Team Spirit

Holding onto a wiggly and wet impup was not a task for the faint of heart.

Fortunately, not only were Andi and Quince not faint of heart, they also had plenty of muscle between them to keep Wave from wriggling away.

Wave whined as Quince scrubbed her ears.  “Oh honey,” the bun said, all sympathy.  “Mademoiselle, Peach, and Adi weren’t nearly as much of a sad sack as you’re bein’ now.”

Wave gave the other three imps a sulky look, tail drooping.

Adi and Peach, busy cuddling together on top of the fast asleep Kaili, ignored Wave’s sadness.  The two gravitated together anytime they were near, so it was little surprise that they weren’t going to interrupt their cuddlefest for an imp who didn’t like being bathed.  (Of course, they’d both been bathed and blow-dryed together, which had done much to quell any sadness for Peach…and Adi was fine with water, being a marine imp).

Mademoiselle gave her own long sigh when Wave’s pleading eyes landed on her.  She thumped her tail and rolled over against Kaili, disinclined to help.

Wave whined again, as Quince finished cleaning her ears.

“You’ll be nice and clean like the others soon,” Andi promised her, giving her forehead a smooch.  “And then you’ll all get to have some treats.”

That did not seem to buoy Wave’s spirits - but then, the impup wasn’t quite as good at understanding Succubun language as Peach or Mademoiselle - let alone Adi.  She seemed to know the word for dango, and a few commands that Andi had taught her (mostly to sit, stay, and run - though Kaili had been trying to teach her to fetch when she was left at home, to… mixed results).

“Poor little impuppy,” Quince said, grinning as Andi shifted her grip on Wave so she could clean her belly.  “There’s a lot of buns who’d love to be in your shoes right now, you know… but you’re too little to appreciate it.”  She lathered some soap over Wave’s tummy.  “If you hadn’t gotten into that patch of mud, this grooming wouldn’t be nearly as intense, you know.”

Wave whined again, trying to wiggle out of Andi’s hands.  Although her owner was gentle, she was firm - there wasn’t going to be any getting away.

Kaili stirred slightly, blinking her eyes as she looked up from where she was sprawled with the other three imps.  “Still grooming her?” she asked, surprised.

“I’m surprised you slept through the excitement…” Quince laughed.  “A customer came in when we were almost finished bathing her, and Wave wiggled away and went tearing off outside the shop.  Took Andi and me a bit to catch her, and she’d gotten into some mud.  So it’s more like we’re grooming her again.”

Kaili giggled too, reaching her hands up to give some pets to Adi and Peach, who sounded contented as they were pet.  “Oh no…  Glad you caught her.”

“Us too, Hutch would have been delighted to find her misbehaving,” Quince said.  She sighed slightly - plenty over this rivalry she hadn’t even wanted.  “She’s a good girl though, even if she doesn’t like getting baths.”  She rinsed Wave off, and then her own hands.  Then, she took Wave from Andi.

Andi rinsed her hands as well, while Quince got her collar hooked onto one of the grooming tables near the imp tub.

She also dried her hands, as did Quince, before picking up the blow dryer.  “Ready?”

“Yup.  She’s all secure now.”  Quince took up a brush, moving to carefully groom Wave as Andi blow-dried her.

The already noisy process was made louder by Wave’s whines and barks.  She did not appreciate the hot air being blown in her face, and she was absolutely intent on making sure everyone knew it.

Kaili covered her ears with the phloofs, grimacing at the ruckus.  “Wave, please…”

The grooming was done after a little bit, and the barking stopped with the blow-dryer being turned off. Then, while Kaili released the two phloofs from the job of protecting her ears, Andi grabbed Wave’s normal collar, a cute one that resembled marine patterns.  She got it fastened on before taking the simple bath collar off.

Freed from the grooming table’s constraints, Wave flung herself at Kaili, whining and cuddling into her chest, giving the most pitiful eyes she possibly could to the only bun who had not taken part in cleaning her.

“Oh you big, sad baby,” Kaili said, with a long-suffering sigh.  “Andi, I think she needs dango to forgive you.”

Wave’s tail tentatively wagged at hearing one of her favorite words, though she refused to look at Andi.

Andi laughed, hurrying into the back to get the dango she had brought with her.  While Quince had plenty of delicious treats she fed her imps, plenty of imps had their favorites - and Wave’s was raspberry dango.

When she re-emerged with the stick of dango, offering it to Wave, the impup examined it cautiously, before her body stretched out to absorb the dango.  She let Andi pet her a little, but remained glued to Kaili.

“You know I won’t protect you from baths…” Kaili muttered, scratching her anyways.

