Work Text:
Chester sniffed at the ground as he walked, taking in the scents as he and Jensen moved down the sidewalk. It took another two blocks before he recognized the path they were taking – the dog park! Chester picked up his pace, wriggled his corgi butt, and tugged lightly at his leash, excited now and trying to pull Jensen along faster. He heard Jensen chuckle behind him, followed by a gentle “Easy, buddy, we’ll get there!” Chester huffed and slowed down – a little.
Before long he could see the iron fence that surrounded the park, and, anxious to get to all the smells and other dogs, Chester couldn’t help pulling on the leash again. Luckily, this time, Jensen just walked faster. Then they were through the gate, and Jensen was reaching down and unclipping the leash from his collar, giving Chester a scratch on the head before he patted his rump with a cheerful ‘go ahead, boy!’
He couldn’t help but give an excited yip as he hopped up and took off running, joining the fray of fur speeding around the grassy park. Chester ignored the various toys being flung around and thrown by the other dogs’ humans in favor of seeking out a new friend. Friends were always more fun than toys. Always.
A sharp, loud whistle caught his attention, and Chester followed the sound to a tall, fluffy-haired guy throwing a tennis ball. His gaze followed the ball through the air until a big German shepherd jumped up into the air and snatched it with her teeth. She took off running back to the tall human and dropped it at his feet. Chester decided she looked like a fun friend, and started trotting over to where she was sitting, gazing up at her human waiting for him to throw the ball again. When the human pulled back his arm again, Chester watched closely, readied himself, and took off running for it along with the shepherd, both of them chasing after it when it hit the ground and bounced back up into the air. They both got to the ball at the same time, and Chester pulled up short just before snatching it. It’s rude to steal another dog’s ball, after all.
The shepherd picked up the ball, huffed while looking at Chester, then flung her head, tossing the ball toward Chester, inviting him to play, too. Chester dove for it, knocking it hard with his nose back toward the shepherd, who grabbed it up in her mouth and took off zooming around the fence at a full run. Chester ran after her, chasing the much bigger dog as fast as he could. On the other end of the park, the shepherd stopped short, turned around, and flung the ball again, and Chester spun around and grabbed it. He trotted it up to the other dog, dropping it at her feet. They both leaned in, giving each other a sniff.
“Hi! I’m Chester!”
“Hello,” said the shepherd. “I’m Sadie. That was fun!”
“It was!” Chester plopped down on the ground, panting a little from the run. “I’m here with my human, Jensen. Is that tall guy your human?”
“Yeah, that’s my Jared. I love him.”
“I love my Jensen, too.” Chester noticed Sadie had sat down as well, except she wasn’t panting as much. “He’s lonely most of the time, it makes me sad. I try to be extra good and cute for him, but I don’t think it helps much.”
Sadie sighed and looked across the park at her Jared.
“Jared, too. It’s the worst. He had a boyfriend for a while, but he stopped coming to visit. He was really sad for a while, but then he got better. He’s still lonely though.”
“Jensen had a boyfriend, too! I didn’t like him much. He smelled weird. So I wasn’t upset when he stopped coming, but Jensen sure was. I had to snuggle on him for weeks before he felt better!”
Sadie let out a long sigh and dropped her head. She was still looking across the park at her Jared, who was sitting on one of the benches now. Chester looked over the other humans until he found Jensen again. He was standing near the fence and a woman was talking to him. Chester could tell from the look on his face that he was getting annoyed. A few seconds later, after Jensen said something to her, her face got all red, she laughed, and then she walked away. Jensen was shaking his head in that way that meant ‘Jesus that was annoying and I’m glad it’s over.’ A lot of women would talk to Jensen, but he didn’t like women. He liked men.
Jensen liked men. Sadie’s Jared was a man. Even a tall man, like Jensen’s last boyfriend. And Jared liked men.
Chester had an idea.
“What if Jensen and Jared were boyfriends? Then they’d both be happy again!”
“Hmm,” Sadie said. “Which one is yours?”
Chester pointed him out, and Sadie got up, grabbed her ball, and ran it across the park, dropping it at Jensen’s feet. Chester could see him smile, then bend down, scoop up the ball, and fling it across the park. Sadie chased after it, then ran a lap around the park back to where Chester was sitting.
“Yeah, I like him. I bet Jared would, too. But how do we get them to be boyfriends?”
“If they see us being friends, they’ll have to be friends, too, right?” Chester tilted his head at Sadie. She glanced across the park from Jared to Jensen and back again.
“Sounds like it’ll work!” Sadie said.
Chester jumped up, grabbed the tennis ball in his mouth, and took off toward Jensen, with Sadie right behind him. He led them in a wide circle that passed right in front of Jensen, across half of the park, zooming between a pack of four dogs playing tug-of-war with a rope toy, then back to Jensen. He dropped the ball at Jensen’s feet.
“Winchester! Where did you get that?” Jensen said, using Chester’s full name like he was in trouble. Sadie skidded to a stop right next to Chester just as Jensen said it, and Chester could see the realization cross Jensen’s face. “Oh, I see. Did you make another friend?”
