't, but you've been working way too much. And you've been taking too many overtimes. Had it been anyone else I'd worry they took money from a loan shark and were desperate to pay it back before the interests got out of hand, but since it's you I guess you're just too dedicated to the job"

"Hold on, you can't just up and tell me to not work"

"I can and I'm doing it right now. You worked seventy-one of the last ninety shifts, and I'd be wondering how exactly you haven't collapsed yet if it wasn't clear you're about to. Actually, I do wonder how you've even made it this far"

"I'm not, I just... need another cup of coffee"

"Anyone else would've poisoned themselves with caffeine by now, I suppose you built up a resistance? Anyway, we really appreciate your efforts but you need to take care of yourself for a while. And maybe get a bit of a proper life outside the ward too, while you're at it"

"You can't be serious. I'm not a kid, you can't just- "

"Listen here, Sussurro. You've got bags under your eyes already, your fur's kind of messy all over, you don't look exactly well nourished and you're supposed to have nearly three consecutive shifts starting now, that's twenty hours of work in the following twenty four. This isn't only about you, it's about the patients getting to see and be treated by a doctor who's not this overworked and sleep deprived"

Sussurro flinched.

"You've got the next two weeks off, once those are gone we'll see whether you recovered enough to resume work. Possibly with a less insane schedule. But with all the hours you put in you might as well take an entire month off and head over to Siesta or Dossoles or somewhere else for a proper vacation. Is that clear?"

Sussurro looked at Warfarin's bright red eyes. The vampire was... right, yes. Sussurro still didn't agree with really needing a break, much less one that long, but it was true that the patients deserved to be treated by a well rested professional and, even if only at a subconscious level, Sussurro was aware that she was not currently at her best.

"... fine. I'll just help Ansel out with-"

"No no no, Gavial is taking care of that already" Warfarin said, which honestly kind of only made Sussurro worry more "Go back to your room and sleep, or watch a movie, or hit the gym or something, just relax and take care of yourself. And don't go doing medical related activities on your time off either because I'll find out one way or another. No go, shoo" she said.

"Alright, I'll... do something"

"Take care"

A few minutes later, Sussurro found herself standing in an hallway and wondering what to do. Thinking about it, her life had consisted of just sleep, meals and work for the past... six months? She did have some time off work too, but that was also time she'd spent doing, as Warfarin had put it, work-related activities too anyway, such as trying -and failing- to get Lappland to take her treatment seriously. It'd been so long since she last had that much time truly to herself that she didn't even know where to start spending it or how.

So, for starter, she decided to go back to her room. She had just had breakfast so eating already again was out of the question, she had no clue what the current movie schedule was, she didn't feel like going to the library, the music room sounded like too loud of an option at the moment, she'd have to pick up a change of clothes if she wanted to go to the gyms or the pools anyway, and...

... and she was tired, she began to realize as she made her way back to her quarter. Her legs felt heavier and heavier with every step she took, and keeping her eyes open became harder and harder with every passing second. It took Sussurro a considerable amount of willpower to even successfully make it back to her room without falling asleep on the floor or, even worse, on some passersby. The door was locked, which had to mean Specter had left already. Sussurro had given her a spare copy of her room keys out of fear the huntress might decide to break down the door on an especially bad day, which was... not an eventuality Sussurro truly saw as plausible, in truth, but better be safe than sorry. The inside of her room was exactly as she had left it -except for the bed, Specter did make it before leaving-, with very little in the way of personal touches. Now, not many people went out of their way to have the furniture in their quarters replaced with custom ones, be it because it was too expensive or simply too time-consuming, but Sussurro had gotten so caught up in her work that she had barely put anything personal in her room at all. In fact, the thing which stood out the most was the pile of documents she kept on her desk, since paperwork was something she could do even in her off hours. Though taking care of that now felt... well, it didn't really feel wrong, but it didn't quite feel right either, mostly because she had given Warfarin her word.

Maybe she could take a bath? Her bathroom got renovated a couple of months earlier, the whole floor had to be removed to repair some pipes which ran beneath it and Sussurro took the chance to have the shower and bathtub merged together, which allowed for a much larger tub to be placed in there but, for as many showers as she had taken, she never actually got around to trying out said larger tub. Yes, taking a long, warm bath sounded like a good idea. She'd just sit down on her bed for a moment, blink a couple of times an-

Sussurro jolted awake, an unexpected feeling dragging her away from her slumber. What time was it? Had she dozed off? She probably fell asleep for a little while, it had to be -the cramps in her stomach told her it had probably been more than just 'a little while' before her eyes could give her the exact answer. Her alarm clock was displaying the hour as it was meant to and, as it turned out, dinnertime had gone by already. That did explain why she felt so hungry, she had skipped two entire meals. Though, as she rubbed her eyes and began to shake off her drowsiness, Sussurro realized that the night lights were on while the main light was currently turned off. She was absolutely certain they weren't like that when she had fallen asleep. As for why that might be the case, she would've been willing to bet her month's salary on already knowing the answer, had she been willing to bet at all in the first place.

"Do I smell? No, that's good" she wondered out loud, pulling up her shirt and sniffing it to confirm that she hadn't sweated in her sleep "The canteen should still be open, so... what was on the menu today?" she talked to herself while looking for the switch panel and turning the night lights off and the main ones on, her eyes taking a few seconds to adjust to the change in brightness.

She decided to take a shower before heading out for good measure, but spent a good minute or so staring at her alarm instead.

My sleep schedule's screwed. ... no, hold on, it isn't she thought, remembering all the extreme shifts she had put herself through and the impossible hours she worked, sometimes sleeping as little as seven hours over three entire days.

Granted, she wanted to stick to a more ordinary schedule during that forced vacation she had found herself in, but... it was also the very first day. She had more than enough time to fix her sleep hours before going back to work. Yeah, that wasn't much of a problem. So she headed into her bathroom, only to be greeted by a sight which was in small part unsurprising and in large part startling.

Starting from the former, Specter was there. She had kind of expected that, really, and while it was a little annoying how freely the huntress came and went from her quarter as if she owned it, Sussurro didn't actually find her presence bothersome. ... well, usually at least.

Going to the latter, there was a table in Sussurro's bathroom which wasn't there that morning. It was a relatively small but finely decorated table, carved out of something which strongly resembled but which Sussurro for some reason didn't believe to be marble and shaped like a fish jumping from one water current into another, or at least that's the impression the sculpture somehow managed to plant in her mind. Honestly, it looked so pretty it was almost a waste to actually use it as a table, but there was a cloth thrown on it and atop that were cutlery and plates for two, together with a bottle of water and one of a soft drink. And in the middle of it was also a sealed container for food, one of those meant to retain heat. As a whole, the table looked too heavy for Sussurro to move around by herself, especially if she wanted to avoid damaging it, but that was precisely what made her think it wasn't meant to stay there for longer than needed. As for the two chairs placed next to it, she recognized those as the standard foldable ones every dormitory had and which she usually kept under her bed to save a bit of space.

"Enjoyed your nap, little doctor?" the sculptress responsible for that arrangement asked from the bathtub, large enough for two and a half people to comfortably lie in together.

Though said tub was, oddly enough, completely devoid of water.

"What's this?" Sussurro asked instead, trying to not give too much importance to the questions her mind had immediately jumped to by voicing a different one instead and pointing to the table.

"It's dinner, what else? I figured you might be hungry upon waking and took the liberty of bringing you something to eat"

"Well... I appreciate it" she replied, fidgeting a bit, her gaze ending up on Specter's soft grin "But... " she began to add, only for her own growling stomach to interrupt her.

"Let's eat a bit, shall we?" Specter said as she got up, smiling as Sussurro averted her gaze out of reflex.

The huntress wasn't naked, though it did admittedly take a second or so for the doctor to actually realize that, but she wasn't donning any of her usual attires either. She was wearing a black one-piece swimsuit instead, which in itself wasn't all that weird considering that she had just gotten out of the bathtub. But she was also wearing a matching pair of elbow gloves which reached nearly to her shoulders, as well as equally matching thigh highs.

"Is something wrong, little doctor?" she asked, not even trying to hide her amusement at Sussurro's flustered reaction, her ears standing a fair bit more straight up than usual -ironically, some might say- and her tail twitching slightly behind her.

"Is that a swimsuit?" she resolved to ask while taking her seat at the table.

Having dinner in her bathroom was not something she'd have ever personally planned, but... whatever, the place was clean and Specter had pulled much weirder antics already in the past. Besides, she did go out of her way to carry that table all the way there without waking Sussurro up. Odd as it might've been, it was still a nice gesture.

"That is how it was described to me. I must admit I still haven't gotten used to what you dryland people consider swimwear" Specter replied as she sat across from Sussurro.

The fact that the table was small enough for her to easily reach across to the vulpo almost without need to get up wasn't lost on Sussurro. Granted, it was also a matter of practicality, there was a limit to how large that thing could be if it had to move through doors and fit inside that bathroom, but still.

"I'm sure two thirds of what you're wearing aren't considered part of a swimsuit by most people even here on the surface"

"A shame, I actually quite like them. Do you?"

"I think I'd look terrible in that"

"Oh, I do agree that the gloves and thigh highs wouldn't suit you, but you do look lovely in that frilly swimsuit of yours. You should wear it more often"

"Yeah, thanks. I... I might try to" Sussurro replied as she poured herself a glass.

