Reviews :

Snake557 : Aww, yeah Lash is a good one. You'll certainly love him a lot more considering how he reacts to this situation. He's a guard dog for sure.

Burgie : Thank you! Yeah I warned you guys haha. It's a bit of drama from here!

ThoreLB : Hahaha true! Very dramatic.

twistee the dark : Hey :) Long time no see. And, you definitely will get to see that happen... Might not be just yet, but trust me, Gideon gets his time to shine.


Song Listened To :

Violence (REZZ Remix) by Grimes & i_o

State Lines by Novo Amor


A/N : Guys, this one's a big deal. Not in terms of context, but the fact that this chapter, Chapter 88 of Favor's Game, is the WHOLE saga's 1000th Chapter! INSANE! So, I'll be titling it as such :D

Thanks for sticking with me all 1K chapters, almost 4 million words deep and counting, 5 whole entire stories... THANK YOU. I'm so glad the lot of you have stuck with me and have enjoyed where this all exploded to. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.


*Chapter 1,000*

"Hey!" Kepa chimed happily as she tucked her phone to her bigger ear. She cutely scrunched her shoulder into the tilt of her neck and firmly sandwiched the phone to her ear as she finished cleaning the rest of the dishes in the kitchen sink, "I actually was just about to text you because you left your hoodie here... Actually, I think it was from the other day, but... Meh."

"Hey, can you please let me in? I'm walking up, I can't use my right arm and I didn't want to startle you by just walking in right after I had left," Gideon staggered, his voice was a quaking mess, and it was here did Kepa stiffen and drop all of her cleaning priorities.

In the sag of stood normality, she clumsily caught her phone in her wet hand, ended the call with Gideon, dried her paws on a nearby dish cloth and began to rush the common room's main front door. With fear and concern now plaguing her body, claws draw, she unlatched the door and swung it wide. Kepa nervously stared out into the black of night, her pupils gaped in full dilation, and as she could see Gideon very quickly trudging up to the vicinity, she held still in hot shock as to the pungent, heavy scent that immediately hit her snout. She perked her ears high and felt adrenaline rush her veins, the very smell of fresh blood, one of the only things that could ruin a normal social settings for her, the one thing her animalistic instincts were heightened to. Although secretly sent into a frenzy of desperately trying to quell any rushing thoughts of simply being fueled by a successful hunt, she was rocketed back to Arcade the second Gideon's figure became clearer in her sharp eyesight. She audibly gasped and covered her mouth with both of her hands.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, I just... I'm such an idiot, I didn't think all this through," Gideon huffed, his voice was raspy, and in the full sight of him in the dim, glowing exterior lighting that illuminated the front door area, the mess Gideon had become was clear. Shirtless, said shirt was in a tight tourniquet about his upper right arm, and though he looked to be walking just fine and obtained all faculties, the sheer amount of blood that drenched his right arm, as well as the right side of his now bare torso, made the whole situation look far worse than it likely was. Gideon nervously wretched his neck and looked over his shoulder in a draw of shaking, concealed wariness, though as he urgently brought his gaze back to Kepa's, he eased into her bubble and felt saddened to see her frozen in cold shock, "I'm okay, I just... I need help."

"Come in, come in," Kepa urged as she took a few firm steps backwards, welcomed Gideon inside the safety of the lighthouse and shut and locked the door behind him. Quick on her feet, she rounded him, her tail was low in full wariness, her ears perked high to quickly obtain any and all information Gideon had to give. Now that he was in better lighting, she assessed his arm and the tight make-shift tourniquet Gideon had applied to the gash on his upper inner arm, "What the hell happened? C'mere, let's get you cleaned."

"My cousin and I got into what I thought was going to just be a fist fight but he pulled a dagger on me," Gideon staggered through the dregs of anger, though all the adrenaline in his body was now very viciously reminding him that it was nearly long gone, and dizziness was due to setting in promptly. He huffed a shaky breath, held his forehead with his free hand and now looked a bit wobbly on his feet, and though he caught himself in a stumble, Kepa firmly grappled his left arm and steadied him, careful to not get any blood on herself from the fresh splay on his bare front, "I... I just need to sit down, I don't know how bad it is, but I'm about to pass out."

