Archive of Our Own

There’s a few things Harua has accepted as a universal truth:

One — That he and Yuma were cursed to never have air conditioning in their dorm room. 

Freshman year it wasn’t a big deal to not have AC. They made friends with their neighbors across the hall, and with their doors propped and both room’s windows open, they could make a nice cross breeze to stay cool. 

Sophomore year, it got a little more complicated. The window in their dorm didn’t face the door, and even worse, their window faced west, allowing the sun to directly beam into their room and basically trap them in a glorified oven. It was hell, and after that year, Harua swore they wouldn’t live like that again. 

Junior year they finally caved and bought a small air conditioning unit that fit in the window. And for two weeks they lived in cool-aired bliss, until Nicholas got drunk on two beers, barged into their room, and proceeded to accidentally knock the unit out of the window by leaning on it. They all watched in horror as the AC fell two stories and crashed to the ground, shattering into pieces like all of Harua’s dreams of not sweating during the summer months in their dorm. Maki laughed so hard that he started clutching his sides in pain, while Yuma just shook his head at their destroyed haven for coolness. 

Two — Nicholas and Euijoo were definitely secretly dating. And they weren’t subtle. At all. 

“Shut up, stop it,” Euijoo says to Nicholas, but his fondness drips off of every word, his hands moving to push Nicholas off his lap but there’s no strength behind it.

“Hey,” Harua whispers to Yuma, “have you noticed anything weird with Nicholas and Euijoo?”

Yuma glances between their friends quickly and then back to Harua. Nicholas is now clinging onto Euijoo’s arm, sticking his tongue out to mock him, which Euijoo quickly returns with his own tongue. 

“No? Why’d you ask?”

Harua huffs, “Nothing? You don’t think they’re…” Harua trails off gesturing with hand signs to make a dirty insinuation. 

“Oh.” Yuma looks at them again. Harua expects Yuma to finally put the pieces together, but instead he turns to the alleged couple and asks them plainly, “Are you guys dating?”Euijoo’s eyes blow wide and Nicholas instantly drops Euijoo’s arm and scoots away from him. 

“What, no!” they both exclaim, Nicholas muttering about all the different reasons why Euijoo wasn’t his type. 

Harua buries his face in his hands. 

Three — That Harua has somehow become the person to bear the burden of keeping all of Maki’s secrets. 

It had started with small things: Maki raising his finger to his pursed lips to say “shh”, giving Harua a devious look as he flashes the Uno cards he had hidden in his hoodie pocket. Whispering in Harua’s ear to “play along” when Taki starts questioning if it’s true that you can get a discount at their favorite ramen place if you tell the waiter you “like it hot and steamy and extra creamy”. (The waiter wasn’t amused.)

But Maki also started trusting him with bigger things too. 

“You’re my best friend, right, Harua?” Maki asks with shining eyes. It’s just the two of them walking side by side as they return back to the dorms from the library, cold winter pressing in and hands shoved deep in their coat pockets. 

Yes, Harua almost answers but something stops him, turning to Maki in concern instead. “What’s wrong?”

Maki sighs deeply, but nudges Harua in the side playfully, “I’m only telling you this because I know you won’t tell anyone but-”

Harua completely stops walking on the sidewalk waiting for Maki to finish with held breath. 

Was he dying? In love? Moving across the world?

“- I’m thinking about switching out of pre-med.”

Harua breathes out, “Oh.”

Maki smirks, “What? You won’t miss me?”

They had become fast friends over their shared commiserations of trying to survive organic chemistry and every other difficult pre-med track class, so it’s hard for Harua to imagine Maki not being there. 

“What would you switch to?”

Another student glares at them as they have to walk around them on the sidewalk, but neither of them pay it any mind. 

As silly and fun as Maki is, it’s moments like these where Harua feels like he sees the real Maki, serious and solemn as he divulges his true heart to Harua. 

“I dunno yet. But I feel like medical school might not be for me.”

Harua shakes his head, “But you’re doing so well now?” They’re so close to the finish line, Harua can’t imagine throwing away all their hard work at this point, but he can tell that this is something that has been gnawing at Maki for a while. 

Maki shrugs, “I’m not for sure gonna quit yet, so don’t tell anyone.”

“Okay, I won’t,” Harua agrees easily. 

Maki pats Harua’s shoulder once before they begin walking again. 

“Thanks. I knew I could trust you.”

But nothing, of all the hundreds of secrets Maki has shared with him over the years, could prepare him for this.

The sound of knocking weaves itself into Harua’s dreams at first. 

He’s helping kids at a clinic, running back and forth to deliver medicine and food, but an angry parent keeps pounding on the glass wall. 

“Please wait a second,” Dream-Harua tells the disgruntled person through the door, but the knocks continue without ceasing. The scene slowly melts away, but it takes Harua a second to realize he’s not imagining it, that the insistent noise from his dream is actually coming from reality. 

Harua groans. He doesn’t have to look around to know it’s way too early to be awake, and that whoever is on the other side of the door is essentially waging war against Harua’s precious sleep schedule. When he finally creeps his eyes open, the room slowly comes into focus, early morning sun streaming through the window, and Yuma stumbling across the floor to open the door of their small room. 

Yuma swings the door open swiftly, the rapid knocking taking pause but the offender’s fist still hanging in the air mid-movement.

“It’s not even 7am,” Yuma grumbles, stepping away from the doorway to let the man inside. 

The intruder, Maki, at least has the decency to look sheepish as he enters and notices Harua and Yuma’s sleepy appearance. Maki is barely better himself, still in his worn sweats that he sleeps in and a large hoodie, the beanie pulled over his head most likely being the only thing covering his bed-head. 

“What the hell,” Harua complains openly, “do you just wake up your friends for fun?”

“Um, I have a bit of a problem.” Maki is clearly nervous — rocking back and forth on his feet, hands shoved deep in the pockets of his sweatpants, and eyes darting to the floor to avoid eye contact. 

“What? Did you get locked out again?” Harua fully sits up on the bed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes to clearly see Maki. 

“No, no, nothing like that. Or maybe I am? I left my room so fast I might’ve forgotten my key…” Maki pats his pants pockets frantically, confirming that he was empty handed with a deep sigh. “But that’s not what’s important right now.”

Yuma crosses his arms, standing in front of Maki with brows furrowed, “What is it?”

Maki has gotten himself into plenty of situations before. He remembers freshman year when he lost a bet and ended up running across campus in only his boxers. Or during sophomore year when he caught the attention of local news for “accidentally” making dirty puns on the signs at the cafe he worked at part-time. But he’s never seen Maki like this, fidgeting so much that he looks like he might jump out of his skin.

“First,” Maki glances between them. “You have to promise you won’t like, lock me up. Or call the cops or animal control or something.”

“Did you murder someone? What’s going on?” Harua tilts his head in confusion, Yuma mirroring the concern on his face. 

Maki sighs, finally giving up, even though neither Harua or Yuma have agreed to his promises. He yanks the beanie off of his head, his hair flopping down over his forehead, and something else. 

It takes a moment for Harua’s eyes to adjust, but when they do it becomes clear why Maki was so worried.

He thinks they must be fake at first. They sell those kinds of things in certain shops and maybe this is just some elaborate prank Maki is pulling on them. There’s no way it could be anything else.

Two puppy ears planted on Maki’s head — brown fur perfectly matching the dark brown of Maki’s hair. But no, they’re real, Harua realizes, because when Yuma gasps at the sight, both ears perk up instantly at the noise automatically, way too realistically.

“Is that?” Yuma begins to ask but his words can’t seem to comprehend what they’re both seeing. 

Maki nods solemnly, hands reaching behind himself for something, “There’s more also.” 

Harua can see Maki tugging at something under his hoodie until his hands drop and it fully unfurls. 

Seemingly overnight, their best friend Maki has grown two puppy ears and a fluffy tail.

“What the fuck.” Harua can’t help his astonishment, confused as his mind tries to piece together what he’s seeing right now.

Maki buries his face in his hands, groaning in frustration, his new ears matching his mood and slowly lowering in sadness. 

“How is that even possible?” Yuma asks with his mouth agape.

“If I knew, d’you think I would be here?” Maki says in exasperation. 

Harua jumps up from his bed, staring wide-eyed at Maki’s new state of being. 

“When did this happen?” Harua asks, slowly roving over Maki’s face to make sure nothing else has changed. “You were with us last night and you were…normal.” One mole on Maki’s right cheek. Three on his left. One on his chin. And the small one under his eyebrow. It’s the same Maki, just with new puppy features.

“I dunno,” Maki sighs, “I fell asleep right when I got home. And when I woke up, I was like this.” Maki gestures at his head and his tail, the fluffy appendage in question drooping down between his legs. 

“There must be a scientific explanation for this,” Yuma, the unwavering biology major interjects. “Did your roommate glue them to you or something?”

Maki shakes his head again, “No, it’s hard to explain, but I can feel them? Like I can tell they’re a part of my body…”

Harua moves closer, watching in fascination at how Maki’s dog ears move and twitch at every new sound. 

“Can I?” Harua asks, reaching up to hover his hand above Maki’s hair but still not touching. 

Maki nods, lowering his head slightly so Harua has easier access. Even with Maki’s permission, Harua still hesitates. 

He’s not really sure what he’s touching to check. To see if they’re real? To find out if the brown fur is as soft as it looks? But his hand moves the final distance, first carding through Maki’s hair before he’s pinching an ear between his fingers. 

The fur is soft, the ear fidgeting slightly at being touched, but allowing Harua to yank on it slightly to confirm that it is truly attached to Maki’s head. 

“Oh,” Harua says carefully, releasing the ear from his pinch and out of instinct scratching behind it instead, “they’re definitely real.”

Harua watches how Maki’s eyes flutter closed at the sensation, lips pressing together into a thin line as Harua continues his petting. 

“His tail is wagging now, too,” Yuma points out. The pair of them instantly move away from each other at the comment, Maki’s tail halting in its movement. 

“What do I do?” Maki pouts, eyes glassy and wide, and looking at the two of them for answers, “How do I get rid of this?”

“We could cut them off?” Harua suggests, but Maki instantly flinches, covering his tail protectively. 

“No way, that’ll hurt!”

Yuma narrows his eyes, “Are you sure nothing else has changed?” Yuma gestures down to Maki’s crotch, and they all know what Yuma is implying. 

“Yes!” Maki now goes to cover his dick protectively, making Harua laugh, “It’s just the tail and ears, okay!”

Harua giggles, watching Maki flush in embarrassment, “Any other dog-like instincts? Wanting to pee on fire hydrants? Looking to dig up some bones?” 

Maki’s frown deepens, “C’mon guys this is serious! What the fuck do I do? I can’t just walk around in public with a tail and dog ears for the rest of my life.”

Harua huffs, stopping his teasing when he sees how distraught Maki is. 

“Okay, okay. Think carefully. Was there anything that could’ve caused this? Anything at all?”

“No! I told you! If I knew why, they would be gone already!”

“Hey, calm down,” Harua tries to placate the boy, automatically reaching up to pat Maki’s head but he finds Maki’s new ears instead. The gesture seems to work still though, Maki sagging at Harua’s touch. “We’ll figure this out.”

Yuma goes back into examination mode, tapping his chin in thought, “If it really is just an attachment of ears and tail, removal might be the best plan.”

Maki practically whimpers at the idea again, Harua soothingly petting Maki’s hair to try and keep him calm. 

“But we can’t be sure it’s just that,” Yuma continues, “You might’ve undergone hormonal or behavioral changes that we don’t know about yet.”

Harua and Maki both stare stunned at Yuma’s suggestion, but it makes more sense as the information slowly sinks in. 

“Do you feel any different?” Harua asks. 

Maki shakes his head, knocking Harua’s hand away in the process, “Not really, but…I did notice I can smell a lot stronger. But maybe it’s just because my allergy medicine kicked in.” 

In an instant, Yuma grabs his notebook, writing down the observation. 

“No, keep recording any differences you notice in yourself, internal and external,” Yuma replies with a final click of his pen. “The more we know, the more we can try and figure out how to reverse it.”

Maki shudders, “I feel like one of your specimens in bio lab.”

“Speaking of lab,” Harua adds, “we have our chem midterm in like two hours.”

A long groan escapes Maki, fully sinking to his knees and truly looking like a kicked puppy. 

He’s never seen Maki this stressed, and he’s witnessed Maki running on only energy drinks and adrenaline to get through finals week. 

“Okay here’s the plan,” Yuma declares decisively, “You guys go to your midterm. Wear clothes that cover your uh…situation. Just try and act like everything is normal…”

Maki nods obediently, dog ears perking up as he listens. 

“…And I’ll go to the library and do some research. We can meet back there after.”

He’s not sure if Maki realizes it, but Maki’s tail is moving again, slowly swishing across the ground behind him. 

“Thank you,” Maki says almost tearfully. 

Now that the initial shock has worn off, it really sinks in. Their friend is a dog. Harua wants to pinch himself to make sure he’s still not dreaming as he watches Maki rise from the ground and hunch over Yuma in an overbearing hug. 

“Who knows,” Yuma reassures, patting Maki on the back lightly, “Maybe by the time you get back it will just go away naturally.”

Harua can’t imagine how Maki is feeling though, and that’s scariest of all. For his best friend to have something inside of himself that Harua can’t understand. 

Maki turns and smiles at him though, and Harua can only give him a weak smile back, the simple gesture making Maki’s tail wag faster. 

