Chapter 1
It was a simple day started in a simple way. Quatre was hanging out the washings one Saturday morning. The weather was wonderfully sunny, plus gushes of light breeze just right for clothes to dry in the most efficient way possible. Moving around on the grassy backyard in his pyjamas, Quatre diligently pegged each article of clothing neatly on the washing lines, smoothing out the wrinkles as well as he could. If it weren't summer, or if Taotao were not the kind of dogs that moult badly in this season, he might not have to do the washings so often.
However, something about today wasn't quite right, Quatre suddenly realised, he paused in his work with confusion.
Barks. There were no sounds of barking. It was silent like a normal Saturday should be, if it were anybody else's backyard that is – but this was Quatre's backyard, so it mustn't be right! It was then he saw a dog collar waving lightly on the breeze, hanging from a low branch. Quatre gasped and clenched the edges of his pyjama that was two sizes too large for him.
"Taotao!" Quatre yelled loudly, and a bark happily replied. A large, really large German Shepherd appeared on the other side of the fence, waggling its tail happily.
"How did you get out?" Quatre looked at the swinging gate, suddenly remembered that he'd forgotten to close it after taking out the garbage. Now, his dog was collarless, and outside of the confinement of the fence, waggling its tails and looking longingly down the street at the general direction of the local park. The imaginary neon sign flashed nervously. 'Trouble', it said, in giant, bold, traffic-light-red letters.
Quatre approached the gate carefully. "Taotao, you have to wear your collar, I'll take you for a walk later." As if sensing a little insincerity, Taotao barked loudly and took off down the street in a trot.
"Hey!" Quatre dashed out of the gate, running after as fast as he could to catch his wayward pet, all the while forgetting that he has no shoes on and was still in his pyjamas.
Of course, his dog was a German Shepherd with four solid muscular legs, while Quatre only have two, and not to mention very skinny ones, hence the result of the chase was quite frankly obvious. Not very long, the beautiful greenery of the park came into view – Taotao holds the first place unwaveringly. Soon, they are running past blooming daisies and tall pine trees down the park road – Taotao was still the champion. Already achieved its goal, Taotao stoped to wait for Quatre to catch up every now and then, and when Quatre was just about to touch him, he would brightly jump out of the way and out of reach. After several rounds, Quatre became weary and puffed out, and resorted to catching his breathe on a nearby bench.
Woof! Taotao barked at something at the other end of the bench. Quatre turned to see the bench had already an occupant – who has very sexy, messy, dark brown hair, and incredible Prussian blue eyes – which are currently gazing at him curiously from behind an open newspaper.
Suddenly realising that he was still in his pyjamas, Quatre quickly pulled up his legs and hugged them to his chest. "I'm sorry to disturb you, sir!" Quatre quickly apologised, turning beetroot red.
"Hn." The mature-looking brown haired boy merely grunted a reply before returning to his newspaper. The boy looked older than him, Quatre thought, but his chin appeared to be still beardless, so he must be still around Quatre's age. Despite having lived in Auchenflower for his entire life, Quatre don't recall ever seeing this boy around before.
"May I help you?" the dark-haired boy asked without lifting his eyes from his newspaper.
Quatre realised that he'd been staring, his blush deepened and he apologised again. "I'm sorry! I just don't recall ever seeing you around here before."
The newspaper rustled in the boy's hands, and Quatre felt a sudden gush of cold wind blowing through his thin pyjamas, making him shiver. He looked up to find a darkening sky. "My washings!" Quatre squeaked and tried to grab onto the tufts of fur on the back of Taotao's neck, but they were too short and glossy to get a firm hold on. He was just about to give up in distress when a pair of strong hands firmly captured Taotao, buckled a leather collar around its neck, and thrust one end into Quatre's hands. Surprised, Quatre looked up to see the stranger boy turning away. "Th-thank you." Quatre could only stammer as he watched the stranger walking away, hands holding tightly onto his pants. Quatre looked back down at the collar snugly around Taotao's neck, then back at the distancing stranger again, then back and forth several more times. He finally dared to voice a question inside his head that had already been crossed out several times: did he just give me the belt from his PANTS?