NOTE -- Allo, thought I died, didn'tcha? No I'm still kicking about...blah. Too much stuff going on this summer to be able to devote my time to the story like i used to. Guess you'll have to take the updates where I can make'em o.O;; Hope you continue to read and enjoy. I apologize in advance for the fact that this chapter kinda bumps in circles and doesn't go anywhere. I promise a bit more adventure in the next one.
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"Dad! Hey dad!!" SwT_CaNdY69 called, standing and fidgeting by the pound desk. The poogle was never one for patience. From where he stood, attempting to wrestle a large bag of NeoChow into the supplies closet for feeding time later that night, Dr. Death sighed and rolled his eyes.
"I'm not your dad!" he called back irritatedly at the poogle. "And I'll be there in a minute!" The techo strained, heaving the sack of kibble a few more inches across the floor.
"What a wuss..." a green skeith snickered from its kennel, watching the doctor struggle.
"No kidding..." a yellow pteri agreed, grinning. Dr. Death ignored them, heaving again. The bag slid the rest of the way into the closet and he gratefully allowed it to sag against the wall, panting. When he had caught his breath again, he slipped out of the closet and closed the door, returning to the front where the yellow poogle was perched on the floor looking plaintively at him.
"Alright, what?" he asked. "Why aren't you with Karma?"
"Mom's taking a nap." Candy informed him. Being that she had been so young when she had come into Karma's care, and that the techo and frog had spent so much time together the first few weeks of her life, as soon as she had been able to comprehend, Candy had taken to referring to Karma as "mom" and Glitz as "dad". If it bothered Karma, she never had said anything about it, but the poogle referring to him as her father really irked Glitz...especially when he found himself having to explain the situation to inquiring minds. "'Sides, I wanted to come see you."
"She doesn't like you running off. Why weren't Yahoo and Chomby watching you?" he asked, taking his place behind the desk. Rose had not yet returned from her lunch break, but was due back any time. He winced as Candy scrambled into his lap and grinned at him.
"They're too busy with their new video games. And I like it here. There's some nutty people who come in here with their pets." she said reasonably.
"Its hard for me to look professional with a little girl crawling all over me, you realize." he told her in exasperation as he picked her up and gently set her back on the floor. Candy pouted a bit.
"Why don't you ever bring Snap to work?" she asked.
"He's not allowed in here. It looks unprofessional." the techo answered disinterestedly, picking up a pen to write up a reminder to himself to pick up a gross of neomite vaccinations to be administered before the week was over.
"Says who?" the poogle demanded.
"Says the faeries. Now go on home." he told her, waving a hand at her dismissively as he wrote with his other. Candy crossed her stout arms over her chest.
"I don't have to." she told him. "Yer not my real dad." He sighed...that was another thing. He only upheld the title of "dad" to her when it was convenient. Anytime he tried to assert any sort of authority over her, she temporarily disowned him. Troublesome girl.
"Someone's going to come in here and if they see you running around without your owner, they're going to drag you off and make you into a battledome pet." He told her, trying a different tactic. Candy looked skeptical.
"Nooo..." she smirked, trying to get him to admit that he was teasing. He remained stone-featured.
"I'm dead serious. You think half these hogs would care that you belong to somebody else? No...you're a rare pet, you're hanging around the pound, and as far as they're concerned you're fair game."
"No I'm not!!" the yellow poogle protested. "I hate the battledome! Stop saying that!"
"Then stop giving me a hard time and go home." he told her. "I'm busy here."
"You're mean!!" the poogle declared, turning on her heel and fleeing the pound office, nearly bowling Rose over as she opened the front door.
"Heavens to Betsy!" the uni declared as Candy shoved past, galloping off out of sight. "What was that all about?"
"She snuck away from home again." the doctor replied, sighing. "Never a dull moment."
"Aww, think of it this way...she's good practice."
"Practice? Feh...if you're implying that I'd ever be a parent, Rose---"
"Oh I'm not implying anything." the red uni smiled sweetly. "And you really ought to be a little nicer to her....she DOES think the world of you." The techo said nothing to this, folding the reminder to himself in half and setting it on top of the Incoming basket before he cast a look at the clock.
"Is that thing broken or something?" he grumbled, noting that it was only just now becoming noon.
"I'm afraid its just one of those days, doc." Rose shrugged. "Have plans today?
"No...just want to go home." he sighed. "Didn't get enough sleep last night."
"Karma spend the night again?" Rose asked, smirking knowingly.
"No." he snapped defensively, irritated by her one-tracked train of thought whenever he and Karma were mentioned in the same sentence. Was it possible to spend time with his girlfriend without the rest of Neopia assuming they were off pounding each other senseless constantly?
"Then my next guess is that computer you got yourself." the uni replied. He quickly averted his eyes to the desktop. "Get lost on the internet?"
"Stonekeep." he replied. Rose cocked a brow.
"Never heard of it."
"It came highly recommended from Karma....so I ordered it on import from earth. The shipping cost was awful, but its a good way to pass time." he shrugged.
"Or obsess over and lose sleep?"
"That too. I've got shargas etched on the insides of my eyelids, I think..." he grunted, shoving away from the desk and standing. "And on that note, I'm out of here for an hour." he added, stretching. Rose offered a cursory wave before disappearing into the back to run a routine check of the adoptees.
The techo unshouldered his labcoat and hung it on the hook by the door before venturing outside. He had found it made him a little less conspicious to onlookers which, given he was still harrassed at least once a day about "coming back from the dead because he wasn't done harrassing Neopia", was a welcome blessing. He passed through the front door, pausing on the top step a moment to breathe in the summer air.
"Hi dad!" He flinched and turned to see Candy standing near the stairs, clutching a peach ice cream cone that was quickly melting in the noonday heat and drizzling down her paws in pink dribbles.
"Stop calling me that...and you're making a mess." he pointed out. The poogle looked down at her paws and hurriedly ran her tongue over them to lick the ice cream away. "Why haven't you gone home?"
"Mom said I could come back." she fibbed.
"You lie like a rug." he sighed. "Look, Karma's going to be worried about you."
"Not as long as I stay with you." she replied angelically. Glitz growled when he realized he had been trapped. What irked him the most was he really should have seen it coming and he hadn't. "So where're we going?" she asked, bounding up beside him and latching onto his tail.
"*I* am going to get lunch. *You* are going back home and I'm taking you there." he told her, flicking his tail out of her grasp. Candy paused, scowling at him as he looked over his shoulder at her. "What?"
"I don't wanna go home!" she said, stamping her foot stubbornly.
"Candy..." he said warningly.
"I wanna stay with you, Dad!!" she said loudly, making a few passersby stop and look confusedly at the young poogle and the poundkeeper. A pair of usuls whispered to one another, looking amusedly at the duo as they passed by and Dr. Death felt his face flush as he seized the poogle by her arm and dragged her out of the public eye before releasing her again.
"Look, stop embarrassing me." he said softly, crouching so that he was on an eye-to-eye level with her. "Maybe your mom lets you get away with that, but I'm not---" He stopped abruptly as Candy leaned forward and kissed him on the nose, smiling at him.
"I love you Daddy." she said in a most winning tone of voice. The techo, try as he might, was unable to hold onto his anger and sighed in resignation as he stood again.
"Fine. You can stay. But one more outburst like that, and you're out of here."