Even before all this, Maki had some puppy-like tendencies. Flopping over onto people like an overgrown dog. Following you around endlessly and loyally. Laughing in a loud bark. So it’s hard now to tell which are normal Maki-isms and what is a side effect of Maki’s current condition. 

Harua smooths a hand over Maki’s thigh under the table, trying to stop how his leg is incessantly bouncing up and down. 

“Calm down,” Harua whispers, but he can still feel Maki’s leg trembling under his fingertips. 

“I can’t,” Maki hisses back. 

They’re sitting in the back of the large lecture hall, Maki with his beanie pulled tightly over his head to cover his new ears, and tail tucked into his oversized sweatshirt and out of sight. 

Maki was anxious. 

When he first showed up to pick Harua up to go to their chemistry midterm together, he was wearing gloves and a scarf covering half his face in addition to his other clothes. 

“Why’re you wearing all that?”

“Because! What if I start growing claws and canine teeth too?”

Yuma had already made his way to the library, leaving Harua alone to convince Maki that wearing that would make it even more obvious something weird was going on with him. 

But now, as the clock ticks down to finish their exam, Maki’s anxiety seems to have doubled or tripled. 

“Stop that,” Harua tries again, squeezing Maki’s thigh more harshly, the younger boy making a small noise at the back of his throat before pushing Harua’s hand away hastily. At least he stopped shaking his leg though. 

Harua tries to focus on the test again. 

‘Label the eigen-energies and eigen-functions according to the dominant basis state character...’

He can feel his palms getting sweaty, rubbing his hands against his pants to try and will the moisture away.

Thump. Thump. Thump. 

It’s a small noise — something Harua ignores, as he tries to digest the question.

‘Use non-degenerate perturbation theory to derive the energies...’

Thump. Thump. THUMP.

The noise is louder this time, enough that Harua quickly realizes it’s coming from right next to him. He glances at Maki, the boy hunched over his computer to focus, not even noticing how visibly something is moving under his sweatshirt

Their professor is at the front of the classroom, hopefully far enough away that he can’t see Harua hissing at Maki again. 

“Maki, your tail.”

Maki jolts up instantly, back slamming into his chair to hold his tail in place. Harua winces at the movement, Maki wearing his own matching look of pain, a couple of heads turning in their direction at the noise. It garners the attention of their professor too, who ambles down the aisle until he’s next to their row. 

“Everything okay over here?” he asks with a sharp glare. 

“Yes, sir,” Maki replies tightly, back as straight as a ruler in his chair. 

The professor gives them both a withering look, but he retreats down the room without further question. 

When the exam is finally over, they file out of the lecture hall, Harua turning to Maki when they reach the fresh air outside. 

“How do you think you did?”

Maki is staring down at his feet, hands gripping tightly to the straps of his backpack, “Terrible. I couldn’t focus at all with, you know, everything going on.”

Harua nods knowingly. Truthfully, he was having trouble focusing also, his mind wandering over and over to how content Maki looked when Harua had scratched behind his new ears, eyes trained on Maki constantly to make sure he didn’t run too far from sight. 

“...Plus I definitely have a heightened sense of smell,” Maki wrinkles his nose in disgust, “I could tell that guy that sits two rows ahead of us definitely hasn’t showered in a few days.”

Harua snorts, even with the odd circumstances, Maki is still able to remain lighthearted, a trait that Harua can only admire, as he imagines how much he would’ve spiraled if he was in Maki’s place. 

“What about me?” Harua asks, “Do I smell?”

Maki considers it, stepping a bit closer into Harua’s space to sniff the air around him. 

“You smell the same as you always do. It’s just stronger now.”

“Oh.” 

Harua doesn’t know why he’s disappointed. Maybe he thought with his new ability that Maki would be able to detect some new side of him, uncover some secret scent that can only be found deep within. 

A small smile escapes Maki’s lips though, dimples popping into the side of his cheeks, “Although, you also smell like me a bit,” Maki adds, “Because you’re wearing my shirt again.”

Harua looks down at himself, “Am I?”

“He doesn’t even remember stealing my clothes, chat,” Maki says to an invisible audience, Harua still trying to figure out which shirt it is. “You took this from me months ago,” Maki explains, pinching the fabric of the checkered flannel shirt Harua was wearing over his loose t-shirt. 

“This?” The memory slowly resurfaces, how Harua was shivering and Maki had wordlessly placed the shirt over Harua’s shoulders, how when he tried to give it back at the end of the night Maki had refused. He’s had it for so long he had forgotten it wasn’t his to begin with. “I’ve washed it so many times, I’m surprised it can still smell like you.”

Maki shrugs, “I think normally I wouldn’t be able to tell, but it does still smell like me a bit.”

Harua sniffs the collar of his shirt himself, trying to sense the same thing Maki does, but all he can smell is lavender laundry detergent and a bit of his own cologne. 

“Is it a bad scent?”

“Not at all,” Maki shakes his head, “Our smells blend perfectly together,” he says without any further explanation. “Are you hungry? I’m starving.”

They had been walking in the direction of Yuma and the library and hopefully some answers, but Harua can see Maki's eyes wandering to turn down a side street and towards the row of restaurants that can be found near campus.

“Not really but,” Harua glances down at his watch, “I guess we have time to make a quick stop.”

It feels familiar in a comforting way. Usually, Harua is the one always calculating the minutes, trying to figure out how much time they can waste to still have enough time to study, Maki begging and pleading that it will only be a few minutes but it always ends up stretching.

Maybe a bit of distraction will help them, take their mind off of this strange dream they’ve wandered into, and leave them with clear heads. 

Three bowls of noodles later, Harua holds back his smile, “Do you think increased appetite is a side effect as well?”

Maki cocks his head to the side, seemingly unaware of how quickly he inhaled his food.

“No, I feel normal,” Maki points to Harua’s untouched plate of rice and egg, “Are you gonna finish that?”

Harua wordlessly pushes his plate towards Maki, the boy taking no time to shovel a spoonful of rice into his mouth.

“How are you…not freaking out?”

Maki pauses his chewing, spoon still hanging in the air, “Do you want me to freak out?”

“No, just-” Harua rakes his fingers through his hair, “I would be way more freaked out than you are.”

If Harua was Maki, he would’ve run straight to the library after the exam was over, panting and hoping a solution had been found in the short hours, not casually chewing around mouthfuls of food. 

“I did freak the fuck out this morning,” Maki smirks, using his spoon to rearrange the rice on his plate in a neat circle, “But I dunno, having you guys know at least makes it less scary. And I still feel like myself really, although this hat is making my ears hurt now.”

“But what if you’re stuck like this forever?” Harua crosses his arms over his chest, worried knit forming between his brows.

“Well, then I guess you have to keep my secret to the grave,” Maki teases, still not taking it seriously. 

“Maki,” Harua warns.

“What? Obviously this is out of my control so there’s no use getting all worked up about it at this point. I’ll just live with it for now, and I’m sure a solution will come eventually.”

Harua huffs, unsatisfied with Maki’s casual tone. 

“...Plus, I know you will take care of me no matter what,” Maki makes a show of scooping more rice into his mouth, as if to prove his point, “Isn’t that right?”

When they enter the study room in the library, Yuma already has the blinds pulled down firmly, Maki sinking  into the available chair and instantly pulling the beanie off his head as soon as the door shuts.

“Hey! Anyone could walk in here you know,” Harua chides, keeping an eye on the door, worried someone will burst in.

Mak pouts, resting his head on his arms sprawled over the table, puppy ears revealed again and flopping over his head. 

“The ears are sore from being compressed,” Maki complains, his left ear twitching slightly.

It’s unlikely anyone will come in unannounced, but Harua drags one of their unused chairs to prop against the door, just in case.

Yuma is still silently typing away on his laptop, not looking up until Harua prods, “So? Did you find anything?”

“Well, I found something-”

Maki perks up at this, eyes shining as he waits for Yuma to continue. 

“At first I wasn’t finding much…there was a lot of stuff about werewolves and,” Yuma shivers, “lots of fictional stories about weird wolf anatomy.”

“I ruled out the werewolf thing pretty quickly though,” Yuma explains, pointing to his fingers as he explains his reasoning for eliminating that thought, “Werewolves typically transform at night and only at the full moon, neither of which is the case for you.”

“Plus,” Harua interjects, “werewolves aren’t real.”

Yuma gives him an annoyed glance, “And twelve hours ago you probably thought it was impossible for Maki to have a tail so, I’m not ruling out anything purely on the basis of it not being ‘real’.”

“Okay, so not a werewolf,” Maki is shaking his leg again, “What else?”

“Looking for other people that magically grew dog ears and a tail wasn’t giving me much results,” Yuma explains, “So I started looking at other animals — rabbits, hamsters, cats…”

Yuma pauses for dramatic effect, glancing between the two of them waiting expectantly. 

“And?” Maki practically exclaims.

“Just read this,” Yuma turns his laptop towards them, the pair of them huddling together to read the block of text on Yuma’s screen. 

POST: Help my boyfriend is a cat

Hello, I'm not really sure how to start this. My boyfriend made me promise not to tell anyone about this, but I’m starting to get desperate and I’m hoping someone can help. Two weeks ago, my boyfriend had a dream that I was having sexual intercourse with him while wearing cat ears and a tail and then when he woke up the next morning he had actual cat ears and a tail. I’m not talking about a headband or a clip-on tail, like real ears and tail that move and are fully attached to his body. Not only that, but he’s started acting more like a cat too. He likes to lay on the ground and nap under the window and he purrs now when I pet him. At first it was kinda fun (he’s very cute as a cat) but now I’m worried he will never change back and it’s stressing him out that he can’t go out normally. We thought about going to a doctor but we’re both concerned about what will happen to him. Please, does anyone have any advice? Or has anyone experienced something similar? I’m willing to try anything. 

COMMENTS:

Wrong forum bro, you want /FurryRoleplay

Ha, I wish. I’m being dead serious.

When they finish reading, they both look up at Yuma.

“Sounds similar, right?”

Maki nods, but seems hesitant, “I didn't have any dream like that though.”

Harua takes the laptop, scrolling down in the comments to see if he can find anything else useful. 

Have you tried fucking the cat out of him?

Very funny. 

“Did you dream anything at all?” Yuma asks, eyes narrowed.

“I uh,” Maki shifts in his seat, “No, I don’t remember my dream at all.”

“So you could’ve dreamed something similar,” Yuma rationalizes, “you just don’t remember.”

“I don’t think so,” Maki replies, this time more firmly. 

“This was posted six months ago,” Harua comments, “Was there ever an update?”

Yuma shakes his head, “Not that I could find.”

“How do we know it’s not just someone trolling?” Maki adds, seeming more and more skeptical by the minute. 

“We don’t,” Yuma shrugs, “But it’s the best lead I have so far.”

Maki still seems unconvinced, but Harua is already opening a new tab.

“I’m going to message the user.”

Maki whips his head towards him, looking betrayed. 

“What?” Harua defends, “I’m just going to ask if they ever figured out how to reverse it, I promise I won’t give them your information.”

Scooting closer, Maki rests his head on Harua’s shoulder, watching as Harua quickly registers for a new account and pulls up the user’s profile to send a direct message.

Hello, sorry to bother you but my friend is in a similar situation. Did you ever figure out how to reverse it? Thanks in advance!

Maki snorts, “Aren’t you being overly-friendly?”

Harua smacks him on the forehead lightly, “I’m being nice so that they answer, you dumb dog.”

“Hey,” Maki says in annoyance, but snuggles closer into Harua’s neck.

Harua hits send with finality, both of them staring at the screen as they wait for response. 

“Now what?” Maki asks when only the cursor blinks back at them. 

“They haven’t been active on their account in months either,” Yuma points out, “So it might be a while until you get a response.”

Maki sighs, slamming the laptop shut when it’s clear staring at it won’t do much to help.

“That’s only one lead,” Yuma tries to console Maki, “We can keep looking into more stuff.”

The urge comes to Harua again, looking at Maki’s sad downturned ears, he wants to scratch behind the soft fur and see Maki’s look of content, but his hands stay firmly glued to his sides. 

“So what’s the plan now?” Maki asks, pout evident on his face even if Harua can’t see it fully. 

Yuma seems to hesitate before answering, a smile slowly spreading across his face, “We make sure to walk you two times a day. And you can get a treat every time you sit or stay. Maybe even two treats if you play dead.”

It’s funny to watch the emotions wash over Maki’s face. Downturned eyes in anger morphing into a matching grin of deviousness as his thoughts fully form.

“Do I get to pick what the treat is?” Maki wiggles his eyebrows suggestively. 

Harua whacks him on the back of his head instantly, “What the hell are you thinking about, you perv.”

“It would only be over the clothes stuff, I swear,” Maki answers jokingly, raising his hands in innocence. 

Harua smacks him again, this time with a little more force, and the result freezes them all in place. Maki whimpers, way too realistically, like a real dog being punished, Harua and Yuma staring at him in shock as soon as the noise leaves his mouth. 

“Holy shit,” Harua breathes out as the reality of everything sinks in, “you’re really a dog.”

Maki groans, slamming his head on the table and covering his flushed and embarrassed cheeks. 

“Yeah,” Yuma adds, “and he needs to be neutered as soon as possible.”

When Harua first met Maki, he didn’t really know what to think of him. 

