Playing With Fire

by KirL

A story between a Pangaro and an Houndoom

I do not own Pokemon ,Gamesfreak or Nintendo

I don't own this story . It's coming from the FurAffinity's pages' of Insomniacovrlrd (Tom Smith ) ; Just upload it on Fanfiction cause it's unreadeable on FA

Playing with Fire, Part I

By Pathwarden

Somewhere, in the moonlit, summer dark of a forest undisturbed by man, a young houndour left from her home. Persephone didn't care what direction. She knew the forest like the back of her paw and could find her way back with ease. She just needed time to herself, away from them.

The distance grew between her and the den she shared with the houndoom, Hera, and the pangoro, Lu. This walk of hers became routine in recent days. She couldn't bear to share the same space with her den-mates whenever they started to "pass the time." She took that as her signal to slip away.

Persephone soon paused and gathered her bearings, alone in the dark woods. Her eyes wandered in the dark from beneath the skull stamped upon her brow. She sat and idly rubbed her white, little cufflinks. Her orange underbelly breathed in and out quietly. All of this felt familiar and mildly comforting, yet Lu and Hera persistently stayed in her mind. Deep in her imagination they carried on, oblivious to her feelings. Her frustration slowly stewed.

Persephone's breath of fire sparked in the back of her throat. She spotted a lone bush amongst the roots of the trees. She popped open her orange muzzle. Flames violently shot forth from her mouth in a narrow stream. The bush didn't stand a chance. It burned brightly before Persephone, an immolated casualty, as she cracked a tortured smile.

"Whoa! That's like, what, the sixth bush since last week?"

The lone houndour rose to her feet and spun with irritation towards the source of a high-pitched, scrappy voice coming from the branches of the surrounding oak trees. She spotted a small, familiar pancham standing upon such a branch, leaning against the trunk with one paw and resting the other on his hip. The bear nibbled upon his bamboo leaf with a cocky smirk shot right back at Persephone below. The fire of the burning bush flickered in his eyes.

Persephone narrowed her gaze. "What do you want this time, Chao? I'm not in the mood."

"Is that any way to talk to your buddy? Come on, Persephone. Don't act like I don't know what's going on."

"What's going on is none of your business!" Persephone barked back.

Chao shrugged his shoulders and winked. "You sure about that?"

Persephone growled at the implication. "I already gave you my answer, and it's still 'no.'"

Chao tsked at Persephone in disapproval as he shook his head. "I know you're not thrilled with the thought of following in Hera's footsteps, but there's only so much you can burn down before we have a forest fire on our hands. And if there's something that I actually know nothing about, it's your standards. Just who is this Mister Tall, Dark, And Handsome you're waiting to come sweep you off your feet? It's all a big mystery."

"Oh, that's rich!" Persephone volleyed, her voice rising. She lowered her posture and folded back her ears as if ready to pounce. "I know how your kind works, Chao. You just want to use me so you can evolve, just like Lu used Hera! I'd sooner burn you to a crisp!"

"Oh, we're playing that game again, yeah?" Chao leapt down to the ground and stopped in front of Persephone after a quick roll. "I'd love to play but I got a better game in mind." He put his paws to his mouth and bellowed for all of the forest denizens within earshot: "Hey everybody! Persephone's looking for a hot stud to get her laid! Just follow the fire!"

Persephone's eyes popped open as she petrified on the spot. "Chao! W-What are you doing?!"

Chao winked at her. "Well, I might as well help you find that special someone if it isn't going to be me, right? Besides, I like having trees to climb."

"Are you trying to make me sound like a slut?!" Persephone erupted.

"Fire! Fire! Put it out, now!"

The houndour nearly leapt from her spot with a gasp. Amidst the flames, several pokémon rushed into her sight. From one direction poured in a pride of luxios, a half-dozen in number, led from the front by the sole, colossal luxray commanding them. Three of the pointy-maned lions gathered in a cluster around the burning bush and stamped it out with several sets of paws. The remaining three luxios and the luxray leader immediately surrounded Persephone and Chao.

"Whoa, jackpot!" Chao remarked, unphased by the none-too-pleased glares of the pride.

