Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

S-M-I-L-E, every day!

When you are down and out 

No need to frown or pout

Smiling Critters' here to say...

S-M-I-L-E, every day! 

A little boy groaned as he woke up groggily from bed, feeling his head pounding hard. He wanted to massage his head to soothe the pounding but the first thing he noticed was that his head felt like... leather? The type of leather you would find on a belt. Then he took a look at his hand and it was red. Not blood red though, that would be a concern. His arm was golden-brown (though it looked more like orange) and the feeling of it was the same as his head.

He looks down and see that his legs were golden-brown as well.

Little Boy was starting to panic and was hyperventilating. He got up from his bed quickly and as soon as he did that, he sees a mirror. At the corner of they mirror was a little note.

But more importantly, the mirror showed a reflection that was definitely not him. It showed an orange dog with red, floppy ears. It had a sleek black nose, a mouth and belly that were both sunshine yellow and a touch of golden-brown graces his paws, ears, and the left side of his face.

Little Boy screamed in shock as he fell to the ground.

"Wake up please. Just wake up. It's all a dream," he desperately pleaded with himself as he closed his eyes shut.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

A squeak was heard — the kind when you try to open a metal door — as the door opened. Little Boy looked up nervously. There were three adults wearing white coats with pens hanging on their front pockets. They had black pairs of boots that wear almost completely cover by their long pants, which were the exact same colour as their boots. In their hands were clipboards.

One of them sighed in relief. "Thankfully this one has made it."

Made it? What did they mean he made it?

The adult in the centre walked over to Little Boy sternly. "Experiment 1187, DogDay. Follow us," he said.

Little Boy was confused. Who was Experiment 118... or was it a 7? And who was DogDay?

The adult only waited for a while before raising his voice slightly, "Get up and follow us. Now." Little Boy could easily tell the adult was getting frustrated quickly.

The adult from the right (was she the one who was glad Little Boy made it?) walked over to him and said gently, "Hey little guy, nice to meet you! I'm Alice. Whaddya say I give you a lollipop, hm?"

She fished out a lollipop out of her pocket, unwrapped the wrapper and held it out to Little Boy.

"Alice," the getting-mad-already adult growled at her.

Alice seemed to had ignored him and joked with Little Boy, "Come on, I'm not getting any younger here."

Little Boy stifled a giggle.

That brought a small smile to Alice's face.

Little Boy was still hesitant on taking the lollipop though. But after a little bit of prompting from Alice, he nervously took the lollipop. However, he did not put it straight into his mouth to suck on it, he merely took the lollipop and continued to hold onto the stick without moving it to his very wide smile mouth.

Alice then smiled warmly at Little Boy before talking once more, "Great! Now, can you go to John over there," she pointed at the adult standing next to the door, whom had smooth, brown hair and wore the old-fashion dork glasses, "and follow him? You'll meet your new friends once you've reach your destination."

"Will I get to see Theo later?" Little Boy asked timidly.

Little Boy was very close to another little boy called Theodore Grambell. They were both the same age, grew up in the same orphanage (Playcare) together, breathed the same air together. They got really close when Little Boy kept telling Theodore about all the things that happened in Playcare and, in turn, Theodore talked about his friend sending him on cool, secret spy missions to take down some bad guys. Little Boy had once asked if he could join Theodore in the missions, but Theo told him that apparently it was too dangerous for more than one person to go.

He never elaborated about what the danger was, and Little Boy never questioned him either.

Hearing about some rumors that his best friend went missing two days ago made him worried sick. He thought that something bad must had happened to Theodore.

But suddenly, the whole room got very quiet when Little Boy mentioned Theodore's name. No one dared to even gasp or breathe too loudly. Alice's smile was immediately replaced with wide eyes staring in shock.

Little Boy suddenly realises that he might have said something wrong.

Alice cleared her throat, breaking the silence.

"Um... yeah. Sure. You'll meet him later. In fact, Doctor Sawyer, John and I are about to check-up on him soon!" Alice laughed nervously at the end.

"Really?" Little Boy asked. There was hope in his voice. In his eyes. Hope that could easily shatter his heart would may be able to give him some closure about what happened to his best friend.

"Just, uh, follow Mr John now, little one!" Alice tried to make herself sound as cheerful as possible, but she sounded forced.

