Can We Get A Pet?
Chapter 3
Schuldig opened the door to the apartment, glancing around physically and mentally. Nagi was in his room, and there was no sign of Crawford. With a grin, he slipped in and waved over his shoulder for Farf to follow. Together, they snuck into the apartment. As soon as they started down the hallway, Nagi stepped from his room to block them. "Where have you two been? This is the last time I play messenger boy between you and Crawford. He- What is that...?" His eyes settled on the bags Schu was carrying, and the squirming furry thing Farf was holding.
"We got a borzoi," Schu told him.
Nagi's eyes widened. He turned and began to bang his head against the wall.
"What are you doing?" asked Farf curiously.
"A: giving myself a concussion. B: knocking myself unconscious. Or C: killing myself. Whichever comes first..."
"Need help?"
"No!" Nagi spun back to glare at them. "A borzoi! Do you know how big those things get! Look at the size of its paws! It's going to be huge! We can't keep it!"
"Aww, but she's such a sweet little puppy, Nagi-kins," said Schu as Farf set the puppy down on the floor. She was large, with silky white curly fur and large chocolate brown eyes.
"Schuldig, these things were bred for hunting. It's a Russian wolfhound. As in, it will be big and need a good amount of exercise. What are you going to do with a dog that is meant to hunt wolves?"
"Feed you to it," muttered Schu, moving around Nagi to drop the bags with the rabbit supplies in Farf's room, then bringing the dog supplies out to the kitchen.
Nagi didn't hear him, as he was staring at the large puppy sitting at his feet staring up at him with tail wagging. He felt like the dog would eat him whether or not Schu fed him to it. Her, he had said, right? Nagi tentatively reached down to pet her. She leaned her head into his hand, shyly licking his fingers. Well, maybe she wasn't as bad as he had thought. He'd have to do a bit of research online to figure out a borzoi's normal personality.
"She likes you," Farf pointed out.
"You do realize that Crawford won't like this." Nagi had knelt down to pet her.
"Well Crawford can just bite me," said Schu as he came back in. "Where is the mighty leader, anyway?"
"As I was saying before, he went to kiss up to our employer. At his retreat house. In the mountains. He'll be gone for a couple days." Nagi stood and headed to his room. The puppy followed. He turned to shoo her away, but his protests died in his throat, killed by her large innocent and trusting eyes. With a sigh, he let her into his room.
After almost an hour of research, Nagi realized that he would most likely be the one taking care of the dog. Not because the others wouldn't do it, though he knew that it would eventually come to that, but because of this particular breed's habits and personality. They were sensitive, aristocratic dogs, who needed a stable routine. She'd be picky about food, need good outdoor walks or runs often, and could literally end up sick if exposed to a lot of tension between the team members. Not to mention grooming once a week. She was like an extra-furry and extremely spoiled greyhound, basically.
He was just glad they didn't have to worry about her chasing things inside, as she was a sight hound. Crawford would never take care of her, and neither one of his other two teammates had a good personality for this kind of dog. He got up to get a snack, and make sure Schu had gotten a good brand of dog food, leaving her sleeping on his bed. He'd folded an extra blanket and laid it there for her, and she seemed happy with it.
As he dug through the fridge for something, he heard Schu calling. "Hey, I'm gonna go grab some stuff at the store. Do we need milk or anything?"
"Better dog food."
"What?" Schu looked into the kitchen. "Store brand's not good enough for her?"
"Schu, borzoi are sensitive and picky. Make sure it's a good brand, and that it hasn't expired yet."
Muttering, Schu left the apartment. With a sigh, Nagi hoped the dog would be okay here until he or Crawford could find her a better home. With snack in hand, he started back to his computer.
He stopped dead in his tracks when he got to the living room and saw Farf sitting on the couch with a small rabbit cuddled on his lap.
Normally, he would have laughed at the spectacle, but rabbits were near the top of the list of animals a borzoi would chase. "Farf, since when did you have a rabbit...?"
"Since yesterday."
Nagi was tempted to kill himself by banging his head again. "You got a rabbit yesterday, and a hunting dog today? Were you two even thinking! No, wait, don't answer that. You do realize that the dog will chase the rabbit if she sees it, right?"
"I'll keep Alice in my room if the dog is out."
Rolling his eyes, Nagi stalked off to his room, shutting the door behind him. He did a bit more research, then did half his homework, glad that today was Saturday. Then he flopped down on his bed on his stomach, petting the dog, and thinking he should name her.
