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Explorations were one of the more preferable group-activities he was forced to partake in at Last Defense Academy. The open-air and smaller group size made being around the company of humans much more tolerable. Plus, the fresh air and open blue sky was a welcome change from the stuffy hospital he spent so many days in. He wishes they were in a less residential area. The destruction wrought by humans isn’t his favorite scenery, but it’ll do.
He also wishes he could enjoy it without the hideous beast named Takumi at his heels.
“Okay so… I see that building… So the abandoned pharmacy should be over here.” Takumi gestures vaguely to the left. Eito has to repress the urge to roll his eyes.
“Hmm, are you sure? I think we already passed that building.” He gives a placating smile to Takumi. He’s 100% sure they’ve already been here. Multiple times.
It was supposed to be a quick expedition to grab a few supplies for Yugamu. Eito was, unfortunately, the only one around for Takumi to ask. Here they were now, slowly getting turned around by Takumi’s poor sense of direction and multiple runaway trucks careening towards them. He is, at this point, thoroughly sick of being out here with his hideous companion. At least the weather is nice. He looks up at the sky and tries to pretend like the offensive smell of Takumi isn’t drifting over to him even outside.
“It’s for sure this way this time. It has to be!” Takumi nods to himself. Eito considers if he could get away with killing someone out here for the second time. Eito tries to gently correct him again, his face straining to keep a calm expression.
“No, there’s-” A high pitched whine cuts him off. Him and Takumi simultaneously snap their heads towards the sound.
“What was that?” Takumi starts immediately creeping closer to the noise like the idiot he is.
“Probably an invader. This place has been crawling with them. It might be best to leave it alone.” Takumi stubbornly keeps moving forward despite the warning.
The noise rings out again, louder, high and irritating. Takumi disappears into the debris of what used to be a building. Eito sighs and follows after.
Takumi’s stopped in front of a pile of rubble that looks like it fell from a second floor. The sun shines into the room through a gaping hole in the side of the building. He sees Takumi looking at something in the distance. Eito peers above his head and sees something stuck under rubble.
It looks like some kind of dog. Its lower half is trapped underneath the rubble. It’s tongue lolls out of it's mouth as it stressfully pants and tries to claw itself from underneath the debris. He can’t tell if it’s brown or if it’s so dirty it’s coat has taken on the same appearance as the dirt.
“Poor guy. We should go help him.” Takumi springs to action, racing over to access the damage. Eito supposes it couldn’t hurt.
The dog snaps its eyes towards them as they approach, its ears pinning back as it snarls and bares its pointy teeth at them. Eitos only seen dogs in books, but he guesses this one is a mutt. Its features are all-in-all “dog,” but it's individual features are non-specific. Brown fur. Pointy ears. A muddy pattern. It's decently large.
“It looks scared. This might be hard.” Eito ponders, placing his finger on his chin.
“We can’t just leave him here. Here, I’ll hold him down while you try to get his legs free.” Takumi extends a hand out and Eito has to fight off a look of satisfaction on his face as the dog immediately snaps and sinks its teeth into the flesh of Takumi’s hand.
Takumi yelps and darts backwards. “OW! Shit!” He clutches his hand, blood mixing with the pus dripping off his rancid skin.
“Are you okay?” Eito says, painting his face in what he hopes is concern.
“Yeah, I’ll be okay… I didn’t think he’d move that fast. I don’t know how we’ll get him out.”
“Here, hold him down from behind. I’ll dig him out.” This is slowly becoming another headache, but watching Takumi get bit by it made it well worth it so far.
Takumi shimmies up the rubble pile and holds the dog’s neck down from the back, away from its mouth. He winces as he puts a blood-soaked hand against it. It barks and snarls and unsuccessfully tries to thrash free.
“Got him! Go!” Eito quickly shifts aside rocks and rubble, trying to dig out the dog's hind legs while it thrashes under Takumi.
He shifts aside a particularly big rock and sees a good bit of it’s hind leg.
“I’ve almost got it I think.” The dog starts wiggling more forcefully as he moves more debris, “Let it go, I think it can get free.”