Little Boy, being a very young child at the tender age of seven, was obviously oblivious to that. He wore a big smile on his face and cheered happily, "Yay! Thanks!" Before skipping his way over to John.

He slipped his hand between John's and looked up at him with the same grin, looking forward to reuniting with Theodore soon. John initially looked at him, bewildered. But then his lips turned into a small smile, unable to resist Little Boy's cuteness and enthusiasm.

"Well, uh, John. Bring him to Playcare please," Alice instructed John.

John nodded wordlessly. He tugged at Little Boy's hand, signalling him to follow the adult.

Little Boy did not need to be told twice.

John and Little Boy DogDay were walking together in awkward silence to Playcare.

John kept constantly glancing at Little Boy DogDay, while the child kept looking straight ahead, practically bouncing with excitement.

John sighed solemnly. He and Alice, plus a few of their co-workers, hated every process of turning the children, and sometimes even their own friends and colleagues, into toys. Every scream of agony and terrified whimper were ingrained into their minds, unable to be erased forever.

But what could they do? If they tried to quit due to, quote, personal reasons, there was a high chance they might be dragged away from their families to be turned into toys, no longer having the option to return to them. If they kept working in that horrible company, they would be painted as accomplices, or even the villians who decided to torture poor, innocent people. Even though they did not want to hurt anyone. Even though they wanted to leave the factory and never return. Even though, to a certain degree, they were victims too. Innocent victims who were essentially trapped in a vicious cycle of to kill or to be killed.

John had long since given up on escape once he found out that there was no way out for both the employees and the children. Alice, however, held onto a hope that God would somehow miraculously free everyone and condemn the perpetrators who refuse to admit their sins, their wrong doings.

Despite living in a religious home, John had not converted yet, unable to handle the overwhelming guilt and shame of his own sins. Murder. Lying. And so many more. His parents reminded him that it was normal to feel like that, but God would always forgive him. John still doubt that though.

"It's normal," his mother would say. "To have shame and doubt if our Lord would forgive us. What matters is if we have actual remorse and that we put in the effort to really try and turn away from the devil's temptations."

John still did not believe that a powerful creator would just instantly forgive his mistakes, especially when he was still making them. Every. Single. Day.

John looked at Littl- DogDay and spoke uncomfortably, "Hey, kid?"

DogDay looked up curiously.

John sighed. He lowered himself to the small, orange canine's level and continued, "This place that we are all in right now, it's a very bad place where a lot of bad people do bad things to kids like you. Please don't ever trust anyone blindly, especially a guy called Doctor Sawyer and someone else called The Prototype. Got it?" 

DogDay was processing the information for a while before he nodded slowly.

John smiled. "Good boy," he said as he patted DogDay head lightly.

He looked around, before he took a marshmallow out from his right pocket and handed it to DogDay. DogDay gasped upon seeing the sweet treat.

"Alice and I always carry sweets around with us for kids like you, but she'd kill me if she hears that I gave you another one when you already have a lollipop," John said. Then he whispered into DogDay's ear and continued, "Don't tell her I gave you this, okay buddy?"

DogDay nodded furiously, putting his index finger onto his lips and made a "shh" sound.

John winked at him.

As they continued walking towards Playcare, he sent God a quick prayer that DogDay would be okay and that no one would hurt him, physically or mentally.

Chapter Text

S-M-I-L-E, everyday!

When you are down and out

No need to frown or pout

Smiling Critters' here to say...

S-M-I-L-E, everyday!

DogDay was amazed at the beautiful trees and skies (and clouds? Were they even real clouds?) when he and John boarded the train to Playcare.

The painted skies were in a type of blue that he did not know what the name was. The grass and trees (wait there were trees?) were in this really pretty-looking green that he, again, did not know what the name were.

DogDay was seven, how could a seven year old be able to tell exactly what type of blue or green he was looking at?

Even though there was no sun, there were still some sort of light that illuminated the whole of Playcare. Which confused DogDay.

"Floodlights," John explained to him, "They give the illusion that there is real sun in here. The clouds are fake too, they will never rain."

John used so many fancy words that DogDay did not understand anything he said, other than that the clouds were not real.

