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It's a bustling day in Olla's Chanterelle Dog Cafe. It's practically a full house today, with twelve doggy customers huffing happily around the premises and a lot more human customers than the Corinthian has ever counted in a single sitting.
With the bustle, though, comes a lot of business - so Olla's more than happy to have such a crowd. The diminutive cafe owner and self-appointed barista cum dog sitter has been on their feet all morning, tweaking and booping and smoking the espresso machine. They have no additional staff, so the Corinthian has been roped in to help wait tables.
"Thank you so much, Tom," Olla keeps saying breathlessly. The Corinthian waves them off and collects a few cups. He can afford to be generous. It's not the first thing he'd have chosen to do on his weekend, but it's fine - he's bargained with Dream for three nights a week off nightmare work by now, and - well - he can do a heck of a lot on one additional night off, that's very much worth a few hours of table waiting.
Besides, he's kind of flattered that they're bringing this much business to Chanterelle.
It started off with Dream, really - it's his way with dogs that has people coming over to the cafe every Tuesday to watch him work his magic with a whole pack of pooches. But of course, since he started waiting tables, he's overheard more than a few hushed comments about the handsome new waiter as well.
"So which one is the dog whisperer?" The Corinthian overhears a group debating.
"The one with the hair."
"The one with the jaw?"
"Oh, he's dreamy."
"Check out the cute waiter too."
"Oh the cute waiter in white! I love his outfit. Eggshell on ivory is so chic!"
It's three o'clock right about then, someone goes "sshh!" and the conversation around them dies down, like magic.
Everyone grabs their drinks and returns to their seats. The Corinthian serves his last coffee and takes a seat by the table that's nearest the doggy play pen, in the center of the cafe. Even Olla gives the counter top a quick wipe before darting to the Corinthian's table, because nobody could care more about coffee at this point, and they love watching Dream with the dogs too.
Although the humans have hushed, it's not entirely quiet, because of course the dogs don't care that it's three o clock. They're still shuffling up and down the place with their squeaky toys and playful yaps.
Everyone watches with rapt attention as Dream unfolds himself from his chair, in that slow, considered way he has, and walks up to the playpen.
"Nap time," he says, and he doesn't even clap his hands. It's not clear how his voice, barely louder than his usual conversational volume, cuts through the babble of dogs, but it does, rich and velvety and alarmingly smooth on the ears. The Corinthian picks up on some of the younger customers promptly christening him McDreamy.
The dogs, as always, respond promptly to Dream. It happens every time, like clockwork, but it's still impressive to see - twelve dogs of every breed and size and personality going ears up to register what he's said. Then the toys are in their mouths and they're scampering up to Dream, forming a semi circle around him, tails wagging madly.
"Good job, boys. Well done. Into the pen, now, go on," Dream says. One pat and a glimmering smile for each dog as they turn up.
In half a minute, all that's left outside the playpen is a tiny little black and tan teacup sized thing that's, bless it's little heart, almost certainly a teddy bear.
It sits like a toy at Dream's feet, no higher than his ankle, opens a tiny pink mouth, and gives an adorable whine.
The audience coos, and despite his best attempts at remaining impassive, the Corinthian finds himself smiling. Listen - he's an arch nightmare. He can afford to have a soft side. Besides, the tiny thing could fit into his palm. It's just so terribly cute.
"No, Chewbacca," Dream says sternly. "I said nap time, not story time."
The teacup puppy sighs and droops over the toe of his shoe.
A few high pitched shrieks go up through the crowd, and a bevy of phone cameras go click-click-click.
The Corinthian is sitting on his chair the wrong way around, his legs slung around the backrest, just because. Being quite close to Dream, he decides to lean his chair forward, on its front (back) two legs, and says in the most cajoling tone he has,
"Erik. You and your rules! Have a heart! Look at him, he's so little! Come on!"
