Archive of Our Own

There’s a little ray of sun peaking through the curtain in Keith’s room. It’s very small, but it’s sun, so it’s warm and getting warmer as time goes by. It falls on one of Kosmo’s paws, and across his neck. It’s nice at first, but soon it gets too annoying, and so he shimmies away from it.

He’s having a dream that he’s chasing after a rabbit, and Keith never lets him eat the rabbits, so he might as well catch this one while his human is not looking. But the sun moves too, the annoying thing. So Kosmo moves again, until his back legs hit against Keith, and there he kicks while he runs through the open field ahead. The rabbit is going away, and he has to catch it before-

Keith’s screaming box goes off.

Kosmo whines, burying his head in the crook of Keith’s armpit, pushing with his nose until he’s hiding away from the sun and the sound. Keith chuckles, but he’s not moving to turn the noisy alarm off, so Kosmo has to lick him across the ribs until he does.

“Hey buddy,” Keith laughs, a happy sound Kosmo likes a lot, and then there’s the scratches behind his ears. Kosmo thumps his tail against the mattress, but stays right where he is, hidden from the world. “I know, I know. I don’t like the morning either, but we have to wake up. We have work to do, yeah? You like work, don’t you?”

It’s cheating, Kosmo thinks, when Keith does that thing with his voice, and this part of his chest gets all warm and bubbly. A good warm, not like the one from the dumb waking sun. It’s not fair, because Kosmo does like his human’s work. Kosmo’s good at it, too. But there was a rabbit and he wanted to catch it.

His tail thumps against the mattress once more, in complaint, and he doesn’t move. He’s on strike from morning until Keith gives him at least twice as many scratches.

Which he does, he’s a good human.

And a promise of some bacon for breakfast.

Which Keith also does, because Kosmo’s a good dog.

Yeah, that’s right. Get that, dumb sun and annoying alarm. Kosmo’s getting bacon, and maybe also a piece of those round waffle things.

Kosmo’s still daydreaming about his breakfast when Keith leaves the bed, complaining about always ending up sleeping on the very edge of it, and how Kosmo owns a bed of his own. It’s true, Kosmo woofs back at Keith, but his bed doesn’t have Keith in it. Duh.

Anyways, Keith is never really angry at Kosmo pushing him around, he knows. And in winter, they snuggle because it’s warmer that way.

After Keith’s gone to the bathroom- which Kosmo supervises each morning, of course- they go to the kitchen for breakfast. On the way there, Keith opens the door to the patio, where Kosmo does his own morning routine, and then trots back inside. Keith always pats him in the head for being such a well-behaved boy, and Kosmo puffs his chest out, because he is.

Kosmo went to dog school since he was a pup to learn how to behave, and he graduated with many blue ribbons. He learned to be a service dog for little kids, which is his favorite job ever, and he also met Keith there, who taught him to be a good rescue dog as well, and who finally adopted Kosmo when Kosmo decided Keith was his human and no one else should have him.

It turned out to be a good thing too, because Keith’s job is to train other dogs, so Kosmo always gets to help. On the wall opposite the door to outside, there’s many, many diplomas and ribbons Keith hung up from all the learning Kosmo did.

Sometimes, when Keith’s acting weird and a bit sad at night, the two of them sit in front of the diplomas and Keith praises Kosmo for them. They also look at the pictures of when Kosmo was a pup, and when Keith was a pup as well. Keith was a happy pup in the pictures, and that makes Kosmo happy.

“Hey, bud.” Kosmo looks up at Keith who’s smiling down at him, the phone in his hand. Kosmo lolls his tongue out, a tiny piece of bacon falling to the floor just as the phone clicks. “You’re such a doofus,” Keith laughs softly, shaking his head. “Gonna put this right on the stories.”

Kosmo barks in response, it’s okay. He doesn’t know stories, but Keith likes to take pictures of him, and that’s fine. If Keith’s happy, then he’s happy. Kosmo turns to find that lost bacon piece, and the two of them finish breakfast right on time for the first birds to come singing at the window.

