He spent the rest of the day and the next morning ignoring him. It was too hard to even look at him, and this made the dog upset and afraid that he would be mad and avoid him again. Except this time it wasn't anger, but out of shyness.

When Shaun realized his feelings for his best friend, his first and more logical thing to wish was for him to feel that back, so they'll get all cuddly and romantic and ending credits screen. But now that he knew his friend actually does feel the same way, he wasn't sure what to do with that. He didn't even know what his feelings meant, calling them a sickness!

Or maybe he didn't feel that way, and it was just the sheep's hopes and fantasies tricking him. That made him feel even worse.

Looking around, Shaun found Bitzer sitting on a fence, looking at the sheeps with a half eaten sandwich between his paws. He walked towards him catching the dog's attention, who looked down at him with a questioning, serious expression but his tail, the sheep noticed, began to wag slightly. Shaun pointed with his nose at the empty space in the fence beside him. Bitzer slowly noded and he sat next to him.

It was getting late and the sun was about to set, but being summer, the sky was still too bright to go to sleep. The flock was peacefully eating grass and talking to each other.

"Can you help me?"

"With what?"

His tail began to wag more energetic, hitting Shaun's. The sheep leaned to whisper beneath Bitzer's ear, feeling him tensing up. Now every small action the dog made seemed to be the most important thing thanks to those, probably unworthy, hopes.

"I wanted to have a surprise movie night tonight"

Bitzer was now fidgeting his fingers on his food, eyes glued to it. A loud gulp could be head. Shaun never noticed how nervous the dog could get over that kind of small interaction, and that made his hopes and fears rise again.

"Tonight? Why?"

"Why no?" He giggled, jumping out of the fence "Will you help me?

"Well, ok… lets go then"

They both silently headed to the empty barn, carefull that nobody would see them and follow them inside. The first thing they did was set the large white blanket as a screen. It was a bit tricky, they had to first use some ropes to lower a plank of wood enough to tie the blanket and lift it again. It wasn't their first movie night, so they had experience.

After that, the dog went to organized the hay and pillows to imitate somehow the theater's chairs, while the sheep plugged in and set the projector.

When Bitzer was finished, he sat on one of those 'chairs' to take a look to the DVD box his friend left on an old table. It was an adventure and sci-fic movie, the leader's favourite. He grinned.

"Do you like it?" Shaun sat next to him on the block of hay. It was a little tight, being the same chair, but unlike the rest of the flock, they both were thin enough to fit. "I have more" The dog seemed to enjoy this small moments together, probably more after losing his best friend for so long, and even if the hopes were in vain, the leader still treasured them.

"No, I think this one is good" he was getting a bit uncomfortable with the sheep staring at him while their bodies were slightly pressed from the small space, but decided to ignore it. At least it wasn't a bad type of uncomfortable "Where did you get them anyway?"

"I stole it" He looked down at him surprised "Our farmer never knows that the sheeps he counts is the same one"

A giggled scaped from the dog's mouth who tried to cover it with one paw, eyes closed. It was true, even if he loved and admired his trainer so much, he had to admit he wasn't the smartest being in the farm.

Opening his eyes again, they met the sheep's, that sparkled in a way that was making him feel weird and shaky. Looking around to avoid his gaze, the orange light coming from the window indicated him how late it was.

Rushing ouside to let the rest go in, both friends were glad to see how amazed and happy everybody got to the idea watching a movie. Shaun took the movie box and made a gesture to his furry friend to follow him upstairs to where the projector was. He didn't understood why he needed his help but followed anyway. While each sheep was taking a seat, they turned on the machine and put the DVD on. Shaun gestured a seat beside it, so Bitzer sat there and the sheep at his side.

This time the space was bigger, but as the ending credits rolled and every sheep down there was snoring, the sleepy Shaun that was leaning against Bitzer's shoulder was making him suffer all the, aparently, not-a-sickness' symptoms.

Still, his arm was around the sheep's waist in a hug. Comfortable.

Bitzer was now more confused than ever. If he wasn't sick, then what was it? It wasn't an allergy, and most certain wasn't a growing up thing. Then what is what's giving him those feelings?

His fingers caressed the soft wool.

A mystery, really.

He mentally wrote down those symptoms. There were three places where he found them: a medical book that warned about some illness, a book about nature and his favourite puppy love novel. And the sheep said it wasn't an illness and the natural thing that happens when growing up didn't hold all the symptoms.

In that novel, the dogs met in a park, fell in love, dated, got married, had puppies and lived happily together. It might sound cliché, but that was a life Bitzer always wanted to live. So when he once got to met on a park a lady dog like him, he took the chance, and a shiver raised through him when the flirting was returned. Maybe they could get married and form a family!

But she was a traveler, and eventually had to go away. Even if he thought back then that the love of his life ran away, that there wouldn't be another chance like that, now that the memories were back, it was sad to know that he didn't even got her name, and even sadder the fact that he got over it as quick as Shaun throwing a frisbee to play with him.

Shaun.

No. It was imposible. The characters were different and so were the feelings! Well, sure, they were more and stronger with his friend, but in the minutes he got to spend to the nameless girlfriend he still hoped to see again, the dog could already picture a life with her like in the book. He could see himself dating her. Maybe there could be a small wedding and she could move to live in the farm with him.

Ok, yeah, it may sound odd that he prefered to stay in the stressing farm when traveling around the world sounds more appealing. But he always even wondered how their puppies would look like, and he never ever wondered how his and his friend's wedding and… kids would be like!

Something along that thought felt like a deja vu.

Looking down, the sheep's hair of his head tickled his nose. He couldn't see much of him but he could feel the warmness of his body on him. The warmness that was guilty of all his worries.

A lot of things were getting clear on his mind now. Realizing that this moment, this feeling, was everything he wanted. And the reason was just resting on him, nuzzling his fur.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

Maybe he would even like it, in fact.

His paw clenched a tuft of wool.

"I really like you"

Those were words to himself but they came out in a whisper, deep thinking often leads to talking alone. But the sheep was awake, and the sheep lifted his head to look at him with tired, half lided eyes, and they widened when the dog got nervous, and the sheep reacted sitting straight when the dog got anxious, and that bastard was now giving him an odd look with a hoof on his lips, surprised, making the rumbling on his belly worse. With both paws there, he got up in two, rigid as wood with the tail between his legs.

"I should probably go"

"Yeah, you probably should"

"I'll come back tomorrow to clean this up"

"Goodnight"