Once DogDay went into his room in a place somewhere away from the orphanage, he suddenly felt... alone.

"This is your room, kid. Three more will join you and the others soon," John said flatly before awkwardly leaving DogDay.

There were four other kids who had anthropomorphic-like animal bodies. That were supposed to be a near-replica of the Smiling Critters toyline that John explained to DogDay while making their way to Playcare. There was a cyan elephant with a pendant in the shape of a light bulb on his zipper (then where did the string for the pendant go, DogDay wondered) who had been teaching something to a red bear who had a heart-shaped pendant. They both had a faint smell of lemongrass and rose respectively.

At one corner of the bedroom was a white unicorn with light blue mane and tail. Her pendant was in a shape of a flower with all the colours of the rainbow on the petals. She seemed to be painting something on her canvas, but her body was blocking the painting.

And a yellow chicken who had been playing badminton with the wall had a simple, orange star-shaped pendant.

They were all staring at DogDay in complete silence.

Then, it was broken by the yellow chicken.

"Finally, a new kid who would be willing to play with me!" he exclaimed excitedly. He took one of the rackets he had left on the floor, ran over to DogDay and said, "I'm KickinChicken! Wanna go outside and play badminton with me? We just need the grown-ups' permission so that we can get out of this boring room with a bunch of boring people."

"KC! That's so mean!" the red bear chided KickinChicken.

"Yeah. Bobby's right, Kickin. Just because we're not into sports doesn't give you the right to say that about us," the elephant piped up.

"Hmph. Then what about you, CraftyCorn? You're scared of even passing the ball to me!" KickinChicken pointed out.

"Kickin!" the elephant called him out again.

CraftyCorn, the unicorn, did not respond as she had continued to paint on her canvas.

"Uh, Crafty? You okay?" the red bear (what was her name again?) asked CraftyCorn in concerned.

CraftyCorn stopped painting, turned to the red bear and said, "A wise person told me it would be better to argue with a genius then an idiot."

"Oh no- Crafty!" Bobby (that was the red bear's name, right?) scolded as she tried — and failed — to hold in her laughter.

Meanwhile, the elephant was cackling wildly.

"That was a sick burn Crafty!" he commented.

CraftyCorn blushed a little, before turning back to her canvas to continue with her painting.

DogDay was stifling a giggle of his own. His hand was covering his mouth as he turned away from the group.

Meanwhile, KickinChicken stood there, face turning beet root red, his grip on the badminton rackets tightening as he spluttered.

'W-w-well, you guys a-aren't any better! Y-you guys insulted me!" he pointed out, flustered.

"Whatever!" said Bubba Bubbaphant as he rolled his eyes.

Bobby blew a raspberry at KickinChicken.

CraftyCorn had already tuned out the chaos, focusing on her painting.

KickinChicken was still fuming.

DogDay felt kind of bad for him, so he decided to change the topic so that the embarrassed yellow chicken would feel better.

"Hey, um, Kickin? Let's just go play badminton already," he said.

KickinChicken grumbled. "Fine."

DogDay was sweating like crazy.

He did not know how long he was playing with KickinChicken, but he was already starting to feel exhausted. The sun (or floodlights? What did John say about the sun in Playcare?) was not helping him at all.

And to top it all off, DogDay had only won the game twice. KickinChicken was close to a 10-win streak. He was getting frustrated and wondered how the yellow chicken was even winning.

KickinChicken had noticed this, so he stopped playing and asked, "You wanna take a break?"

DogDay nodded as he grumbled under his breath. He dropped his racket onto the floor and if it weren't for the grass softening the impact, the racket woukd have made a loud pang once it hit the ground.

KickinChicken had brought two plastic bottles filled with ice cold water, something that DogDay was grateful for, and they were placed in the middle, dividing the two children and setting up a net for their game of badminton. Since Playcare did not have the proper space and equipment for sports games, usually anyone who wanted to play had to go to where DogDay and KickinChicken were at and they had to recreate their own versions of a court, or goal, or almost anything needed for a scoring system.

DogDay struggled to open the cap from one of the plastic bottles but eventually managed to successfully do it and proceeded to take a sip of the water. Then another sip. Then another. And another. And yet another sip.

