“Hey! Momo! Cut that out! That’s not your food!” Hearing me yell scared her back to her bowl, but I was still angry. When the three of them were done, I stood over Momo. “I don’t ever want to see you doing that again, got it?”
Momo, kneeling on the floor, nodded. “Got it,” she said softly, her face downcast.
“Now apologize to Chloe.”
She turned to the mouse. “Momo is sorry for eating your food.”
Chloe blushed, apparently more embarrassed than Momo was. “It’s ok! It’s ok! I’m sorry!”
“It’s fine, Chloe, you did nothing wrong. From now on, if Momo tries to eat your food, I want you to take the water bowl and dump it on her head. Sonja, if you see Momo do it, splash her too.”
“Got it!”
“Ok, now we can move on. Since you girls have been so good, and to celebrate Chloe joining our little family, I got something special for the four of us. All of you sit at the table.”
They took their seats, wondering what I was going to give them. I set out plates and glasses of milk, then from the fridge, I pulled out a small marble cake. I would have gotten chocolate, but with Sonja still being part dog, I didn’t want to risk it. The girls knew it was food, they could tell that much from the fact that I had hidden it in the fridge, and while they didn’t know what kind of food it was, they definitely liked the smell. I set it out in the middle of the table with a lit birthday candle in the middle. I suppose, in a way, this could be called Chloe’s birthday.
“Chloe-”
“I’m sorry!” she squealed.
Was she going to apologize every time someone addressed her?
“I was just going to say welcome to our home. Now, you have the honors. Go ahead and blow out the candle.”
Chloe leaned forward and gave a tiny puff of air, almost like a sneeze, but it was just enough to blow out the flame. I congratulated her with a loving head pat and then went about cutting the cake. I divided it into quarters and gave each of the girls a piece. I hadn’t really bothered with teaching Sonja how to use a fork and Chloe had just gotten here, so I simply let the three of them eat with their hands.
Momo perked up from the first taste, her ears nearly flapping and her tail standing erect.
“This is so good!” Sonja exclaimed, already with cake smeared across her face.
The brightest smile I had yet seen on her doll face, Chloe gave a squeal of happiness as she took a bite.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the three of them, getting more joy out of watching them eat the cake than eating it myself, though it was delicious. They finished by licking the cake and frosting off their fingers and washed it down with the milk I had set out.
“Can we have more?” Momo asked, her face as messy as Sonja’s.
“No, that was for a special occasion. But don’t worry, there will be other times when I will get you sweets. Now, Chloe, I got some clothes for you on the way home. I want you to try them on to see if they fit.”
“Clothes?”
“The things I’m wearing. The three of you wash your faces and we’ll move back to the couch.”
Momo moved over to me. “Can Master… wash Momo’s face?”
“I’m pretty sure you can do it yourself.”
“Not like this.”
She then leaned forward and kissed me, her tongue slipping past my lips and running along my gums, searching for bits of cake and frosting yet to be swallowed. Understanding what she meant, I returned the affection, licking every corner of her mouth as well.
“I want to do that too!” said Sonja.
She rushed over from the other end of the table and I started kissing me as well. Chloe watched us, unsure of what we were doing.
I couldn’t help but laugh when Sonja finally pulled away. “That just cleans your lips, not your faces.”
I then started licking her cheeks as if I myself were a dog. She giggled and wagged her tail at the feel of my tongue. I didn’t really clean the cake off her face, so much as thin the mess. I did the same to Momo, making her purr, especially when my tongue met her lips. Once they were both done, I looked over to Chloe. She was shifting in her seat, her head hanging low as if someone had just tickled her neck. She still didn’t understand what the three of us were doing, but she was feeling a little bit left out.
“Can Master… please clean my face as well?”
I smiled and held out my hand to her. “Come here.”
She moved onto my lap and I licked her cheeks as I had Momo and Sonja. Her eyes were screwed shut but her squeaks told me she was enjoying it. Once I was done, she looked at me and I finished by joining my lips with hers. I didn’t bother trying to French it up, as even this gentle meet seemed enough to leave her reeling. She obviously didn’t understand what I had just done, but she was blushing.
“That’s called a kiss. You do it to someone you love.” My words made her reddening face deepen in hue. “Ok girls, now wash your faces for real. Chloe, we still need to check out those clothes I got you.”
The girls cleaned their faces in the sink and then followed me back to the couch, where I had a large bag from GoodWill. Most of the clothes they sold were second-hand, but luckily all underwear was donated directly from retailers and never worn.
