Saying that Will was tired by the time he made it back to Dauntless from his shift at the fence was a gross understatement. He was having trouble keeping his eyes open on the train ride home, he had nodded off and nearly missed his 'stop'. Once he got back home he quickly made his way to the apartment that he and Christina had shared for nearly a year now.
He was getting out his key to unlock the door when he heard the sound of Christina screaming, the high pitched wail that was usually reserved for times when there was a moth in the room. He opened the door, slowly making his way in and sluffing off his heavy coat as he went.
"Chris?" He called as he poked his head into the kitchen, "Is everything alright?"
He was not met with an answer from his girlfriend, but rather by the sound of little footsteps mixed with the sound of nails tapping against the floor. He was about to call her again when a small bundle of soaking wet fur came ripping around the corner, leaving a trail of paw print sized puddles in its wake.
The puppy skidded to a stop a few feet in front of him, staring up at him with wide eyed curiosity. Will took a step forward and the creature barked playfully, pouncing forward before turning and running toward the bedroom. Will followed the small creature but he was met in the hallway by a soaking wet Christina, her tank top decorated in muddy paw prints.
"Will," She greeted, the smile on her face fading ever so slightly, "You're home." Her eyes glanced toward the bedroom door momentarily before snapping back to him and Will could tell from the look in her eyes that she was hoping that he hadn't noticed their house guest.
"Why is there a wet dog running around our apartment?" He asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Well, she was cold and alone," Christina began, giving him those eyes that she knew he couldn't say no to.
He let out a frustrated noise somewhere between a sigh and a chuckle, "I thought dogs were ruined for by the aptitude test?"
"Well, they were, but…" She started, but she was interrupted by the sound of something crashing to the floor. The pair made their way to their room, opening the door to find the lamp from their bedside table on the floor, the lightbulb busted into several pieces. More disturbing to Will than the lamp, though, was the wet dog rolling around on their bed.
Christina quickly jumped in to stop the puppy, although the fact that she was still at least half smiling as she picked it up told Will that she was enjoying this much more than he was.
"No," She said sternly, holding it up in front of her so that she could look it in the eyes, "Bad dog, Vera, bad dog."
"You named it?" He asked in disbelief, pinching the bridge of his nose, "You can't name things we aren't going to keep, Chris."
"Who says we aren't going to keep her?" Christina asked, now clutching the pup to her chest with one arm and scratching behind her ears with her free hand. "It's cold out there. I found her in an alley, all wet and covered in mud, shivering."
Will could tell from the look in his girlfriend's eyes that he was about to fight a losing battle, but he still felt compelled to try and make her see reason. "What are we going to do when we're both at work?"
"I've seen other Dauntless with similar breeds, they train them and take them on patrols," Christina said as she made her way past him and toward the kitchen.
Will followed after a moment, "Do you know anything about training dogs? Because I haven't got a clue."
Christina smirked at him as she set the pup down, "Well, maybe you should have studied that when you were memorizing maps and manifestos."
"At the time, I'm fairly certain that training animal's would have been somewhere around learning to knit on my list of things to read about," Will replied with a smirk.
Christina chuckled, "It's too bad, you could have trained her and made her a sweater to keep her warm since she's so scrawny." She continued to poke around the kitchen, looking for something to feed the dog and trying to decide what to make for dinner. "Plus," She added as she bent down to grab a frying pan from a lower cabinet, "She should be a good guard dog."
Seconds after the words left her lips, the removal of the frying pan caused a small avalanche of pots and pans clattering out of the cabinet and onto the floor. This also cause Vera to run from the kitchen and dive under the couch in the living room.
"I feel safer already," Will replied as he watched the puppy stick her head back out from under the couch, cautiously looking around before she crawled the rest of the way out.
"She's just a baby," Christina said, finding a couple pieces of leftover meat in the fridge and deciding that they would have to do until she could get dog food for her tomorrow.
Will watched for a moment, leaning against the wall, "What about house training her? When will we have time to do that?"
"She's a few months old, even though she's really scrawny," Christina observed, "She's got marks around her neck like she had been wearing a collar. I think she was someone's pet already." She paused, scratching the dog's right ear, "I think someone decided they didn't want her anymore, maybe a present for their kid, but then the kid defected." Christina watched for a moment as the dog finished eating before remembering her point, "She seems like someone had already trained her."
"Let's hope so, because from what I remember from your story about your old dog, you aren't exactly a dog whisperer."
The next hour or so passed pretty ordinarily, Will helped Christina cook and then they sat at the table to eat and talk about their day. Every so often one of them would check on Vera, or she would come into the room and sniff around for a bit; but towards the end of dinner they had been deep in conversation and had quite nearly forgotten about the dog. As they were cleaning up their dishes, it occurred to the pair just how quiet the apartment had gotten.
"Vera?" Christina called as she walked into the living room.
