Chapter Text
It had been three days since Matty brought a new puppy back to the studio. Three days of a black fluff ball romping about under their feet any time they tried to move from one room to another. George had tried to convince him that it wasn’t a great idea to get another dog considering how little time he spent at home. But he regretted missing out on the majority of Allen’s childhood and he was bound to London for the foreseeable future, so he figured now was as good a time as any to get a puppy. Things were going pretty well so far - Mayhem adjusted nicely to the new environment and he was a (mostly) welcome addition to the homely space of the studio. The only issue was that he didn’t seem to be eating much. Or… at all. On the first day it was easy enough to assume that he had already been fed at the pet store and wasn’t hungry, the second day could be put down to settling in nerves, but Matty was beginning to get concerned that he still didn’t seem to want his food. Perhaps it was the taste? He figured that all dog food probably tasted fairly similar from brand to brand, but maybe not if you were the target audience.
“I’m goin’ out, George.” He shouted over his shoulder as he grabbed his keys and slipped his wallet into his pocket.
“Where?” His friend’s voice called back down the hallway.
“Pet store to get Mayhem food. Make sure he doesn’t destroy anything.” He answered, about the pull the door shut behind him before he heard George continue.
“He’s not my dog, Matt.” He replied, the mild annoyance seeping into the tone of his voice.
“You own stuff in here too.” Matty half-sung back. “Bye!”
The shop he had gotten Mayhem from was only a few minutes down the road. As he stepped up to the counter, he rehearsed one last time in his head what he had come in here for. He didn’t want to seem like a bad dog owner, like it was something that he was doing that was resulting in his pet not eating. But he was quickly beaten to the punch as the cashier turned to face him. She gave him a curious look before the recognition flashed across her face. “You came in and bought the black cane corso the other day, yeah?” She asked with a friendly smile. He nodded in response. “What was it…” She frowned, clearly trying her best to remember. “Matthew?”
“Matty’s better.” He answered, finding himself returning the smile.
“And Mayhem, right?” She asked. He was mildly impressed that she remembered so many details from a fifteen-minute interaction.
He laughed lightly, “Yeah, that’s it.”
“How’s he going?” She asked with excitement.
He went to start going on about how cute and playful he was - as he had to anyone else who asked - before catching himself. “Well, that’s actually why I’m here.” He started, pulling his mind back to the reason that he had walked in. “He just doesn’t seem to want to eat the food that I had at home?” He asked hesitantly.
“Oh, that’s no problem. I’ll show you what we were feeding him here.” She said as she quickly stepped around the counter and started walking towards the dog food. “It’s a bit more expensive, but it’s better quality and more palatable to most dogs. That’s why we use it for the dogs here.” She explained to Matty as she led him through the store.
“That’s fine.” He shrugged. “As long as he likes it, the cost isn’t an issue.”
“Wish there were more dog owners like you.” She huffed under her breath, earning a quiet laugh out of him in response. After a quick scan of the aisle, she picked up a fairly large white bag and handed it out to him. “He was eating this stuff when he was with us and seemed to enjoy it.”
“Thanks. Hopefully he still likes it.” He chuckled as he gratefully took the bag.
“I’ll put it through for you.” She added, nodding back in the direction of the counter. Matty followed behind closely as he clutched the dog food closer to him. He wasn’t entirely sure if it was just because he hadn’t had much in the way of human contact with anyone other than George for the last few weeks, but this felt… oddly nice. If he didn’t have a starving canine at home, he probably would’ve made an attempt to drag out the interaction. But, he did. So, he paid for the dog food, and continued on his way.
* * *
Thankfully for Matty, Mayhem took to the new food very well. He was eating regularly as soon as the old stuff was out of his bowl. And for a while, things were great with the pup - he took naps on the couch with his owner, he stayed in his crate at night without complaints, he only stole small amounts of food off of low lying, unattended plates - it was all going swimmingly. However, it was clear that there were still a few teething problems. Quite literally.
“Hey! Drop that!” Matty yelled as he chased Mayhem under the table.
“I told you-” George started from his seat on the couch as the dog squirmed his way through the chair legs and continued running through the house with an amp lead in his mouth.
“Shut it, George.” Matty shouted back, trying to right himself too quickly and smacking his head on the underside of the table. He stared daggers into the back of the drummer’s head while he regained his balance before running after his dog.
“You can’t keep letting him chew stuff every time we have to shut him out of the room.” He continued as the duo suddenly ended up in front of him when Mayhem tried to (unsuccessfully) fit himself under a couch.