"Kay." the poogle replied. It wasn't the first time she had had an argument like this with him and won using similar methods. She could read him like an open book, whether he wanted to admit it or not, and the pages of that book said that this would be a trick of hers that would work for a long time to come. "So where're we going?" she asked again, following behind him as they began to walk again.
"Hubert's." he told her. "Same place I always go."
"Blech....hot dogs are oogy." Candy said matter-of-factly.
"Is that so..." he muttered disinterestedly. "Why do you think so?"
"I think...." she began, trailing off, and then seized his tail again. "Can I dye my hair red when I get older?" she asked, on a completely different train of thought suddenly.
"Sure." he replied. "Want to run off and join the circus too?" He walked quietly with her for a few moments, ignoring the questioning looks from various people they passed. He knew it was only a matter of time before SOMEONE approached him about this "daughter" of his or some rag article author from the Neopian Times wrote a big juicy story about it. Feh...let them. It seemed like most of Neopia wasn't happy unless they had their nose in someone else's business.
"HEY!! GIMME!!!" Candy cried suddenly. The doctor whirled to see the young poogle engaged in a tug-of-war over her ice cream with a blue demon-like creature. It grinned mockingly at her, its tongue lulling out as it continued to hold tight to the frozen treat. At length, apparently growing weary of the struggle, the creature extended a tendril of itself and tickled Candy's nose with it. The poogle twitched, and then sneezed loudly, accidentally releasing her grip on her ice cream.
"GOTCHA!!" the creature cackled, blowing a loud raspberry at her before zipping away and out of sight. Candy sat up, glaring icily at where he had gone.
"YOU JERK!!" she shrieked. "BUY YOUR OWN ICE CREAM!!!!!" Her lip trembled as her anger gave way to outrage and tears began to spill down her face. The yellow techo rolled his eyes and knelt next to her.
"Was that your first run-in with the pant devil?" he asked. The poogle sniffled and nodded.
"I'll get him back." she growled determinedly. "I'll tear him apart!"
"Better men than you have tried." Glitz told her. "He's just one of those things that makes Neopia bad from time to time....just be glad it was only your ice cream."
"No! C'mon!" she ordered, storming off. Dr. Death watched her a moment before sighing.
"Alright, humor me, what are you up to?" he asked, getting up and catching up to her with a few quick strides.
"I'm going to the battledome! Duh!" she snapped. The doctor's stomach did a sour flip. Not only was he fairly sure Candy didn't stand a chance against the Pant Devl, but he hadn't been to the battledome since he had been a baby.....and for good reason.
"Look, I'll buy you a new ice cream." he told her, trying to appeal to her. "Hell, I'll buy you a plushie to go with the ice cream."
"Nope." Candy replied, continuing to walk.
"Fine. Then I'm doing what I should have done in the first place." he growled, turning abruptly and walking away, back in the direction of Hubert's. Candy paused, looking over her shoulder at him. "You want to go get trampled, fine. I'm not responsible for you, Candy, and as far as I'm concerned I never even saw you today."
"I'll tell mom you did." she replied. "She'll be mad at you."
"Karma knows how I feel about playing keeper to you when she's not around." Glitz shot back. The poogle narrowed her eyes.
"We'll just see about that." she replied cryptically, whirling on her heel and continuing to stalk off in the direction of the battledome.
"Got some troubles on the homefront?" Hubert asked, having watched the exchange between the doctor and Candy a moment ago as the techo approached the counter.
"No." he replied. "Just a troublesome upstart." The mynci nodded, grabbing a bun and fishing a hot dog out of the vat with a pair of tongs.
"What'll it be today?" Hubert inquired.
"I don't care. Surprise me." the techo shrugged. "As long as there's no anthrax in it."
"Spoil my fun..." Hubert smirked, spooning on some relish and onions. "She's off to lock horns with the pant devil, huh?"
"She's going to get her rear kicked." the doctor corrected. "And its the only way she'll learn."
"Eh, I dunno. I've heard a few people say the pant devil's a pushover in the battledome. It just depends on how you go after him." The mynci offered. "And you're not going with her?"
"I don't want to." he muttered.
"What if she gets hurt?" he asked, cocking a brow at the techo.
"That's her problem. They have an on-staff first aid team."
"Uh huh..." Hubert sighed doubtfully. Glitz fidgeted, no longer sure of his decision as he waited for his lunch to be finished. As much as he hated the battledome and all that had happened to him in it, his mind kept churning up mental pictures of Candy, badly beaten, lying in the dust as he once had. Some of the battledomers would be more apt to jump into the ring and start another battle right on top of her than they would be to wait until the first aid team could get to her.
"Dammit..." he hissed. Hubert blinked and looked up as he stirred the small vat of chili with its metal ladel.
"Huh?"
"I'll be back in a minute." he sighed in defeat, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his pants and moving off in the direction Candy had gone. Hubert shook his head and smirked, wrapping the hot dog up in wax paper and putting it under the counter for the moment.
Dr. Death walked in silence, wanting to get things over and done with as soon as possible. From where he was, even now, he could see the behemoth hulking sillohuette of the battledome and it made him shudder. Since he had been young, the dome had grown dramatically in size as more neopians had taken up an interest in battling either one another or the evils of Neopia that had offered to challenge the citizens.
The techo averted his eyes to the sidewalk, ignoring the flutters of insecurity battering at the walls of his stomach. There was nothing to be afraid of....nobody was going to put him on the spot about battling, and nobody, certainly, was going to recognize him as a former pet of someone who was virtually obsessed with the place. He would go in, get Candy, and leave...as simple as that. He drew nearer to the battledome, almost certain he could hear the grunts of those battling and the clang of their weapons as they fought for title of champion. In his pockets, his hands had gone clammy and were rhythmically clenching and unclenching.
"Can I help you?" a portly skeith sitting at the guard booth of the dome inquired as the doctor neared.
"I'm here to get someone." he told the guard.
"Mmhmm...you and everybody else here, sweets." the skeith grunted, taking out a clipboard. "Who're you battling?"
"Nobody." the doctor pressed as the guard favored him with an odd look. "I told you, I'm here to get somebody."
"Ohhh....a pickup." he grinned. "I getcha now. Lemme guess, one of your kids is trying to prove their weight in salt by taking on the Snowager, right?"
"One of my friend's pets..." he replied, realizing he was stalling. "Where do I go?" he asked, clearing his throat.
"Well, now, most people just go and wait in the bleachers till the fight's over....you could wait in the locker room if you want, but we get complaints from patrons that sometimes they end up getting challenged."
"You can back down from a challenge." the techo snorted.
"Hey, I'm just tellin' ya, buddy." the guard said, putting a paw up defensively. "At any rate, good luck to your friend in there."
"Thanks." he said absently as he forced himself away from the guard booth and into the front doors. Almost immediately he was swept up with a wave of unwelcome nostalgia. The front hallway was cool and quiet, smelling faintly of antiseptic and sawdust....and instantly his mind brought forth the memories of being a very young techo, cowering behind his master's ankles as he waited in this same hallway for his turn to battle. Usually it was crowded with spectators and people waiting their turn in the ring, but today it was deserted....still too early in the day to draw a crowd since most pets were still in school or sleeping late.