Dream flicks his gaze back for a second. Before he can say no, the Corinthian scoots his chair forward, places his chin into the top of the backrest so he'd be looking up at Dream through his eyelashes, and wheedles,
"I want story time,"
and that makes Dream stare, hard and glinting, at the grinning blond man.
The Corinthian smirks internally. After a particularly nosy customer, he's made it a point to do shit like this on the regular, especially when people are watching, just so it's clear to everyone that they're a thing. Sometimes, like now - with his chin nestled sweetly on both hands - he goes the extra mile to look super chummy.
Dream's not blushing, exactly, but Corinthian can see something like consternation in his eyes that's good enough for now. One of these days, he's going to make the reserved Endless squirm in public.
And, it seems the crowd has more than gotten the message.
"Is that the cute waiter?"
"Oh god, they're boyfriends, I could die."
Dream finally looks back at Chewbacca, who's still drooping despondently over the toe of his shoe.
"Very well," he tells the drooping puppy. "We shall have one story. But only because Tom said so."
The puppy perks up, the audience sighs, and gods, because Tom said so makes the Corinthian's heart flip. He remains absolutely still where he is, tilted forward on two feet of the chair, chin on his hands, in remarkably childlike position for someone of his build, and hopes fervently that he's not the one blushing now. That traitorous bastard.
The teacup puppy, happily in the pen now, noses an empty spot and sits. It then turns back to look at Dream. Its expectant gaze says, story time shall be here, human!
At his side, Olla prods the Corinthian and passes him a cushion.
"It's for Erik," they murmur.
Dream is already stepping over to the spot before Chewbacca. The dogs even wiggle around to make way for him. The Corinthian swings a long leg off the chair and climbs over the fence to pass him the cushion.
It's a nice addition, the Corinthian thinks - Dream on the floor, cross legged on the cushion, and a bunch of noses pushing into his lap.
Something about that makes the Corinthian pause. That's my lap.
There's a split second when the Corinthian has one leg ungracefully over the fence, is clearly on his way out of the pen, but has his gaze fixed squarely on the swarm of dogs in Dream's lap.
"Hang on," he announces suddenly, and retracts his leg. "I'm joining."
He carefully pushes his way back to Dream's side. "Make way, make way, come on." He's not above pushing a few small dogs out of the way to get where he wants to go.
He ends up sitting cross legged beside Dream, joined at the knee, the hip and the shoulder. Luckily, Fantabulous the golden doodle has climbed onto the Corinthian, his new best friend, so he doesn't look like he's in the pen just to be with Dream.
"Ready?" Dream asks, giving his nightmare a bemused look.
"Yep."
Chewbacca, who had climbed onto Dream's knee, wiggles in excitement.
"Once upon a time," Dream begins, "there was a person named Erik."
A few knowing chuckles go up in the crowd.
"And Erik had a dog, by the name of Rascal.
Uh oh. The Corinthian bites the lips of his secondary mouths. This had better not be about me.
"Erik knew Rascal inside out. Erik was there when Rascal was born. In fact, Erik was the one who brought Rascal into the world.
"Erik loved Rascal immediately. And Rascal loved Erik. They were best friends.
"Rascal started off as the smallest, fluffiest, cutest puppy. He really was -" Dream paused and considered, "the littlest one. But of course he didn't stay that way. As time went by, Rascal grew and grew. Rascal started off no bigger than you, Chewbacca. But, in no time at all, he was as large as Fantabulous here, and then, soon enough he was even bigger than Erik.
"And while Rascal grew, he stayed brave and strong and true, and he guarded Erik through every danger. And they were happy together.
"One day, Tom came along."
The audience stiffens, draws a careful breath, and there are some soft ooos. The Corinthian feels their collective gaze linger warily on him. He himself has stopped fidgeting, and paled where he sits.
Fuck.
"Tom was a new addition. He made a huge effort to get to know both Erik and Rascal. And Rascal bonded quickly with Tom. He knew Tom had a good heart. And he knew they both wanted only the best for Erik.
