Scene 15 — Grooming Bond.md

The sun is lower now, late afternoon gold washing across the lake surface. You're both in the shallows where the water is barely paw-deep if you were standing, but you're not - you're sitting, hindquarters planted on smooth pebbles, front paws braced in front of you while he works at your back.

*Hold still,* he murmurs, paws gentle but insistent between your shoulder blades.

You try. You're not very good at it. The sensation of his digits working through the base of your dorsal fin is distracting in the best way - not sexual, just *attended to*. He's checking for debris, for any caught vegetation or small tears, the kind of maintenance you can't do yourself because the fins along your spine are impossible to see properly let alone reach.

His touch is methodical. Thorough. He starts at the base of your neck and works backward, digit by digit, each ridge of your fin getting individual attention. When he finds a bit of dried algae caught in the webbing he works it free carefully, his paw steady and certain.

*There,* he says quietly. *That would've itched later.*

You hadn't even felt it. But you believe him - he knows this body better than you do still, knows what to look for, what matters. The thought makes something warm settle in your chest.

Your eyes drift.

You can't help it. He's right there in front of you, close enough to see clearly, and the angle of him sitting upright with his hind legs slightly apart means the smooth plane of his lower belly is visible. The slit a subtle seam in the pale blue, closed and seamless and *right there*. 

You've touched it. Worked your digits inside it. Made him come apart with attention to what lives beneath that smooth surface. And now you're just... looking. Noticing the way the light catches the edges of it. The perfect integration with the rest of his body, no interruption, no awkwardness, just correct anatomy doing exactly what it's designed to do.

He shifts position slightly and you realize you've been staring.

Your eyes snap back up. He's looking at you, one paw still resting on your dorsal fin, and there's amusement in his expression. Not annoyance. Not discomfort. Just warm, knowing amusement.

*See something interesting?* he asks, voice light with teasing.

Heat floods your face - or whatever the Vaporeon equivalent of blushing is, some change in temperature that he absolutely notices because he huffs a quiet laugh.

*I wasn't—* you start, and then stop because you absolutely were.

*You were,* he confirms, still amused. *And it's fine. You're allowed to look.*

His paw returns to your fin, resuming the grooming like nothing happened, but you can hear the smile in his voice when he speaks again.

*Still new, isn't it? The body.*

*...Yeah,* you admit quietly.

*Good,* he says simply. *It should feel new. You've barely had it.*

That settles something in you that you didn't know needed settling. The awareness isn't wrong. The looking isn't wrong. It's *supposed* to still feel like a gift you're unwrapping, supposed to still catch your attention in quiet moments.

He works his way down your spine, fin by fin, and you let yourself relax into it. Let yourself be cared for. Let your eyes wander again when they want to because he said you're allowed.

When he finishes with your dorsal fins he moves to your neck frill, paws careful around the delicate inner edges. The sensation is different here - more sensitive, more intimate somehow even though there's nothing sexual about it. Just his paws on a part of you that matters, gentle and thorough and patient.

*There,* he says eventually, satisfaction in his voice. *All clean.*

You turn to face him and something in your chest does a complicated warm thing at the expression on his face. Soft. Content. Like grooming you was exactly what he wanted to be doing.

*Thank you,* you tell him.

*Always,* he answers, and then adds with that same warm amusement, *Try not to get so much lake debris in your fins next time.*

You swat at him with one paw, no real force behind it, and he catches it easily, holding it for a moment before letting go. Then he shifts position and settles against your side, shoulder to shoulder, both of you facing the water as the sun continues its slow descent.

No words needed. Just the two of you existing together in bodies that work, in a world that finally makes sense.

His tail finds yours in the water and holds.

You close your eyes and let the afternoon settle around you both.