He took a deep breath and held it as he kept moving, mindful of the fact that his brow had broken into a cold sweat. It occurred to him that, at that moment, he would have rather been anywhere but here again. Even back in Sloth's laboratory...hell, the sewer BENEATH the laboratory.... was more appealing than this. As he stood, torn between bolting back out the door and pressing onward, a door banged open and a disheveled-looking shoyru stumbled into the hallway, his weapons--or what remained of them--with him.
"Piece of JUNK!!" he roared, seizing up what looked like a sword with a carrot instead of a blade and throwing it on the ground. The point had broken off, likely in his previous battle, making it basically worthless in the battledome. The doctor recognized it as an item Fyora sold exclusively in her tower. Whoever the dragon neopet had gone up against must have packed a lot of punch behind them to break one of the Faerie Queen's weapons. "What're you staring at??" the shoyru demanded, noticing Glitz watching him.
"Oh...nothing." he shrugged. The shoyru narrowed his eyes.
"You'd better hope so." the neopet growled. "Balthazaar may have kicked my butt, but that doesn't mean YOU can." The doctor felt his mouth drop a little. Balthazaar? The shoyru was little more than a child and it was trying to take on one of Neopia's legendary badmen? Before he had time to ponder on this, the neopet had stormed off angrily, leaving the broken carrotblade behind. He hesitated a moment to see if the shoyru would come back for it...and when he didn't, the techo moved forward and picked the broken weapon up.
It was kind of funny, it occurred to him, that this would likely be the only time he'd ever hold a Hidden Tower artifact in his hands and he couldn't really even do anything with it. Oh well. He held onto it as he ducked into the door the shoyru had come out of. The locker room was mostly abandoned. Sitting on the bench against the wall, a young kacheek sniffled and held an ice pack against his eye where he had been punched by his earlier opponant and beside him, a red kyrii posed and flexed in front of a slightly dingy mirror.
Not seeing Candy, he turned and left the locker room, moving to the other end of the front hallway, opening the door that led into the seating rows of the dome for spectators and those waiting their turn in the center ring. As his hand touched the knob, another surge of bad memories flooded him. The stinging shame of collapsing in the dust and knowing he didn't have the strength to get up and try again, the disappointed cry of his owner, the smugness of the winner....
He bit his tongue, noting that his hands were shaking almost beyond the point of control. No...he wasn't going to make a scene. He was here to make sure Candy didn't get herself killed and that was it. Nobody, short of hog-tying him and throwing him into the ring, was going to get him to have any part of the battle arena itself. Feeling slightly better, he released his hold on the door and sidled into a nearby row of bleachers to observe.
Down below, a battle was currently raging between a green lenny and Kauvara. Though the Lenny was equipped with several expensive weapons, the kau sorceress was clearly more than a match for him as she leapt to the side, avoiding a lightning beam attack.
"Keep trying! That one only missed by TWO miles this time!" she laughed. The lenny growled in agitation and whipped out an attack fork, flying at her with it with a rasping shriek. Kauvara sidestepped daintily, sending the bird careening into the dust. "Now then....if you're quite done..." she sighed, closing her eyes and summoning a glowing orb of energy that crackled over her head a moment before darting forward and enveloping her challenger.
With a loud BZZAP, the lenny laid still in the dirt, staring vacantly up at the sky.
"TOTAL K.O.!! KAUVARA WINS!!!" someone announced over the loudspeaker. There were scattered applause from those who had watched the fight and and undertow of boo's from the Lenny's owner and friends. Never the less, Kauvara executed a sweeping bow before trotting out of the ring, head held high. "CHALLENGERS 95 AND 107 TO THE RING, PLEASE." the voice ordered as two blue pteris swooped into the arena, picking the unconscious lenny up by his shoulders and hefting him to a safe distance.
No sooner had they gotten him out of the center ring, than an incredibly large and muscular scorchio lumbered in, its eyes narrowed and its lips pulled back in a viscious, bloodthirsty snarl. Its opponent, a mean-looking, but not nearly as strong, Grarrl stormed in as well, taking its place across the ring from the behemoth scorchio. The doctor frowned, wondering if Candy had already battled. Not likely, he decided...even in non-peak hours, she would have at least ten people ahead of her.
"Make me proud, Fangpoint!" someone cried. The techo involuntarily flinched and felt a sudden wave of nausea at the sound of the voice. Just as quickly as it took him to wonder why, he knew....the voice was painfully familiar and one he had tried to forget for years. After a long moment of mental debate, he forced himself to look up, scanning the bleachers around him for its source.
For one blessed moment, Glitz thought he had been mistaken. But then, as though guided by an inner homing device, his eyes settled on a human man that was watching the two pets in the ring intently, absently petting a red kougra cub beside him. His hair, a dirty blonde color, had grown long enough to pull back into a bobbed ponytail, and his face, though lined with the first signs of age, was recognizable enough.
Joey.
The techo quickly looked away again, clenching his eyes shut and the sick feeling intensifying itself. What were the odds, he wondered? What were the god damned odds that they'd both show up at the same place at the same time after all of these years? His throat clenched and he gagged, getting up hurriedly and excusing himself.
He didn't quite make it to the restroom and doubled over, his stomach fluttering and heaving as it expelled its contents. When the last of the nausea had passed, he coughed dryly and clutched blindly for something to lean against, eventually finding the smooth concrete of the wall as he pulled himself back into a fully upright position and pressed the fevered skin of his forehead against the cool cement.
"You alright, there?" someone inquired. He didn't look to see who it was, but nodded faintly. "Hey can we get a janitor over here??" the voice called. "Some guy just yacked all over the floor!" Lovely way of putting it....
Glitz panted thickly, regaining his composure before carefully easing away from the wall and walking quietly out of the dome again. Of all of the things he had been prepared for, seeing his former owner again hadn't been one of them. Candy momentarily forgotten, he moved to an unoccupied bench in the front hallway and seated himself on it, resting his head on his hands as he collected his scattered wits.
All of the insecurities that had haunted him only briefly these days in his sleep came flaring back again and made him feel incredibly small. Rejection, humiliation, remorse...all of it without any closure. Knowing Joey still was in Neopia hadn't helped things much. Actually SEEING him again--hearing his voice--that was enough to drive him off the deep end.
"Geez, dad!!" The techo's head darted up, startled. Candy stood before him, busily eating a bag of pear drops. "You look all sick! Are you okay??"
"Candy...where've you been?" he asked. She shrugged.
"I got here, there was a line and I didn't feel like waiting...so I went to the chocolate factory instead." the baby poogle remarked. "I got you a chocolate cybunny. Ya want it?"
"No..." he sighed, standing slowly and stumbling a bit. Candy quirked a brow skeptically.
"You should go home and bundle up. That's what mommy made me do when I got Ugga Ugga."
"I'm not sick." he told her sternly. "And if I go home, you're going to run amuck all over the place."
"I will not!" she said defensively.
"I don't want to argue with you." he sighed, leaning down and picking her up before she could scamper out of reach. The poogle struggled a bit, but grudgingly surrendered, allowing herself to be carried.
"Where're we going?"she asked sullenly.
"You're going home. I'm going back to work." he informed her. "And you can whine all you want about it. I'm not in the mood, Candy." Candy opened her mouth to argue, but quieted herself again, deciding that something had obviously shaken him and that it was something she didn't really want to contend with. For the rest of the journey, there was silence between them as the doctor padded up the staircase to Karma's apartment and down the hallway.
