((A/N : Ludwig is like 6 or 8 so it's not pet play or a fursuit its just a disguise. so.

There is Gerita, or at least a one sided crush))


"Why can't I just be a dog!" He said as he tickled Berlitz's ears.

Ludwig, while very young, found himself downtrodden by the environment of the public school system, and while very young, he disliked it.

However, he liked learning and he could coexist with the teachers. But hearing the taunts and being cast out of play-ground games rode on his self-esteem like an elephant on a zebra. His classmates were squishing him.

He just needed vacation from acting polite and neat, a break from ignoring his his loneliness, time-off from being a human boy.

But his brother did not understand him.

"What are you doing in that coat, you look like a bear cub! Want your scrambled eggs in Aster's bowl?"

"Yes, please."

"Nooo your a person! You're the best person I ever saw. Be the best person I ever saw at school too, wear blue jeans."

"You need to say have. You have ever seen."

"See! You're a cool smart person!" Gilbert handed Ludwig his breakfast on a plate and shooed him off to be successful. Gilbert had always been an awesome older brother, so he didn't know what it was like to be squished at school, he didn't understand.

He stuffed his coat pocket with accessories to complete his dog costume, grabbed his backpack on reflex, and made it out the door before Gilbert could tackle him down and steal his coat. Standing upright on the creaky porch, Ludwig waved at Gilbert as he backed out of the driveway in his big red truck. Gilbert waved back and drove down the street. Gilbert drove to school, Ludwig walked.

Ludwig walked towards Roosevelt Elementary, but before he left his housingtrack, he jumped into a hedge. Leaves jabbed him and ants crawled on him, but getting dirty would have to be part of his dog life. He squirmed past the branches and huddled up in the hallow part to clip two makeshift gold-toed ears to his head, and such. He was also tempted to shed the clothes he had on under his pelt of a coat, but for a dog it might be like shedding one's skin, and Ludwig had to be a dog or else someone would see through his makeup and spot his humanish cheeks or eyes.

He tried to run in his perfect disguise, but it flopped around, so he waddled. He listened for the school bells, and brisking his pace, he "ran" on all-fours. His paw-mittens gave him rugburn, and by the time he got over the fence of the school-yard, sweat ran under his ear to his neck. Hardly anyone stood around in the school yard, but the halls were probably full of students.

Except one. Feliciano Chibita Vargas, who was always just barely on time by the hem of her dress. She scampered out of her car with her backpack swinging off her shoulder, until she saw Ludwig and her backpack fell onto the dusty black-top. Ludwig dropped his as well, as discretely as he could, and left it there.

"Doggie-boo." She squealed, patting her knees.

Ludwig went up to her, limping on his beaten palms. She cooed at him and tried to see them, but he didn't let her. Because he was a dog. "Don't you have an owner?"

Ludwig looked at Feliciano's hair.

"Aww! No, what if the dog catcher finds you?"

Ludwig whined.

"Come with me, okay?"

He had to play hard to get. Dog.

"C'm'ere girl!" Feliciano grabbed her backpack and patted her leg. Ludwig followed her up the stairs and into the hall way, and she yanked the door open for him.


"Mr. Kirk-land," Chanted Feliciano, cutting his name up into pieces of cake to get his attention.

"Yes, Felician–Oh." Mr. Kirkland, Mr. Teacher, saw Ludwig and Ludwig looked at his knees. He wanted to check his face to see if he was mad or could see it was Ludwig or was sympathetic to his homelessness - but dogs don't read emotions through faces, so he just kept his eyes on Mr. Kirkland's khakis. "Feliciano."

"She–he?–isn't mine, but, I found her on the way to school and I was afraid—Toto and Tramp." Feliciano swallowed and started crying. "Mr. Kirkland, don't hurt this doggie!"

"Oh, uh, of course I wouldn't, but, we can't have a dog in,"

"No, they can't go back out or the pound will get them! And their paws are hurt. Please, Mr. Kirkland."

"Oh, for today, maybe. I'll see about," Mr. Kirkland sighed, thinking of all the work it would have been to keep a dog in the class. "Getting him a licence to be a class pet."

"Him?"

"Yes, I think so. Do you want to name him?"

"Um... Hundindi!"

"How cute."

The bell rang and Mr. Kirkland dispelled the crowd that had gathered around Ludwig, and Ludwig followed Feliciano just in case Ms. Gulch was real and creeping around somewhere. He curled up under Feliciano's desk.

