Chapter 7: Chocolate

10:00am

Back inside the Loud House, it was currently Luan's turn to play around with the pup who had the standing ovation out of all the family pets. For the past few minutes into the day, the teenage jokester combed the fur of the small, but fluffy pupper as it horizontally motioned his fuzzy tail around.

"I hope you don't mind, little guy," Luan said. "Just fixing up your coat before I can use you in an upcoming trick I got planned just fur you!"

She laughed for a brief moment. "Get it?"

Watterson responded back with a small bark, putting a smile on the jokester's face. "I knew you would!"

Ugh.

Luan picked up the puppy as she exited her room, making her way downstairs to the kitchen. "Next, we need some things from the kitchen before we do anything else!" she gleefully uttered.

Downstairs in the kitchen interior, the teenage girl of the family opened the refrigerator door. She started raiding it as she looked for some items she needed to obtain in order to pull off some of her tricks she plotted to execute to her family as the Watterson watched every second of her actions. Regardless of how each of the ten other siblings would react to her performance, she would do amazing at what she loved to do best. It was her calling after all ever since she discovered about it at the age of eight, possibly even younger than that.

"Some heavy cream… bananas," she uttered to herself. "This'll turn out great today."

She turned to Watterson after grabbing her desired items out of the fridge. "Just you wait, you'll be the standing ovation in this house!"

Understatement aside, confidence filled her about how her performance would be executed. Excitement would soon overcome her as she prompted to make her way back up to her bedroom before the small pup decided to run in two circles as he followed her shortly after.


Back outdoors inside the pooch pen, the four pets were still lamenting. There goes two plans of theirs, completely thwarted by chance. Could it be about their bad luck? Unfortunate timing? Some other third thing? Who knows. They were still determined to finish their duty, no matter what it takes. Even if it resorts to risky health problems of any kind, so be it. Two failures so far wasn't going to be enough to make the animals throw in their towels.

Charles growled. "I'm so gosh darn mad right now." he furiously spat.

"Yeah? So are the rest of us." Walt sarcastically added.

Cliff scratched his head. "I just don't get it," he uttered. "I was sure dat would've been enough ta solve our problems."

"And that's two potential plans… came crashing down." Geo unamusedly said. "It's sad, really."

"Agreed." Charles said, turning to the fretting hamster. "And now, it's down ta yer plan, Ham."

The brown hamster was somewhat nervous. Deep down, he would never be this devious towards anybody. His neutral and somewhat happy expressions he possesses in the family makes him look pure compared to the rest of the pets. He's never done anything bad before in his lifespan, but today could mark a change on that little conscience of his.

"Gee, I'm not really a hundred percent on this," he uttered. "I-I mean, I've never done nothing bad before…"

Cliff placed a paw over his clear ball as he offered some words for comfort. "Believe me, Ham," he said. "Ya ain't normal if ya never done nothin' bad."

"Nobody's a perfect animal you know." Walt added as he landed next to Geo. "Soon enough, you'll be a fearless, bad animal and you'll feel absolutely nothing at all."

Determination painted Charles' face. "Yeah, what dey said." he spat. "Ya got this in da bag!"

The pets' motivational words of advice had the hamster thinking long and hard. The more he thought about it, he would soon realize that they could be right after all. Nobody, not even a non-sapient critter like himself could be a perfect saint.

Geo lightened up after a bit. It was time for him to get serious. It couldn't hurt to be a bad animal just once in his lifetime. What if this was something he was really missing out on? He'll never know unless he gave a new attitude a shot at what he could unleash onto a huge family. Heck, it could be even fun.

Determination filled the little hamster as a smirk painted over his face. "You know, you guys are right." he spat, putting a smile on the rest of the pets' faces. "I'll never know what I'm capable of unless I give things a shot."

"There ya go!" Cliff said with a wink.

Geo rubbed his paws together for a brief moment. He had a good idea sprout inside his little cranium, eager enough to spit it out to the rest of his comrades. He was confident that it was going to work, no matter what kind of issues the other pets had to give to him.