It was freshman year, both of them fresh-faced and eager to impress, but Maki was different from anyone Harua had ever met. 

He had almost immediately taken a liking to Harua, staying glued to his side during orientation and through the first couple weeks of school, until one day Harua snapped. 

“Don’t you have any other friends to hang out with?”

Maki had truly looked like a dejected puppy, so sad and heartbroken that Harua immediately felt guilt pool at the bottom of his stomach.

“I just really wanted you to like me,” Maki had admitted softly and full of vulnerability. 

“I’m sorry,” Harua apologized quickly, pulling Maki into an awkward hug, “I’m not used to this.”

Maki had shook his head quickly in response, morphing Harua’s awkward embrace into a tight hold in his arms, “No, I’m sorry. I know I can come off too strong.”

Harua laughs lightly, “Yeah, you do, but you shouldn’t change that. Just give me some time to catch up.”

Maki pulls away quickly, agreeing easily, “Of course, whatever you need.”

Their relationship became easier after that. Maki let Harua take things a bit more slowly in their friendship, until it became clear that Maki had been right all along, that they were meant to be friends, that they were meant to stick together. 

But now — Harua almost wishes there was a little more distance between them. 

Maki is flopped over his lap on the couch in Nicholas and Euijoo’s shared apartment, full weight of his body slowly crushing his legs into numbness. 

After three days, the user still hasn’t messaged back, and Maki still has an extra pair of ears and a tail. 

He doesn’t want to say he’s used to it now — but it’s not surprising anymore when Maki bursts into their dorm room and yanks the hat off his head to reveal brown fur ears and his tail swinging behind him. 

He’s covered himself now in front of their other friends, but he knows if ran his hands over Maki’s knit hat he would be able to feel the bump of his new ears, another secret of Maki’s that he holds close to his chest. 

“Hear me out,” Taki gestures wildly as they all sit around the small coffee table in the living room, the surface covered in boxes of chicken and half-drunk beer cans. “We all drop out and start a pyramid scheme.”

Yuma looks disgruntled from his spot on the floor, “Do you even know what a pyramid scheme is?”

Taki looks offended, giving Yuma a glare, “Of course I do. Which is why you,” Taki points his chopsticks at Yuma in what Harua can only assume is supposed to be a threat, “will be at the bottom of my pyramid.”

“Oh, yeah? And who will be at the top? Just you?” Yuma challenges.

“Yeah. And Jo.”

Jo nods, although he seems to have been aware of his involvement until that moment. 

“What’re you selling in this pyramid scheme?” Nicholas muses, playing along with Taki. 

“Well,” Taki scratches the back of his neck, “I hadn’t gotten to that part yet.”

Yuma laughs triumphantly, Euijoo also unable to hide his smile behind his beer can. 

“Look, half of you are miserable in your major and the other half of you are stressed out about classes, so I was just looking for a viable alternative for everyone,” Taki explains. 

Harua looks down at Maki, waiting to see if the younger man reacts, but he just shifts in Harua’s lap, turning so he’s laying on his side. They haven’t spoken about Maki’s doubts about his current career path since the first time Maki brought it up, Harua too afraid to poke at the open wound, but it makes Harua wonder if this will be the last semester they share a major. 

It wasn’t a requirement to be in the same course of study to be friends. None of their other friends shared the same major, but it certainly made him and Maki closer, and he feels his palms grow sweaty at the thought of not having Maki there through the hardest parts.

Maki doesn’t share any of his doubts with the rest of their friends however, maintaining a cool front. 

“Don’t worry bro, I’ll become a doctor and you can live off of my wealth,” he reassures Taki. 

“You have to finish your degree first,” Euijoo adds, “I heard the final project for anatomy is brutal.”

“Nah, Harua will do all the work for me,” Maki smirks. 

Annoyed, Harua reaches under the back of Maki’s shirt, his hand wrapping around the base of Maki’s tail and yanking slightly. Maki yelps, the whole room turning at the noise, but it’s worth it when he sees Maki staring up at him in absolute betrayal.

“You, okay?” Nicholas asks, Maki rubbing his own back soothingly.

“Yeah, Harua just pinched me,” Maki replies in a small lie, Harua unable to hold back the grin as the rest of their friends turn back to their conversations. 

Maki sits up fully on the couch now so they’re face to face, Maki’s mouth twitching as he thinks of his next words. 

“You think you’re so funny, huh?”

Harua holds up his hands in mock innocence, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You always know exactly what you’re doing,” Maki retorts, face so close to his that he can see how the mole on Maki’s neck moves as he speaks. He’s not sure what Maki means, but it makes something stir in Harua’s stomach. Maki has his usual soft smile, but his gaze is dark, almost hungry. 

He’s noticed other small changes in Maki over the last couple days. Sniffing more along Harua’s collar. Eating faster and like he can never be satisfied. His skin running hot even under the cool of the AC. And this is another one of those things – his eyes flashing in a way that Harua can only describe as wolf-like, fierce and possessive. 

It only happens for a second though, Maki blinks and the moment passes, leaving only Harua to chase after the strange air around them, Maki turning to his name being called by Nicholas across the room. 

Harua feels the shortness of breath in his chest, inhaling deeply to try and regain his composure. 

Maki leaves completely, standing to cross the room to the kitchen with Nicholas, fully engrossed in their own conversation. He wonders if Maki wants to tell Nicholas about his current condition. It makes sense that Maki would tell him, they’re close and Harua is sure that Maki is stressed about the whole situation despite keeping an air of nonchalance. 

But something about Nicholas knowing, Maki confiding in someone other than him prickles something in his chest. 

He can’t see them in the kitchen but he can imagine the whole scene playing out — Maki taking off his hat and showing Nicholas, the look of astonishment on Nicholas’s face, the addition of another member in their little secret. 

They emerge with no sign of talking about something serious though, only more drinks clutched in their hands to pass around to their friends. 

Harua can’t help his own sigh of relief, but he still feels spiky all over. What was this emotion? He pokes fun at Maki’s dog-like instincts, but this feels like his own form of instinctual protection, scared of what will happen if Maki runs too far from view. 

The emotions on his face must be obvious, or at least they must be obvious to Maki, because after serving all their friends fresh cans of beer he locks in on Harua with eyebrows furrowing in concern. The younger boy kneels in front of Harua on the couch, hands reaching to grasp Harua’s knees gently. 

“Are you okay?” he asks simply, voice low so no one overhears. 

Harua shakes his head slowly, “I’m not feeling great, can we go home?”

Maki agrees quickly, “Sure.” He turns to tell everyone else about their departure, all of them giving them quick goodbyes. Yuma must sense the odd air around Harua too, because he doesn’t insist on coming with them, just gives them a small wave and a strange look. 

Their walk home is mostly silent, both of them with their hands shoved in their pockets as they cross campus to their dorm building under the streetlamps. There’s too many thoughts swirling in Harua’s mind, a dark cloud hovering over their head with each step they take. It’s not until they’re a few steps from their building that Harua finally manages to speak. 

“Have you decided if you’re gonna drop pre-med?”

The question seems to shock Maki, the boy freezing and scratching the back of his neck, looking sheepish, “Ah, well…I haven’t had time to give it much thought considering everything going on.”

Harua feels silly suddenly. Worried about losing Maki, worried about such trivial things, when all he should be focused on is how to help his friend. 

“Of course,” Harua keeps his eyes on his shoes, feeling too ashamed to make eye contact, “I shouldn’t have asked, you have much bigger things to worry about.”

Maki grips Harua’s arm suddenly, forcing Harua to move his gaze upward to Maki’s stricken face.

“No, no, it’s fine. I guess I should start thinking about it if this is the new normal.”

Would Maki be like this forever? Harua had gotten weirdly accustomed to it, even if it was strange, because under the dog ears and the tail and everything, it was still the same Maki. He would care about Maki even if he grew a second head or six arms or a mermaid tail. 

“Sorry for being grumpy,” Harua adds in a low huff, making Maki finally crack into his usual wide smile. 

“Is that why you were in a bad mood?” Maki laughs.

“Maybe that was part of it,” Harua admits, unsure how to explain to Maki the full weight of uncertainty he feels in his stomach. 

They’ve reached the door to Harua’s room, their cue to separate, but neither of them move, frozen staring at each other in the hallway. 

“Do you…do you want to come inside for a bit?” 

Maki nods rapidly, following closely on Harua’s heels as he unlocks the door and lets them both in. The door barely shuts before Maki is shedding his outer layers, now free to have his puppy features free again.

Harua tries to busy himself at first — turning on the tacky LED light strips Yuma installed across their ceiling, changing out of his hoodie into a soft t-shirt instead, cracking the window to let in a slight breeze — trying to ignore Maki spreading himself across Harua’s bed with tail swishing slowly across the sheets in contentment. 

“C’mere,” Maki calls when Harua runs out of mindless tasks to do, the puppy sitting up on the bed to make room for Harua and pat the spot next to him. 

Harua takes his place on the bed, both of them with their backs leaned against the wall and legs spread in front of them. Maki automatically rests his head against Harua, his furry ears slightly tickling the side of Harua’s neck. 

“Do you feel better now?” Maki asks, the silence afterwards drawing out as Harua considers. 

“One more question,” Harua grips his own pants, crinkling the fabric in his fingers, “Did you tell Nicholas about your uh…condition?

Maki looks even more confused, raising his head from Harua’s shoulder and looking at him funny. 

“No? Why would I tell Nicholas?”

“I dunno…” Harua trails off.

“I mean, I guess we could, it might be a good idea to-”

“No,” Harua cuts him off. 

Maki jumps slightly at Harua’s stern voice. It’s small but Maki must sense Harua’s anxiety, moving to gently remove Harua’s tight grip on his pants and replace it with his own hand instead. 

“Okay, I won’t tell him,” Maki submits easily. 

Harua nods, still struggling to explain himself properly, “I just feel like, this is something that’s just between us two, and I want it to be me to help you.”

He can’t miss the way Maki’s cheeks redden at the admission, the way his whole body seems to rise in temperature at Harua’s words. There’s no mention of Yuma, even if he knows the truth too, because Maki understands Harua’s meaning, even if it’s unclear to Harua himself. 

“Okay,” Maki reassures again, nuzzling his head back onto Harua’s shoulder, “just you and me.”

The words make something heat in Harua’s chest, warm and blooming, and Maki suddenly moves away again, inhaling sharply.

His eyes have that same hungry look that Harua caught a glimpse of earlier, now bright and unwavering. 

“But Harua,” Maki grips around Harua’s wrist, raising his hand to be flat against Maki’s chest, “Are you sure? If it’s just you…it might be hard to handle me all alone.” 

Under his palm, Harua can feel how rapidly Maki’s heart is beating, and it’s scary, but Harua nods anyway, trailing his gaze from how heavily Maki’s chest is moving upwards to Maki’s downturned eyes. 

Maki’s voice is breathless, “If I’m agreeing to only be yours, you’re agreeing to only be mine too.”

When Harua was a child, his family had a dog. He loved the small and fluffy animal, but it never was truly his. The dog was a family dog, not belonging to anyone fully. He never felt the need to be possessive of it, but with Maki — it feels like if his loyalty strayed too far away he might crumble to pieces. 

So he’s not sure what he’s agreeing to when he says “yes” softly and Maki beams and curls up on his bed to sleep without another word. But when Harua wakes up the next morning with Maki still tightly gripping his wrist, it feels right. 

Harua thought the biggest change that could happen would be when Maki barged into their dorm room that first day he woke up with his puppy ears. 

But this change — it feels more significant, like something fundamentally changed between them. 

Maki has always been touchy and clingy. But he always kept a certain amount of reservation with Harua, limiting their contact to touches that Maki knew Harua was comfortable with. Maki clinged more to people like Yuma who liked physical affection too, but now it’s like Maki can’t live without having some part of his body close to Harua. 

Everywhere they go Harua can feel it — a gentle hand on his lower back, soft fingers brushing the hair out of his face, coming in close to inhale Harua’s scent. A year ago, Harua would’ve squirmed away from the touch. Maybe it’s from prolonged exposure to Maki that now it doesn’t feel as strange, that now Harua has the urge to return the same gentle touches. 

If Yuma notices a change in their behavior, he doesn’t mention it, instead fully devoting what little free time he has to continue to research answers for Maki. 

Most of the paths Yuma wanders down seem outlandish, but as the days and weeks continue to pass, the options continue to dwindle

“Did you ever participate in animal testing?” Yuma asks, sitting on the ground of their room with his laptop perched on his lap.

They’re supposed to be getting ready to go out for Taki’s birthday, but Yuma is still in his pajamas, too engrossed in his current rabbit hole. 

Maki snorts, “Yeah, I have a secret side hustle where I experiment on animals.”

“It’s just a question,” Yuma defends, typing away rapidly. “Okay, what about this, have you ever been involved in any witchcraft? Specifically with animal bones?”

Maki stares deadpan at Yuma in disbelief, “Are you serious?”

“What?” Yuma frowns, “I have a friend who practices, there’s nothing wrong with it. Actually, maybe I should ask him about a certain ritual...”

“No, I’ve never been involved in witchcraft,” Maki answers, forcing Yuma to sigh in defeat. 

Maki is dressed nicely, ripped jeans and a fitted t-shirt, examining himself in the mirror as he styles his hair around his ears. 

“Fine,” Yuma slams his laptop shut, “I guess we’ll pause until tomorrow.”