Persephone shrank before them, falling quiet. Those big cats controlled a great deal of territory close by and were known to swiftly squelch threats to themselves and the habitat. They were the last pokémon she wanted to deal with.

"Ha! You guys moonlighting as a fire brigade? I'm used to doing this solo."

Attention turned to a lone, bold dewott running into the scene. The blue otter shot a powerful jet of water from his mouth to douse the smoking remains of the bush for good. Persephone shrank even further as the whole crowd now surrounded her and the pancham. Chao's grin kept getting wider.

"Hey, Hedron, thanks for showing up!" the dewott told the luxray. He stood next to the alpha and leaned back to gaze up to him, resting his hands upon where he mounted his pair of scalchops by his prominently flared hips. "It would've been nice if you showed up the last five times though. We could've caught her sooner!"

"Five times, Reed? You don't say," The luxray responded in kind. He peered at Persephone out of the corner of his eye as he exchanged words with the dewott. "Hold your tongue for just a moment. I must question our little arsonist. Persephone…look at me."

Persephone slowly lifted her view towards the huge cat with all the courage she could muster. In the very next moment, her eyes locked upon the luxray's gleaming gaze. Her stomach twisted in knots as she stared back, determined not to break down on the spot.

"You are Persephone, are you not?"

"Yes," Persephone answered coolly.

"Good," replied Hedron, "Persephone, is it true that there have been six fires in the forest?"

"Well, Yes," Persephone repeated herself.

Hedron pressed on. "Were you responsible for those fires?"

A long pause followed.

"Y-Yes," Persephone finally stammered.

Hedron's gleam intensified. "Then what drove you to commit such an act?"

The truth sat on the tip of Persephone's tongue, but she dared not confess. Not here, not surrounded by all of these pokémon. Anything but that.

"Please don't make me say it," she begged.

"You must say it." Hedron demanded.

"I can't!"

"You will!"

"Oh, just give it up, Hedron! She'll never confess to that," Chao cut in.

Persephone broke her gaze from the luxray and snapped immediately to the pancham beside her. "Now's not the time, Chao!" She warned anxiously.

Reed stroked one of his whiskers with curiosity. "You're that voice from earlier."

"Guilty as charged!" Chao proclaimed with open arms, "And what I said before was totally true."

"Shut up, Chao!" Persephone demanded.

The dewott smiled in amusement. "You'll have to forgive me if I don't believe you. She's not exactly in the mood."

Hedron silenced them with a loud, curt growl. "Enough of this foolishness!" He shot his gleam eyes right in Chao's direction. "If she won't tell me, then you will, Chao. Why is Persephone starting fires with reckless disregard?"

"Oh, I'll tell you why," Chao answered, widening his grin.

"No!" Persephone dropped to the ground and buried her face beneath her paws. She hoped the ground would open up and swallow her right then and there.

Chao reached out in front of him with one hand and began to rock his hips back and forth. "Persephone's frustrated because all her den-mates do every day is start pounding it! Yeaaah. Just pounding it! And she's got no one around she likes to do the same to her!"

Reed immediately dropped his hands to his knees, suffering a fit of hysterical, tear-inducing laughter. Hedron and his subordinates were promptly struck dumb. The eyes of the luxios collectively popped with shock. The luxray's jaw dropped.

The moment Hedron got over his shock, he roared at Chao to make him cease his pantomiming at once. Chao did so with a nervous grin, not too eager to provoke the luxray who dwarfed him. Reed's laughter died down as he corrected his posture and wiped away some tears. He sighed with amusement.

The luxray then turned back to Persephone with disgust.

"Persephone, how can you throw such stupid fits over something so petty?" Hedron chastised, "Whole swaths of the forest can be reduced to ash by even the smallest fire, and you openly risked that all because you felt left out in the cold? What makes you think you can even handle a relationship of your own? You act like a selfish brat!"

The houndour visibly cringed on the ground at every verbal barb sent her way. It felt like they pierced right through her.

"Oh, do get up!" Hedron ordered.

