A/N: You know that pic of Mephisto in his dog form holding out a brush from his mouth toward a crouching Shirou? This was inspired by that. It ran longer than I expected it to, but…oh well. :p
Shirou sighed and took the brush from the dog's mouth. He did so gently, but only because he knew that if he didn't then he'd get a hell of a bite later on. Not from the little fru-fru dog sitting on his lap but of the demon it would turn into later.
"I don't know how you managed to get in this condition. I thought you were allergic to dirt. Or something." Shirou said as he sat down on the floor and crossed his legs, rather than kneeling properly.
The dog huffed, although it sounded more like a wheeze since he apparently had a stuffy nose, and climbed into Shirou's lap, turning three circles before flopping down.
Somehow, the little white dog managed to make that look as though he were lounging on a personal throne at the end of a long and tiring day.
Shirou frowned a bit, "Just don't sneeze on me," he said, although he supposed he really shouldn't push it. Mephisto was unlikely to do anything so unsophisticated, and later on when the dog was finally ready to turn back into a demon there may be extra sharp teeth to find his tender human flesh.
In a way that wasn't quite so fun as last night.
"Where did these burs come from?" Shirou asked, though he was surprised that he actually got a response at all for the question. A little twitch of an ear. That probably meant he wasn't supposed to mention it again.
Another sigh and Shirou began to pick the burs out of the dog's fur, every once in a while stopping to give a few gentle strokes along a bur-free area of fur when there was a yelp and a jump.
"You could save yourself trouble and just change back. The burs would fall right off, you know," Shirou said, though he wasn't surprised that this time he didn't even get so much as another ear flick in response.
Once all the burs were gone, and in the trash, Shirou began to use the brush slowly and gently along the tangled fur.
"Very cute, but not gonna happen," Shirou said with a smirk when the dog in his lap tried to turn over onto its back. "I'm not touchin down there while you're in this form."
The dog gave an indignant sound and turned back over onto his belly and they got on with the brushing.
"You really should just take a bath…brushing your fur won't do much good if you're still dirty, right?"
The dog opened one eye to glance at Shirou before closing it again, apparently dismissing Shirou's suggestion.
"Che. Fine," he huffed and kept brushing until all of the tangles were gone and the long white fur was smooth again.
"There," the exorcist said as he put the brush aside and set the dog down out of his lap. "Pretty as a picture," he said, making sure to grin in his I'm-totally-making-fun-of-you way as he said it and stood up.
"You can probably go back to the Academy now, if you—" Shirou didn't get to finish his sentence before he heard loud, running footsteps. Two sets, in fact.
"Oi, no running inside!" Shirou called out as a reminder, but it was too late. The twins, around five now, rounded the corner into the room, Yukio following behind Rin as usual.
"Daddy, Daddy!" Rin called out, huge grin on his face, just before he tripped and went sprawling. Both boys yelped and Yukio landed on top of his older brother after having tripped over Rin when he had tripped.
"Oi! What'd I say?" Shirou asked, but he couldn't make himself sound too stern. They were still very small, after all, and it was natural for little boys to be rambunctious.
"I'm sorry!" Rin said as he sat up, sniffling a little and with tears in his eyes, although he was clearly trying to be strong for his twin whom he hugged to soothe his open crying.
Shirou sighed and went over to help the two of them sit upright properly, brush them off and check for any injuries.
"There, come on now, you're both okay. But, this is why you aren't supposed to run inside." he gently lectured, righting rucked up shirts and smoothing out wrinkles and straightening Yukio's skewed glasses and ruffled hair. He didn't bother with Rin's mop, there was never any taming that mess.
"O-okay…we're sorry…" Rin said again.
Yukio nodded, having stopped crying and was hiccuping a bit while wiping at his eyes with a handkerchief given to him by Shirou.
"Just be sure to remember for next time…" Shirou replied.
"U-uhm…" Yukio hiccuped, "we're sorry about the doggy, too…"
"Eh?" Shirou asked, having nearly forgotten Mephisto in the ruckus of his sons getting hurt. He turned around a few different ways until he located the white dog.
"I-is he okay?" Rin asked, big eyes as wide as saucers.
"Pfffff~!" Shirou put a hand over his mouth to try to stop himself.
There, off to the side, looking very annoyed, was Mephisto still in his dog form…and covered with all of the burs Shirou had earlier picked off of him. The trash can that they'd been put in lay overturned onto its side close beside the demon dog.
"AAAAHHHHAHAHAHAHAAA!" Shirou couldn't hold it in, even though he knew he was going to be receiving some rather sharp love bites later tonight as a result.