Harua has been ready for awhile, sitting fully dressed in his desk chair as he waits for the other two to be done. They’ve been engrossed in their own conversation, Maki paying little mind to Harua, not even a glance, and Harua can feel his pettiness grow in his stomach the longer he’s ignored. 

It’s stupid, but after getting accustomed to Maki’s almost constant attention, it feels like he can’t help the pout that forms across his face. 

A heaviness plops itself on Harua’s shoulders, Harua startling to see Maki finally looking at him, and his leather jacket being placed down on Harua.

“Wear this,” Maki insists, smirking slightly.

Harua shrugs the jacket off quickly, “Nah, it doesn’t match my outfit.”

Maki frowns, but doesn’t say anything more because Yuma screeches when he realizes the time and starts shuffling them out of the room. 

The bar that they’re meeting the rest of their friends at is only a short walk away, but even at such a small distance, Harua feels his anger continue to grow in his chest. 

Maki and Yuma walk in front of him as they cross campus, Harua noticing Maki occasionally turning to see if Harua is still close behind them, but Harua refuses to make eye contact, keeping his eyes trained pointedly at the ground. 

He’s never been jealous of Maki having other friends. Maki was social and friendly, a practical magnet to attract all kinds of people, and it never bothered Harua. He had plenty of friends too, so it’s not like it mattered. He’s not even jealous of Yuma now, not even when Maki wraps his arm around Yuma’s shoulders as they walk. But maybe, just a little, Harua is jealous that Maki’s puppy love isn’t just for him. 

“Finally, you guys are here!” Taki greets them when they enter the still half-empty bar. Taki mirrors Maki by throwing his arm across Harua’s shoulders, and he can feel Maki’s gaze at the gesture but he still refuses to look at him. 

It’s a bit too early to be crowded, but Taki had insisted that the celebration for his birthday had to start as soon as possible, leaving their friend group to be some of the first customers in the early evening. 

“I’ll buy your first round,” Maki insists, finally detaching himself from Yuma to call over the bartender instead.

“So, what’s your birthday wish?” Harua turns to Taki to ask, but keeps a careful eye on Maki’s back as he waits for their drinks. 

“Why?” Taki wiggles his eyebrows suggestively, “Are you gonna make them come true?”

Harua rolls his eyes but indulges Taki anyways, “Depends on what it is.”

“In that case, a new car, a million dollars, and these new shoes I’ve been eyeing.”

Yuma grunts, “You know if you say your wish, it’ll never come true.”

Taki smiles, barking with laughter before he can even make his own joke, “Then, I wish that Yuma would finally get a girlfriend.”

Yuma's eyes instantly narrow, reaching to roughly punch Taki on the shoulder, making the boy stumble backwards.

“Hey, hey, no bar fights yet,” Maki interrupts, “It’s not even 10pm yet.”

Maki passes each of them a drink, Maki’s fingers slightly brushing his when the cup is exchanged between them, causing Harua to yank back his hand quickly and spill a bit of his drink on the back of his hand. 

He’s sure that Maki must sense the awkward air around them. Even before the whole dog thing happened, Maki was sharply in-tune with other people’s emotions, able to notice the smallest changes of behaviors and sometimes even spiraling into anxiety when he became convinced someone hated him because of a slight difference in someone’s demeanor. 

It’s why even though Harua wants to maintain his little tantrum against Maki, he can’t help but take the napkin that is wordlessly handed to him by the younger boy. It was impossible to stay mad at Maki, despite Harua holding a grudge for much less. It was different with Maki, like always, but now magnified tenfold under their new agreement of belonging. 

Nicholas and Euijoo show up next, Taki now distracted by greeting them instead. The pair enter with Nicholas’s hands clinging on to Euijoo’s arm, both of their faces flushed and happy, like they’re both drunk even though it’s clear they’re still sober. 

Harua gives a knowing look to Yuma, who merely shrugs in response. He’s not really sure why Nicholas and Euijoo chose to hide their relationship when it was so glaringly obvious, but who was he to judge? Maki and him shared a much bigger secret and so he understood to an extent about the sanctity of keeping things private. 

“Harua?”

The voice comes from behind, their whole group turning towards him.

“Hi,” Harua greets warmly, wracking his mind to remember the guy standing in front of them. 

“What’re you doing here?” the guy asks, seemingly unaware of Harua’s lack of recognition. 

“Oh, it’s my friend’s birthday,” he gestures towards Taki, who waves politely before breaking off into a separate conversation with Euijoo and Yuma. 

Ah. Harua finally remembers, he worked on a group project with the guy a couple of semesters ago, his name still escaping him and now he’s too embarrassed to ask. 

“Why’re you here?” Harua turns the question back on him, trying to remain polite. 

He can feel Maki’s gaze burning into the back of his head. Maybe he should turn and introduce them, but he can’t help to feel a little glow of satisfaction of finally having Maki’s full attention. 

“Just bored,” the guy shrugs noncommittally. “But hey, they have one of those old-school dart boards, do you want to play a game?”

“Sure, sounds fun,” he agrees easily, purposefully not turning to tell Maki where he’s going as they cross the bar to where they have a couple of dart boards. 

He should probably feel a little bad that this nameless guy is attempting to make small talk as they take turns throwing darts but that Harua’s mind is elsewhere. It doesn’t really matter what they’re talking about or even who the guy is, all Harua can think about is keeping Maki’s reaction in his periphery. 

He’s so lost in thought that it takes him a little while to realize that perhaps the guy was flirting slightly. The guy places his hand on Harua’s shoulder tentatively, saying something through downturned eyes that Harua can barely process.

“What?” Harua asks, taking another sip of his drink quickly when he feels the guy squeeze his shoulder slightly.

Harua can feel Maki’s glare from across the room. It would be impossible not to, it was like he was shooting blazes of fire in their direction, so scorching he can feel the heat of it even from a distance. 

“I asked if you’re cold?” the guy repeats, “You’ve been shivering.”

Was he? Even if he wasn’t, this was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up on. 

“Oh, yeah, I guess I am.”

“Here,” the guy replies instantly, shedding his own jacket and placing it on Harua’s shoulders.

Harua smiles to himself, rolls the dart between his fingers before throwing it and hitting his first bullseye. 

The guy cheers for him and they exchange high-fives, Harua taking a deep breath before he finally turns. 

It’s been hours since he’s looked Maki in the eyes. But he’s pulled to it now, rotating his head slowly until they meet and lock. He feels his throat tighten and the grip on his drink falter. He can’t look away now, like he’s entranced watching Maki’s emotions wax and wane across his face. 

With Harua’s attention finally on him, it’s like Maki has finally been given the command of permission, crossing across the room in three quick strides. 

He’s never seen Maki this angry. And even so, his anger is wrapped in a tight smile, only visible if you know what Maki looks like usually. 

“Can I borrow Harua for a sec?” Maki asks, but it’s clearly not a question, because he’s dragging Harua away before he can even hear the answer. 

He can only see the back of Maki’s head as he’s led to the back hallway of the bar, the grip on his wrist tight and almost bruising. 

“Maki?” Harua calls softly. 

Maki’s back tenses at the call of his name. It happens quickly — Maki spins around, eyes blazing and on fire, and he’s pinning and trapping Harua before he can react, hands bracing on either side of Harua’s head against the wall, with his own head bowed so he can look at Harua right in the eye. 

Maki is breathing heavily, his chest rising and falling with every word. 

“You smell like him.” He’s practically snarling, teeth bared and lips pulled tight.

“What-”

Maki cuts him off, coming in close to press his nose against the underside of Harua’s jaw, “Please, let me…please, Harua.”

He’s not sure what Maki is asking for but he nods anyway, feeling his heart pound in his chest as he watches Maki’s anger slowly fade away into something else.

They’re not kissing or even hugging, but it feels weirdly intimate, Maki nestling into his space with careful and deliberate determination. He rubs his face against Harua’s neck first, then against his cheek, switching to the other side and doing the same.

Maki has always been bigger than Harua, but he feels huge like this, whole body pressed against him, trapped between Maki’s large frame and the wall. His hands trail up Harua’s arms, breaching under the jacket on his shoulders and pushing until the clothing falls off his frame into a puddle beneath their feet. 

“Maki,” Harua calls again more sternly, this time Maki visibly shivering.

His head is cradled into Harua’s neck as he speaks, breath soft against his skin, “I’m sorry.”

It’s Harua’s turn to move now, wrapping his arms around Maki’s middle, hugging around his waist to keep him close. 

“Why’re you sorry?”

“Because,” Maki huffs, “I dunno, I should learn to control myself better.”

The dark, twisted part of Harua wants him to lose control more. But he keeps those selfish thoughts to himself, working to console Maki instead. 

“Did it make you upset?” Harua asks, slowly stroking his fingers up Maki’s spine until the boy completely melts into him, full body weight pressed into Harua. He sniffs up Harua’s neck again, this time an audible sigh of relief when he must smell satisfactory. 

“I know you can’t smell it, but just know that his scent smelled terrible mixed with yours.”

“Even worse than when I’m sweaty from working out?” Harua teases, petting the hair on Maki’s nape, careful to not push his beanie out of place.

Maki nods into his collarbone.

“Even worse than when I wore Taki’s hoodie that I know he hasn’t washed in months?”

Maki nods again. 

“Even worse than when Yuma got super drunk and puked on my pants?"

Maki pulls back, fully looking at Harua in the eyes with a pout.

“Now you’re just teasing me.”

Harua laughs, happy to see Maki’s dark gaze has shifted back to normal.

“I’m just trying to understand,” Harua explains, getting a little bolder and pawing under Maki’s hat to scratch under his ears carefully before retreating again.

“This wouldn’t have happened if you had just worn my jacket like I told you.”

Harua bristles at the comment, eyes narrowing, “Well, I would’ve if you were paying attention to me.”

It’s almost funny to watch the puzzle pieces fully click together in Maki’s mind, his pout turning into a teasing smile when he realizes.

“Oh? What do you mean?”

Harua turns away embarrassed, trying to pull away but Maki tugs him back into place and nuzzles against his neck again, inhaling deeply.

It’s easier to admit when he’s not looking Maki right in the eye, at least.

“When you came over today you didn’t even acknowledge me, you were just talking with Yuma the whole time,” Harua mumbles. He can feel Maki’s smile against the side of his neck, happy and flushed with his skin burning warm under Harua’s fingers. He’s sure that if Maki’s tail was out right now it would be wagging. 

“Were you…jealous?” It’s so quick that Harua thinks he must be imagining it, but for a second he feels something wet against his skin, like Maki darted his tongue over the flesh before lapping it back up quickly. 

“No,” Harua insists, even though they both know he was lying. 

“Hm,” Maki hums, moving his hands to pin Harua’s shoulders against the wall and raising his head until they’re forehead to forehead. “Well, I’ll tell you that I was jealous,” Maki admits easily, no reservations about the confession. He wonders if Maki can feel Harua’s pulse rushing rapidly, or if maybe his scent shifts in unwavering want, but Maki only swallows deeply before continuing. “I don’t want you to talk to him anymore. Only talk to me and our friends. And don’t even touch that jacket. I’ll give it back to him.”

This close, he can see every eyelash that frames Maki’s eyes, can feel every exhale of Maki’s breath, can taste the sweetness of Maki’s words. 

Harua nods slowly, their noses brushing slightly at the movement. 

“Good,” Maki comments, and they finally detach themselves from each other, the mere inches of space between them almost instantly feeling too much. 

He wants to kiss Maki. 

It’s the first time he’s ever thought about it, but it immediately bubbles up into his head and sticks. Maki is thorough in everything he does, gentle but firm in how he touches Harua, and he’s sure that kissing him would be no different. 

Maki scoops up the discarded jacket on the ground though, holding it between pinched fingers like it’s a toxic substance, giving Harua one more pointed look before retreating to return the jacket. And Harua stays leaning against the wall, alone now and sliding down the brick exterior until he can bury his face in his hands and try to banish the racing thoughts in his head and subside the redness in his cheeks. 

It’s easy to push thoughts of kissing and Maki’s sniffing along his neck with finals and still no solution for Maki’s problem looming overhead. 

They’ve been practically living in their favorite study room, only returning to their dorm to shower and change clothes and maybe get a few hours of rest if they’re lucky. 

“Wrong again,” Yuma tells Maki, but Yuma looks a little too happy about being able to torture them.

Maki groans, slamming his forehead against the table, “Just kill me now.”

Yuma glances at Harua, “Will you go for the steal?”

Yuma was quizzing both of them, Maki and Harua competing to see who could get more questions right, but it was starting to get a bit sad as the distance between their points continued to grow larger and larger.

“Um,” Harua hesitates, glancing at Maki who was now hiding his head in his arms. 

With their study room firmly locked, Maki was able to have his tail and ears uncovered while they studied, but Harua almost wishes they could be put away as he watches how sadly Maki’s tail sags under his chair. 

“There are no d orbitals in the valence shell of carbon,” Harua answers with a small sigh. 

“Correct again!” Yuma declares, poking the top of Maki’s head. 

Maki pops his face up, giving his best glare at Yuma.

“What?” Yuma defends, “It’s not my fault you got it wrong.”

“Yeah, but you don’t have to be so happy about my miserable failure,” Maki frowns.

“It’s okay,” Harua tries to comfort him, patting the top of his head lightly, Maki’s tail instantly perking up at the small touch. 

