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“I still don’t understand why you won’t just let me buy you a companion,” Shen Jiu snaps as the animal shelter employee leads the Shen brothers back to the kennels where the hybrids are kept. “One with proper breeding and training, that can help to take care of you when I’m not around-”
“You didn’t buy Qi-ge,” Shen Yuan points out, craning his neck to get a good look of all the hybrids that they pass. He smiles a little at a cat hybrid with gray eyes and a purple ribbon in his hair. The cat hybrid hisses back, and Shen Yuan winces and quickly averts his gaze. Okayyy, not that one, then!
Shen Jiu looks very much like he wants to swat him, though he refrains while they’re still in public.
“Yue Qingyuan is still a purebred,” he snaps. “Not some mutt with who knows what kind of diseases-”
“We make sure that all of our hybrids have a clean bill of health before we put them up for adoption,” the shelter employee chimes in brightly. She flinches a little when Shen Jiu glares at her for interrupting but quickly rallies on. “And if it’s a purebred hybrid you’re looking for, we do have a few hybrids available! Why, just last week, we got a pair of Siberian husky twins in-”
They pass a kennel that immediately grabs Shen Yuan’s attention. Unlike the other kennels, which are brightly lit, this one is almost completely dark. He can just see a small shape huddled up in the very back. The hybrid has his arms wrapped tightly around his folded legs, chin resting on his knees.
“Wait,” Shen Yuan says when the woman doesn’t stop walking. In fact, she even seems to speed up a little. “Who’s in there?”
The hybrid’s ears prick up a little, though he doesn’t otherwise move.
The shelter employee’s face pinches.
“That one isn’t up for adoption,” she says curtly. She tries to keep walking. “In this next kennel, however-“
“What’s going to happen to him, then?” Shen Yuan interrupts.
The woman frowns. “What do you mean?”
“If he’s not up for adoption, then where will he go?” Shen Yuan presses.
The woman swallows. She glances helplessly at Shen Jiu.
“To a foster family, of course,” Shen Jiu says. The woman hastily nods along, slapping on an artificial smile. “Really, A-Yuan. Why are you asking so many silly questions?”
He takes Shen Yuan’s arm, trying to urge him along to the next kennel, but Shen Yuan twists out of his grip.
“You’re lying,” he says. He scowls at the woman. “What aren't you telling me?”
She wrings her hands together. “Mr. Shen...”
From her dismal expression, Shen Yuan reaches the worst possible conclusion.
“You’re not going to-!“ He cuts himself off and glances back towards the inside of the kennel, where he can still see the outline of the hybrid, huddled against the back wall. He lowers his voice so the poor thing can’t hear his next words. “You aren’t going to euthanize him, are you?”
The woman says nothing.
“No,” Shen Yuan says in horror, shaking his head. “No, you can’t! That can’t be legal, can it?”
“Mr. Shen, I know that it’s upsetting, but it’s really for the best,” the woman says soothingly. She reaches out to pat Shen Yuan’s shoulder.
Shen Yuan dodges.
“Open the kennel,” he says.
The woman frowns. “What?”
“Do you want me to do it for you?” Shen Yuan demands. “Open the kennel, now!”
The shelter employee glances again at Shen Jiu for support.
“I…” she hesitates.
Shen Yuan, too, turns to Shen Jiu.
“Ge,” he pleads, tugging at Shen Jiu’s sleeve.
In the end, like always, Shen Jiu folds to his didi’s whims.
“Just do it,” he sighs at the woman, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Grimacing like she’s just bitten into a lemon, the woman unlocks the door to the kennel. Shen Yuan nearly bowls her over as he rushes past her and inside. The hybrid is still pressed up against the very back wall. When he sees Shen Yuan approaching, he jumps up into a defensive crouch. Though he looks very much like he would like to growl, he doesn’t make a sound.
Shen Yuan’s eyes widen in outrage when he sees why. It’s not that he doesn’t want to-he can’t.
“You muzzled him?” he demands of the shelter employee.
“He bites!” she cries. “We didn’t have a choice-!”
Shen Yuan turns his back on her in disgust. He reaches for the straps of the muzzle, intent on removing the horrible thing right that instant.
