Forbidden paws

Alexander woke to the sound of indistinct shuffling and mumbling. In a desperate attempt to avoid both the sounds and the sunlight leaking in through his window he turned and buried his face in his pillow. The pillow, unfortunately, was occupied by John's hair. Alexander grumbled, but couldn't keep from smiling. John looked adorable when he was sleeping, his mouth slightly open and his features utterly relaxed. It was hard to be annoyed at someone when they looked so innocent, even if if they were hogging your best pillow.

Alexander was contemplating waking John so they could have some breakfast, when there was an unexpected noise coming from outside his bedroom.
"Woof."
Alex glared at the door, though the door was surely not at fault. Most likely the idiots on the other side of the door were watching dog videos. Lafayette had been obsessed with them lately. A glance at John told him that the other boy was still sleeping, and wasn't too likely to wake up soon. With a sigh Alexander propped himself up on his elbows and, unable to stop himself, lightly kissed John's forehead before he ventured out into their dorm to investigate what the puppy video was all about.

It was not a puppy video.
Hercules was sat at their dining table, groaning with his head in his hands. Lafayette was sat on the floor in his pajama bottoms, holding a dog and cooing at it.
"What."
Both Hercules and Lafayette looked up at him.
"Oh hi," Lafayette said, at the same time Hercules said, "Oh God Alexander please help me talk some sense into Laf."
Lafayette's dog bounded of his lap and ran towards Alexander with its tail wagging behind it.
"Oh um hi," Alexander said as the dog jumped up at him. Following Laf's example he sat down on the floor and scratched the dog's ears.
"Are you going to tell me why there is a puppy in this house, or will I have to guess?"
Hercules let out a sound halfway between a sob and a sigh and Lafayette laughed.
"Eh bien, bref mes parents étaient–"
"I swear to God Laf if I have to listen to any more French!" Hercules cut in as he made his way over to them.
Lafayette raised his eyebrows at him, but obliged.
"As I said, my relatives were in town and they brought their dog," he continued and gestured towards the puppy currently licking Alexander's nose. "Then they decided they wanted to go on some sight seeing and asked if I could take care of her."
"And," Hercules said, "this absolute idiot said he could."
"So now she's here,"Lafayette finished with a brilliant smile. He whistled and the dog shot towards him in a streak of grey and white. She made to jump onto his lap, or at least Alexander assumed that was her intention, but missed and instead hit Lafayette in the chest.
"Umpf," Laf groaned as he toppled backwards in a flurry of limbs and fur.
"What the hell is going on?"
Alexander and Hercules turned towards the sound, and Lafayette managed to lift his head slightly. John stood in the doorway to Alexander's room and looked very very confused.
"I'm puppy sitting." Lafayette said, still wrestling with the dog.
"What." John said, echoing Alexander.
"Mhmmm," Lafayette sputtered as the puppy put a paw over his mouth. With an exasperated sigh Hercules rescued the boy from a fluffy death, lifting said puppy like a baby.

"Right," John said once Lafayette was out of immediate danger. He joined Alexander on the floor and cleared his throat. "Eh, not to ruin the fun, but I'm fairly sure this dorm is a no-pets place?"
"That's what I said!" Hercules moaned as he scratched the puppy's tummy. "But he just won't listen!"
"Aww come on," Lafayette said and recounted his story for John "She needed a place to stay!"
"We can't keep a dog here Laf." Hercules said, still cuddling the dog.
"Please."
John laughed. "She's really cute, isn't she? What's her name?" he asked reaching for the dog.
"Adrienne," Laf said as Hercules reluctantly passed away the dog.
"A-dri-en-ne?" John cooed as he pat her. "Yeah I think I'll call her Nenne."
"So we're keeping her?" Alexander laughed as he reached over to stroke her too. Seeing Hercules expression he added, "Oh come on Herc, you don't particularly care about rules anyway."
"I don't mind some harmless rule breaking, no," Hercules said as he sank down on the floor next to Lafayette. "I'm totally fine with some well deserved pranking or the occasional party, but I do think that bringing a puppy into our dorm is a little far."
Lafayette, Alexander, John, and Nenne turned to him with puppy eyes.
Hercules threw his hands in the air. "Oh for God's sake, fine!"
Nenne licked his face in thanks.

