Coye 4.8 (Patreon)

Chapter 8 - Strategy Meeting

Coye was still suffering the aftereffects of his time spent with the Baddest Bitches. Chief of these aftereffects was that he was still incredibly turned on. He clutched his chest, a small smile spreading across his face as his eyes glazed over. His mind was abuzz with thoughts of his bullies and the way they treated him to the point where he felt intoxicated.

Meanwhile, Shayla was all too sober. There were so many things she had to say about each of the Baddest Bitches, some of them good, most of them bad. This wasn't a discussion she wanted to have, but he was liable to do something stupid if she didn't.

'Okay, baby. That was… a lot to digest…' Shayla started. 'I think you should head inside so we can have a nice talk about this after you sort your quest shit out.'

"S-Sure," Coye sighed wistfully and didn't look like he'd be getting up anytime soon.

She didn't want the answer, but Shayla asked anyways out of duty. 'You doing alright down there…?'

"Yeah, I'm fine. But did you see the way Britni pinned me?" Coye mumbled, his breathing quickening. "And that pissed off, angry look she gave me… I'm so stupid… why was I ever so afraid of her? She's so beautiful…!"

'Gods, this is gonna be a long fucking night…' Shayla cradled her forehead.

Coye got up and walked around the outside of the Guild at a brisk pace, remaining hunched over as he opened the front door. Dorothy returned to her station during his one-on-four time with the Bitches. She was in the middle of making up for Tammy's slack, who was nowhere to be seen. She set down the contents of an envelope she was reading as soon as she saw him.

"Oh, Coye? I… didn't expect you back so soon…" she stifled a happy yawn, then noticed a crucial part of his current condition. "Um, hey… you're looking a little flushed, there... you're sweating, too. Goodness. Is everything-"

"I-I'm fine, thanks," Coye rushed through the lobby and toward the cafeteria door, looking back at her long enough to say, "I'll be back in a few minutes! Need to head to the bathroom."

By the time Dorothy had just processed what had happened, Coye had all but burst into the nearest stall, shocking Shayla. 'Woah there, what the fuck, Coye?!' She blushed and hid her eyes as he undid his belt. 'This was one of the first things we talked about! I am NOT into this kinda stuff, so you need to go it alone when you have to… oh.'

Shayla watched dumbfounded as the boy firmly gripped his erect cock and aimed it down at the toilet. The sexual tension of his encounter was so impactful that his pleasure built up fast- even for him. He bit his lip, shut his eyes, and whined the more that his ecstasy overtook him.

Coye was finished in less than a minute, and he had a profound and fulfilling orgasm at the fantasy of Britni bullying him further and further. Once satisfied, he sat on the toilet and stared up at the ceiling, mouth agape as he caught his breath.

He'd just about forgotten he promised to talk with Shayla until she came out of his hat and looked at him with a stern expression. "And to think you were worried about what would happen once they came back," she jested.

"Yeah… I feel stupid about a lot of things right now…" Coye laughed awkwardly.

"I'm proud of you, baby. I mean, not about the whole masochistic 'bully me harder' shit you've got going on right now. That does have its charm, but I'm talking more about you handled the Bitches. All things considered, you were pretty chill... you know, until you weren't."

"I guess I changed a lot more than I thought during these last two weeks?" Coye couldn't suppress his smile.

"You're welcome," she winked.

"So, what do you think about the Baddest Bitches?" Coye asked, a sliver of hope in his voice.

"Now?" She looked around the toilet stall. "This can't wait till you turn in the quest?"

"I really want to know," Coye blushed and glanced off to the side. "Please?"

Shayla knew precisely what he wanted to know, and she rolled her eyes. "If you're hoping for me to tell you that each of them is hopelessly in love with you and ready to domme you at a moment's notice, then I've got some bad news. This shit is complicated."

"Well, I wasn't expecting it to be easy," Coye gulped.

"Good, because it won't be. Suzette and Byng? They were easy, both ready to love you the second you let them in. Hell, I was easy! The Baddest Bitches, though? They're not gonna come knocking on your tent like I did. Just to clarify- I'm not saying I endorse you going after any of these girls- but I will say you're gonna have to be persistent and do some chasing if you did."

"Chasing?" Coye tilted his head. "I could probably outrun Tiph, but-"

"Now what I meant, big guy," Shayla shook her head. "Ah, well. It's not important. You probably wanna start off hearing what I have to say about Big Bad Britni, don't you?"

"Y-Yeah," hearing her name filled him with exciting thoughts and made him smile. He never thought that would've been the case, but alas.

It was hard not to roll her eyes at that, but Shayla played it cool. "Well, first off… do the two of you have some kind of history together?" She asked.

