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1
Ever since the experiments, you found yourself with an enhanced sense of smell. Obviously this was from whatever mismash of canine DNA they fused into your human chromosomes, but it was something you almost forgot you had half the time. Unlike your hearing or sight, you don’t remember ever having a human sense of smell.
You were very young when that maniacal pseudoscientist got to you, after all. And a child’s sense of smell was typically already boosted by imagination.
Superior senses combined with a bit of the ‘tism meant you were constantly a little bit on edge, but you had tailored most things in your life to accommodate for that. Your Watchdog suit was a texture that sat perfectly on your skin, every seam placed strategically so they never dug in or snagged. It was great. Your couch at home was soft, but not too soft so that you felt every little brush against your sensitive skin.
What you couldn’t tailor was other people, and how they acted.
Case in point: Lack of hygiene.
You get it. Not everyone thinks they have to shower everyday; in fact, some people don’t! However, it’s actually a very small percentage of the human race who can actually go without showering and have a negligible amount of BO. And you can smell everyone who is not in that small percentage extremely well because of the Belgian Malinois DNA intertwined with your human chromosomes.
You’re lucky you already have a resting bitch face, because passing by gyms is hell.
…There was one exception though. It was kind of weird, actually.
“You’re totally falling asleep,” Adrian stated, looking at you all offended.
“I’m not,” you lied. You were. Dogs sleep an average 13 hours a day, and as a consequence for having canine DNA you were constantly sleepy. And Adrian had insisted you two watch the Lord of the Rings after you let it slip that you had never seen the movies before.
Of course, he insisted on the extended editions. 3-4 hours per movie. You have been here a while.
“You’re gonna miss the best part!”
“Dude, you keep saying that! I’m starting to think you think every part is the best part,” you groaned with your eyes closed. Just. Resting them.
“He does.” Chris piped up from the LAZ-Y BOY he occupied in the corner of Adrian’s apartment. He had his phone out and on TikTok, but you saw him peek and watch the movies too. He claimed they were too nerdy for him, yet even his jock brain couldn’t resist the pull of little British hobbits.
“And is that so wrong?” Adrian asked, and gesticulated dramatically. He gestured so widely that a couple of his fingertips brushed past your face, and you leaned into the brief touch. Even just that small brush of his fingertips radiated with warmth..
You were so sleepy.. And he smelled so good. Like warm bread with melted butter, tinged by the slightest tang of iron. Like licking a penny inside a bakery. You loved it.
Usually people smelt like B.O. and whatever they last ate, perfume was choking and cologne even worse. Adrian never smelled like that. He always smelled so.. Homey. So.. everything.
You swayed even closer to him (and you were already pretty close), but were blocked from indulging in that smell further by his blocky shoulders.
“Mmfgh,” you grumbled, nosing at the fabric covering his shoulder. “Come on..”
“Come on, what? Puppy, seriously, you’re missing a great part!” His hand came up to cradle your jawline, squishing your cheeks. You were too drowsy to protest other than a small mumble. “Look at you!” A fond chuckle, and his voice turned awed. “Actually this is really cute. Chris, do you see this?”
“Man, stop messing with them. They’re about to pass out.”
“No, come on. Look at this!” He squished your cheeks in with varying pressure, making your lips purse up like a fish over and over. Unfortunately, you liked even this behavior from him. You liked anything he did as long as he was touching you.
A smile: “Fishy, fishy. You’re so sweet when you’re sleepy.”
“I’m always sleepy,” you mumble almost incomprehensibly. “Lemme nap.”
This is when you made the mistake. The mistake that cemented how much you really liked his scent.
You freed yourself from his gentle grasp, and let your head fall into his lap. His warm, blanket covered lap. You immediately lost a little more consciousness. The game was rigged from the start.
You hummed happily, and nuzzled your nose into his legs. Oh man, it was like you just stuck your head into an oven baking fresh sourdough. You could not get enough. Your nose started picking up the intricacies of his scent; hints of lavender from his shampoo, a faint sandalwood scent from his Men’s lotion… Mmm, or maybe that’s from his aftershave?
You didn’t realize that you had started to sniff loudly, obviously, and nuzzle your nose continuously into the blanket. Adrian’s eyebrows rose high above his frames, and his hands rose midair like he didn’t know what to do with them.
“Are you fucking serious right now, man?” Chris said with his usual amount of huffy tone.
“I– I don’t know what..” Adrian sounded unsure, and he was stuttering. You felt his body temperature raise a little bit higher, which of course, made you even sleepier. You sighed happily.