She slowly did so, but could not bear to look at Hedron in the eyes again. She hung in head in shame. Chao's grin slowly turned to a frown as his scheme began to unravel.

"I've had enough of you, Persephone," Hedron concluded, "I want no more of these fires. If you want a partner so badly, go ask for one like everyone else. Come on, luxios. We're going home."

Hedron and his pride began to step away from Persephone and Chao. The luxios murmured and shot incredulous looks at the houndour as they trailed close behind their leader.

Reed waved at the pride, calling out, "Hold up, Hedron! Wait for me."

He sighed at Persephone as he stood with his arms akimbo. He spoke to her with open sincerity:

"You know, someone as cute as yourself could have the whole world as your cloyster. Work on those social skills, girl, and save me the trouble of running out of the lake so much. I bet it won't take long."

A few certain words from the dewott gave Persephone a surprising jolt. She turned her head up to Reed with a look of surprise. Two words burned right into her mind. You. Cute. Reed missed the sudden flush of red in Persephone's cheeks, however, for he had turned to realize that Hedron was leaving him behind.

"Hey! I said to hold up!" The dewott exclaimed. He took off on all fours to catch up fast with the pride. His long, flat tail flopped up and down with his gait.

Persephone stared on and on at Reed's rapid exit, long after he disappeared into the dark. His words continued to bounce around in her mind, refusing to settle down. You. Cute. You. Cute. You! Cute! But before the internal bedlam could consume her mind, a sudden poke in her ribs snapped her back to reality. She turned her neck to see Chao standing close beside her, beaming at her with his head cocked.

"So that's what kindles your fire, eh?"

Persephone turned in place and immediately punished Chao with a slap down on the forehead from one paw.

"Ow!" Chao exclaimed. He backed off.

"You deserve worse than that after what you just put me through," Persephone growled. "That was humiliating!"

Chao rubbed the spot on his head where he was struck with both of his hands. "Yeah, but that dewott! He's smooth. So, what're you doing just standing there chewing me out?"

Persephone's cheeks flashed a deeper shade of red. "Are you insane? Reed just ran all the way up here to put out a fire I started. He laughed in my face. There's no chance that he'd ever-!"

"Persephone!" Chao snapped, throwing down his arms to glare at her and cut her short. "If he thinks you still have a chance, then you have a chance with him! What have you got to lose?"

Persephone struggled for a moment to come up with a retort. She took a breath, but faltered. The words just didn't come to her tongue.

"Well?" Chao pressed. He opened his arms to boldly welcome a rebuttal.

"He might think I'm going too fast," Persephone finally reasoned, albeit not very confidently.

"Too fast? What?" Chao repeated in disbelief. He stifled a laugh. "No, Persephone, that's not much of a 'guy' thing. If sex is involved, that almost never goes too fast."

"Are you kidding me?" Persephone replied with shock. "Ew!"

"What? That makes it a lot easier on your end, doesn't it? So, are you going after him or not?"

"That's none of your business!" Persephone dodged. She promptly left the scene. Chao gave her a few seconds' head start before casually following her path.

Reed's watery musk proved easy for Persephone to follow. However, she dared not to get too close. She didn't understand how a dewott could be on such friendly terms with a luxray such as Hedron, but didn't want to invite any more trouble from the big cat and his pride. She did this as Chao quietly trailed her, amused at Persephone's plotting in the very least. He said not a word as Persephone tracked Reed down, preferring to let her stew in her nervous endeavor for the time being.

Eventually Reed broke away from the pride, much to Persephone's relief, and bee-lined for the nearby lake. Nevertheless, she still kept a fair distance. She stopped and watched as Reed used one of his scalchops to cleanly slice a twig off a low-hanging branch. He thoughtlessly nibbled on one end as he continued onward.

In a few minutes' time, the lake finally came into view, surrounded by the trees of the forest and reflecting the glow of the moon. Reed picked up his pace to run along the muddy shoreline. Persephone wanted to run right after him, but dared not give herself away prematurely. Instead she watched from where she had entered the shoreline as Reed stopped many feet away to dart his stick into the mud by a hole in the ground. In the very next moment he slipped right into the hole.

