Prey and Praise

Rubicon had been volunteering at the pet training camp all day. He had quite the menagerie at his home from sweet strays to pampered pedigrees, and the cost of their food was getting out of hand.

Thankfully Hutch can be quite generous to those who help him out. Thus, Rubicon was running around and helping the other buns with training tips for the most part. It wasn’t until he realized that Hutch hadn’t asked anything of him in a while that he went and checked on the imp expert.

“Please… please just sit.”

Rubi found Hutch in a tricky situation. They were with a small Jestie who instead of listening to the command was spinning around on one foot. Hutch was clearly not amused, and Rubi could tell this only made the little imp more determined to get a laugh from the leader. Luckily Rubi had a solution. He walked up to the pair with something behind his back and got both of their attention.

“Hello there, Hutch. How’s training going?”

“Hey there, Rubi. This little jestie seems to think we’re at the circus.” Hutch side eyed the now flipping imp.

“I think I see the problem. You want him to listen, but he wants to make you laugh. Now if only there was a way to make sitting funny.”

Rubi looked to the left as he threw what he had to the right. It landed with a plop as Hutch and the jestie looked and saw a whoopie cushion on the ground. They met each other’s gaze before Hutch pointed a finger at the cushion and said his command.

“Sit, boy!”

The jestie leaped up and did a flip before landing bottom first onto the cushion. It let out a great big fart sound and got a laugh out of both of the buns.

“I think that did the trick!” Rubi said proud of his cleverness. “You even joined in the fun, Hutch. Good boy!”

Rubi teased and gave the shorter succubun a nudge. It took him a moment to notice how quiet Hutch had gotten. He began to worry that he might have said something wrong, but when he spotted the blush on their face he got a devious idea.

“I think this little jestie is doing great with his training. He’s got it Down, boy.” He says pointedly.

Hearing the command within makes Hutch weak in the knees and kneel before they can catch themselves. Rubi stifles a snicker behind his mask at their obedience but decides that’s enough for now.

“Feeling tired, bud? I can take over from here if you want.”

Hutch hops back up and nods, going back into the shade to watch as Rubi trains the imp with more practical joke based methods. They watched as he got the little joker to fetch juggling clubs and stay put by pretending it was in an invisible box. As the day got longer, everyone at the park began to pack up, and Hutch went over to wrap things up.

“That’s enough for now, but thanks for the help, Rubi!” They beamed.

“It’s no problem. A buddy of mine flunked out of clown college and left me her old props. You can keep them if you need to keep the jesties entertained.”

“That’d be great, come with me and we’ll get you your pet feed at the shop too.”

“Great, and if you want to bring it to my place I have a treat in mind for you as well.”

Hutch spaced out for a moment and was about to interject before Rubi assured him it was just ice cream awaiting him at his home. They definitely weren’t going to turn that down, so the two of them did what they needed to do and came back to Rubi’s house. It was a small place, and Hutch could tell he cared a lot for his imps and virtues with plenty of toys he cobbled together for them.

Rubi went back to his kitchen to get the ice cream and noticed he was out of clean bowls. At least bowls meant for buns. Hutch was in the middle of playing with a white sciel slithering up their arm when Rubi walked in with a surprise.

“Sorry but it looks like we’re out of bowls for people. A good boy like you shouldn’t mind, right?” Rubi hid a grin behind his mask as he held up the pet bowl of ice cream.

Hutch looked in disbelief and embarrassment but not disgust. They swallowed their pride and took the bowl in hand.

“Can I at least have a spoon?” They asked pleadingly.

“Out of those too, sorry.” Rubi shrugged.

Hutch let out a quiet sigh and began to lift it up to their mouth. At least the ice cream looked as good as promised.

“Psyche! You don’t actually have to, I'm just pulling your-” Rubi started to pull back, but it was too late.

Hutch was eating the ice cream hungrily after the long day outdoors. Now Rubi felt embarrassed as his prank went too far, and his payback was watching his friend chow down. Once the dessert was finished, Hutch smiled, perhaps defiantly, and thanked Rubi for the treat. Rubi played it off like it was all good fun and even wrote “HUTCH” on the bowl for the next time his friend came over. It had been a long day, and one where Rubi learned a lot about caring for pets of all types.