"C'mon, sit down, let me look at it," Kepa firmly huffed, now operating on full auto-pilot, her little though strong figure began to firmly maneuver Gideon to the kitchen island. With a skillful swing, she whipped her tail about the end of the island's edge, caught with a rung of a nearby barstool and began to successfully drag it behind the two with nothing but the strength and grip of her curled tail. In a sharp whip of precision, she whipped said barstool directly in front of the gape of the massive, deep kitchen sink, embedded into the middle of the broadside of the kitchen island, and cautiously sat Gideon down, "We need to contact Lash, Gideon, he can reset you and heal your-"

"I don't want to talk to anyone! I don't want ANY of those fuckers near me right now!" Gideon suddenly shouted, the veins in his forehead bulged, the dregs of his previous anger immediately re-surfaced, he heaved a shaky breath and felt bad at just how sharply Kepa jumped in full startle of his sudden, booming voice. She visibly began to shake, her huge eyes peered into his in a full swing of now cautious hurt, though Gideon squeezed his eyes shut, shook his head and sagged in a full show of trembling apology. His teary eyes glanced down to all the blood on his body before swinging upwards into Kepa's loving, nervous, twinkling gaze. He staggered on in a much softer tone of trembling desperation, "Please, I just... I just need you. I need you and no one else. Please."

"I'm here," Kepa shakily assured, and as she got the eyeful of Gideon's bloody, trembling right arm, she desperately felt the urge to sweep Gideon into a huge hug and comfort him, though a billion different worries and bigger priorities hit her brain. She gingerly plucked Gideon's wrist between her thumb and pointer finger and, as cautiously as she could, she opened his arm up and away from his chest. He sharply grimaced through the grit of bared teeth, scrunched his face and staggered a hard, loud groan of searing pain, and with the assessment, she knew she needed to work fast, "Gideon, this gash may need stitches, and fast... Look, I know how to handle wounds like this, and I can take care of it, but... It's gunna hurt. It's this or Lash's code room."

"It's fine, it's fine," Gideon rushed through a thick inhale; although he was in a lot of pain and likely wasn't in his right mind, the blaring signal at the forefront of his mind was to reject help from anyone within his familial circle. He knew that if worse came to worst, he'd game over inside Turbotime and simply regenerate, and it was either be healed at Kepa's hands or the hands of a proper game over. He shook his head and heaved a long, raspy, trembling breath through his mouth, "I trust you. I don't care if it's stupid, please don't contact anyone."

"Do they know you're here? Rest your arm over the sink, here, babe," Kepa instructed as she stood confident in Gideon's bubble; he sat on the stool with his knees lightly spread, his left hand clutched the left knee of his dusty grey jeans, and as Kepa maneuvered his limp, bloody arm over the huge sink, he sucked in a sharp breath and looked away in a tight grimace. Fully prepared for whatever was to happen, he succumbed to her care and sat still as she tilted the moveable, glossy silver faucet away from him and began to run hot water into the sink. She stepped away, opened a nearby drawer and began to rummage through it, "You're not gunna get any phone calls are you? Just a fair warning, if this cousin of yours decides to either call you or show up, they'll be dealing with me, claws out."

"No, no one knows I'm here, but surely Lash will know," Gideon staggered as his eyes aimlessly glossed their lovely, dim kitchen, though he flinched as Kepa's strong, long tail flipped a switch and turned on much brighter overhead lights so she could properly see. Although his eyes curiously tossed to what Kepa was preparing, he felt his stomach dip in mild terror the second he could see Kepa strike a match in preparation to sterilize a long sewing needle. He shut his eyes tight and firmly turned his head away in a dip of dread, "He might call, I don't know, I just... Got outta there."