Takumi darts back. The dog thrashes more, pulling itself from the rubble. It tries to dart away. It stumbles forward instead, one of its back legs raised high as it lets out a yelp of pain. It seems slightly twisted. Eito feels a twinge of pity for it. It wouldn’t be stuck in this situation had it not been for ugly humanity's destruction. It takes a few more pathetic steps forward before giving up and sitting down, licking its injured leg, still eyeing the two of them suspiciously.
“I think its leg is broken.” Takumi comments, his voice laced with concern.
"I brought a first aid kit with me, we can try that.” He doesn’t know why he feels so tempted to help the creature, “We should patch up your hand too.”
Takumi rummages through the bag of the supplies they brought, pulling out a small first aid kit, and some jerky out of the few rations they brought. Eito raises his eyebrow.
“What’s that for?”
“For persuasion. Here, try and feed it to him. I don’t want to risk my other hand.” Takumi hands it over.
He feels a little silly but he does it anyway, crouching down and holding out the meat towards the animal. The dog licks its chops and limps over. It takes a tentative lick before biting down. Eito watches in a mix of disgust and fascination as it eats out of his hand, licking the crumbs off his glove with his slobbery tongue.
“Psst. Pet it.” Takumi whisper-shrieks to him. Eito hesitantly reaches a hand forward, smoothing his hand over the fur of the dog’s neck. The dog keeps licking his glove. It feels weird. Eito curls his fingers and gently scratches it. He feels a prickle of unease as the dog freezes for a second, Please don’t bite me. It leans into his scratching fingers.
“I think he likes you.” There’s a small grin on Takumi’s grotesque face. His eyes are trained on Eito. Takumi does his best to ignore him and enjoy the actually nice animal in front of him.
He carefully removes one of his gloves, moving to pet the dog’s face and side. Soft… Its fur is soft even with it being so dirty. He likes the feeling. It pants happily and leans into him. It’s cute.
Takumi comes over to stroke it too and it growls at him. “Aw, come on. I still can’t touch you?” Takumi resigns to just standing to watch.
“Do you like dogs?” Takumi’s still uncomfortably looking at him with all his eyes.
“Yes, I do. They’re cute.” Eito decides he’s a fan. He likes that it seems to also hate Takumi. Something they have in common.
“Here, pass the first aid kid. I want to see if he’ll let me patch him up.” Takumi hands it over and watches him work.
Eito scratches behind the dog's ear as he wipes disinfectant over its scratches and cuts. It lets out a whine in discomfort. “Good boy. Sit still.” He murmurs softly to the dog. It makes Takumi’s heart beat faster for some reason.
“We don’t have anything to set its leg with. I’ll have to just bandage it for now.” Eito carefully wraps a bandage over the injured leg, smoothing his hand over the dog’s back to soothe it. The dog is cute. Eito is too. He flushes as the thought enters his mind. He can’t keep his eyes off him. The way he shuts his eyes in enjoyment at the feeling of the dog, speaking to it softly as he tries to clean it up a little.
Eito was a nice guy. Forward and a little corny, but nice. But this was different. He’s never seen him be tender like this. His hands are so careful as he treats the dog’s wounds. He pets it so carefully and gently. It reminds him of Karua. His bloodied hand throbs, and Takumi internally wishes for the same treatment after the dog’s turn.
“He won’t get far, even with the bandages. We should take him with us.” Eito nods in agreement, carefully putting his glove back on.
“Yes, we should. He’s in desperate need of a bath too.” Eito wipes his hand off against his already-dirty jacket.
Takumi’s looking at him with much uglier eyes, clutching his wounded hand. Ugh.
“Right, I suppose I should take care of you too.” Eito forces his voice to be teasing instead of malicious, a small smile forming on his face. Takumi’s red appearance turns a deeper shade than usual.
“Uh, I-If you don’t mind.”
He doesn’t know why he’s embarrassed. Eito’s just helping him out. Like he helped the dog. They’re friends. It’s what friends do. Takumi winces as Eito cleans out the wound with disinfectant.
“Almost done, hold still.” Eito gently chides as he bandages the bite mark, “There you go. All done.”
“Thank you.” Takumi awkwardly coughs into his hand, his face is still stubbornly hot, “Where to?”
