Poking my head into the shelter as I'm about to full climb in, I suddenly feel myself go weightless. Before I can even tell why, I find myself being hugged by Inv.
A surprise, but a welcome one.
I hug back, not caring if more blood is getting on me. At the same time I hear the sounds of the shelter entrance closing. Trapping us both alone once again to ourselves…
…
After being hugged for a bit I feel Inv put me down.
"Su Joey… wa wer u tinkin abou wen u wer lokin et me?~" Inv says to me in a low voice, slowly going down on all 4's.
"W-well… I was thinking about… uhh… how to clean you up?" I answer back truthfully, embarrassed that I'm actually going to ask him if I can…
Seeing Inv's face grow slightly smugger, I can tell my eye is probably shining bright red right now. I feel weirdly exposed now knowing my emotions can be visibly seen like this. But i feel mostly fine with Inv since he has the same thing going on.
"Oh? How so?" Inv questions back, at first with a smug look but when he looks down at himself he sees all the blood and tiny bits of flesh clinging to his fur.
I can tell this immediately dampers Inv's mood. Seeing his skin turn darker blue and purple as he stands back up.
"I-i sory Joey, i didn notic-
"Inv, it's fine, that's why I was thinking about it in the first place~" I walk up to Inv, slightly nudging him with my shoulder in a playful manner. Showing him that i don't care at all by his current appearance.
With this action I see Inv slightly calm down, now looking at me with genuine curiosity.
"Hoaw u goin to clen me witout wawer??" Inv curiously asks.
I'm a bit surprised by the question. Has he only been cleaning himself with water this entire time? Has he never groomed himself??
"Have you never licked yourself clean before Inv?"
"Liced? Y wud i du dat?"
…
This basically answers my question.
"Because it's also another way we can clean ourselves. I can show you how to do it if you want"
"Mhm! Shoa me!" Inv nods quickly.
Seeing the immediate response i let out a small laugh, amused that im about to teach Inv how to lick himself.
"Alright Inv, watch me" I say, fully getting his attention.
"Ok, first you want to do this" under his gaze, I first lick my paws, after licking my paws I start working on a spot on my body that has blood from Inv hugging me.
In a repetition of licking the spot, using my claws, and paws. The spot is eventually clean.
Sure it left behind an iron like taste in my mouth but at this point it's nothing new. Now the spot is all clean and soft!
"You understand now Inv?" I look back at Inv, who has a pondering gaze at the moment.
…
"Ye, i tink i ge et noaw… lemme try" Inv says back.
Curiously I watch how he will do.
Watching Inv, I see him raise his paws up to his face. But at this moment I immediately can tell the first problem. His paws aren't really like mine… there literal stick hands.
Not saying anything, I keep watching.
Next, he starts bringing his tongue out…
Oh…
Oh my…
'Holy fuck that was in my mouth?!' I watch as Inv's tongue starts sticking out of his mouth, at a length that should not be normal for one!
'I knew it was longue by the way we kissed, but damn!' I watch with my mouth slightly open, gawking at Inv's long tongue currently licking his paws.
"E-em i doin somting wong Joey?" Inv asks me with a hint of worry.
"N-nah Inv! Nothing's wrong! Keep going!" I quickly answer back, nodding my head trying my best to not keep my eyes glued on his tongue.
'Calm down Joseph… inner peace… inner peace…' I calm myself down, not gawking at Inv's tongue anymore…
…
Nope, still looking at it.
After licking his paws, I see him start licking a spot on his stomach. When I see him pull his claws out I worry for a moment they may be too sharp. But seeing how it doesn't hurt him over time, I calm down. I guess the system did say his durability was 'Strong'.
…
The longer I watch Inv, the more I notice something is wrong, however. No matter how much he tries to clean the spot, it still looks the same… just more wet due to his licking…
"Inv, stop for a moment" I say to him, confused why it's not working.
"O-ok? Ded i noat du et wight?" Inv whimpers back with a sad look.
"No, you were doing it right, just need to figure out what's wrong" I say as I look closely at the spot Inv was just licking.
Reaching my paw out, I feel the spot. Which is really wet from all of Inv's licking. Just leaving behind wet fur which still has blood mixed in it.
I can feel Inv slightly shuddering from my touch, this would amuse me if I wasn't so focused on why Inv wasn't able to clean the spot.
Claws? No, he was doing it almost exactly how I did it.
Paws? No as well, he copied my movement pretty close to how i showed him.
Tongue?
…
He was licking the spot… but that's not all the tongue does… the tongue is the main source of the cleaning. So what did he…
'Wait… that must be it… his tongue might be different then mine…' thinking this to myself I look up at Inv, who is looking down at me. Waiting for me to figure out what he did wrong.
"Inv, lower your face down to me real quick"
"O-ok?"
Inv bends down, his face now at my eye level.
I'm a bit embarrassed by what I'm going to ask next, but it's necessary. I swear!
"Inv, can you… stick your tongue out for me?"
----------------------------
A/N: ayo what???