Karma answered almost immediately after he knocked at the door and smiled faintly, looking like she hadn't been awake for very long.
"Was she giving you trouble again?" the frog asked, looking lightly concerned as she reached out to take the young poogle from her significant other.
"Eh." he shrugged, reluctant to say more. Karma's expression fell a little as she noted the hollow look in his eyes.
"You alright, Glitz?" she asked.
"I'm fine." he answered.
"You don't look fine." she countered. "Something happen?"
"I just....no, I'm fine." he faltered, shifting his weight a little and getting poked by the carrot blade he had, at some point, shoved halfway into his pants pocket. He withdrew it and handed it to Candy. Her eyes widened, despite the fact the weapon was broken, and she grinned as she swung her new toy in the air.
"HA! Try and take THIS, Pant Devil!" she declared loudly, making her owner give her a thin smile before setting the poogle down, allowing her to gallop off to show her prize to Yahoo and Chomby as she turned her attention back to the haggard-looking doctor.
"You want to come in and lay down for awhile?" she asked, stepping aside slightly. "You look exhausted." The invitation was tempting because he did, in fact, feel utterly drained, but at length he forced himself to shake his head.
"No..." he sighed. "I need to get back to work." She paused, and then nodded in understanding.
"Come by after your shift?" she whispered, moving close and nuzzling his cheek affectionately.
"I'll try." he said non-committedly. It wasn't that he didn't want to be around her, really, but he knew that she had questions...and questions, honestly, were the last thing he was in the mood for. He gave her a quick peck on the forehead and turned to leave.
"Love you." she called after him. He didn't reply, already lost in mental turmoil as he disappeared down the stairs. She looked after him with mild worry before she closed the door again. Something had clearly shaken him up quite badly, and the fact he didn't want to tell her what it was bothered her all that much more because it meant that he felt she wouldn't be able to help with it even if she knew what it was.
Karma decided to push it out of hand for the moment. He'd taken care of himself just fine long before she had ever met him and whatever this was, he'd either sort it out himself or tell her about it when he was ready. It just wasn't worth the mental energy it would take to wheedle it out of him.
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As things had turned out, Dr. Death hadn't gone to Karma's after work had ended and had, instead, gone directly home with every intention of going to bed and putting the entire day to rest. Instead, however, he found himself sitting at his computer, engaged in a game of Stonekeep. Behind him, Snap slept peacefully at the foot of the chair, his ears cocked and waiting for the telltale sound of his owner clicking off the computer and going through the motions of getting up.
He eased his player around a corner, unsurprised to see a set of burly throgs waiting for him as the pixelated battle was engaged. Glitz killed them all easily, moving Drake further down the corridor. Dragon Feeding Grounds, feh....he'd been all over the damned level and hadn't seen a single dragon yet. The tiredness he had felt all the way home began to prickle at him again and he decided he'd have to save his game and come back to it later as he looked for a good vantage point to do so from.
A loopy throg shaman, attracted by Drake's presense, suddenly darted out of the shadows and galloped up to the screen. "Oh, by Throggi...strangers to abuse me! Great Throggi, I exist ONLY to be abused...well, then....ABUSE ME, I SAY!!!" it declared in a nasal and hopeless-sounding voice. Despite his current frame of mind, he chuckled wryly before saving and turning the game off.
His mind, for the hundredth time that day, turned back to Joey. Where did he go from here, he wondered? He had a strong feeling Rose and Karma would tell him to let the past stay in the past and he would only hurt himself trying to dig open his old wounds. But there were things he had wanted to say to his former owner that had needled at him for years. The thought of knowing that Joey was still skulking around and having to bite his tongue made him feel cheated and dirty.
The boy had obviously done well for himself over the years and reached his goal of becoming a battledome star. It just didn't seem fair that he should get off scot free with a happy ending while sending one of his former pets through hell and back. He sighed heavily, collapsing to the bed's mattress on his back and listening to the computer go through its shutdown ritual. The bed jostled as Snap hopped up beside him, curling up against his side and yawning widely.
He gently pet the doglefox's fur, thinking heavily. Would it really solve anything if he were to go and confront Joey about all of this? Despite his wanting to, there wasn't much the boy could tell him after all these years except "my bad, sorry" no matter how much he appealed to him and made him feel like a jerk for running out on him when he was a baby.
What was he hoping for anyway? He had plenty of things of his own to worry about now -- a relationship, what could be called the startings of a family, a few friends, a house -- was he hoping there'd be an offchance Joey would want to take him back after all of this? He didn't know...but the more he thought about it, the more he thought it would be worth his time to pay his former owner a visit.
It didn't have to be a nasty encounter, he promised himself. He'd say hello, lay the cards out on the table for Joey about the tailspin his life had been in for so long and toss him a few questions, and if the human wanted to kick things up a notch and get angry with him, he'd cross that bridge when he came to it.
He took in a deep breath and let it out again slowly, making his mind up. He'd tell Karma about it if she asked, but he was going to go find Joey and he promised himself he wouldn't be talked out of it. It was something he wanted--no, NEEDED to get done and out of the way. Maybe then he could stop beating this dead horse and let it rest in peace.
As he lay pondering the possible outcomes of a conversation with his ex-owner all these years later, the phone rang shrilly on the bedside table. He picked it up on the second ring and pressed it against his head, already fairly sure of who it was.
"Hello?"
"There you are....are you okay?" Karma's voice filtered through the reciever.
"I'm better than I was, I guess." he shrugged, speaking in a near-monotone.
"Alright, well, that's better than nothing...." she sighed.
"What's wrong?" he asked her, perturbed by the exasperation in her voice.
"I think I'm more entitled to ask that than you are." the frog countered. "You looked like you had just gotten done puking your guts out when I saw you earlier today."
"Well...if the shoe fits..." the techo muttered. Karma's tone softened almost instantly.
"Are you sick?" she asked, concerned.
"No...just...." he fished for a way to flower everything over and failed. "I had a run-in with someone I wish I hadn't today. It kind of knocked me for a loop."
"Want to talk about it?" she offered.
"I'll come over." he told her. "I don't wanna talk about this over the phone."
"What's wrong with the phone?"
"Eh. I get the feeling you're going to get irked at me at some point while I'm explaining, and I much prefer getting slapped over being hung up on." There was a puzzled silence on the other line for a moment.
"Alright." she said hesitantly.
"Its not you, okay?" he told her, guessing at her biggest worry. "This has nothing to do with you. You and me are fine." Apparently he had hit the nail directly on the head because she gave a muted sigh of relief. "I'll see you soon." he informed her.
"Have you eaten yet? I could heat something up for you on your way over..." No, he hadn't eaten yet, but nor was he hungry at the moment. His stomach still felt a bit fluttery from vomiting earlier.
"I'm alright, thanks though. I'll be over in a few."
"Alright, bye." And with a click, she was gone. Dr. Death laid the phone on its cradle and hesitated a moment before sitting up, giving Snap a skritch in passing. The doglefox lifted its head lazily and looked up at him.
"Hold down the fort for me, kid. I'll be back soon." he informed his petpet absently as he left the room. A moment later, there was the sound of the front door opening and closing again. Snap gave a disinterested whurf and laid his head back on his front paws, his button-like eyes slipping closed again as he resumed his nap. He had sensed a bit of upset in his owner, but nothing that really seemed to set his fur on edge. Whatever it was, it wasn't *his* problem, after all.