"No, what do you mean?" The empty-headed boy had all but entered sage mode after his ejaculation yet still had no clue what Shayla meant.

"I'm talking about all that junk she said about how she was trying to help you and how she thinks you're not acting like the 'real' you. Unless she's mental, which I'm not ruling out, I don't see her saying that kind of crap for no reason. Just… try and think about it for a minute, baby. Did you do something to her in the past? Why did she start bullying you in the first place?"

Coye closed his eyes and sorted his memories. He came up empty and cursed his poor recollection, feeling like something important was just out of grasp. Coye felt better by telling himself if there was indeed something he missed in their past, it must not have been that important.

That, or he was just stupid.

"No idea. Britni and her party transferred here a year ago, and a few weeks later, she started teasing me. Before that, we didn't really say anything to each other. Things escalated until she dragged the others into it, which continued until we got to today." Coye said.

Shayla raised an eyebrow at him. There had to be some context regarding Britni's emotional outburst, but she wasn't a mind-reader, nor could she probe the memories Coye's idiot brain sorted into the rubbish bin. She'd have to give her thoughts while missing a crucial puzzle piece.

"Well, whatever," the Pixie sighed. "To put it as simply as I can, I think Britni likes you."

"Really?!" Coye blushed, pumped his fist, and smiled wide in excitement. Then he realized how honest his reaction was and blushed an even deeper shade of red.

"Try not to get too excited," Shayla chuckled, his enthusiasm winning her over momentarily. "We've gotta go over the bad news now. Where do I even fucking begin with that chick?" She held her head and sighed.

"Is it really gonna be that bad?" Coye frowned nervously.

"Oh yeah, Britni's… a real piece of work. We're talking issues upon issues. You know by now how I can read people's surface emotions, yeah? Well, hers are… Gods, they're just in constant conflict with each other. One second it's 'n him and o,' the next it's 'yes,' followed by 'maybe' before circling back around again. We've gotta be talking about layers and layers of cognitive dissonance. I don't think Britni even knows what she wants from you. Not really."

Coye felt a little down, and he shrank in his seat. Byng and Suzette came to mind as he asked, "I, um, didn't do this to her… did I? By not noticing she was into me?"

"Poor baby," Shayla was somewhat distracted by his innocent, adorable pouting, but she fought off the urge to coddle him. "That could very well be the case. The thing is, I don't know for sure... but for what it's worth, I personally get the feeling that whatever's wrong with Britni is coming from a much deeper place than unrequited love."

"I see," That came as a relief, even if only a small one. "So what do you think I should do?"

"What do you mean what should you do?"

"I mean how would you suggest I get closer to her?" He tilted his head like this was obvious.

"I thought you weren't gonna jump into any new relationships?" Shayla crossed her arms. "At least that was what you told me after you slept with Byng. You said you wanted to be open to taking more chances but weren't going to seek them out."

Coye averted his eyes. "I-I was asking, um, strictly hypothetically…"

"Yeah? Hypothetically I might believe you if you hadn't rushed past your crush to jack off to your bully in the toilet." Shayla bit back at him, causing him to shrink further. When she saw how quick that shut him up, she laughed. "But if I don't help you, who else will?" She shrugged.

"Thank you, Shayla," he gave her a heartfelt smile that made the Pixie blush slightly.

"The most important thing here is that you need to give Britni space. A lot of it. Try not to do what you did today again if you can help it, and by that I mean don't get all clingy or intentionally act annoying so that she'll bully you more. We'll just… keep an eye on her and try to get to the bottom of whatever's going on. Okay, baby?"

"Okay," Coye nodded blankly.

He'd never felt this giddy about a crush before. Not in the same way he was experiencing with Britni. His love for Dorothy mostly amounted to smiling awkwardly whenever he thought about her, but this was unadulterated excitement. Shayla thought it was somewhat cute if you ignored the masochistic undertones, how Britni was a total bitch and how he was interested in her for the wrong reasons.

Hoping to take his mind away from such desires, Shayla moved things on to the next member of the Baddest Bitches. "Let's talk about something a little easier. Coco." She said.

Coye blushed as he remembered the feeling of the cute little pup's nose inches away from his erection and how she would've pressed against it if she had just gotten a little closer.

"Go on," he said, hunching over for obvious reasons.

"Gods fucking damn it," Shayla sighed, refusing to acknowledge his latest hardon.

"S-Sorry, I-"

"It's whatever," Shayla dismissed him with a wave of her hand. "Moving on. Coco seems pretty simple at first glance, but I think there's more to her than it looks."