"You wanna tell me about it now or distract you with another subject?" Kepa cooed in a softening, tender swing of easiness; although she was doing everything she could to not outwardly panic and freak out in this weird turn of events, she knew she needed to keep Gideon calm, here, and the only way to do so was to also remain calm.

"Distract me," Gideon's deep voice murmured in a tremble of a tight whimper as Kepa quickly began to wet a few loose rags she had in another drawer.

"You humans are really fascinating. You guys bleed easy, your skin is so fragile," Kepa inquired tenderly, and although she was nervous to handle Gideon in this regard, due to her current sentiment, she began to unravel the shirt Gideon had fastened to his upper arm. Gideon's deep voice rumbled a hard groan out to the kitchen as his heavy pulse began to deliver fresh blood to his gaping wound, though Kepa could tell he wanted to hold back outward shows of pain. She eased a small, shaky giggle and freed his arm of the shirt, though she quickly fastened a clean, thinner cloth into another tourniquet a bit higher above the gash so Gideon wouldn't lose more blood. She prepared a few soaps and ointments into a lather on her hands under the hot water that poured into the deep sink they were hovered above, "Also, I give you permission to yell at me, I understand you're in pain, love, you don't need to stifle it."

"Thank you," Gideon squeezed through the last bit of air in his lungs, he finally sucked in a sharp breath and expanded his powerful bare chest in preparation to complain at Kepa's mercy.

"I say all of that because, although there were humans that lived in Castle Run, we weren't allowed to interact with them," Kepa tenderly explained, her ears perked in full awareness, her huge, scarily sharp eyes pierced her chore, and in a brace, she began to run the warm water over Gideon's wound. Glad she braced for it, Gideon sucked in a tight breath and uttered a hard groan out to his left, so not to yell into Kepa's sensitive ears; she cutely flattened her ears in a pin tight to her head and understood that she likely should keep them there. Gideon heavily panted, to which she firmly cleaned his lower arm free of the blood that was now beginning to dry, "Slow, easy breaths, Gid, slow your breathing, I don't want you passing out."

"I'm trying," Gideon staggered as he sucked in a slower, trembling breath; he peered his hazy eyes to Kepa's little shoulder as she dried her right hand and warmly rested it to the left side of Gideon's jaw line.

"Follow my breaths, c'mon, breathe with me," Kepa cooed warmly, and as she took in a slow, deep breath through the wrinkle of her broad, flat cat nose, her eyes glossed Gideon's thick clavicles as he sucked in a breath with her and finally exhaled a slow, shaky breath alongside her lead. The two continued for five more breaths before she began to blot dry the area around Gideon's gash, "Good... Keep that up, slow breaths... Keep your heart rate low, the faster your heart pumps, the more blood you will lose."

"Okay," Gideon huffed shakily as Kepa now sagged deeper into the sprawl of Gideon's right arm and assessed his gash.

"Damn... Yeah, you need stitches. Not too deep, but... Any deeper, and maybe a half an inch higher, and he would've sliced a really important artery, right here," Kepa stated through grit fangs, she quickly began to reach for the tools she needed to properly clean and stitch up Gideon's gash, "Keep up the slow, steady breathing, and I'll tell you a little bit about my culture, okay? You don't have to respond, just focus on slowing your breathing.

"Okay," Gideon mumbled, it was clear he was beginning to calm down fully, though in the downswing, his already teary and sweaty face began to produce more tears and sweat; his facial expression read entire grief, mentally exhausted defeat, Kepa moved fast in hopes of reaching the point where she could properly scoop Gideon into a big hug and give him an official, solid point of full safety, both physically and mentally.

