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Izzy hears giggling from his office. It comes in and out along with the sounds of scraping and fluttering and honestly? He's a little terrified. He's not sure what he'll find if he leaves now, and he's not sure if he really wants to so he stays put. His entire day has been meetings and paperwork and his eyes are straining the longer he works.
And the giggling keeps happening. Grown fucking men giggling in his living room. He'd like to giggle, he realizes, and he's thankful his thoughts are safely locked behind his eyes. All he does is work and sleep and sometimes fuck while the house does whatever they want to do.
It used to piss him off until he realized that was his fault and no one else's.
The work in front of him starts to swirl, letters and numbers in a vortex in the middle of his computer screen. He could just leave this work to someone else. Con Jim into typing numbers for the rest of the day while he fucks off and joins the chuckle fucks downstairs in whatever they're getting up to. He deserves this. He works hard!
Izzy sends off a text before logging off, pulling his glasses off to rub his eyes before he's leaving the office. His feet thunk against the stairs and when he hits the landing, he stops dead in his tracks. His living room has been replaced with a circus tent. The coffee table is pushed up against the wall, and the sofa pushed to the side.
“What the fuck?” He whispers to himself as he realizes that the tarp thrown over the kitchen chairs is his favorite set of bedsheets. The most expensive thing he owned back in the day is now flung without a care in the shape of a tent.
Now the giggling makes sense.
From inside he can hear soft conversation. It feels like he should be mad about this. It feels like he should be ripping the tent apart, grumbling about the quality of the sheet they're abusing. He doesn't, though, as amusement spreads through him instead.
Izzy gets down on his knees in front of the ‘door’ and peeps the Boys Only sign written in crayon. He knows the handwriting to be Fang’s. He crawls forward, poking his head into the seam between sheets. He has a joke to say, a little quip that's totally funny and would have made at least one of them blush but it's forgotten almost instantly at the sight before him.
It seems as though every single pillow in the house is now in their fort. It's already warm, but he's assuming it's from the fire hazards they've strung from one chair to the next, twinkling little Christmas lights they must have dug out from the basement. Creativity ran in Fang and Lucius’s blood and it was no different when building the perfect nest because Izzy’s cooler is the corner for snacks and drinks, and Lucius’s laptop is in the center for tv and probably porn.
In the middle of the pillow ball pit he hears Fang, “Izzy! Don't be mad…”
“We didn't think you were home.” Lucius comes from another corner. He slips full body into the fort and is slightly disturbed that he can stand on his knees without touching the roof. He wants to body slam into the pillows, cuddle into the softness until he disappears and they have to send a crew in after him.
“I…uh. I'm impressed.” Is just about all he can say as he moves into his own corner. From this angle he can finally see Lucius and Fang cuddling in a pile.
"Do you wanna watch a movie with us?" Fang is an excited golden retriever, pushing a few pillows out of the way to make an Izzy shaped hole. “We're going to watch Homeward Bound! I've never seen it.” His smile is so wide it hurts Izzy’s heart.
Izzy narrows his eyes at Lucius who shrugs, “I told him what happens, but he wants to see the dogs.”
Izzy lifts the hem of Fang’s own shirt up to his face, dabbing the tears away. He's been crying for ten minutes now, stuttering out scenes that made him emotional.
“Take a breath, love, for fucks sake.”
This is all Lucius’s fault, but Fang obeys, taking in quick breaths with little whimpers in between them.
“They didn't give up,” he sobs, “Ch-chance wouldn't let Shadow go. They're fam…family!”
“Should have just watched porn instead,” Izzy mumbles, bringing Fang’s head down to rest on his shoulder. His bigger body shakes with his emotions. Dogs and sadness and heartwarming endings were always Fang’s undoing.
“I'm not going to be blamed for this,” Lucius quips, “I spoiled the movie for him and he still wanted to watch it.” But he's still on Fang’s other side now, rubbing his arm comfortingly.
“I do blame you. Couldn't do All Dogs Go To Heaven? Oliver & Company? Just had to pick the saddest fucking movie on the planet?”
“It has a happy ending!” Lucius rolls his eyes, “he would have cried anyway. He cried during Twilight, Izzy.”
Fang sniffs, wiping his face with his bear claws, “he saved her from becoming a vampire. He knows how bad it feels! Sorry for feeling things.”
They're quiet for a moment as Fang gets his bearings back. He's calmer now, but his face is splotchy and angry in places. Izzy even gets him to drink water.
Fang finally speaks, “I imagined Izzy was Shadow.” He admits shyly, looking between Izzy and Lucius.
“Why the hell for?” Izzy exclaims.
“Because you're the crotchety old dog! He assumed no one would want him because he's old and…and broken! But they do want him to be there because he's family.”
“You know, I can see that,” Lucius inserts before adding, “I'm Sassy. She's pretty and cunning and she doesn't give a fuck and I resonate with that.”
Izzy has no idea what the fuck he's hearing right now. He can't be the old dog that believes he's not wanted, right? He knows he's loved! He doesn't think breaking his leg would make him replaceable or unwanted or unloved.
Fang and Lucius are still chattering, because Fang is definitely the excitable and semi-fearless Chance, but Izzy interjects hotly, “I'm not some sad old dog who just lays down to die!”
They go quiet, both men turning their attention to Izzy and his reddening face. He's not necessarily angry, he's finding. He tries to feel what's swirling around in his gut, but can't trace exactly what this feeling is.
He thinks about the movie, about how Shadow didn't want his friends to be lost and without family just because he wasn't sure he could make it. He thinks about Chance wanting the family together, because if one of them didn't show up, everyone would be sad, including him. And Sassy, how no river or animal shelter could keep her from her boys.
A strained whimper leaves his throat, his eyes burning as tears fill them. He finds his hand at his mouth, holding the next noise hostage in his throat. What the fuck is wrong with him?
“See? This is why we don't watch movies in this house,” Lucius grabs his laptop from the center of the fort, “I'm finding porn.”