005; Dog Summer Blues
Title: Dog Summer Blues
Author: Phobiaplague
Genre: Fluff
Rating: G
Comments: This was written on a whim to perk Koji up a bit. Toshiro and Rune are OC's of ours, and Dragon (that would be the fox) was too cute to not write about. May he (adorably) cockblock Rune for months to come.
The furious chorus of squeaks erupted again from the living room--rapid, high noises clashing into each other before fading with a particularly high, drawn out note. The squeaks were followed by the distinct giggles of a certain guitarist, which in turn caused the squeaks to resume with even more ear-splitting vigor. Rune's eye twitched imperceptibly as he cautiously lowered his book to nose level, glaring over the top at the source of the offensive noise. The sight that greeted his eyes was, predictably, Toshiro--clutching a small, wool toy of some sort and waving it over the head of an equally small, white head. The Fennec fox puppy sat on it's round bottom, dark eyes turned up hopefully towards Toshiro and the toy he held tantalizingly out of reach, the tips of it's dropping ears quivering with anticipation. As Rune watched, Toshiro drew back his arm and threw the toy, which sailed out in a perfect arc across the living room. The fox kit wasted no time in scrambling to its stubby feet, racing after the toy and then suddenly leaping, shortened forelegs coiled to it's chest until it landed on the toy squarely with both feet, coaxing a pitiful squeak from the toy.
The kit, black eyes gleaming like the backs of shiny beetles, then bent his head, seizing the toy by the vague shape of an arm, and began to shake it viciously with short, gleeful jerks of his head, body vibrating from the small, low growls that rumbled out of it's throat. Toshiro, clearly amused by this display, laughed out loud. Encouraged by the boy's laughter, the fox lifted his head imperiously, half-trotting, half-stumbling down the hallway as the toy tangled between his chubby legs. Once he reached him, he proceed to prance merrily around the boy, however clumsily, still giving his head a few brief shakes and biting down on the toy hurriedly, so that it squeaked. Then the whole thing would start over again.
The creature had been a birthday present to Toshiro, from their drummer Akio. The man had kept the pup in a small metal dog crate, adored with pale blue ribbons, and an extra one tied around the pale cream of the kit's neck. He had kept the puppy stashed away in the studio breakroom for most of the morning--and it was only when the band had paused for a short celebratory lunch that he had unveiled his gift. Predictably, both Toshiro and the puppy had been absolutely delighted with one another from the start. Rune, however, hadn't been so charmed. And so, when the noise simply grew too much for him to take, he sighed, inserting a finger into the crack of the book to mark his place.
"Can't you two be quiet?" he complained. "Or at least take that somewhere else? I'm trying to read."
"Aw, but Rune!" Toshiro countered with a grin, his hair in obvious disarray, "he's having so much fun! Besides, you always read."
"I don't always--" Rune began tartly, before snapping his mouth shut and sighing. There was no point in arguing with him, he'd learned long ago.
"Fine. But at least play a quieter game with him, or something."
"Oh, fine," Toshiro huffed. "Spoilsport."
Feeling somewhat relived, Rune once again turned back to his book. He had just started to pick up the sentence he had last read when the distinct sound of webbed feet slapping against the hardwood floors broke into his concentration. With a grimace, his eyes narrowed, and he leaned forward a bit from the couch, burying his nose even more determinedly into his book. Zen was a distraction, but one that was slightly easier to block out. Later, he vowed, he would have to have a word with Akio and how he could possibly think that adding another animal that made noise into their apartment was a good idea.
"Look, Zen!" Toshiro exclaimed brightly, scooping the puppy into his arms and presenting him to the duck.
An imperious cackling quack was his only response, clearly not impressed with the newest intruder. He tilted his head sharply to the side, examining the limp bundle in Toshiro's arms with one darkened, beady eye. The puppy held perfectly still in Toshiro's arms, chin lifted slightly as it stared wide-eyed back at the strange creature that stood before it. Zen drew himself up then, shaking out his feathers in an impressive rattle, before lazily padding around the kneeling Toshiro in a slow circle, quacking to himself quietly. His tail flared out behind him in a quick shake as he completed his circuit, eyes taking on a sudden gleam as he spotted the kit's tail.
