~ Kings Cross ~

Chapter I: "The Passing"

Joel Robinson.

Furred fingers dabbled along the keys of a piano, short stubby legs hanging from the bench, not quite reaching the ground, much to their owners mild frustration. His pale blue eyes fixed upon his right paw, making sure to hit the correct keys as he recited to himself a song his wrote out of amusement, years ago, purely for the nostalgia. The Milton Ferret's rented house, which he lived in with Miles and his pack, had a piano put in the living room. One of the small ones that could fit easily against a wall.

He took a glance over to his left paw, tapping slowly over the lower octaves of keys, the right laddering down the note scale in a descending, steady melody. He smiled, amused at his mere memory of something so simple. It was the simple things now that made him the happiest. Ambition was hard to keep up with such stubby limbs, where a five minute walk to the liquor store was a twenty minute adventure.

Joel Robinson.

King heard a phone ring from the kitchen, and thought briefly of Bailey, his long-distanced-ex-girlfriend. It couldn't have gone anywhere, he had told himself after the long-sustaining breakup. Long distanced relationships were never the way to go, even Fox seemed to agree with him.

Fox, the grey Husky, with the tan coat, the dog tags and yellow bandana tied loosely around his neck. The very same who taught him a new level of trust and friendship, never known before in his isolated life he used to lead. The first one to show him true kindness, Fox the husky. And a part of him hated that fact. He hated how Fox had gotten so far under his skin, the process of which, couldn't be easy. You couldn't get under the skin without breaking the skin first, and the wound never seemed to close, in a metaphorical way. Guilt ate at him, and fear for losing his one and only true friend that he's ever had, all because of himself.

Joel Robinson.

King remembered the day his transformation occurred. The ground was closer, the trees were the tallest things in the world, his walks were longer, he was constantly warmer, and ate out of a plastic bowl on the floor, like he were some kind of filthy animal. Those were his first thoughts at the sight of the bowl, but that night, he looked in the mirror. Staring back at him was a filthy animal. A filthy animal who's done enough wrong in his life to spare for several. The animal staring back at him was clean, his fur neat and fluffy, teeth sharp and white.

The filthy animal was Joel Robinson.

"King, there's someone on the phone for you!"

The deep voice belonging to Miles called from the kitchen, cutting his song off on a sour note. He jumped off the piano stool and bounded out of the room, turning a corner and nearly running straight into Miles the wolf, who was holding a landline phone in his large grey paw. The muscular lupine handed the phone to King, "Here you are."

"Thanks."

Miles then ambled off to the bedroom he shared with Lucretia. King turned back towards the living room, raising the phone to his ear.

"Hello?"
"K-King? Is that you?"

The short canine blinked, the other voice on the phone familiar, but shaky and choked up. He stammered for a moment, not believing his ears,

"Yeah, Fox… It's me."
"Can I c-come see you? …I really n-need a distraction right now…"

He blinked again, wondering what was troubling his grey-furred companion, "Yeah, sure, I'll meet you over near Lark Wood, is everything alright?" His eyes were slightly widened as he heard a sniff, and a brief hesitation. King was already walking over to the front hall find his scarf o the mail table when Fox answered quickly, "..Y-Yeah! Definitely! Just wanted to play…that's all, heh."

King didn't trust him, but he didn't dare question it. Not yet, "Well, alrighty then, I'll see you In a few minutes."

"See you, King."

Before he could press the 'End' button on the phone, the Husky had quickly disconnected. King bounded over to the coatrack, jumping up briefly to snatch his black scarf, throwing it around his collared neck and heading out the front door without another word. All of this was so…so unlikely of Fox. The Husky seemed to have two emotions: happy and angry. He couldn't recount a single time he had something bother him that way, so something had to be wrong.

King ventured out into the snow, which had piled up four inches on the grounds of Babylon Gardens. It wasn't falling anymore, and the sky was a lovely shade of pink, the shade of late afternoon. His small paws squeezed the rubber bone in his paw, which emitted a 'squeak!'. 'This oughta' cheer him up a little,' he thought, remembering how much Fox loved the toy. He looked over to his left and noticed the house he shared with Pete, or 'Gaspar' the welshman, the same one Fox had first approached him with the same squeaky bone.

"Hey there, New Dog! You wanna fight over this squeaky bone?"

Joe-…King looked up and gulped, instantly feeling his insides do a turnover. It was the dog he had helped kidnap, only now he was a head taller than him. His cheeks reddened, as he fiddled with his paws, trying to sputter some excuse to get out of it. The tall grey Husky tilted his head, his pale blue eyes glassed over with curiosity,

"Is something wrong?"

""Y-You're that…That uh… No! Nothing's wrong! Hi…"

The other dog chuckled and grinned happily, turning slightly to the right and wagging his tail near King's face, "I won't bite! It's okay if you wanna sniff first!" King's eyes widened and his blush deepened,

"No that's fine… You can put your butt back where it was, please."

The Husky was dressed in a tan jacket, his silver dog tags peeking out from under a yellow handkerchief tied around his neck. He chuckled again and stuck out his tongue playfully, "Okay, Okay, how about I just say 'Hi, I'm Fox!" The embarrassment was almost too much for King to bear. He felt like sinking into the earth's core, or melting in with the concrete, the heat in his face was enough to burn like the earth's core anyway. Before sliding off the porch step and onto the ground, he managed to choke out, "I'm King."

"Are… Are you crying?"

"I'd love to fight over your squeaky bone."

King broke out of his trance, realizing he was rooted to the spot as that moment replayed in his head. He hurried over to the entrance to the forest, nearby his old house, where all he could do was sit on a tree stump and wait for an either cheerful and normal Fox, or an unusually somber one. He looked down and into a reflection, he could barely remember what he looked like as a human. But all that was behind him… or was it. He was an animal still, but there was still that wound of guilt refusing to close, in the pit of his stomach.

Joel Robinson.

End of Chapter I.

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All character rights go to Rick Griffin. I do not own 'Housepets!'

Thank you for reading.

-Sentry the Defiant