Maki turns to face him, giving him his best pleading eyes, “Can you help me go through the study guide again?”

Harua agrees easily, cracking open his laptop so they can look at it together. 

Yuma leaves soon after to try and get a bit of sleep, leaving the two of them to try and trudge through the study materials for what feels like the hundredth time. 

“Ugh,” Maki complains when the same practice problem trips him up again. 

“Look,” Harua scoots closer, grabbing the notebook from Maki’s hand so he can write the Lewis structures and explain it again. 

Maybe Harua doesn’t have as keen of a sense of smell as Maki, but he can still smell Maki’s distinct scent in the small space. He wears cologne and uses a floral laundry detergent, but there’s also a scent that’s distinctly Maki, fresh and clean that seems to embed into every pore of his skin. 

Maki leans in closer to watch Harua write, cheek pressing into Harua’s shoulder as he continues to explain the problem. 

“Hey, are you even paying attention?” Harua scolds, noticing that Maki’s attention seems to be focused on sniffing the air around Harua rather than on Harua’s explanation. 

“Hm?” Maki looks up, uncaring that he was caught in the act. “I think I need a little break,” Maki admits, moving away to lean his elbow on the table and placing his head on palm to rest. “I can’t focus if I’m too tired.”

They haven’t really addressed what happened at Taki’s birthday. Harua isn’t really sure if there even is anything to address about it. It was Harua who had gotten lost in the moment, unable to express what he was feeling, while Maki had spoken everything on his mind. It was Harua that was reading too much into it. 

“Fine,” Harua releases him, but doesn’t scoot away from his space, just turns to study on his own while Maki rests. 

At first it’s easy, Harua focuses on his own laptop while Maki slumps over and scrolls through his phone. 

Maki is always fidgety, like if he doesn’t change positions every three seconds he will burst out of his skin. But he seems even worse now, huffing and changing positions, chair creaking and table wobbling with every movement. It’s distracting to say the least, as the problems on the screen seem to blur and Harua has to read it three times to even process it.

“Hey, can you calm down?” Harua laughs when Maki almost falls out of his chair at his constant shuffling. 

“I can’t,” Maki sighs, “I just keep thinking about how I’m definitely gonna bomb this test and then I’ll fail the whole semester.”

“Don’t think like that,” Harua insists, “You’ll make it if you just study a little more.”

“Yeah,” Maki agrees half-heartedly, but Harua can tell it’s bothering him.

“Here,” Harua guides Maki to fully rest head on his arms, keeping him in place by the back of his neck to stop his nervous fidgeting. “You need to calm down first, and then we can figure out a study plan, okay?”

Maki nods slowly, the movement sliding Harua’s hand to tangle into Maki’s hair. It’s instinctual or maybe Harua knows Maki well enough to know it’ll work to calm Maki down. But his fingers skirt upwards until they’re poised behind one of Maki’s puppy ears. 

He hasn’t really touched Maki’s dog ears since that first day, not fully. So the touch is hesitant at first, Harua trying to make the touch seem casual when he hears Maki’s sharp intake of breath and his ear starts twitching at being handled. He keeps one hand in Maki’s hair, but shifts his attention to his laptop again, even if he knows focus is probably impossible now. 

He starts with gentle strokes on the soft fur, getting a little more bold and scratching behind the ear when Maki unconsciously presses his head closer for more touches. 

Maki’s tail wags happily as Harua continues to scratch against his scalp, but it’s working, Maki finally stilling and eyes sliding shut to rest. Harua moves his fingers to the other ear, petting along it more confidently now. 

It’s oddly calming for Harua too, the feeling of his finger petting along soft fur and the knowledge that Maki is feeling a bit better. He continues to pet absentmindedly, able to return back to studying more easily than he thought. 

He can tell that Maki is drifting in and out of sleep. His tail will slow until it completely stops, his breaths becoming deeper and longer, but he never fully falls asleep, returning back into consciousness with his tail swishing back to life, like he’s making sure that Harua’s touch hasn’t left before drifting off again.

Harua is absorbed in one of the harder practice questions, hand slipping until he realizes that he had begun petting behind Maki’s actual ear, his human one. He stops petting for a second. Wouldn’t Maki only like being pet on his puppy ears because of his dog instincts? But he doesn’t seem to dislike it, because his tail continues to wag without stopping, only pausing when Harua pauses for a second too. 

He keeps going, using his knuckle to stroke along the shell of Maki’s ear. 

It’s small at first, the sound escaping Maki’s mouth. But then it’s louder, Maki whimpering fully and unabashedly at Harua’s touch. 

Harua rips his gaze away from his laptop, turning at the sound. Maki doesn’t move. Eyes still screwed shut and cheeks a bright pink and mouth slightly parted. Harua watches carefully at how his fingers brush against Maki’s real ear and how Maki gives him a pretty noise in return.

“Harua,” Maki gasps. His tail has stopped moving now, curling on to Harua’s lap instead.

“Hm?” Harua questions, pressing his palm flat against the back of Maki’s head and only using his thumb to stroke along the soft skin behind Maki’s ear. 

Something shifts suddenly. Maki freezes, his whole body tensing and his eyes flying open so fast that Harua pulls his hand back in shock. Maki becomes a whirlwind of movement, shoving his beanie back on his head, tucking his tail back into his hoodie and scooping all of his stuff in his backpack messily. 

“I gotta go!” Maki says hastily, running out of the room before Harua can even respond, hand hanging in midair like Maki will somehow reappear.

“What the hell just happened?” Harua asks himself, but Maki’s odd behavior can only linger in his mind for a second before he’s pulled back into studying. 

Maki is acting extra weird.

Which — is pretty normal for him, but it’s weirdness in a way that Harua can’t help to notice.

After the day he runs out of the library, it seems like Maki is avoiding him as much as possible. Typically, Harua would be more upset about Maki purposefully staying away from him. But it’s confusing more than anything. Maki isn’t mad or angry or jealous — he’s skittish around Harua, like being too close to him will make him evaporate. 

Maki slips into class at the last second, sprints out of the door at the end of class before Harua can even get a word in, and only hearts the Instagram reels he sends him instead of sending a long string of laughing emojis. 

It’s not total ice cold ignoring, but like he’s scared of Harua.

The more Maki avoids him and acts strange, the more thoughts of Maki fill his mind. Is he doing okay? Was he actually mad at him? Was there someone else?

Their relationship used to be so easy, but it feels so volatile now, like one misstep causes them both to spiral into chaos. 

He misses Maki’s scent. 

“Hey,” Yuma nudged him in the side, interrupting his thoughts, “Which one are you getting?”

“Uh,” Harua opens the refrigerator door hastily, picking a drink at random, “This one.”

Yuma eyes the drink suspiciously, taking it from Harua’s hand, “Okay, go get some snacks too.”

They’re on a short break from studying, the small convenience store nearly empty at the late hour. Harua wanders down the snack aisle, grabbing a few bags of chips and sweets before something else catches his eye. 

It’s just a small section for pets — canned food, a few treats, some bowls for water and food. But the matching collar and leash set is what propels him forward. It’s a basic set, nothing fancy, but Harua immediately imagines what Maki would look like wearing it. 

He picks it off the shelf carefully examining it in his hand. It’s a black leather material, something that would match Maki perfectly. Should he be imagining his best friend in a leash and collar? Thinking about how nice and secure it would be to know he could pull Maki behind him wherever he goes?

He pushes all thoughts out of his mind, marching up to the counter with the set as well as their snacks, and dumping everything on the counter. 

Yuma looks at the leash and collar with confusion etched onto his face, looking between the set and Harua’s face. 

“What is that for?”

“For Maki,” Harua replies instantly. 

Yuma’s face scrunches in disgust, but he keeps quiet, probably knowing that if he said the comment that he wanted to that the cashier would figure out that ‘Maki’ was their human friend and not a family dog.

As they exit the convenience store, Harua shoves the leash and collar into his own bag, and Yuma sighs deeply. 

“I think if we don’t figure out what to do with Maki soon, we should take him to a doctor.”

The statement shocks Harua. This is Yuma, who would rather die than admit defeat, but it had been months now with no leads about Maki’s condition, enough to even wear down someone like Yuma. 

“You think he won’t change back?”

He’s gotten weirdly used to Maki now, he even sort of liked some of these new parts of Maki. How his tail wagged when he was excited. How you could tell he was annoyed when his ears twitched a certain way. How much more affectionate he is with Harua now. But he knows he can’t expect Maki to stay like this forever, even if selfishly he hopes things don’t change too much. 

Yuma shrugs, “I’ve run out of ideas and leads. I don’t think we have a choice.”

Harua knows Yuma is right. That even if he has gotten accustomed to it, they need to figure out a solution soon or else they would need to get professionals involved. Harua shivers at the thought of scientists poking and prodding at him like a specimen, how his ears would flop over his head and his tail would droop in discomfort.

“Let’s give it our best until the end of the semester,” Harua replies, “and then if we still haven’t changed him back, we get help.”

Yuma nods in agreement, turning and narrowing his eyes at Harua next, “You’ve been acting even weirder than Maki, you know. What’s up with you?”

“What do you mean?”

Harua licks his lips, trying to piece together in his head how to explain it to Yuma.

Yuma gestures to the newly acquired leash and collar now hidden in Harua’s bag, “You’re acting even more feral than him.”

Harua forces out a laugh, “Maybe his dog instincts are rubbing off on me.”

Yuma shakes his head, “It’s not that.”

“I think finals is just stressing me out,” Harua deflects.

Harua knows he hasn’t been acting normal. But in his defense, nothing felt normal anymore, like his whole world had been turned upside down. 

“Sure, buddy,” Yuma replies unconvinced, “Oh, speaking of the devil.”

Maki is wearing his usual beanie and hoodie, hands shoved in his pockets and unaware of Harua and Yuma approaching from behind. With Maki avoiding him for the last few days, it feels like a welcome relief to see the boy with his head drooped and shuffling his feet as he enters their dorm building. He’s not going to let him get away this easily now. 

“Hey!” Harua yells, running to catch up to him and grabbing him by the arm before he can escape.

Maki looks like a deer caught in headlights, realizing he’s been caught with no place to run. 

“Why have you been avoiding me?” Harua grills him, the younger boy darting his eyes in every direction except Harua’s face. 

Yuma catches up to them then, Maki looking even more stricken with Yuma’s accusing eyes on him as well.

Harua huffs, turning to Yuma, “Can you give us a second alone? I need to talk some sense into him.”

Yuma nods, waving them off to allow Harua to drag Maki up to their dorm room. 

“Ow!” Maki protests when the door shuts behind them and Harua whacks him on the arm. 

“Stop avoiding me and use your words, you dumb dog.”

Maki is still acting strange. Usually, as soon as he enters Harua and Yuma’s room he’s whipping off his beanie to decompress ears, curling up onto one of their beds like he owns the place. But now he stays stoically still, leaving Harua to stare at him in apprehension. 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, okay?” Maki sighs, “I’ll stop avoiding you.” His body sags in defeat, like he’s lost a game of hide and seek that Harua had won.

“Good.” Harua can’t stay mad at Maki for long, just satisfied that whatever odd phase Maki was going through was over now. “And why are you hiding now, hm?” Harua comments, pulling the beanie off of Maki’s head. 

Maki still looks sad, and so it feels like an instinct now for Harua to raise his hand and give Maki a gentle scratch behind his ears. His hand is halfway there when Maki notices, his whole body tensing and grabbing Harua’s hand from mid-air.

“You can’t,” Maki huffs in exasperation, “you can’t pet my ears like that anymore.”

Harua shrinks back, like he’s been burned, pulling his wrist from Maki’s grasp. He knew that Maki had reacted strangely, but he didn’t expect him to reject Harua’s touch like that. 

“Oh. I’m sorry, I didn’t know it made you uncomfortable.”

Maki shakes his head quickly, “It’s not that I’m uncomfortable, or maybe I am a bit but…” Maki flushes in embarrassment, ruffling the hair on the back of his head. “I dunno if it’s because of the whole dog thing or what, but when you were petting me at the library…I got uh…turned on.”

It’s not the most unexpected thing Maki could say. But it still feels like a shock to Harua’s system, the realization of why Maki had been even more odd than usual.

“Ah, I see…” Harua replies lamely, still trying to process this new information. He runs through the memory quickly, how Maki had froze and ran out of the room. Had his pants been a bit tighter? Harua can’t remember anymore, but Maki’s confession makes it clear that Harua’s touches had affected him more than he thought. “I’m still sorry, though, I should’ve asked before doing that.”

“It's okay,” Maki’s hands are fidgeting at his sides, like he wants to touch Harua but he’s not sure if it’s okay anymore with all these complications between them. “I mean, I really liked it when you were doing it, I just—” Maki tries to laugh through the awkwardness, “It’s not really ideal to get a boner in public.”

Harua snorts out a laugh too, wanting to ask for more about what Maki was feeling in that moment, but keeping quiet to not embarrass Maki any further. 

We’re not in public now, is what he wants to say. It’s just the two of them in Harua’s dorm room, no reason to be embarrassed or to hide. 

Maybe Harua should be more weirded out by Maki’s admission of arousal. He thinks that if it was anyone else admitting that his touch turned them on he would be grossed out, but Maki is always so earnest in his feelings that he can only feel affection. 