"Tom also wanted the best for Rascal. He had his own views about his to do things better. He would tell Erik, let's get a larger house, Erik. There's three of us now, and Rascal needs the space. Let's bring Rascal out more often, Erik. He likes exploring new things. Rascal's special, Erik. Shall we spend more time with him and less time on work?
"Erik didn't like hearing such suggestions. They made him feel criticised and irritated, and worse, like he'd done something wrong.
"So Tom and Erik fought and argued. Tom wanted Erik to be more understanding. Erik thought Tom was overstepping. They got angrier and angrier at each other and soon they were snapping at each other over the littlest things.
"Both Tom and Erik hurt each other deeply, but Rascal was the one who was hurt the most. He couldn't go a day without hearing them shouting at each other, and it made him extremely unhappy."
The Corinthian is staring at Dream now, his gaze boring into Dream's temple, but the latter has his gaze fixed firmly on the dogs in his lap.
"One day, Tom decided to leave."
There's an audible gasp from the audience.
"He had had enough, and he just got up and left while Erik was out at work.
"He left Erik, and the house, and all his things.
"But he didn't go alone. Rascal went with him.
"Rascal knew that Tom would be all on his own, and would need him more than Erik did.
The Corinthian, still staring hard at Dream, feels wetness prickle at the corners of his secondary mouths. Dream is still averting his gaze in lieu of staring downwards at the dogs.
"When he found out that Tom and Rascal had left, Erik turned wild with fury. He went on a hunt for them both. He felt grievously insulted by what he saw as their disloyalty, and wanted to make them regret everything.
"Thankfully, Erik didn't manage to find them. Many things got in his way. He made many missteps in his madness, which cost him dearly. His house was broken into and almost destroyed. But these things ended up being a blessing in disguise. If he had found them then and acted in anger, he'd have made a catastrophic mistake. As it was, he barely escaped falling into wrongdoing himself. Eventually, he gave up on the hunt and went back to rebuild his home. He didn't know if he would see Tom and Rascal ever again.
"It took Erik a long time to pull himself together, but he made himself do it. And it was a difficult journey, but he forced himself to change some of his prideful ways too.
"One day, after a long time, Tom and Rascal went back to Erik's home. They were very careful. They had been away for a long time, and were afraid that Erik would hurt them for it.
"Their caution was well warranted, for when Erik saw them, he almost wanted to hurt them all over again. Not really Rascal, but Tom, for leaving."
"Erik and Tom had a long and serious conversation. You may think they might have forgiven each other after so long, but that was not the case. On the contrary, there were many harboured grievances. Both had many things they wanted to say. Both had many accusations to make. And when words couldn't settle the score, both sides came to blows.
"The argument escalated. It seemed that nothing at all would work out between the two unless someone would swallow their pride.
"It was Tom who first relented.
"He knew Erik was still wounded from being left behind, so he apologized first.
The Corinthian has to drop his gaze from Dream and look down at Fantabulous. He's pretty sure everyone can read the desire to run in his body language now, but he doesn't care at this point.
"And finally Erik, who had always been difficult and unbending, but who realised the precious chance he'd been given, did the same.
"They eventually started talking again, and this time they managed to get through all their bottled up emotions.
"At long last, Tom and Erik were at peace again.
"They decided to try to make things work again. They went somewhere new with Rascal, who was overjoyed that everything was well again, and they bought another house together. It was a nice big house with more than enough space for all three of them.
"And, after everything, they're all living happily ever after together now.
"The end."
A pin drop silence follows. The dogs are asleep, even Chewbacca who is curled tightly to the size of a fruit, and everyone in the cafe is on the edge of their seat.
The Corinthian resists the insanely strong urge to lean his head in to Dream's, tuck it into the side of his neck, and then slide all the way down until he's wrapped tightly around him.
Instead he gathers himself, rallies his wits, and in a voice that barely wobbles,
"I bought the house, you lying freeloader."
The end.