Kosmo goes to bark at them.

He doesn’t hate them, but it’s a matter of principle. He can’t be sure those birds know how to behave on top of Keith’s plants.

After Keith’s done with the soapy water in the kitchen, he sits on his couch and opens the bigger phone, so Kosmo joins him there. It’s time to work.

🐾🐾

“Ummm, I’m not sure about this one. What do you think, buddy?” Kosmo’s resting his head on Keith’s lap, watching the pictures and words go by on the screen, when Keith asks him a question and he looks up, ears perked in attention.

Him and Keith have a routine that works perfectly.

People talk to Keith on the little and big phone, sometimes send dog pictures, and Keith chooses one to train next. Kosmo mostly supervises, and every so often- like right now- Keith will ask him a question for Kosmo to decide.

Kosmo cocks his head to the side, paying close attention to the dog on the screen, and woofs. Twice, loud and clear, no.

“Huh, okay then. There is something about them, isn’t there?” Keith says, rubbing at Kosmo’s tummy and deleting the picture.

They go like that for a long while. Some days are more working than others. Keith keeps on petting Kosmo, deleting some pictures, putting others away for later, until Kosmo’s almost asleep from the tummy rubs. A voice wakes him. One that’s not Keith’s.

“Hi, uh, um, a friend just recommended this service to me, and I was wondering- well, I have a dog, and he needs training. I mean, of course, that’s what you do. In any case, I was wondering if you had any… wait, no . I don’t know if you’ll have availability, just- Atlas, come on, wait .” The whole time, there’s a sharp barking at the back. Atlas, like the human in the voice said, is clearly very tiny, and desperate for his human’s attention. “Anyways, that’s him, and, uh- yeah, so I’m sorry about this voice note, but if you could get back at me, people say you’re th- no, don’t grab that! the best, I- you’re the best. Okay, thank you for your time.” 

When the voice ends, Kosmo has one ear towards the screen and his eyes looking up at Keith who’s all red in the face and is biting his lips. Can you believe it , Kosmo huffs, blowing hot air against Keith’s stomach, and then his human starts laughing. Kosmo joins with some short yips.

When they calm down, Keith gets that little smile face he always gets when he sees a little pup learning something new. “We’re getting them.” He says, determined, and Kosmo rolls his eyes. “What? He- you heard him, he’s lost, Kos. We gotta help.”

Kosmo can’t argue with Keith about that, but that doesn’t mean he’s so sure about the lost man and the hyperactive pup. He lets Keith know that by getting up and walking to his water bowl while Keith sends a voice back.

The man answers right away, and Kosmo can hear even from the kitchen the relief and excitement in his voice. He can also hear Atlas’ barks; dad, dad, lookit me, dad, dad, look, look dad!

Kosmo shakes his head. Pups.

🐾🐾

When they get to the park where they meet the clients, Kosmo rushes forward to check everything’s in order.

He walks the perimeter of the off-leash area, cataloging the new smells from the last time, revising the spots with new holes, and growling under the tree where that squirrel hides all the time. One day, Kosmo thinks, one day…

After doing the check-up and greeting the other dogs in the park, Kosmo goes back to Keith, who’s sitting on the same bench as always. Now they wait. Some dogs bark at Kosmo to come play, but he’s here on work duty, so he can’t. He’ll play later, he barks back at them.

It doesn’t take long for the man with the voice and Atlas the pup to show up, Kosmo smells them before Keith sees them, and he sits up straighter. Keith follows Kosmo’s gaze, and there they are, at the end of the pebbled path, a big man with searching eyes, and a puppy on a leash running around his legs.

When the man sees Keith and Kosmo, he waves, smiles, and walks forward. Or at least he tries. The pup keeps tangling his legs with the leash, and every two steps the man has to stop and untangle himself. Keith snorts quietly, and Kosmo looks up at his human with a low whine. This is going to be a long day.

In the end, the man picks Atlas up, and hurries the rest of the way.