“I’ll be more careful from now on,” Harua reassures, giving him a gentle pat on the shoulder instead of his head. “Is that really why you were avoiding me?”

Maki nods, “I was worried it was going to happen again.”

Harua laughs again, smirking in realization, “So, what did you do about it?”

“Hey,” Maki pushes Harua on the shoulder, “Don’t be mean.”

Even if it's embarrassing, Harua can tell that Maki feels better at the confession, like keeping a secret from Harua had been physically hurting him, moving to flop down on Harua’s desk chair and relax fully.

Maybe Harua should admit his own secrets too. How much he’s been thinking about Maki. The way he imagines what it would be like to kiss him. The collar and leash hidden away in his backpack. But he keeps it all under lock and key. 

“What? I was genuinely curious.”

Maki rolls his eyes like the answer is obvious, “You know, I took care of the problem.”

It’s now Harua’s turn to flush in embarrassment. It’s almost instantaneous how quickly the image conjures in his mind, how Maki would look touching himself, desperately trying to get off before being caught. Getting off because of Harua touching him.

Harua turns away from Maki before he notices how red his cheeks are.

“Yeah, I guess that was your only choice.” Harua tries to keep his voice calm, but even he can hear how stringy and high pitched he sounds.

“But that’s why I’m trying to avoid that ever happening again.”

Harua nods with his back still turned. He wants it to happen again, even if it’s scary. Would it be his turn to run away now? But he’s able to calm down his racing heart, turning to Maki with a slight smile on his face. 

“Avoid that all you want. Just don’t avoid me.”

The barbecue restaurant they meet up the week before finals is packed. Their friend group all squishes into a small table, all of them a little more quiet than usual with the stress hanging over their heads, the group deciding this to be their last hurrah before getting annihilated. 

Harua had come together with Maki, the two of them sliding into their seats together, greeting the rest of their friends as Maki’s hand discretely roved over Harua’s thigh and stayed. 

He’ll have to wash his clothes after this. The smell of meat will cling to the fabric and he knows it’ll bother Maki, so sensitive now and needing the fresh and clean smell of Harua’s laundry detergent.

“Do not let Yuma grill the meat this time,” Nicholas says sharply when he notices Yuma reaching for the tongs. 

“The hell does that mean?” Yuma replies sharply. 

“You burned half of it last time,” Nicholas defends, turning to the rest of them for backup. It was true, but it was too funny to see Yuma’s disgruntled pout. 

“I’ll do it,” Jo cuts in, grabbing the tongs from Yuma and beginning to place their meat on the grill. 

“Yuma is only experienced with other kinds of meat,” Taki adds innocently but they all burst into laughter. 

Taki hands Yuma a fresh beer as a sheepish apology, but Yuma still glares as he takes it from Taki’s hand. Their conversation devolves quickly after that, all of them talking over each other and the noise of the restaurant, still able to joke even with all their anxieties. 

Jo deftly cooks the meat, distributing the food evenly, but Harua is the only one who notices how little Maki is eating. 

“Here,” Harua moves quickly, grabbing a pile of meat from the grill and placing it on Maki’s plate. He knows how big Maki’s appetite is now, eating like he’s never satisfied, so Harua takes it upon himself to make sure Maki’s plate is never empty, flipping, cutting, and grilling the meat as fast as he can.

He’s so engrossed in cooking for Maki that he startles when Maki suddenly grabs him by the chin and turns Harua’s head to face him.

“You eat too,” Maki says, using his chopsticks to raise a bite to Harua’s mouth.

He takes the beef into his mouth slowly, Maki’s fingers still on his chin, sucks around the ends of the chopsticks for a moment before releasing them. Harua doesn’t know why the air feels so heated, like his whole body is on fire and burning, but he has a feeling it has something to do with how scalding Maki’s unwavering gaze is on him.

When they pull apart, Harua realizes they’re being watched. Euijoo and Nicholas share a look, a quick glance with smirks slightly etched on their  faces, and it’s too familiar. 

“Hey, what was that?” Harua draws attention to the strange look being passed between the couple.

It takes a second for Harua to realize why it feels so familiar but then it dawns on him. It’s the exact same look Harua shares with Yuma when Nicholas and Euijoo are acting overly coupley.

“What was what?” Euijoo feigns innocence, staring at Harua wide-eyed.

“That face you both just made, what was that?”

They share the look between them again, aggravating Harua even further.

“That!” he shouts, pointing and jumping up from his chair.

Nicholas laughs, “Oh, it’s nothing.” But clearly it was something.

Maki circles a hand around his wrist, pulling Harua back down into his seat.

“It’s fine,” Maki says comfortingly, like he’s somehow in on the joke, but his hand slowly slips into Harua’s and intertwines, effectively calming Harua.

“You guys have been extra close lately, haven’t you?” Nicholas teases.

Yuma grunts, “They’ve always been like that.”

“I dunno what you’re talking about,” Harua gives in a weak defense, trying to scoop rice with his non-dominant hand now that his other is being occupied by Maki.

“Kitten, look,” Euijoo says suddenly. He’s pointing at a small cat crossing in front of the outside window, curling up right next to where they were sitting.

But the odd thing is that Nicholas responds instead of looking, letting out a small “what?” like his name had been called. It wouldn’t have been obvious except that he instantly flushes in embarrassment and he tries to deflect it in a burst of words.

“I mean, yes…what a cute kitten.”

“Did you just respond to being called, kitten?” Taki asks in absolute bewilderment. All eyes are on Nicholas as he fidgets in his chair.

“No,” he replies quickly, glancing at Euijoo for help and swiftly kicking him under the table.

“You must be hearing things,” Euijoo defends half-heartedly, clearly not bothered by Nicholas’s embarrassment. Euijoo loved Nicholas more than anyone, but he also loved teasing Nicholas the most. 

“You definitely did, bro,” Maki chimes in, laughing when Nicholas frowns and his brows stitch together. 

“He is kinda cat-like,” Harua adds, smiling as Nicholas grows more and more annoyed at their taunts.

“Isn’t he?” Euijoo is grinning from ear to ear, reaching over to tickle Nicholas under the chin with his fingers, Nicholas angrily batting his hand away.

“I did see him play with a ball of yarn once,” Jo cuts in quietly, making all of them devolve into more giggles.

“Hey, Jo,” Nicholas points his chopsticks at him in a vague threat, “do you wanna die?”

Jo smiles at him, shrugging and changing the topic to asking about Yuma’s plans for break, no one else noticing that Euijoo leans over and whispers something in Nicholas’s ear that makes him tense and glare at him again.

A few months ago he would’ve thought it was impossible, but now knowing everything he does, Harua can’t help but wonder. Nicholas has been wearing a beanie for the last couple of days. He leans his head on Euijoo’s shoulder and bares his teeth in an almost hiss. Harua can practically see the feline tail wrapping around Euijoo’s arm and the kitty ears that could be hidden underneath.

“You’re staring,” Maki comments, squeezing his hand slightly and bringing him back to reality.

Harua lowers his voice, coming in close to Maki’s ear, “Do you think…” Harua trails off. He shakes the thought off. No, it was impossible, improbable even.

“What?” Maki asks.

“Do you think you would reply to being called puppy like that?” Harua teases instead.

“Hey, not so loud,” Maki hisses, covering Harua’s mouth with his hand, even though no one was paying attention to their hushed conversation.

“C’mon,” Harua laughs, “I know you would.”

Maki hesitates before responding. “Only if you call me that,” he replies too honestly, “I wouldn’t like it if anyone else called me puppy.”

“Why not?” Harua pushes for more, feeling his own palm growing sweaty but Maki doesn’t seem to mind at all as their hands grow clammy clasped together. “That is what you are, hm?”

Maki shakes his head, “Only you. And not here.”

“Okay, puppy,” Harua blatantly disregards Maki’s wishes, smiling wider when Maki groans and hides in his chest.

When Harua gets a notification on his phone, he almost doesn’t believe it. 

It’s been months now, so long that Harua didn’t think they would ever get a response. 

Maki is sitting on Harua’s bed, fully engrossed in studying his chemistry notes, Harua taking a deep breath before shoving the phone into Maki’s hands.

“Maki, look,” Harua feels strange, Maki looking worried before accepting the phone from Harua. His eyes instantly widen in shock, slowly reading what Harua just saw.

Hey, sorry for the late reply, I totally forgot about this account. I hope it’s not too late, but we did figure out how to change him back. Oddly, some of the comments were kinda right…we did have um sexual intercourse and it reversed the problem. No more cat ears or tail. I’m not sure if you’re just trolling too but, if your friend is in a similar situation, you have to remember what your friend dreamed about right before and who was in the dream, because I think that’s what fixed it. We basically recreated what my boyfriend dreamed but I think more importantly it was with me in particular because that’s who he dreamed of. I dunno how to explain it exactly, but I had started to develop like certain unexplainable instincts too, like I was somehow connected to all of this. So your friend needs to identify who that person is for him too and well…you know. I hope this helps. (Or if you’re pranking me, I hope you die.) Also, just as a warning, this is not a permanent fix. My boyfriend will have dreams like that every once in a while and it will happen again. Although, it’s not as scary now that we know how to reverse it. Anyways, good luck to your friend.

Maki looks shaken after reading it fully, turning to Harua in expectation. 

“Do you really think,” Maki wrings his hands together nervously, “that this will reverse it?”

Harua shrugs, but feels equally as nervous. What if the person Maki was connected to wasn’t him?

“Okay, I have something to admit,” Maki says slowly, “I do remember my dream right before I changed…”

Harua feels the lump grow in his throat. He doesn’t know if he wants to hear this, maybe he should run before it’s too late. 

“...But it wasn’t like that.”

Harua whips his head towards Maki, feeling even more unsure, his heart beating so rapidly he swears he might burst. 

“What is it? Just tell me,” Harua feels his fists clenching at his side, his body burning hot all over. 

“Okay, okay,” Maki is sheepish, unable to look Harua in the eye, “I dreamed of…you.” Harua can’t breathe still, feels his throat constricting as Maki continues. “It wasn’t sexual or anything, and I didn’t have ears or a tail. We were just walking, holding hands, but I could tell how much you cared about me.” Maki’s cheeks are flushed a bright red, “And the thing is, I have dreams like that a lot, so I didn’t think it was important to tell.”

Harua can’t help the laugh that bubbles out of his mouth, so relieved that he can’t help but laugh, soft and teasing as he reaches to cup Maki’s face in his hands to force him to look at him.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Harua shakes his head, unable to scrub the smile from his face.

“I told you, I didn’t think it was that important.”

Maki is pouting so cutely, and Harua can’t resist it any longer, he leans down and leaves one soft kiss on the center of Maki’s mouth.

“No, not that, before you became a puppy, before all of this — why didn’t you tell me?”

Maki looks like he’s in shock, mouth agape and eyes darting back and forth across Harua’s face.

“What do you mean?”

Harua laughs again, shaking his head, “You know exactly what I mean, Maki. I want you to say it.”

There’s a moment where Harua wonders if maybe he got it all wrong. Maki seems hesitant and confused, but then a look of determination washes over him. He grips both hands around Harua’s wrists, pulling Harua’s hands away from his own face to his shoulders instead, swallowing deeply before he speaks. 

“Fine, I’ll say it. I like you, I like you more than I should and for a long time.”

It’s what Harua has known all along, but it feels different hearing it come from Maki’s mouth, no way to read his words in any other way but the truth. 

Harua uses his grip on Maki’s shoulders as an anchor to come forward, moving to straddle his legs over Maki’s lap until they’re nose to nose.

“I like you too, you know. I don’t think I realized until all this happened, but it’s been a long time for me too.”

Maki seems overwhelmed, leaning down to hide his face in Harua’s chest and letting out a small “fuck” under his breath at the admission. 

“So,” Harua moves to nose under Maki’s jaw and leave a small kiss there, feeling how Maki shivers at such a slight touch, “should we follow that person’s advice and try their solution?”

“I dunno,” Maki circles his arms around Harua’s waist and pulls him even closer, inhaling deeply, “If having ears and a tail is what made you finally like me, I don’t want them to ever go away.”

Harua laughs, scratching his fingers behind Maki’s ears comfortingly, “The ears and tail aren’t why I like you, I promise. But you are pretty cute as a puppy.”

Maki shifts under him, mouth reaching to nibble on the lobe of Harua’s ear, “Okay, but, I’m worried I won’t be able to control myself, that I might hurt you.”

Harua scoffs, whacking Maki on the chest, “I’m not fragile, I can handle it.”

Maki grins, nervousness seemingly dissipating as he begins leaving little bites on every piece of Harua’s skin he can reach. 

“You don’t know what I was imagining though.”

Harua detaches himself from Maki, the boy practically whimpering at the sudden loss of contact. 

“Maybe,” Harua begins digging in his closet to find it, Maki’s attention fully on him, “there’s a way I can control you even if you can’t control yourself.”

He presents the items to Maki, the boy jumping from the bed to examine it more closely. 

Maki picks up the items, turning them over carefully, “Where did you get this?”

“I saw it and thought of you,” Harua admits carefully. He’s not sure how Maki will react to the black collar and leash, maybe it’s a bit too far. 

“You bought it for me?”

Harua nods. 

“Put it on for me?” Maki asks, putting the collar and leash back in Harua’s waiting palm. 