"Are you sure that isn't your dog, Feliciano?"

"I am. Look at his poor fur, it looks faux, that's how homeless he is."

"He looks like a wolf – that's it, a little brown wolf. But, he certainly smells fine."

"Bwauf." Said Ludwig from his belly.

"What a cute doggie!" Everyone said. Ludwig blushed and hid his face in his fur, hoping they wouldn't try to wash him.


At lunch, Feliciano kept Ludwig at her heels, and they ran around until Feliciano grabbed him and then they started wrestling. It fun at first, but then, since Ludwig was so close to Feliciano, well I don't remember what romance was like in elementary school, but let's say Ludwig smelled Feliciano's detergent and got embarrassed about cooties. He stopped pawing at her.

"Silly dog – dogs don't get tired that fast." Feliciano got off him and pushed him onto his paws and knees. "Uh, dogs... dogs don't blush..." Feliciano said, hugging Ludwig for close inspection, pressing her thumb gently into his cheek. "Dogs don't have cheeks."

Ludwig growled at her. Feliciano let him go and sat down to ponder the revelation.

"Are you a guardian angel?" Said Feliciano.

"It's the opposite way." Said Ludwig.

Feliciano held her head in disbelief. "You're a good actor, Hundindi!" She let go of her head and jumped to her feet.

Ludwig nodded his head gravely. "Um, between you and I, would you tell Mr. Kirkland that Ludwig Beilschmidt is in home school."

"Ah! Ludwig?" Feliciano lifted his floppy ear to look inside his brain and make sure he was truly speaking for himself.

"Hundindi."

Feliciano frowned. "Yeah, I'm, ve, uh, good with secrets, uh-huh."

Ludwig drew away from her in a sudden jerk, gave a yelp, and flattened on the ground–offended.

"Sorry! What's wrong Hundindi?"

He wouldn't look at her.

Feliciano put her hand out cautiously so she could pat Ludwig as her apology. Being tapped in this fashion let Ludwig settle back completely into his character. He found it suddenly necessary to stretch his vocal cords so he could bark loud enough to interrupt Feliciano should she say something wrong. He ran to the fence, let himself slam against it a bit, just enough to make the mail bounce, and barked at cars as sincerely as he could. He also checked for his backpack out of the corner of his eyes... Still there.

Feliciano followed him in complete awe. "Guardian angel." She said, and the words found their way into Ludwig's muffled ears in between his barking, and he stopped trying to feel his lungs and started feeling his heart, and his barking became a mumbled spoken thing, more human. His back feet felt like they were floating.

"Haha." Feliciano poked his shoulders. "Hundindi."

Yeah. Ludwig set his front feet on the fence, longing for something.

The bell rang before long, and Feliciano, who'd left him in his day dreams, came back and scooped him up. She squished him briefly in a hug, and Ludwig curled his back legs for a moment. Feliciano was pulled forward by his weight, and fell right on him. Ludwig yelped and hopped out from under her, running towards the stairs at the front of the building.

But he couldn't stand being being doggish when he heard Feliciano sniffle. She'd skinned her chin on the way down. Ludwig stumbled over and layed on the ground with a whimper. Feliciano sat down and Ludwig watched her mouth quiver as she stroked his coat. He nudged Feliciano into standing, and waddled with her to the school's door and through the halls.


"Feliciano, are you okay." Mr. Kirkland clicked his tongue.

"I fell."

"I'll get you a band-aid." Mr. Kirkland went through his desk drawers, and the class found its seats. Ludwig curled up next to the trash can, because he felt like trash for making Feliciano fall. He was only trying to be small enough to carry, but he never thought about his weight. He wasn't fat or muscular, just a human boy wearing a big coat, but Feliciano didn't normally lift boys, and it make her knees and arms shake. Ludwig was pretty sure he could pick Feliciano up, but not in his current get up. No thumbs, no grip.

"Hundindi, don't lie there." Mr. Kirkland patted his knee and Ludwig crawled to him. "There's no food in the trashcan, you silly scrounge-hound."

Ludwig decided to just sit next to the bureau.

"We should have a blanket drive," said Mr. Kirkland, seeing Ludwig on the cool floor. "Have your parents look through the closet and see if there are any gently used (baby)blankets, we'll make Houdini a bed and I'll drop the rest off at the shelter. Sound good?"

"Yeah!" The class squealed.

