"Ungrateful, useless, pointless, stupid, blind..."

There was no shortage of negative words in Dodger's mind as he sulked under an old bus. It had been there for as long as he could remember and was almost certainly not going anywhere, anytime soon. It's browning-grey form seemed destined to spend the rest of it's days awaiting erosion to take over.

He had stormed off in a rage after his conversation with Oliver earlier. It was difficult to say whether he was more angry at Oliver for rejecting his offer, or at himself for simply leaving the cat in a place he would obviously be unfamiliar with.

Maybe he did overreact, maybe he had expected too much from Oliver. But those thoughts alone weren't enough to comfort the nerve that had been struck inside of him, when he had so quickly been pushed away.

Maybe this wasn't his, or Oliver's fault. Maybe it was Jenny's fault, she was the one who had taken Oliver to begin with, when she had absolutely no right in doing so. She was the one who had separated them at the peak of their relationship. If it weren't for her, Oliver would never have left the gang in the first place.

He shook his head hard, trying to scrub the thoughts from his head. The whole situation felt similar. *Eerily* similar.

Everything was playing out in the exact same manner, he was blaming everyone, except himself, acting as though he was a completely innocent party.

Crawling out from under the bus, he stood and swallowed hard. Oliver was out there, all by himself. They hadn't walked very far from the barge, but he knew just how easily it could be to lose yourself in the city without proper experience.

He took off suddenly, mentally kicking himself for repeating a mistake he had made ages ago.

"The two of ya' keep a close eye out alright? Oh and Dodger, make sure Lou gets it."

Dodger nodded positively, watching as his father walked away. He turned his attention to Lou, who was looking out at the many things before him.

"Okay Lou, get a good look at everything and tell me what ya' see," He waited patiently for his brother to closely scan the scene before him. He looked completely lost, "Look over there." This time he used a paw to point out a lone man sitting at a table with a burger under his domain.

"What about him?"

"He's tha' perfect target, alone, not too big and in possession of a juicy piece of food."

"So we're gonna... steal it?"

"Yes genius, we're gonna steal it." He answered sarcastically.

"Huh, can't we just look for some scraps in the trash? That's what we normally do."

"Well today we're doing something different, can't own this town if all ya' ever do is eat scraps."

Lou looked fairly unsure of himself and so Dodger made sure to throw in, "It'll be a blast, trust me"

That seemed to do the trick, as Lou stood up confidently and looked to the man again, "Alright, what's the plan?"

"We're gonna need to be fast and subtle, I'll distract him. All ya' need ta' focus on is running up and grabbing it, alright?"

Lou nodded. Waiting for Dodger to take the lead.

He approached the man slowly and methodically, putting together a plan in his head.

The man's face was in his hands. There was a fly on his shoulder, but he didn't bother waving it away.

"What do you want you dirty mutt?" He lazily waved his hand in a dismissive gesture, "Can't you leave ol' Davy here alone for even a little bit?"

Dodger pawed at the man's pants, releasing mock whines.

"Ya' sound worse off then me mutt. Guess life has been pretty tiring for the both of us, hasn't it?" He scratched the top of Dodger's head slowly and started to hum a song to himself.

With the man completely distracted, Dodger spun around inconspicuolously and sent a wink towards Lou. He watched as his brother quickly made his way towards the both of them.

"I'm still in the navy, ya' know?"

He turned his attention back to the man, as he started talking again.

"They tell me I'll probably be apart of them for life. Kinda' sad, no?"

He could see Lou in the corner of his eye, preparing to jump towards the burger.

"At least I'm better than Paul. Poor fella' never had time for a wife... or anyone else for that matter. Wish I could say th-"

The man stopped as he heard a small thump to his right. Both he and Dodger turned to see Lou struggling to gather the burger in between his teeth.

Before the man could even open his mouth to yell, Dodger had already gotten a firm grip on his pants and was actively trying to tug him backwards.

"Lou run!" He yelled, around the man's pants.

"You crazy mutts! I'll have both of your heads, you especially!" He pointed a finger towards Lou.

Dodger looked at his brother, exasperated. He was quivering with fear and seemed to be stuck in place. "Lou!" He tried again, "Run right now!"

Finally his brother took off, leaving behind the disassembled burger on the grassy ground.

He sighed in relief, briefly forgetting about the man, whose pants were still locked in his jaws. That was until he felt a sharp pain striking him in the side. One which sent him flying several feet.

He shook the kick off and stood up, grimacing only slightly, in pain, as he ran after Lou.

"Let that be a lesson to ya'!"

It took a while of searching, but eventually he found Lou hiding behind a tree, his ears flattened and tail down.

"Dodger!" He visibly perked up in relief. "Are you okay?"

"I'll live." He tried to chuckle, but stopped when he realized how much it hurt to do so. "What about you?"

"I'm fine, but... that was all my fault. You got hurt because of me a-and it could have been m-much worse than th-that-"

"Woah!" He stopped Lou, once he noticed that he had begun to snivel. "Calm down brother, I'm not hurt bad, honest."

"That doesn't change the fact that I messed up." He was looking down at the ground, trying to fight back the tears that were quickly making their way through to his eyes.

Seeing his brother's tears was too much, "Hey come here bro."

He breathed calmly, while his fur slowly got soaked by salty tears.

"Ya' know, my first time doing this was pretty bad too."

"R-really?" Lou spoke into Dodger's chest, his voice was muffled.

"Of course. I moved a little too fast and Dad ended up falling in the lake. Ya' shoulda' seen the look on his face when he got out."

Dodger smiled when Lou giggled at the thought.

"C'mon Iron Horse, there's always tomorrow."