Jensen reached down and gave Chester a scratch before picking up the ball and throwing it for them. Chester and Sadie both took off after it, this time with Sadie scooping it up and leading them to Jared’s feet. She immediately sat down in front of him and Chester followed suit.
“Hey, Sadie-girl! You having fun? Got a new friend, huh?” Sadie let out a quiet woof and Jared smiled, leaning over to grab the tennis ball and throw it for them to chase. They took off again, this time running their circle from Jensen to Jared and back again, and when Jensen picked up the ball, they both readied themselves to run in the direction of Jared. Jensen took the cue and threw the ball that way and they chased it back to Jared’s feet.
They repeated this, over and over, until Chester was panting hard, and Sadie was – well, Sadie was just in a lot better shape than Chester, but he swore she was getting tired, too! They settled halfway between Jared and Jensen, both of them plopping down in the grass with the tennis ball between them.
“One of them will come over here soon, and then the other one will, and they’ll have to meet,” Chester said through his panting. “We just have to wait now.”
“Yeah, it shouldn’t be long now,” Sadie said, barely out of breath. They both sat there quietly, watching both of their humans. After a while, Jensen pushed off the fence he’d been leaning on and started toward them.
“Here we go,” Chester said, looking from Jensen over to Jared, who was still sitting on the bench, his phone in his hand.
“Chester!” Jensen called when he was halfway to them. “Come on, buddy, time to go!”
Chester looked up at Jensen, but didn’t move. He had to give it more time. Once Jensen came over to them, Jared was sure to follow. Humans always did that; whenever someone went near their dog, they’d end up talking to the other humans. That’s how it went.
Jensen got all the way to them, with Chester’s leash dangling from his hand, and Chester glanced back over at Jared, but he was still looking at his phone and hadn’t noticed Jensen at all.
“Time to go, bud,” Jensen repeated, leaning down to clip the leash to Chester’s collar. “Say goodbye to your friend. We’ll come back another time so you can play some more.”
With one more glance over at Jared, Chester sighed and stood up.
“Sorry, Sadie, I really thought it would work. Maybe next time.”
“Yeah, Jared can be a little dense sometimes. We’ll think of something else for next time. Bye!”
With that, Chester turned and trotted next to Jensen as they headed out of the park toward home.
It was a while before Jensen led them to the dog park again. Chester wasn’t sure how long, but it seemed like forever. He even tried begging at the door more often to get Jensen to take him for walks. They did go for more walks, but usually just around the block. At least Chester was getting more exercise and could maybe keep up with Sadie a little better.
But today, Jensen led them past their block and down the street, turning at the next corner toward the dog park. Finally! Chester got so excited he couldn’t help pulling on the leash, which only earned him a sharp “Winchester! Heel!” from Jensen. Chester just wanted to get there already, he had the perfect idea to get Jensen and Jared to talk.
Soon they were walking through the iron gate of the park and Jensen was unclipping Chester’s leash to let him run free. He scanned the park for Sadie and soon saw her on the far end, rolling around in a big patch of grass and crunchy fall leaves. Chester took off at a full run toward her.
“Sadie!” Chester said as soon as he was close. “I have the perfect idea! It’ll work like a charm!”
Sadie flipped over and they sat there together, talking out the plan. She agreed that it was foolproof, so they got to work. Sadie picked up her tennis ball and they started a game of chase. She flipped the ball up in the air, and Chester would chase after it, pick it up, and run with Sadie on his heels. Chester would flip it, Sadie would catch, Chester would chase. They did this all around the park, keeping an eye on both Jensen and Jared to make sure they saw what they were up to.
When they were sure both of their humans were paying at least a little attention to what they were doing, they chased each other to a spot halfway between their humans. Once there, Sadie dropped the on the ground, and Chester swooped in and picked it up, jumping up and down a few times with it before dropping it so Sadie could dive in to grab it. A few more times passing it back and forth like that and they set the plan in motion. With the ball in Sadie’s mouth, Chester jumped for it, then Sadie pulled away. Chester leapt up again to try to grab it and then they both started growling. They kept up the keep-away act, Chester jumping, Sadie pulling away, faster and faster until they were just face to face and growling loudly. Chester threw in a few good, loud barks, too.
It only took a few seconds of this before Jensen was heading toward them, yelling “Hey! Winchester! Drop it!” Next there was a sharp whistle coming from the other direction and Jared was walking toward them, too.
“Sadie! No!” Jared called out. They both ignored their humans for a few more seconds, until the humans were close enough to talk to each other. Jared let out another loud whistle, just as Jensen was almost to them, and they both dropped the ball, stopped growling, and separated.
“Chester, what’s gotten into you?” Jensen asked, glaring down at him. Chester lowered his head to look at the ground, feigning shame.
“Sorry about that,” Jared said, and Chester’s heart pounded in his chest – it was happening! They were talking! “She’s usually not like that!”
“Neither is he,” Jensen said, shrugging. “They were playing so well together, too.”
“They were, it was really cute!” Jared chuckled. “Well, we were almost ready to head out anyway, guess I’ll take her home so they don’t get into it again. Enjoy your day!”