The room is deathly silent as Harua moves. He unlatches the collar first, fitting it around Maki’s neck and pulling it back through the buckle tightly but not too tight. He can feel Maki’s skin burning hot through the fabric, Maki’s eyes never leaving him as he attaches the leash as well.

“There,” Harua says when he’s done, taking his hands away from Maki’s burning heat. 

They’re both standing staring at each other, unsure of what to do next. 

“So, how do we do this?” Maki asks, fingers playing with the collar on his neck. 

“I’m not really sure,” Harua admits, “The message didn’t really specify exactly what we’re supposed to do.”

“Can I,” Maki’s cheeks are flushed red, “Can I kiss you?”

It’s cute that Maki asks still, when Harua has practically already served himself to Maki on a silver platter, the simple request making Harua laugh. 

“Yes,” Harua steps back into Maki’s space, cupping the back of Maki’s neck, “I’d be mad if you didn’t kiss me.”

“Okay,” Maki breathes deeply, like he’s been preparing for this moment for his entire life, and it’s so endearing but Harua can’t wait any longer. 

He pulls Maki into him, feels the soft plush of Maki’s lips and the small gasp of surprise that escapes from Maki’s mouth. 

It’s not the first time he’s fantasized about kissing Maki. But dreams are always different from reality. In his mind, Maki was always sweet and warm kisses, lapping him up carefully and deliberately. But the real Maki is a different beast.

After the initial shock wears off, he transforms, demanding and needy. 

Maki circles his arms around Harua’s waist, bringing him in closer until they’re chest to chest. He pushes his tongue into Harua’s mouth insistently, the whole thing so wet and messy that Harua can barely breathe. 

He’s not afraid to be vocal either, gasping and whimpering at every movement Harua makes. Harua bites down on Maki’s lower lip, feels satisfied at the stuttered moan that it elicits. 

They stumble backwards onto the bed, Harua’s knees hitting the edge of the mattress and then his back, Maki flopping over him. Maki pants for a second before diving back in, Harua barely able to catch his breath before Maki begins kissing him fervently once again. 

Maki moves away from his mouth, kissing along his jaw and neck and inhaling Harua’s scent between each lap of his tongue. 

“Does it feel good?” Maki asks in a breathy voice, tickling the side of Harua’s neck.

Harua reaches to tangle his fingers in Maki’s hair, pulling him off Harua’s throat so he can look Maki in the eyes.

“Yes, puppy, it feels good.”

Maki groans at the compliment, eyes screwing shut and his tail wagging faster than Harua has ever seen it. Maki is always easy to get excited. So it’s not shocking when Maki grinds his hips down and Harua can already feel his cock hardening through his pants. 

“Say that again,” Maki says through gritted teeth, rolling his hips again so his front is dragging across Harua’s thigh. 

“What?” Harua teases, “You want me to call you puppy?”

Maki nods rapidly, his pace increasing. 

Harua pulls Maki’s face back towards him, cupping his face in his hands and kissing him once on the center of the mouth. He yanks on the leash attached to Maki lightly, not enough to hurt him, but keep him in place. 

“I’ll call you that if you’re a good boy.”

Maki groans, still rutting against Harua’s thigh, but now messily licking into Harua’s mouth simultaneously. 

“You’re pretty desperate, aren’t you, huh?” Harua teases, running his hands along Maki’s broad back to feel the muscles move under his palms. 

“You have no idea,” Maki pants, “how much I’ve wanted this.”

Harua feels his skin heating at the words, hands clammy. To be wanted so desperately wasn’t something Harua felt like he could take for granted, only possible because of who Maki is. 

“I have a little bit of an idea,” Harua admits, shifting his hips so Maki is grinding over Harua’s own erection. They both gasp at the sensation, their breath intermingling hotly. 

Maki doesn’t stop his movement, pressing into Harua over and over until Harua is desperately meeting him in the middle. 

“Could you cum like this?” Harua asks, feeling on edge himself. 

Maki nods, “I could.”

Harua considers it for a moment. It would be hot to see Maki cum through his clothes, wet patch growing on the front of his sweatpants from rutting with and kissing Harua. 

“Another time,” Harua determines, reaching to grab Maki’s hips to stop him, hooking his fingers on the waistband of Maki’s pants and pulling down slowly. 

“You too,” Maki declares, pulling down on Harua’s pants and yanking on his shirt hastily. 

They both work to undress themselves and each other, laughing when Maki’s shirt gets caught on his leash and they have to untangle the garment from it. 

It’s the first time they’ve been naked in front of each other. Maybe it should be more awkward — Harua staring at Maki’s hard cock, pink and leaking precum from the head, while Maki’s eyes are raking over Harua’s body like he’s devouring him. 

Harua places his palms on Maki’s chest, skating downwards to feel over his hard stomach. 

“How do you want it?” Harua asks, hands pausing on Maki’s hips.

“Your hands,” Maki gasps, “No wait, your mouth. Wait actually, your ass.”

“Maki,” Harua laughs, watching Maki’s brows furrow as he struggles with his decision. 

“I’ve thought about too many things,” Maki smiles, “I can’t pick just one.”

“Let’s start with this,” Harua decides for him, wrapping his hand around Maki’s cock and pumping slowly. 

“Fuck,” Maki breathes out instantly. 

“I’ve barely done anything,” Harua smirks, rubbing his thumb teasingly over the head of Maki’s cock and feeling satisfied when he twitches in Harua’s hand. 

“I’m pretty sure you could do anything and I would find it hot,” Maki admits, growing impatient and rutting forward into Harua’s palm. 

The slide is too dry even with Maki’s precum, Harua sitting up slightly on the bed to spit in his own hand before sliding back over Maki’s cock. Maki has hands braced on either side of Harua’s head, his own head bowed and mouth slightly open as he pants out in pleasure. 

Harua barely has to pump his hand, Maki’s hips doing most of the work as he gets off into Harua’s palm.

With Maki distracted he can barely respond to Harua’s kisses, Harua taking the opportunity to lick down Maki’s neck and mark him, biting right under his jaw until he sees the small bruise. He sucks Maki’s tongue into his mouth next, enjoying being able to control him as Maki’s hard length continues to throb in his hand. 

“M’gonna cum,” Maki mumbles into Harua’s mouth, pupils blown wide.

“Go ahead, puppy,” Harua replies, using his unoccupied hand to stroke behind his ears once before Maki is spasming in his other hand. He shoots cum all over Harua’s bare stomach, whimpering as Harua continues to pump his cock until Maki collapses on top of him. 

“You still have puppy ears,” Harua comments. He thought maybe they would magically disappear as soon as Maki got off, but they were still attached and twitching, his tail wagging lightly on his back. The message they had received hadn’t specified exactly what they were supposed to do, so Harua assumes they haven’t gotten it quite right. 

“Do you want me to take care of you too?” Maki asks, reaching to circle his hand around Harua’s cock but waiting to touch until given permission. 

Call it scientific or duty to help Maki change back to his full human self — but really, Harua knows that it’s just because he wants it. 

“I want you to fuck me.”

“Shit,” Maki groans out, still trying to regain his composure after cumming, “Gimme a second, I know I can get hard again if you kiss me.”

Harua snorts but complies, pulling Maki down by his leash into another kiss. Maki kisses him more languidly now, tongue wetly searching the inside of Harua’s mouth as he feels Maki’s dick slowly spring back to life pressed against Harua’s hip bone. It’s impressive how easily Maki is able to get hard again, true to his word from just a few kisses. 

He can feel Maki’s hand traveling down his own messy stomach, sliding cum on his fingers before traveling further downwards to Harua’s entrance. 

“Do you, uh, have lube?” Maki asks between kisses, finger circling around Harua’s rim 

Harua shakes his head, “I don’t.”

They both pause, unsure how to move forward. Harua doesn’t want to stop. 

“Um, but, I know Yuma keeps some hidden in his bottom desk drawer,” Harua adds. 

“Fuck, Yuma is gonna kill us,” Maki comments, but he’s practically sprinting across the room to grab the bottle from Yuma’s desk. 

Maki spreads the lube across his fingers, warming it and dripping a bit on Harua’s bed as he spreads Harua’s legs open. He brushes one knuckle over Harua’s perineum, until it catches on the rim and Maki pauses. 

“I’m still worried I’m going to hurt you,” Maki pouts. 

Harua scoffs, grabbing Maki by the base of his dick, “You’re not that big.”

“Hey,” Maki pouts even further. Perhaps Maki was a bit bigger than Harua, but it was nothing Harua couldn’t handle, and Harua was getting impatient that Maki’s fingers were still not moving. 

“If you’re that worried, we can stop,” Harua bites back, knowing that it will get a rise out of Maki. 

“No, no, I’m just,” Maki bites his lip nervously, clearly holding back from saying more.

“Just say it,” Harua sighs, pulling Maki by the back of the neck so they’re nose to nose, “There can’t possibly be anything you’re still embarrassed about at this point.”

Maki sighs, shoulders sagging. “Okay, so, you remember that thing that happened at the library?”

Harua raises his eyebrows, half-smirk growing on his face, “You mean when I pet your ears a little bit and you almost busted a nut?”

Maki’s eyebrows draw together at the taunt, dipping down and biting on Harua’s earlobe as a warning, but the puppy-nip only makes Harua giggle more. 

“Yeah, that,” Maki rolls his eyes but continues. “The thing is…I was touching myself and I was thinking about you and my dick like expanded in the middle when I came. And now I’m worried it’s gonna happen again…”

Harua freezes. “Your dick did what?” Harua feels his mouth fall open.

“I dunno how to describe it,” Maki continues to ramble on, “and it only happened that one time, but I can’t control it, and it took a while to go down.”

Harua blinks, somehow still shocked at Maki’s odd state of being, even after all this time.

“You’re telling me, you have a knot?”

“I mean,” Maki licks his lips, “I guess you could call it that.”

Harua can already imagine what it would feel inside him, full and complete, and he wonders if Maki notices how Harua’s dick twitches just at the thought. 

He watches Maki’s ears droop sadly, probably assuming that Harua will stop now with this new information. 

“Maki,” Harua calls, bringing him back into place, “I know you won’t hurt me.”

“Are you sure?” Maki asks, but his fingers are already moving back into place, poised over Harua’s waiting hole. 

“Yes, now please.”

Maki pushes the first finger in at Harua’s pleads, watching Harua closely as he gasps at the intrusion. He pumps the finger achingly slowly, Harua’s whole body burning as he pushes in inch by inch. 

“Okay,” Maki agrees, “whatever you want.”

It’s not the first time Harua has had something inside of him, but it still hurts slightly, stinging and burning with every slide of Maki’s fingers.

“Want you to kiss me too,” Harua adds, needing the distraction as Maki slowly opens him up.

Maki is obedient as always, dipping down to kiss Harua earnestly before pushing a second finger inside. Maki must be able to sense that Harua can’t kiss him back fully, too distracted by the feeling of Maki dragging against his walls, so Maki turns his attention to kissing a fiery trail from Harua’s neck to Harua’s stomach. He kisses down his body wet and messy, tongue leaving wet spots and teeth leaving small marks. He gets distracted halfway on his journey, pausing to run his nose along Harua’s skin.

“You smell so good,” Maki sniffs down the middle of Harua’s chest, “I can’t get enough of it.”

“Hm? You like it that much?” Harua asks, tangling his fingers in Maki’s hair as Maki fully buries his face into Harua’s chest.

“Like it s’much,” Maki replies muffled, “I get so turned on just smelling you, especially when I can smell myself on you.”

Harua smirks, knowing that Maki’s words are truthful when he can feel Maki’s cock leaking slightly against the back of his thigh.

“So territorial,” Harua taunts, “what are you gonna do next, pee on me to mark me as yours?”

Maki glares at him, adding a third finger as punishment, pumping in more rapidly and Harua’s teasing words die in his throat.

“Don’t need to do that,” Maki replies triumphantly, continuing his journey once again and kissing a line down Harua’s stomach until he reaches right above Harua’s cock, “I already know you’re mine.”

“Am I?” Harua asks through stuttered gasps.

“Yes,” Maki practically growls, suddenly removing his fingers, a messy trail of lube following after him and further dirtying Harua’s sheets. “I’ll show you.”

Maki sits up, leaning back on his heels and using his own hand to spread the leftover lube along his length, pumping himself a few times before he’s aligning himself with Harua.

“Wait,” Harua calls before Maki can breach inside, Maki instantly freezing in place. “Come over,” Harua reaches his hand out, wanting Maki to be close. 

Maki presses his body against his, nuzzling into Harua’s neck before he pushes the first inch inside. 

A garbled string of expletives escape Harua’s throat, Maki laughing and licking against Harua’s neck to try and distract him from the pain. He’s barely fit the head of his cock inside of Harua but Maki is already panting like he’s overwhelmed, hot breath fanning over both of them. 

“Can I keep going?” Maki asks through shortened breaths, licking his lips as he studies Harua’s face for confirmation. 

“Yes,” Harua answers, inhaling deeply to try and relax his body. 

Harua is expecting Maki to continue his gradual slide into Harua. But instead, he grabs Harua by the hips, slamming into him in one insistent move, bottoming out and staying in place. It’s unexpected — and Harua can’t hold back his noise of pleasure of the feeling of Maki filling him up so suddenly. 

“Hey,” Harua rasps out, grabbing Maki’s leash and pulling him harshly, feeling satisfied when Maki chokes slightly at being yanked. “That was very naughty,” Harua whispers. 