“I guess it’s a good time to take a break before we start trying to teach them new commands, then,” Quince said.  “Hopefully she’ll forgive us while we eat lunch.”  She walked towards the back room.  “I’ve got some nice treats put together we can all eat, hopefully that will make up for the baths.”

Kaili yawned, scooping Wave up with her so she could stand and head for the table in the back room.  “I sure hope so.  Adi, Peach, Mademoiselle, come on, let’s go get seated.”

The two phloofs floated after her, and Mademoiselle, after a long yawn, followed after them, leaving Andi to bring up the rear.  At least the grooming was done - hopefully the other tasks for the day would be easier.

Unfortunately, when they got to training work after lunch, it was decidedly not easier.

Adi was easy to teach new commands to, at least.  Kaili was working on teaching her more item words, so she could fetch things better.  She’d had to adjust her ideas a little, given how small phloofs were, but she could get her to fetch light things like small cans, glasses, her phone, or her wallet with ease.

“Good girl, Adi!”  Kaili looked delighted as she held a treat bag in her hands, which Adi had brought her easily after learning to identify it as ‘treat bag’.

The little phloof’s tail swung happily as Kaili removed some of her favorite mochi from the bag and handed it over to her so she could eat it.

Peach wasn’t being trained today, so she just watched from Quince’s shoulder as her owner worked with one of the shop’s stellarams, who she was training to help his future owner, a bun known for dramatic bouts of sadness.  The stellaram had been chosen for his even temperament and intelligence, and he certainly proved it as Quince put him through her training routine.  He knew the names of multiple body parts, flitting to them to give cuddles and loving nuzzles as Quince indicated them.  By the time she was done, he had learned what a tissue box was, and the easiest way to hold it in order to bring it over to a bun.

Mademoiselle didn’t have particularly intensive training, unlike the other two.  Quince just reinforced what she already knew.

The cutest command was Mademoiselle doing a little dance on her hind legs, of course.  Kaili and Andi couldn’t help getting a little distracted from their own work to aww at it.

Wave, of course, had decided to be a problem again.  Although generally well behaved, she had not liked being cleaned, and was certainly not about to let anyone forget what she had not.

Eventually, Andi just sighed and stood up, giving up on attempt number thirty at trying to get her impup to sit.  “Quince, could I borrow Mademoiselle?”

“Going to try making Wave jealous?” Quince asked, laughter touching her voice.  “That sounds like a good idea.”

Andi hadn’t entirely thought it out that far, she’d just wanted to see if maybe she was doing something wrong - but jealousy might work on Wave right now, she supposed, if she realized she was the only imp not getting attention.  “Might as well.  She doesn’t get jealous over Adi, but maybe it’ll be different for an imp who doesn’t live with her.”

Quince squatted to pet Wave briefly after handing over Mademoiselle’s treat bag to Andi, before standing up to give Peach a treat and take out her phone.  She watched with amusement as Andi repeated her commands to Mademoiselle, making sure to record Mademoiselle doing her dance again.

Wave got grumpier through Andi’s session with Mademoiselle.  She could see Kaili giving treats to Adi, Quince giving treats to Peach and the stellaram, and worst of all, her own bun giving treats and attention to Mademoiselle. Eventually, seeing Andi going to get Mademoiselle to do her dance once more, she’d had enough.  She raced in to Mademoiselle’s side, doing her best to imitate the trick.  She didn’t do as well on her hind legs as Mademoiselle did, since she had never done it before, but the attempt was made admirably.

Andi moved quickly to reward both, of course, and Wave’s tail wagged happily as she accepted her dango.

Quince accepted Mademoiselle’s treat bag back with a smile.  “I’ll send you the video after,” she promised.

Andi grinned.  “I can’t wait - though we’ll go back to what we were trying to do first.  Come on, Wave, lie down.”

Wave whined - she didn’t like the tricks where she had to stay still as much.  Still, she didn’t want her bun going back to that other imp, so she laid down.

It seemed the difficulties were mostly done, now.  Andi was able to walk Wave through the rest of the tricks she knew, and to even get her to try the dance again, without issue, after that.

“Guess we’ll have to try to keep bath days separate from training days in the future for Wave,” Quince said, later, as the couple prepared to leave the shop with their now sleepy imps.

“Hopefully next bath day we can avoid having to bathe her twice,” Andi said, grinning.  She didn’t seem to be at all bothered by the fact she had Kaili riding on her back.  Her girlfriend’s head was buried in her hair, and she was fast asleep - just Adi and Wave, who were fast asleep on her shoulders.

“You think you’re okay to get home with them all like this?” Quince asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Andi said, grinning.  “I do this a lot when we go out, it’s fine.”

Quince laughed.  “Well, goodnight then, Andi.”

“Goodnight, Quince.”

Farewells said, she headed home.  Hopefully the rest of their training days would be easier.