“I’m afraid we’ll have to forget the abandoned pharmacy today. If we start now, we can probably make it to the academy before dark.”
Eito in all of his seeming weedy lankiness, picks the limping dog up like it weighs absolutely nothing. “I’ll carry him back. Hopefully we don’t run into any invaders.”
–--
“We should name it.”
The conversation started over half an hour ago. The results are still inconclusive so far.
“Fido.”
“That’s a bit stereotypical.”
“Buddy?”
Eito sighs, “Also very common among dogs, I’m afraid.”
“How about Lucky?”
“I’m starting to think you have an issue with creativity, Takumi.” Takumi throws his hands-up in mock frustration.
“I’ve hardly heard any suggestions from you. What do you want to name him?”
Eito thinks. The top half of the dog sits against his shoulder as he holds his back half against his chest, supporting its hind legs. The feeling of his fur against him is nice. Dogs have a distinct smell, he decides. It's not terrible. Their proximity to each other helps block out Takumi’s nauseating scent.
“Choco. He is brown, after all.”
“That’s just as uncreative!”
They go back and forth the entire way back.
–--
It’s a bit past dark when they get back. Eitos grateful everyone seems to be in bed. He doesn’t want to deal with the usual cafeteria commotion at every new thing that happens. They’re both exhausted but Eito insists on bathing the dog (Choco, thank you very much) right now. Takumi agrees.
Brown-red water washes down the drain as Eito and Takumi vigorously scrub its fur with gentle shampoo they made in the Gift-O-Matic.
“Geez, he was dirty.” Takumi comments. Eito’s gloves are off again. It’s weird seeing him without him. He looks oddly naked even with all of his other layers. His pale hands are lathering soap into Lucky’s fur.
“I’m surprised he made it this long out there. Dogs generally aren’t independent.” Eito hums softly. He feels something smooth brush against him, no- not smooth, it’s Takumi’s disgusting, slimy appendage accidentally brushing against him. Eito subtly scrubs the part that was touched deeper into the soapy fur.
“I’m glad we found him. I always wanted a dog but my mom always told me the permit to own one was too expensive.” Takumi reflects. Lucky lets out a bark.
“I think he’s glad we found him too.” Eito smiles. It feels soft and sincere and Takumi’s heart does that weird stutter again.
They rinse the soapy water off of Choco, and Eito vigorously towels him dry. He definitely-not-intentionally drops the still-damp dog onto Takumi’s bed to make it smell like a wet dog for the foreseeable future. It’d be an improvement to the smell of Takumi’s bed anyways.
“Hey! He’s still wet!” The dog seems to read Eito’s mind, immediately rolling all over Takumi’s clean covers. Takumi groans.
“Sorry, I thought he was dry enough. I didn’t want to leave him on the floor.” He puts his hands up in innocence, that small smile on his face.
“You’re lucky you’re so- He’s- so cute.” Takumi catches himself. Eito either ignores it or doesn’t hear it, his attention is still on the dog as it rolls carefree all over Takumi’s blankets, thoroughly covering it in wet hair. He can’t be mad for long. He really is a cute dog. He reaches out to rub his belly.
“He seems like he’s getting used to you.” Eito strokes alongside him, careful to avoid his hand.
“I was starting to get a little jealous that only you could pet him. I was worried he held a grudge against me.” Takumi sighs.
The feeling of his fur under his hands is so soft. It’s soothing. It makes Takumi’s presence and shrieking voice a little more bearable as he focuses on the animal in front him. Eito’s hand moves in tandem with Takumi’s rancid digits, smoothing over the fur.
Exploring with him today was well worth it today, he decides. He closes his eyes to press a kiss to the dog’s head. His lips meet something smooth and soft instead. Smooth and fleshy. Fleshy and oozing pus. He darts backward. Takumi is bright red, a guilty look on his face.
“S-sorry I wasn’t paying attention! I meant to move my hand.” Takumi is a bad liar.
He succeeds in his second attempt at kissing the dog. It makes up for the unwelcome sensation earlier. It’s harder to hold onto his disgust with the cute distraction in front of him.
Eito likes dogs.