“He’s fine.” He tried to reason through gritted teeth as he picked the puppy up. As soon as his paws were off the ground, he let go of the lead. But alas, there was no saving it, his needle-sharp puppy teeth had already done their damage.
“No, he’s not. That’s the second thing he’s wrecked today.” George argued as he picked up the cord and wound it up. “Just put him in his crate.” He suggested.
Matty held Mayhem up to make sure that he hadn’t hurt himself by chewing on things he wasn’t meant to, sighing in relief when he seemed fine. “But he shouldn’t have to be holed up in the crate just because we don’t want him making noise in the room with us.” It didn’t seem fair to this poor dog to have to spend half of the day cooped up just because he had production work to do.
“Well, you have to do something.”
“I know, I know.” He snapped back, pulling the dog closer to himself as he tried to think of other ideas. He was just bored, not being naughty on purpose.
“Because if he moves onto anything of mine, I’m not gonna be happy about it. Mayhem might be meeting Allen sooner than planned.” George said with a pointed look.
“I’ll just get him more things to keep him occupied.” Matty said, the idea quickly making more and more sense the more the gears turned in his brain. “I can go get him those puzzle feeder things, and those toys that you put peanut butter in, and chew toys. I’ll go get him a bunch of that shit.” He said as he put his puppy back on the ground, who instantly bounded off happily to go destroy something else.
“You better go soon because-”
“I know. I’m going right now.” He nodded as he grabbed his keys off the coffee table.
He hadn’t really expected to be back in this pet store three times in eight days, but here he was. Again. Feeling like a terrible dog owner. Again. He walked up to the counter, seeing the girl that had served him the last two times stocking shelves with her back to him. Matty cleared his throat, trying to politely get her attention. “Erm, hi.” He smiled as she turned around.
“Hey, Matty!” She grinned back. “Didn’t expect you back so soon. How can I help?”
Fuck. She still remembered his name and he didn’t even know hers after what was now three interactions. Was she just good with names or was there just not that many customers coming through here? He supposed probably not at the moment. His eyes quickly scanned over the name tag on her uniform, committing it to memory. Wait, shit, she asked me a question. “I need a chew toy, something to keep Mayhem occupied if I’m out or busy.” He finally answered.
“Ah, is he getting bored?” She asked with a curious look.
“He must be, because he chewed through one of my guitar leads.” Matty chuckled, trying to make light of a bad situation.
But the look of shock on her face blew any attempts of that right out of the water. “It wasn’t on, was it?” She asked with a clear sense of worry.
“Thankfully, no.” He answered with a shake of his head.
She let out a relieved breath. “Good to hear.” She nodded, stepping around the counter and starting to walk into the store. He supposed that was his invitation to follow. “Poor buddy could’ve done himself some serious damage.”
The two of them stood in front of a wall of various pet toys and the sheer amount of variety was borderline overwhelming to Matty. He was rather glad that he had sought out help. She turned to him as she grabbed a couple of options off the hooks. “Was it expensive?” She asked.
“The cord wasn’t, the guitar is.” He huffed. “But the cord is easy to replace. I just don’t want him deciding to chew on my other equipment.” He added quickly. He didn’t want to come across as angry about what was realistically quite a small problem. It just needed fixing sooner rather than when George decided to wring his neck over it.
“You play other stuff?” She questioned.
“I play a lot of things.” He shrugged casually, not wanting to make a huge fuss about it. Matty enjoyed that these interactions were about his dog rather than the aspects of his life most other people chose to focus on. Not that he could blame them, his career took up the majority of his life, but the change was nice.
“A man of many talents.” She noted.
“And a master of none of them.” He laughed.
She turned to him, handing him a selection of chew toys. “He’s probably starting to feel his adult teeth coming through and wanting some stuff to gnaw on. Something like a rope toy or soft plastic might be good, or even a rawhide treat.” She explained. “You could maybe get him bones as well.” He nodded as he intently listened to her advice. “Or if you were after things to keep him occupied, you can also get some puzzle toys. But those usually require treats to dispense for the dog to want to play with them”
“Yeah, can I grab some of them too?” He said eagerly. It took about ten minutes for her to show him all of the options available, Matty relishing in the chance to have some casual chit chat in between aisles. By the time she had shown him just about everything a puppy could use to kill time, he had a shopping basket full of options to entertain Mayhem. Surely this would be enough to keep George happy. “Thanks for this.” He said with an appreciative smile as she began scanning them through the register.