She wasn't terribly fond of soft beverages, but she didn't hate them either and having some every once in a while wouldn't hurt.

"I had half a mind to take you to the pool, it's much larger than this little tub after all" Specter said as she opened the food container and began to take out its content "But it doesn't have the same privacy, and I figured that might upset you"

Sussurro decided to tackle that specific statement before allowing herself to comment on what exactly her dinner turned out to be.

"You weren't seriously thinking of having dinner at the pool, right?"

"Oh, that's so silly of you" Specter replied with a smile, the tip of her teeth poking out past her lips "I was talking about what would come later. I haven't had a taste of you in quite a while"

Sussurro's cheeks changed color within seven tenth of a second.

"Burgers and fries? Really?" she said, trying to steer the conversation elsewhere.

"There's a bit of fried fish as well" Specter replied as she finished fetching everything from the container, putting on the table a few sauces as well and then placing the now empty box on the floor to free up some space.

Sometimes Sussurro forgot that Specter's tastes could be surprisingly varied. Though she did wonder what the point of the knife and fork was.

"I was sure you could use something quick and filling to eat"

"Well, that's... yeah, I do" Sussurro replied, dragging her gaze away from Specter's jaw as she chewed a large bite to get started on her own burger.

It was short enough to be bitten into comfortably even for someone of Sussurro's size, making up for that in wideness instead, and the taste was admittedly better than what one would find in most fast food chains in Columbia. Not really surprising, but still a nice thing to confirm as the vulpo chewed through the slightly crunchy bread, fresh salad, sliced onions, slightly melted cheese, juicy tomatoes and rich meat more ravenously than she realized, though she did take care to keep the sweet sauce from spilling down her chin.

"How long did they give you?" Specter asked, having finished her first burger and grabbing a few fries.

"Two weeks at least. You knew that already, didn't you?"

"That they'd kick you out? Why of course I did, you looked absolutely terrible. You still quite do, but the bags under your eyes aren't as heavy at least"

"Well, I... I appreciate that you didn't force yourself into this matter then"

"I'm not one of your patients, little doctor. Your work has nothing to do with me"

Sussurro looked up from her plate, partially because her burger was completely gone already, and for some reason she couldn't help but see some sort of double meaning behind the way Specter had just taken a single fry and swallowed it whole.

... how long had it been since they last slept together again? Slept in the less literal sense of the expression, that is. Another growl from her stomach reminded Sussurro to focus on more pressing matters for the time being, though said growl had admittedly been much weaker than previous ones.

"You look plenty awake now, little doctor" Specter eventually said as they finished eating, the huntress licking her fingers one by one to get any leftover food off them and into her stomach.

"What do you mean?"

"I can make sure you fall asleep before midnight and don't wake up until sunrise"

Sussurro's ears twitched.

"You're concerned about my sleep schedule now?"

"Helping you fix that right away would be quite fun"

Sussurro really, truly, absolutely, definitively wasn't in the mood to deal with Specter's verbal games that evening.

"Yes, please"

So she skipped right past them.

"Oh? How very unusual of you, to be so honest about this"

"I'm on vacation, this is literally not my normal state of being" Sussurro said, hoping for that excuse to not have sounded as stupid to Specter as it had to her.

"I can work with that" the huntress simply replied, smirking widely as she stood up and headed to the bathtub, a sight which made two entirely different sort of shivers run up and down the vulpo's spine and tail, and then again when Specter opened the faucet to start filling it with warm water "Now let's get you out of that" she added as she turned back around and closed the distance between herself and Sussurro in what felt like the blink of an eye, her index and thumb grabbing the doctor's chin and pointing her face up.

"... hold on, wait wait! One second! I can get out of these myself, you don't need to ruin them!" she said as she shook herself out of her brief daze, jumping up and back.

"Very well then"

Sussurro swallowed a lump of saliva, turned around and began to take her clothes off, wondering whether it might make sense to fetch her swimsuit or not and coming to the conclusion that said swimsuit was better off -if not downright safer- left in its drawer. She did make a point to hide her rear with her tail as she stripped, more out of a sense of modesty than out of shame, and then made another point to not cover herself up as she finally turned around and stared at Specter.

"Let's hop in then! We don't want you to catch a cold, do we?"

Does she really have to show those teeth off this much? Ugh, she's doing it on purpose... Sussurro thought, though that really wasn't a complaint.

Silencing the little voice in her head shouting how dangerous it was to get anywhere near that close and personal with Specter -a statement arguably born out of personal experience, that one-, Sussurro walked up to the bathtub and waited for the huntress to get in first, then entered as well and lied on top of Specter, their difference in height and their position resulting in the doctor's head resting more or less on the huntress' chest. Again.

"My, my, you truly are being honest today"

"As I told you, I'm -no, forget that, it was a stupid thing to say anyway"

"Not your normal state of being, you say. I find that choice of words unfitting, but I'll make sure to return this little play of yours later either way" Specter replied, one arm wrapped around Sussurro, the other already poking her chest, the act making Sussurro even more aware of how more... physically developed the huntress was than her.

"You're not boiling, are you?" Specter asked as the water kept rising around them, slowly shielding them from the lukewarm air filling the room.

"No, the temperature's just righ-!" Sussurro nearly managed to answer, the familiar feeling of razor sharp teeth grazing her ear and nibbling on it stopping her words at the last moment, a chill slowly walking down her spine "J-just be careful, ok?"

"Have I ever hurt you, little doctor? I mean by accident, naturally"

"Is... is that supposed to reassure me?"

"I'm not talking to make you feel safe" Specter replied, tracing her free hand over Sussurro's side and reaching between her legs, the touch sending a soft jolt down the doctor's legs "I'm talking to make you feel excited"

Sussurro was kind of annoyed at herself for actually getting hot and bothered by that sort of demeanor, the warm feeling of Specter's slender and yet exceptionally strong arm around her nearly making her ears twitch, the teeth softly poking at one of them admittedly making it a lot easier to keep them still instead. The same couldn't quite be said for her hips, however. Specter knew exactly where to touch Sussurro and how, and by the looks of it that was one of those days when she didn't much care to keep her on the edge for long.

"Were you pent up? You're twitching more than usual" Specter said basically right into Sussurro's ear as the doctor's hips started to shiver, the huntress' middle and ring finger plunging deep into Sussurro's folds and scratching her most sensitive spot almost violently, each back and forth motion of her fingers making the vulpo wish she had paid more attention to how long Specter's nails happened to be that day. Well, she wasn't feeling any sort of pain at the moment so she either had trimmed them or could handle them very, very well. Sussurro was confident it was the latt-former, she was confident it was the former option.

"Ah!"

"That sounded lovely" Specter said, pinching Sussurro's nipple again while continuing to focus on her innermost spot with her other hand.

"Don't point out stuff like that"

"Don't give me stuff like that to point out then"

"Why y-aaahhh-"

Specter quite liked the way Sussurro would hold on to her when the pleasure began to mount. Her hands were small, her fingers were tiny and frail, and that made her grasp all the more frantic, like a cute little coral hanging on to an old shipwreck for dear life. Oh, she was so endearing when she did that, and her soft whimpers were among the most amusing non-musical noises the huntress had ever heard. Oh, couldn't nibble on her ear too hard though, biting a chunk off would've been fun but Sussurro wasn't the sort of person who could just grow the missing part back. Oh, how terribly unfortunate, although having to control herself like that made for its own sort of thrill as well. Would she like it though, or would that indeed be taking things too far?

"W-wait a moment, Spec -aaahhh- hold on, not s-so fast-!?"

"You're surely not going to fall asleep by midnight if I slow down" Specter replied, not needing to put any further strength into her arms to keep Sussurro pinned down, her middle and ring finger continuing to assault her without pause, heat quickly building up within her as her hips began to shiver and tremble, beads of sweat running down her skin and mixing into the warm water still slowly rising around them.

"Now sing a nice note for me, little doctor!"

"Why y -" Sussurro tried to reply, only to end up moaning instead as something spilled over and filled her from within, breaking out from her innermost point and rocking her body one bone and muscle at a time in the blink of an eye, leaving a warm tingle in its wake as she tensed up, Specter's still working digits ensuring her high, as intense as it had been sudden, couldn't begin to abate quite too soon, her fingers sinking as deeply into Specter's arms as they could and yet failing to even leave so much as a tiny little mark despite her nails being relatively long that day, it'd been a while since she had last trimmed them after all.

"Tired yet, little doctor?" Specter asked as she pulled her hand away, bringing it up to Sussurro's chest instead and focusing on her breasts for a while.

"Not at all" Sussurro answered, her breathing a bit heavy and quick but not enough to be considered ragged, the lingering heat within her beginning to slowly fade in her lower area while remaining warm in her chest, Specter's skillfull ministration ensuring she wouldn't calm down too much.

The water was still rising, she noticed. It was taking quite a while, but a closer look told her Specter hadn't fully opened the faucet. Which was... well, not really a problem since they weren't in an hurry to take an actual bath or anything, but a little weird nonetheless.

"Ah?!"

As it turned out, staring at the faucet had distracted Sussurro enough to not realize Specter had moved an hand back between her legs, swiftly followed by her other one as well when the doctor moaned a bit louder than she'd have wanted to.

