Since I saw A Matter of Loaf and Death on Christmas Day 2008, I felt that Gromit and Fluffles deserved a fic so I decided to write one of my own. Hope you like it. I own nothing in this fic. Wallace and Gromit and its characters belongs to Nick Park and Aardman Animations.

---

Chapter 1: Gromit's Dilemma

---

A week had passed since the death of Piella Bakewell, the model for the famous Bake-O-Lite commercials, and of course, the ferocious serial killer, though this was known only to Wallace, Gromit and their new companion, Fluffles.

Piella was Fluffles' owner, until she died, then there was no one else left to look after Fluffles so she was allowed by Wallace and Gromit to move in with them. And since she had, her life seemed to get better and better with each passing day. All her life, while she was living with Piella, her life was nothing but misery. Piella was always so mean to her. Day after day, she'd get punched, kicked, slapped or even whacked with a blunt object whenever Piella lost her temper with her. This was often accompanied with hurtful insults, such as "scum" "wench" and much worse. She only adopted Fluffles to help her lure all those poor, innocent bakers into her deadly traps, to help get her "baker's dozen". If Piella had succeeded in killing Wallace and Gromit, she probably would've killed Fluffles too, throw her out onto the streets, or just neglected and left to starve (A/N: That's my guess, anyway.).

Though thankfully, she failed in her mission and Wallace and Gromit's lives were spared. As for Fluffles, she and Gromit had fallen in love while Wallace and Piella were courting, while she was trying to lure him into a false sense of security so she could finish him off. So when she moved in with them, she finally found happiness as they had been very kind to her. Better than that, she could be with the beagle she loved.

It was love at first sight for her. The morning they met, Piella took her out on her bike to hunt for her last victim, and found Wallace and Gromit, delivering bread to everyone in the street in their van. Fluffles kept staring at Gromit until they passed each other. He was the most handsome dog she'd ever seen in her life. But it wasn't just his cute puppy-like features that the poodle loved about him. When Piella pulled off that dirty stunt, pretending her bicycle breaks weren't working and letting her bike plummet down the hill and into the local zoo, Fluffles fell into the crocodile pit and was nearly eaten alive by one of the fierce reptiles in it. But before the big, ugly brute could close his mouth and swallow the poor dog, Gromit quickly jumped down to her rescue, using a baguette to hold the crocodile's mouth open, grabbing Fluffles' paw and took her back up to safety, leaving behind a confused-looking crocodile. And that was what captured Fluffles' heart. Gromit risked his own life to save her from the jaws of death, literally. Just like that, Fluffles learned everything she needed to know about her knight in shining armour in just a few seconds, that he was a kind-hearted soul who would do anything for the ones he cared about. That was her ideal dog. Since then, every time she'd look back at that moment, she'd sigh with happiness.

As for Gromit, he had no clue about Fluffles' feelings for him, until that time when she sneaked his possessions back to him in a cardboard box after Piella had rudely thrown them in the trash. She also snuck in a record of Doggy Osmond's "Puppy Love" to enamour him to her. It was then that Gromit learned he had secret admirer and found he began to admire her back.

Since Fluffles moved in with her new friends, there was a constant whirlwind of happiness between the two dogs. And despite his disappointment with Piella, Wallace couldn't help but feel happy for the new couple. (A/N: He really should've stayed with Lady Tottington.)

However, it wasn't long before Gromit picked up a scent his nose had never detected before, a scent that began put him through him a period of great anxiety: Fluffles was in heat (A/N: Dun dun duuuunnnn! *insert dramatic chipmunk*)! She had been for the last couple of days. Being a dog, Gromit knew this because he could smell the hormones coming off her.

This got Gromit into one of his stickiest situations yet. His libido had been awakened for the very first time in his life, as he had no love interest before he met Fluffles. However, he didn't want to let his desires take control of him, not completely anyway. He felt that Fluffles had to know of his lust somehow, but he was afraid that if he told her with his body language about his new emotions, she would be offended and reject him, and that was the last thing he wanted as he knew that making love to her would be the only way to put his mind at ease. And he couldn't think of a more polite way to let her know. He didn't want to force himself on her either, because he saw rape as cruel and immoral, and he was right, and it was something he simply would not do, even if his life depended on it.

