Chapter Text
“Psst! Ryuu!”
Tanaka threw an arm over his eyes.
“Wake up!”
Half asleep, he weighed Suga’s urgent hissing against burying his head under his pillow. His body continued to scream for the latter even as he pushed through the sleepy haze fogging his thoughts. “Why are you whispering?”
“Just get up!”
There was something off enough about Suga’s strangled reply that Tanaka realized he wouldn’t be going back to sleep any time soon.
“I’m gettin’,” Tanaka whispered in surrender. He dragged himself from the comfort of his blanket cocoon to follow Suga out of his bedroom. In the back of his mind, he realized the sheets on the side of the bed where Daichi had fallen asleep earlier were cold.
He was still in the process of waking up as they descended the stairs to the main level of their house, but as they approached the living room he was suddenly shocked into alertness. He grabbed Suga’s wrist to stop him.
Suga looked over his shoulder with his brows raised in silent inquiry.
“What the hell is going on?” He said quietly, pointing toward the living room from where they could hear quiet rustling. Adrenaline pricked under his skin. There wasn’t anything within reach that he could use as a weapon, and Suga’s hands were empty, so he moved to put himself between his partner and whatever was moving around in their house. Suga stopped him with both hands on his chest. He must’ve felt the way his heart thudded against his ribcage, because Suga’s face softened.
“You’ll see,” he whispered with a cryptic half-smile.
They moved lightly through the hall until they could poke their heads around the door frame.
Tanaka’s eyes widened.
The overhead lights weren’t on, but the ambient glow from outside was more than enough to illuminate the dog that was currently chewing on a pair of guest slippers. From what Tanaka could tell, it wasn’t foaming at the mouth or acting erratically. In fact, the dog seemed perfectly at home on their carpet.
When he was relatively sure they weren’t in immediate danger, Tanaka squinted at the animal itself. It looked like a Shiba Inu with the fluffy, curled tail, but it was stockier, with a healthy dark brown coat. His heart was still stuttering in his chest, but his adrenaline was diluted with unexpected excitement. Neesan had never let him have a dog growing up, and Suga and Daichi had punted the pet conversation while they were in the process of buying and furnishing their house.
For a fleeting moment, he thought the dog might’ve simply materialized as a result of his fervent desire for a pet. “Stupid,” he murmured under his breath. Suga blinked at him. “Uh,” Tanaka said, mind bouncing between the million and one questions he felt like he should ask. “Where’s Daichi?”
“I dunno,” Suga said seriously, glancing at the dog. “You guys were asleep in your room when I went to bed, and I haven’t seen him since waking up.”
“And he woulda woken one of us up if he was called into the station,” Tanaka whispered. “What d’we do?”
“First things first,” Suga said after a minute, “we have to save our guest slippers.”
“That’s what you’re worried about?!”
Suga tapped his chin, pretending to think hard about their next move. “Then I guess we should address the fact that there’s a random dog in our living room. And maybe call Daichi.”
Without taking his eyes off the dog, Tanaka huffed a quiet laugh. "Sounds like a plan."