\n  

\n "I don't get it," Kip said, feeling an all to unfamiliar warmth spreading through him, "Why the hell do they care?"

\n "Because they're good men," Jake repeated, "and like it or not, they're your friends now. At least," he amended, "it's a start. If you tried, you could chase them off, but you'd have to work at it. For whatever reason, they've decided that they like you, and that pretty much seals the deal."

\n Kip sighed, not quite sure what to do about this. He felt a bit lost. Having one new friend was enough for him to worry about at one time. Getting five or six was a bit much to handle!

\n  

\n  

\n Time for bed." Jake stood up, put an arm around Kip's shoulders and guided him to the bathroom. "Don't climb back in your hole, short stack. I guess this is a lot for you to handle at one time, but we'll get you through it." Jake felt Kip's shoulders tense up when they were in the small room together, and he realized that he'd put them right back into the situation that threw them together in the first place. He was sure that being crammed into the bathroom with someone as big as he was must be making Kip crawl out of his skin. "Dude, I'm sorry, I'll, uh, I'll give you some space."

\n "Don't be stupid," Kip said, backing halfway out the open door and standing with his back in the hallway. "This is your place, not mine. My phobias, my problem." Just having a little space around his shoulders made Kip breathe easier, and he nodded at the big dog. "I'm good."

\n Jake dug through the medicine cabinet, catching a couple of supplement bottles as they fell out. He found what he was looking for and handed a cellophane-wrapped toothbrush to Kip. "Courtesy of the dentist," he muttered, "I must have a dozen of them stashed in here." He squeezed toothpaste onto his brush from the middle of the tube, and tossed the mangled tube onto the counter in front of Kip.

\n "Do any of those supplements really work?" Kip asked, not expecting a verbal reply since his friend had a mouth full of foamy toothpaste. His big friend nodded and shrugged, communicating "Yeah, I guess..." As he was brushing his own teeth, Kip snuck a few glances at Jake as the man shoved his own oversized toothbrush into his muzzle. Jake held his brush in a fist, determinedly jamming it into his mouth like a milkmaid churning butter. Kip felt a bit sorry for his gums.

\n Jake spat into the sink and wiped his mouth. "Enough talk. Time for bed."

\n "You getting grumpy on me?" Kip asked, rinsing his own mouth out with water from a paper cup.

\n "Yes." was Jake's short reply.

\n Kip backed up enough to let Jake get out of the claustrophobic bathroom, then rinsed his mouth and headed back to the living room. The chair he'd been sitting in was easily large enough for him to sleep in, if he curled up."You have a blanket or something?"

\n "Only one, and it's on the bed," came the sleepy reply as the 400 pound morph shuffled towards his bedroom. "You can sleep in here tonight."

\n "I'm not going to kick you out of your own bed," Kip protested.

\n "You're not." came the answer. "Turn out the lights."

\n Kip was confused, but he was so tired that he decided to just go with the flow and do as he was told. He turned off the living room lights and the TV, and walked back toward the only light remaining in the apartment. His head was hurting again, but it wasn't as bad as it was earlier. He could have lived with it, but.. "Did I see some aspirin in your medicine cabinet?" he asked.

\n "I've got a pharmacy in there," Jake replied, between yawns. "Aspirin, acetaminophen, naprosyn, ibuprofen, ketoprofen, and maybe even a vicodin or two. Take what you want."

\n Kip dug around a bit and found a big bottle of Tylenol that was nearly empty. He shook two into his palm and downed them with water from the sink. Turning out the bathroom light, he again started walking toward the light in the bedroom, a bad feeling beginning to sour his stomach. He had no idea what he was expected to do, and that made his nerves crawl. The four steps between the bathroom and the bedroom door took forever, but they were over all too quickly.

\n Kip walked slowly into the bedroom, trying hard not to let his hesitancy show. Why was he being such an idiot, he yelled at himself.

\n Jake was already in bed, sheet pulled down to his waist. "Climb in, bud," he said, pointing to the other side of the bed. "This bed is huge, and I don't roll around much."

