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“A-Asta, wahait!”
“Heheh, you should smile, it’s so cute ~”
Peppy tilted his head, letting out a quiet whimper. The voices that came from the other side of the huge metallic door made it sound so much fun, why couldn’t he join?!
The little dog ran in a little circle before scratching the door with his paw a couple times, but it wouldn’t bulge, not even react to his research card that was, supposedly, the key to each and every facility in the station.
“Ohh, are you ticklish here too? ~”
“AHAHA- P-plehehease!” Arlan laughed, loud enough for Peppy to bark in protest. How could they exclude him like that?
After all his hard work and numerous contributions to the Herta’s Space Station community, how could they simply leave him alone like that? He growled, barking a couple more times before sitting in front of the door.
What was so important that he couldn’t join too? Why were Arlan and Asta having so many secluded meetings like this? Were they planning to ditch him? To expel him from the researchers’ team?
His tail stopped wagging and Peppy let out another whimper, a more frustrated and less impatient one.
“A-Astahah! Sohohomeone wihihill hehehear us!”
“Don’t worry ~ Peppy is guarding the door, no one will bother us,” Asta hummed and Peppy’s ears perked up at the sound of those words.
Guarding? Was that why he was left one?
Peppy wagged his tail, he liked that. Yes, it made sense! Asta and Arlan would never leave him behind, they were just counting on him - after all, who could be more reliable than Peppy?
They were probably just researching some super secret problem - he still couldn’t figure why Arlan was laughing so much, but maybe it was some side effect? Well, at least it didn’t sound like too much trouble.
“Peppy?” A voice from the entrance of the hallway came while a researcher slowly walked towards the little dog.
At first, Peppy’s reaction was to bark and wag his tail, playfully running into a little secret, but then it struck him: if he was guarding the door, then he shouldn’t let unexpected people approach it!
Peppy’s facade quickly changed from the soft, loving one to an attempt of looking angry and scary, hoping to fend off the unwanted visit.
“Hey, what’s wrong? Who left you alone here? Wasn’t the chief research taking you for a wa-”
“N-NOHOH!! ASTAHAH!!”
“Heheh, got you now ~”
The researcher froze, recognizing the voices that came from behind the nearby door right away. Before they could jump to any conclusions, the growling sound coming from below captured their attention again.
“W-well, it seems you’re not alone after all, hahah… I-I think I’ll go back to what I was doing, I’ll let the team know the chief researcher is… busy, ok?”
A pleased, proud bark came from Peppy’s end. Good researcher, they understood it so quickly.
Don’t worry Arlan and Asta, Peppy is more than enough to protect your secret research!