℘ Synopsis: In which you lose a deal to your boyfriend, you now have to face your fears—petting his llamas.
℘ WC: 1.6k
A/N: This fic was so funny for me to make bc i’m lowkey scared of animals, so i was delulu imagining how michael would’ve been helping me😭 (also side note ik he didn’t have Lola and Louie at the same time—rip Lola 😭 but i wanted a cute scene of them petting both of them together!)
You were terrified. And I mean, terrified of animals. And it didn’t help that your boyfriend was practically the male version of snow white.
There was nothing Michael didn’t have over at Hayvenhurst from llamas, monkeys, peacocks, dogs, parrots–of every kind, snakes and ostriches, the list just went on.
When you thought about it, you had no idea where your fear had stemmed from. It wasn’t like you found the sight of animals repulsive, you thought they were adorable. But to actually go and pet one? Or go within three feet of one? Hell.No.
The only exception was bubbles. You found bubbles sweet and funny, you didn’t pet him but you sometimes gave him treats and high fives. But even then, Michael had to be holding him for you to feel fully comfortable.
Last week at Hayvenhurst you were round for dinner—a usual occurrence given that the entire family loved you. After the washing up was done and the table was cleared, his family headed upstairs to go to bed but you and Michael had remained downstairs moving to the living room to watch a midnight movie—one of your favourite things to do together.
You both settled on a slasher horror movie from the early 80s that you both had never seen before, which was funny because the two of you hated scary movies but you thought why not.
“I can’t look.” Michael raises his hands covering his face.
“Neither can I…” You whisper with your own face covered by a pillow.
“How much you wanna bet he’s right behind her?” Michael whispers.
“No, no he’s definitely still in that closet Mike.”
“No way he can’t still be in there after ten minutes baby, i promise ya he’s right on her tail.” He whispers as both of you are practically trying to enter each other's skin with how pressed up together you are.
“I’m tellin ya mike he’s still in that closet, there’s too many people around for him to do somethin stupid.”
“Baby I'm tellin ya he’s not.”
“Fine. Let’s make a deal.”
Bad decision.
“Sure.”
“If he’s still in that closet, you owe me back massages for a whole week.”
“Deal. And if he’s not?”
“If he’s not…then….” You trail off trying to think.
“You have to pet all my animals.”
Your head whips towards Michael’s as he's chuckling with his head thrown back at your reaction, your jaw drops.
“Michael, no way.”
“Yes way.” He says still cracking up
“No.”
“Okay my llamas at least? Please c'mon they are the friendliest!”
“Y’know what? Fine. deal. Because I'm so certain his ass is still in that closet. And I can't wait to prove you wrong.”
“Whatever you say baby.”
You and Michael continue to stay huddled close together, he’s now sharing your pillow, joining you in looking over it at the television that's currently displaying the eerie silent scene that makes you and Michael hold you breath watching through narrowed eyes at the character walking through a dark part of the house, the sound of the characters footsteps making the floor board creak makes you grip onto Michael’s hand.
Suddenly…a loud bang sounds causing you and Michael to almost jump off the couch, screaming as the killer attacks the character from behind—the killer who was in fact not in the closet.
When the gruesome scene finally ends Michael lowers the pillow and turns to you with a shit eating grin.
“No.”
“A deal is a deal baby.”
“Michael no. no. fucking. way. Are you out of your mind? I can't pet your animals!”
“Oh baby c’monn, please? This is a perfect opportunity for you to get over your fears.”
“No way Michael. Hell would have to freeze over.”
𓂃⋆.˚
Hell unfortunately didn’t freeze over, but his continuous begging, pleading and even bruising your ego by calling you a chicken–is how you found yourself the next day being dramatically pulled by his hand as Michael leads you to the cage where his two llamas are.
“Oh Michael I can't.” You whine trying to turn back around but he grips your shoulders redirecting you.
“C’mon baby I'm right here I promise they won’t hurt you.”
Finally approaching the llama side of his mini zoo at Hayvenhurst, you remain five feet apart from the gate as Michael walks in front of the two Peruvian llamas, extending out his hand to stroke the male one that comes to him first–Louie.
“Hi Louie, how are ya today?” He asks, speaking to his pet friend as if he was an ordinary human, stroking his ear and giving him a kiss on the side of his furry face.