TBC.......
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Dad! Hey dad!!" SwT_CaNdY69 called, standing and fidgeting by the pound desk. The poogle was never one for patience. From where he stood, attempting to wrestle a large bag of NeoChow into the supplies closet for feeding time later that night, Dr. Death sighed and rolled his eyes.
"I'm not your dad!" he called back irritatedly at the poogle. "And I'll be there in a minute!" The techo strained, heaving the sack of kibble a few more inches across the floor.
"What a wuss..." a green skeith snickered from its kennel, watching the doctor struggle.
"No kidding..." a yellow pteri agreed, grinning. Dr. Death ignored them, heaving again. The bag slid the rest of the way into the closet and he gratefully allowed it to sag against the wall, panting. When he had caught his breath again, he slipped out of the closet and closed the door, returning to the front where the yellow poogle was perched on the floor looking plaintively at him.
"Alright, what?" he asked. "Why aren't you with Karma?"
"Mom's taking a nap." Candy informed him. Being that she had been so young when she had come into Karma's care, and that the techo and frog had spent so much time together the first few weeks of her life, as soon as she had been able to comprehend, Candy had taken to referring to Karma as "mom" and Glitz as "dad". If it bothered Karma, she never had said anything about it, but the poogle referring to him as her father really irked Glitz...especially when he found himself having to explain the situation to inquiring minds. "'Sides, I wanted to come see you."
"She doesn't like you running off. Why weren't Yahoo and Chomby watching you?" he asked, taking his place behind the desk. Rose had not yet returned from her lunch break, but was due back any time. He winced as Candy scrambled into his lap and grinned at him.
"They're too busy with their new video games. And I like it here. There's some nutty people who come in here with their pets." she said reasonably.
"Its hard for me to look professional with a little girl crawling all over me, you realize." he told her in exasperation as he picked her up and gently set her back on the floor. Candy pouted a bit.
"Why don't you ever bring Snap to work?" she asked.
"He's not allowed in here. It looks unprofessional." the techo answered disinterestedly, picking up a pen to write up a reminder to himself to pick up a gross of neomite vaccinations to be administered before the week was over.
"Says who?" the poogle demanded.
"Says the faeries. Now go on home." he told her, waving a hand at her dismissively as he wrote with his other. Candy crossed her stout arms over her chest.
"I don't have to." she told him. "Yer not my real dad." He sighed...that was another thing. He only upheld the title of "dad" to her when it was convenient. Anytime he tried to assert any sort of authority over her, she temporarily disowned him. Troublesome girl.
"Someone's going to come in here and if they see you running around without your owner, they're going to drag you off and make you into a battledome pet." He told her, trying a different tactic. Candy looked skeptical.
"Nooo..." she smirked, trying to get him to admit that he was teasing. He remained stone-featured.
"I'm dead serious. You think half these hogs would care that you belong to somebody else? No...you're a rare pet, you're hanging around the pound, and as far as they're concerned you're fair game."
"No I'm not!!" the yellow poogle protested. "I hate the battledome! Stop saying that!"
"Then stop giving me a hard time and go home." he told her. "I'm busy here."
"You're mean!!" the poogle declared, turning on her heel and fleeing the pound office, nearly bowling Rose over as she opened the front door.
"Heavens to Betsy!" the uni declared as Candy shoved past, galloping off out of sight. "What was that all about?"
"She snuck away from home again." the doctor replied, sighing. "Never a dull moment."
"Aww, think of it this way...she's good practice."
"Practice? Feh...if you're implying that I'd ever be a parent, Rose---"
"Oh I'm not implying anything." the red uni smiled sweetly. "And you really ought to be a little nicer to her....she DOES think the world of you." The techo said nothing to this, folding the reminder to himself in half and setting it on top of the Incoming basket before he cast a look at the clock.
"Is that thing broken or something?" he grumbled, noting that it was only just now becoming noon.
"I'm afraid its just one of those days, doc." Rose shrugged. "Have plans today?
"No...just want to go home." he sighed. "Didn't get enough sleep last night."
"Karma spend the night again?" Rose asked, smirking knowingly.
"No." he snapped defensively, irritated by her one-tracked train of thought whenever he and Karma were mentioned in the same sentence. Was it possible to spend time with his girlfriend without the rest of Neopia assuming they were off pounding each other senseless constantly?
"Then my next guess is that computer you got yourself." the uni replied. He quickly averted his eyes to the desktop. "Get lost on the internet?"
"Stonekeep." he replied. Rose cocked a brow.
"Never heard of it."
"It came highly recommended from Karma....so I ordered it on import from earth. The shipping cost was awful, but its a good way to pass time." he shrugged.
"Or obsess over and lose sleep?"
"That too. I've got shargas etched on the insides of my eyelids, I think..." he grunted, shoving away from the desk and standing. "And on that note, I'm out of here for an hour." he added, stretching. Rose offered a cursory wave before disappearing into the back to run a routine check of the adoptees.
The techo unshouldered his labcoat and hung it on the hook by the door before venturing outside. He had found it made him a little less conspicious to onlookers which, given he was still harrassed at least once a day about "coming back from the dead because he wasn't done harrassing Neopia", was a welcome blessing. He passed through the front door, pausing on the top step a moment to breathe in the summer air.
"Hi dad!" He flinched and turned to see Candy standing near the stairs, clutching a peach ice cream cone that was quickly melting in the noonday heat and drizzling down her paws in pink dribbles.
"Stop calling me that...and you're making a mess." he pointed out. The poogle looked down at her paws and hurriedly ran her tongue over them to lick the ice cream away. "Why haven't you gone home?"
"Mom said I could come back." she fibbed.
"You lie like a rug." he sighed. "Look, Karma's going to be worried about you."
"Not as long as I stay with you." she replied angelically. Glitz growled when he realized he had been trapped. What irked him the most was he really should have seen it coming and he hadn't. "So where're we going?" she asked, bounding up beside him and latching onto his tail.
"*I* am going to get lunch. *You* are going back home and I'm taking you there." he told her, flicking his tail out of her grasp. Candy paused, scowling at him as he looked over his shoulder at her. "What?"
"I don't wanna go home!" she said, stamping her foot stubbornly.
"Candy..." he said warningly.
"I wanna stay with you, Dad!!" she said loudly, making a few passersby stop and look confusedly at the young poogle and the poundkeeper. A pair of usuls whispered to one another, looking amusedly at the duo as they passed by and Dr. Death felt his face flush as he seized the poogle by her arm and dragged her out of the public eye before releasing her again.
"Look, stop embarrassing me." he said softly, crouching so that he was on an eye-to-eye level with her. "Maybe your mom lets you get away with that, but I'm not---" He stopped abruptly as Candy leaned forward and kissed him on the nose, smiling at him.
"I love you Daddy." she said in a most winning tone of voice. The techo, try as he might, was unable to hold onto his anger and sighed in resignation as he stood again.
"Fine. You can stay. But one more outburst like that, and you're out of here."
"Kay." the poogle replied. It wasn't the first time she had had an argument like this with him and won using similar methods. She could read him like an open book, whether he wanted to admit it or not, and the pages of that book said that this would be a trick of hers that would work for a long time to come. "So where're we going?" she asked again, following behind him as they began to walk again.
