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Weird shit happens to John Constantine. It’s just a matter of fact that even when he’s not looking for it weird shit finds him.
So after he rids a local library of a pack of demons and finds an overly large husky of all things crouched in the little reading corner now covered in demon goo he doesn’t really question it.
“Hey there buddy,” John says, crouching down holding out a hand to the dog. The husky slowly peeks out of his hiding space sniffing at John’s hand lightly. “It’s okay.”
The dog looks up at him and for a beat John swears he sees a flicker of red in those blue eyes. But it’s gone before he can even think about it and assumes it’s a trick of the brightly colored walls.
The dog stays put, but doesn’t seem to have any interest in moving any further, so John stands back up to his full height.
“You got somewhere to go?” he asks the dog and the pup just tilts his head. John shrugs. “Well, you’re welcome to join me, it’s up to you,” he says, turning on his heel and walking away.
He looks over his shoulder when he reaches the door, opening it just a crack. The dog stares at him for a moment and then makes up his mind trotting out from behind his hiding spot. John holds the door open long enough for the dog to trail out behind him, he looks over his shoulder every now and then the whole walk home, always spotting the dog just a few steps back. Almost like he’s trying to seem cool, like he’s just going the same way as John and not following him home.
He lets the dog in the front door when he reaches home gesturing out for the dog to come on in.
“Me casa, su casa, and all that,” he says as the dog tentatively takes a step inside. John watches as he surveys the area, big feet tapping on the floor. John gives him space letting him decide what’s next. Eventually he walks over to John putting his big black and white head at one of John’s hands.
John smiles down at him crouching to pet his head. “You think you wanna stay?”
The dog actually nods his head just a bit. “I think that’d be nice. You’ll have to meet the missus though, she’s kind of the boss.”
The dog lets out a little huff. “No attitude. I’m serious, she’s the law of the land. You gotta impress her. Think you can do that?”
The dog once again seems to nod his head a bit.
“Good boy,” John says, scratching his head once again before rising back up to his full height, his knees cracking as he does. “You want something to eat?” he asks and the dog happily wags his tail following John into the kitchen.
***
“Hi,” Zatanna says slowly when she enters the front door as a large, almost imposing husky laying in the foyer wags his tail at her in greeting. “And who might you be?” she asks with a raised eyebrow.
“Oh, hey love,” John says walking into the foyer. “Look at this guy, he followed me home from the library.”
“You were at the library?” she asks, confused.
“I don’t love that your tone sounds so surprised about the idea of me going to a place where books live, but yes I was. Chased a couple demons into one and found this guy scared out of his wits,” John says leaning over for a beat to pat the dog on the side. “I thought he could stay with us.”
Zatanna crosses her arms looking at him with a smirk. “Are you asking me for a puppy?”
John scoffs. “Oh, come on, look at him.”
Zatanna does the big dog wagging his tail at her. He rises to his full height taking slow steps her way, he bats his big head against the side of her leg softly until one of her hands falls running through the fluffy tufts of fur at his neck.
“You found him in a library filled with demons? You don’t think that’s suspicious?” she says, still petting him.
John just shrugs.
“He’s also about double the size of a regular husky,” she notes, running a hand down his back as he happily circles her.
“Sometimes huskies are like half wolf right? Maybe that's his deal.”
Zatanna looks down at the dog dutifully sitting at her feet wagging his tail back and forth practically smiling at her.
“I guess he could stay for a while at least,” she concedes.
John smiles walking over and pressing a kiss to her cheek. “See, bud, told you she’s the boss,” he says looking down at the dog who’s still happily wagging his tail.
***
The incidents that John keeps missing start off small, it’s the flash of flames and red in the dog's eyes that Zatanna catches when he gets a little excited. It’s the way he rushes off the back stairs and into the garden so fast it feels unnatural. It's the tumble he takes from the front steps into the rose bushes and doesn’t have so much as a scratch on him.
“I think he’s a hellhound,” she says to John numerous times, but he never can seem to quite believe her.
“His paws are leaving scorch marks in the foyer, John, that’s not normal dog behavior,” Zatanna says, hands on her hips. The dog sits at her feet tilting his head innocently. “That’s hellhound behavior.”
“Ah, it’s just mud, it’s been raining the last few days,” John says, dropping a towel on the ground using his foot to wipe up the mess. It doesn’t quite work, the stains that are definitely scorch related stubbornly staying put. John looks down at it with a frown. “A little vinegar will get the stubborn bits,” he says walking off into the kitchen.
Zatanna rolls her eyes looking down at the still innocently tilting his head dog. She doesn’t say anything when John reenters with a bottle of vinegar and an old toothbrush determined to clean up the mess. She’s fairly certain he knows she’s right, that this dog no matter how cute isn’t a normal dog. But she can tell he likes the big guy, hell she does too, and he doesn’t want to acknowledge this dog might be more connected to the demons he chased because then they might not be able to keep him.