"Let's get you ready now"

"Ready? Ready for wh-ah-aahh-aaaaahhhh-?!"

Sussurro's moan melted into Specter's soft laugh, the huntress plunging three fingers back into Sussurro's folds again in a single, swift thrust. That part of her body was already fully underwater, which at least meant she couldn't hear the noises her body was making down there, but that didn't seem to be a problem for Specter in the slightest, her fingers moving back and forth inside of her just as quickly as before if not even a little bit faster, her other hand pushing down on her belly to ensure she couldn't get away while focusing on her stiff clit, rubbing and poking and sometimes even flicking it, the latter act making Sussurro jolt visibly whenever it was performed.

"Ho-hold on for a second, Specter! Too fast, too fast!" she shouted, holding on to the huntress' arms and, perhaps, even trying to pry them off herself.

"That's not the magic word" Specter said back into her ear, sang almost.

And she was right, none of the words Sussurro had just spoken were the one they'd agreed upon. All Sussurro had to do was say it and Specter would stop, perhaps begrudgingly but she would stop. Still, Sussurro had never actually used that word for a series of reasons and, to be a little blunt, she had no intention of starting that day. Oh, how stubborn she could be at times.

"Seriously Specter, s-sto-!" she shouted instead, or tried to.

Every muscle in her body then grew stiff, an overpowering tide washing over her from within, crashing its way through her every fiber until it reached the tip of her fingers, her toes, her tail and ears, and then it bounced righ back, a second surge of searing heat leaving her in the form of an intense whimper, her hips beginning to tremble and shiver, or at least they tried to, Specter's hands firm and unmovable as they kept holding Sussurro down.

But they were doing more than that. In fact, they hadn't stopped moving for a single moment, the uninterrupted onslaught on her inner folds and clit making it harder and harder to keep her breathing in check, her orgasm beginning to slowly fade only for another one to come knocking at the door to her being, finding it ajar and kicking its way into her mind and body alike, another surge leaving her breathless for a moment, two, three, a deep breath bringing some much needed air to her lungs.

"You're almost ready" Specter said, her ministrations growing a little bit more intense yet, enough for Sussurro to start scratching those impossibly strong arms in an intense and yet not genuine attempt at breaking free, at getting away from that oh so damnably sweet assault which kept her muscles stiff and her hips shaking, another climax rocking her from within and barely beginning to fade before the following one raised its head, her back arching in response to the huntress' teeth closing down a tiny little bit more on her ear.

More than the lack of intense pain, it was her nose's inability to smell blood which told her Specter was taking care to not puncture her ear and, to tell the whole truth, that gave rise to three conflicting emotions within Sussurro, although the huntress' unrelenting ministrations made it remarkably difficult to focus on anything other than the overwhelming pleasure washing over her over and over, her lungs growing emptier and emptier as one orgasm began to blend into the next one, telling them apart becoming more and more difficult, strenth beginning to leave her hands as she slowly went form holding on to Specter to simply squirming in her embrace, her mind blanking out for a split moment whenever one orgasm seemed to end, only for a fresh new one to wipe her thoughts away again, leaving her blissfully focused and unfocused at the same time. At some point the feeling began to grow uncomfortable, Specter's fingers had been touching her with too much precision, too much intensity and for too long, something similar to discomfort if not even mild pain beginning to mix in with the jolts of pleasure rocking her with every touch and scratch she received.

And, just as that somewhat unpleasant and yet not quite truly unwelcome sensation was starting to grow more intense, Specter stopped, pulling both hands back up to tenderly fondle what little chest Sussurro had, letting her catch her breath while keeping the searing fire burning within her stoked to a degree.

"You sounded genuinely enthralled, my sweet little doctor"

"Just... give me a... a moment... " Sussurro said, her chest moving up and down heavily.

Surprisingly enough, Specter complied quietly, simply entertaining herself with the vulpo's chest while humming a relaxing tune for much, much longer than Sussurro would've ever expected. At least until she noticed something else.

"Hold on" she said as the water level kept rising, to the point it had nearly gotten to her chin "This is enough, right?"

"I said I'd get you to sleep by midnight and ensure you'd be too tired to wake up before sunrise" Specter replied as she adjusted her grasp on Sussurro.

"... y-you don't mean... ?!"

What happened at that point was very simple to describe. Specter simply rolled around without letting go of Sussurro, swiftly but also carefully to avoid damaging the tub or making the doctor hit her head on its floor. In a matter of a few seconds, Sussurro found herself not only completely submerged but also stuck between the bottom of the bathtub and Specter. The huntress wasn't pushing down too much, Sussurro still had a bit of room to move around, but not enough to get out of there and to the surface. Panic, or something remarkably similar to it, set in for a moment, two, three, then a familiar hand reached for her chin and made her head turn around, soft lips reaching hers and guiding them apart, fresh air getting breathed right into her and filling her lungs, sharp teeth poking her. Sussurro felt a much too intense shock exploding within her, the full realization of what was going on setting off all kind of bells inside her head, not all of them being alarm ones.

"I can hear that lovely little heart of yours loud and clear" Specter then spoke as she pulled her head back slightly, talking as if she wasn't underwater, her voice reaching Sussurro and making her ears twitch sluggishly "But let's make it beat faster"

Sussurro's eyes shot wide open, even more than they already were. She managed to turn around, put her hands and feet on the floor and pushed herself up. Specter simply remained floating above her, her silvery hair sprawled out around her as if to block out the light, and didn't move at all even as Sussurro tried her hardest to make her move. Granted, any other result would've not only startled the vulpo but also disappointed her somewhat, but that didn't change the fact that her confirmed inability to reach the surface for air made her fur stand up, at least as much as fur could stand up when completely underwater.

"Let's continue then" Specter said, making no attempt at hiding her amusement as she brought an hand back between Sussurro's legs, the mere contact making her shiver with anticipation and dread alike.

The fact that she could hear her pretty much perfectly despite both being underwater also made the whole experience feel a lot more... surreal, or at least it would've had Sussurro had the time to think about it before Specter plunger her fingers back into her privates. Her fingers weren't exactly thick, but between the fact that she was using three of them and Sussurro being a lot smaller than average that was enough to give the doctor a rather intense sense of fullness, a sensation joined by a jolt running through her chest as Specter pinched her nipple and used that as leverage to push her back down, until her back softly hit the bottom of the thub. Sussurro reached up, grabbing Specter anywhere she could and just... holding on to her. The break they'd taken earlier had given her a bit of time to recover, but not all that much so she was still sensitive from the previous orgasms, and now she had the need to keep her mouth firmly shut too. Sussurro was a little concerned by the overly intense shiver she could feel running back and forth along her spine, in truth, but what was truly getting her to rub her thighs together was the sight of Specter's tongue slowly running over each and every one of her pointed teeth, as if she was an animal staring down at its helpless prey.

That's... not terribly bad for a comparison... no no wait, don't think about it like that!

"Need some air?" Specter asked while already knowing the answer, but waiting for Sussurro to give her a nod before lowering her head and kissing her again, blowing fresh air into her lungs once more.

Then she kept her mouth glued to hers for the following seconds for good measure, because Sussurro's body had just grown stiff in response to yet another orgasm shaking her from within and Specter didn't want her to accidentally let water into her lungs. She held her close for another few seconds, breathing some more fresh air into her before pulling back, and only then resumed moving her fingers inside the little doctor, who started trembling again right away, the mixture of panic, worry, excitement and bliss in full display on her face making Specter wish she could keep her down there like that for the whole night. Alas, she had given her word and so that would have to wait.

This is insane. This isn't safe at all. I-I can take a bit more though, so it's fine... "

"Not quite enough yet" Specter said before resuming to assault Sussurro's clit as well, the extra stimulation making her jump and nearly let out what would've been a drowned whimper as her hips gave out even more "So let's keep going for a while longer, my tasty little doctor"

Somehow, the sight of Specter reaching for one of her teeth and pulling it out of her own mouth with all the lack of care she could muster managed to make Sussurro forget about the overstimulated state of her nethers. Her nose could barely pick up the scent of blood underwater, human noses just didn't work well in that sort of environment, but the crimson fluid spilled out of Specter's mouth and whirled around the water as if to make up visually for her current inability to smell it. And through the thin layer of red Specter pushed her fingers, holding her own teeth down and tapping Sussurro's stiff nipple with its tip, making the medic both fear and hope that that would be enough to puncture her skin a tiny bit. As it turned out, that combined with the fingers still ravaging her lower half brought Sussurro over the edge once more. She opened her mouth not out of conscious choice, a pair of warm, full lips sealing hers before a single drop of water could make its way in and filling her with air instead, again and again as Sussurro's orgasms started to follow one after the other again, with less downtime and more intensity than before, her grip on Specter growing so strong the huntress could actually picture her nails cutting her skin a little bit. Not like that would leave a mark, the hole in her mouth had closed already and even the teeth had already started to grow back after all. But the act itself was oh so pleasant, Specter decided to drag her tooth up along Sussurro's neck, cheek and forehead just to get her hand in the right position to pat the doctor's head a little bit.

Oh, that made her pout, it was so small it was difficult to notice but that was definitively a pout on her face. So cute.