For a moment, Ludwig frowned because he thought he was taking up blankets that could go somewhere better, and perhaps he was, but no one would have thought about their old baby blankets and miscolored down comforters – the ones that are perfectly good but no longer compliment the color on the bedroom wall – unless Mr. Kirkland did it for them. And Mr. Kirkland may not have done it unless Ludwig were here in costume. He yawned happily, figuring it was better than nothing to be the reason for a blanket collection in November.

He listened to the lessons, until all of the sudden Feliciano remembered something important for both of them. Feliciano's hand shot up in the middle of a lecture.

"Yes?"

"It's, uh, um, ve ve, off topic..."

"That's okay." Feliciano never had her hand up, so Mr. Kirkland was finally getting a thing he'd longed for all year, proof that Feliciano didn't sleep in class.

"Um, I saw Ludwig at lunch today and he said he was moving to homeschool."

"Oh. Uh. Okay. Tell him that the tests are proctored every staff-day in Mr. Honda's room, 105, unless he needs that day off, in which case his guardian has to sign another form." Kirkland handed Feliciano a packet, and she and Ludwig exchanged a glance.

"Tests? Procturd?"

Mr. Kirkland spelled "to proctor" on the blackboard. "Homeschoolers must take tests to make sure their parents or tutors are doing a good job with the curriculum, and proctor is a word you'll hear more and more the farther you pursue your education, it's when someone watches you take a test to make sure your doing it according to the instructions, and not cheating. I proctor all your tests in this class, for example, unless you have a sub."

Feliciano was nodding along politely, but Ludwig was taking firm mental notes. 105. Staff-days, he wished he could ask about which those were, curriculum. Yes. Easy. He didn't even have to do homework, now. He would just have to listen carefully. And who said school teaches you good habits for college!


After school, Feliciano stared at Ludwig while she packed up. In her eyes, she knew that Ludwig had a home, but Hundindi still did not. He glanced at Mr. Kirkland. But then, one of her friends distracted her. It was such a thorough distraction that, suddenly, Mr. Kirkland and Ludwig were the only ones left in the room.

He walked around the class room in a daze. He must have been distracted as well. He walked around in a way that made Mr. Kirkland looked up at him from his skuffling around with papers and his cell phone.

"Right. Little Houdini. Are you sure you don't have, a um, little, shack somewhere. A home."

Ludwig stared at him. The door was closed, so he was stuck in a situation that starting to get startling; it was nice of Mr. Kirkland to offer his home to Ludwig, but Ludwig already had a home with his brother.

"Well, I guess I'll have to let you spend the nights with me." Mr. Kirkland sighed and gathered his things into a bag over his shoulder and told Ludwig to come, so he did, deciding he would just, you know, run away. It would be, um, probably easy.

They went into the school-yard, and Mr. Kirkland enlisted Ludwig to help him put some sand back in the sandbox, but of course dogs are not that helpful so Ludwig just sat his front paws on the rim of the box and pretended like he was sniffing the sky with his super doggie-nose.

When Mr. Kirkland was done being an overachieving school master, he patted his knee – that was starting to get annoying – and Ludwig followed him to his car.

He picked Ludwig up like he was a dog, and then juggled him around to get his keys out of his giant totebag. During this, Mr. Kirkland put his trust into Ludwig, that he wouldn't fall or jump out of his arms and kick his chest as a jumping-board, and Ludwig broke this trust, hitting the ground like a frog and running like one as well.

It was awkward because he had to stick his rear-end into the air to get his back legs to stretch enough to propel him at any speed, but he couldn't break character and stand up so he just kept running at an angle and feeling his coat lurching back and forth as he hopped and trotted over the sidewalk.

"H—Houdini! Houdini!" Mr. Kirkland did not sound like he was running after him, still thinking that dogs picked up off the street would be unconditional about their dogish need to please and follow orders. "Hundindi, please!" Now he was running, but Ludwig was almost at the corner, so Mr. Kirkland stopping running after a few moments. He was an adult, Ludwig figured, and maybe he knew when to quit. Ludwig was glad. "Houdini!"

He ran around the corner and then even though he told himself he would stop running on his hands, he didn't, just in case Mr. Kirkland did catch up to him with his adult legs and aging joints. Ludwig soon realized, however, that he was going the wrong way if home was his destination.

He galloped onto a street that would lead him home, but it was an out-of-the-way route.