“They are literally huffing your fumes. I am so sick of you two. Just fuck them and get this waiting game over with! You know you want to!”
“Dude, be quiet, they’re right here!” Adrian whisper-yelled back at Chris. Luckily for him, you were gone to the world. “And I don’t just want to fuck them, I wanna hold their hand and stuff. I really like them.”
“OBVIOUSLY. Grow a pair and do something about it already. Hey, look at me and Emilia, I worked it out with her.”
A skeptical pause, “She, like, barely tolerates you half the time. And doesn’t she only let you fuck her if she’s on top? I don’t get why you let her treat you like that. She walks you like a dog, and you’re out of her league. ”
“It’s hot,” Chris said with smouldering smugness in his voice. “And don’t lie and say you don’t wanna walk Watchdog here like a doggie too.”
“I don’t!!!!!!!” He cried and threw his hands up in the air, before he was interrupted by a soft snore coming from his lap. “Oh… They’re asleep.”
“Figures. Your nerd movies put them to bed.”
Adrian didn’t reply for once, instead resting his hand over your ear, sheltering your enhanced hearing from the fight scene happening onscreen. His hand remained that way until you woke up.
2.
“Let me– Let me–” You stuttered, words tripping out of your mouth.
“I’m fine, it’s okay, seriously, puppy, don’t worry–” Adrian attempted to placate you, which didn’t really work because half his face was covered in his own blood.
“Just!” You grit out, tone sharpening. “Let me.. Fucking do something.”
“Huh?”
Something within you surged, urging you to protect him; to claim him. If he smelled like you, the enemies would know who they were aggravating when they hit him. You raised your hands to your mouth, and roughly tugged off your tactical gloves with your teeth. Adrian’s mouth hung open slightly, speechless.
Your hands were sweaty from the current battle. Those fucking butterfly grunts just kept coming, and your hands got clammy in the gloves on a good day. Knowing this, you ran your hands up his overheated cheeks, thumbs rubbing his ears on their way up to finally tangle in his brown hair, smearing the smell of your sweaty body all over his face.
Adrian’s ears and neck flushed red, and he let out a series of strangled choking sounds.
“What–Huh– UHhh???” Adrian said, lowly. Then he squeaked when you shoved your foreheads together, skulls clunking dully. “What are you doing..?”
“I don’t know,” you admit softly. “I just need to touch you right now. To smell you.”
“Smell me?” He questioned, then in a rapid movement you shoved your head into his neck, nose and cheek nuzzling the back of his ear. “A-ah?”
Despite your brown skin, you could feel your face heating up in tandem to his. God damn it, your flush might actually be visible to him.
Your calloused hands rubbed circles into his warm skin as you snuffled around his ear.
“Puppy, I don’t– Hoooohhmygod,” he drew out. Probably because you had just licked a fat stripe behind his ear. He shivered from the tops of his head to the tips of his toes. “Are you trying to seduce me? Am I being seduced?!”
“No, fool,” You muttered quietly, overcome with embarrassment. Your comms were both going wild with Harcourt and Murn demanding both of your whereabouts, but you ignored it in favor of finishing what you started. “Please don’t get hurt again.”
“I won’t, I won’t!” He repeated, his own hands coming up to wrap around your wrists. “Or, I’ll try my best!”
“You’re so freaking careless,” drawing back you snuck in a quick lick to his cheek, tasting iron on your tongue. He gasped out a nonsense sound. “Sorry. That was a lot.”
“I… It’s.. It’s okay.” His eyes were wide and glistening, his face was bright pink. His hair was ruffled from your shaky hands running through it, and his glasses fell crooked across his face. He was so damn cute. “You, um, lick all your friends like that?”
“Um, haha, uh,” You literally didn’t know how to respond to that, because you didn’t even know why you licked him in the first place. “...Only my best friends.”
“...Best friends?” His eyes glittered like they held the stars, moon, and sun. Oh god, he was so cute.
“VIGILANTE, WATCHDOG! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON OUT THERE?”
Both of your heads turned to where your comms were buckled and you said in unison: “Oh, shit.”
3.
Adrian really, really liked Watchdog. At this point, everyone knew (and seemed to be really annoyed about it) except Watchdog themself.
Adrian showed up early to the headquarters, hoping to get advice without the subject of his affections being there. Watchdog was always perpetually late unless Adrian hounded (heh) them about their punctuality. So he knew they wouldn’t be there if he showed up earlier than usual.