"You're looking pretty tired. Here I mean" she said as she tapped her tooth against Sussurro's forehead, the sharp point having left an exceedingly tiny red dot on her skin "Let's tire you out a bit more still"

At that point panic began to grow a little bit more dominant inside Sussurro's head. Her body was still twitching and jolting from the constant onslaught of pleasure which was once again beginning to become uncomfortable, the feeling of Specter's teeth on her skin was making it impossible for her to remain calm and keep her mind from walking down some surprisingly perverse paths, and air was still too far for her to reach, with only Specter's frequent kisses to make sure she wouldn't drown.

She loved that, more than she was willing to admit even, but at that point it had become just too much. She wasn't even sure how long she'd been down there for anymore, it felt like an eternity but it couldn't have been more than five minutes? She nearly tried using the amount of times Specter had kissed her to make a guess, but her air consumption at the moment wasn't normal, she hadn't kept count of that and the fact that she was barely holding herself together through that seemingly endless wave of warm pleasure trying to undo her from within surely didn't help in the slightest either as far as that particular idea was concerned.

Specter then noticed the change in Sussurro's expression, a few moments before the doctor made a few clear signs with her hands. A second later the vulpo felt her head breaking the water's surface, fresh air rushing into her lungs as she took long, deep breaths, a warm body embracing her as she tried to readjust herself and assess what had just happened.

"I'm so proud of you, my stubborn little doctor" Specter said, and something about the mirth in her voice made Sussurro's head spin even more than it was doing already "I was expecting you to last a few minutes, not a little over half an hour"

"You're joking" Sussurro said back, her eyes running over the walls looking for the clock she knew was hanged somewere in there "That wasn't- oh heavens, it was really half an hour... "

"Want to do it again?"

"No! Not now" Sussurro immediately corrected herself.

Being so physically and mentally tired so soon after having woken up didn't quite sit right with her, but given the circumstances she couldn't bring herself to really complain about it. Though she did wonder whether she didn't actually have a bit of sleep left to catch up on yet despite having spent basically the whole day doing nothing but sleeping.

"Tired?"

"What do you think?" she asked back while taking another look at the bathroom.

It wasn't flooded, so Specter had to have closed the faucet at some point. Sussurro really wouldn't have bet on that.

"Now you're back to your usual self, aren't you? Although the difference really wasn't as big as you might think. I'll be sure to give you a proper example of what acting differently truly means, but for now you do sound quite spent. Surely you aren't planning to retire for the day without tending to me a bit as well, however?"

"... you mean... " Sussurro said back, whispered even, between one ragged breath and the other, redness returning to her cheek as Specter let go of her to go sit on the edge of the bathtub, spreading her legs wide.

"Let's get that little tongue of yours tired out as well" Specter said, her words less of a suggestion and more of an order.

Sussurro ended up going to sleep with an almost sore jaw as well that night.

And the first thing she did the next morning was contacting Closure to place a custom order she doubted she could find on the landship's web store.

Alright, that wasn't quite exactly the first thing she did, a shower and breakfast took priority over it, as well as actually checking said web store to make sure it really didn't have the exact thing she was looking for. But after that she did contact Closure, silently telling herself how stupid of an idea that was the whole time.

A few days later, two people were chatting while setting up a not too small board atop a table near a corner in one of Rhodes Island's bars, just a short while after dinner. A third person quickly joined them, putting down an hot chocolate, a mug of beer and a rather large glass of wine on the table before helping the other two with setting the pieces on the board, paws, bishops, queens, kings, knights and rooks of three different colors taking place on an exagonal piece of wood with a peculiar grid engraved on top and drawers on three sides to store the pieces when not in use.

"So, which rumor is true?" Dur-nar asked as she took her seat and rolled a die.

That had nothing to do with the game, it was just how they decided who went first.

"What rumors are you talking about?" Sussurro asked back, tying the instructor's roll with her own.

"The ones about your absence from the medical ward" Cutter clarified, beating the other two with a five on her die and starting the game by simply moving one of her paws forward "Some said you overworked yourself to death"

"Seriously?"

"I knew death was way too far but I honestly thought you had really collapsed"

"No, I didn't. Though... I guess I... did almost get there... sort of" the medic admitted with a bit of reluctance as she settled on a pawn to move.

"So you're on vacation?"

"It's... pretty much that, yes"

Dur-nar moved one of her knights as her first move while giving Sussurro a somewhat dubious look.

"Did they have to drag you screaming and kicking out of the ward to get you to rest?" she asked, though she really wasn't wearing the expression of someone who really meant it.

"Oh, please. I just take my work seriously, I'm not addicted to it"

Cutter brought her cup of hot chocolate to her nose. The smell was just as good as she had expected, but the drink was still too hot so she put it back down.

"I would've disagreed with you last week, but you do look fine"

"Yeah, I'd have bet a new shield you'd be neck deep into withdrawal symptoms at this point"

"You... is that what people think of me? Really?" Sussurro asked back after having made her move.

"Well, not everyone, but... yeah, a lot do. Can you really blame them with how many hours you spend working? Like, woman, do I have to remind you how long it'd been since we last sat down for a game like this?"

Sussurro opened her mouth, realized she had no good response to that and drank a bit of her wine instead.

"I think it's been seven months" Cutter said, inadvertently driving a nail into the short doctor's chest. A small nail by all means, but a nail nonetheless.

"Alright, let's not talk about this. How's the Network doing?"

"Ohy!" Dur-nar replied, looking around nervously to check whether anyone was sitting close enough to overhear their conversation -multiple people were, the bar was far from empty after all- before leaning in to answer "It's doing great, but don't talk so openly about it" she said, not really whispered because there was a fair bit of hustle and bustle around them.

"Everybody knows you founded and run the U.S.N." Cutter pointed out while staring at the board to decide her next move.

"It's really not a secret, Dur-nar" Sussurro concurred while wondering whether Cutter was setting up a trap or simply playing on instinct.

She kind of leaned towards the latter, really, but the former did happen on a few occasions in the past.

"I know, but I still have an image to maintain"

"What sort of image?"

"That's- wait, what's wrong with your finger?" Dur-nar suddenly changed the subject, her gaze suddenly fixed on Cutter's hand as she moved one of her pieces on the board.

"... she's right, did something happen?" Sussurro added upon noticing that Cutter was holding her rook with her index and middle finger together with her thumb.

A perfectly normal thing, if not for the fact that Cutter always used her middle and ring finger instead to pick up small objects.

"I was too close to an explosion on my last deployment. Dr. Whisperain said it's probably just minor damage to the muscles of these two fingers" she replied, pointing to her little and ring finger with her other hand "Caused by some shrapnel, but I haven't gotten the results of the scans yet"

Cutter was somewhat sure it wasn't all that normal to notice that sort of thing, but the fact that Dur-nar and Sussurro would indeed notice... it made her feel a little warm inside, one way or another. It was kind of weird, she believed, but also rather nice.

"You should stick to using your other hand for good measure then"

"I concur, you mustn't put any stress on it, especially if you're not sure yet of how severe the damage might be" Sussurro added.

Truthfully, it couldn't be anything serious, Whisperain would've told Cutter otherwise, or at least taken measures to ensure the vulpo wouldn't put any strain on those fingers by mistake. Though the fact that those two fingers were also more bent than usual did make her worry that she might've injured her tendons.

"... alright, I won't" Cutter replied, grabbing her hot chocolate and taking a sip from it.

And also eating Sussurro's bishop off the board.

"Ah, I needed that!"

"Bummer" Dur-nar chuckled in response, the conversation then jumping from one subject to the other for a while as the game went on, with Dur-nar getting up to get them all a refill at some point to justify holding a table for that long to both the bartender and themselves.

Then Sussurro's terminal rang.

"One moment, sorry" she excused herself as she pulled it out of her bag to check who had just messaged her.

"Is it Podenco?" Dur-nar tried to guess.

"No, it's not her"

"Shouldn't she be busy with Flamebringer's advanced gardening seminar right now?" Cutter asked back, getting a flabbergasted look from Sussurro and nearly making Dur-nar choke on her beer.

"Flamebringer's... what?" Sussurro inquired while putting her terminal away.

Her order was ready, Closure had just sent her a message about that, but she really had no intention to bring that up, especially at the table.

"Are you kidding me?"

"He's good at gardening. Especially when it comes to flowers"

"No way, that's true? I thought it was just people making up stuff"

"No, that aside... I haven't really talked with him much, but he didn't strike me as someone who'd hold a seminar" Sussurro commented while pondering her next move on the board.

"I had the pleasure to train with him exactly once and he nearly broke both my arms" Dur-nar commented, the look on her face saying everything there was to say about how she felt about that particular episode "Didn't even apologize, hell, he said that was my fault. How does Perfumer even stand him?"

"I've heard he's a lot more calm when it comes to gardening though" Cutter pointed out.

"Didn't he nearly stab that one sankta executor from Laterano because he bothered him while he was watering his flowers? Though that might've just been because he was a sankta, maybe... "

"Had that been true Perfumer would've kicked him out of the Garden already though"

"Perfumer might not be entirely objective with that man, you know?" Dur-nar said back with a little smile "Did you know they have their own private quarter together in the deepest area of the Convalescence Garden?"