"Oh, so that's his holt, eh?"

Persephone wasn't surprised in the slightest by Chao's presence. She looked over to him as he walked up to her side. "Chao, are you here just to watch me crash and burn?" she asked, annoyed yet not sounding very confident.

"Come on, what kind of pokémon do you take me for?" Chao deflected.

"The kind that wants to catch a rejected girl on the rebound," Persephone replied with a narrowed gaze.

"Well, as nice as that'd be, you wouldn't soon settle for someone who's not your first choice," Chao said back, "But it'd sure make me happy if you did!"

"Ugh!" Persephone turned away from Chao, mildly disgusted. However, she did not move from her spot.

"So, are you going to introduce yourself or not?" Chao pressed.

Persephone sighed as she kept herself turned away. "I can't just go to his home after what's happened. I have to think of something. Something to say."

"Oh yeah. He has been putting your fires out after all, Hmm." Chao planted an elbow in one paw while rubbing the other up against his chin. He turned his head down to think. For the moment, both the houndour and pancham mulled over their options. But then, Chao turned his head up again as something clicked.

"Why don't we roleplay it out?" Chao suggested. "Use me as practice."

Persephone turned to face Chao with a puzzled look. "Role…play?"

"Yeah! You just be yourself and I'll pretend to be that dewott you're trying to bang," Chao explained with a grin. "Just remember he's not totally sold on you as a mate, so you better bring your A-game."

"I'm, uh, not so sure about this," Persephone said with concern.

"Well, if your first attempt is a disaster, it might as well be with me!" Chao reasoned. "Okay, I'll start."

Chao cleared his throat. He deepened his voice to match Reed's tone, albeit not very well. His roleplay of the dewott began nearly insufferable.

"Oh, did the crazy dog that was making all those fires follow me home? Oh, noooo! I better defend myself. Speeeew, speeeew, speeeeew!"

Chao motioned with his hands the trajectory of water gun blasts. Persephone narrowed her gaze.

"Stop that! I'm not here to hurt you, Ch- I mean Reed." She insisted.

"Oh? Well what did you come here for? I just haven't the faintest clue."

Persephone gritted her teeth. "I, uh…"

She darted her eyes along the ground in a sudden panic. They then snapped back to lock onto Chao's gaze. "Listen, I'm sorry about all those fires. I've been stupid. You had to clean up after me so many times, and with nothing to show for it."

"You came all the way out here to apologize? Great! I feel better already. But…"

Chao forced a yawn.

"It sure is getting late. I better tuck myself in before anything else happens. Have a nice life, doggy."

"Wait! I'm not finished at all!" Persephone insisted, but then she fell quiet. "I want…"

"What was that? I can't hear what you just said with all the water clogging up my ears," Chao interrupted.

Persephone wanted to call foul right then and there. No way Reed would be this difficult and thick-headed! She glared at the mocking pancham posing a challenge to her as he pretended to clean his ears with the twisting of both paws. That motion immediately came to a halt the moment she leaned her body back in a crouch.

"Persephone?" Chao's voice grew uneasy.

Persephone sprung right at him in response. Her pounce knocked Chao right off his feet as she landed with her paws firm on his shoulders. Chao barely had a chance to yelp with surprise before Persephone muffled him with the sudden thrust of her muzzle right upon his lips. She lowered her weight upon him and slid her forepaws past his head as she pressed the length of her chest and belly against his own. She felt Chao electrify under her surprise embrace as his arms clutched her tight by the front of her waist. She held firm to her kiss, and Chao returned the gesture.

Their mouths opened slightly to intertwine their tongues. The incredible warmth Persephone's breath and body gave to Chao nearly melted his senses with a rush of pleasure.

Persephone broke the kiss to speak to Chao as he now reached around her neck: "I want you."

Chao took in a few needed breaths of air. His lips turned into a noticeable frown even as blood already rushed to poke his pink member beneath Persephone's chest.

"Who do you mean when you say that?" he asked.

Persephone froze. She stared down at Chao like a deer in headlights. In her flash of panic, she slipped further down Chao's body without warning.