The water was so cool and refreshing. Every little sip DogDay took felt like drinking ice cubes straight from the freezer, except the ice cubes had already melted into water so that it did not choke the person trying to drinking it. The cold water made him more alert and had cooled his body down.

And since when was drinking water so addictive? DogDay could not get enough of every sip he took. It was like drinking soda: you'd promise yourself, just one more sip. But you would end up chucking down half the bottle instead. That was what exactly DogDay was thinking, just one more sip and he'd stop.

Just one more. 

Just another and he'll stop.

Okay, this one was definitely the last sip.

Never mind, just one more-

"Woah, woah! Buddy, you're going to end up drinking half of your water!" KickinChicken snapped DogDay out of his trance.

DogDay coughed as he choked on some of the water. He checked the amount and realised that the yellow chicken was right: he was about to reach the halfway point and if he did not stop, he would definitely go way past it.

He grumbled as he furiously screwed the cap shut and violently smashed the bottle to the ground. But because the ground was grassy (were the grass even real?), the bottle promptly fell onto its side.

DogDay groaned in annoyance.

KickinChicken frowned. "Dude it's just a game," he said to DogDay.

DogDay scoffed. "Easy for you to say. You're the one winning."

KickinChicken gasped dramatically.

"Wait, are you... jealous of me? Why, I feel so honoured!" he playfully taunted DogDay. He was not trying to be mean, he just wanted to poke fun at his friend.

DogDay growled at him in response, something that KickinChicken did not expect.

"Bro, I was just joking. Chill," he tried to placate DogDay. "Of course I know losing is really frustrating, I'm not trying to put your feelings down or anything."

"Whatever," DogDay mumbled.

No one said anything for a moment.

Then, "Hey. Why not I teach you the basics on how to play badminton, eh? Once you know them all, you can keep practicing and one day beat me. How 'bout that?" KickinChicken suggested.

For the next one hour, KickinChicken taught DogDay about the forehand and backhand grip, how to serve, smash and a bunch of other things about how to play. He also taught him how to juggle the shuttlecock or play with the wall when he could not play with DogDay.

At the end of all the lessons, DogDay said to KickinChicken, "Thank you. For teaching me how to play." And he meant it.

KickinChicken smiled. "That's what friends are for."

Friends?

DogDay did not know that it was that easy to make a friend through playing sports.

DogDay was horrified to hear that Theodore nearly died and that him being in this CatNap body was the only way to save him.

But the thing that worried DogDay the most was not the fact that Theodore had a near-death experience. It was that there were so many things that went wrong during the transfer procedure.

Apparently, Theo's voicebox had malfunction and was barely functional.

(But couldn't the grown-ups just fix him on the spot or something, DogDay wondered.)

The scent that Theodore was supposed to produce was lavender and the gas' colour was originally going to be purple, but something went wrong and now DogDay's poor friend was breathing out red opium-scented gas.

(Wait, what did opium mean again? Didn't John tell me that it was just a fancy name for poppy flowers?)

And Theo... he was so weak. Did not even try to look at DogDay whenever he tried talking to him for the whole day. All he did was to lay in his new bed, which was where DogDay, KickinChicken and the elephant and bear lived at.

So to distract himself, DogDay decided to try and bond with the two newcomers — a pink pig called PickyPiggy and a green rabbit called Hoppy Hopscotch.

"Um, hi. I'm DogDay. You're Hoppy Hopscotch, right?"

Hoppy Hopscotch looked at him, seemingly bored. 

"No shot, Sherlock," she said snarkily.

DogDay felt a bit affront initially but reasoned with himself that maybe Hoppy Hopscotch was not in a good mood that day.

"You wanna play a game?" DogDay asked the green rabbit.

Hoppy Hopscotch shrugged nonchalantly. "Sure," she replied with a lot less of that attitude from earlier. "What game?"

"Gah..." DogDay's mind suddenly went blank for a moment. He quickly blurted out the first gane that came to his mind, "Concentration 64?"

Hoppy Hopscotch's ears were suddenly straightened as her face lit up. "Oh, I love that game!" she exclaimed excitedly.

That was the first time DogDay had seen her go from grouchy to happy in a split second.

"Well, you only like to play that 'cause you always win the game right?" DogDay asked with a quizzical look on his face.