Things get worse for the poor pooch. Whenever Gromit had a serious problem, he'd either sort it himself, like the clever mutt he was, or if he couldn't, like now, he'd let Wallace know about it and get him to help him with it. But this was far too embarrassing for him and therefore felt uncomfortable to share such details with his master. He didn't want to embarrass Fluffles either.

So poor Gromit had left himself with no choice but to keep his worries bottled up for as long as possible. Hopefully, they'd subside once Fluffles' ovulation cycle had past, but only God knew how long that would be!

However, Gromit wasn't able to hide his anxiety completely. Wallace and Fluffles noticed that Gromit was behaving very strange lately. Whenever the three of them were sitting together in the same room, either having breakfast or dinner in the dining room or watching TV in the living room, Gromit would distance himself from Fluffles and just stare at her, though Wallace and Fluffles didn't want to pay too much mind to it. Fluffles also noticed that on such times when Wallace went away and the two dogs were alone together, he'd look at her with a nervous expression, look down, look back up at her with fear in his eyes and gallop upstairs to his room, where he'd stay for a long while. She also saw him loitering outside the guest room door, the room which had become her room, with the same anxious feature and when she went up to him to try and find out what his problem was, he'd quickly walk away, leaving her feeling utterly confused.

One time, when the three of them were in the living room together and Gromit quickly left to go upstairs, the remaining two looked at each other and Fluffles looked at Wallace as if to say, "I'm worried about him, Wallace."

"Now, don't you worry, las," Wallace told her assuringly. "I'll see to this."

And with that, he went up to Gromit's bedroom and waited outside the locked door for a while, listening to strange sounds coming from inside, sounds which sounded like grunting and moaning, before he was allowed in. He reassured Gromit that if there was anything he was worried about, he should let him know. But Gromit just shook his head and gave him a dismissive wave with his paw, begging him to leave. Wallace did as he was told, closing the door behind him.

He stood in the hallway to think. There was definitely something that was troubling the poor dog. He wasn't convinced by the answer Gromit gave him. He could see it in his eyes that something was wrong.

And then it hit him. He noticed that Gromit only acted like this around Fluffles, other times he was perfectly alright. It must have been that she was in heat. Fluffles didn't seem to know of this though. Living with a dog for so many years, he'd know all there was to know about their instinct. And as always, Wallace wanted to help poor old Gromit come over his problem. But how?

And then it happened. Wallace came up with an idea that should help. An idea that would need careful planning. So he went downstairs to the kitchen and made himself a cup of tea and got himself a plate of crackers and cheese. That was when Wallace had his best thinking, while eating cheese (A/N: I'm assuming so.). For a long while, he sat in the living room, eating his favourite snack, thinking over how this brilliant idea should be carried out.

After a while, Wallace had constructed a perfect plan in his head. After putting the dish and the teacup into the sink in the kitchen, he went back upstairs, to Gromit's room.

Gromit sat on his bed, hugging his legs to his chest with his forehead on his knees. He sighed with frustration. Why did all of this have to happen to him? Why did the knowledge of Fluffles' ovulation cycle make him feel the way he did? Why did he have to be so afraid to confess his feelings to her? It just wasn't fair!

He was roused from his thoughts by another knock on his bedroom door.

"Gromit, lad!" called his master's voice from outside. "I want a word with you."

Oh, God, Gromit thought to himself. What now?

After hearing his master's call, he got off his bed, walked over to the door and opened it to see Wallace standing in front of him with a serious look on his face.

"Now, I have a very good idea of what's been troubling you, lad," Wallace told him. "But don't worry. I've thought of the perfect solution to your problem!"

Uh-oh...

How could Gromit trust Wallace to helping him solve his problem after all the times that his plans went out of hand. Well, he pretty much has no choice now.

---

What's Wallace's plan? To find out, stay tuned for Chapter 2 which I will write and upload as soon as I can. There maybe a slight delay because of homework. Also, I get very bad writer's block sometimes and it takes quite a while to get over. So please bare with me. Thanks for reading. :D