Abruptly, his head snaked forward, and he promptly bit the puppy on the tail. Several things happened at once--the kit yelped, high and plaintive, and squirmed out of Toshiro's arms, thumping onto the floor and half-sliding on his chin before he got his feet back from under him, quickly taking cover behind the couch. Toshiro swore and jumped up, shooting Zen a sour look, and Rune looked up from his book again with a small smirk, mentally making a note to add an extra scoop of pellets to Zen's dinner.
"Bad, Zen! Bad. We don't hurt the puppy!" Toshiro scolded, making his way around the couch and bending over to scoop him up.
"Come on, little guy. Let's get away from that mean old duck."
Rune choked. "M-mean old duck?"
It was the first time he had heard Toshiro say anything about the animal that wasn't absolute praise. But Toshiro was having none of it, and he stalked from the living room with the puppy bundled firmly in his arms, crooning quietly to him as he went.
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By the time late evening had come around, the two men had retreated to the kitchen. Rune had taken it upon himself to prepare dinner for the two of them, as he usually did these days, while Toshiro busied himself with the task of feeding the animals their supper. Rune normally didn't pay much attention to the feeding process of the pets, but that was before the faint chirping noise caught his ear. He turned from the stove then with a grimace, eying the bag of live crickets that Toshiro held with open distaste.
"Why do you have to bring bugs into the house?"
"Because that's what they eat!" Toshiro protested, giving the bag a slight shake and sending the crickets into a hopping frenzy like kernels of popcorn.
Rune sighed heavily, evidently skeptical.
"Fine. But at least put them somewhere other than where we keep our food," he said patiently, tones slightly strained.
No sooner had he finished speaking, than Toshiro began to untie the knot at the top of the bag, shaking out a small handful of the beige insects and scattering them in with the soft mush of puppy kibble, where they quickly became helplessly bogged down. All but one. Toshiro held out a fatter cricket between thumb and forefinger, dangling it over the puppy's head with a broad grin. Rune turned around again just in time to see the puppy rise to his hind legs and seize the doomed bug between his teeth, snapping quickly. The kit turned his head to look at Rune curiously then, the spindly legs of the cricket trapped between the ivory gleam of his sharp milkteeth. As Rune watched, the kit snapped once greedily, and the cricket's legs that had bristled around his muzzle disappeared down his throat in one swallow.
Rune's face wrinkled in disgust.
"Barbaric," he muttered beneath his breath.
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A few hours later, long after the dinner table had been cleared away and the dishes washed, Rune made his way into the bedroom, parting the closet doors and reaching in on bended knee to gather up the somewhat overflowing hamper of the dirty laundry. The kit was close on his heels, however--a fact he wasn't aware of until a thin, cold nose pressed itself against the back of his knees, causing him to jump slightly and muffle a curse, both out of alarm and the sheer coldness. He turned his head then, to glare over his shoulder at the offending puppy, who just looked up at him and wagged his tail enthusiastically.
"Evil changeling child," he muttered, nudging the kit out of the way with his foot rudely. "Go away," he added flatly, as he marched back out of the bedroom and down the hall.
Clearly nonplussed by Rune's less than warm welcome, the little fox trotted merrily along after him, with a quiet clicking of blunt nails. Rune rounded the corner from the bedroom, going down the hall a little ways before stopping at the folded, white-paneled doors built into the wall. Setting the laundry basket down, he slid the open to reveal both a washer and dry tucked into the wall. No sooner had he flipped open the top of the washing machine, deftly turning the knob with a twist of his wrist, than a sudden, excited squeak sounded to his left.
Rolling his eyes, Rune ignored the fox, reaching up to the shelving to take down the bottle of detergent, unscrewing the cap and tipping the bottle to fill the cap to the prim with pale gold liquid. The little fox gleamed, seemingly satisfied that Rune was to preoccupied with chores to pay much attention to what it was doing. When Rune turned around again, it was just in time to see the tip of the kit's tail waving out of sight, as he padded off in seeming disinterest. Breathing a sigh of relief, he had just started to turn back to the washing machine, pouring the cap into the wash and reaching for the first item on the basket's top, when a blur of motion caught his eye.