"Hubert's." he told her. "Same place I always go."
"Blech....hot dogs are oogy." Candy said matter-of-factly.
"Is that so..." he muttered disinterestedly. "Why do you think so?"
"I think...." she began, trailing off, and then seized his tail again. "Can I dye my hair red when I get older?" she asked, on a completely different train of thought suddenly.
"Sure." he replied. "Want to run off and join the circus too?" He walked quietly with her for a few moments, ignoring the questioning looks from various people they passed. He knew it was only a matter of time before SOMEONE approached him about this "daughter" of his or some rag article author from the Neopian Times wrote a big juicy story about it. Feh...let them. It seemed like most of Neopia wasn't happy unless they had their nose in someone else's business.
"HEY!! GIMME!!!" Candy cried suddenly. The doctor whirled to see the young poogle engaged in a tug-of-war over her ice cream with a blue demon-like creature. It grinned mockingly at her, its tongue lulling out as it continued to hold tight to the frozen treat. At length, apparently growing weary of the struggle, the creature extended a tendril of itself and tickled Candy's nose with it. The poogle twitched, and then sneezed loudly, accidentally releasing her grip on her ice cream.
"GOTCHA!!" the creature cackled, blowing a loud raspberry at her before zipping away and out of sight. Candy sat up, glaring icily at where he had gone.
"YOU JERK!!" she shrieked. "BUY YOUR OWN ICE CREAM!!!!!" Her lip trembled as her anger gave way to outrage and tears began to spill down her face. The yellow techo rolled his eyes and knelt next to her.
"Was that your first run-in with the pant devil?" he asked. The poogle sniffled and nodded.
"I'll get him back." she growled determinedly. "I'll tear him apart!"
"Better men than you have tried." Glitz told her. "He's just one of those things that makes Neopia bad from time to time....just be glad it was only your ice cream."
"No! C'mon!" she ordered, storming off. Dr. Death watched her a moment before sighing.
"Alright, humor me, what are you up to?" he asked, getting up and catching up to her with a few quick strides.
"I'm going to the battledome! Duh!" she snapped. The doctor's stomach did a sour flip. Not only was he fairly sure Candy didn't stand a chance against the Pant Devl, but he hadn't been to the battledome since he had been a baby.....and for good reason.
"Look, I'll buy you a new ice cream." he told her, trying to appeal to her. "Hell, I'll buy you a plushie to go with the ice cream."
"Nope." Candy replied, continuing to walk.
"Fine. Then I'm doing what I should have done in the first place." he growled, turning abruptly and walking away, back in the direction of Hubert's. Candy paused, looking over her shoulder at him. "You want to go get trampled, fine. I'm not responsible for you, Candy, and as far as I'm concerned I never even saw you today."
"I'll tell mom you did." she replied. "She'll be mad at you."
"Karma knows how I feel about playing keeper to you when she's not around." Glitz shot back. The poogle narrowed her eyes.
"We'll just see about that." she replied cryptically, whirling on her heel and continuing to stalk off in the direction of the battledome.
"Got some troubles on the homefront?" Hubert asked, having watched the exchange between the doctor and Candy a moment ago as the techo approached the counter.
"No." he replied. "Just a troublesome upstart." The mynci nodded, grabbing a bun and fishing a hot dog out of the vat with a pair of tongs.
"What'll it be today?" Hubert inquired.
"I don't care. Surprise me." the techo shrugged. "As long as there's no anthrax in it."
"Spoil my fun..." Hubert smirked, spooning on some relish and onions. "She's off to lock horns with the pant devil, huh?"
"She's going to get her rear kicked." the doctor corrected. "And its the only way she'll learn."
"Eh, I dunno. I've heard a few people say the pant devil's a pushover in the battledome. It just depends on how you go after him." The mynci offered. "And you're not going with her?"
"I don't want to." he muttered.
"What if she gets hurt?" he asked, cocking a brow at the techo.
"That's her problem. They have an on-staff first aid team."
"Uh huh..." Hubert sighed doubtfully. Glitz fidgeted, no longer sure of his decision as he waited for his lunch to be finished. As much as he hated the battledome and all that had happened to him in it, his mind kept churning up mental pictures of Candy, badly beaten, lying in the dust as he once had. Some of the battledomers would be more apt to jump into the ring and start another battle right on top of her than they would be to wait until the first aid team could get to her.
"Dammit..." he hissed. Hubert blinked and looked up as he stirred the small vat of chili with its metal ladel.
"Huh?"
"I'll be back in a minute." he sighed in defeat, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his pants and moving off in the direction Candy had gone. Hubert shook his head and smirked, wrapping the hot dog up in wax paper and putting it under the counter for the moment.
Dr. Death walked in silence, wanting to get things over and done with as soon as possible. From where he was, even now, he could see the behemoth hulking sillohuette of the battledome and it made him shudder. Since he had been young, the dome had grown dramatically in size as more neopians had taken up an interest in battling either one another or the evils of Neopia that had offered to challenge the citizens.
The techo averted his eyes to the sidewalk, ignoring the flutters of insecurity battering at the walls of his stomach. There was nothing to be afraid of....nobody was going to put him on the spot about battling, and nobody, certainly, was going to recognize him as a former pet of someone who was virtually obsessed with the place. He would go in, get Candy, and leave...as simple as that. He drew nearer to the battledome, almost certain he could hear the grunts of those battling and the clang of their weapons as they fought for title of champion. In his pockets, his hands had gone clammy and were rhythmically clenching and unclenching.
"Can I help you?" a portly skeith sitting at the guard booth of the dome inquired as the doctor neared.
"I'm here to get someone." he told the guard.
"Mmhmm...you and everybody else here, sweets." the skeith grunted, taking out a clipboard. "Who're you battling?"
"Nobody." the doctor pressed as the guard favored him with an odd look. "I told you, I'm here to get somebody."
"Ohhh....a pickup." he grinned. "I getcha now. Lemme guess, one of your kids is trying to prove their weight in salt by taking on the Snowager, right?"
"One of my friend's pets..." he replied, realizing he was stalling. "Where do I go?" he asked, clearing his throat.
"Well, now, most people just go and wait in the bleachers till the fight's over....you could wait in the locker room if you want, but we get complaints from patrons that sometimes they end up getting challenged."
"You can back down from a challenge." the techo snorted.
"Hey, I'm just tellin' ya, buddy." the guard said, putting a paw up defensively. "At any rate, good luck to your friend in there."
"Thanks." he said absently as he forced himself away from the guard booth and into the front doors. Almost immediately he was swept up with a wave of unwelcome nostalgia. The front hallway was cool and quiet, smelling faintly of antiseptic and sawdust....and instantly his mind brought forth the memories of being a very young techo, cowering behind his master's ankles as he waited in this same hallway for his turn to battle. Usually it was crowded with spectators and people waiting their turn in the ring, but today it was deserted....still too early in the day to draw a crowd since most pets were still in school or sleeping late.
He took a deep breath and held it as he kept moving, mindful of the fact that his brow had broken into a cold sweat. It occurred to him that, at that moment, he would have rather been anywhere but here again. Even back in Sloth's laboratory...hell, the sewer BENEATH the laboratory.... was more appealing than this. As he stood, torn between bolting back out the door and pressing onward, a door banged open and a disheveled-looking shoyru stumbled into the hallway, his weapons--or what remained of them--with him.