He flumped himself down into the nearest available seat and sighed loudly. When no one reacted besides a side-eye from Leota, he sighed again. Still no one reacted, so he sighed thrice.
“Fucking what, Adrian? What is it?” Harcourt finally asked, very nicely. Adrian sighed again before frowning pensively and asking:
“Do you guys think Watchdog likes me?”
Leota was too nice to groan, but everyone else did. Adrian saw Murn retreat and lock himself in his office.
“Yeah, man. I think they really do!” Leota replied once she realized no one else was going to entertain this shit.
“No, I mean, do you think they have feelings for me? Romantic ones? Because I really like them, and I don’t like people often, so this is kind of a big deal for me.” Adrian tried to really impress the importance of his question to his listening audience.
Before Leota could answer, Economos did for her.
“I honestly do not think they could be any more obvious about their feelings for you, Adrian.” He was typing furiously on some chunky government-issued laptop, but he couldn’t withstand the obliviousness.
“You know I don’t know what that means, man!” Adrian lamented, throwing his arms up.
“He means that every time you step into the room, they light up like a goddamn Christmas tree. That kind of obvious,” Harcourt chimed in from where she was pretending not to care about this.
“You guys mean their tail wagging? They do that for everyone, though.” Adrian could remember many times when Leota brought them a chai latte or Economos tossed them some gum, and how it got that fluffy tail wagging.
“But when it’s you, it’s not just the way their tail wags. Their whole body language perks up, and it wags way, way harder than for us, man. You gotta realize that at least.” Leota reasoned with him, using that kind voice she often used.
“I don’t know…” Adrian didn’t want to be wrong. He truly valued their friendship in a way that he didn’t often value friendships except for Chris. They were someone he actually felt pretty comfortable around, and someone who knew both sides of his life.
It was hard to make regular friends because they would never understand his Vigilante life, and it was hard to make hero friends because they got annoyed at him for never revealing identifying information. Who knew that it was hard to make friends when you refused to even tell someone your favorite color?
“Just.. Maybe try paying attention to how they act around other people as opposed to you? You mind find out something illuminating..?” Leota’s voice pitched upwards with hope and uncertainty at the end, which did not fill Adrian with a lot of confidence.
But he decided to try.
He waited, spinning himself around in the old office chair he was sitting in, until Watchdog came into the headquarters.
Finally they slunk in, a little ashamed of how late in the afternoon it was. He watched as they waved to Leota, who was the first person they saw, with their tail wagging slightly. He watched as they bid Economos a good afternoon, and watched as they complimented Harcourt’s makeup.
Half of being Vigilante was watching people, looking for incriminating information. He was experienced in taking in information and analyzing it. He was smart as hell.
(Though he admits he was very biased in this case.)
It seemed like very normal behavior for them. And then they turned around and saw Adrian.
Their body physically jumped a bit, like they were surprised to see him. Their tail started wagging so hard that the motion made a sound as it whipped through the air, and their eyes dilated from behind their unassuming glasses.
They had entered the headquarters in casual clothing, their hero outfit in a bag over their shoulder, but had still manifested their tail. Watchdog had told him before (in confidence) that they could decide whether or not to let the tail out, somewhat similar to Hawkgirl. It was a little uncomfortable to hide it for very long periods of time, but the alternative was being treated like a freak.
He remembered the first time he saw their tail without being in uniform. Chris had almost hit him because he couldn't stop talking about how cute it was.
Watchdog trotted up to him, smiling, and Adrian decided to be a bit brave today. He stood up to meet them, and opened his arms for a hug.
They looked surprised for a moment before they borderline jumped into his arms, wrapping their own warm arms around his ribs in return.
“Hey, man!” They said with a smile audible in their voice. Adrian grinned when he realized he could feel their hips moving slightly to accommodate the vigorous nature in which their tail was wagging.
“Good afternoon, dude!” Adrian greeted back, squeezing them. Their body felt so nice under his palms, and they were always so warm whenever he touched them. Watchdog was one of the only people who never pulled away first when Adrian touched them.
They stood there hugging for a while since Watchdog wouldn’t let go unless Adrian let go first, and they had made it a game to see how long he could keep it up before his aversion to touch started showing up. This time, he started swaying back and forth in the hug, making them copy him with a bit of his strength.
His ears turned red when they muffled their laughter into his shoulder, and he looked up to see Leota looking at him with wide eyes. The wide eyes seemed to say, ‘See? You see what I’m talking about?’