Keith stands, gives Kosmo a stay command- as if Kosmo needs one- and greets the man, letting him know Kosmo is no danger. Pfff, Kosmo wants to snort, but he behaves. He knows this is important for the man to know so he can put the pup down. Which he doesn’t yet, but does kneel to greet Kosmo, who gives him his paw to shake.

“Oh, he’s a charmer!” the man says, with a smile. Kosmo cocks his head up to Keith, see, I’m a charmer, he tells his human with his eyes.

“Yeah, well, that’s when he wants to.” Keith jokes, “He’s buttering you up to get in your good graces. Next thing you know, he’s stealing your bed.”

“Hah, well, at least he does so with grace.” The man stands back up, reaching out for Keith’s hand then, a big toothy smile on his face “I’m Shiro, by the way. But, uh- I guess you knew that already, from the messages.”

Kosmo watches the exchange a bit bored of the same old thing every time, but then something happens that had never happened before. Keith gets all weird, what?

He’s seeing it right there, there’s red on his face, and he stutters his name out, and smiles this weird smile to the floor. Kosmo whines, thumping his head against Keith’s leg, is everything okay? That only seems to make Keith act weirder, patting Kosmo’s head absentmindedly and staring up at this Shiro’s face.

What the-

Oh, no.

Oh, no, nononono, no.

Kosmo knows what this is. He’s seen it before, with that friend of Keith's, the tall, skinny one with the glasses, whenever there’s a human woman around.

Kosmo whines louder, stomping a paw on the ground. They are here working, Keith can’t do this. Behave, he wants to say. Sit! Sit and work so Kosmo can go and play with his park friends soon.

It doesn’t help at all. Keith and the Shiro man keep talking to each other, about the park, and Keith’s work, and Shiro’s work, all the while they keep standing closer and closer, smiling so much. All those smiles, and none of them are for Kosmo, who’s still sitting like a well-behaved dog, like the only one still aware that they came here to work.

It’s not until Atlas starts barking on Shiro’s arms that Keith finally pays attention to anything other than the man, and he coos silly pup talk to the squirming dog. And then he puts him down for Kosmo and Atlas to greet.

Kosmo stays still while Atlas sniffs him around, like he’s supposed to, watching as the pup wraps the four of them up with one of those infinite leashes that keep stretching and stretching. None of the humans pay attention to it, not even when Kosmo howls for Keith to look down!

“Atlas! Oh, look at what you’ve done, baby.” The Shiro man is the one to notice at last, and finally Keith kneels to untangle them all, while the two of them chuckle. “I’m sorry, I really am a disaster trying to train him.”

“That’s okay,” Keith says, so soft and not like Kosmo’s Keith at all. He smiles at the man, again, his eyes all small and wrinkled. “Not everyone has the skill to do so, especially not with such a cutie, isn’t that right, Atlas?”

Keith gets Atlas’ attention with that, and Kosmo manages to step away from all the leash. He watches as Keith picks Atlas up, checking his paws, and getting his face all licked. He also watches Shiro up close. How Shiro looks at his human with the same dumb face Keith has for the pup. This is all so wrong, Kosmo thinks.

“Yeah, he can get pretty much everything from me with those big pleading eyes,” the Shiro says, getting closer to Keith once more. “Sometimes I think I should get some training myself just to resist him, you know?”

“Well, maybe you can.” Keith’s putting Atlas back down when he says it, so Kosmo can hear the way his human’s heart is beating all fast and jumpy.

“Do I get a discount if I come to Atlas’ sessions, then?” Shiro laughs, a deeper chuckle than Keith’s, and even if Kosmo’s not so happy about what’s going on right in front of his dog park , he can’t help but think it’s a good chuckle.

And there Keith goes, getting all red again. Oh, damnit.

Kosmos stops listening to the humans after that. He can’t possibly stomach it anymore.

He thought it was bad with Keith’s friend, especially when he asked to take Kosmo to the park for brownie points- even though Kosmo never got a brownie after the outings. But to see it on Keith- nope.