"Piece of JUNK!!" he roared, seizing up what looked like a sword with a carrot instead of a blade and throwing it on the ground. The point had broken off, likely in his previous battle, making it basically worthless in the battledome. The doctor recognized it as an item Fyora sold exclusively in her tower. Whoever the dragon neopet had gone up against must have packed a lot of punch behind them to break one of the Faerie Queen's weapons. "What're you staring at??" the shoyru demanded, noticing Glitz watching him.
"Oh...nothing." he shrugged. The shoyru narrowed his eyes.
"You'd better hope so." the neopet growled. "Balthazaar may have kicked my butt, but that doesn't mean YOU can." The doctor felt his mouth drop a little. Balthazaar? The shoyru was little more than a child and it was trying to take on one of Neopia's legendary badmen? Before he had time to ponder on this, the neopet had stormed off angrily, leaving the broken carrotblade behind. He hesitated a moment to see if the shoyru would come back for it...and when he didn't, the techo moved forward and picked the broken weapon up.
It was kind of funny, it occurred to him, that this would likely be the only time he'd ever hold a Hidden Tower artifact in his hands and he couldn't really even do anything with it. Oh well. He held onto it as he ducked into the door the shoyru had come out of. The locker room was mostly abandoned. Sitting on the bench against the wall, a young kacheek sniffled and held an ice pack against his eye where he had been punched by his earlier opponant and beside him, a red kyrii posed and flexed in front of a slightly dingy mirror.
Not seeing Candy, he turned and left the locker room, moving to the other end of the front hallway, opening the door that led into the seating rows of the dome for spectators and those waiting their turn in the center ring. As his hand touched the knob, another surge of bad memories flooded him. The stinging shame of collapsing in the dust and knowing he didn't have the strength to get up and try again, the disappointed cry of his owner, the smugness of the winner....
He bit his tongue, noting that his hands were shaking almost beyond the point of control. No...he wasn't going to make a scene. He was here to make sure Candy didn't get herself killed and that was it. Nobody, short of hog-tying him and throwing him into the ring, was going to get him to have any part of the battle arena itself. Feeling slightly better, he released his hold on the door and sidled into a nearby row of bleachers to observe.
Down below, a battle was currently raging between a green lenny and Kauvara. Though the Lenny was equipped with several expensive weapons, the kau sorceress was clearly more than a match for him as she leapt to the side, avoiding a lightning beam attack.
"Keep trying! That one only missed by TWO miles this time!" she laughed. The lenny growled in agitation and whipped out an attack fork, flying at her with it with a rasping shriek. Kauvara sidestepped daintily, sending the bird careening into the dust. "Now then....if you're quite done..." she sighed, closing her eyes and summoning a glowing orb of energy that crackled over her head a moment before darting forward and enveloping her challenger.
With a loud BZZAP, the lenny laid still in the dirt, staring vacantly up at the sky.
"TOTAL K.O.!! KAUVARA WINS!!!" someone announced over the loudspeaker. There were scattered applause from those who had watched the fight and and undertow of boo's from the Lenny's owner and friends. Never the less, Kauvara executed a sweeping bow before trotting out of the ring, head held high. "CHALLENGERS 95 AND 107 TO THE RING, PLEASE." the voice ordered as two blue pteris swooped into the arena, picking the unconscious lenny up by his shoulders and hefting him to a safe distance.
No sooner had they gotten him out of the center ring, than an incredibly large and muscular scorchio lumbered in, its eyes narrowed and its lips pulled back in a viscious, bloodthirsty snarl. Its opponent, a mean-looking, but not nearly as strong, Grarrl stormed in as well, taking its place across the ring from the behemoth scorchio. The doctor frowned, wondering if Candy had already battled. Not likely, he decided...even in non-peak hours, she would have at least ten people ahead of her.
"Make me proud, Fangpoint!" someone cried. The techo involuntarily flinched and felt a sudden wave of nausea at the sound of the voice. Just as quickly as it took him to wonder why, he knew....the voice was painfully familiar and one he had tried to forget for years. After a long moment of mental debate, he forced himself to look up, scanning the bleachers around him for its source.
For one blessed moment, Glitz thought he had been mistaken. But then, as though guided by an inner homing device, his eyes settled on a human man that was watching the two pets in the ring intently, absently petting a red kougra cub beside him. His hair, a dirty blonde color, had grown long enough to pull back into a bobbed ponytail, and his face, though lined with the first signs of age, was recognizable enough.
Joey.
The techo quickly looked away again, clenching his eyes shut and the sick feeling intensifying itself. What were the odds, he wondered? What were the god damned odds that they'd both show up at the same place at the same time after all of these years? His throat clenched and he gagged, getting up hurriedly and excusing himself.
He didn't quite make it to the restroom and doubled over, his stomach fluttering and heaving as it expelled its contents. When the last of the nausea had passed, he coughed dryly and clutched blindly for something to lean against, eventually finding the smooth concrete of the wall as he pulled himself back into a fully upright position and pressed the fevered skin of his forehead against the cool cement.
"You alright, there?" someone inquired. He didn't look to see who it was, but nodded faintly. "Hey can we get a janitor over here??" the voice called. "Some guy just yacked all over the floor!" Lovely way of putting it....
Glitz panted thickly, regaining his composure before carefully easing away from the wall and walking quietly out of the dome again. Of all of the things he had been prepared for, seeing his former owner again hadn't been one of them. Candy momentarily forgotten, he moved to an unoccupied bench in the front hallway and seated himself on it, resting his head on his hands as he collected his scattered wits.
All of the insecurities that had haunted him only briefly these days in his sleep came flaring back again and made him feel incredibly small. Rejection, humiliation, remorse...all of it without any closure. Knowing Joey still was in Neopia hadn't helped things much. Actually SEEING him again--hearing his voice--that was enough to drive him off the deep end.
"Geez, dad!!" The techo's head darted up, startled. Candy stood before him, busily eating a bag of pear drops. "You look all sick! Are you okay??"
"Candy...where've you been?" he asked. She shrugged.
"I got here, there was a line and I didn't feel like waiting...so I went to the chocolate factory instead." the baby poogle remarked. "I got you a chocolate cybunny. Ya want it?"
"No..." he sighed, standing slowly and stumbling a bit. Candy quirked a brow skeptically.
"You should go home and bundle up. That's what mommy made me do when I got Ugga Ugga."
"I'm not sick." he told her sternly. "And if I go home, you're going to run amuck all over the place."
"I will not!" she said defensively.
"I don't want to argue with you." he sighed, leaning down and picking her up before she could scamper out of reach. The poogle struggled a bit, but grudgingly surrendered, allowing herself to be carried.
"Where're we going?"she asked sullenly.
"You're going home. I'm going back to work." he informed her. "And you can whine all you want about it. I'm not in the mood, Candy." Candy opened her mouth to argue, but quieted herself again, deciding that something had obviously shaken him and that it was something she didn't really want to contend with. For the rest of the journey, there was silence between them as the doctor padded up the staircase to Karma's apartment and down the hallway.
Karma answered almost immediately after he knocked at the door and smiled faintly, looking like she hadn't been awake for very long.