The spent a good part of the day playing with the puppy. Lafayette's relatives had been kind enough to supply a basket of dog toys.
"Good puppy, gooood," John cooed at Nenne as he rolled a big plastic ball at her. She bounded after it towards a grinning Alexander who caught the ball and threw it back at John. Nenne skidded to a stop and changed direction, almost slipping into a pouting Lafayette.
"She scarred me!" he wailed, examining the pink lines the dog had left over his torso during their wrestling match.
"Yeah well, maybe if you had, you know, worn a shirt," Hercules said drily.
"Oh please, don't pretend like you don't like it."
Hercules rolled his eyes, but grinned.
And was hit in the face by a red plastic ball.
"Sorry!" John called from across the room.
Hercules threw the ball back at him, which Nenne took as a perfect opportunity to catch it mid-air. Unfortunately for John "mid-air" happened to be just above him.

When John had recovered from his face full of fur Lafayette decided that it was time for a walk.
"Can't we eat first?" Hercules groaned.
"Agreed," John added.
"You know, you could cook food yourself, it's not rocket science," Lafayette said.
"But I don't want to."
"Also," Alexander said, "Do you plan on just waltzing out into the corridor with her, because I think our neighbors might have something to say about that."
Lafayette wrinkled his face in concentration, before brightening up.
"I have an idea!" He declared before snatching up a shirt from a chair and running out the door. "And fry some bacon while I'm gone!" he called back at them.
The three boys looked at each other and shrugged. Clearly neither of them knew what Lafayette was up to.

They had not fried bacon when he came back. To be fair though it hadn't even been ten minutes before he was home again, accompanied by a giant beach bag.
"What," Alexander said, "is that."
"It's my special sneak-an-illegal-dog-out-of-your-dorm-device," Lafayette answers. "See, it works like this."
He scooped Nenne out of John's lap, much to the protest of the other boy, and dumped her in the bag.
"Look it works great!"
Alexander pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Yeah sure Laf, whatever works for you."
"Au revoir, me souhaite une chance!" Lafayette laughed before running out again.
"Mind your language!" Hercules called after him.
Lafayette sturdily ignored him, instead waving happily at a boy Alexander had never seen before. The boy stood outside their neighbours' dorm and eyed Lafayette's bag suspiciously, probably due to the fact the beach bags don't normal move. He then made a very clear "Not my problem" face and walked back inside his dorm. Lafayette grinned at the boy's back before skipping down the stairs.

Once he got back, and merrily reported that no one had suspected anything, they decided to make some food. Or, Lafayette decided to make some food after the others bugged him about it.
He did get his profit though, as Nenne seemed much more inclined to cuddle up to the person with bacon than the people without.
"That's unfair," John complained. "I even have her ball!"
"Hey, if you wanna cook the food then that's fine by me," Lafayette grinned at him. "But otherwise I think I'll cash in on dog privileges."
John grumbled an inaudible response.

They stayed in their living room during the evening, trying hard to conceal Nenne's occasional woof's and feeding her scraps of food to win her favour. Alexander was feeling especially victorious when the puppy decided to stay on his lap despite John's best attempt to lure her away with bacon. Or at least he did until he got a face full of dog saliva.
"Actually you can have her," Alexander said as he quickly lifted the dog away and wiped his face on his sleeve. "Yuck."
Adrienne seemed content to use John as her new lollipop and stayed with him for a good three minutes. Then, despite both Lafayette and Hercules calling for her she trudged into Lafayette's bedroom.
"Nooo come back," Lafayette wailed. The four of them got up to follow the dog, albeit Alexander doing so a bit warily.

Nenne had found a perfect spot in Laf's room. She was sprawled over his bed, her puppy form taking up almost half of his bed. She was fast asleep.
"Uh, Nenne?" John said giving her a gentle shove. She didn't move. "I guess she needed a nap," he laughed.
"But did she have to nap there?" Hercules complained.
"Wow you seem more upset than Laf, and I thought he was the one that had his bed taken over by a dog," Alexander said teasingly.
"I– Yeah but I, ugh!" Hercules said.
"I think it's seems great, she'll make an awesome pillow," Lafayette said and jumped onto his bed. "She really soft," he said as he repositioned himself to lean against Nenne. "I bet she doesn't even flail around when she sleeps," he added with a meaningful glance towards Herc.
Hercules stuck his tongue out at him and left the room, leaving behind a John and an Alexander who both felt like there was something they hadn't been informed about.

Transaltions:

Eh bien, bref mes parents étaient–
Well, in short my relatives are–

Au revoir, me souhaite une chance!
Bye, wish me luck!

Hi! I'm posting this chapter a bit earlier than usual because I won't be able to post for the next 12-13 days so that chapter is going to be a bit late. I hope you don't mind and that this chapter will be satisfying enough until I can write the next one, and I promise I'll do it as soon as I get the chance. And if you want leave me a message it'd make me very happy, feel free to tell me that you just watered your plants or finished your homework if you want to. Thanks so much for reading and take care!

Edit: To the person asking what breed Nenne is, she's a husky!