Kosmo had a normal human, that never had weird red faces, or jumping heart things. A human that only allowed his parents, and maybe two friends to touch him, and who laughed at silly things Kosmo did, and the big screen on the wall late at night. And now, Kosmo can’t even look at his human like this. It’s a disaster.

Hey. Hey, Kosmo, hey. Someone yips and jumps right next to him.

Oh, right, Atlas is here.

🐾🐾

The meeting is still going, and the sun is getting higher up in the sky, so Kosmo knows it’s about lunch time already. He hopes Keith remembers at least that.

In the meantime, Kosmo has taken Atlas to the off-leash area, because the pup was getting too antsy, and Kosmo was too old for that.

Kosmo introduced Atlas to the other dogs there, told them to watch their play bites with him or else , and is now both watching Atlas run around the place, and watching Keith continue to talk with the man.

Kosmo squints his eyes at the Shiro, trying to figure out what he did to get his human to behave that way.

The Shiro is okay-ish, Kosmo thinks. He’s tall, taller than Keith who is taller than Kosmo, and maybe even taller than Keith’s dad and mom. Kosmo’s not sure, he’ll have to check. He’s also wider than Keith, like Kosmo’s friend from the fire department, the boxer.

His head fur is a bit odd, a tuft of it white, like that cat that lives at the end of the road from Kosmo’s house. He also has an arm that’s different. Kosmo has seen plenty of those, while him and Keith worked at the hospital. It’s a non-human arm, but it’s to help.

The Shiro is also very smiley, which is apparently contagious, because Keith is very smiley now too. He reminds Kosmo of the golden retriever he knew at pup school.

Kosmo. Kosmo, look. Atlas barks, running past Kosmo for the many many times now, distracting him from keeping an eye out for Keith. Look, Kosmo, I’m flying.

The pup is running around the place, chasing one of Kosmo’s friends, a boston terrier. Playing catch is one of her favorite games, but when she plays with Kosmo, he catches her quickly because he’s taller. Now with Atlas, she’s having a lot of fun.

Kosmo watches them play for a little while.

Atlas is very tiny, but all pups are. But he’s a leonberger, and with his big paws he’ll be a big dog someday. Maybe bigger than Kosmo.

His fur is almost all brown, but his nose and ears are darker. He’s all round fluff, and his fur is now full of dirt from the park. Kosmo huffs a laugh. That will teach the Shiro when he has to bathe Atlas later today.

Just as Kosmo’s thinking about it, Atlas trips on his front legs and falls on a mud puddle. When he stands up, he’s a mud ball.

That gives Kosmo an idea.

It turns out to be a horrible idea.

🐾🐾

Kosmo’s back at home in time for lunch, which would be a good thing usually, except they have company today. The company of the Shiro and Atlas, who are now both getting washed.

Well, Atlas is getting washed by Keith on the patio. The Shiro is in the shower, and if Kosmo knows something about Keith- and he does- then all the red face and looking at the wall Keith is doing makes Kosmo think his human wants to be washing Shiro instead.

What a terrible way for the plan to end up in, Kosmo whines, nose low on the grass next to where Keith set up the tub for the pup who keeps splashing soapy water everywhere.

It should’ve been so simple to get the Shiro muddy, have them go home and never come back, so that Keith would be back to normal and Kosmo wouldn’t have to worry about his human becoming like his friend with the glasses.

Now they have to have lunch with them, and Keith is going to keep talking to the Shiro, and Kosmo won’t get any attention at all.

Oh, no. What if he doesn’t get food scraps from making lunch?

What if he has to share scraps with Atlas?

Kosmo howls, loud and long until Keith pays attention to him. This was such a terrible idea! Tragic!

🐾🐾

Kosmo’s a smart dog, Keith always says so, and so Kosmo has to get a new plan in action, and he has to get it soon.

It’s another day with the Shiro man at the park, and at least this time Keith is paying attention to Atlas instead of talking on the bench, even if he turns around to smile at Shiro every time Atlas fails to do his tasks.

