Maybe it was a stress thing, or maybe it was a skunk thing, but Dare seemed to keep finding himself wide awake before the break of dawn. He looked at his alarm clock glowing across the dorm room: 3:55 AM. He wanted to get out of bed, to stretch his legs, to finish reading the last chapter of the Anthro assignment he’d put off.
But, he couldn’t. Not with Milo’s increasingly powerful arms holding Dare tight against his chest, letting the low, calming rumble of the boar-to-be’s breathing vibrate his entire body. One of Milo’s arms was confidently draped over Dare’s side, his fingers resting only inches away from his nipples. Dare had to keep glancing down every few minutes to check and see if those fingers were drifting any closer. ‘Cause you want them to be getting closer, right? You’d love it if he gave those little ‘strawberries’ of yours a little flick, huh?
“Quiet, you,” Dare whispered, curling up a bit more under Milo’s blankets. Dare had been worried that as Milo grew more and more fur on his body, sleeping with him would be like spooning with a Brillo pad. Luckily for him, other than a few spots Milo’s coat seems to be a perfect mixture of bristles and dense, soft undercoat, almost fleecy in its warmth and softness.
Unable to move without waking Milo, Dare was trapped with his thoughts. At least, he hoped they were his thoughts. He had been doing his best to stave off the foreign memories and experiences that seemed to be seeping into the back of his mind, flashes of images of a pair of furry, smiling faces. My parents, Dare assumed, judging by the warmth he felt spreading across his body whenever he thought about them. He wasn’t like Milo, he’d grown up knowing his parents (his human ones, that is), so it was easier for him to keep his old family and this new one separate without getting overly sentimental. And he wasn’t sure how much he really wanted to dig into the new life that was being offered to him here.
He looked across the room and saw his phone, his claw clippers, and his Anthro textbook all sitting on his bed, and he wished more than anything he could reach out and grab them. Now that these weird new memories were starting to flash before him, he needed something to distract him. Something to hold in his paws (hands, damn it) to keep him anchored to the present.
Why do I give a shit if I wake up the pig anyway? He’ll fall right back asleep anyway.
Because you don’t want to get up. You want to keep on cuddling with your new boyfr-
“I said ‘quiet’,” Dare hissed under his breath. So what if he liked sleeping with his roommate? He was soft and warm and smelled nice. Really nice, god that soap…, Dare thought, wishing he could turn himself around and bury his nose into the fuzzy, cedar-scented chest and stay there until the semester ended.
4:00 AM flashed on the alarm clock in the darkness of the dorm room.
Fuck, this is a goddamn eternity, Dare thought.
He could feel the memories creeping closer to the front of his conscious mind the longer he lay there, but he just couldn’t bring himself to disturb Milo’s quiet rumbling breathing. He reluctantly let his eyelids slowly close as random flashes of color and memory blinked across his field of vision.
Small house, cozy place with just enough room for everyone, though things were usually packed pretty tight. Not like his house on the ‘other side’, where his family could afford a house big enough so that they’d never had to see each other. A little dining room and a kitchen always bustling with activity, someone or another always baking cookies or pulling bread out of the oven. A freezer that always had ice cream in it; Mom always knew to buy strawberry, just in case he had a bad day. Food piled high on the dinner table. Nobody would dare miss a family dinner.
Nobody would… Not mom, not dad, or… his siblings? Younger, three of them. Black fur with white stripes. Only his little sis had spots on her tail, the rest had ruler-straight stripes from the tips of their snouts to the ends of their tails.
His mother’s face, worried but patient and always so kind. “Sweetie, I know you’re a grown-up now, but this-“
Dare frowned, the concerned voice of the skunk in his (no, not his!) memories pulling him out of the strange vision of a saccharine home life with loving parents. God, it was just sickeningly sweet and perfect, yet it had Dare’s heart fluttering with longing.
Do you miss them? You’ve never met them, and you already miss them.
Dare whimpered and buried his face in his hands, feeling tears springing to his eyes. Why tears? I’m not homesick, I’m not lonely, I’m…
Dare let out a tiny gasp as he felt a tingle on his chest, a surprise sensation that shook him out of his usual self-pitying. In confusion, he looked down at his chest and his eyes flew wide at what he saw there.