"That's just a rumor"

"Perfumer told me she and Flamebringer have a personal greenhouse they tend to together" Cutter chimed in while trying to figure out a way to save her bishop, or at least feed it to the weakest opponent.

... who was that again, at the moment?

"That doesn't have any deeper implication, especially if Flamebringer's truly that skilled a gardener"

"Maybe. Still, Perfumer's got a lot of guts to hang out with that man so often"

"I think Sussurro is a lot more brave"

"Oh, for sure. Or maybe just reckless?"

Sussurro blinked a couple of times. She suddenly felt like she had somehow missed an entire part of the conversation, because she really couldn't grasp how exactly the other two had ended up talking about her in that way.

"What do you mean?"

"You sleep with Specter" Cutter said, so casually it took Sussurro more than just a few seconds to process those words.

"... what"

"You hang out pretty often, and she comes and goes from your room like she owns it" Dur-nar added "Sometimes I almost think you ditched us for her and Lappland" she joked "... wait, where's my rook?"

"It's here"

"Cutter! When did you capture that!?"

"Two turns ago"

"Ugh, I'm too distracted... "

"No no no, wait you two. I was just trying to get Lappland to take her treatment seriously, and since she and Specter are friends I ended up spending time with her as well"

"Sussurro. You hung out with her even while Lappland was all the way back to Siracusa"

"... that's... that's true"

"I saw Specter fight once. I don't think I'd ever dare get in the same bed as her at night. It's chilling" Cutter commented, though the composure she spoke those words with made it almost sound like sarcasm.

Probably just an impression, the other two vulpos though. Cutter did crack a joke every now and then but she wasn't really one for sarcasm.

"I had nightmares for a few days after that mission" she added, and that really didn't sound like a joke.

"Specter is, uh... well, she's special, yes" Sussurro said back, not really sure how to tackle that sudden turn in the conversation "But I don't have sex with her" she added, almost with a whisper.

It was a lie, but while Specter was a special patient and the only doctor allowed to treat her was none other than Kal'Tsit herself, Sussurro was nonetheless concerned about their relative positions as doctor and patient in the same medical company.

"... I never said anything about sex... ?" Cutter said back, confused.

"Hold on, you meant literally just sleeping together?" Dur-nar asked, even more startled.

"Can you two at least agree on what we're talking about?" Sussurro sort of complained, sort of didn't while holding her head in her palms.

... well, it's kind of true that we don't have sex, it's more like she swallows me whole every time... ugh, that's such a stupid excuse...

"Alright, we won't pry"

"Did you get anything out of bugging Lappland though?"

"I wish... she basically ignored me the whole time. Well, I guess I did get a few meals though..."

More like she fed me to Specter too, but I guess that wasn't so bad aft-

"Are you ok?" Cutter asked, because something about the way Sussurro had just slapped her own cheeks felt a little odd to her.

"I am!"

"Meals as in made from Lappland? Man, that sounds like heaven... I wish I had gotten the chance to eat at that guerrilla restaurant she put up a while ago... "

"Can we just, uh, don't talk about this?"

"Sure. Oh, right, did you know that... "

For better or for worse, the trio truly didn't go back to that particular topic again that evening, and the three eventually went their separate ways, with Sussurro in particular returning to her room to unpack her order, scissors in hand, and find an extra Closure had thrown in as a gift -and, uh, that sure was a gift alright... what was that vampire thinking?- and wonder what peculiar sort of insanity had compelled her to even place that order in the first place, because she just couldn't see a scenario where that didn't end up being used on-

-she cut that thought short, throwing the scissor into the box as well for no real reason, then took a shower and went to sleep. She could think about that sort of things later.

As for the three-player chess match, Dur-nar somehow ended up winning that evening.

Sussurro woke up early the next morning, scrambling out of her bed only for a note she had stuck to her alarm some days ago to remind her that she was still on vacation. Which just... didn't quite entirely sit right with her yet, no. Still, the fact that she didn't have to clock in at medical for the morning shift -or for any other shift, for that matter- was a truth, one she'd have to live with for at least another ten days or so. That did mean she could take her time enjoying the bottle of chamomile tea she had stored in her mini fridge, at least. Granted, most people would argue that gulping it all down within twenty-nine seconds didn't count as enjoying it, but Sussurro's prolonged absence from work had caused her to start twitching slightly on occasions after the second day and, as she had luckily found out quickly enough, chamomile tea helped her relax and not think about it too much while also keeping said twitches down. A bottle in the morning, half a bottle at lunch and then a cup at dinner, with an extra one before going to sleep if she was feeling especially restless. She knew it wasn't exactly healthy to consume it in such quantities, but it was at least better than the alternative.

With all of that said, Sussurro continued her morning routine by washing up, getting dressed and heading to the canteen for breakfast. She briefly considered going to the pool, but getting into a large body of water didn't feel like the most relaxing thing she could do at the moment, for reasons she could actually pinpoint with perfect accuracy. Watching a movie in the morning didn't sit right with her either, not on what was still technically a work day. Then there was the music room, but she wasn't big on playing instruments. The next thing she thought of was the gym, and that... actually seemed like a good idea. She wasn't a fan of working out or anything of the sort, but she couldn't in good faith claim to have taken good care of her body as of late and a bit of physical exercise couldn't hurt. The gym wasn't even particularly crowded in the morning, not to mention that the sparring matches which occasionally turned the place into de-facto stadiums were usually held in the afternoon or evening too, so she managed to get all the way to lunch hour without anything odd or troublesome happening. Lunch itself went by rather normally as well, if we exclude the fact that she had meant to eat at Beanstalk's cafe to catch up with the reproba only to realize she had forgotten that the cafe wasn't always open for lunch. Quite a shame, but perhaps she could just drop by the hatchery later and see if she could help out there somehow. That didn't count as a work-related or work-adjacent activity, right?

Before going through with that, however, Sussurro returned to her room to put another serving of chamomile tea in her mini fridge, took a brief stop in the bathroom and then headed back out.

Or that was the plan, at least. But someone was there waiting for her when she came back out from the bathroom, someone whose presence... really didn't surprise her in the slightest, not anymore. She did jolt a little upon seeing her because she hadn't expected to find her there right at that moment, but Specter letting herself into the minute doctor's quarter had become somewhat of a routine, even if not exactly a regular one. And, generally speaking, not an unpleasant one either, far from it even. Generally speaking. Still, there actually was one thing which stood out as unusual that afternoon -well, two if we wanted to be more accurate, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to consider them as one and the same-, a not at all inconspicuous detail which Sussurro couldn't help but notice, a small lump of saliva traveling down her throat as she did so.

Specter had her hands joined as if in prayer. And she was wearing her old outfit, the one Sussurro couldn't quite bring herself to describe as clerical but which definitively resembled a nun's garbs.

"Are you a fellow sinner, minute sister of mine?" Specter asked, her voice a little slower than usual, a little sharper, her smile a tiny bit wider and yet not nearly as amused.

... wait wait hold on! Think. This is just her messing with me, right? She did say something about this last time, and it's not like we ever fully confirmed a relapse of any sort in her condition after her return from that trip to Iberia with the other Hunters...

"Is this hesitation, short one?" Specter asked again, her neck bending to the side just a bit too swiftly for comfort as she took a step forward.

To describe Sussurro's current state of being as torn between the 'flight' and the 'freeze' component of the instinctual response -the 'fight' part never even joined that debate- wouldn't be entirely wrong, but the little doctor did have a few different thoughts going through her mind as well at the moment.

Play along! If she's just messing with you she'll like it, and if she isn't... well, I guess in that case that's the best shot at making it out alive... no no no, she's just playing with me...

"Are there crimes of the soul you wish to admit to?" Specter asked as she took another step forward, bending down so that her teeth were at roughly the same height as Sussurro's eyes, making two very conflicting sort of shivers run down her spine "Are your sins so severe they keep your tongue from speaking?" she continued, her oddly lukewarm if not downright slightly cold breath hitting Sussurro's nostrils and making her head spin for a second "That of confession is not a sacrament I am allowed to grant, but I shall tear those sins of yours away if you seek salvation"

Oh, she just had to phrase it like that, didn't she... hold on.

"You got it wrong, Specter" she said back, trying to sound as stern as she could while pointing her index at the nun -probably a fake nun regardless of the specifics of the current situation, she believed- with all the solemnity and severity she could muster "I -uh- I'm not here to confess my sins, I'm here to absolve you of yours!"

A very cold bead of sweat ran down her forehead. She was almost sure Specter was just poking fun at her, which honestly made what she had just said feel incredibly embarrassing, but she wasn't sure what else to do at the moment.

"I wonder, little sinful brethen of mine" Specter said back, turning her head around until her right eye was more or less aligned with Sussurro's "Your offer is most elating, but just as confusing. What can these little arms" she continued as she grabbed one of the vulpo's wrists and pulled it up "Do to grant salvation to others? I cleansed my body already, after all. And more importantly, what reason do I have to trust that you do not intend to trick me?"

Sussurro swallowed again. Her face was bright red, her ears were standing tall, but her tail was lying down and staying perfectly still. She tried to think of something to say, anything, but all that came to her mind sounded just... silly, if not downright stupid. Which, in a way, was a relief, because she was positively certain she wouldn't be thinking like that had she truly felt in danger.

Then again, one could argue that spending that much time together with Specter had just messed up her perception of danger to begin with.