He can’t believe it!

So far Atlas has paid no attention, has tried to steal the good boy snacks, and has licked all over Keith’s face, and all Keith does is laugh and let Shiro take pictures on the phone. Kosmo’s patience is running out. He can’t go on with another day of sharing his food scraps with the pup.

Maybe Kosmo’s a little jealous, like Keith said the other night. Maybe he likes to have Keith all for himself, but that’s not a bad thing? And he’s being nice to Atlas and the Shiro, too. He greets with his paw, and sits when Shiro asks, and rolls around too… It was Keith’s idea for the Shiro to try his commands with Kosmo, so that he learns how to teach Atlas, too. Kosmo thinks his command voice is not as strong as Keith’s is, but he follows along because he’s good at it, and-

And maybe if the Shiro learns, then Atlas learns, and then they can stop meeting in the park and going home for lunch, and then Kosmo won’t have to share his scraps and his couch for movie time!

That’s it! Kosmo has to teach Atlas to listen to the Shiro, and then it will be him and Keith alone again!

Kosmo’s ears perk up with the new idea. He knows just the time he’s going to do it, too.

Every day since they met the Shiro, he and Keith take a little break from training, and the Shiro buys some coffee from a shop on the other side of the park. He also brings Kosmo and Atlas a puppuccino. And, okay, that’s nice. The Shiro is a little nice, Kosmo admits, but still-

Anyways, when the next puppuccino comes, Kosmo is going to tell Atlas not to drink it until he sits and rolls, and gives his paw, and then he’s going to show Keith, and they will be free to go watch a movie all alone on the couch. No meddling Shiros with their hands on Keith’s shoulders, and no more Keiths with red faces and fumbling words like they are little human pups learning to talk.

And also, no more Atlases jumping on Kosmo’s bed. That he doesn’t use, but it’s a matter of principle.

“Hey, Keith, I’m going to get us something to drink, and something for the boys, what would you like?” The Shiro asks, leaning over the fence of the dog park. He has that smile Kosmo’s learned Keith likes a lot for whatever reason.

“Oh, um… anything you like is okay.” Keith answers with a doofus grin. Then he stands and walks to the Shiro. “Wait, no. You’ll get something that’s going to rot my teeth, maybe a-”

Kosmo doesn’t wait and listen, he doesn’t care to know, because he’s a dog on a mission. He has to train Atlas, and get his human back, so he yips at the pup to follow him, and they move away to a corner of the park.

Kosmo’s good at orders, so how hard can it be to teach them to the little hyperactive dog, right?

🐾🐾

“How on earth did you get so dirty, Kos?” Keith asks with a shake of his head, putting more soapy water behind Kosmo’s ears, much to his displeasure.

Because , he grumbles, bumping his wet nose against Keith’s shirt.

The plan had almost succeeded. Well, not really, but Kosmo wants to believe he had it under control. At least until the Shiro came back with the puppuccinos and Atlas got so excited that he forgot everything Kosmo had taught him so far.

They had gone over sit, and roll, and stand, Atlas had even given Kosmo his paw. And then the Shiro had to come and take his phone out and it was all down a hill or something from there.

Look, look, look dad, look. Lookit me and Kos, Atlas had started to happily bark all around the dog park. Kosmo had tried to chase him to slow down, bark at him to stop and pay attention, but Atlas thought they were playing catch instead. And that’s when Kosmo made a mistake.

Because Kosmo’s fast, Keith says it seems like Kosmo appears and disappears sometimes, from how fast he is. His legs are long, and he’s done dog training to rescue people that are far far away. And Atlas’ legs are tiny, because he’s a pup, duh.

So there Kosmo went, jumping up to try and catch Atlas, but he miscalculated, and jumped too far. And he fell on that mud puddle that never goes away.

Then Atlas joined in, because he seems to like the mess, and- well, and maybe Kosmo got caught up in rolling around, so what?