"Now, hear me out here," he said. The remaining pets huddled together as they listened in to what Geo had to say. "To get rid of this tiny little furball, we're going to need…"

Cliff, Charles and Walt leaned in closer to the devious little hamster.

"...some cake."

The three were confused. In their mind, they thought the hamster just simply brushed off every single word they just said about being a bad but determined animal. Walt sighed a brief moment before he decided to call him out on his suggestion he thought sounded irrelevant.

"Cake? Really?" Walt uttered. "What the heck does junk food have to do with getting rid of that fluffball?"

"Ya hafta be kiddin' me here, Ham." Charles added in mere disappointment as Cliff shared a facepalm. "Deir love 'n bonds fer us is slippin' away at an alarmin' rate right at da moment and yer thinkin' about cake at a time like dis?!"

Irritation filled Geo as he stood there silently, staring three of the pets down with his own dotted eyes. He figured they would take his plan out of context the second that he mentioned the sweet and lovable junk food, high in calories that anybody in the world would love to enjoy. The hamster smiled as he squinted his eyes just before he spilled out the specifics of his plan.

"...Chocolate cake."

The former word had Charles and Cliff back off just a step or two. Now they had a feeling they knew where Geo was going to go with his plan. It had some bit of potential, just enough that it had the two deviously snickering under their breaths.

They rubbed their paws together. "I think I know what yer thinkin' dere, Ham," Charles said.

"Now dat ya mentioned chocolate." Cliff added.

"Believe me you guys," Geo said before giving off a satisfied wink. "I like to do a bit of research sometimes."

Walt was understandably confused about the hamster's plan. "I don't get it," he uttered. "How exactly is this even a good idea? We're just going to feed him the cake?"

Geo turned to the perplexed canary. "Exactly." he simply answered. "You'll see where this goes overtime. I'm willing to bet it'll surprise you when it does." He scratched his head, reflecting back on the past two days. "And I think I know exactly where to find some of that chocolatey goodness."

Cliff rubbed his paws together. "Well what are we waitin' on?" he spat. "Let's get a move on fer pete's sake!"

As the pets were about to set the hamster's plan into exhortation, Charles stepped just outside of his pooch pen, blocking the three pets inside as he wanted to say something regarding the plan.

"Wait a sec," the dog uttered. "How are we gonna lure dat lil' runt back out here again?"

That question along had them thinking for a moment. Despite that he had a point, it was a pain in their rear ends that they had to repeat the same step multiple times. They had to remember that they couldn't show their true intentions in front of any of the siblings in the house, or else it could be the end of their bonds of love for each and every one of them. It's not like they were ninjas or anything, with good abilities regarding swiftness and stealth. No matter, whether they didn't want to boil down to repetition of a process, the pets were desperate to get it all over and done with.

Cliff, Walt and Geo all sighed as they shook their heads, they were all pretty stumped with ideas. "I dunno, dog." the cat said. "Fresh out ta be honest wit' ya."

"What the cat just said." Walt added, glancing down directly at the grass.

Geo thought of something that could possibly work out. Whether or not it was going to be successful as it turns out later on, there was a way to find out.

The hamster spat. "Maybe we don't have to…"


About a half hour later on into the day, Charles stuck his head through the doggy door. To his surprise, nobody seemed to be into the kitchen at the time. He was sure enough that nobody would mind if they took a look inside the fridge for something to devour.

It's time to resort to exhortation, once again.

Charles gave a signal, gesturing to the rest of the pets as he pulled his head out of the door, leaving it open for them to enter without a sound, to which they did.

The infiltration was now in session.

Walt and Geo entered the house simultaneously as Cliff followed them in from behind. Insistent expressions painted their faces as they improvised a way to open the fridge. Cliff gestured to a kitchen towel over the kitchen sink as Walt flew over there to clutch the item between his beak. As the canary flew back over to the fridge, he wrapped one of the handles with the towel, before he tugged on it as hard as he could. Eventually after a few seconds of exertion, he was able to pry the door open, giving the animals any and all access to the food it contained.