\n The bed was indeed huge, Kip realized, probably twice as big as the one he usually slept in. But still, he felt distinctively uncomfortable climbing into bed with a man he didn't know, especially when that man was as sexy - and scary - as Jake.

\n Sensing Kip's hesitation, Jake lifted himself up on one elbow and said, "Every one of those guys in the locker room has slept on this bed before. They crash here all the time. And yes," he added, "I sleep in underwear. If you want, I can make a Chinese Wall of pillows between us."

\n Kip thought he sounded a little exasperated, so he kicked off his shoes, shucked his shirt and pants, and ducked under the covers, feeling small and flabby in comparison with Jake. He scooted as far to his side of the bed as he could, practically hanging off the edge.

\n "You can sleep like that if you want to, but you'll be more comfortable if you're actually on the bed," Jake said.

\n "I'm good," Kip said, and Jake sighed.

\n After a few seconds, Kip noticed that the light didn't go off, and he didn't feel Jake settling back into bed. He turned his head and saw that the other man hadn't moved. He was just laying there on one elbow, looking at him with a concerned expression on his face. "Turn over, Kip. We need to talk."

\n "Uh, sure." Kip slowly rolled over and faced his new friend, the sheet pulled up tight around his chest to hide the extra bits of flesh on his chest and belly that he'd rather not have had. "What?"

\n "Ever since you first came into the gym, you've been trying to make sure that nobody saw you." Jake wasn't talking with the booming, drill-sargeant voice that Kip had become used to. He was quiet and personal, and Kip found himself relaxing. "You've told me your story, and I've heard what you had to say. It's explained why you want to blend into the woodwork." He shrugged his massive shoulders, "It's completely understandable. What you've gone through would have killed some people, I think."

\n "You're a long way from the scared young kid you used to be, and you're not giving yourself credit for your work." Jake reached between them and took the sheet in his sausage-thick fingers. "Modesty is one thing, but you're way beyond that." He began pulling the sheet away, and Kip instinctively tightened his grip.

\n Jake stopped pulling and put his huge hand over Kip's. He could feel a slight tremble in the fox's paw. Was he scared, or just nervous? Jake was really good at reading people, but Kip's feelings were unknown to him. He almost pulled back, but at the last second he changed his mind. His instincts told him that this was the right thing to do, and he always trusted his gut. He couldn't stand to seek Kip this way. He looked into the fox's uncertain eyes, and asked, "Do you trust me?"

\n Nodding wordlessly, Kip loosened his grip. Jake gently pulled the sheet free from Kip's fingers, and slowly pulled it down. "I know I intimidate you," Jake said, "and I don't like that. I'm just another man, Kip, just like you."

\n Kip said nothing. He cursed himself for letting himself get into this position in the first place. Why couldn't he just have slept in the stupid chair, he thought, his face red with shame. He couldn't bear to look at Jake. Instead, his gaze burned a hole in the bed between them.

\n "Look at me, Kip." Jake said, careful not to make Kip even more uncomfortable than he already was. "I might be shaped a little differently, but I'm just the same as you are. In fact, more people in the world look like you than look like me, so I'm the freak in the room, okay?"

\n Kip struggled to follow Jake's instruction, fully aware of the irony. He was lying in bed with the hottest man he'd ever known, and he couldn't even bring himself to look at him. What a wuss.

\n Kip started at Jake's belly, which, now that he looked at it, did carry its share of fat on it. He ran his eyes slowly up the big man's torso, stopping at his chest to admire his well-developed pectoral muscles. Jake's nipples were wide-set and almost hidden underneath his abundant chest fur, and above them, his wide shoulders were round and strong. His neck was huge and thick, and even in the dim light, Kip could see a vein pulsing under the skin. He looked like a Roman god, and under normal circumstances Kip would have been happy as a clam to lay here all night and stare at him. But the shame he felt at his own exposed body made the experience seem clinical.

\n Jake reached out and slowly, gently, took Kip's wrist in his hand. At his touch, Kip looked Jake in the eye and held his gaze. The dog felt no tremble in the fox's arm this time, and he knew he'd made the right decision. Jake lifted Kip's arm, fully exposing his body to examination. Still looking him straight in the eye, he said, "There is nothing wrong with your body." Jake carefully looked at Kip's body from stem to stern, then nodded his head. "You're absolutely fine. I know you don't believe that, but it's true."