Maybe it was fun, and Atlas is kinda cute sometimes.

Anyways, that means that they are back at Keith’s and Kosmo’s place, again.

And this time the Shiro is washing Atlas next to Kosmo. He and Keith are talking, and laughing, splashing each other with soapy water, and they even keep looking at each other with dumb mating eyes. Yeah, Kosmo knows what those are, he wasn’t born yesterday, you know.

This time, Keith invites Shiro to stay for dinner.

So much for his plan to get the couch for himself, Kosmo thinks.

At least Shiro goes out on a food run, and he brings back steaks for him and little steaks for Atlas.

He tries to put butter on Kosmo, the cheater.

🐾🐾

Okay, so there has to be a way to get rid of this Shiro man. Things have gone far enough.

For the first time in years, Kosmo was left outside Keith’s room for the night, and that is unacceptable, no-uh.

To make things worse, Atlas stole Kosmo’s bed- again- and then when Kosmo took the couch, he whined and whined until Kosmo put him on the couch.

Then, when Kosmo took that chance to go to his dumb bed, Atlas tried to follow, fell off the couch, and cried.

Kosmo couldn’t let a pup cry, of course, he’s not mean . So he went over and checked Atlas to see where it hurt.

He was licking over the hurt when Keith and Shiro opened the door to the room and went out to see. And then the worst happened.

They cooed, and took pictures of Kosmo being nice to Atlas, and they put it on stories because they looked so cute together they said.

And then Keith said the words, “Look at you being so good to your little brother, Kos.”

What?

Oh, and then they closed the room door again, leaving Kosmo sitting there with the news, Atlas jumping of joy around him.

Brothers.

It couldn’t be.

🐾🐾

Kosmo’s on a strike from work and getting up, and also on a strike from his human.

“Kos, come on, what’s wrong boy?” Keith asks with the human whine that tells Kosmo he’s worried. Well, he should be, because Kosmo is- he’s- he’s confused.

It’s been many, many work days, and also not-work days, since Keith and Kosmo met the Shiro and Atlas, and Kosmo’s life was turned upside down.

Atlas is finally learning things, which is good, and Kosmo’s really proud of the pup, especially when Atlas rolls and his tongue peaks out and falls on his nose. He looks funny and he usually gets a sneezing fit afterwards. Cute.

Even so, the Shiro and Atlas keep coming to Kosmo and Keith’s house to eat and stay on their beds, and Kosmo doesn’t understand why.

“Hey buddy, do you want to go to the vet?” Keith asks. His face is scrunched up, and he’s softly petting Kosmo’s fur on the back of his neck.

No vet , Kosmo woofs against the bed cover. He’s not sick, but he doesn’t want to go out yet.

“Okay, okay. I’ll go get breakfast, yes?” Kosmo thumps his tail against the mattress, and watches Keith leave the room towards the kitchen.

Kosmo listens to all the breakfast sounds. The hot water machine, and the waffle warmer. The sizzling of the yummy bacon getting yummier. It’s all almost done when Keith speaks again, and Kosmo’s ears stand in attention.

“No, I’m sorry, Kosmo’s not feeling well, and I’m going to stay in with him today, see what’s wrong.” Keith’s upset voice makes Kosmo feel a little bad about his strike. But then it changes, and gets softer. “That’s okay, I can handle it. Will you take a raincheck on that date, though?” Sweeter. “Oh, really?” And dumber. “Okay, I’ll call you later. Yeah, I promise. Mmhm, yes. Me too.”

And so soft, Kosmo has to stretch his neck to get closer to the door to hear. “Bye, Shiro. Give Atlas some kisses for me.”

The Shiro!

Kosmo growls. He doesn’t really mean to, but he also can’t help it, and Keith hears him when he’s walking back with breakfast on a moving table.

“Hey boy, what happened?” Keith puts the moving table on the little table by the bed- so many tables in here- and rushes to Kosmo’s side.

Why , Kosmo whines. Why do you have to get a mate and I have to get a brother, and we have to share our beds? He crawls across the bed to push his head against Keith’s chest to make him understand.