"In Castle Run, there are four species that are native to the game, y'have all three breeds of gargoyles, lion, hawk and dragon," Kepa listed gently, she began to cautiously add a sterilizing and cleansing substance to Gideon's wound which ultimately caused him to stiffen in the searing sting. He sharply grit his teeth, tilted his head off to the side and squeezed a hard, loud groan out to the air in the clench of his strong, bare core. He finally drew in a thick, raspy inhale through his teeth and began to heavily pant, once more, the tendons in his jugular stiffened alongside the bulge of his veins. Without removing her eyes from Gideon's gash, she gingerly rested her right hand to Gideon's left jawline, which she purposefully kept clean and dry. She gingerly stroked his cheek and collected him, once more, "Slow, slow... Easy breaths."

"Okay," Gideon's shaky voice huffed in a raspy whisper as he desperately did what he could to bring his breathing down, once more.

"The last species were human-gamers, they lived in the cities. Hawk gargoyles lived in monastery-like groups in the high cliffs, dragon gargoyles lived scattered about the city's outskirts, and... Humans inhabited the city," Kepa tenderly explained as she prepared her needle and thread; she felt a wiggle of nervousness spill down her. Although she had gone years without a code room, years having to heal and dress her own wounds, having to now deal with this sheer amount of flesh and blood, from a human, was nearly taking her out. She steadied herself and knew she had to be strong, to not let Gideon know that she was struggling with animalistic instincts in this moment. She huffed a shy breath and quickly dried her wet nose on the shoulder of her t-shirt, so to attempt to dull her sense of smell, the sheer sap of his pungent blood drowned out all of her senses silly, "Us lion gargoyles were the rarest, our population was the tiniest, and all of us lived at the castle. Our kind was dwarfed by a landslide, so leaving and interacting with anyone else was frowned upon because it could be dangerous. We were the ones that responded to quarter alerts. Our priority, first and foremost, was to protect those of us already alive, and to reproduce as much as possible."

"Did you...?" Gideon questioned through a shaky grunt, and though Kepa could feel her heart bounce about with all sorts of positive and negative emotions, she knew Gideon was only prodding to keep him purely distracted; had this topic come about naturally, she was sure Gideon would be a lot more shy and cautious about any questions he had.

"Have kittens? No, I wasn't allowed," Kepa guffawed with an easy giggle, a genuine hit of full emotional trauma she so skillfully concealed with a tender smile. She clenched her teeth and continued to talk as she began to stitch Gideon's gash. Although he had been doing good, the second glide of the needle through the gash had him uttering a hard, trembling noise out to the kitchen and just barely jostling his body forward in full, searing pain. Kepa released her hands of her chore so she wouldn't make the gash bigger, to which the needle remained gripped in mid-sew. She firmly planted her right hand to Gideon's broad, bare left shoulder and hurriedly peered into his face, "Hey, hey... Easy, love, you HAVE to sit still, I know it's hard, I know."

"Calling Lash is starting to be a potential option," Gideon's raspy voice uttered through a squeeze of a firm exhale of solid pain, he grimaced as Kepa just barely uttered a nervous giggle.

"No turning back now, my guy, you're doing really well. I'm almost done, I just need you to sit still and slow your breathing. You can yell at me all you want, just as long as you do those two things for me," Kepa rushed as Gideon bobbed a nod, grimaced, grappled the left knee of his jeans and hung his head. Kepa quickly though cautiously carried on stitching the long gash inside Gideon's arm as she continued talking, "I wasn't allowed to have kittens because I wasn't evolved. Only evolved females were chosen to reproduce with the evolved males. Not to say that I'm not capable, I'm a fully-developed gamer, it just... Was a very strict rule. I got into a lot of trouble with being too vocal about protesting rules, due to this, but... It's whatever. We had weird purity stigmas, and though I abided by them, it never felt right."

"Y-You can't choose when to molt, though, th-that seems unfair," Gideon staggered down to his lap, he grunted a hard noise of full pain out into the air, once more, and finished said grunt with a hard, staggering, loud groan of full, grimacing pain.