"Duh!" Hoppy Hopscotch replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "So, can we start playing now?"

"Uh, sure. Yeah, let's play right now," said DogDay.

They sat on the floor and faced each other as started to play.

Concentration 64 was basically like a game of Pat-A-Cake. The only two differences were the direction where your hands would be moving and the lines you have to say while playing the game.

DogDay and Hoppy Hopscotch began to recite in unison, albeit very slowly so that one would not be rushing to catch up with the other, "Concentration... 64.... no repeat... no hesitation."

"I go first," said Hoppy Hopscotch.

"And I go last," DogDay followed immediately after the green rabbit said the line.

"The topic is..." they said in unison again, "anything!"

"Birds," said Hoppy Hopscotch.

"Words," said DogDay.

"Lime."

"Rhyme."

That drew a giggle from Hoppy Hopscotch.

They continued to list out words as they progressed through the game, changing the speed they were going from slow to fast whilst building up the pressure. It was as though they were in the most competitive Olympic games ever in history; hundreds- no, thousands of spectators eagerly watching them, cheering loudly for them as they played, anticipating the win for either one of them.

Although the spectators were not actually present, it still felt like as if there were a million pairs of eyes watching you intently, judging you. Your next move. Your train of thought. Your emotions, whether you were starting to panic or if you were about to cheer in jubilation for your soon-to-be big win. It was like if you lost, everyone would jeer you and side with your rival, bringing pure shame and humiliation to your pride and dignity.

DogDay and Hoppy Hopscotch were having just as much fun playing as the spectators who were watching them play. Their arms that were previously moving up and down, touching each other's palms gently and awkwardly turned into them basically slapping each other's hands. It was similar to when you accidentally slap your friend's back a little too hard when you jokingly tease them about something as harmless as having a crush on someone in the class. DogDay predicted that by the end of the game, their palms would be too red and swollen to have a round two.

Their intense game of Concentration 64 continued until DogDay had hesitated for a second.

"HA! You lost!" Hoppy Hopscotch exclaimed a little too loudly.

"Argh! No!" DogDay groaned.

Then, out of the blue, he decided to show a little bit of his dramatic flar.

"Oh, what terrible fate awaits me? For I have failed to win against my rival, Hoppy Hopscotch, in a game of Concentration," he melodramatically put a hand on his forehead with his head tilted towards the ceiling, before promptly doing the most comical faint on the old rug that they had been sitting for who knows how long.

He was not entirely sure why he did what he did. But he had managed to invoke a reaction from Hoppy Hopscotch.

Hoppy Hopscotch laughed, her smile had seemingly grew bigger.

"Oh DogDay, you're so funny!" she said in between laughs.

DogDay could not help but grin. He may not have won the game, but at least his friends felt good about winning.

And his exaggerated acting after he had lost.

Something that DogDay had noticed was that the new Smiling Critter, Picky Piggy, loved eating, to the point that he thinks she was not a living being. Rather, she was an eating machine.

DogDay got very close with John and Alice as they, along with that scary Doctor Sawyer guy, were in charge of looking after him and the other Smiling Critters. He was very curious about the work they did and they sonetimes would answer his many inquries, other times they would completely dodge them. DogDay never noticed that.

The questions he always had for them were one, were there any more new people (or experiments, as Doctor Sawyer would call him and his new friends) joining the Smiling Critters (that's what they were called, right?), and two, what do they actually do when working?

"Do you guys turn people into toys? Or do you just take care of us?" he once asked them.

"Uh, we don't turn people into toys. Thankfully," John muttered the last word under his breath.

"Then, are there more people joining us?" DogDay asked again.

"Uh huh! There'll be two more. Someone named PickyPiggy and Theo!" Alice informed the orange canine excitedly.

"Yay!" DogDay cheered happily.

But PickyPiggy came first. And he was very surprised that she could eat a lot. Like, way too much.

Just this morning, she ate three large pancakes with a literal cup of maple syrup, 10 hash browns (yes, DogDay counted exactly 10), a bowl of berries, a few scoops of ice cream, a plate full of PB&J sandwiches and two glasses of chocolate milkshakes.

He wondered if the anthropomorphic pig would ever get a stomach bug from consuming so much sugar.