\n Jake thought that Kip was looking a little less stressed, so he took a little chance. "You're not happy with your belly, right?" At Kip's reluctant nod, he said, "I can tell by the way you're always sucking it in. Jake put his free hand on his own belly and shook it gently. "Look here. I've got a belly just like you do. In fact, in comparison to our sizes, I've got more than you do." Jake reached out and slowly, gently, touched Kip's tensed stomach. "Just relax it, Kip. It's okay." He began shaking Kip's belly back and forth, slowing when Kip began relaxing his stomach. Soon, it was swaying back and forth, and Jake grinned at him encouragingly. "See? It's not all that bad, is it?

\n For the first time, Kip was calm enough to speak. "I guess it's not. After twenty five years of being told that I'm fat, that's how I think of myself."

\n "Well, you're not," Jake said "You might have been, and you might be next year, but you're not right now." he stooped shaking Kip's belly, but didn't remove his hand. "What else on your body are you ashamed of?"

\n "My nipples stick out more than I want them to," Kip replied, after thinking about it for a moment.

\n "Really?" Jake said, "I never noticed that anything was different about them." He reached up and parted Kip's scarlet chest fur with his fingers, scooting a bit closer to get a better look at Kip's chest. Kip was a bit startled, but he permitted the inspection. Jake gently ran his fingers over Kip's nipples, not in an overtly sexual way, merely to examine them. "Sorry, but I don't see it," he said, finally, "they look like nipples."

\n "One of them is puffy," Kip protested. "it looks like a titty, or something."

\n Jake looked down at his own chest and examined his nipples for comparison. "Hmm.." he said, obviously not convinced.

\n Kip was feeling more at ease now, and he joked, "My scrotum has always bothered me, too. It's too wrinkly."

\n Jake made an exaggerated move to grab Kip's shorts and Kip dissolved in laughter, pushing the other man away. "Okay, okay, I get your point."

\n Jake retreated to his side of the bed and said, "I hope you do, Kip. You're working on a great body, and you have nothing to be ashamed of. Nothing. So just..."Jake spread his hands, "relax."

\n Kip looked into Jake's large, brown eyes, and quite without realizing it was happening, tears began to roll down his cheeks, their trails making dark streaks in his fur.

\n "What's wrong?"Jake asked, worried that he might have gone too far too fast. Kip had to get over his body image issues, but maybe this was too soon.

\n Kip closed his eyes for a moment and composed himself. "Nobody's ever gone to this much trouble to make me feel comfortable," he said, wiping the tears from his eyes, "It just feels really, really good, and I appreciate it." He smiled at Jake. "Thanks. I guess you really are my friend, huh?"

\n Jake grinned back at him and said, "It took you this long to realize it? Sheesh, what does a man have to do to convince you?" He flipped the sheet over them, and asked "Are we all good? Are you through being stupid around me?"

\n Kip nodded. "Yeah, we're good. Next thing you know, I'll be starting to fart around you. I'm lactose intolerant, so's you know, and I ate a whole bunch of cheese off the buffet tonight."

\n Jake laughed, put a mammoth hand on Kip's chest and pushed him backwards, almost off the edge of the bed. At the last minute he relented, and Kip shuffled back towards the middle, vigorously claiming his full half of the bed.

\n "Just don't fart in the sack, and I won't have to smother you with a pillow," Jake said, rolling over and putting out the light. He reached out in the darkness, put a hand on Kip's shoulder, and gave a gentle, reassuring squeeze. "Good night, short stack. I'll see you in the morning." Then for some reason he couldn't quite explain, Jake added, "You're safe here."

\n "Good night, meathead," Kip returned, putting his hand on top of Jake's and holding it in place as he scooted an inch closer to his friend. For a reason he couldn't quite explain, Jake let him keep hold of his hand. He'd never let another man hold his hand, but it seemed innocent enough, given the circumstances. By the time Jake took his hand back just a few minutes later, Kip was fast asleep.