Leaving Serra and Alice in the room with the ferrets, Ryouta and Cassandra have gone to their new gaming room.

“First,” Ryouta says, “I want to fluff you.”

“Why do you sound so creepy when you say that?” Cassandra asks.

“I need to fluff, Cass Cass.”

“Co-come on now, it’s weird when you say it like that!”

“Fluff. I need it. Lemme fluff,” Ryouta says while getting closer and wiggling his fingers in the air. The way his fingers moving are not only oddly sexual but very disturbing.

“Just – just get it over with!”

Cassandra blushes and shuts her eyes as Ryouta gets closer.

Then she feels it.

She feels his fingers slide into her hair and start to rub against her scalp, poofing her hair out and gently moving it around.

Cassandra has no idea what the feeling is inside of her. This feels far better than she thought it would; she didn’t expect it to feel good in the first place! Yet, here her weirdo of a boyfriend is, “fluffing” her hair with a dumb smile on his face that she notices once she opens her eyes.

“Your hair is so fluffy now,” Ryouta says, sounding even more relaxed and at peace than he did when he was getting massaged by Serra.

“Y-yeah?” Cassandra says, pressing her head up against Ryouta’s hand.

This is when he remembers something.

Cassandra was getting jealous when he was treating Azalabulia like a dog.

This has the potential to either backfire spectacularly or result in something amazing.

Ryouta takes a deep breath and asks, “Who’s a good girl?” He didn’t know whether to use a seductive tone or a teasing one, so he went for a mixture of them.

Silence.

He looks at her reaction and sees shut eyes with a bright blush on her cheeks.

The expressions going by on her face tells him that she must have a hundred different thoughts running through her head. He just hopes that the last thought to go through is a good one.

“I – I am?” Cassandra asks, her voice shy and low as she looks at him with only one eye partially opened.

Ryouta thinks to himself how amazing this is and takes it even farther by properly rubbing her head like he would a dog.

Then he pulls away and sees how disappointed she looks that he stopped petting her head.

“Paw?” he asks her, holding his hand out.

Cassandra places one of her hands on top of his own.

Yep. This is too much for Ryouta.

He steps closer, wraps his arms around her, and hugs her in a tight squeeze while internally fanboying over just how incredibly adorable she is. And how hot.

“Wh-what was that – that other thing?” Cassandra asks.

“Go woof,” Ryouta tells her.

“Wo-woof.”

“Again.”

“Woof…”

“One more time.”

“W-woof!”

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Ryouta feels like a diabetic swimming in a pool of liquid sugar.

“Who’s a good girl?” he asks her again.

Cassandra whimpers.

“Who’s a good little puppy?”

Cassandra whimpers even louder while nuzzling her head against him.

“I can’t hear you,” Ryouta whispers.

“I – I’m a good girl!” Cassandra practically shouts.

“You’re a perfect girl is what you are,” he says, petting her on her head once more. “So, I guess you really are into pet play then.”

“Sh-shush. This is killing me right now.”

“You don’t like it?”

“I… I do, but… it’s way too embarrassing. I can only do it since I’m jealous you did it with Aza.”

Ryouta leans back a bit, tips her head back by placing a couple of fingers under her chin, and presses his lips against her own. “Thanks for being honest. You’ve really changed since the dungeon.”

“You – you think?” Cassandra asks, forcing herself to look him in the eyes and not look away out of embarrassment.

“I do.”

“Have I been, umm – have I been… better?”

“If you mean do I think you’ve been nicer, more patient, and more honest with yourself, then yes.”

“G-good. It’s hard, but… but I’m trying not to slip back.”

“Don’t worry. We won’t let you. You’ve got all of us supporting you.”

Cassandra nuzzles her head against him some more before whispering, “I’ll lock you outside if you tell anybody about what I was doing.”

“Shouldn’t you be the one locked outside? You’re the dog, after all,” Ryouta teases her and gets a gentle slap against his side in response. “Fine, fine. I won’t tell anybody as long as you let me play with you some more like that sometime.”

“Deal, you pervert.”

“Hey, we both know I’m not the only pervert here.”

“Shush.”

“So, you were doing it because you were jealous of Aza, right?”