The fresh basket of clean clothes had been foolishly left unattended. Too late, Rune turned--only to see the fox digging furiously to the bottom, tossing pants and shirts everywhere in it's enthused wake.
"Stop that! You're going to get..."
But the fox did not stop. That is, until it reached the bottom, and then it leaped out, looking immensely pleased with it's work. Growling under his breath, Rune marched over to the basket, sighing as he bent to pick up the discarded clothes on the floor. It was only when he reached into the basket to dump in his armful of clothes that he felt it. Something cold, hard, and...unpleasantly squishy. Twisting up his face as his hand recoiled in immediate disgust, he proceeded to yank the rest of the clothes out of the basket. On the bottom was a damp, well-chewed rawhide bone, the ends sticky and damp with puppy saliva.
"You," he growled, whirling to face the puppy, hands on his hips. "That's disgusting. You don't put your used bones in my laundry."
The fox only wriggled on his small, plump bottom. Rune leaned over again, seizing the pup by the scruff, and feeling a kick of satisfaction as the creature immediately went limp. He half-wondered if Toshiro would do the same thing if he grabbed him in the same spot--and smirked to himself at how satisfying that would be. It'd be killing two birds with one stone, so to speak. The kit's paws dangled pathetically as Rune marched down the hall, heading towards the bedroom. He would have to have a Talk with Shiro about just letting his animals run around loose all the time.
Just then, however, the fox gave a particularly hard squirm, and dropped from Rune's hand, racing down the hall and into the bedroom. Heaving a sigh, the man threw up his hands and returned to his laundry.
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The door to the dryer snapped shut with a satisfying click before roaring to life. Rune, his chores done for the night, flipped off the hall light and made his way down the hall at last. Now he could finally get some rest--or at the very least curl up under the covers with Toshiro and read for a while before he got sleepy. But no sooner had he entered the bedroom than his eyes fell on a fuzzy pile where his slippers should have been. The kit was curled up in his slippers--quite literally. His head was shoved on the inside of one, at a slight, almost adorable angle, and his forepaws were curled loosely around the second, holding it close to his chest. Normally, Rune might have found the scene cute. But he was tired, now, and irritated.
He stalked over to the puppy, nudging it rudely with his foot again.
"Oh, no you don't. Those are mine. Sleep somewhere else."
The kit yawned, and blinked open his pair of dark eyes, looking at Rune through their slants.
"Leave him alone, Rune," Toshiro protested drowsily. "It's cute!"
"It isn't cute. That...animal," he struggled, "is getting his fur inside my slippers!"
"So?" Toshiro defended. "You're coming to bed anyway, what the hell do you need 'em for?"
"That's not the point!"
"Whatever. Just come to bed already."
"We have to set boundaries, you know," Rune huffed, as he made his way around the bed.
"You can't just let him get away with things, or next thing you know, he'll be walking all over us."
"A little less 18th century dandy, a little more face sucking."
Rune scowled and then sighed, at last turning down the covers and sinking into the sheets with a grateful sigh. The day was finally at an end, and the fox seemed to be nowhere in sight. Maybe there was some redeemable quality about this evening, after all. No sooner had he scooted against Toshiro, his chest to his back, arms settling comfortably around the boy, than there was a worrying sliding feel of the sheets towards the end of the bed.
Oh, no, he thought. You can't be serious.
He lifted his head up slightly then, eyes narrowing. A small lump had formed at the base of the bed, and was quickly traveling up the length of it. A scant few seconds later, the lump stopped, and a thin, pointed snout emerged. Rune groaned as the kit wriggled between them with an excited little yip. Rune gave up for the night, turning his back sullenly on the pair of them.
Only to twitch as a pink tongue lapped at his ear. He sighed, then. Well, he thought as he drifted off to sleep, it could be worse.