The next day the flash in the pups eyes when Zatanna gives him a treat she decides to let it go, not start another back and forth of denial with John. He hops down from the couch in the library and sneezes up a dust of smoke and she doesn’t say a thing.
She can’t hold her tongue though when she wakes one morning to find two little ashen piles beside her top hat. She can’t quantify how many rabbits actually exist in the pocket dimension inside that hat, but she knows two of them are no longer and the big husky snoozing beside the hat on the floor is to blame.
“Maybe they crawled in the oven,” John says, his voice going higher with uncertainty when she shows him the crime scene. He knows he’s wrong.
“They crawled in the oven?” Zatanna says getting more annoyed with him. “Two of my rabbits opened the oven, turned it on, crawled inside, cooked themselves to essentially piles of ash and then got out of the oven as barely bones and left themselves in little piles on the floor for me to find? That’s what they did? That’s what you’re telling me happened?”
She stares at John expectedly, eyes wide and frustrated. “Yes,” he says slowly, believing in his own words less than he ever has before.
“Don’t you dare horror movie husband me right now,” Zatanna says pointing at him emphatically. “I know what I saw and that dog is not a normal dog.”
John looks at the dog laying comfortably on the floor, doing nothing extraordinary except snoring a little loudly.
“He couldn’t have gotten in the house if he was evil,” John defends. “Your wards would have kicked him to the curb.”
Zatanna huffs crossing her arms. “Okay, yes, that’s true. But just because he’s not filled with evil intentions, does not mean he is a normal dog.”
John opens his mouth ready to try and defend the innocent big guy at his feet, but Zatanna doesn’t give him the chance. She’s fed up with his denials.
“Rabbits cooked themselves,” she grumbles, crossing her arms and leaving the room with a huff.
***
Zatanna ignores the both of them the rest of the day. She nearly cracks when the dog whines a bit, tapping his paws by her study door, but she refuses. She understands, be he a real normal dog or something else entirely he’s built on instinct. Two rabbits popping out of a hat at him most likely startled him and he reacted poorly. But she wants to be mad for at least a day.
John’s smart enough to not bug her, hiding out in the kitchen with his new best friend all day when it happens. When he finally admits out loud to himself this dog might be a little odd.
“I think it’s safe to say that you’re not a regular husky,” John says looking as the dog happily wags his tail to and fro, a trail of smoke billowing up behind him. “Considering your tails on fire and your biggest concern is getting a bit of this sausage I’m eating.”
John looks down at the dog fondly, plucking the remainder of the sausage off his fork and tossing it to the pup. He munches at it happily billowing smoke building up from his tail even stronger than before.
“Zatanna was, as per usual, right,” he says watching the dog who barks up at him as if in agreement.
***
“Okay, I admit he might be not a normal dog,” John says the next evening watching as Zatanna switches out her bulky heels for a sleek pair of black and white sneakers. The dog happily trails around her in circles eager to go for his walk.
She’s dropped her silent treatment act, for the dog at least. John’s still on thin ice.
“Oh, really?” she says sarcastically looking up at him. Just in time the dog hops up at her playfully, his feet rising off the ground a little unnaturally, almost as if he’s floating on air.
“You think?” she adds on pointing as the dog lands quietly on the floor.
John sighs. “You were right,” he says. Zatanna gives him a pointed look. “As you often are.” Zatanna gives him an even more dangerous look. “As you always are.”
“That’s more like it,” she grins, clipping the leash to the dog's collar, a sparkling purple thing she’d bought when she’d picked up far more supplies than a person who claimed the dog was only staying for a few days should. “Now are you coming with us?”
***
“As I said before when you were in deep denial, I think he’s a hellhound,” Zatanna says as they walk along the street. There’s not many people out on this late weekday hour, unlike the morning walks where the size of the dog gets more than a few confused and concerned looks.
“I did a little reading up, evidently there’s been some evolution over the years. They’re not all big three headed slobbering monsters anymore, a lot of them have domesticated essentially into dogs that anyone on the street won’t spare a glance at,” she goes on.
“He’s a bit oversized for not having a glance spared.”
“True, but I guess it’s a work in progress. I don’t think there's something else he could be,” she shrugs. “Most hellhounds don’t enjoy Beggin Strips and lounging on velvet couches, but he seems to break the mold.”
John huffs. “He’s unique that’s for sure,” he says, stopping when the dog takes a quick break to sniff at a fire hydrant. What a cliche. “You want a coffee?” he says pointing over his shoulder at a little diner.
“You finally admitted we’ve been harboring a hell beast for nearly a week and all you’ve got to say is let’s get a coffee?”
