The luminous pearl still shone brightly in the quickly-dug cave inside the tunnel network, and it was here that St. Benjamin was attempting to sleep. That was difficult for him because no matter what he did, he could still hear the sounds of Samantha and Spencer interacting outside. They weren't particularly loud, but St. Benjamin's sensitive hearing was a curse, and he couldn't stop himself from feeling curious about just how far they would let things go. He was infuriated that Samantha would not only allow Spencer to hand-feed her, but that she would go so far as to reciprocate. It made him want to scream that their behavior was too intimate, and that they should just go ahead and mate if they wanted to make such a damned scene. The only thing holding him back from dropping that truth bomb was the inevitable question from Samantha that would bring back his cherished memories of feeding her himself while also destroying the possibility of its ever happening again. Having changed to his scorpion form to sleep, it was too difficult to keep his numerous legs still and his pincers from opening and closing tightly.

The cheerful conversation between the female and that fox entered the tunnel area, and St. Benjamin groaned inwardly. He did not want to bear witness to anything that happened between the two of them tonight, but again, his willpower wasn't strong enough to keep him from eavesdropping. "Thank you for the food," he heard her say, "I hope sometime you both will let me cook for you in return." Spencer was silent, and St. Benjamin understood why: no female in this world would ever offer to cook for a male, even if that male was her mate. It was a male's job to provide and prepare food to his female's liking if he wanted to stay in her good graces. "Samantha," Spencer began slowly, "that's not something that females here do." St. Benjamin, for once, agreed with the fox. Besides, he had never heard of a female who actually knew how to cook, though he had heard tales of the ones who tried while their mates were away. The memory brought a shit-eating smile to his face; if Spencer was determined to mate this female, he was going to have a hard life ahead of him.

"Okay, well, we can discuss it later," Samantha's voice echoed down the tunnel, "I'm tired, let's get some sleep." He heard her footsteps get louder as she made her way to the chamber he was in. Spencer must have caught up to her, because they stopped abruptly a few meters away from the chamber he had chosen to rest in. The fox could smell that he was in here, no doubt, and wouldn't want his female sleeping alongside a feral. 'She already has,' St. Benjamin reminded himself in a very satisfying thought, and he shifted back to his beastman form to potentially make room for Samantha in what would have otherwise been a cramped space. "Wait," he heard Spencer say, "We should dig a new burrow to sleep in tonight. There aren't enough furs to keep you warm during the coldest hours of the night and morning, but I can keep you warm with my own fur and body heat." The scorpion could feel all of his eyeballs rolling even though only two were visible. Was Samantha really going to fall for this crap?

"Why can't we just do that in the room we've already dug? St. Benjamin is already in there and he's probably been waiting for us. We shouldn't assume that just because he's a scorpion, he wouldn't like to be warm, too." Both males were stunned into silence by Samantha's argument. Neither of them had been mated to her, nor did they have any other relation to the female. There was no way two males would sleep peacefully in the same room with a single female. Not only was the idea completely foreign to the males, but both found the mere suggestion extremely grating. St. Benjamin, however, curled his beastman form into itself, wrapping his arms around himself as if he really was cold. He would not turn down this opportunity to make life difficult for that arrogant fox, and if he got another night of embracing that deliciously fat female out of the arrangement, he wouldn't turn it down. Pretending to sleep while continuing to listen, he heard Samantha insist on sleeping in the same room as himself. He didn't understand some of the words she used like "trauma", "therapy", or "support groups", but he did know that she was likening herself to him and coming to his defense. He felt a powerful warmth spread within him that he never imagined that little female could have brought out.

"He saved my life while you were gone, and I can't forget that nor can I brush aside the other kind things he has done for me," Samantha said, entering the room at last, "I'm sleeping in here tonight, and you're welcome to join me if you'd like to." Samantha rolled out that stinking deer pelt so close to St. Benjamin's body that it touched him in multiple places. "He saved me from starving to death when he didn't have to, so I'll keep him from the cold if I can. If you're afraid," Samantha taunted, "he made me a promise that he would never hurt you, so you don't need to worry about sleeping here if that's what's holding you back." She laid down in front of St. Benjamin, snuggling the back of her body into the front of his. It was all that the scorpion could do to keep his pincers still when he noticed her entire lack of clothing; her skin was still inconceivably smooth, and the large, pliant backside that wiggled against St. Benjamin's pelvis made him want to grab her injured hands and initiate the ages-old instinctual mating dance that his tribe had discarded generations ago. He moved his body slightly to initiate further skin contact with Samantha.

"See?" she whispered to Spencer, "He's cold, and he wants to share my body heat. I'm not going to take that away from him. He isn't evil; I can see that even if you can't, because I've been where he is now. What he needs is people who care about him and support him, not further isolation. He needs to be given a chance, and I'm going to give him one. I hope you can do the same." Spencer sighed, whispering only, "We'll see," in reply before becoming a fox and curling himself up to Samantha's front. He covered the exposed side of her body with his tail, opened one eye to examine St. Benjamin one more time, and prepared himself for sleep. "Thank you, Spencer," Samantha whispered again, placing her hand gently underneath his head to serve as a pillow, "I hope someday we can help you understand." Unaware that St. Benjamin was still awake, she draped his arm on top of her and curved it around her lower belly to help keep their bodies connected. Spencer responded by covering her shoulder with his paw and pulling her forward into his own embrace, and somewhere in the midst of this tug-of-war battle, the three intertwined individuals fell asleep.

Edit: 7 June 2021 - Tail, not fail omg