It wasn’t another coat of fur like he’d been expecting, but instead it was a small metal piercing that had been driven right through his right nipple, a bright green barbell that seemed to twitch slightly with every breath that Dare took. Dare could feel the metal in his body, the cool material constantly pressing against his skin and making his nipple perk up even more in the cool air of the dorm room.
Dare could only stare in disbelief at the new addition to his body. He knew he was turning into a skunk. He wasn’t sure if that bothered him or not, but he was trying to deal with it. But suddenly getting a nipple piecing was definitely not supposed to be a part of that. Was it something to do with the ‘new life’ that was trying to impose itself on him?
Out of nowhere, another sudden memory crept into the forefront of his mind. Rather, it was the end of the last memory he had been experiencing.
“Sweetie, I know you’re a grown-up now, but this might have been a mistake, don’t you think?” his skunk mother sighed. “I’ve got no problem with piercings, you know that. But the place you went to… I don’t know, it just seemed a little sketchy. I’m just worried, maybe you should have a doctor look-“
“Mom, it’s fine! It feels fine, I don’t think anything is wrong. You’re worrying too much.”
“I’m worrying because my little stinker is running off to college with a potential infection hazard.”
“Mom! Can we not talk about this…? I need to finish packing up, so-”
“Don’t change the subject, Dare. I’m- Dare, come back here!“
He remembered running off to his room after that. Not saying a word to her, heading off to CVU the next morning. He knew she was just worried about him, probably still was. Waiting for a phone call just to hear her ‘little stinker’s’ voice and to let her know he was doing fine. It seemed that no matter which ‘life’ Dare tried to life, he was just a coward who ran away from anything that bothered him.
It wasn’t fear or homesickness that was making Dare cry at 4:05 in the morning. It was guilt that he’d upset his mother. Before I came here and everything started changing, making my mom worry was like a sport to me. But now that I’ve suddenly got a skunk for a mom, I’m turning into some fucking momma’s boy… God, this sucks, Dare sighed, wiping away the lingering tears in his eyes.
Dare heard a quiet grunt from behind him and held his breath. Had he woken Milo with his pitiful sniffling and grumbling to himself? Dare saw Milo’s hand drift closer and closer to his newly pierced nipple, letting the soft fur brush over its erect tip. Dare sucked in his breath at the sudden intense sensation, feeling an electric jolt throughout his entire body as his cock shot straight up and left a tiny spot of pre on Milo’s bedspread.
“Hmm? Dare, you okay…?” Milo groaned, half-asleep and barely aware of what was going on. The second that Dare felt Milo’s grip start to loosen, he immediately slipped out of the boar’s arms, ran over to his side of the room, and started rooting around in his dresser for a towel and shampoo.
“I’m fine, Milo… Just need to take a shower,” Dare growled, making up any excuse to get out of the room for a bit.
“It’s 4 in the morning. If something’s the matter, just-”
But Dare was already out the door and down the hall to the floor’s bathroom. He walked over to the sink’s mirror, feeling the soft cushion of his burgeoning paw pads against the tile floor, them he looked closely at the new piercing that had blossomed into existence only a few minutes before. Green, a bright jade color that perfectly matched his eyes. The barbell was thick enough to give his nipple a bit of extra perkiness, and he could feel the slight weight of the metal constantly tugging down against the sensitive skin.
“It doesn’t look too bad, actually. Maybe should’ve gotten them both done, though. Maybe another time…” Dare sighed, then he shook his head to chase off the foreign thought that was sneaking into his head. At least, he assumed the thought wasn’t his own. As he turned to head to the showers, out of the corner of his eye he spotted his back in the mirror, and his heart began to race at seeing his reflection.
The short black fuzz that had been steadily growing on his back had erupted into a full coat of thick, silky, jet-black fur, stretching from his neck all the way down to his ass like a furry cape. And, of course, right down the center of his back were a perfectly straight pair of pure white stripes, looking just like they’d been drawn in with a ruler and chalk. Dare reached over his shoulder and ran a finger over the luxurious fur, feeling its cool texture against the paw pads on his hands, and had to admit that it felt a lot nicer than Milo’s bristles.
“Well… At least I’ll get to try out those fur-dryers…” he sighed, knowing there wasn’t anything he could do at this point. If he was going to be a moody, sulking momma’s boy of a skunk, he was at least going to be a well-groomed one. He grabbed his shampoo and slowly walked over towards the showers, which were thankfully completely empty so early in the morning.