"B-because I know you!"

"My sins are not a secret, for the spirits freely talk of them"

Yeah, this really doesn't sound like her actual previous persona... did she make it different to avoid giving me an heart attack?

"That might be the case, but I know something else about you that has nothing to do with them"

Good lord, I must have the most stupid look on my face right now... do actors feel this embarrassed when they start out?

"Enlighten me then, fellow sinner"

Sussurro took a deep breath.

"You hate being flipped over while underwater. You feel a sort of natural aversion to it, and being flipped upside down when you're swimming makes you feel a very brief bout of slight nausea"

Specter didn't reply. Nor did she move or change her expression in any way. Sussurro wondered whether she hadn't messed up, but then the huntress -nun?- seemed to laugh, even though that lasted such a short moment Sussurro wasn't even sure she hadn't just imagined it.

"And how do you mean to absolve me then, oh confessor who knows me?" Specter then spoke as she got down on her knees, her voice a little higher than before.

A very stupid, decidedly silly, possibly dangerous but also nonsensically thrilling idea popped up inside Sussurro's mind, planted down its roots and refused to move.

Perhaps that was just her mind trying to justify the amount of money she had spent on Closure's gear though.

"Give me a moment" she said, turning around to walk to the mini fridge and fetch a bottle.

That was wine she kept for occasional drinking in the evening, although she rarely had any more than half a glass, and with how rarely she actually had said drink as of late that bottle might've been sitting in her fridge for over two months already by then. She had no intention of getting drunk, for a long series of very good reasons even, but she did felt like she needed a tiny bit of help to mentally get ready, especially if things happened to go south. So she drank straight from the bottle once, twice, thrice, four times even, the last gulp making her head spin a little bit for a second while a pair of crimson eyes seemed to be piercing two holes inside of her just by staring. She took that spin as a sign that any further sip would've been a terrible idea and put everything back in the fridge then turned around.

Specter was still kneeling on the floor, hands joined together, eyes fixed on her, her expression uncharacteristically lost for direction.

... alright, it's now or never, and I'm not sure the first option is truly better but- !

Cutting off her own thought, Sussurro pointed her finger again at Specter. Then she realized that doing so gave off the impression that she was accusing her of something, which wasn't the point at all, but by then it was too late so she kept rolling with that-

"You will do penance through service!"

"Oh? The little doctor is taking the helm, isn't she? Be careful though, it might slip right out of your fingers if you're not careful"

Specter hadn't actually said anything, but something in the way her expression had changed conveyed exactly those words to Sussurro, sapping strength away from her knees, though the doctor made a point to not only remain standing but also staying firm. Besides, that change in expression had lasted less than the blink of an eye, and... no, she wasn't great at holding her liquor but she was absolutely certain she wasn't hallucinating after just four gulps of wine. Which meant...

"... you will" she kind of repeated, though it had taken nearly everything she had to not phrase it as a genuine question.

"I take it this service you are speaking of is not one I am usually made to do" Specter said, voice soft and gaze almost unfocused, as if her attention was gathered mostly on her own joined hands "I shall follow your instruction, minute confessor sister of mine"

Alright, breathe!

Shutting off around three fifths of her own thoughts, Sussurro walked to her bed and pulled out a box, one heavier than its size would lead one to believe if the way she struggled more than just a little bit to move it was of any indication, under a gaze she was having trouble interpreting. But getting cold feet at that point felt like the absolutely worst decision she could possibly make, so she made a point to not do that and opened the box instead, fetching something from within. In the brief moment between her having pulled out some gear and turning back around to face Specter, the nun took the chance to let out an amused smile, but she made sure to go back to playing the part before Sussurro could notice.

Whether that whole play would truly end up being worth it was yet to see, but at least for the time being the situation was just silly enough for her to enjoy herself.

"Put your arms b-behind your back"

This feels so- no no, the more you think about it the- don't end this thought either.

"As you instruct, confessor"

Sussurro took a breath too deep for her own good then walked around, moving Specter's exceptionally long hair out of the way -uh, had it always been that silky smooth to the touch?- and stared for a few seconds. She considered telling Specter how to place her arms exactly, but feared going overboard with that might end up... well, not exactly badly, just... she was losing the thread of her own thoughts again. That was not a good sign.

"Now stand still for a moment"

In the end she simply grabbed Specter's arms and adjusted them a little herself, placing each hand against the elbow of the other arm -and being almost startled at the complete lack of resistance- before beginning to put the device on her, though to say that she basically had to assemble it on her instead might've been a bit more accurate.

The first piece consisted of a rather heavy, thick disk made of solid steel, with a few holes along its ridge, a different hole seemingly meant for a key in the middle and a couple of chains attached to the top, each ring thicker than Sussurro's fingers. The first thing the petite doctor did was run those two chais up above Specter's shoulders and then down, crossing them together in front of her before pulling them back from beneath her armpits and pushing the end of each chain into a slot made specifically for them in the steel disk, a clicking sound to signal that they had locked in place. With that done, Sussurro could let go of the disk without worrying about it falling down, having secured it in place between the huntress' shoulder blades somewhat like a backpack of sort.

Specter started humming a tune, which in itself wasn't weird at all but the melody sounded kind of... clerical. It wasn't quite exactly unnerving, no, but hearing something like that right there and then just reinforced the feeling of oddness the whole situation was giving to Sussurro. But enough of that, hesitation might get her killed there -figuratively- so she moved to the next part. She grabbed another heavy piece of solid steel, thick and shaped like an 'U', and placed it behind Specter, so that her arms would remain between the two flaps of the 'U', though getting those baggy sleeves of hers to fit proved surprisingly difficult. Just like with the chains, a clicking sound briefly filled the room as Sussurro pushed it inside the steel disk, the metal piece locking itself in place. She did the same thing with another three pieces identical to the first one, with the end result being functionally the same as having tied Specter into a box tie, only that instead of rope she had used bulky pieces of metal in the -perhaps faint- hope that the huntress wouldn't be able to just tear those apart the same way she could with, well, rope.

"What is the purpose of this, confessor?" Specter then asked, and the apparent confusion and ingenuity in her voice nearly made Sussurro wonder whether she wasn't playing pretend, which would've been... one hell of a can of worms to deal with, on multiple fronts and for many reasons.

Still, what was she supposed to say now? Because she genuinely couldn't even come up with a real reason why she had even bought that stuff in the first place, not one which didn't fall apart after a little bit of logical reasoning at least, and... on second thought... did... did Specter somehow find out about Sussurro's purchase? The timing for that play pretend game of hers seemed far too perfect to be a coincidence, especially given how exactly she was behaving, but surely Specter would have no way of finding out about it? The doubt gnawed away at Sussurro's mind.

"It's a, well, a token of good will! ...?"

Specter turned around while still kneeling on the floor and stared at Sussurro.

"Shall I begin with my service then, confessor?"

"... hol-?!"

Before Sussurro could finish her sentence, Specter lunged forward and bit into her clothes, tearing a rather large chunk of her shirt off, her jacket having survived simply by virtue of not being zipped up at the moment.

"Stop!" she shouted while placing her palm in front of Specter, and for a second the huntress' wide, innocent smile as she spit away the chunk of cloth made her fear for her own hand's well being "Th-there's one thing still missing"

Specter backed away, though she did so by straightening her back rather than actually stepping back, and stared at Sussurro with eyes wide open and lips curled up softly as the vulpo almost ran over to the box to fetch something else and present it to the huntress, whose gaze was... a little surprised, perhaps.

"Now... open wide" she tried to order, perhaps simply said instead, as she pushed a metal gag past Specter's parted lips.

That one, too, was rather heavy, but the main perk of its design was that the steel rods were made to run both in front and behind the teeth to ensure they couldn't get bitten into, and with how thick the steel was -almost as thick as Sussurro's fingers- she liked to believe Specter wouldn't have enough strength in her jaw to simply break it apart. Incidentally, the whole thing was held in place on her head by a sturdy but ultimately much less resistant belt buckle running a full circle around Specter's head.

As for what to do at that point, Sussurro would've nearly bet half her belongings that Specter herself had made it crystal clear with her previous bite, considering where it'd been aimed. So Sussurro took another deep breath, stripped down completely to save the rest of her clothes from the fate her shirt had suffered through and sat on the bed with legs wide open. It was nothing Specter had never seen before, far from it, but she was usually the one spreading Sussurro's legs for her so doing that on her own felt especially embarrassing. The fact that the huntress walked on her knees to the vulpo and bent forward without being prompted to at least spared Sussurro from having to ask for that as well, which-

-a sudden shiver made her entire body freeze as Specter's tongue pushed down on her, an intense pressure drawing a deep line across her sex and making her realize that she was actually wetter than she had thought, another jolt shaking her as Specter reached her stiff clit and poked it almost violently.

How does she have more strength in her tongue than I do in my fingers... ?!

Sussurro leaned back -or perhaps simply fell down- and gripped the sheets with both hands as Specter kept licking her, the strokes of her tongue slow but intense, each one sending goosebumps down the vulpo's thighs as heat built up within her in waves.

