Hey, guys, sorry I wasn't able to get an update out yesterday; friends called me up and I didn't have any down time afterwards. But never fear! I will have an update on both of my stories today! :-D With these next few chapters, I'm trying to portray Marshall as being kind of naughty, trying to do things to get Chase's attention. Hopefully I did a good job with this one, so without any more delay, here's Chapter 2!
*sigh* "Well, I won't be needing this until tomorrow."
Marshall grinned as he removed Chase's blanket from underneath him and observed what he'd done with it. There were little patches of white speckled here and there from his previous antics, but were only noticeable if you knew what you were looking for. With a look of pure satisfaction, he quietly made his way back to Chase's puphouse.
Marshall slowly cracked open the door, to see his shepherd friend still asleep. He crept around behind him, and gently placed the blanket over him. Turning around and exiting Chase's puphouse, he whispered one last remark.
"Hope you don't mind a little Marshall surprise!"
Night had passed, and a bright, beautiful morning followed. Chase awoke to the sound of birds chirping, and the smell of...well, he didn't know what that smell was. As he rolled over, he inadvertently wrapped himself up in his blanket, which put it in the perfect position for the smell to meet his sharp nose.
"Wait...I know this scent...but it's not from me."
After a minute of thinking, Chase gave up trying to pin exactly what it was.
"Ehh, it's not that important anyways," he said, shrugging his shoulders. He tossed his blanket to the side and opened the door to his puphouse, ready to start another day of rescues. He took a breath of fresh air, letting it fill his lungs, before letting out a sigh of refreshment. As he began to head over to the Lookout for an early breakfast, Marshall also emerged from his puphouse.
'That's odd. What is Marshall doing up so early?'
The spotted pup happily ambled his way over to the shepherd, and gave him a friendly whack on the side with his paw.
"Hiya, Chase! Are you hungry too? 'Cuz my belly couldn't wait ANY longer!" Marshall burst out like a shotgun.
"Whoa, slow down, Marshall. I only just woke up," Chase said with a smile. 'He always acts like such a puppy, even though he's almost as old as me,' he laughed to himself.
"Whoops! Sorry, Chase! I'll calm down now." Marshall smirked. He knew he was acting like this just for the Chase, but the shepherd had no idea.
The truth is, Marshall really liked to get attention. Sure, he was a natural goofball, and a bit clumsy, but for those that he knew would pay attention, the dalmatian tried to "play it up" a bit. He would purposely go out of his way to trip on silly things, and then have an opportunity to use a little catchphrase with a bad joke, and everybody loved him. It was a failsafe method for attention, and over the years, he's tweaked it to be a bit more individualized.
Like for instance, he knew that Chase finds his immaturity to be cute, but it never went any farther than that. But that's all the dalmatian needed to put the ball on the field anywhere he wanted. What he needed was a home run, but the shepherd that's pitching is still throwing garbage; Marshall didn't like any of it. He was looking for the sign that told him what was coming, but he never got it. At that point, he had no choice but to force Chase to throw something good. He had to bribe the pitcher, and it wasn't going to be easy.
As he and Chase entered the Lookout, Ryder was in the kitchen prepping their food. When he heard the door open, he stepped out to see who was there.
"Hey, Chase, hey Marshall! Here for an early breakfast?"
"Yes, sir," Chase responded.
"Oh, boy, Ryder! Am I ever hungry! I hope you've got a bowl full of pup food for me!" Marshall enthusiastically bounced in place.
"Oh, Marshall," Ryder laughed. "Of course I remembered. How could I forget with you bouncing around and begging like that!?"
Ryder popped back into the kitchen, and returned with two food bowls, each filled to the brim with the pups' favorite food.
"Thanks, Ryder!" Marshall exclaimed as he began to inhale his breakfast.
Chase, being the more mature of the two, ate his meal slowly. But it didn't take Marshall long at all to empty his bowl. He only rushed eating his breakfast so he could watch Chase eat his breakfast. He just loved watching the shepherd do simple, daily things. The way he went about the day, so innocently, so methodically, it was gold to the dalmatian.
As Chase took a bite of his food, he noticed that he was being watched by his friend, but didn't pay it much attention. He just focused on filling his belly with delicious pup food. Marshall's stare persisted, though; he wanted to get a reaction-anything, from the shepherd. Only now did Marshall begin to make Chase feel a bit uneasy. As hard as he tried, he simply couldn't ignore the looks of the dalmatian.
Sensing the awkwardness of the situation, Ryder stepped in to break it up.
"Wow, Marshall, you finished that pretty fast! Still hungry for more?" Ryder walked in, holding the bag of pup food.
"No thanks, Ryder, I've had my fill!" Marshall smiled big and wide, showing all of his teeth. He turned to go outside, but not before proceeding to trip on his food bowl and flying head-over-tail into a nearby pile of pillows.
"Heheh, I'm good!" Marshall quickly smiled as he dug himself out and bounded outside.
Chase hadn't taken a single bite since he realized that Marshall was just sitting there watching him. His behavior was becoming...quite strange. And the shepherd couldn't quite figure out why.
Not sure if you all got Marshall's little joke there when Ryder asked him if he wanted more food; in case you missed it, he said "I've had my fill," and smiled real big because Chase was "food" for his eyes. And once he got his reaction out of Chase, Marshall got what he wanted, so he was "full" on Chase! I also worked the joke into the title! Anyways, please tell me how I'm doing with this story by dropping a review or a pm with any suggestions or feedback. I'm sure most of you who are reading this are reading my other story, too, but if you're not, I have a really nice ChasexSkye drama going down right now, called "Regrets". I'll be putting out an update for it later today, so stay tuned for that. Other than that, that's about all from me. Peace!