"Yeah, considering all my girl friends were gaining their pelts and being chosen to procreate with some of the biggest, strongest cats the castle had to afford," Kepa muttered in full disdain, she kept her beautiful, fully-dilated eyes tightly trained to her chore as she finished stitching Gideon's wound. She just barely shook her head and kept her ears pinned as Gideon's deep, raspy voice bellowed in full, echoey, guttural grunts of beastly power out into the gape of the common room, "I don't know what's wrong with me. Usually molting happens within a year, or two, of reached adulthood. I'm eleven and still have my adolescent fur, so... I really don't know what it's gunna take."

"It's okay, I like your freckles," Gideon's voice shook, a compliment he desperately tried to deliver but ended up squeezing a grunt of finalized pain down to his lap; Kepa beamed and shyly long-blinked as she tried to steady the last few stitches to Gideon's arm.

"Thank you, I've... Accepted my fate, it's no biggie," Kepa mumbled warmly, she inhaled a deep breath, stood to correction and assessed her handiwork.

Cleanly stitched up, Gideon raised his sweaty brow, tossed his tired eyes to the gape of his inner arm and shuddered at the sight. Angry, swollen and smeared with new blood, he patiently watched as Kepa began to clean everything up for good. Patient, clawless fingers began to work methodically, in rhythm with routine, as if this wasn't new to her. Gideon heaved a shaky breath and, although his wound throbbed and seared with full pain, he sagged and felt relieved the hard part was all over, and his wound was now on its way to healing. He knew he could get this wound reversed by the grace of either Sugar Rush's or Turbotime's code room, though now that he had chosen this path, to let Kepa help aid him, he knew now, in his heart of hearts, he'd live with the wound and allow it to heal naturally with no code room aid. Happy to now have a reminder of Callum's treachery, on top of a bigger reminder of Kepa's love, he sagged a bit and felt eternally relieved that the harder road he chose to travel down was now lined with a huge reward; Kepa's love.

"Alllright, my love, stitched like a teddy bear fresh off the factory line," Kepa's confident, adorable little voice chirped as she tossed Gideon a loving smile. He scoffed a shaky chuckle, looked away from her infectious, alluring gaze and heaved a trembly little sigh of nervous relief. Kepa washed her hands, threw away bloodied material, cleaned up the surrounding area and now took note of Gideon's bare torso. Still soaked in now dried, brown blood, his sculpted bare chest and right torso needed cleaning. Unsure how to go about this, she figured a shower was in order. She began to pull out a few other ointments and oils; unlabelled, Gideon cocked an eyebrow and assessed as she officially cleaned off his arm and prepared to now go down a more holistic avenue of healing, "Alright, I'm gunna put a few salves on here, and... Do some work. The pain's over with, but I'm not done yet, so just relax."

"Thank you," Gideon heaved shakily, though he brought his now more alert, abundant eye contact tight to what she was doing now that he could think straight.

Eager to see just what left she had to do, he steadied his shaky breathing and slowed his rapid-fire thoughts. As delicately as she could, she lathered a gentle oil about his wound, lulled her eyes closed and methodically began to run her fingers about the area inside a memorized routine. Gideon patiently watched her hand slowly move about, the trail of her two fingers eased about Gideon's stitched gash in a circular motion, and though she remained silent, she could see Kepa just barely mouthing a few words to herself. Through all the mental, emotional and physical pain, he felt the world hold still for the two in this moment of tender silence. How diligently she casted protection, how fervent she was to aid him, how easy this love felt, Gideon felt his walls crumble. His desperate attempts to keep it all together was now failing him, and though he was now becoming prepared to let her in, he lulled his teary eyes closed and knew it wouldn't be easy, and would likely include further side-stepping. She finally eased her hand away from Gideon's arm and began to cautiously wrap his thicker upper arm in a clean gauze and bandage. Once all finally sealed, all finally taken care of, she sagged to the full flat of her feet and now brought her tight attention to him, fully and officially.