Specter seemed to still be committed to the bit as well as Sussurro could hear her whispering something between one lap and the other. She wasn't sure whether it was some language she didn't know or Specter was simply speaking too softly for her to actually grasp the words, but it did kind of vaguely remind her of a prayer of sort in its cadence and intonation, which felt... a little weird, in truth. Not really unpleasant, but perhaps a little wrong. Then again, Specter was gagged so she couldn't be speaking in an intelligible way in the first place.

The plunge of Specter's tongue past her entrance and into her folds dragged Sussurro's thoughts elsewhere with the same delicacy of a sudden shipwreck, an intense shock running up her spine as the huntress pushed her tongue in, reaching further than Sussurro had braced herself for and pushing some air out of her lungs in the form of a startled whimper, and then again as she pulled her tongue back, dragging it across the vulpo's inner folds and then running it over her sex once more, shivers taking over her. A brief pause allowed her to readjust her position a bit and mentally reassess the situation, but Specter's prayer break lasted around as little as she had expected and the huntress lunged forward again, lapping up at her dripping nethers before plunging her tongue in again, the stimulation not reaching as deep as a finger would but more than making up for it with its intensity and the heat of Specter's tongue.

Then Sussurro's hands jolted forward, her fingers running through Specter's head as she took hold of her out of sheer reflex.

Because she had just felt Specter's teeth against her skin.

Looking at it only confirmed what her sense of touch had told her already, the huntress had placed her mouth over her entrance and was pushing her upper jaw down a little bit, each one of her almost unsettlingly calm breath sending a soft shiver down the vulpo's tail as her teeth rested their tips on the tender skin.

... please don't bite me there, don't bite there, don't bite don't- ?!

Wondering why in the bloody hell she had only thought those words instead of speaking them out loud, Sussurro let out the lovechild of a moan and a scream as Specter pushed her jaw further down, her upper teeth sinking into the vulpo's flesh until the cold metal of the gag put a stop to their advance, the sudden coldness causing an entirely different kind of shiver to briefly run through Sussurro's skin.

Alright, calm down! The teeth didn't sink in too much, it's just the tips and -oh heavens, I'm bleeding, I shoul- ?!

Her thoughts got cut short again by another intense bolt of pleasure mixing in with the pain in her lower regions, because Specter had sunk her teeth into the flesh in just the right position to keep Sussurro's clit within reach of her tongue.

"Ho-hol-" she began to say, only to freeze when Specter looked up to meet her gaze with eyes wide open, innocent curiosity and insane excitement somehow mixed together on her face.

Then her lips curled up a little bit into a smile, and Sussurro could just feel that meaty tongue running over her to lap up the blood pouring from the pierced skin. The wound was by no means severe, in truth, but its location was keeping Sussurro on edge, not to mention the distant and yet intense fear of what might happen were Specter to decide to sink her lower jaw into her instead as those teeth would've ended on a far, far more vulnerable place. Thankfully, Sussurro managed to keep herself from coming up with a mental image of that, partially because the huntress' tongue went back to pocking her clit instead, dragging her focus back to the pleasure building up within her, both held back and enhanced by the lingering pain, Sussurro's grip on Specter so intense she might've almost feared she might tear a lock of hair or two off had that not been... well, Specter.

"... right there" she resolved to say, partially in an attempt at taking back control, partially just because she could feel herself getting close "There!"

Her ears twitched as something strongly resembling a chuckle reached them for a moment, but she decided to not pay that too much attention and focus on Specter's tongue instead. Which did mean being even more aware of those teeth still softly lodged inside her flesh, admittedly, but it was... not that bad either, no. Which could be argued to be a little concerning in its own way, perhaps, but that'd be a discussion for a different occasion. For the time being, Sussurro simply held on to Specter for dear life as the huntress worked some sort of magic with her tongue, poking and teasing and smothering the vulpo's sensitive nub, enjoying the way her legs grew stiff and yet kept twitching, the ever more desperate grip of her hands on her head, the moans and whimpers let out at just the perfect volume to echo pleasantly in her ears, and even that ferrous taste she would lap up while tending to Sussurro's clit, Specter would even wiggle her mouth a little just to get a few more drops out and send another jolt up the medic's spine. Not too much, she knew the short little thing wasn't too extreme in her tastes, but at the same time she knew for a fact that she did enjoy it to a degree. Perhaps she could even increase that degree a litte bit, who knows.

And, unsurprisingly, Sussurro's grip grew even tighter as Specter kept servicing her, the heat built up within her reaching a breaking point and exploding, sending a tidal wave crashing through her as her muscles grew stiff and her breath halted for a moment. Specter stopped her tongue as well, but she did wiggle her mouth a bit to make sure the doctor hadn't forgotten about her teeth.

"Th-that's enough for now!" she said, more loudly than she had meant to, as she pushed Specter back, the complete lack of resistance once again leaving her a little surprised.

... that... shouldn't leave a mark, right? The wounds are pretty shallow...

"Mnffh?"

Specter's attempt at questioning her brought Sussurro's gaze back to her. The huntress was sitting on her knees, back straight and neck bent, blood and a certain other sort of fluid on her chin and cheeks.

There's no way she'd be happy if I called it quits now... which is fair, but still...

"Give me a moment"

Sussurro walked back to the box to pull basically all of its remaining content out, turning back around and wondering if Specter was really silently laughing or if she was just seeing things. She kind of leaned towards the former, really.

Alright, you can do this. Deep breaths.

"Bent-bend over" she instructed "With your legs together"

Specter tilted her neck a little bit to the left, then to the right, but then she complied and closed the short distance left to the bed before lying down on it, knees still on the floor. Sussurro, on her part, walked a lot more carefully, Specter being that subservient was really causing a lot of alarm bells to go off inside her head after all, but she did get close enough to put the last two things she had ordered on her. A thick steel cable of sort, with a sliding lock on it meant to allow adjustments to the cable's effective length when tying it around things, or people for that matter. Sussurro ran it around Specter's thighs, binding them together, then ran the second, shorter but not thinner cable a bit over her ankles, after which she spent almost a minute fastening the strap-on Closure had thrown in as an extra to her own hips.

Then she mentally scolded herself for being an idiot, because she had forgotten to pull Specter's garment away and now it was stuck under the cables. Granted, she could just unlock them for a moment and get it out of the way, but she had a feeling that might ruin the moment. With every passing second making her logical thought process more and more shaky, Sussurro went back to the box to fetch one more thing, now truly leaving nothing but the key to the restraints inside of it, and walked back behind Specter with a pair of scissors in hand. The huntress was looking back at her, but other than that she wasn't doing anything, and Sussurro suddenly recalled the feeling of being stared down by a teacher during an exam.

Of all the things you can think of, why- uh, just focus! Focus!

Carefully as to not cut the skin -... not like any cut that scissor could do would last... - Sussurro grabbed Specter's robe and cut it in two, severing the cloth at the waist and letting the bottom half fall down, leaving the huntress' underwear bare.

Sussurro breathed in again, heavily, while Specter kept doing nothing.

No, that was wrong, Sussurro realized. Specter had her fingers sprawled out, and her thumbs had just started hitting her metal restraints softly. It felt like she was tapping her feet but in a way Sussurro couldn't possibly miss, which was most likely not a good sign. So the doctor grabbed her hips, adjusted the strap-on, and... froze.

Specter was a little bored.

She wasn't certain, far from it even, but that possibility had entered her head and refused to go away. She had to do something more, but what?

The answer she came to was one she would later be unable to fully explain to herself, really. Specter... did say something about having 'cleansed her body' already, so...

A slightly startled yelp, or perhaps a soft moan, left Specter's lips as Sussurro pulled her panties aside and drove the strap-on in her rear entrance all at once, the sudden penetration sending at least three different kind of jolts up the huntress' spine. Sussurro, for as much as she had never engaged in anal play before, knew that what she had just done would've been a terrible, terrible mistake under normal circumstances, but... whatever damage Specter may get from inserting something that large with no preparation wouldn't last until dinner either way so... it... it still didn't quite make it right though, but...

... but Specter did push her hips back against her.

And she also kept whispering something like before, just as unintelligibly and around as softly as well but she did, so Sussurro steeled her resolve and started moving her hips. Which was... physically difficult, really. Even that initial push to insert the strap alone had taken a lot more effort than she had expected. Specter had relaxed her muscles to a degree, but she didn't have perfect control over each and every single part of her body after all, and just moving back and forth was proving a challenge for the petite vulpo, though the sight did make for a surprisingly good incentive. Specter, on her part, was enjoying the surprise, that particular sense of fullness was not one she was familiar with and the toy scraping her inner walls was, while honestly kind of painful, also quite exciting, the bumps and soft ridges along its length making for a more variegated kind of stimulation. She pulled her hips back when Sussurro pulled out, and then pushed them against the vulpo when she moved back in, trying to follow her tempo, and even chuckled softly when Sussurro got bold enough to smack her butt, though the impact was way too weak for her tastes. Sussurro kept moving her hips back and forth, feeling a special mixture of excitement and dread, but what really surprised her was just how tiring that act was. A single thrust was difficult, multiple ones were exhausting her much more quickly than she'd have ever expected, to the point she considered asking Dur-nar for help working out a bit in the future. That thought merely passed by the other ones raging inside her head however, leaving nothing but a brief impression as she kept moving as fast as she could.

Which, unfortunately, was not fast enough.

