“This is really weird,” Abby said after twenty minutes of walking beside Kasai in near silence. So many thoughts had been going through her head during that time that they’d almost drowned the new Ninetales’ mind. She’d decided to voice the most obvious one.
Kasai glanced over at her, blinking with surprise for a moment as he remembered exactly who the fetching Ninetales walking beside him was. Then he smiled and gave her delicate cheek a lick. “It is,” he agreed. “But I can’t really find myself complaining about being able to talk to you without Luke around translating.”
Abby let out a small almost purr like sound as she nuzzled him in reply. “True, very true,” she said, her eyes catching sight of one of his ears and reaching up to give it a playful nibble. “We could never really say everything we wanted to when he was translating, for his sake at least.”
“Heheh, no, no we couldn’t,” Kasai agreed, a grin on his face. “Like I couldn’t say how lovely your rear looked.”
“Oh, is that the only part of me that looked lovely?” Abby replied with a sly smile as one of her tails snaked around his. “I thought you thought every part of me was lovely.”
“I did, I did,” he replied, chuckling softly. It was amazing how easy it was to fall into a conversation with someone who you’d been talking too for years but rarely ever got a reply from. “It was just my favorite part, other than your face of course.”
Abby let out a melodramatic sigh. “Oh woe is me, surrounded by those who only see the value in my body. Where am I to find a man who views me as more than just a toy for his amusements?”
“Nowhere on Earth,” Kasai replied with a smirk. “Which is why it’s a good thing that I’m an Arcanine and not a man.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Abby agreed with a snicker. “However could I have forgotten?”
“Search me, I thought it was pretty obvious personally,” he stated smartly, wagging an eyebrow at her. “I guess that’s the reason why I’m the top dog around here.”
“I’m technically a fox,” Abby replied, though she couldn’t help but smile as she rubbed her head against his cheek. “But I can’t deny that you’re always on top.”
“Heh, I guess I am,” Kasai agreed, leaning his greater weight against her side. “Of course, that could just be because I’m bigger than you.”
“Fair enough,” the Ninetales agreed, licking his cheek, astonished by how natural it felt to do so. Then a thought struck her. “Kasai, is it odd that I don’t feel the slightest urge to put clothes on?”
“You’re already wearing the most beautiful fur coat I’ve ever seen, I don’t know why you’d want to put something on over it,” the Arcanine stated honestly, a bit of the wryness dropping from his voice and turning into sincerity. “You really are an incredibly sexy looking as a Ninetales by the way.”
“And I wasn’t as a human?” she replied, arching an eyebrow at him. Kasai suddenly felt incredibly nervous about his answer. He gulped and then settled on an answer.
“You were always the most gorgeous human I’ve ever seen, with luscious blonde locks of hair and daring blue eyes of promise,” he answered, his tone becoming more eloquent than usual. “Your body was a buffet for the senses, your scent an overpowering banquet that sought to bloat out all others with its sweet strawberry odor. To look upon your backside was like looking upon the face of Arceus himself.”
Abby remained silent for a moment before she let out a yipping giggle. “So my ass looked like Arceus’s face? I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or if I should have had it looked at by a Doctor.”
Kasai grumbled. “Okay fine, I ran out of interesting descriptions, sue me,” he said, rolling his eyes. Abby gave him a lick on the cheek.
“It’s fine Kasai, I bet Arceus would be flattered to have his face compared to my butt,” she told him, grinning.
Arceus blinked.
“True, as would anyone,” Kasai agreed with a happy nod, his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth.
Abby grinned and lashed another tail around him. It felt strangely easy to manipulate all nine of them at the same time. At first she’d thought that she could only control one of them at a time but before long it had become apparent that she was able to subconsciously control each and every one of them as easily as she breathed. She’d mostly been testing this using Kasai’s own singular bushy tail.
The pair lapsed into silence again as they trotted alongside the road. They’d found it not too long ago and it looked like it was very well maintained. Abby’s hope was that it would lead them to a city, or at least a small town, somewhere in Kanto or Johto. She wasn’t quite sure what an apparently wild Arcanine and Ninetales would do once they got to a human city, but maybe she could find a pen and some paper to help her explain what had happened.
Heck, maybe they were near Cerulean City and they could make their way up to Bill’s Lab and get this all sorted out in a matter of minutes.
... if I even want to...
The thought occurred to her out of nowhere and she ground to a halt.