"Hey, wait a min-aaaanh!"

Chao's train of thought derailed as Persephone swallowed the length of his fresh erection straight into her muzzle. The houndour's paws flanked the pancham by the sides as her tongue hugged and lapped against the head and the shaft of his member. Her upper teeth rubbed ever-so-lightly near the hilt as the lips of her muzzle kissed upon his crotch and scrotum.

The sudden engulfing of his cock in Persephone's mouth threw Chao for a loop. He clutched the earth tight beneath him and stared in amazement towards the sky with one gasp of pleasure after another.

"Per…se…phone!"

Chao threw his weight forward to roll into a sitting position and clamp Persephone's face between his paws by the temples of her head. She froze in mid-suck as their eyes met once more.

"What's going on, Persephone?" Chao asked between short breaths. "I thought you didn't want this. I thought Reed was your first choice. Why are you avoiding questions by sucking me off? I don't get it at all!"

Persephone pulled her mouth off Chao's member. She looked to the side as she played dumb while Chao's cock pointed at her chin. "It's what would get Reed in the mood, wouldn't it?"

"Don't pull that on me," Chao replied. "That went way beyond roleplaying. Just tell me what the problem is."

"I don't want to," Persephone answered anxiously.

"You have to."

"Didn't you like what I was doing?"

"Th-that goes without saying b-!"

Persephone immediately cracked open her muzzle and tightly swallowed Chao's member once more.

"Aaaanf!" Chao moaned out sharply as the dark canine bobbed her head upon the whole length of his dick. Her lips squeezed tight around his girth as she doubled her pace from earlier. The lewd sounds of her sucking filled the ambience of the impromptu, erotic act near the shoreline. Her tongue instinctively lapped at the tip as fluids seeped out. She breathed in through her nose and moaned out in the heat of the moment as the bitter taste coated her tongue and oozed down her throat.

"Perse…pho…ne!" Persephone felt Chao's grip shift to the top of her lowered head as he pressed down in rhythm to her bobbing. His breaths gained volume and pitch as his erection petrified with one pump of deep fellatio after another.

"Dammit…D-don't think…we're finished!" He struggled to warn between moans.

Persephone kept sucking, taking no heed to his warning. She indulged in his erection without pause, so focused on the act itself that she missed the telltale signs of his imminent release.

"Aaaaaaanh!"

Chao clutched Persephone's head tight and dragged her down to engulf his cock in the twitching bursts of his climax. A muffled yelp came out of the houndour as the member's tip gushed hot, ropey semen against the roof of her mouth and the back of her throat. Her gag reflex kicked in as her mouth filled with the pancham's seed, gulping down the sticky substance as it kept ejaculating. She swallowed several spoon's worth until Chao's orgasm finally petered out.

As his erection began to recede, Chao leaned against Persephone's head, short of breath, drained, and hot all over. Persephone let the now-flaccid member slip out of her mouth as she lifted a somewhat teary expression to press against his face.

"You could've warned me," Persephone told him.

"S-sorry," Chao replied in earnest.

Chao quietly rubbed Persephone's cheek to comfort her as they kept their brows intimately close. They stayed in place together for a bit of time, gauging each other's state of mind. The minutes rolled on, and on, and on.

"So…are you going to tell me now? You know, what your problem is?" Chao finally asked.

Persephone pulled away a bit to look to the lake. "I'm getting a drink." She started to walk.

"Really?! Really." Chao pressed on one knee to rush back up upon two feet. As Persephone walked ankle-deep into the lake and dipped her head to gulp down the freshwater, Chao stayed right beside her, visibly frustrated.

"Didn't you say you didn't want to be with me because you think I just want to evolve like Lu did? Well, you obviously like me enough to suck my dick, and I've been trying to help you get laid anyhow, so how's that even an issue!? I'm available, I like you, you like me, and we know each other. I'd take care of all your problems in one fell swoop!"

Chao circled in front of Persephone and stared down at her as she kept drinking. "Don't think I'm going to let you just waltz on over to Reed after that. I want this settled. Now."