Watchdog hummed in contentment and Adrian could feel the vibrations from that sound reverberate against his chest.
Leota might be right this time…
-- PLUS 1 --
Adrian decided to very subtly make a move.
He sought out advice from everyone, and considered each one very carefully in the dim lighting of his apartment.
Leota said he should get them flowers. She said there was nothing like a big bouquet to show your devotion to someone right off the bat.
But Adrian knew the puppy had a very sensitive sense of smell, and he’d seen them wrinkle their nose at certain flowers before. On the other hand, he had also seen them go out of their way to smell flowers too. He didn’t know which ones they liked versus disliked, and he wanted to make sure Watchdog enjoyed whatever he did.
Chris said Adrian should invite them to his house, wearing nothing but his black robe and maybe a rose between his teeth. Despite his love for Chris, that idea was immediately discarded.
Even if Watchdog was sure to get a good laugh out of it.
Economos said he should take them out to a nice candle-lit dinner, maybe someplace Italian. Drop a couple benjamins and really impress them.
Adrian thought that sounded stupid and douchey, and also he was so fucking sick of pasta from his job at Fennel Fields. If anything, he would take them out to get birria at a local taco truck.
Harcourt recommended a bar nearby that wasn’t too full of piss-drunk assholes, one that had pool tables and some dart boards. She said she loved picking up men, women, and everyone in between by showing off her dexterity through the stupid bar games.
But Watchdog had already seen Adrian in action, and he had caught them looking at him in awe often enough. His ego was pretty damn inflated from that, actually. It would just be a repeat of something they’d already seen before.
It took several times before he could even get an answer out of Murn that wasn’t an angry dismissal, but eventually Murn relented.
“Just do something that makes them happy. Should be simple enough for you.”
And with that golden nugget of advice– a rare genuine Murn moment– Adrian pondered on it a little. And decided to enact his plan the very next day.
—-
You were cold as fuck.
One thing you never understood was how people could go crime-fighting in these goofy ass skin-tight suits in the middle of winter. Once the adrenaline faded and the sweat dried, it was perhaps the worst feeling in the world.
The cold made it worse, since in the summer heat at least you couldn’t tell fighting sweat from normal sweat. 50 degree weather did not make for good experiences.
You tried not to make it obvious, but every so often your teeth would chatter unconsciously like a damned cartoon character. It was very comical so it almost made you laugh, but you were also cold enough that nothing was fucking funny.
Harcourt, Economos, Murn, and Leota had the blessing of a lack of uniform, which meant that they could bundle up in hats and coats and, in Leota’s case, earmuffs. Peacemaker and Vigilante were evidently bigger freaks of nature than the person who had been genetically modified to have dog DNA, as they seemed perfectly unaffected by the cold.
You had pulled off your helmet since your breath kept fogging up your visor, which was an issue Adrian somehow did not have. But this just made your weakness to the elements much more visible as your nose turned a burgundy red as it was exposed to the wind.
Vigilante sidled up to you as he often did these days, and your tail went from being tucked between your legs to softly swishing side-to-side. Just him being near you made your mood improve greatly.
“You were cool as shit out there,” he said. “And it was very ingenious of you to have flushable wet-wipes in your cargo pants.”
Your eyebrow raised at the random compliment, (and slight embarrassment. You usually hid the wet wipes because it looked a little goofy for a dog-based hero to wipe their mouth daintily after brutally ripping someone’s throat out.) but you still mustered up a small smile.
“Thanks, Adrian.” You manage a small smile in response, even as your jaw keeps fighting the biological urge to chatter. “That new flip you did tonight was s-sick as hell.”
He seems to notice the faint stutter in your voice as a result of your immense chill, and cocks his head slightly to the side.
“Are you cold?”
“No,” you lie.
“You seem kinda chilly, dude. Are you sure?” Then with suspicion, “...Are you lying to me?”
“I plead the fifth,” you mutter and attempt to walk away from him. To be honest, the last thing you wanted to hear right now was questioning about your obvious weakness to this temperature. It was your fault for not being prepared like everyone else, for not being strong enough like Peacemaker and Vigilante to be able to withstand it.
You thought it was pathetic. However, Vigilante refused to let you just walk away. You feel a gentle touch on your shoulder, and turn to see he’s removed his mask. His hair is adorably ruffed up, and his cheeks are a faint pink from the shock of the cold hitting his skin. God, why were you so into his whole everything?
“I’ve got something for you in the van, if you do happen to be cold..” His voice was quiet, almost uncertain. No, not uncertain. Shy.
