'Antoinette!' Tamaki called out. 'Lady Antoinette! Here, girl! Breakfast is ready!'

A few seconds later, Antoinette's furry head peeked inside the newly-installed doggy flap. She had been digging the rose bushes a while ago and her nose was streaked with dirt. Seeing Tamaki, Antoinette's eyes gleamed brightly in recognition and she came gamboling inside the kitchen to greet her master enthusiastically.

'Yosh, yosh, Antoinette. It's good to see you, too.' Tamaki laughed when Antoinette fwumped her paws on his chest and licked his chin lavishly. 'Ahh, but what did we say about our manners, hmm?'

Looking contrite, Antoinette circled around Tamaki's legs once, twice before sitting on her rump and lifting a paw. Her master couldn't help but grin at her proudly.

'Good girl,' Tamaki praised as he shook her offered paw. 'Very good girl. Now here's your breakfast, as promised.'

The moment Tamaki placed her porcelain bowl on the tiled floor, Antoinette threw dignity out the window and chowed down on her food with gusto.

Tamaki smiled down at his golden retriever fondly. He could hardly believe that he just met her two weeks ago…

FLASHBACK

Tamaki's eyes gleamed brightly in excitement as he surveyed the chaotic commoner culture spread out before him. The sights, the noise, the smells… it wasn't anything like what he's seen before and everything looked absolutely incredible!

With so many interesting things around him, Tamaki's attention was drawn to every imaginable direction. He hopped from one shop to another, startling sales ladies and store attendants in surprise. Without any restraint, he pinched, prodded, scrutinized, tasted, and sniffed almost every interesting object he encountered inside the shops. The sales ladies and store attendants were left at a lost as this handsome, blond-haired guy peppered them with the most inane questions.

At one point of his excursion inside the commoner shopping mall, the delicious aroma coming from the takoyaki stand beckoned him to its spot. As he was so mesmerized by its intriguing scent, Tamaki almost didn't notice that his life was in grave danger…

'Um, excuse me, onii-chan,' a little girl approached him shyly. 'Y-your shoelaces are untied…'

Tamaki glanced down at his shoes—indeed the shoelaces of his right shoe were untied.

'Ah, my lady.' Tamaki kneeled down to the girl's level and kissed her hand. 'I owe you my deepest gratitude for you have saved this prince from mortal danger. I could've tripped on them and fall on my face, yes? Once again… I thank you.'

The girl blushed and replied a flustered, 'Y-you're welcome,' before running off to her mother.

Tamaki smiled at the girl's retreating back. 'Such a helpful, little girl,' he thought and went on the process of tying his shoelaces. It was here, at this exact moment, that Tamaki and Antoinette met for the first time.

At first he heard the sounds of cutlery clattering on the floor, followed by some angry shouts coming from his right side. Then, the collision occurred, and Tamaki lay motionless on the tiled floor as a very hairy something trapped him under its bulk.

Tamaki blinked his eyes open and encountered big brown eyes staring at him with curiosity. 'It's a dog,' he thought, before a burly man hauled the golden retriever off of him.

'Troublesome mutt,' Tamaki heard him grumble. 'Are you alright, boy?' the man asked as he gripped Tamaki's wrist and pulled him up to his feet. 'Sorry about that. She's a bit uneasy around me.'

'She?' Tamaki repeated silently. It was here that he noticed the pink ribbon tied around the dog's neck.

'Now, come on, you mutt,' the man addressed the dog. He had at least half a dozen piercing on his ears and his arms were covered with tattoos. 'It's back to the cage with you.'

'What the—' Tamaki spun around and stared in wide-eyed shock as the burly man dragged the dog away. He couldn't believe how that man just said that so casually!

'No, wait.' He paused to think logically. 'Maybe this was another mystery of the commoner culture that he had yet to grasp..?'

But the dog sent out an ear-piercing howl and tried to struggle out of the man's grasp.

Plagued with worry about the dog and what that awful man would do to her, Tamaki made a decision to trail secretly behind them.

From his vantage point behind a potted plant, Tamaki watched the tattooed man and the golden retriever enter a shop named Pet Paradise. It looked normal enough, Tamaki observed, but he honestly didn't know how normal normal is for the commoners.

Nonetheless, he took in a deep breath and went inside the pet shop.

There were tanks for fishes and reptiles, and cages for birds and puppies and cats. They didn't look troubled or sad to him. In fact, their cages were clean and there was an adequate supply of water in store for them. There were also all sorts of food for different animals stocked on the shop's shelves. And yet, strangely, there wasn't a golden retriever in sight.

He poked his finger inside a cage and an ash-grey kitten experimentally batted his forefinger with its tiny paw.

'Irashai!' a hassled-looking, auburn-haired lady greeted him. 'Welcome to Pet Paradise! Sorry for not attending to you right away, sir,' she smiled ruefully. 'We were just having a bit of a trouble in the back room…'

'Back room?' Tamaki thought as he eyed the door beyond the counter in mistrust. 'Is that where they were keeping her?'

'…So are you interested in kittens?' the lady continued cheerfully, 'That one looks really cute, ne? He's a Persian and we just got him—'

'Actually, Yui-san,' Tamaki glanced at her name tag and clasped her fingers through his. 'I bumped into a golden retriever a while ago and I believe she belongs to this shop. Is she, by any chance, around? I really, really want to see her again, you see.'

With the rosy atmosphere enveloping the pair, it was only a matter of time before the manager succumbed into Tamaki's charms. 'Ah, you must be referring to Antoinette. She's the shop's only retriever but we currently placed her in the back room.'

Inwardly, Tamaki smiled in satisfaction when his suspicions were proven correct. On the other hand, he shuddered at the thought of what might be going on behind that door. He imagined a dark and seedy room full of animals held in captivity. Some were probably smuggled into the country while the others were sold to a circus where their masters whip them mercilessly into submission.

But to his surprise, what he found on the other side of the door was an employee's lounge, a kitchenette, and a small office space. And Antoinette was there, all right—in one corner of the room, inside a cage which was slightly larger than those found outside.

'Maybe the manager was protecting her?' Tamaki thought.

Antoinette's tail thumped in happiness when she spotted them approaching her. She barked at Tamaki in greeting and then scratched the door of her cage.

'Thank goodness.' Tamaki smiled at her in relief when Antoinette clamped a battered tennis ball between her teeth and stared into his eyes. 'You're alright…'

'Eh?' The manager looked at him in bewilderment. 'Doushte? Did something happen to her?'

'Oh!' Tamaki remembered. He nearly forgot!

'Yui-san!' Tamaki grabbed Yui's shoulders and his voice was filled with urgency. 'There was this burly man with dubious character who came to get her! He had tattoos and all sorts of piercing and he said he was going to put her inside a cage! I think your Antoinette will be sold to the circus… that or maybe she swallowed something precious and now the mafia boss is after her.'

'Man with dubious character?' the manager repeated. 'Tattoos and all sorts of piercing? Sounds to me you're talking about Joe.'

'You know him?!' Tamaki's eyes widened in surprise.

'Mmm-hmm,' Yui said. 'Ah, here he is now.'

'Hey, girly boy.' Tamaki flinched when he heard the familiar voice behind his back.

'How's it going?'

TBC