Gideon grimaced as he lifted his right elbow and arm off of the bend of the sink, sagged his lower arm across his lap in a limp show of coddling and gingerly peered his tired eyes into Kepa's as they remained eye level with each other. Kepa hovered a foot from him, through this she hadn't even realized that she was confidently stood deep in the spread of his long, upper legs and bended knees. His bigger feet held propped on the rungs of the barstool's foot rest, his left arm held limp in his lap as well, though he cautiously opened his left hand as Kepa dared to slide her much littler hand down his left forearm until she properly sagged her tiny hand into his much bigger one. Kepa fervently peered into his tired eyes, and though he looked deflated, the light in his gaze was alive with questions, it flickered like little glimmers, fractals that showed glints into the future, Kepa heaved a shaky little breath and shyly perked her ears. In a dare to herself to get Gideon to open up, she spoke in a hushed tone as they hovered a mear foot or so from each other's being.

"What happened?" Kepa near-whispered, the two held in suspended certainty, though with the way Gideon breathed a shaky breath through his mouth and finally glossed his teary eyes to Kepa's collar and shoulders in soft contemplation, he finally took in a deep, readied breath and tried to be brave.

"My cousin, Callum, was standing near a wall I have outside my home, it's dedicated to my artwork. I thought he was admiring my work, but he was just waiting for me to come back from the area in which I keep Novus's saddle," Gideon patiently told, Kepa held onto his every word in prickled, frozen curiosity, "See... My siblings and the majority of my cousins attend Academy, in Arcadia... I went to Pre-A with Callum, though he's a few months older than me and I guess... He was too cool to be seen with me, a much younger child."

Kepa frowned and patiently listened as Gideon carried on, she didn't even dare shift on her feet due to hoping Gideon would carry on without distractions.

"I had a guidance counselor I leaned on, hardcore, while I was in Pre-A and... For some reason, they think he's an awful person associated with the dark web," Gideon nervously explained, "They think I'm up to no good, coming to your lighthouse and leaving Academy, and... Being friends with my old guidance counselor."

"But, you're NOT up to no good, so why does his word even matter?" Kepa cautiously whispered, Gideon bobbed a patient nod and looked off.

"... This was all my fault," Gideon mumbled nervously, now that the fog had lifted, he could see the situation for what it was, simply Callum's way of goading Gideon into making a huge mistake.

"It couldn't have been, he slashed you," Kepa complained delicately, the fierce, protective rage in her eyes was obvious.

"He goaded me... He goaded me and I threatened to kill him," Gideons staggered sorrowfully, though Kepa was surprised to see him get choked up.

"What could he have possibly said to bring you to that conclusion?" Kepa so delicately asked in such a way that could be viewed as loving curiosity, as opposed to sternly berating him.

"He spoke ill of someone I care so... So deeply for," Gideon mumbled shyly, he huffed a shaky breath as a few big tears finally spilled down his sticky cheeks.

"Who?" Kepa cooed in oblivious curiosity, surely thinking his parents were crossed, or someone else in Gideon's family, though with the way his teary eyes hooked up into hers in a slow reveal of full, fragile vulnerability, he uttered a croak of a word that had Kepa's heart leaping clear out of her chest.

"You," His voice lilted in a whisper of certain, loving nervousness. Kepa's adorable ears perked in a gentle twitch and hugged Gideon's words in a full splay, like lonely satellites in outer space desperate for a fresh beam of information from the ground. Gideon fervently peered into her stunned eyes as he lovingly squeezed her much tinier hand, "Kepa, there's... There's a lot about me you don't know, a lot about my life that I have withheld from you, but... I'm just not ready to let you in to that aspect of my life. It's full of toxic people I've grown up with, and... Surely one day I'll feel whole about it, but, for now, I'm begging for your patience."

"You have it," Kepa assured in a gentle, nervous whisper. She shook her head and furrowed her brow, "You've given me the world. Who am I to not give it back? It's yours, Gideon, it's yours."

"Thank you," Gideon whimpered, and it was here did he look as if he was about to have an aneurysm by just how much he was stifling the urge to outwardly weep; Kepa allowed a loving little smile to sprawl her cheeks, her heart throbbed with full certainty, and with a soul on fire to protect Gideon at all costs, she slipped her hand out of his and slid it up the whole of Gideon's left arm, to his broad shoulder.