“A-and other reasons, but – but yeah.”

“She wagged her ‘tail.’ You haven’t done that yet. Don’t want to let her have something over you, do you?” Ryouta teases. Sure, this is taking advantage of her jealousy, but he tried saying it in a teasing enough tone that she wouldn’t take him seriously.

That doesn’t stop her from doing it. She slowly “wags” her rear from side to side while refusing to look up at her boyfriend.

“Good girl,” Ryouta says, kissing her on her forehead. “Now, let’s go play FTO. Wait, you know what would be awesome?”

“What?” Cassandra asks, her face still red and her voice quiet.

“If I got you dog ears. Maybe one of those dog tail butt—”

“Absolutely not,” she says, all redness gone from her cheeks and her voice lacking any of the flustered embarrassment from before.

“That – that was a quick rejection.”

“Dog ears, maybe, but I’m never letting you or anybody else put anything there.”

“I can settle for dog ears.”

“Pervert.”

“Right back at you.”

A few minutes later and both Ryouta and Cassandra are immersing themselves into virtual reality – into the world of Fantasy Tales Online yet again.

“Fen?” Cassiel asks, looking around when she notices that she’s only with Serra and Nell in the hammock.

“Down here,” Fenrir says, sprawled out on the floor. “I didn’t want to disturb you all to climb back in after I got out.”

“It’s not like it’d actually disturb any of us if we’re not in-game.”

“I know. Anyways, let’s—”

“Oi! About time you’re here!” Tabitha shouts from the stairs.

Fenrir lets out a yawn and waves at the short, orange-haired girl. “Sorry, been busy. We got ferrets.”

“Ferrets? Why? Those little rascals eat through everything. I hope you don’t have any exposed wires in your home.”

“That’s – that’s a thing?”

“Them eatin’ through wires? Yeah. Had an uncle who had a ferret, emphasis on had. The rascal chewed through a cord, got fried, and started a fire.”

“Cass, those ferrets might be more of a challenge than I thought.”

“Yeah… but we don’t have any exposed wires anywhere, I think,” Cassiel says.

“Hope ya don’t let them out of their cages. They can squeeze under doors like their bones are made of jello!” Tabitha says.

“Cass, those ferrets might be way more of a challenge than I thought,” Ryouta says.

“And that’s not even gettin’ to the parts about how they steal and hide everythin’, burrow into your furniture and tear up anythin’ soft, and will leave dead mice lyin’ around if you’ve got a mice problem.”

“They kill mice?”

“You know they’re carnivores, don’t ya? My uncle fed his ferret whole, frozen mice before they got an infestation of them. Don’t tell me that you didn’t look into any of these before buyin’ a ferret, wolf boy.”

“We – we bought four of them.”

“Blondie, I hope you keep some tight reigns on him,” Tabitha tells Cassiel.

“It… I agreed to it,” Cassiel admits.

“Hoh boy. Well, try not to burn down your place too soon. Ya got some fire extinguishers around the house?”

“I don’t think so,” Fenrir says. “We have a new sprinkler system.”

“Oi! Those things are garbage! Ya better buy a few fire extinguishers before the end of the week or I’m going to personally come over there and smack ya on the head with one! These new sprinkler systems are always failin’ and never stop anythin’! An extinguisher, if you’ve got the balls to use one and target the source of a fire, won’t fail you!”

“Alright, alright. We’ll buy some fire extinguishers. Promise.”

Tabitha wipes the back of her hand across her forehead. “Gonna give me an anxiety attack. Buyin’ ferrets, no fire extinguisher – what’s next, you gonna think it’s alright to have a pet cow living in your house?”

“Is – is there something wrong with pet cows?”

Tabitha groans and heads above deck.

“Maybe… we shouldn’t let the ferrets out of their cage all the time,” Cassiel whispers to Fenrir.

“Yeah, and we’ve got to buy some fire extinguishers,” Fenrir whispers back. “Serra might be disappointed about the cow thing.”

“Were you seriously considering getting a pet cow?”

“I mean… we could afford to.”

“I thought you didn’t want to waste her dad’s money?”

“Maybe he’d approve of a pet cow.”

“No cows.”

“Fiiiinnee.”