"Tito! How many times must I tell you to keep your insoluble rubbish down? Some of us are trying to watch civilized entertainment off of the television."

Francis pouted, waiting for some snarky response to come from his small, rat-sized friend. When none come, he turned the television off, bringing an end to a documentary on Shakespeare, and curiously stalked off in the direction of where he'd assumed Tito might be.

"Dodger?" He remarked, surprised to see the mutt back so soon in the day. "Whatever is the problem?" He clocked his head at the stranger side of the situation. His companion was laying on the floor in a disheveled heap, panting and sweating as if there were no tomorrow.

"I-I need h-h-help..." Dodger stuttered through a bit of speech, trying still to catch his breath. He eventually stood himself up, still breathing harshly, at the very least, he was able to speak coherently once more, "I need help finding the kid. I kinda' lost him."

"You lost young Oliver!" Francis appeared totally flabbergasted, "How could you possibly have lost him?"

Dodger's body language grew slightly defensive in the face of Francis' questions, but he didn't say anything in retort to the Bulldog, "It's a long story and I'll explain later, but right now I need ya' and the gang ta' help me out here. Where's Tito?"

Francis shrugged, feigning a defeated expression, "I haven't the faintest clue."

"Rita?"

"She appears to be on her normal escapades for the day, I doubt she'll make herself present until much later."

"Einstein?"

"Apparently the old dog is much more concerned for Fagin than anyone else, he went off on a search of his own earlier today."

Dodger looked at him in shock, "He did? Why didn't ya' go with him?"

"He requested I stay behind to inform everyone."

Dodger sighed, having much more on his mind that day than he had initially bargained for, "Alright, so no Rita, Tito, Einstein, or Fagin. Looks like it's just you and me buddy."

"Well..."

"Ya' can't be serious." Dodger groaned.

"Believe me, I care deeply for our young friend and finding him is a very important task, but I can't help but feel that I would do very little in actually assisting. If you ask me, it would be much more efficient for you to go alone."

"Thanks for nothing..." He muttered under his breath.

"Did you say something?"

"Stay right there." Dodger said, while making his way up the stairs, back towards the surface. "If ya' run into any of the gang, tell 'em I'll be around Fifth Avenue and Central Park!"

"Lou? Lou!"

Dodger looked around fervently, his face slicked in worrisome sweat.

Everything that day had been going just fine up until then. Out of boredom, he had taken Lou with him to Central Park to play, taken his eyes off his younger brother for only a moment and now couldn't find him anywhere.

"Lou! Where are you!"

There was no one to answer his distressed cries, no one to aid him in his search. The only reactions he got was from a group of people who raised their eyebrows and called him strange.

He ignored them, taking off to a different part of the park and searching with even more rigorousness. It was difficult to say whether the undoubtable trouble he would be in later was worse than his current predicament. Either way, he did his best to keep his focus on finding Lou.

"Lou!" He shouted out his brother's name again, this time not out of blatant desperation, but because he had reason to do so.

Time appeared short though, as Lou was already in the tight grip of a small boy, who was waving the dog in front of both his parents.

He ran as fast as his legs would allow him to, "Hold on Lou, I'm coming!"

There were three startled gasps from the boy and his parents, when Dodger burst onto the scene barking as fiercely as adolescence would allow and jumping at the boy angrily.

The shock of it all was enough to get the boy to lose his grip on Lou, giving Dodger the opportunity to grab his brother by the scruff and take off towards cover.

He ran a decent distance, choosing to take refuge behind a tree. Carefully, he placed Lou on the ground and flopped down on the grass, panting hard.

"Dodger? Are you okay?" The question came after a few moments of silence.

He wanted to say 'no', wanted to be angry at Lou and give him a stern glare, much like their mother would, but then he realized that he wasn't exactly a saint either and that was just how he preferred it be. "I'm fine, but... that was a pretty dangerous thing ya' did back there. Humans don't take too kind ta' strays."

"But..."

He looked to his younger brother, whose brow was creased in a frown.

"But?"

"He seemed so nice, he didn't hurt me or anything and he even showed me to his parents. They said that he could take me home with them, as long as he-"

"No!" Dodger screamed suddenly. There was no fore planning to the exclamation. It had been one of instinct, one which had burst it's way out of his mouth as soon as those dreaded words fell upon his ears.

He blinked, realizing that he was shaking...and snarling, the result of a strange combination of both anger and anxiety. He took a deep breath and gulped, trying to calm himself. A move necessary for both Lou, who had taken on a crouched position that clearly expressed fear, and his own reason.

"Hey..." Dodger exhaled softly, slowly crouching down to look his brother directly in the eye, "Sorry about that brother, I'm not mad."

Finally Lou gathered the courage to look up and lock eyes with Dodger. Although he remained silent.

"It's just that ya' my brother and if they had taken ya' with them, chances are I'd never see ya' again." He spoke as softly as he could, using a gentle tone in an attempt to lure Lou out of the shell that he had retreated into. "Look, to be completely honest I don't know what I'd do without ya'. Life just wouldn't be the same. Ma would bite my head off, if ya' weren't by my side half the time."

That got a chuckle out of Lou, something significant enough to allow Dodger to mentally sigh in relief.

"So how's about I grab us some hot dogs and this little *incident* stays between the two of us. Whaddya' say? Truce?" He held out his paw in front of Lou.

"Hey, no fair!" Lou whined, when Dodger inevitably pulled his paw away.

"Fairs are for tourists bro, let's get a move on."