Will decided to check their bedroom. When he pushed the door open fully, he was greeted by the sight of the small black and brown beast sitting in the middle of the floor, surrounded in either whole or shredded tissues. She glanced up at him for a moment before using her paws to hold the box down and start pulling more tissues out.
"Christina," He called over his shoulder before looking back at the hell hound. Christina walked into the room, studying the carnage for a moment before starting to laugh. Will looked at her in disbelief for a moment, shaking his head as he tried to suppress a small smile.
Christina stepped forward, picking the pup up and brushing some of the white fluff off of her. "I'll clean this up and change out our sheets," She started, smiling at him in the way that she always did when she knew she was going to get her way. "Just give her a couple of days, and if we can't handle it, we'll find another home for her."
He stared at her, before shaking his head, "Fine, but we decide if we are going to keep her or not based on facts not cuteness, deal?"
"Deal," She said with a big smile before depositing the wiggling puppy into his arms so that she wouldn't make more of a mess while she cleaned up the pile of tissue. Once she was done, they remade their bed with sheets that hadn't been rolled around in by a wet dog, and at last Will could get some rest.
Will woke a couple hours later to a high pitched whining noise and something nibbling on his hand. He opened his eyes to find Vera alternating between whimpering and softly tugging on his hand. Once she noticed that he was awake she began excitedly wagging her tail and bouncing back and forth between the foot of the bed and his hand.
He glanced over to where his girlfriend was sound asleep, completely oblivious to furry monster trying to get their attention. He considered waking her up, she was the one who had inflicted this upon them, but in the end he decided to let her sleep since she worked tomorrow and he didn't
With a yawn, he crawled out of bed, stuffing his feet into a pair of sneakers and pulling a sweatshirt on to protect him from the cold winter air. Finally, he picked up the wiggling ball of fur and headed for the door.
Once he went out the main exit he found a spot of grass and set the mongrel down. The puppy scampered away, oblivious to his sour mood and his discomfort as he crossed his arms over his chest and tried to stay warm.
Once the dog seemed to have finished its business, he took a step toward her. "Come on, Vera, let's go back inside where it's warm."
It seemed, however, that Vera had other plans for their midnight excursion. She turned to face him, her tail wagging and her eyes wide with excitement, she leaned back so that her front legs were nearly flat out in front of her. Her big oversized paws that she had yet to grow into twitching every time she thought he was going to move forward. She let out an excited bark, bouncing backward and forward playfully.
"Nope," He advised the smaller creature, shaking his head, "Not going to happen, this is the time for sleep, not for playing."
He took a step forward, but unsurprisingly, his audience did not agree with his plan of calmly going back in and going back to sleep. As soon as he moved forward the dog took off running. He stood there for a moment, considering just letting Vera run off, his pet problem solved without him having to be the bad guy. However, it quickly occurred to him that if he went home and back to bed without the dog, he was going to be accused of purposely losing her.
He took another moment to decide which was worse, living with the beast was or risking Christina's wrath. In the end there was only one answer where he didn't end up sleeping on the couch, so he took off running after Vera.
He ran for about half a block before he saw her sitting in the middle of the sidewalk watching him approach. He continued walking, completely through with this game that he hadn't wanted to play in the first place; but once again, she had other plans. As he got closer she began wagging her tail and once he was within grabbing distance she barked at him before running across the street and back toward Dauntless.
Will took a deep breath and continued his pursuit, thankful that she didn't seem eager to stray too far from home. This went on for another fifteen minutes, until the puppy tired and came prancing his way, ready to go home.
The walk back to his apartment was filled with Will mumbling under his breath and Vera happily trying to lick her new master's face. As soon as will got home, he kicked off his shoes and crawled back into bed, making sure to use his cold feet to his advantage.
The next time Will awoke, Christina was no longer lying beside him; she must have already left for work. The next thing he noticed was that his feet were surprisingly warm for how cold the room was. He propped himself up on one arm, yawning as he glanced around the room. His gaze landed on the ball of black and brown fur curled up next to his feet, her head resting on his right ankle. Aware that she was being observed, her eyes flashed open, taking him in for a moment before her tail began to slowly wag.
He fought it off for as long as he could, but eventually he gave in. The pleading eyes and her almost comically oversized ears standing at attention broke down his defenses. "Fine," He sighed, laying back down and patting the bed next to him. The puppy crawled over, licking the back of his hand before curling up between his arm and his body. "Just don't tell Christina," He mumbled as he moved his hand to scratch behind the pup's pointy ears, "We'll let her squirm for a couple more days before I give in."
A/N – So I don't usually write fanfic about Will or Christina, but I had this idea in my head and it wouldn't leave me alone. Also, as for the puppy's name, I couldn't think of one and through a complicated series of thoughts I came to Vera. I was trying to think of puppy names but none of them seemed right, so then I thought Dauntless which led to trying to think of something gun related, and then that led me to Vera. (Anyone who gets that reference gets a virtual cookie and my love)