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Cujo was a good boy. He'd been told that many times; while on training, when he helped his human, when he behaved outside.
But it wasn't for the compliments or the snacks that Cujo did his job, like some of his siblings. Sure, they were good snacks, and Cujo loves being told he's good, but above all else, there's a secret.
Cujo loves his job.
He was trained to help humans reach things, open cabinets, and to let his human lean on him when their legs were too weak. After he died, he learned to tell when someone's heart was beating too fast, and learned to smell when someone smelled wrong.
He loves spending time around other dogs like him, dogs with purpose, who have humans of their own. He loves looking after their humans as his friends take a nap, and has no problems waking them up if their human needs something Cujo's ghost body can't give anymore.
He doesn't have his own human, anymore, but he can help with many, many more than he could before!
At least, that's until he meets Danny.
Danny is a human, sometimes, but Danny can touch Cujo, and tell him he's a good boy, and play fetch and all sorts of things. Cujo loves Danny! It's been a while Cujo could call a human his own, and Danny doesn't need Cujo's help, but he's happy with it anyway.
Until Cujo goes to visit his Danny, and he's running away from the blonde large human, and his heart is fastfastfast-skip!
That's! A wrong heartbeat. Cujo follows until Danny collapses behind the building, hiding. He's not ready for this!
Cujo has no water, or Important-Bottles, or a soft pillow. But he must help his human. He will have to make do.
He whines, low, and paws at Danny's knees. He needs to be lying down, otherwise his heart will get worser.
"Cujo, I don't have time for you right now." Danny breaths out, panting.
Cujo barks, forcefully wiggling between his knees to get his legs down, offering pressure at the same time he licks at Danny's face.
He seems dizzy, one hand in his chest, continues to weakly try to push Cujo away.
It won't work, though. Danny is *his* human, and he *will* help!
Cujo barks again, nudging him over until Danny lies down. He seems to stop complaining, gently petting Cujo's fur as he takes deep breaths. Cujo stays there breathing slowly, head over his chest to feel his heart.
It's still skipping a beat every few minutes, but it's calming down, almost back to normal. Once the beats are mostly normal, Cujo wiggles away and darts off. He should at least be able to find a bottle of water, those aren't *too hard*, right?
Cujo finds a bottle on a weird, open-window fridge, and phases into it to pick the bottle. By the time he makes it back, Danny is sitting up again, skin clammy and looking tired.
Cujo plops the bottle on Danny's lap, barking and sitting down.
"Huh, that's new." He says, reaching for the bottle and petting Cujo's head. "Good boy, Cujo."
He's still not drinking the water, so Cujo paws at it again, and again, until Danny opens the bottle and takes a sip, watching as if to see Cujo's reaction.
Yes, he's drinking! Cujo's tail wags faster, happy he did well.
"You... just wanted to help me, didn't you?" He asks, tentatively, one hand reaching out to gently pet through Cujo's fur, gently grabbing his collar to read it.
Cujo knows what's written there! When he still had a human of his own, they'd read it to him:
> CUJO - CARDIAC ALERT AND MOBILITY AID DOG. IF LOST, RETURN TO XXX.
"That... I didn't expect that." Danny murmurs, looking down at his own chest again. Cujo steps forward to sniff at him, to make sure everything is as it's supposed to be. Finding Danny's heartbeat acceptable, Cujo pointedly looks down, his negative command.
"I guess we have some research to do when we get home, don't we?" Danny says, scratching behind Cujo's ear and slowly getting back up.
Home! Does that mean Cujo doesn't have to sleep on the endless-green-space anymore? Yes! The best reward, for the best boy!!