“M’sorry.” Maki’s ears are downturned and his tail is sagging like he’s guilty, but he still doesn’t pull out, clearly not sorry enough for what he’s done. 

As if to further prove Harua’s point, Maki grinds his hips slightly, dragging his cock in and out like he can’t help it. 

“I don’t think you are,” Harua eyes narrow, Maki still rocking his hips even as he’s being scolded.

“I-“ Maki starts, but his words are cut off by Harua pushing him by the shoulders, flipping them over until Harua is now straddling Maki's waist. 

Harua raises up on his knees and reaches behind himself, grabbing the base of Maki’s cock and aligning it with his entrance but not pushing in yet. 

“This way, you can’t be bad,” Harua comments, teasing the head of Maki’s dick over his rim. Maki stares up at him in awe as Harua slowly sinks down on Maki’s waiting cock, whole body tensing as Harua fully seats himself. 

Shit. It was Harua’s idea in the first place, but he didn’t consider how much deeper Maki’s cock would be in this position, his cool facade crumbling when he feels Maki twitching inside of him. 

Maki isn’t much better — chest rapidly rising and falling and teeth biting down on his lip in a barely restrained moan. It’s what spurs Harua to move, seeing how affected Maki is by every one of Harua’s movements. 

He raises up and slams back down, thighs already burning and feeling as though Maki’s cock has buried itself impossibly deeper. 

“Here,” Maki offers, placing his hands on Harua’s hips to help raise him up and down on his cock. 

They set a steady rhythm with Maki’s help, riding Maki’s dick while Harua feels his own dick slap against Maki’s stomach and wetten. 

It feels impossibly good, even better when Harua notices that Maki can’t seem to tear himself away from staring at Harua’s face, like he’s entranced by being able to see Harua in this new light. 

“When you touched yourself after that time in the library,” Harua says with voice shaking, “Is this what you imagined?”

Maki whines, hips slamming up into Harua more quickly and his grip tightening and bruising on Haru’s sides. 

“I didn’t,” Maki admits. “I just thought of you, nothing else.”

Harua tries to respond but can’t form the words, like his whole brain is being fucked into mush, even more so when Maki’s hands travel farther down and cups his ass, spreading him apart to fuck into him. 

It’s beginning to get hard for Harua to move, his whole body feeling like jelly as he flops over onto Maki’s chest, his cock trapped between their bodies and Maki still thrusting into him. 

“Maki, please. Puppy, please,” Harua pleads, so close to cumming but unable to keep going. 

Maki grins, “Whatever you want.” He works fast, flipping Harua onto his back again and driving his cock into him without even giving him a second to breathe. The pace is fast, desperate, Maki’s eyes glazing over as he gives into pleasure. 

Even in his haze, Maki is able to wrap his hand around Harua’s neglected cock too, pumping him quickly in the same rhythm that he’s pushing inside Harua. 

Maki slips his thumb over the tip of Harua’s cock, fucks into him at just the right angle, looks at him with that same adoring gaze Harua has memorized and dreamed of. And that’s all it takes — Harua throwing his head back and feeling his cum messily spill all over Maki’s hand and his own stomach. 

He knows his orgasm has made him tighten around Maki’s dick, the younger boy still thrusting into him through his orgasm, but his strokes getting shallower. 

“Can I? Can I please?” Maki begs, his rhythm becoming erratic. 

“Yes,” Harua answers, and instantly feels Maki cum, Maki shaking and filling Harua up warmly. 

They both can barely breathe but Maki still dips down to kiss Harua sweetly, Harua’s whole body thrumming with electricity. The kisses melt into lazy slowness, but like a shock suddenly bolted into Maki’s back, he stops, pausing and looking at Harua with a sheepish look. 

Maki hasn’t pulled out, frozen in place, and it takes a moment for Harua to realize why. He feels it, shifting and growing inside of him, Maki’s knot slowly expanding until it’s rutting against the side of Harua’s walls painfully.

“Don’t you dare to fucking move,” Harua grits out, toes curling at the feeling. 

Maki whines from the exertion of not moving, breathing heavily, Harua able to feel every throb of Maki’s cock inside of him with each inhale and exhale. He can feel that Maki’s knot has fully expanded, dragging along Harua’s walls at even the slightest shift of his hips and making Harua cry out.

“I can feel all my cum inside of you,” Maki comments, “you think you could get pregnant if I don’t pull out?”

Obviously, it’s impossible, but Harua can’t help but play along, especially with how full he’s feeling with Maki’s cock still buried deep inside of him with his full knot trapping his cum and Maki’s large hand pushing against his lower stomach.

“You would like that, hm?” Harua laughs, “I’d be so mad if we had a baby and it looked like you.”

Maki’s hip twitches in reflex, cock moving into Harua a little further.

“I thought I told you not to move,” Harua snaps, overwhelmed by the pressure of Maki’s knot pushing against him from all sides, reaching back and yanking on Maki’s tail in warning.

“I can’t help it,” Maki whines. “Please, please, Harua, I need to.”

He can see tears glitter along Maki’s lower lash line, two more pumps and fat tears are rolling down Maki’s face. 

It’s so hard to say no to Maki, especially when he looks at Harua in that way, Harua huffing and showing his compliance by rocking his hips forward minutely. 

He’s still overstimulated from already cumming, every drag of Maki’s cock feeling magnified tenfold.

“Why’re you crying?” Harua asks bemused, reaching up to wipe some of the tears off Maki’s cheeks. 

“I think I may have died and this is heaven,” Maki answers dead serious, making Harua laugh but effectively distracting him from the pain of Maki’s knot digging in deeper. 

“Well, what are you waiting for? Gotta make our heavenly pups.” He cups Maki’s face in his hands, pulling him into a kiss full of tongue and wet noises, the whole bed rocking when Maki allows himself to fuck into Harua again. 

Harua knows he’s going to be sore in the morning but Harua can’t seem to care. It’s worth it to see Maki like this, to feel him like this, to love him like this. 

Maki changes the angle slightly, Harua hissing out in pain at how harshly Maki is opening him up. He can tell that Maki is losing control, losing himself in his feelings as he approaches cumming for the third time so close together.

It’s frantic now, Maki pistoning his hips, each drag making Harua burn more and more. It’s hot in a way that Harua has never seen Maki before, like he’s drunk on Harua, fully lost in Harua’s presence.

“I need you,” Maki says through his tears, grabbing Harua’s wrist and dragging it close to his face. He sniffs along the skin, inhaling Harua’s scent and Harua can feel Maki’s knot inflate impossibly larger.

“You have me,” Harua reassures, mirroring Maki’s movements and pulls Maki’s wrist to his face, kissing the inner part of his wrist instead of sniffing. 

Maki shakes as he orgasms, whining and biting down on Harua’s wrist and marking him. 

There’s so much cum, so much that even with Maki’s knot plugging him shut, some of it leaks out the sides and out of Harua’s hole. He still can’t get pregnant, but he’s sure if it somehow became anatomically possible (and Harua would believe anything is possible at this point), he would be right now. 

It takes a while for Maki’s knot to go down, slowly softening inside Harua until he’s able to pull out with a trail of cum following after him. 

“You, okay?” Harua asks when Maki buries his face in Harua’s neck to smell him as he recovers.

“Why’re you asking me that? I should be asking you,” Maki complains, wrapping his arms tightly around Harua.

“Because I care about you, puppy. Let me take care of you.”

Maki’s breath hitches and he shivers, relaxing and fully letting himself be in Harua’s care. Maki has his eyes closed, breathing heavily while Harua carefully unlatches the collar still around Maki’s neck, Harua lightly kissing the pink and irritated skin where it rubbed against his throat. 

He looks so cute like this, sleepy and vulnerable that Harua can’t help the smile that rises to his face. He combs his fingers through Maki’s hair, brushing against his scalp and suddenly the fog of post-orgasm haze fades away and Harua realizes.

“Maki,” Harua laughs, reaching and petting behind the shell of Maki’s ear, “your puppy ears are gone.”

Maki gasps, touching his own back to feel his missing tail and then moving to his head to confirm.

“Holy shit,” Maki is stunned, staring at Harua in shock, “it really worked.”

Maki is full of energy again, jumping up from the bed to go look at himself in the mirror happily.

“I can’t believe this whole time the answer was just to have sex,” Maki laughs, crawling back on to the bed to flop over Harua’s body once he examined himself.

“I dunno,” Harua hums, “the more I think about it, the more I don’t think that was the answer.”

Maki raises his head up, looking at Harua in confusion, “What do you mean?”

“Think about it,” Harua continues, petting behind Maki’s ear as he speaks. “In your dream, you only saw us together, nothing in it but knowing how much I care about you. So I think you changed back when you realized how much I love you.”

Maki flushes, no tail now but Harua knows it would be wagging if he still had it.

“You love me?”

Harua laughs, kissing Maki once on the center of his mouth. 

“Yeah, I really do.”

An hour later, Yuma comes back into their room. It takes him a second to take in the scene before him. Maki and Harua freshly showered, but still wrapped in Harua’s messy bed. The window flung open to air out the room.

“You’re not a dog anymore,” he decides to comment on first.

“Yup,” Maki says triumphantly, smug as can be with his arms still tightly wrapped around Harua.

“How did you…is that my?” Yuma points to the stolen bottle of lube still laying on Harua’s messy bed.

“Oops?” Harua smiles innocently and Maki tries to hold back his laughter but fails, hiding his face in Harua’s shoulder. 

“Disgusting,” Yuma scrunches his face, throwing down his backpack and flopping onto his own bed. 

“Did you want it back?” Maki offers, holding out the half-used bottle to Yuma.

“Absolutely not.”

Maki and Harua exchange looks, Harua biting his own lip to try and hold back his smile. 

“So,” Yuma continues after a moment of contemplation, “That’s really what changed you back?”

“Yeah, we got a message back from that user you found, and well, we tried their advice.”

Harua untangles himself from Maki to find his phone, pulling up the message to show Yuma. 

“You know,” Yuma comments after reading the message quickly, “I wanted to suggest that you guys fuck from the very beginning but I thought you would be weird about it. Turns out I’ve been stressing about this the whole time for nothing.”

“It wasn’t for nothing,” Harua scoffs, snatching the phone back out of Yuma’s hand. 

“Yeah,” Maki adds, “I really do appreciate all your research on my development. Couldn’t have changed back without you,” he gives Yuma his best winning smile. 

Yuma waves the thanks off, but he’s clearly pleased. 

“Alright but, I have a couple questions about your de-transformation to complete my scientific study,” Yuma says, pulling out his notebook and clicking his pen.

“Go ahead,” Maki replies, pulling Harua in by the waist and into his lap. 

“Okay, so when you were getting the puppy ears fucked out of you, were you the top or the bottom?”

Harua screeches, “We’re not answering that!” at the same time that Maki smirks and says, “Isn’t it obvious?”

“Got it,” Yuma says, scribbling down his notebook furiously. 

Maki laughs as Harua repeatedly whacks him on the arm, and Harua wishes that Maki still had a tail so he could pull it right now. 

The next time Maki changes into a puppy, it’s the first day of a new semester.

“Do you have to go?” Maki whines from Harua’s bed, voice muffled under the covers. 

“You know you have classes soon too, right?” Harua smiles, crossing back to his bed and tugging the blankets off so he can see his boyfriend. 

Maki is still half-asleep, eyes screwed shut and groaning at the sudden bright light. He doesn’t realize his puppy ears are twitching on his head. 

“I should’ve never switched majors,” Maki pouts, reaching his arms out blindly to grab Harua and pull him back on the bed with him. 

Maki snuffles into Harua’s chest, arms wrapped tightly around his middle, deeply inhaling Harua’s freshly-showered scent. 

“Maybe I can still go to all your classes with you,” Maki continues to ramble, “that way we don’t have to be apart too much.”

Harua shakes his head, carefully stroking behind Maki’s ears, “Hey, puppy. What did you dream about last night?”

Maki freezes for a second, then in a flash he pulls the blanket off and fully and reveals his tail, Maki groaning again at the realization. 

“So? What was it, hm?” Harua teases again, scratching at his ears more forcefully. 

“We wouldn’t be able to go to class if I told you now,” Maki smirks, accepting his fate and sinking back into Harua’s touch. 

“I wouldn’t mind Puppy-Maki being around for a few days,” Harua says hushed in Maki’s ear. Harua can feel Maki getting excited at the mere words, his tail thumping and a slight twitch through the loose fabric of Maki’s pajamas. “You’re more obedient as a puppy,” Harua finishes. 

“Hey,” Maki pouts, “no I’m not.”

“Sit, Maki. Stay, Maki. Roll over, Maki,” Harua says in his best baby voice, snapping his fingers at each command.

Maki pushes him off the bed while he curses in every language he can think of, Harua rolling to the ground still laughing. 

“Fine, you can go to class by yourself,” Maki sniffs, turning his back to Harua in annoyance.

Once his laughter subsides, Harua stands back up, grabbing Maki’s wrist and pulling him to look at him. 

“Scent before I go?” Harua asks.

Maki’s face lights up instantly. Maybe it’s a bit silly. No one else can smell Maki’s scent on him except Maki himself, not even Harua. Maki grabs Harua by the back of the neck, inhaling into his throat first before carefully rubbing his cheek against his. 

But Harua still likes it. Even if it’s just a secret between the two of them, he likes that he carries the mark that he is Maki’s and Maki is his.