As a favour to Roxas, Sora agrees to volunteer down at the animal shelter. He's stressing about it all day until they get down to the shelter and he finds out that his job is a puppy cuddler.
His job has an actual title and it's supposed to help make the puppies used to human touch and being around people who actually feed them and not kick them. Sora's not exactly sure what sort of person could actually kick a puppy but cuddling them to make them feel better is the least he can do about it. But seriously, what could be better than cuddling with puppies?
He spends hours in a room, half the puppies trying to practically climb inside of him, the other half still slinking around in corners, avoiding eye contact entirely. Sora finds the challenge fun and by the time he leaves most of the dogs are sad to see him go.
Sora returns the next day, purely out of the goodness of his heart, and sets to work on the puppies. A lot of the dogs remember him and he gets to work letting them out of their cages snuggling up them. He counts it as a win when the dogs bark to be picked back up when returned to their homes.
About half way through his shift Axel, the supervisor for all things canine related, pokes his head in, slipping inside and shutting the door incase the escape artist in Sora's hands manages to wiggle free. "Hey."
"Hey." Sora smiles back, still finding it weird to talk to the older man. Roxas took a shine to him like nothing Sora had ever seen before, not that the blonde will ever admit to it, but they've known each other long enough to ensure that Sora and Roxas know each other like brothers.
"Would you mind helping out with the feedings today? We have some pretty young pups that won't do anything for the guy we've got." Axel's attention gets dragged to the puppy seemingly trying to bury itself in Sora's sweater.
"Sure." He laughs, standing and depositing the little Dalmatian back in its cage.
Axel leads the way, down a long hallway that Sora didn't even know existed and into a back room where there is a little caged off area for the pups, letting them frolic together across the linoleum.
"I've got to get back to the front, but Riku here will show you what to do." With a bit of a laugh Axel disappears and Sora is left staring at one of the most attractive guys in Hollow Bastion.
"Hey." Riku says in a voice that sounds like he's said it a few times already, but he's smiling so Sora takes it as a cue to not feel too embarrassed.
"Hey."
"I've got ten puppies that don't like me and two hands, care to save me?" Despite the bravado in his voice and face, Riku's posture seems strained and his eyes (his gorgeous eyes, seriously what is that colour even?) betray the fact that he's feeling overwhelmed.
"Sure thing." He walks over to where Riku is, noticing the bottles lined up on the table, shaking a little as the heaters beneath them thrum. "What do I do?"
Riku picks up a puppy and the thing is simultaneously yipping aggressively and trying to cower as far away from Riku as it possibly can, even if that means falling to the floor.
Sora immediately swoops in and saves the puppy from it's fall, cradling it close to his chest and watching, in shock, as it stops barking and begins growling in Riku's direction. "What did you do to it?"
Riku shrugs as if it's normal for dogs to just hold personal, raging vendettas against people. "I work with cats."
"That's shouldn't do this." He looks pointedly down at the dog, now relaxing more and more the longer it spends time in Sora's arms.
"I also have cats at home." Riku shrugs and motions for Sora to sit.
Sora complies, still grumbling. "Even though I have a cat all the dogs like me just fine."
Riku ignores him in favour of testing one of the bottles. He grabs a towel before sitting across from Sora. "Sit like I am." Sora does. "Good. Now lift the dog." He places the towel across Sora's lap and motions for him to set the dog on it.
The puppy is brown with white splotches and thinks that Sora's lap has been converted into its very own slide and tries to roll onto the floor and, presumably, the adventure that awaits it. Sora dutifully cages it in and waits for instructions, following them to the letter when Riku tells him to roll the dog on it's back and hold it still.
"Tighter, you won't hurt the dog." For his insistence, all Riku gets is a look from Sora that clearly says he doesn't believe him and that the dog will, in fact, break if he holds it any tighter.
Riku sighs and moves Sora's hand so that it's holding the puppy tightly enough, a low growl a warning from the small animal, a warning that Riku doesn't heed and the dog doesn't act upon. Sora still doesn't look like he believes Riku, but his grip doesn't loosen when Riku leaves Sora to it and counts it as a win.
"Take your finger and put it up to its mouth until it opens it." Sora's finger is quickly engulfed. "Kay now." Riku shifts closer, hand closing around Sora's wrist as he leans in and replaces the digit with the bottle. The god laps greedily at it, quickly figuring out how to get fed from it and having its way with the bottle.
Sora melts at the sight and grins, first down at the dog, then at Riku. Just as good as cuddling with puppies.
When they put the puppy back down in the pen Sora get's an idea. He pulls off his sweater as quickly as he can and tosses it to Riku. "Here!" Riku just stares like the red fabric has personally offended him. "If you don't put it on, I'll do it for you."
Riku rolls his eyes and does what he's told. "There. Now why are you trying to dress me up like a ketchup bottle?"
Sora rolls his eyes right back and snatches up a puppy, one who decided that laying on top of the splotchy one will get him fed through osmosis or something. " Here." He holds out the puppy, eyes wide from being lifted into the air as if by magic.
Riku takes it into his own hands and it doesn't bark. It just squirms until it's made itself a nest and settles into the fabric. Sora grins triumphantly and Riku huffs out a laugh.
"Wanna make things interesting?" Sora continues as if he didn't just come up with the most genius plan in the world.
"What did you have in mind." If Sora thought Riku looked more relaxed when Sora was handling the puppy, then now he would have to say Riku was on vacation. Challenges were definitely Riku's thing, which was fine by Sora; after all, they were his too.
"First one through their puppies takes the other out for dinner?"
Riku raises an eyebrow but doesn't react beyond that. "And what about the last one?" by his count they had nine puppies left.
"It'll be like in pool. First person to sink the eight ball," he points to a dark brown puppy, now doomed to be the last of its kind fed, "wins."
Riku grabs the extra towel and smirks at Sora. "You're on."
And later, when Sora is grabbing his bag from the cubby they call a staff room he has to admit that maybe today's task wasn't as good as cuddling with puppies. It might have been better.
-Reiver