Jared smiled at Jensen and Chester thought it was a great smile that Jensen was sure to love. But before he knew it, Jared was saying “Come on girl, time to go,” and Sadie was on her way out of the park. She looked back as they passed and sighed.
“Don’t worry, Sadie, we’ll figure out something!” Chester said, as Jensen scritched his ears. They had to do something, because Chester was sure that Jared was the one who would make Jensen happy again. And he was pretty sure Jensen would do the same for Sadie’s Jared, too.
Chester sat in the grass watching the other dogs for a little while, then decided there was no point staying if Sadie and Jared weren’t there. So, he trotted up to Jensen and gave him a few butt shakes before sitting down at his feet. Jensen looked down at him and shook his head.
“What? No fun without your friend?” Jensen bent down to hook the leash. “I get that, buddy. I totally get that.”
It was so sad, and Chester felt bad for making Jensen feel sad again, so when they got home, Chester gave Jensen lots of snuggles and took a nap on his lap.
It was another forever before they headed to the dog park again, and Chester was fine with that, because he was fresh out of ideas of how to get Jensen and Jared to talk more. Last time they hadn’t even said each other’s names or told each other their dog’s names. It didn’t really count as talking, and, in retrospect, fighting with Sadie wasn’t the best idea because it kind of made both Jensen and Jared a little mad. That wouldn’t be a good way to start out being boyfriends, Chester was sure. He didn’t even tug on the leash on the way this time, trying to drag out the walk a little longer to have more time to think up an idea. Maybe Sadie had come up with something.
They’d just turned the last corner and were headed toward the gate to the dog park when Chester spotted Jared and Sadie coming down the sidewalk in the opposite direction. At least they were here today; that was a relief. Now they just needed a plan. Chester was actually getting a little nervous that they wouldn’t be able to pull this off, and his Jensen and Sadie’s Jared would both be lonely forever.
They were just a little ways apart, with the gate to the dog park between them, when it hit Chester. The best, most brilliant idea he’d ever had in his entire life. But he had to act fast, as in, right now!
Chester started barking – a happy, cheerful bark, he was clear about that – and tugging at the leash, pulling as hard as he could toward Jared and Sadie. Jensen started complaining, but Chester ignored it completely. He kept tugging and when they got a bit closer, he locked eyes with Sadie and started jumping and pulling harder.
“The leashes! Tangle them, Sadie! Tangle them!” Chester barked out, and saw the plan register in Sadie’s eyes.
She started barking then, too, pulling on her own leash and jumping up. Once they were close enough, they both started wiggling and yipping and spinning and turning. Chester dove between Sadie’s legs and came out the other side, making sure to get the leash fully wrapped around her, then nudged against her affectionately. Sadie nudged back, spun around to put another twist in the leashes, and Chester jumped up and twisted around, ducked back through Sadie’s front legs, and looked back, checking that the leashes were good and knotted up. Sadie gave one more spin for good measure. That was enough to take up more of the slack in Chester’s leash and it was done, he couldn’t move any more. He was tugged up close to Sadie’s chest, tucked between her two front legs, so he tipped his head up and gave her face a few affectionate licks. Sadie returned them with her own licks on the top of Chester’s head – with the leashes so tangled, it was all she could reach. They both sat down and with the commotion finished, listened to Jared and Jensen.
“I am so, so sorry – I really don’t know what got into him!” Jensen was saying, passing the end of the leash through one of the knots they’d made.
“I guess they forgave each other for the fight they had last time!” Jared said, hooking his fingers under Sadie’s collar to hold onto her while he unclipped the leash to make it easier to untangle.
“Guess so!” Jensen said, chuckling. “Um, I’m Jensen, by the way. We might as well introduce ourselves since they seem to want to be partners in crime.”
Chester noticed how Jensen’s cheeks turned a little pink as he told Jared his name. That was a good sign. He used to get pink all the time with his old boyfriend. This was actually going to work!
“I’m Jared. It’s nice to meet you,” he said, stopping work on the knots long enough to stretch his big hand out for Jensen to shake. Chester took notice of those hands; they looked like they’d give good belly rubs.
“Again, I’m really sorry about this,” Jensen said, finally freeing the leashes from each other. “Chester is usually a lot better behaved than that.”
“It’s really not a problem. I promise.” Jared said, ducking his head.
Chester wasn’t sure, because Jared’s hair was really fluffy and covered his face, but he thought Jared turned a little pink, too. “It’s kind of a good ice breaker, y’know?”
“Ice breaker?” Jensen asked.
“Yeah. I’ve noticed you here a few times. It seemed really cliche to just walk up and ask the guy at the dog park out on a date.”
“A… a date?” Jensen stuttered, his face going pinker.
“I mean, if you’re interested. Maybe just coffee to start?” Jared smiled that big smile.
“Sure, I’d like that.” Jensen returned the smile, just as big as Jared’s.
Chester wasn’t even upset that they didn’t make it inside the dog park. He and Sadie chatted and got to know each other better as they all walked to the coffee shop.
He wasn’t even mad that their leashes got tied to the railing while Jensen and Jared went inside, because a few minutes later, they both came back out and everyone sat around the table on the sidewalk, and none of them were lonely anymore.
