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Gadget remained still, hunched over paperwork on the kitchen table. A light breeze jostled them out of order, and he sighed before rearranging them. He only managed to get a couple more sentences down when the breeze returned, and he slapped his palms down on the pile to keep them from flying off again. Annoyed, he sat up and turned to face the cause - Zero and his swishy tail pacing to and fro.
“Don’t you have something you should be doing right now? That doesn’t involve laps around the house?”
“I want to wait until later tonight before I go out. I hate people.”
“Everywhere will still be busy, and if you’re waiting until the crowds thin out, everything will be closing by then.”
Zero grunted, and stalked off to sit on the couch. Gadget passed a snuff of air through his nose, before following suit.
“You really aren’t used to being cooped up living a civilian life, huh.”
The jackal was silent, prompting Gadget to scooch closer and rub his cheek against the other’s. Zero subtly returned the action, the soft cheek fluff quickly easing his posture.
“We could take some time off and do something to ease your cabin fever.”
Zero huffed in distaste.
“I don’t want to do anything in this city.”
“Who said anything about the city? I had something else in mind, but if you’re gonna be grouchy…”
His darker half subconsciously leaned closer and peered at his faux aloof visage. It was hard for the red wolf not to crack a smile and laugh, seeing how equally hard his partner was trying to feign disinterest. After a few moments, he felt bad and cracked.
“Camping. Isolation, peace and quiet. Not in the cit-”
Gadget was picked up by the waist and carried to their room by the no-longer-disinterested jackal. Zero pulled out a duffle bag and began packing with one hand, while the wolf remained dangling at his side like a luxury satchel.
“Want me to help? … or is this fine.”
“This is fine.”
“Alright.”
The crimson canine ended up helping, and was tasked with packing all of the cooking utensils along with half of the campsite gear. Zero handed him a quick drawn up list of everything to pack, which Gadget dutifully checked off or scratched out as he found necessary.
“Why is an axe a necessity if he wants me to pack knives? No axe for him.”
scritch scritch scritch
“What good would a tarp be? The tent is made of the same material.”
scritch scritch scritch
While the wolf was busy modifying his part of the list, Zero packed the remainder of their outerwear, campsite gear, and all of the food they would need.
They’d decided on a national park only an hour’s drive from the city, and left after Gadget made some calls to arrange for their work to be put on hold. Zero was still pretty new to driving, so the red mobian took the wheel while he was their gps.
They arrived in 45 minutes due to Gadget's heavy foot, parked in the designated lot, and unloaded their supplies. As soon as the jackal picked up the bags that Gadget had packed, he was surprised to find them lighter than they should have been. He internally preened.
I must be putting on more muscle.
“The campsite I chose is about a 20 minute walk from here. Can you handle the other bag?”
Gadget scowled as he let out a defensive bark.
“I’m the one that opened the last cheese whiz jar. You insult me, Zee!”
He stuck his nose up and made off to begin their trek, only to stumble forward when the bag didn’t lift off the ground like he’d expected. His head whipped in Zero’s direction and he targeted his mate with the most watery doe eyes he could muster. The darker canine smirked in quick defeat before swapping the heavy bag out, and Gadget was off with a spring in his step.
Their campsite was beautiful, just as the long-maned mobian had anticipated - there was a clear stream nearby, splitting into the surrounding dense deciduous and non-deciduous forestry. They dropped their bags and Zero scanned the area.
“Now this is my kind of terrain. If you set up the tent, I will gather firewood.”
“Okay!”
Zero sure has pepped up. I’m glad he already feels better.
The jackal crouched down and rummaged through their bags one by one, before hoisting himself up and growling.
“Gadget… did you forget to pack something on your list?”
The wolf, who’d been busy scouring the area for a place to assemble the tent, spun around in confusion.
“Well… I did cross off the tarp?”
“Uh huh… and my axe?”
The wolf twiddled his fingers.
“I… didn’t think of firewood. I thought you were just trying to be macho in case non mobian feral animals came across our site.”
Zero slapped his forehead.
“Did you pack my cleaver at least?”
Gadget hastily dug around and brandished the sturdy knife up towards the sky, drawing a guffaw from his mate.
“This will be fine for smaller dead branches.”
While the wolf’s partner was off gathering branches, Gadget disassembled the tent bag and did his darndest to connect the poles, before meticulously running them through the flaps. When he finally wrestled it to stand upright, he was dismayed to find that he’d used one of the pitching poles for the front flap, and had ripped a hole in the top as a result. He skittered around frantically, and flinched when he heard the telltale steps of his darker half returning. Zero took one look at the tent and went for one of the bags he’d packed, before hastily patching the hole up with duct tape. Gadget was beside himself in apologies, but the jackal only laughed it off.
“Simple fix. Anyway, we got here a bit late - I intended for us to fish together, but I will go alone while you set up a fire. Unless you would rather catch our dinner?”
Gadget had already decided that he would rather not catch their dinner. He’d never gone fishing in his life, but wasn’t about to admit that.
“I’ll start the fire. You have fun fishing! Catch me a big one please!”
Zero waved his hand up as he walked off with an amused rumble bubbling in his chest. Only when he was no longer visible through the trees did the red canine begin panicking.
“I should have at least looked this part up before we left!”
Despite having only a cleaver, the jackal had gathered sizable logs of wood that were perfect for starting a fire. If only he knew how.
Stacking them up to form a cone, he figured that would be good enough for their purposes. He wasted a lot of time looking for a barbeque lighter, only to realize that the jackal didn’t like them. He found the phosphorus-tipped matches and began the frustrating task of striking them against everything in sight to create enough friction. They kept snapping on him, and without thinking, Gadget kicked the wood over and let out an angry howl. Toting a pair of walleye, Zero burst through the treeline in a panic, and grumbled when he sensed no danger… unless the upset wolf ruining their match supply counted.
“Gadget… I was doing well for us, so I figured I would stick around for a third fish. Please put the matches down - you’ve been striking with the wrong end, and your wood arrangement looks like a tornado uprooted a sapling.”
Quiet growling was his response to the chaos. Zero sighed before setting the fish down and approaching his mate. He made a move to pet the wolf’s coat, only to jerk back when teeth snapped inches away from his fingers. The jackal remained motionless for a few moments, until Gadget realized his error and mumbled a quick apology.
“I should have asked this a long time ago, but have you ever had a wilderness excursion of any sort?”
Gadget meekly clasped his hands together.
“Uhm. Does the sand box in my parent’s backyard count? I played in that a lot when I was a kid.”
“Completely sheltered, as I suspected. Not to bring up painful memories with this comment… but you did extraordinarily well in the war given this information.”
Like the baby he was, the red wolf’s eyes began watering. He body-slammed into the jackal’s chest and wrapped himself around the other’s midsection. Zero scritched his mate’s ears in comfort.
“I’m glad… I did it all for you.”