“Abby, is something wrong?” Kasai, the ever observant Arcanine, asked. His voice was full of concern.
Abby blinked twice. “Huh? Yeah, yeah I’m fine Kasai,” she replied, nodding her head and starting forwards again as if nothing had happened.
“Oh no you don’t,” he stated. Abby blinked and repressed a yip of surprise as his jaws closed gently, yet still firmly enough to let her know that she was caught, around her right shoulder. She blinked and looked over at her golden furred mate who had her thoroughly entrapped within his jaws.
“Kasai, let go,” she demanded.
“Noth,” Kasai replied. “Noth tillth youth tellth meth whaths wrongths.”
Abby rolled her eyes. “Kasai, I’ll tell you if you let go of me!” she said with an irritated bark.
It was hardly the first time he’d ever wrapped his jaws around a part of her, but this was the first time he’d ever demanded something of her like this. Normally he just used his eyes. Thankfully, Kasai released her from his gentle hold. For his trouble he got an aggravated Ninetales glaring darkly at him with her gleaming red eyes.
“Mind telling me what the heck that was for?” she asked, her jaws widening without her realizing it.
“Abby, I know you better then anyone. I know that this whole transformation has to be effecting you more then you let on and now that I can actually speak freely around you, you’re going to actually talk to me,” Kasai told her flatly. “I know what happens when you bottle things up for too long without talking to anyone about them. Especially serious things. Remember what happened when your mom and dad died?”
Abby stared at him intensely for a moment, fire forming around her lips for a moment before she looked away and her rage died away.
“We don’t talk about that for a reason Kasai,” she said mutley.
“Because I couldn’t talk to you,” Kasai said, moving forwards and wrapping a heated paw around her and pulling her close to his side. “But now I can talk to you and I want you to let me inside your head, okay?”
Abby let out a small sigh and looked up at his proud, regal face. She’d always jokingly called him a Lord, but now that she was on ‘his level’ he really did look quite noble. And there behind all the regalness was a pair of smiling, incredibly kind eyes. The pair that he’d silently won her over with and right now... she knew that he wanted to help her more then anything else on Earth.
Abby let out another sigh and buried her vixen face into his neck. “You’re cheating.”
“I never cheat,” he replied, bending down so that his chin was laying against the back of her neck. “I just adjust the odds in my favor.”
That got a snort out of Abby.
“Fine... we’ll talk,” Abby said after a moment of silent cuddling. “You want to know what made me pause?”
“Yes, I’d like to know that very much,” Kasai agreed with a nod.
“I thought about what if I didn’t want to change back into a human,” Abby said, narrowing her eyes at him. “About how much I’d prefer to stay a Ninetales and be your mate without having to worry about one of the other Rangers showing up at the wrong time and hauling me off to jail for ‘abusing’ you. I was thinking about how unbelievably natural it feels to be in this body, in this fur. I was thinking about how much it meant to me that I could actually understand what you were saying! There was no reason to bring up what I did.”
Kasai blinked twice and then let out a small sigh. “Sorry Abby... that was uncalled for of me,” he said slowly.
“Yes, yes it was,” Abby snapped. “Why did you bite me?”
“I didn’t, I held your shoulder,” he replied. “No hands remember? I’d never bite you Abby.”
“... right,” Abby said as she let out a sigh of her own. “You’re right... I just didn’t think of it that way.”
“It’s fine... this is a big adjustment for you,” Kasai told her, nuzzling her jaw and then bending down to give her a lick across the lips. “It’s a big adjustment to me too honestly, having your face down so far below licking level instead of right where I like it.”
Abby nodded and let out a sigh before she paused. Why was she sighing so much!? She was Abby Trombley, star Pokemon Ranger! She didn’t sigh or mope! She got things done!
“Alright Kasai, we’re going to follow this road to the nearest city and find out where the heck we are, after that we’ll try and find someone who can help me get back to normal and after that I’ll make up my mind about whether or not I want to,” she declared, her nine tails spreading out around her like a queen’s fan, full of pomp and circumstance. “And in the time in-between that you and I are going to make the most of this little transformation of mine, understood?”
Kasai smiled, that’s the Abby he liked to see. “Aye, Aye Ma’am,” he stated, giving her a mock salute. “And by make the most of the transformation you mean....”
“You’ll find out later,” she told him, giving him a vulpine smirk as her tails flared again and she took off at a run down the side of the road. Kasai grinned and took off after her, whatever else happened, he’d follow her to the grave.