I started by handing her a pair of panties. “Here, put these on.”
She, of course, put them on over her head, thinking that the leg holes were for her ears. Both Momo and Sonja had made that same mistake when I had them wear panties for the first time. In retrospect, I should have known by now to word it better and not leave it so vague, but this was too cute and funny for me to let this opportunity slip by. I wanted to take a picture just for myself, but I fought against it and told her how to properly wear them. It was strange, but when wearing only a pair of panties, she somehow managed to look even cuter. I then had her try on some sweatpants and jeans, then shirts, socks, and a hoodie.
“How does that feel?”
She looked at herself, toying with the string of her hoodie. “It’s nice. I feel nice and warm. But I still like being naked.”
“That’s fine, these are just for when you get cold or we have to go somewhere. Otherwise, you can be naked as long as you want.”
After she undressed, we watched a little more TV and then decided to call it a night. We headed upstairs, and I laughed as I watched the three of them brush their teeth at the same time. While they brushed, I took several blankets and pillows I had bought on the way home and set up a nest for Chloe under the bed. Once the girls were done with the bathroom, I went in to brush my teeth and they got all cozy.
I came out, seeing Momo and Sonja on either side of the bed, and Chloe down below, wrapped up in blankets. It was such a beautiful sight that I almost didn’t want to intrude. Whatever was going on was stressful, confusing, and oftentimes expensive, but I couldn’t remember a time in my life when I was so happy. I didn’t want any more girls to show up, but if they did, I would love them all the same.
Tired from a long day, I turned off the lights and climbed into bed between Sonja and Momo. “Goodnight, girls.”
“Goodnight, Master,” they all replied, with Chloe’s voice echoing from down below. I set my head back on my pillow, pulled Sonja and Momo in close, and drifted to sleep.
The days were getting colder, and the girls, no matter how stubborn they were, caved in and started wearing clothes. It was certainly a loss, no longer being able to watch Momo and Sonja’s melons bounce freely with every movement, but seeing them in yoga pants gave an added allure. I would keep a fire burning in the stove almost nonstop, starting it in the morning and then rekindling it when I got home and before bed. But for that luxury, gathering firewood became a continuous chore for the girls. I wanted to preserve our stocks until winter and there was no way in hell I would use any heating oil, so every day, they would go out into the forest and search for wood to burn.
Chloe settled in to her new life, a smile on her face every day, shy and fragile, but a smile nonetheless. Whenever someone called out to her, she would instinctively apologize, even though we kept telling her that she had done nothing wrong. We chalked it up simply to a personality quirk due to her former species, like Momo talking in third person or Sonja’s airheaded hyperactivity.
With the arrival of the weekend, I resumed teaching the Momo and Sonja how to read. I even fulfilled my promise and got them several children’s and picture books from the local library. I hadn’t given Chloe her first lesson, but she sat with us when I helped Momo and Sonja read Dr. Seuss. Hopefully this would give her some insight into what she would be doing. The four of us were on the couch, I with a book, Momo on my left and Sonja on my right, with Chloe lying across Sonja’s lap.
“Do you like green eggs and ham?” Momo asked. “I do not like them, Sam-I-am. I do not like green eggs and ham.”
“Very good! Not too long ago, you would have had to sound out each word. Sonja?”
She leaned over to read the next passage. “Would you like them her or ter? I would not like them her or ter.”
“Close. When there’s an e at the end, it’s a hard vowel. Here. And when t and h are next to each other, they make a thhh sound, like a hiss.”
She stuck her tongue out at me and hissed, harder than I had, and I hissed right back. It went on like this for a few seconds, she and I have a hissing fight before I finally laughed and kissed her on the forehead.
Moving farther over Sonja’s lap, Chloe looked at the pages. “I would not like them eer. I do not like green eggs and ham.”
I was surprised, then slightly disappointed, and then a bit proud. I had thought at first that she had actually read the passage, then realized she was simply guessing what it said based on the repetition of the words (hence, why she left out the “anywh” in “anywhere” and assumed the vowel rule applied), and was then impressed by the intellect it would take to actually get that far.
I ruffled her hair, prompting her to close her eyes and give tiny squeaks of joy, albeit with her face looking like she was actually being tickled against her will. “Nice try, but you aren’t ready for this stuff yet. And for the record, it’s “anywhere”. In this case, the vowel rule doesn’t apply, like in “there”. But it was a good attempt though.”
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