Persephone finally lifted her head from the freshwater, her palette now cleansed from minutes earlier. She took in a deep breath and sighed uneasily as Chao's gaze pierced her.

"You already said it yourself earlier," Persephone answered, "Just not in the way you think."

Chao blinked. "What?" His eyes darted along the ground as he thought back.

"I don't want to 'follow in Hera's footsteps,'" Persephone went on, "but it's not because of you. That was a lie."

Chao threw his arms up. "Why would you lie about such a thing?!" he exclaimed at Persephone.

"Because the truth is much worse. I…I don't want to evolve."

Chao froze with shock. "What did you say?"

"You heard what I said!" Persephone insisted, "I don't want to evolve. I don't want to be a houndoom. They're oversized, gangly dogs with an awful wire of a tail and stupid horns where the ears should be. They're ugly. They're unattractive. If I evolved, I would hate myself. But if we became mates, and then you became the pangoro you want to be so much, then I wouldn't have much of a choice!"

Chao felt struck, as if hit by the fallen branch of a tree. He staggered for a moment before crumbling to sit down in the water, lost in epiphany as he stared downwards. Persephone's heart sank at the sight.

"I don't want to hold you back, Chao. Not for my own selfish reasons," she spoke in a whisper. "I'm sorry."

Chao said nothing. He continued to stare down. Persephone saw emptiness in his eyes now, a void where a certain spark of a harbored dream used to be. Persphone's eyes began to well up.

"Chao? Please…don't be like this. I have to know you're going to be okay. You'll be okay…right?"

Chao kept silent. Persephone's voice began to quaver.

"Chao…please say something."

"Oh, for pity's sake!"

Persephone spun and recoiled with great shock as a certain dewott's voice cut right into the scene. Reed stood but ten feet from them in the direction of his holt. He rested his arms akimbo while shooting Persephone a look of displeasure. Chao turned meekly at Reed's voice as well, but his empty expression remained.

"How long have you been there?!" Persephone blurted.

"Long enough to know how messed up you are," Reed answered, as he walked up to directly confront her. "What kind of a girl gives a guy a blowjob and crushes his dreams in the same night? See, that's what I mean by 'social skills.' Again, messed up. If you were honest from the start, you wouldn't be having this sob-fest. What a fiasco!"

Persephone shrank in Reed's presence the closer he got to her. Chao's empty gaze followed Reed as he moved in.

"I've got to say, though: Did it ever get through both your skulls that if you wanted some action now, you don't have to commit to someone for life in order to get it?" Reed continued. "Not to brag, but it's worked alright for me so far."

He shot a knowing grin Persephone's way. "Especially when there's girls like you following me home."

Persephone felt ready to die. "You knew all along, didn't you?" she asked, miserable and awash in embarrassment.

"Well, after the cue I gave you I was hoping you'd come," Reed confirmed, as he rubbed one of his whiskers between his fingers. "But I had no clue you were going to bring this much emotional baggage."

As Reed talked, both he and Persephone heard splashing close by. They turned to see Chao washing off his face in the freshwater. In the next moment, he pressed on one knee to stand up once more. He seemed somewhat recovered, yet changed. Persephone couldn't quite pinpoint it.

"Feeling better, little guy?" Reed asked.

"Maybe," Chao answered. He turned to Persephone. "Hey. Reed's right, you know."

Persephone blinked. "How do you mean?"

"We'd have a good time together. There'd be nothing lost between us if we didn't care about commitment at all. Now my mood's all kinds of sour for even entertaining the idea," Chao sighed. "You want to stay a houndour, and I want to be a pangoro. That's fine. Now I know better for the future."

"Chao…" Persephone murmured his name with an apologetic tone.

"But I still want to get you some action tonight."

"Uh?!" Persephone's jaw dropped.

Chao winked. "What kind of friend would I be for not seeing things through?"

Persephone's eyes darted from Chao to Reed and back. Reed shot her a wink as well the moment she looked at him. Her embarrassment spiked on the spot.

"Can we get out of the water first?" she murmured.

"Follow me," Reed beckoned, "I know a good spot."

To Be Continued in Part II