“Did you have a bad dream?” Kosmo barks twice, no.

“Is this about the squirrel in the park? You know you can’t eat it.” Two more, no.

“Are you sick, Kosmo? You know you have to tell me, it’s not so bad at the vet.” Did Keith hit his head, or is he playing to be dumb? No, Kosmo barks again.

“You gotta help me, boy.” Keith gets on the bed and hugs Kosmo close. This , Kosmo wants to say. He thumps his tail, happily. I want you to stay here, and we can be together .

“Oh,” Keith says, and Kosmo thinks he finally got it. “You wanted to play hooky from work?” 

Maybe.

“Do you not like working with Atlas?”

Atlas is fine , Kosmo scratches a paw against the bedsheets.

“You don’t like Shiro, then.”

Kosmo growls. He can’t help it, it comes from inside his chest.

“I guess we’ve been spending a lot of time with them, huh?” Keith doesn’t get angry at him, though, and Kosmo waits and listens. “I didn’t realize, sorry bud.” Keith keeps petting him and talking.

“The thing is, I like Shiro.” Is the soft talking that Kosmo knows from sad news to people when they work rescue, so he pays attention. “And he likes me, too.”

Of course he likes you , Kosmo tilts his head back, bumping against Keith’s chin, you’re the best human ever .

“I got an idea. Come on, let’s go to the couch.” Keith bumps Kosmo’s head back, and gets off the bed, taking breakfast with him. Kosmo follows, because Keith has the bacon.

And because Keith is Keith, and Kosmo always follows Keith.

🐾🐾

“Good boy, Atlas, good boy!” Kosmo watches Keith pat Atlas on the head and give him a good boy treat after he listened and stayed still for very long.

They are at the dog park again, but this time Kosmo’s not helping. It’s time for Atlas to show he can behave alone. Kosmo knows he can do it, he told Atlas too, earlier, with many licks and playful bites.

The Shiro is not with them either. He has to come later to see, so Atlas doesn’t get too distracted yet.

It must be later, because Kosmo smells the man arrive, and he also smells puppuccino. Kosmo turns to tell the Shiro it’s dumb to bring puppuccino when Atlas has to behave, but there’s only one in his hand. The Shiro sits on the bench and gives it to Kosmo.

Kosmo tilts his head up in question.

“Hi, Kosmo, it’s for you.” He smiles, and puts his not-human hand out. Kosmo gives him his paw, like he was taught to do with polite people, even if he’s not so sure about Shiro yet. But he does it for Keith, and everything they talked about when they played hooky.

“Atlas is doing so well, don’t you think?” the Shiro says while Kosmo eats his cup. It doesn’t feel like the man wants an answer, so Kosmo doesn’t. The Shiro keeps on talking.

“I have to thank you for it, you did a great job with him.” Kosmo lifts one ear, I’m listening . “I tried to teach him for a long time before calling Keith, you know. We tried a lot of techniques, watched so many videos too, but I think- In the end, I think he needed a friend like you. Someone to keep him company. Someone who understood him.”

Kosmo sits back up, licking the milk from his nose. He doesn’t look at the Shiro, but he’s paying attention.

“Keith told me you’ve helped a lot of pups get better, pups that never had a pack. That’s really good. You’re a very good dog.” Oh, so he’s putting the butter on Kosmo, now. He sees what this is. He turns to look at the Shiro, but the man is not looking at Kosmo. He’s looking ahead, at Keith and Atlas together.

Kosmo sees his eyes all soft and kind while he does so. He knows the look from when Keith took Kosmo home for the first time, and when it’s winter and Kosmo gets snow in his fur and Keith takes him to the fireplace.

It’s also Keith’s mom and dad’s look whenever Keith visits and falls asleep on his old bed.

“Keith has a great pack, don’t you think?” The Shiro- no, just Shiro- turns to look at Kosmo then, and they stay like that for a little while. “I know you’re the one that takes care of Keith, and I don’t want to take that away. I just haven’t had a pack for a long time now, so maybe I’m a little rusty. Maybe you can teach me.”