The hybrid lunges at him. He doesn’t actually touch Shen Yuan, but he throws out both hands as if he’s going to shove him. He doesn’t seem to have claws, but his nails are very long and sharp. Shen Yuan recoils automatically, tripping over his own feet and landing on his backside on the ground.
“A-Yuan!” Shen Jiu barks. He rushes forward, eyes blazing, but Shen Yuan waves him off.
“I’m alright,” he says quickly. “I just moved too fast.” He looks back at the hybrid, who’s watching him with wary eyes. “Right?”
Shen Yuan slowly lifts his hands, showing the hybrid his open palms.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he promises. “I just want to take your muzzle off. Ok?”
“A-Yuan, he probably doesn’t even understand you,” Shen Jiu snaps, still hovering anxiously at the entrance to the kennel. “Come on, come out of there before it attacks you again.”
The hybrid shoots a glare towards Shen Jiu that indicates (at least to Shen Yuan) that he very much does understand what’s being said. When he turns back to Shen Yuan, he seems to stare into his very soul for almost an eternity. At last, he bobs his head in the tiniest of nods.
“Thank you,” Shen Yuan says. Inside, his heart swells a bit. What a forgiving soul, to give him another chance!
Slowly, very slowly, he reaches for the muzzle again. The straps are tangled up in the hybrid’s thick, curly hair in a way that tells Shen Yuan that the muzzle hasn’t been removed in a long time. Though it must pull as he carefully unweaves strands of the hybrid’s hair from around the straps, the hybrid doesn’t flinch or pull away. He just watches Shen Yuan with his huge, dark eyes.
At last, Shen Yuan is able to unfasten the muzzle. He flings it somewhere behind him, where it bounces off one of the kennel’s walls and must break, judging from the shelter employee’s cry of outrage.
Looking at the lower half of the hybrid’s face, Shen Yuan can’t understand why they ever felt the need to muzzle him in the first place. He has the saddest, sweetest expression, more like a lost little sheep than the wolf the floppy ears hidden by his hair and the fluffy tail wrapped around his middle suggest.
The mask has left angry red lines across the dog hybrid’s face, and Shen Yuan hisses in sympathy. He automatically reaches out to rub them away, not thinking that the hybrid might be frightened by his sudden movement. By the time he thinks better of it, he’s already massaging the angry lines across the hybrid’s cheeks with his fingertips.
“You really are sweet, aren’t you?” he realizes.
To his absolute horror, the dog hybrid’s eyes well up with tears. Before Shen Yuan can stammer out a question as to what he did wrong, the dog hybrid lunges at him. Shen Jiu cries out sharply and charges forward. But it’s not an attack at all. The dog hybrid leaps into Shen Yuan’s lap, burying his face in his shoulder and starting to wail.
“Please don’t leave me here,” he sobs into Shen Yuan’s shoulder. “I’ll be so good, you’ll see…if you’ll just give me a chance-”
Shen Yuan huffs a little.
“Silly,” he chides gently. His fingers seek out the floppy ears hidden in the dog hybrid’s riotous curls and begin to stroke them. They’re so soft! “Of course I’m not going to leave you.”
Shen Jiu clears his throat loudly.
“That thing is not coming home with us,” he says.
The dog hybrid stiffens in Shen Yuan’s lap, but Shen Yuan shushes him before he can work himself up into a greater frenzy.
“You’re right,” he says. The dog hybrid whimpers, but Shen Yuan quickly pats his head. “He’s not coming home with us. He's coming home with me.”
“I pay your rent!” Shen Jiu huffs.
Shen Yuan rolls his eyes. “Actually, our parents pay it.”
“They won’t when I tell them you’re bringing home a maneater!”
“He is no such thing,” Shen Yuan protests. “Look how sweet he is! He’s just misunderstood.”
In his lap, the dog hybrid shivers. Shen Yuan winces. The poor thing must be so embarrassed, listening to Shen Jiu call him names. It’s time to bring out his ultimate weapon so he can get him to his new home.
“Ge,” he says, plastering on his most piteous expression. He may not have puppy eyes, but he can still look pretty small and pathetic when he tries hard enough. “Please?”
“Absolutely not!” Shen Jiu barks.
(An hour later, just like always, Shen Jiu has folded, and Luo Binghe is on his way to his new forever home).