"C'mere," Kepa whispered with a cute giggle as she gently tugged on Gideon's left shoulder, and with a great amount of ease and success, Gideon didn't waste any time to gently lurch forward in a display of defeat and thump the side of his head into Kepa's little right shoulder and splay of her delicate clavicle. Keeping his wounded arm tucked between the two, and careful not to lean any of his bloody torso into her, he heaved a shaky whimper of a breath into the side of her neck and squeezed his eyes shut in full defeat. Kepa beamed, and though she tightly lugged her littler arms about Gideon's much larger shoulders, she grunted a small giggle and wobbled at the sheer force of defeat he had offered her much littler body. No holds barred, she allowed their little ember of love to brighten in this tender instance, she swept her hands up Gideon's bare upper back and tenderly eased to a sag through his hair on the back of his scalp. Quietly, she ushered him a whispery, lovely breath of tender assurance over the top of his head as her chin secured him in their snuggly embrace, "I've gotcha. You're safe here... You're safe."

Gideon furrowed his eyebrows in a pang of further, bittersweet sorrow and grimaced into the bend of her little, velvety, fur-lined throat, and it was in this little bubble of full secrecy did he feel defeat hit him square between the eyes. In a full, silent unload, he choked a raspy, silent cry into her neck and collar, his tears spilled down her soft skin, the tug she ushered about his neck, head and shoulders only squeezed tighter. Kepa shut her eyes tight and felt her heart break at the sound of his shushed cries, the stagger of shaky inhales and exhales his tight ribcage ushered, his shoulders tenderly shook with the motion of it all. Kepa largely frowned and, with a further notion of casting herself into bigger stepping stones further out into the deeper waters of their love, she drew her claws and so carefully began to scratch all along Gideon's scalp. She breathed a happy, knowing little giggle out into the atmosphere as Gideon audibly moaned a nasally noise of further relief, to said head scratch, and sagged his upper weight into her fully, once and for all, weight she held up nicely.

"Now that you know my secret of being the best person to come to for head scratchies, I guess it's only fair to let you in on another secret of mine," Kepa mumbled cutely as she continued to drag her strong claws all along Gideon's scalp. The sharp goosebumps all along Gideon's arms and neck were entirely obvious, "I care very deeply for you, as well."

"I'm sorry if this is all so soon," Gideon shyly whispered, his deep voice crackled amidst trying to remain hushed, he tenderly huffed a small grimace of a cry into Kepa's neck and continued to allow himself to be entirely vulnerable in her loving embrace.

"It's only too soon if the recipient of said confession deems it to be," Kepa assured with a bashful smile, she lulled her eyes closed and felt bravery hit her dead on.

Desperate to give Gideon the soothing touch she knew so well, she was well aware she was only giving a very small portion of it, a full hit of comforting, familial love she had gone years without giving or receiving. Understanding that he had reserved space in his heart for her to be herself, uninhibited, she knew doing just that would fulfill Gideon's desire to give in ways she could only imagine. With one last brave inhale, she lulled her eyes closed and allowed her beautiful wings to unfurl from her powerful shoulder blades, and with a grunt of a much firmer, huger embrace, she shifted on her feet and easily encompassed Gideon's whole figure in a tight, protective ravel of her incredible wingspan. With the way Gideon's shaky breathing continued to huff in silent cries into her skin, she immediately understood that likely no one had been able to offer the adult version of himself this massive of a hug, the way he continued to find ways to sag deeper into her solid embrace, she securely gripped the hands of her wings in a tight, cocooning embrace about Gideon and made sure he was snug in her powerful, engulfing grip.

"May I please stay the night?" Gideon shyly whispered through his tears, to which Kepa huffed a quiet giggle and dared to tilt her head down and allow the warmth of her damp black nose to ease into his brow and upper right cheek.