"Was she giving you trouble again?" the frog asked, looking lightly concerned as she reached out to take the young poogle from her significant other.
"Eh." he shrugged, reluctant to say more. Karma's expression fell a little as she noted the hollow look in his eyes.
"You alright, Glitz?" she asked.
"I'm fine." he answered.
"You don't look fine." she countered. "Something happen?"
"I just....no, I'm fine." he faltered, shifting his weight a little and getting poked by the carrot blade he had, at some point, shoved halfway into his pants pocket. He withdrew it and handed it to Candy. Her eyes widened, despite the fact the weapon was broken, and she grinned as she swung her new toy in the air.
"HA! Try and take THIS, Pant Devil!" she declared loudly, making her owner give her a thin smile before setting the poogle down, allowing her to gallop off to show her prize to Yahoo and Chomby as she turned her attention back to the haggard-looking doctor.
"You want to come in and lay down for awhile?" she asked, stepping aside slightly. "You look exhausted." The invitation was tempting because he did, in fact, feel utterly drained, but at length he forced himself to shake his head.
"No..." he sighed. "I need to get back to work." She paused, and then nodded in understanding.
"Come by after your shift?" she whispered, moving close and nuzzling his cheek affectionately.
"I'll try." he said non-committedly. It wasn't that he didn't want to be around her, really, but he knew that she had questions...and questions, honestly, were the last thing he was in the mood for. He gave her a quick peck on the forehead and turned to leave.
"Love you." she called after him. He didn't reply, already lost in mental turmoil as he disappeared down the stairs. She looked after him with mild worry before she closed the door again. Something had clearly shaken him up quite badly, and the fact he didn't want to tell her what it was bothered her all that much more because it meant that he felt she wouldn't be able to help with it even if she knew what it was.
Karma decided to push it out of hand for the moment. He'd taken care of himself just fine long before she had ever met him and whatever this was, he'd either sort it out himself or tell her about it when he was ready. It just wasn't worth the mental energy it would take to wheedle it out of him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As things had turned out, Dr. Death hadn't gone to Karma's after work had ended and had, instead, gone directly home with every intention of going to bed and putting the entire day to rest. Instead, however, he found himself sitting at his computer, engaged in a game of Stonekeep. Behind him, Snap slept peacefully at the foot of the chair, his ears cocked and waiting for the telltale sound of his owner clicking off the computer and going through the motions of getting up.
He eased his player around a corner, unsurprised to see a set of burly throgs waiting for him as the pixelated battle was engaged. Glitz killed them all easily, moving Drake further down the corridor. Dragon Feeding Grounds, feh....he'd been all over the damned level and hadn't seen a single dragon yet. The tiredness he had felt all the way home began to prickle at him again and he decided he'd have to save his game and come back to it later as he looked for a good vantage point to do so from.
A loopy throg shaman, attracted by Drake's presense, suddenly darted out of the shadows and galloped up to the screen. "Oh, by Throggi...strangers to abuse me! Great Throggi, I exist ONLY to be abused...well, then....ABUSE ME, I SAY!!!" it declared in a nasal and hopeless-sounding voice. Despite his current frame of mind, he chuckled wryly before saving and turning the game off.
His mind, for the hundredth time that day, turned back to Joey. Where did he go from here, he wondered? He had a strong feeling Rose and Karma would tell him to let the past stay in the past and he would only hurt himself trying to dig open his old wounds. But there were things he had wanted to say to his former owner that had needled at him for years. The thought of knowing that Joey was still skulking around and having to bite his tongue made him feel cheated and dirty.
The boy had obviously done well for himself over the years and reached his goal of becoming a battledome star. It just didn't seem fair that he should get off scot free with a happy ending while sending one of his former pets through hell and back. He sighed heavily, collapsing to the bed's mattress on his back and listening to the computer go through its shutdown ritual. The bed jostled as Snap hopped up beside him, curling up against his side and yawning widely.
He gently pet the doglefox's fur, thinking heavily. Would it really solve anything if he were to go and confront Joey about all of this? Despite his wanting to, there wasn't much the boy could tell him after all these years except "my bad, sorry" no matter how much he appealed to him and made him feel like a jerk for running out on him when he was a baby.
What was he hoping for anyway? He had plenty of things of his own to worry about now -- a relationship, what could be called the startings of a family, a few friends, a house -- was he hoping there'd be an offchance Joey would want to take him back after all of this? He didn't know...but the more he thought about it, the more he thought it would be worth his time to pay his former owner a visit.
It didn't have to be a nasty encounter, he promised himself. He'd say hello, lay the cards out on the table for Joey about the tailspin his life had been in for so long and toss him a few questions, and if the human wanted to kick things up a notch and get angry with him, he'd cross that bridge when he came to it.
He took in a deep breath and let it out again slowly, making his mind up. He'd tell Karma about it if she asked, but he was going to go find Joey and he promised himself he wouldn't be talked out of it. It was something he wanted--no, NEEDED to get done and out of the way. Maybe then he could stop beating this dead horse and let it rest in peace.
As he lay pondering the possible outcomes of a conversation with his ex-owner all these years later, the phone rang shrilly on the bedside table. He picked it up on the second ring and pressed it against his head, already fairly sure of who it was.
"Hello?"
"There you are....are you okay?" Karma's voice filtered through the reciever.
"I'm better than I was, I guess." he shrugged, speaking in a near-monotone.
"Alright, well, that's better than nothing...." she sighed.
"What's wrong?" he asked her, perturbed by the exasperation in her voice.
"I think I'm more entitled to ask that than you are." the frog countered. "You looked like you had just gotten done puking your guts out when I saw you earlier today."
"Well...if the shoe fits..." the techo muttered. Karma's tone softened almost instantly.
"Are you sick?" she asked, concerned.
"No...just...." he fished for a way to flower everything over and failed. "I had a run-in with someone I wish I hadn't today. It kind of knocked me for a loop."
"Want to talk about it?" she offered.
"I'll come over." he told her. "I don't wanna talk about this over the phone."
"What's wrong with the phone?"
"Eh. I get the feeling you're going to get irked at me at some point while I'm explaining, and I much prefer getting slapped over being hung up on." There was a puzzled silence on the other line for a moment.
"Alright." she said hesitantly.
"Its not you, okay?" he told her, guessing at her biggest worry. "This has nothing to do with you. You and me are fine." Apparently he had hit the nail directly on the head because she gave a muted sigh of relief. "I'll see you soon." he informed her.
"Have you eaten yet? I could heat something up for you on your way over..." No, he hadn't eaten yet, but nor was he hungry at the moment. His stomach still felt a bit fluttery from vomiting earlier.
"I'm alright, thanks though. I'll be over in a few."
"Alright, bye." And with a click, she was gone. Dr. Death laid the phone on its cradle and hesitated a moment before sitting up, giving Snap a skritch in passing. The doglefox lifted its head lazily and looked up at him.
"Hold down the fort for me, kid. I'll be back soon." he informed his petpet absently as he left the room. A moment later, there was the sound of the front door opening and closing again. Snap gave a disinterested whurf and laid his head back on his front paws, his button-like eyes slipping closed again as he resumed his nap. He had sensed a bit of upset in his owner, but nothing that really seemed to set his fur on edge. Whatever it was, it wasn't *his* problem, after all.
TBC.......