There it was, just one small portion of the chocolate cake they had left in the fridge. Cliff smiled as his eyes squinted as Walt looked on in puzzlement. Cliff motioned over to Geo as he gave the feline a thumbs up before glancing back to the interior of the fridge. The pesky feline grabbed ahold of the plate that held the slice of chocolate heaven as he would soon set it down on the checkered floor behind him.

Watterson emerged from the dining room without any warning whatsoever. The sounds omitting from the kitchen had his curiosity peak like never before. He tilted his head as he waited there, quietly observing the pets raiding the fridge. Up until he let out a tiny little sneeze, his stealth immensely dropped.

The three pets turned around immediately, finding little ol' Watterson in the flesh. His sudden appearance had all of them freeze in place as if someone just happened to pause a television show to go do something important. They had no idea what to do next as they continued to stare down the sweet, energetic animal with his little tongue sticking out.

Cliff had an idea on a diversion. He sheepishly smiled at the puppy as he pushed the slice of chocolate cake towards him before he spat some words to him.

"Here ya go," he said. "Hope ya enjoy it!"

Cliff zipped out the doggy door before Walt and Geo did the same exact thing a split second after. Watterson was quite confused as to what was going on with the Loud's pets as if they were up to no good. Then again, his curiosity seemed to peak once again as he grew fixated directly at the slice of cake sitting there on the floor. His stomach rumbled greatly just staring at it. He was hungry now, so he had to eat something to make himself satisfied.

The pup walked over to the slice of the cake and chowed down on it without a care in the world. To him, in the mind of a curious animal, it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. He couldn't believe they were being nice to him despite that he had a feeling they were jealous of him just for being part of the Loud family.

Unbeknownst to him, he was getting weaker as he continued to devour the sweet chocolate goodness with looks of heaven. Although he didn't know his health was getting worse overtime along with Walt, he didn't care. He would eat anything to keep himself from starving.

After one final lick of his lips, he was done. His life was slipping away as he slowly fell to the floor as he stepped away from the plate. Seconds later inching towards the dining room to return to one of the Louds, he was finally motionless, never to move another inch again in his lifespan.

It was eerily silent now. The pets were curious as to how Geo's devious little plan worked out. One by one, they made their way back into the kitchen, only to be extremely surprised with the turnout of the hamster's dark little plan. Charles, Cliff and Walt took takes, shifting towards Geo and Watterson before the dog of the family walked over to the motionless puppy. He placed a paw on him, barely moving him in an attempt to find out if he was forever in a deep sleep.

Turns out, he was.

"Oh my gosh…" Walt said before motioning to the hamster. "I guess you do have a good plan after all."

"And it turned out flawless!" Cliff complimented.

"See? I told you I do my research." Geo smirked.

"But, in all seriousness, I didn't think that would kill him..." Walt uttered. "I thought it would at least be enough to make him go to the bathroom or something… at least that's what I heard."

"Well, at least our lil' problem is solved," Charles uttered with a smile on his face. "Now, we just hafta get rid of dis runt and we can finally put all a dis behind us!"

"And get our love back!" Cliff added.

Walt and Geo nodded before they made their way back out of the doggy door. Cliff turned to Charles as he had a couple things to spit out before they proceeded to their next phase of their grim plan.

"Now dog, you bring dat lil' troublemaker out in da backyard while I go get some shovels!"

Charles had an issue with the cat's part. "Why do we need shovels when ya got me?" he irritably spat.

Cliff was stumped. He sighed before he followed the canary and the hamster back outside. "Yeah, good point. Just bring da runt outside wit' us!"

Charles gave the cat a thumbs up before he exited through the doggy door.

It was just him and the motionless Watterson now. He stared directly at his fluffy backside before glancing back to the doggy door. He found an opportunity to take advantage of this. The dog checked his surroundings, making sure not a single human being or animal was around before he stuffed his cold nose near the felled puppy, inhaling deeply as if he were savoring a moment.

Well, at least he got to know him a bit better now, not that it mattered in the first place anyway.

The dog of the family looked back at the doggy door and spat "Ha!" before he dragged the poor puppy by his tail outdoors while the rest of the pets waited for him there.