Despite feeling anxious near his animals, you always melt at the sight of Michael interacting with them, it always touched your heart to see how loving and gentle he was along with how his beautiful spirit made even animals feel safe around him.
After pressing kisses on the female one–Lola, he turns to you with a soft smile extending his hand, “C’mere baby, i promise they don’t bite.”
You begin to walk forward very slowly as if the llamas would charge at you “Oh gosh they’re lookin right at me mike!”
He chuckles at your dramatics shaking his head “They just wanna say hi baby, i tell em about you all the time.”
You continue to take agonizingly slow steps towards the cage which would drive anyone else insane but Michael is patient he doesn’t get irritated or rush you, when you finally stand where he is you cling onto him as he wraps his arm around your waist holding you close before giving your lips a peck.
“I got you baby I promise. Okay now just reach out your hand and stroke Lola’s fur, here look.” He demonstrates reaching his hand out and stroking the top of her backs fur soothingly “See? Just like that, soft n gentle she wont hurt you i swear on it.”
You take a deep breath as Michael rubs your arm supportively as you reach your shaky hand forward towards Lola, when Lola senses your hand she abruptly turns her nose to sniff it making you flinch backwards but Michael holds you firmly.
“Oh my gosh–”
“It's okay baby! It's okay! It's normal, she just wants to get used to your scent she won’t hurt you.” You roll your shoulders taking another deep breath.
“Mike, I don't know about this.”
“My love im right here she won’t harm you, okay? here lets do it together.”
He holds onto our wrist before sliding his hand over yours so that it becomes one as both of you lean it forward until your palm connects to her thick coat of fur as her soothing heat seeps through your fingers, you release a surprised gasp at the softness, this was your first time petting an animal–ever.
“See? There you go baby.” Michael whispers with a proud growing smile watching you stroke your palm back and forth over Lola’s fur, he’s removed his hand from yours ages ago but you haven’t realised.
“Shes so soft and warm” You whisper unaware of the warm smile that's painted your own face. The llama makes soft humming sounds indicating she's enjoying the strokes just as Louie makes his way over wanting some attention too.
“Looks like Louie wants some love too baby.” Michael whispers, caressing Louie's furry face.
You decide to be brave, removing your hand away from Lola to move it towards Louie who is currently getting love from Michael. When Michael sees your hand reaching out for Louie his eyes light up with a big smile as you stroke Louie with a little bit more confidence, even moving to stroke his ears where Michael just was.
“Baby you’re doin it! Oh my gosh m'so proud of you.”
You smile shyly at your boyfriend's praises, feeling as if you were a child who just learnt to ride a bike for the first time.
“See? Look they love you baby, told ya so.” He whispers giving Lola some attention as you continue to pet Louie.
“Wanna feed em?” He asks as you turn your head to him.
“Mmm..i dunno mike–”
“C’mon please? I promise you’ll enjoy it.”
You exhale softly knowing that you’ve gained a little bit more confidence seeing that they have in fact been harmless towards you so far. “Alright..but just a little bit.”
“Of course!” Michael says before reaching below to where a bucket of hay is, grabbing a small handful and placing it in your palms.
“Here baby, okay just reach your palms out and Louie will eat it.”
Feeling jittery again, you reach out your hay filled palms slightly flinching when Louie’s attention is back on you as he heads over leaning his neck down before using his tongue to collect the hay into his mouth.
You laugh feeling the slickness of his tongue tickle your palms as he finishes it all hungrily you can’t help but watch in awe “Good job Louie.” You say stroking the top of his furry head.
This continues for about twenty minutes, feeding the llamas hay and grass with Michael who joins in whilst watching you fondly making sure you’re okay. He witnesses your fear of them melt away into adoration, a complete contrast of the scared girl he brought over to Hayvenhurst for the time. He sees your new confidence taking over as you continue to speak to them the way he does, and even shocking both him and yourself when you lean in pressing a kiss on both of them.
You turn your head meeting Michael’s eyes that's already trained on you with pride mirroring his own warm smile with your own “I can’t believe I'm really doin this mike!” You exclaim excitedly as Michael laughs handing you more grass.
“I always knew you could baby. See? Completely harmless.”
“You’re right, they're sweethearts! I was scared for nothing!”
“Mhm, soo…are you ready for the tigers?”
He watches the smile on your face drop faster than lightening as he drops the bucket of grass laughing loudly holding his stomach.