"You really think so?" Coye tilted his head. From his own experiences, he'd never seen Coco behave like anything more than a dog. Honestly, she embodied a lot of the negative stereotypes people propagated about Beastfolk. Coye had met many others of her kind who didn't act nearly as animalistic or at least didn't let it define their personality as much as Coco did.

"Yeah, I do. Coco's emotions weren't as jumbled as Britni's, but I sensed a lot of discontent and conflict coming from her. This was most obvious whenever she talked about you or when she and Britni had a little back-and-forth."

"Huh..." Coye thought aloud. "Why was she conflicted about me?"

"I speak Common and Faelish," Shayla shrugged. "My 'Bitch' is a little rusty. If I had to guess, I think Coco's mind was made up about you a long time ago. That, or she thought it was. Now that she sees the 'new' Coye, she doesn't know what to think. On the other hand, she might have always had some weird thoughts about you that she ignored because they didn't make sense until today? She was wagging that tail of hers at some pretty suspicious moments…"

Coye hadn't noticed, but he trusted Shayla's judgment. "Okay, but I still don't know about Coco. I mean, she and Britni-"

"I was just about to ask about that," Shayla sighed. "Do you know what's going on between them, or what? Are they together together, or is it a friends with benefits thing?"

"Yeah," Coye blushed, unable to avoid the mental image of the two girls 'together.' "I, uh, don't know the specifics, but they're pretty open about sleeping with each other."

Shayla cupped her chin. "Okay, next question. What's going on with the whole talking in third person thing?"

"Britni thinks it's cuter, I think?" Coye tilted his head. He'd never thought about that quirk before, but it struck him as odd, given the context.

"Riiiight," Shayla felt sympathy for the poor dog and shook her head. "Well, whatever it is, there's some kinda weird power dynamic thing going on there, and Coco isn't happy about it. Dunno why she'd subject herself to it, but what I do know is that for as much fun as I'd get out of seeing you become a home wrecker, the last thing I want is for you to insert yourself in someone else's relationship where you don't belong."

"Okay. I don't know Coco well enough, so I'm not in a rush. I don't know if I even want to, um, you know… chase her or anything..." is what Coye said, but even then, he couldn't help thinking about how cute she was and that drunken look on her face as she sniffed him.

"Good mindset, baby," Shayla nodded approvingly even though she correctly suspected he was full of shit. "That said, I feel kinda bad for her. Coco seemed… sad, I think? Which is too bad. She's funny and kind of cute if you're into the whole dog thing."

"You don't like dogs?" Coye asked, almost hurt by the sound of it.

"I don't like most things that could swallow me in one bite. Shouldn't you know that about me by now?"

"Right," he laughed softly. "My bad. Who's next?"

"You really just want me to run through the whole damn list, don't you?" She gave the boy a suspicious look while chuckling. "Baby, you can't have it both ways. It's either 'I'm not gonna rush into more relationships,' or 'I wanna know my chances with each of my four bullies.' Which is it?"

"I wanna know my chances with each of my four bullies," Coye said without hesitation.

"Wow," Shayla admired his honesty. "Talk about fickle."

"Who do you think I get that from?" he pointed out.

"Can't argue with that, baby," Shayla shrugged. "Let's talk about Marlie, then…" Coye gulped at the mention, prompting the inquisitive Pixie to call him out. "Mind telling me what that's all about? Do you have some kinda issues with her or something?"

"N-No," Coye looked away. "Not her in specific. Demonesses just kinda freak me out, that's all. Bad memories."

Shayla took that as shorthand for Coye not wanting to elaborate and left well enough alone. Must've been one of his bullies back in his hometown, she figured. They'd surely get to it in one of their dozens of upcoming therapy sessions.

"Well, how bad are we talking here? I'm not sure what the point of telling you my thoughts on Marlie if you're more scared of her than anything else."

"It's not as bad as it used to be," Coye blushed and twiddled his thumbs. "Just looking at Marlie used to scare me out a little, but now I, um... now I think I kinda like how she scares me…"

Shayla stared. "Y'know, baby, sometimes I feel like the day I run out of sarcastic ways to express my level of bewilderment over your constant bullshit is fast approaching."

"You'll think of more. You're smart and funny like that."

She hung her head and shrugged. "I appreciate your confidence in me, but I have serious doubts given the rate you're progressing. Ah, well. No matter what happens, I got your back."

"Thanks, Shayla," Coye smiled at her, and she returned the gesture, at least until he ruined the moment. "So, Marlie?" He asked, his excitement leaking like a child waiting for his mother's permission to pick out some candy.