John shrugs. “I figure we’ll be up late trying to figure out what he’s capable of now that we’re on the same page.”
“Oh, will we?” she says with a smirk.
“We will,” he says, stepping towards the diner backwards. “I’ll get two,” he says before turning and heading inside.
Zatanna shakes her head following as the dog tugs her down the street a little further. “You know if you’re staying with us, which I won’t lie is up for debate,” she says as he stays preoccupied sniffing every inch of the street. “I hope you pick up more of my personality traits than his.”
The dog humphs in agreement.
“Good boy,” she says with a chuckle scratching his head when he looks up at her with his big, currently just blue, eyes.
“Give me the wallet and the necklace and nothing bad happens,” a gravely voice says from behind her. She sighs, twisting her hand up a whisper of magic on her lips. She hates muggers, they're always so dumb, the glittering necklace she’s wearing isn’t even real. Cheap costume jewelry she’s had for years and he’s risking life and limb to steal it off of her.
She moves ready to disarm the guy of whatever weapon he’s most definitely holding in an instant, but the dog beats her to it growling long and angry before charging around her. She hears the mugger jump back into a puddle before she can even turn and then the dog is opening his mouth wide, teeth barred as flames exit from his throat.
The mugger takes off so fast she’d wonder if he was a member of the Flash family, flames licking at his heels as he yelps. The dog lets out another burst of flames, a strong second warning, sending the mugger running off impossibly faster.
Zatanna watches, kind of stunned, mostly amused as he disappears into the night.
John stands still a little in shock as the mugger runs past him in fear just as he exits the diner. He drops his hands both holding a coffee cup to his sides, both sloshing a bit on the ground.
“Hellhound!” Zatanna says pointing at the dog whose mouth is still billowing a bit of smoke and then to the scorched ground. He coughs once then shakes his head.
“Okay, yeah he’s a hellhound,” John concedes, finally moving towards her. He holds out one of the coffees to her and she takes it, taking a big I told you so sip with a grin.
“Good boy,” she says, patting the dog on the head once before she begins to walk her pace fast enough that John has to hustle to keep up with her.
They walk in silence all the way home, the dog keeping up with Zatanna’s pace easily while John trails behind and regrets at least one or two of the cartons of cigarettes he’s smoked in his lifetime.
She’s already hanging up the dog's leash by the time John gets through the front door.
“So,” John says, watching as Zatanna kicks off her shoes. He plops onto the ground needing to take a breath. He takes a sip of his coffee gone cold and then pushes it aside on the ground. “We’re still keeping him right?”
Zatanna sighs, turning his way. “He’s a hellhound.”
“He’s harmless though really,” John says, scratching the pup's big head as he steps over to John. “He might have singed that mugger tonight, but that’s on that guy. Who tries to rob a woman walking a dog damn near the size of a horse? An idiot that’s who.”
“Valid. But he torched two of my bunnies before tonight,” Zatanna says, crossing her arms. The dog walks over to her pressing up against her legs lifting his big blue eyes that flicker red to her.
“I think he’s sorry,” John says with a smile as the dog winds around Zatanna affectionately. She crouches down running her hands through the soft fur of his neck.
“If he’s going to stay, big IF,” she emphasizes petting the dog even more as he leans into her. “We’re gonna need to establish some training about the rabbits.”
“If?” John says dubiously as she leans into the dog. He licks at her face, winning her over even more than he already has with each little bit of affection he gives her.
She ignores John focusing entirely on the dog, sitting fully on the ground to pet him. He plops down between her legs snuggling up to her, his tail wagging happily with the little trail of smoke that they’ve come to recognize as a sign of joy.
“He’s also going to need a name,” she says, running her hand down his side. John crawls over to them wrapping an arm around Zee’s waist. “I think Jed suits him, like the husky from The Thing.”
“Cute on the outside, little bit of the devil on the inside, I like it,” John says resting his chin on her shoulder. “So, does that mean we’re keeping him?”
Zatanna shifts her gaze from Jed's eyes meeting John’s. “I guess so,” she says with a faux sigh. John knows she’s in no way put out about this.
“Jed’s already got you wrapped around his furry, fiery tail. No way you were sending him packing,” John smiles.
“I can’t help it,” she smiles back, scratching Jed between the ears. “Something about blue eyed troublemakers with a penchant for getting trapped in hell that I just can’t turn away from.”
“We are quite charming,” John smirks, pressing a kiss to her shoulder.
“That’s one thing to call it,” she says, which just makes Jed’s tail move faster.
Within a week Zatanna has bought a dozen more fire extinguishers for when she’s not around, Jed has his own little house in the front yard, more clothes than John and a special section of the fridge that’s all his own. He only torches one more rabbit and learns his lesson quickly when Zatanna ignores him for three whole days.