“It’s no problem. Always happy to help out if it means an animal is gonna be better off.” She beamed back at him. He was suddenly hit with the reminder that he enjoyed their interaction the last time he was here, and he was enjoying this one more. But the little voice in the back of his mind was quick to mention the puppy who was probably chewing through a soundboard at the moment.
“Hopefully I can get these to him before he works his teeth into something else.” He added sheepishly.
“Well, I’ll let you get out of here then.” She handed him the heavy bag of pet toys. “I’ll see you soon.” She said with an expression that Matty probably would’ve called humorous. Was that a joke? Clearly three visits in one week wasn’t usual. But he figured she probably wouldn’t have been as friendly to him if she minded that. And he couldn’t really say that he felt bad about it.
“Apparently, at the rate I’m goin’.” He laughed back over his shoulder as he walked back to his car. A nagging feeling sat at the back of his mind that he was probably going to be back here pretty soon.
* * *
The toys did the trick for keeping Mayhem away from any expensive equipment. And for keeping George off Matty’s back (for now). Between things to chew on and things to solve, that puppy barely had time for cuddles and naps. That didn’t stop him from trying to push his luck on occasion, though. Matty was sitting at his desk in the middle of an interview when he spied Mayhem about to wrap his teeth around one of his shoes. “Hold on a second, let me just shout at my dog.” He said offhandedly to the screen as he pushed himself back to get a better view of what he was trying to do. As soon as he called out to him, Mayhem bounded over like nothing had happened. “I’ve got you loads of toys, you don’t need to chew that.” As if completely understanding his owner the puppy picked up the rope toy that was sat at the base of the coffee table. Matty eyed the rope toy that Mayhem was chewing on, thinking back to the girl at the pet store. It had been a week since his last visit. Would it be weird if he went back again? It would definitely be weird if he went there and someone else was working. It would defeat the whole point. He tuned back into the interview, the thought of going back for social reasons playing on his mind as he carried on.
After an hour the interview had wrapped up. It was just before three in the afternoon, the pet store would still be open. Matty quietly picked up his car keys, hoping to make a silent escape. But he had no such luck. “Where are you going?” George asked with a frown over the back of the lounge.
“Uh, out.” He shrugged, trying and failing to be nonchalant. His best friend just stared him down until he answered properly. “The pet store.” He eventually confessed.
George had a sneaking suspicion that he already knew the answer to the question he wanted to ask, but he couldn’t help himself, “What for this time?”
Matty paused for a moment, trying to think of a reason to go back. “A new bed.” He answered with a firm nod.
“That bed’s fine.” George gestured to the practically new bed sitting in the crate.
“He’ll need a bigger one soon.” He reasoned with himself more than anyone else, making his way to the door before he could talk himself out of it.
“Why’re you really going?” He heard George ask, the snigger underlying his question echoing down the hallway.
“I’ll be back soon. Bye!”
Within fifteen minutes Matty found himself standing at the - now fairly familiar - counter of the pet store. Despite his bad luck getting out of the house, he was fortunately facing some good luck now. “Back again?” She asked, frowning at the man in front of her curiously.
“I, erm, need a new bed for Mayhem.” He knew it was a poor excuse for coming back in here, because with her memory she’d likely know that he bought one when he picked Mayhem up. But maybe it would be enough to get him by. “He’s taken to thinking that the couch is his.” She seemed fairly unphased by this, just nodding along.
“That’ll happen if you let him sleep on it.” She said, cracking a bit of a smile.
“You’re very knowledgeable about all this dog stuff.” Matty said casually as he tried to strike up more of a conversation.
“Well, I work at a pet store.” She reminded him.
“That’s not-” He stopped, taking in a breath as he tried to get himself back on track. “Do you have one of your own?”
“Yeah! I’ve got a golden retriever.” The vibe of the conversation instantly shifted into a territory Matty was much more comfortable with. She seemed a lot more excited to chat now that he’d brought up her own pets. He was happy to move things away from awkward ground and onto some stuff he could be a bit surer about.
That works. “I’ve heard that those are a really friendly breed.”
“Oh, Roscoe’s got an amazing temperament.” She nodded.
“Mayhem needs another dog friend like that.” He started with a sigh, “He’s so high energy that most dogs don’t want a bar of it.”
She raised an eyebrow at the obvious hint he was dropping, but decided to step around it for the moment. “He doesn’t do well at dog parks?” She asked.
Matty shook his head, “I think it’s all too overwhelming. He gets overzealous and then other dogs snap at him when they don’t want to play that much.” Which, in Matty’s defence, was true. When he took Mayhem to a dog park two days ago, his dog spent most of his time chasing a tennis ball because the other dogs didn’t want to put up with a puppy. “Maybe he’d do better in a one on one environment.” He shrugged.