He was looking at you with those deeply earnest brown eyes, touching you, pink cheeked and smiling and– AUGH! You feel your tail start up wagging again without your permission and you almost wanna fucking howl from all the butterflies erupting in your chest.
“O-okay. Okay, man. Sure. I w-want it, whatever it is.” You stumble through a sort of agreement, trying to play off the deep, rare redness in your face as a result of the cold. He beams at you in response, which does not help your case, and does a sort of excited hop in place.
“Cool! Sick! Yeah, lemme just– oh, well we’re not at the van yet, but when we get there, yeah, I’ll. I’ll totally give it to you, man!”
All you can do is smile back at him and try not to shiver out of your skin. He keeps up a steady chatter with you despite how short your responses are, and attempts to rope Chris into the conversation too. Eventually he gets everyone into the conversation by essence of how insane of topics he keeps choosing, and the long walk back to the van to regroup is made shorter.
When you do get back to the van, his energy peaks. You don’t know what to make of his almost anxious energy as he abruptly stops talking and leaves you behind to rush into the van. You look at Chris for clarification and get nothing more than a rolling of eyes paired with a begrudging smile.
…Like he knew something was going to happen. Now, you were nervous. And not in the mood for a surprise at all considering how much longer you all had to be in this coldass weather for the mission.
“..What’s going on?” You ask, hesitantly. Chris just shrugs, that nasty knowing smile still on his face as he responds.
“I dunno, man. It’s not like he listened to me when I told him this was stupid and I’m totally gonna laugh my ass off when it fails.”
“The fuck? That’s like an oxymoron, you clearly know what’s going to happen.” Chris continues to smile in silence until you feel the hair on the back of your neck start to raise in agitation. “Can you just tell me? I’m in a really pissy mood.”
“Because you’re cold?” Adrian suddenly pipes up from right beside you. You hadn’t even noticed him finally coming out from the van.
You resist the urge to snap at him for pointing out your obvious weakness, and instead settle for letting a low growl escape your throat. You open your mouth to start up on explaining why the fuck you don’t want to be constantly reminded of your chill when something warm and soft lands on your shoulders.
“Here. I thought this might help you. If you want it.”
You raise your hands up to feel a light cotton texture, slightly warm from the heater in the van. It’s.. He gave you his zip-up hoodie. You can tell it’s his because it carries that scent you love so much: the scent of bread baking in a woodfire oven, of ash, copper, and yeast. And it is fucking saturated in his smell too – almost like he went on a jog and then fell asleep in this thing.
Normally, that’d be truly disgusting. But you’ve started to figure out that with Adrian, even something that’d be nasty coming from someone else makes you happy.
You don’t even wanna bother noting what your tail is doing, because of course it’s wagging at a mile a minute. Chris is standing too close to you when it gets started, and he yelps when it strikes him in your rising happiness.
“Thanks,” you say. You can’t say anything else, because if you let your mouth stay open for too long you’ll howl or growl happily or some shit, and that’s just embarrassing.
Adrian can tell that his plan for romantic seduction has worked exactly as he hoped it would. The second he draped his hoodie over Watchdog’s shoulders, he could visibly see their eyes dilate. And don’t even get him started on their tail (no, seriously. Don’t. Because he will talk about it for hours. Just ask Chris.).
He was happy to see they had even given up on pretending they didn’t love how he smelled, (which was something he picked up on after the 3rd time they fell asleep on him) and started blatantly sniffing at the sleeves of the hoodie.
They were clearly trying to pass off the action as hiding a smile, which they were also doing, but the audible sniffsnuffsnuff fainting coming from their direction gave them away easily.
Adrian, on the other hand, wasn’t gonna hide any expression of happiness. So he let himself beam at them, and shuffled close enough to bump shoulders with the puppy.
“I knew you were cold,” he says under his breath, the sarcasm of the comment undermined by how you could hear his smile through his voice. “Just tell me next time! We can totally snuggle.”
“You hate snuggling.” They reply, muffled from the sleeve in front of their mouth and voice thicker than usual for some reason.
“Usually, that would be true, but I don’t mind if it’s with you.”
“Gahh, Adrian,” they lament, hiding their face in their sleeved hands. “You’re killing me.”
There’s silence for a moment.
“...No, I’m not? Are you.. Is there something on the hoodie that’s killing you…?”
Your snickers and Chris’s facepalm echo into the night and solidify this as a perfectly executed, well thought out, amazing Vigilante plan for romantic success.