Shayla held back the urge to zap him with a jolt of magic, especially since she knew he would enjoy it too much. His interest in his bullies was a good development for his confidence, and she wanted to help reinforce that. She merely rolled her eyes and continued on.

"Alright, so, heads up. I can't really read Marlie's surface emotions. I've never met a Demon before, so maybe this is just how it goes, but whenever I try, my head gets all hot and hurty. Everything I have to say is just normal observations. You got that?"

"That's still better than what I'd notice on my own," Coye argued.

"True enough. The way I see it is Marlie doesn't care about much in general. She's cold, aloof, but maybe there might be something warm and gooey underneath all that?"

"Warm and gooey…?" Coye blushed.

"Gods, get your mind outta the gutter and focus!" Shayla lost her willpower and succumbed, zapping him on his forehead.

"Gah!" Coye cried, though he felt a rush of adrenaline after the fact. He rubbed his forehead as the world surged around him.

"Not doing it for you?" She raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean...?" He asked innocently.

"Nevermind," Shayla shrugged. "I noticed that Marlie didn't really engage in the bullying. Is that normal for her?"

"Yeah, but she still takes advantage of it when it suits her," Coye said, thinking of the beer he bought for her.

"Sure, but she did ask for the cheapest thing on the menu." Shayla countered. "If you're so whipped that you're gonna buy them a round plus gravy anyway, might as well get in on it."

"True," Coye lowered his head in thought. "I guess she did try cooling the others down when things got out of hand, too. That was new."

"It might be like it was with Coco. She didn't think much of you until you started amusing her by getting on Britni's nerves and acting out of character."

"What do you think I should do then?"

"You tell me," Shayla crossed her arms and gave him a sassy look.

Coye gulped. "You mean like... come up with a strategy myself for getting closer to her?"

"Yup. Prove you're learning, baby. Gotta see if I'm talking to a brick wall or not."

Coye continued to think to himself after shutting his eyes. He still had doubts, but once he thought about it, a way forward came to him without much difficulty. He reopened his eyes and said, "Marlie is really quiet and reserved. She probably wouldn't like it if I got clingy and tried to make her notice me. Maybe just try and… um… casually chat with her more to keep showing her I'm… amusing now, I guess?"

"Wow, I could almost cry right about now!" Shayla laughed a deep laugh. "I'm so proud of you- that's pretty much exactly what I was gonna suggest!"

"Really?" Coye smiled wide, and his eyes sparkled. At that moment, he looked more like a puppy dog than Coco ever did, adorable tail wagging be damned.

"Yes! But you're not done. What kind of things would you talk to her about?"

"Um…" Coye was at a loss. Byng did enough talking for three people, and Suzette was happy just being around him. Initiating conversation wasn't his forte. While there were definite improvements since he met Shayla- actually chatting with Tammy came to mind- the act of reaching out to someone was still one he hadn't grown entirely comfortable with.

"It's okay," Shayla gave him a reassuring smile that eased all fears. "You're getting better at this and thinking things through yourself. That's an improvement, baby. It's okay if I still have to spell some stuff out for you every now and then."

"Thanks," Coye grinned. "Go ahead and spell it out for me, then."

"The key is to ask her about herself or talk to her about things she likes! There's nothing that turns a girl off more than a guy who just struts up and randomly starts hyping himself up," she shuddered, remembering some of the persistent, creepy boys back at the Fleeting Bough. Just because she grew tits faster than all the other girls her age didn't mean she was interested in putting them to use. "Think about it like this. You're a better listener than you are a talker. You like hearing Suzette chat about her store, yeah?"

"I do," Coye nodded.

"And you love hearing about Byng's Homerealm?"

"Yeah, a lot."

"Then just try and get her talking about herself, and it'll work out from there! What all do you know about her?"

Coye cupped his chin and thought aloud, "I know she really likes magic weapons. Does that count?"

"Sure does! What else?"

"I think I heard her dad is some big important Demon Prince down in the Endless Hells," Coye said.

Shayla's eye twitched. "Hey, baby? Do you mind going back and running that past me one more time?"

"Uh, sure? I said she really likes magic weapons. She's always sharpening one or inspecting something out of her collection, and- Ow!" Shayla zapped him.

"Not that! The part about her dad being a fucking Demon Prince!" she shouted. "Did you not think that information was worth sharing, or what?! That's, like, the biggest red flag in the history of red flags! Hell, this is the fucking red flags all other red flags were based on! Gods, I just fucking gave you advice for hitting on a Demon Prince's daughter…!" Shayla shoved her aching head into her hands, ashamed and frightened.

Coye tilted his head. "What's the problem? I bet my dad could beat up her dad."

