(Untitled)

[good_dug]

Doors open in Milliways all the time. They're not unusual. Often-seen patrons of said bar probably have ceased to notice them. This one in particular could very easily go unnoticed, being quite small, and square, and low to the ground. If it continued to stay silent and closed, it's likely no one would ever pay it a second thought.

Which, of course

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[ikissdhimbck]

She knows that voice.

Kate spins on her heel, blue eyes searching the crowded room.

"Dug?"

[good_dug]

Dug is still leaping and barking and generally making a huge scene when the voice manages to worm its way into his ear. He stops for a moment, head cocked on one side, whole body vibrating with furious tension as he strains to figure out where it's coming from.

Then he catches the scent, all familiar spice, and he pauses only long enough to seize the battered Octoplushie before cutting a swathe of destruction through the room, knocking aside rats and patrons alike on his beeline for Kate-who-is-his-mistress-here.

And when he gets there?

Well, he's lost a little weight since he was last here, but she'd better be ready for a hundred-odd pounds of excited dog slamming into her at top speed.

[ikissdhimbck]

She's so relieved to see him that she doesn't even think twice about it. She smiles -- no, she beams -- using muscles she hasn't used in months that already ache, threatening to split her face clean wide.

She's lost a little weight herself, which likely makes Dug and herself roughly the same size, so even as she drops to a knee to take the impact, she goes flying back against hardwood.

Even then, her only thought is to save her hat -- which ends up skipping a few feet away.

[good_dug]

Luckily Dug is a good dog and so he only stays on Kate for a moment! Long enough to wiggle himself all up and over her nice clean clothes and leave mounds of dog hair behind, long enough to somehow manage to jam his limbs into every sensitive, ticklish spot she has through some kind of weird doggy-psychic power. Of course, when he sees the hat go flying he bounds off her, leaving a suspiciously sticky stuffed octopus behind on Kate's head.

Maybe it's a new hat?

Regardless, the old one is back in moments, dangling carefully from his clenched jaws. Dug really is trying not to put a mark in it, and he's actually been fairly successful, as Kate will see when he lays it down next to her.

He then drops into a crouch, tail creating a small localized whirlwind. "Kate! I was gone! I was home! On the airship! And now I am back! Do you see me? I am here again!"

[ikissdhimbck]

She laughs.

She laughs, and she doesn't mind the few dozen simultaneous poking bones and paws, or the suspicious sticky substances, or the wriggling and the fact that she'll smell like dog when she heads upstairs, which means Rosencrantz and Guildenstern will look at her as if she's turned into a monster.

"I see you!" she informs him, rolling onto a hip and immediately applying skritches to that sensitive spot behind his ears. "Boy, am I glad t'see you, too! I looked high an' low for you this summer; I was worried you'd been re-sold by that schemin' woman again."

[good_dug]

"I went through a door!" The voice continues from Dug's collar as he sprawls over next to her, mouth wide and panting, occasionally sneaking in a lick at her wrist. Every few moments he groans deeply as she hits that sweet spot, and his hind paws jerk and peddle at the air.

"I went through a door and I was on the airship and I could not find the door back." He goes limp for a moment, eyes big and sad. "And no one believed me and they said I was making up stories even when I showed them my scary toy. And they chewed up my toy and said I could not help them anymore because I was a..."

A shiver runs through him. "I was a bad boy."

Almost instantly though, his tail starts flipping again, and his tail runs out in a doggy laugh. "But now I am here! And with you!"

[ikissdhimbck]

Her face runs through the whole gamut of expression, from excitement to sympathy, sorrow to happiness. She takes the occasional darting of his tongue in stride, never pausing in her affections.

"You are not a bad boy. Y'let anyone who tries t'tell you otherwise know that they'll hafta answer t'me."

She picks up the tattered and slobbery plushie.

"And there are more where this came from, sugar. I'll getcha a new one."

[good_dug]

:O! "A new toy! New toys are good!" In Kate's hands, the Octoplushie practically oozes relief. If ever a toy could look rapturous, this one does. Behind its beady eyes are dreams of rest and relaxation, and maybe a nice lady-squid...

"But I like that toy! Could you fix it? I would help you!" Dug beams at her, all open golden face. "I am good at helping!"

It's possible that the small stuffed animal's tentacles are clutching onto Kate just a little.

"And then we could play fetch with it!"

(A whining of servos, and a twitch running through the plush body)

[ikissdhimbck]

Kate eyes the toy: the wilted tentacles curled around her wrist; the soulless (and somehow... plagued?) black eyes; the torn and chewed body where the stuffing has gone lumpy...

"I reckon I could, with Miss Bar's help."

Beat.

"And yours, of course," she smiles, scratching Dug behind the ears.

[good_dug]

Dug bounces upright, snatching the toy from Kate's hand. Maybe it makes a noise, maybe it doesn't, but regardless it goes just as limp as a plushie should be. "I would like that! I would like that very much!" Dropping it just long enough to dart back to her, he leaves slobbery kisses over her cheeks.

"I have missed you! You are my favorite master. You play fetch and bring me treats and show me horses and let me on the bed! This is good!"

Bounding back to his toy, he runs in gleeful circles, snapping at Kate's heels much like a sheepdog herds sheep. "Can we get it fixed? And then play? And then have treats?"

OH GOD THERE IS SO MUCH TO BE EXCITED ABOUT HE DOES NOT EVEN KNOW WHERE TO START.

[ikissdhimbck]

She laughs again, bright and joyful. Her cheeks are honestly beginning to hurt, even with the incontestable healing properties of doggy kisses.

"I've missed you, too. Now that you're back, we can do jus' 'bout anythin' your lil' heart desires. I'm all yours."

No distractions.

"Though, your sleepin' arrangements may hafta change. You gotta share, now."

And she's not entirely sure how well that's going to go over with the cats.