"Hi!" PickyPiggy greeted him, "I'm PickyPiggy. What's your name?"

"Uh, DogDay. Nice to meet you too," DogDay replied awkwardly.

"So. When's your birthday? I wanna know everyone's birthday so that I'll be able to make birthday presents for each and everyone of you," said PickyPiggy.

DogDay looked at her skeptically. "Why?" he questioned her.

PickyPiggy raised a brow. "I just told you. I wanna know so that I can make presents for you guys."

"No- I mean, why? Like, why do you want to do make presents for us?"

For whatever reason, DogDay did not trust the pink Smiling Critter at all. It felt more like trick: a way to ruin your special day at the expense of her own pleasure.

"Can't a pig be nice to everyone? I mean, the third little pig was nice enough to let his two brothers into his house so that they can all hide from the big, bad wolf!" said PickyPiggy.

There was nothing but awkward silence for a while.

"November 17," DogDay finally said.

"Your birthday?" PickyPiggy asked.

DogDay nodded.

PickyPiggy beamed with delight as she scribbled down the date with a crayon on a piece of paper.

"Hey, mine's on November 18!" she exclaimed.

DogDay chuckled. "That means I'm older than you," he said.

"Ha! I bet I'm older than you!" PickyPiggy scoffed.

"Oh yeah? Well then what year were you born, hm?" DogDay challenged, feeling competitive.

"1985. And you?" PickyPiggy said smugly.

DogDay smirked.

"1983."

The smile that was on PickyPiggy's face looked like as if it had drooped slightly as she groaned.

"No!" she whined.

It was DogDay's turn to laugh.

He could have gloated or even boast about how he was right, but he didn't. It felt better to just laugh off a silly mistake, whether it be his or someone else's, than to continue to make the other feel even more embarrassed than they already were.

"Whatever," PickyPiggy muttered while smiling sheepishly, much to her chagrin. "At least I got your birthday."

"Yeah. It's all that matters," DogDay agreed.

HIATUS NOTICE

Chapter Text

Theodore was so... weak. And tired.

That was DogDay's first impression of his friend, who looked beyond exhausted. He was stumbling around the room in this CatNap body while walking into the room he and the other Smiling Critters were in. His breathing was laboured and whenever he tried talking, it was either that his voice sounded raspy when he spoke or that he said nothing.

DogDay would later learn from Alice that his voicebox was barely functional because some problem had occured when he was turning into a toy. However, she did not specify what exactly happened.

All Theo did was sleep, sleep and sleep. He was always exhausted and was more quiet than usual. He did not want to talk to DogDay, or anyone in general. He had no apetite, did not want to have a little sip of water, he basically wanted to do nothing. It hurt DogDay to see his friend in such a pitiful state.

"Why doesn't he talk? All he does is stare at us creepily," KickinChicken asked DogDay on one rare occasion where Theodore was not sleeping.

DogDay took some offence to the yellow chicken's question.

"Firstly, he's not creepy," DogDay stated through gritted teeth.

"Never said he was," KickinChicken pointed out.

"Secondly, you don't know what he's been through. So stick that little beak of yours in someone else's business."

KickinChicken looked surprised with the orange canine's response. He tried to placate DogDay but failed. DogDay had suddenly flew off the handle when his friend was speaking and stormed off to the place where they had played badminton a few days ago.

If DogDay was honest with himself, he had no idea what KickinChicken had said to upset him. All the yellow chicken did was ask a simple question, albeit very bluntly. After he had calmed down, he guessed that his anger had gotten the best out of him.

DogDay sighed with regret. "I shouldn't have yelled at him like that. None of this was his fault anyway."

He considered apologising to KickinChicken later on, but he decided not to. His friend was probably mad at him for being so unreasonable towards him.

So he went back to the room and avoided KickinChicken for the rest of the day.

"You were what?!" DogDay exclaimed in shock.

Theo nodded solemnly. "Electrocuted."

DogDay was in a spluttering mess. "How- what? Why? What did you do?"

"I went to get something for my friend. He said to go grab something called a grabpack so that it would be easier for me to get that thing for him," Theodore explained.

"What was so important that you had to put yourself in danger like that?! Maybe you shouldn't have trusted this friend of yours in the first place!" DogDay reprimanded Theodore.