Shayla stared at him in disbelief. "It's… it's finally happened. I officially have nothing I can say to sarcastically express my bewilderment. Congratu-fucking-lations…" she sighed.

"It's true, though," Coye insisted.

Shayla ignored his odd confidence in his dad, asking, "Do you seriously not understand how bad of an idea hitting on Marlie would be? It doesn't matter how hot she is. She's way, way more trouble than she's worth."

"I… guess you're right," Coye admitted. "Things might be pretty complicated with her, yeah."

"Glad to see you understand that much," Shayla shook her head. "So we're in agreement that Marlie is off limits, right?"

Coye was silent.

"So we're in agreement that Marlie is off limits, right?" Shayla repeated.

"It's like you always say, Shayla," Coye pumped his fist and looked off into the horizon with determination. "We'll take things one day at a time and see what happens. Now all that's left is Tiph, right?" He added in before she could respond to his blatant dismissal.

Shayla was already mentally exhausted, and this topic only made it worse. She decided not to bother dwelling on Marlie and instead focused on wrapping this up. "Forget about her," she said bluntly. "She's not even worth talking about."

"Shayla?"

She raised her pointer finger to him aggressively. "Before you ask, this isn't because she's an alchemist."

"Not at all?" He asked with rising suspicion.

"…Fine," Shayla sighed. "That may somewhat factor into my distaste for Tiph, but I've got many more reasons than her choice of career. She could be a Luxist Nun for all I care, and I'd still feel the same."

"Alright, I believe you. Go ahead, then."

Shayla scratched her chin. "Putting it as simply as I can, that woman is trouble. Not sure why you apparently think she's the 'nice' one like you've told me before. I just don't see it at all."

This news came as a surprise to the naive boy. "Really? But… Tiph is so friendly. She's always giving me a lot of compliments and laughing like she's having a good time…"

"Oh, my sweet, sweet, naive little Coye..." Shayla sighed. "First off, those compliments were sarcastic, and all the laughing wasn't coming from the best of places."

Coye looked at the ground and frowned. He could see how her compliments might've been backhanded on second thought. "Okay, sure. If that's true, then she's a little meaner than I realized, but I don't get why you're jumping all the way to her being a bad person."

"Gee, it's almost like I can sense the vibes coming off of most people because I'm magically in tune with the thoughts and feelings of others?" Shayla said with a narrowed brow and her hands firmly on her hips. Coye shrunk back, so she continued. "Pretty much every little thought she had during that whole encounter was… bitter. I'd even go so far as to call her toxic."

"That's… a really harsh word…" Coye frowned.

"You asked me what I felt about her, and those are my honest thoughts. Feel free to take or leave them… but really, baby, I hope you'll take them. Tiph is no good- I'm sure of it."

Coye was disappointed to learn this but was even more disappointed when he recapped the conversation in his head and realized what Shayla's hot takes on the Baddest Bitches added up to. "Hey, wait a second. You pretty much told me to stay away from all four of them!"

"And I had good reasons for each! Britni is crazy, Coco has shit to work out, Marlie's dad will end you, and I'll end you myself if you hit on Tiph."

"Damn it," Coye pouted and looked down at the ground. "This sucks..."

Shayla recognized that face, and it tore at her. Coye wouldn't forget his latest bullying session any time soon, and he obviously desired some sort of go-ahead from his floating voice of reason to enable him to pursue more of it. As a Pixie, she wanted nothing more than to see all the chaos that would unfold if he started chasing the skirts of these problematic girls, but as his lover, she felt obligated to look after his best interests.

Maybe she could encourage both?

"Sorry if you got your hopes up, baby," She flew in close and caressed his cheek with her tiny hand… and then gave in to her Pixie impulses by planting a wicked little seed. "But hey, you're the one who calls the shots. It's not like I'm gonna abandon you if you do something stupid or don't follow my advice…"

"...Are you not-so-subtly telling me to just do what I want?" He asked.

"No," Shayla sighed and scratched her ear. "I'm implying it. That way, I reserve the right to tell you 'I told you so' as soon as warranted."

"Sounds like a pretty good trade-off," Coye smiled, his simple mind already buzzing with possibilities of where his relationships could go from here on out with that group of unpredictable girls.

"You would think that, wouldn't you?" She laughed, then flew up and lifted the brim of his hat. "Now hurry and finish up with your post-nut clarity. You've gotta talk to Dorothy, get some dinner, and have some fun with me before bed. We got a big day ahead of us tomorrow, so chop-chop!"

"You got it," Coye rose and buckled his belt. Freshly drained and feeling momentary relief, he was now ready to face his Guild Mistress and tell her the big news.