She couldn’t help the laugh that came out at his lack of subtlety. “Oh, really?” She asked, trying to recompose herself. Matty supposed that was probably his invitation to just cut to the chase.
“Would you be up for it? I could meet you at the dog park down the road sometime next week.” He suggested, trying his best to keep his cool. She thought about this for what felt like a solid minute but he was sure it was probably only a few seconds.
“Sure.” She nodded eventually. “Tuesday morning?”
“I’m sure I could fit that in.” He grinned back.
There was a brief moment of silence where Matty just took in the moment of success until he took his cue to leave before he blew it. “Well, I’ll see you then.” He said as he went to step away from the counter.
“Wait,” She said, stopping him in his tracks as he turned back to her. Shit, what did he forget? “You came in here for a dog bed, didn’t you?”
Oh, no. “Uh, erm, yeah, I suppose I did.” He mumbled quietly as he scratched at the back of his neck. “I’ll go grab one.” He nodded, making his way to the back of the store. After quickly berating his own idiotic memory he grabbed a slightly larger bed than the one Mayhem already had and brought it back up to the counter. He was fairly sure he’d just undone any good work that he had worked towards. Handing the bed over he tried his best to at least be a functioning human being until he got back to his car.
“Hopefully this keeps him off the couch.” The cashier said as she handed it back to him, the humour of the situation pretty evident in her eyes. “And let me know what time on Tuesday.” She added as she passed him a piece of paper with her number on it. Thank fuck for that.
* * *
George had of course given Matty a hard time when he came home and revealed the details of how he nearly came home without what he had left the house for. However, Matty couldn’t really have cared any less, because it still ended up working out all right for him. Very few texts were exchanged other than the ones to arrange an exact time to meet up on Tuesday. He got there fifteen minutes early, sitting on a bench with his puppy in his lap as he tried to calm down his racing mind. He had decided to buy her a coffee on the way as a small gesture to say thanks. Once he had done so, he realised he had no idea if she even liked coffee and suddenly regretted the whole plan. But he had two coffees now, so he might as well offer it. Surely it would still be seen as a nice thought? He needed to calm down. Maybe he shouldn’t have had a coffee.
“It’ll be fine.” He told himself as he took in a deep breath. “Won’t it, buddy?” He asked as he nudged Mayhem. His dog looked back up at him with his large brown eyes, giving no indication that he was nervous. “Well of course it will be fine for you. At the end of the day you still have a small fortune of pet supplies to go home to.” Matty huffed as he ruffled Mayhem’s ears. His dog seemed very happy about this development.
He heard her call his name before he saw her, turning to see a large golden retriever bounding his way. From his position on the bench, he and Mayhem came nose to nose as the new dog ran up to introduce himself. It hadn’t been intentional but it definitely worked very well for their first meeting to not overwhelm the poor puppy with height differences. When the two dogs seemed to have no hostility between them, Matty put Mayhem down on the ground. As soon as his paws touched the grass the two of them were off. He half kept an eye on his dog running amok as he turned to the girl sitting next to him.
“This is for you,” He said as he held out the second coffee. “as thanks.”
She let out an appreciative noise as she picked it up. “You didn’t have to get me this.”
“I wanted to.” He corrected.
“Well… thank you.” She nodded, flashing him a friendly smile. So far so good.
After twenty minutes of playing, the two canines were finally starting to calm down a bit. “They’re getting on really well.” She noted, taking the last sip of her coffee.
“Yeah, it’s good to see.” He agreed with a nod. “Allen was so much easier to socialise, but he was a much calmer puppy than Mayhem is.” Matty said with a sigh.
She paused for a moment at that, considering what he had just said. “An old dog?” She asked.
“Uh, no, he’s not that old. He’s about five.” He answered.
“You have another dog?” She frowned.
He probably shouldn’t have mentioned that in hindsight. “Well, sort of, I co-own him with my mate Sam. He doesn’t live with me.” He tried his best to talk his way around it, but he knew exactly what was coming next. It was gonna come up sooner or later, he supposed.
“Why didn’t you just socialise Mayhem with the dog you already have?” She questioned.
“Because then I wouldn’t have had an excuse to ask you out for a coffee.” He answered honestly.
She laughed loudly, but didn’t seem upset by this information. That was good. “You could’ve just asked me out for coffee as opposed to going to all this trouble.”
“Ah, but where’s the fun in that?”