Thedore gasped before glaring at DogDay.

"You think I wanted to do all of this?! Believe me, I was scared whenever he sent me on missions. But I did not want everyone in this place to be turned into a toy! You and I know how it felt. It was long and painful. You want more people to get hurt?" Theo questions him.

DogDay had been staring at him in fear. Theo looked so much more scarier than he used to be. His eyes glowering at him, his voice sounded more and more louder than it was supposed to be, his claws already looking ready to shred the canine into pieces if he said one wrong words at him.

He shook his head slowly to answer Theodore.

"That's what I thought. I'm just doing whatever I can to take down the bad guys. Trust me," Theo says as he puts a paw on DogDay's shoulder, this time with no claws to be seen. Somehow, it still made DogDay flinch horribly.

Stop it, you're just being dumb. Stop being so afraid of your own friend! DogDay chastised himself inwardly.

"What, you're scared of me?" Theodore asked DogDay. His face shows concern, but his tone did not sound the same.

"N-no. Uh, I need to use the restroom real quick," DogDay lied.

Then, he bolted out of there.

He did go to the bathroom. To wallow in self-pity.

He should have protected Theo better. This was his own friend he was talking about! How could he have let him get hurt like that? Now, he has no control over his speech. He can't even talk if he wanted to for crying out loud!

"This is all my fault. I should have joined him on those missions that his stupid, stupid friend keeps sending him on," he whispered to himself.

He started to cry softly, so that no one could hear him. He wanted to say sorry to Theo for not being able to be there for him when he needed it the most. But he felt too scared to even make eye-contact with him.

How are you scared of your own best friend? he pondered.

"DogDay? Are you okay?" DogDay heard a voice echo through the bathroom.

DogDay sniffled and hurriedly wiped away his tears. "Y-yeah. I'm okay," he replied.

He heard footsteps slowly approaching him. It was KickinChicken.

"You sure?" KickinChicken asked the orange canine.

DogDay nodded.

KickinChicken eyed on him skeptically.

"Okay..." he said before pausing. "Let's go have our dinner then."

"Kickin?"

"Hm?"

"I..." DogDay's mind suddenly went blank. What did he want to say to KickinChicken earlier?

KickinChicken looked at DogDay, patiently waiting for him to gather his thoughts.

After a long moment, DogDay finally said, "About the argument from yesterday. I'm sorry for yelling at you. I don't know why I did that."

Thankfully, KickinChicken smiled.

"That's all you wanted to say?" he asked quizzically. "Man, I thought you were going to tell me some huge secret or something."

DogDay chuckled sheepishly in response.

KickinChicken put his hand on DogDay's shoulder. "It's all good, buddy. I'm not mad at you."

"Really?" DogDay asked, surprised.

KickinChicken nodded. "Really. Let bygones be bygones. That's how the saying goes, right?" The yellow chicken hesitated before he asked slowly, "By the way, what were you doing inside the bathroom?"

Of course he's gonna asked that.

"It's, uh, something private," DogDay said, choosing his words carefully.

KickinChicken raised a brow. "Is it with that purple cat? Uh, CatNap or something?"

"Yeah, sort of. I call him Theodore."

"Huh? Why?" KickinChicken asked, scrunching up his face in confusion.

"Because that's his real name?" 

KickinChicken took a moment to process the orange canine's words.

"Oh, I understand. I bet he still remembers his name," he sighed, "I wish I could remember my real name too."

DogDay agreed, "Yeah. Me too."

After dinner, DogDay decided to go talk to Theo.

"Th-Theo?" DogDay whispered timidly.

The purple feline was asleep in a cat loaf, his legs tucked under his belly. DogDay could hear Theo purring softly as he slept.

But the purring stopped abruptly and Theo opened one eye to look at DogDay.

"Theo... I'm sorry for saying that you shouldn't trust your friend. It was wrong of me to say that," DogDay apologised to him.

Theo's gaze lingered on DogDay before he closed them again.

"Y'know, it's so cool that he keeps sending you on missions. But... it must also be really scary sometimes. You're really brave, you know that?" DogDay praised.

He saw Theo's smile enlarged itself.

"You forgive me?"

Theo only purred in response.

DogDay decided to not bother his friend's slumber and went to bed.