Sussurro's every movement came to a sudden, chilling pause when a sound filled her ears with no warning. It was... not a noise she was downright shocked to hear, in truth, but still one she had perhaps hoped she wouldn't happen to be able to listen to.

It was the distinct sound of metal giving in and breaking, the sight of the steel restraints holding Specter's arms in place coming undone unfolding under the vulpo's very eyes. The huntress didn't break free in a moment, the equipment seemed to hold out for a little bit before breaking apart, but in truth Sussurro couldn't tell whether that was because Specter truly had to put real effort into breaking free or simply because she wanted to avoid accidentally launching bits and pieces of it against the doctor by tearint it apart too quickly. Whichever might've been the case, Specter straightened her back and stretched her arms a bit before turning her head around, staring down to meed Sussurro's deeply, deeply conflicted gaze, the petite vulpo's cheeks turning even redder as Specter basically crunched down the gag in her mouth and pulled the remains out.

"I appreciate the effort, my sweet little doctor" she said, her voice back to its usual sharp cheerfulness as she casually broke off the cables around her thighs as well "Truly, I have nothing against being the bottom. But I'm afraid you just don't have what it takes to keep me there" she spoke.

"I-I'm terribly sorry" Sussurro apologized, backing away and frantically taking the strap off to throw it to some corner of the room.

"Don't be!" Specter said back as she turned around, lifting Sussurro up by the waist "You even picked up on my little clue! You truly do make me happy, little doctor! But" she added as she leaned in, her teeth grazing Sussurro's bare, vulnerable neck and leaving an oh so faint red trail behind "You did ruin my costume a little, and you really got me in the mood too. So I'll ask it just once. You do remember what the safe word is, right?"

Sussurro swallowed something. She was almost sure said 'something' involved her common sense, or a good part of it at least, because all she did after that was nodding.

"Good, because I'm really hungry right now"

Before Specter even started doing anything to her, Sussurro whimpered, and then she shivered as the huntress adjusted her grip on her.

Which is to say she moved an hand between Sussurro's legs and slid four fingers inside of her all at once, finding more than enough natural lubrication to make the penetration smooth. The vulpo whimpered and trembled as she fell forward, trying to find something to support herself because her feet weren't reaching the ground and resting her entire weight on just Specter's hand was, while... thrilling, also not terribly comfortable, especially when taking into consideration where exactly that hand was.

"Specter, put me down maybe?" she managed to say between one breath and the other, the huntress knowing far too well how to scratch her insides to get her trembling and moaning.

"Not yet" Specter nearly sang back, pulling a tooth out of her own mouth and using it as a makeshift dagger to cut her dress open "But do help yourself" she said as she pulled her bra up as well, leaving her chest bare in a way which frankly looked a lot more obscene than usual.

Sussurro swallowed her words to make sure she wouldn't speak any of them by mistake and reached for the huntress' chest, holding on to it for support while trying to fondle it at the same time, and Specter took the chance to close her teeth on Sussurro's ears again, her fur being too thin to truly bother her there as she nibbled on them, not even all that softly, sweat born of both excitement and anxiety running down the doctor's skin.

"You look softer than usual, you know?" Specter mused out loud while running her free hand over Sussurro, pushing down her stiff nipple, feeling up her tail, teasing her navel, touching her all over as if she owned her, leaving a wake of goosebumps behind her palm and fingers.

"I'm the same a-aahh-s usua-al"

"But I plan to taste you more than usual, little doctor" Specter said back, her voice nearly cutting into Sussurro's eardrums and etching itself there, the words making Sussurro jump all the way over what distance was left between her and her next climax, her orgasm shaking her from head to toe back to the tip of her tail as she held on to Specter to keep herself from falling down.

"Your turn now. For a little while" Specter said, throwing Sussurro up in the air a little bit, turning her upside down and grabbing her again in the blink of an eye, leaving the vulpo with a short-lived but intense sense of disorientation "You would, right?"

"Of course" she said back, with a little bit of bite to her voice even "But... be careful, alright?" she added as she held on to Specter again with one hand.

The huntress didn't reply however. She had one arm wrapped around Sussurro to hold her up and close, but with the other she grabbed one of her thighs and began teasing it with her teeth, each touch leaving ever so small red dots on the skin, too small to be concerning from a medical point of view, much too intense to ignore either way at the moment. Still, Sussuro had pretty much been given a task and so she focused on that instead, also because she didn't want to stay upside down for too long. She grabbed Specter's robe and pulled it aside, then she also pulled down her panties enough to not have them in the way and pushed her mouth against the huntress' sex, wet and welcoming. Her position gave her limited access, in truth, but it also made it especially easy to focus on the clit so she did just that, licking and pocking and even nibbling on it a bit while trying to not get dizzy from the smell, because in that position her nose was basically buried in Specter's dripping nethers and her sensitive vulpo nostrils were about to get overwhelmed by the intense scent of her arousal.

Then Specter's teeth dug a little bit deeper into her thigh, a brief pang of sharper pain making her tail twitch as something red and warm began to pour down her leg in small droplets.

"H-hey! Careful there!"

Specter took notice of her words, gave her a couple of seconds to say something else and, since Sussurro didn't, she grabbed the vulpo's head and pushed it back where her mouth was more needed. Sussurro, on her part, took the message pretty well, she even felt her own insides contract a bit, which made her all the more determined to not take too long. Specter, on her part, was quite vocal, more than Sussurro for certain, but she was also more... melodious, yes. Despite being a bit louder, her moans and whimpers weren't simply more controlled, they also had a sort of musicality to them, as if she was purposefully stringing them together into a melody of sort.

It was a really pleasant sound to listen to, Sussurro believed, but also a little bit vexing in its own way.

"Now that's more like it, little doctor" Specter said as Sussurro's tongue grew more frantic "A lot more like it" she repeated, even grinding her hips against the vulpo's face a bit to better savor that final stretch, her muscles growing stiff for a brief second and then relaxing, a purposefully louder whimper leaving her lips just to get Sussurro even more flustered, her grip on the vulpo growing tighter for a second.

"Was that good enough?" Sussurro inquired as she pulled her head back, trying not to think of the sexual fluids covering her nose, lips and tongue as she looked up.

In response, Specter once again turned her around, getting her head and feet back to their proper relative position with respect to the floor and even dropping her down on it for a moment.

"For a start" she replied as she leaned down, cupping Sussurro's cheeks with one hand and running the other down from the vulpo's neck to her arm, gliding her teeth down to the opposite shoulder at the same time.

And then she bit, her teeth sinking deeper than before, perhaps deeper than ever before even, a sharp pain suddenly filling Sussurro's mind as a cracking sound seemingly reached her ears as well, red pouring down her skin once again, a scent she had since long grown familiar with filling her nose once again.

"But the end is still far, little doctor"

Once again, Sussurro shivered.

And then the afternoon went on and on, just as did dinner time and, perhaps, even the whole evening.

... ... ...

... ...

...

"... you have to be kidding me" Warfarin said as she looked at the health report in her hands, her eyes going over each and every single line multiple times even as she flipped the pages "This has to be some sort of sick joke"

"Not at all. I find that even a little offensive, even" Specter chimed back with a certain glee in her voice.

"I'm this close to having you kicked out of this room, Specter"

"Oh, I might just like to see you try. Who would you call, exactly?"

"Ehm, could you please not, Specter? That'd make things difficult for everyone around" Sussurro chimed in.

From the hospital bed she was lying on.

"What in the world where you thinking?" Warfarin told her as she turned back towards her, nearly glaring daggers into her younger colleague "Several bite marks from extremely superficial to severe, multiple cracked bones, shallow cuts a bit everywhere, multiple muscle strains, contusions, severe blood loss, a small chunk of skin flapping off, they had to stitch a bit of your ear back on... they had to stitch a piece of your ear back on?! And do you want me to read out the rest of this for you?" she added, waving the papers around "Forget about your week of paid leave, it'll take you a month to recover from this!"

Sussurro, covered in bandages nearly from head to toe and with a few iv drips connected to her arm -the one not encased in a cast-, couldn't quite return Warfarin's gaze out of guilt.

"I'm afraid the bed didn't quite make it either" Specter added "Oh, and I'm afraid all that stuff you got for me isn't really usable anymore, is it? What a shame"

"I really couldn't care less about that right now. Seriously, how did... this happen?" Warfain asked Specter while broadly gesturing to all of Sussurro "It's like you went out of your way to mess her up as badly as you could without causing any permanent damage, and I'm truly hoping you succeeded with that"

"I... I didn't... " Sussurro began to answer instead, but a mix of guilt and shame kept her from finishing her sentence, her head simply dropping lower and lower.

"You didn't what?"

"She didn't use her safe word, so I kept going" Specter concluded the answer for her with a beaming smile "Isn't that simple?"

"... alright, that's it. I'm out. Folinic will have to follow this one. This is not what Kal'Tsit had me join for" Warfarin said before leaving the small room.

"Well, what do you have to say about this, my sweet little doctor?" Specter said as she strolled the short distance to the side of the bed, a soft smile on her face, one which showed off those pearly white, razor sharp teeth of hers.

"... next time... next time I'll be more careful" Sussurro said.

"Oh, I'm sure we'll both look forward to it then"

Sussurro swore to herself that she'd be less reckless next time.

And maybe she'd manage to stick to her own word too.

Who knows.