"The answer will always be yes," Kepa returned quietly, and with one final little grunt, she shifted on her powerful feet, readjusted the tight snug of her arms and wings about Gideon's body and allowed a very real, raw show of her true nature to spill onto Gideon like an opened floodgate.

"Thank you," Gideon ushered in quiet, delighted, defeated relief; his heart fluttered wildly as Kepa's powerful snout began to huff hefty, chuffing sniffles into the side of his face and temple, and in full, rocked surprise, Gideon delicately raised his eyebrows at the loud, methodical sound that began to reverberate from Kepa's whole being.

Although Gideon had a loose idea of just what dainty purring would typically sound like, the sound that rolled with Kepa's easy breathing thumped out of her figure like the idle of a powerful motorboat. Solid purring that somehow drowned out every single last noise Arcade had to offer, Gideon fluttered his eyes in full, heart-throbbing delight and marinated in the soothing, hypnotizing sound of her slow, fervent, loud purring, the rhythm of it humming in his right ear had the hairs on the back of his neck standing stick straight. Not able to help himself, he began to source a wall of happiness that hugged his heart with surround sound, thumping love, his face began to cutely don a dorky, closed-mouth little grin of full relief, and as Kepa's whole being engulfed him in everything she was, he allowed her to whatever she felt necessary in the act of coddling however her species saw fit.

Fully on board for all of it, he felt his closed eyes roll into the back of his head in a full-body show of sagging relaxation, her hands so gently and carefully began to knead against Gideon's bare shoulders, clawless, the fervent, heavy and loud purring tight in his right ear was now accompanied by a few, quick inhales of sniffling assessment, and before Gideon knew it, she clung Gideon tighter to her and began to cutely groom the side of his head. Not even sure he could ever even imagine what this would feel like, he heaved a shaky, boyish chuckle into Kepa's neck as she fervently gripped him to her and lapped at the side of his head a few times, long laps of her sandpaper-like tongue, her heavy purring only got louder as she opened her mouth with each lap. Gideon grinned and uttered a teary, louder laugh into her neck and was floored she was comfortable with treating him like one of her own. She delivered firm, long laps of her rough tongue all along Gideon's shorter side burns and the longer hair on and around his temple, though he finally eased his left arm about the small of her back, through the bend of her velvety, elastic wing-webbing and made clear he didn't want her to let up.

"Y-You're gunna leave my face looking like I got road rash, or something," Gideon just barely uttered above a whisper littered with sweet, giddy laughter.

"It's like I said... You humans are so fragile," Kepa muttered through her purring, which eventually turned into hums of adorable trilling, and though Gideon's caution, she couldn't help but give a few more laps into the side of his head before she sniffled him for a moment and let up. She heaved a purring sigh through her nose and nuzzled her jaw tight into Gideon's forehead a few times, all ended with a gentle squish of her wet, black nose into his right eyebrow. She whispered down to him as she squeezed her wings about him, a bit tighter, "I'm sorry... It's been... A lot time since I've been able to comfort someone other than my own self."

"I'm happy to fill in for you," Gideon mumbled cutely, his voice was nasally from all the crying he had been doing, though he shut his eyes once more and relaxed in the huge honor he had been draped in, the reveal of her wings in a full, loving scoop of an eternal embrace.

Kepa smiled inside their snuggly embrace neither being was prepared to ease out of, she closed her eyes and heaved a long, purr-thumping sigh into the broad of Gideon's once-sweaty forehead. She squeezed Gideon and knew this hug was doing just as much for him as it was doing for her. Eager to truly dump every last ounce of love on each other, neither being swayed from this squeeze they held each other in. Eager to have a fun night full of jokes and good times and memories made, she was glad it all was starting out in this manner, glad their shy feelings were revealed in such a way that brought about solace and security, as if the lighthouse's lamp was simply to be powered by fanning the hot coals of their new love, and though they were both too nervous to come out with it all at once, the universe held the two suspended in a beam of goodness, a ray of light desperate to be expanded upon.