#maribo

He had reached one thick paw over her body and forcefully yanked her over to where he lie on his belly, and simply began to groom her. Mavis was too confused to move, but his arm held her firmly in place anyway. She had never received a tongue bath before. He swiped his tongue between her ears hard enough to force her head to dip slightly, and he made her beautiful burgundy fur distinctive to Liepard's shiny mutation stand up against the grain. She said nothing. Pointing it out might have only made it weirder, she thought. Just what had gotten into him?

A piece of knowledge suddenly returned to her. She had heard tell of Zoroark being famously protective of their closely-knit packs, so he must have been possessed by instinct. Instinct fueled by the fact that he considered her a member of his pack.

That was enough to make her smile a bit. 

And despite how weird it all was, it did actually feel kind of nice. So she merely relaxed, purring in her throat as he worked his way down her neck to her shoulder. She even found herself so caught up in the gesture that she twisted her head around to comb her barbed tongue over the bristly fur on his cheek. He did not pause, but he purred in his own way, though it sounded more like guttural rumbling in his chest.

This continued long enough for her to lazily roll onto her back and let him lick long strokes up her neck to her chin, eventually migrating to the softer fur on her chest. She had already been sleepy before, and this lovely massage was lulling her to that dreamy edge of sleep.

That is, until a nearby disgusted noise woke her up.

Turbo lifted his head, and she looked too, to see Maribo returned to the scene and sticking her little pink tongue out. Fur poofing out a bit in distaste, she whined, "I leave you guys alone for a few minutes and this happens? Can't you two go find yourselves a cave to be all mushy in?"

"Hey," Turbo grunted, rising on all fours and easily stretching to Maribo with his long body, "y'know what?"

Both the Zoroark and Eevee went silent and still, staring each other down. 

Then Turbo lunged, snatching up her little head in his mouth and bringing her back to trap her against Mavis' belly, and giving her a bath of her own. 

"Hey--! EW! CUT IT OUT!" she squealed, wriggling under his arm and tickling Mavis' belly. "I'm not a baby! I can do this myself!"

Turbo ignored her, and Mavis merely let out a nasty little cackle. Bugging her was just too fun -- so fun, in fact, that she could hardly stand to be left out. Maribo had been protesting her hat being knocked off when she caught a glimpse of the devious look Mavis was giving her.

"Hey, hey, NO," Maribo warned her, shaking her head. "Don't look at me like that. Don't you dare."

She dared.

Craning her head up, she hooked her paws over the Eevee, pinned her head down, and went to town licking her face all over. Maribo yelped, and growled, and spit, trying in vain to whap Mavis away with her paws. 

"Stop-- I'm gonna-- I'm gonna KILL YOU," she snarled adorably, not intimidating a single soul. Turbo had made it to her haunches by then, just beginning to curl up the incredibly fluffy fur of her tail, only making her thrash harder. "No, no-- Lay off the tail! Just 'cause YOU don't have one doesn't mean mine's free game!"

Mavis laughed once more, pausing a moment just to say, "Gripe all you want, kiddo, but like it or not, you're one of us now!"

Amazingly, even after Mavis resumed licking, Maribo was silent for a couple beats. But it was quite short lived. Blanketed in tongues, damp with saliva, she growled right into a flustered shout.

"WELL--! WELL I HATE IT!!"