Shiro reaches out with his human hand, waiting for Kosmo to lean forward for pets. He tilts his head to the side, towards Keith running around with Atlas, listens to them having fun.

Sometimes packs get bigger, Keith had said that day, while he and Kosmo were sitting on the couch. They had spent the entire day there, Kosmo hadn’t even gone to bark at the birds. That’s not a bad thing. Remember when you got to meet my mom and dad? You didn’t know them, and then you liked them, didn’t you?

Kosmo had thumped his tail on the couch. Keith was right; he liked mom and dad, of course. They were nice to Kosmo and Keith, and they always had hidden treats that Keith didn’t know about.

So perhaps you just need to get to know Shiro a little more.

Perhaps.

So maybe Shiro is buttering Kosmo up, and maybe that’s okay; he doesn’t smell bad, and he makes Keith smile a lot. Kosmo pushes his head against Shiro’s hand, accepting the scratches, and moving to rest his chin on Shiro’s lap when he gets too drowsy on pets to keep his eyes open.

“You’re a good boy, Kosmo.” Shiro says, reaching to that nice spot behind Kosmo’s ear.

Of course he is.

“Thank you.”

🐾🐾

Kosmo’s running fast, faster than ever. He’s about to catch the squirrel from the park. The time of the squirrel taunting him is over.

He’s so close now, just one more leap and he’ll have it.

But then something trips him over, and falls on top of him. They tumble across the grass and dirt until they bump against the tree where the squirrel is up and laughing. Something hot and wet crawls across Kosmo’s face, then breathes against his ear.

Kosmo, Kos, wake up! Wake up, wake up, it’s time for breakfast! Come on!

Dog damnit, Atlas!

He’d been so close! Kosmo can still hear the squirrel laughing above Atlas’ yips to wake him. The overgrown pup is jumping on Kosmo’s bed, his massive front paws hitting Kosmo's ribs every so often.

Okay, okay , Kosmo groans, nipping at Atlas’ legs playfully to get him to settle. Someone’s gotta teach the pup who’s the Alpha around here.

Kosmo tries to stretch on the bed but he can’t without falling over the edge. Atlas is getting bigger and bigger every day, and no matter how many beds Keith and Shiro buy him, Atlas only wants to sleep with Kosmo.

Duh , Atlas says everytime Kosmo nags him about it, with his silly tongue lolling out of his tilted head.

Kosmo finally manages a good stretch and a couple of licks to get his fur in order, when he realizes Keith and Shiro aren’t even up, yet Atlas is running excitedly around the kitchen table. His paws make click click clicks all over the slippery floor, and soon enough Atlas manages to crash against a chair.

Now this is unacceptable, Kosmo shakes his head and marches over to Keith and Shiro’s room.

He knows he shouldn’t, but he hops on his hind legs and opens the door.

“What th- Kosmo, no!” Keith whines and tries to hide under the covers from Kosmo’s tongue assault. When he manages it, Kosmo turns to Shiro who isn’t as fast.

Atlas! Kosmo barks to get his brother to come on over. And then chaos is off the leash.

They both jump on their humans to get them up, and then the four of them get into a tug of pillow war that ends with Atlas biting through yet another one. He still has to learn to be nice to pillows and plushies, but he’s getting there.

At one point, Atlas lies over Keith, Shiro, and Kosmo, and the three have to tickle the pup until they get released.

By the end of it, Keith and Shiro shoo them out of the bathroom to take a shower because there’s slobber and dog hair everywhere, so Kosmo opens the door to the patio for him and Atlas to go wait for breakfast outside.

“I can’t believe we’re getting bullied out of our bed,” Keith mumbles as they each go their way, but Kosmo knows he doesn’t mean it.

Besides, Keith should have learned by now that if you lay with dogs, you get the fleas.

Maybe that’s why he and Shiro always take a while longer in the shower.