Schu came back a while later with some groceries, most of which they didn't need, and the proper dog food. Farf had retreated back to his room with Alice, and Nagi was in the living room now reading while using his telekinesis to move around a knotted rope for the puppy to chase. He was playing with the dog more than reading, though.
"I'm home." Schu dropped the things in the kitchen, and turned around to see the borzoi standing behind him, looking up at him happily. He was about to snap at her to leave him alone, but just sat down on the floor to look her in the face instead. She sat, and stared back.
The contest went on for a minute before the puppy blinked and tried to jump into his lap. Schu laughed and ruffled her ears a bit. "Cute. Just cute. Hey, Nagi!" he called. "Have you come up with any ideas on what to name her yet?" He carefully scooped her up and carried her to the living room again.
"Borzoi is derived from the Russian word for swift. I was thinking of that."
"Swift, huh? Okay. I like it." He set her down on the floor, then headed to his room.
"Schu, where are you going?"
"I want to play with my rats for a bit."
"Put the food away first...RATS!"
Schuldig made a quick exit to his room. Muttering to himself, Nagi got up, put away all the sugary snacks the German had bought, then put a collar and leash on Swift to take her out for a walk.
The next two days passed without much event, as the three of them got used to having their new pets around. Nagi was getting ready for school Monday morning, hoping that Swift wouldn't suffer separation anxiety during the day, when the phone rang. He picked it up. "Hello?"
"Nagi," he heard Crawford's voice from the other end, "I'll be delayed a couple days. I need to smooth some things over. And tell Schuldig not to get any more pets. We will be finding new homes for them when I get back. Understood?"
"Yes, sir. I will. Is there anything else?"
"No. That's all. And don't be late for school." There was a click, and dead air.
Rolling his eyes, Nagi hung up, and grabbed his lunch. On his way out, he let Farf out of his room. "Swift is in her crate, could you let her out for a couple hours around lunch time?"
Farf nodded, plopping down in his favorite chair with a manga and Alice. Nagi was amazed at how attached he'd grown to that rabbit. Shaking his head, Nagi ran out.
Farf lounged in the chair for a couple hours, before putting the rabbit in his room and letting the dog out. He noticed Schu still wasn't up, and decided to wake him. Picking the puppy up, he went into Schu's room, put the dog on his bed and quietly prompted her to lick his face until he sat up and pushed her back.
"Farf! What's the big idea!"
"Time to get up." He scooped Swift up again, and left before she could notice Fingers and Maus in their cage. He went back out to the living room with her to play. Five minutes later, they each had one end of the rope toy in their mouths and were trying to drag each other around.
Schuldig stretched as he got up, and wandered out to the kitchen to grab food, then brought it back to his room. He opened the cage, pulled the rats out, and flopped down on the bed to eat and let them wander around on him. Maus really seemed to like hiding in his hair.
Fingers, on the other hand, kept vanishing into pockets, stealing food, and disappearing when Schu wasn't watching him. He really was a little rogue. And he seemed to like getting in trouble.
Deciding they needed some toys, Schu put Maus back in the cage, searched until he found Fingers hiding under his nightstand, put him in the cage, and left. "Hey Farf. I'm going out for a while. You two play nice!"
Farf growled around the rope until Swift let go of it and he toppled backwards. "Okay." He then started batting a heavy rubber ball around, watching the puppy try to pounce on it.
When Nagi got back from school, he found Farf in the living room with the rabbit and another manga. "Where's Swift?"
"Played fer a while and got tired. Sleeping in the crate now."
"And where's Schuldig? Crawford called this morning and wanted me to tell him something."
"Out."
"Where?" Nagi asked with feigned patience.
"Didn't say." Farf tilted his head back slightly as the rabbit pushed its nose against his chin. "My guess is he'll be back soon." He reached up to rub Alice's nose.
With a sigh, Nagi turned to go to his room and drop his stuff off. "Make the rabbit scarce. I'm taking Swift out for a walk." With a sigh, he let her out of the crate, and put the collar on her and let her follow him to the door before putting the leash on.
He walked to a park a couple blocks away, where he was practically ambushed by a dozen girls who wanted to meet him because he had such a cute and sweet-tempered puppy. After dealing with them for half an hour, he'd had enough and wanted to get back to the apartment so he could do homework. On the way up, he met their snobbish neighbors with the miniature poodle, on their way out for their afternoon walk. They were actually crooning over Swift instead of their own little curly-haired rat dog. Hmm. As much as he hated people, having Swift around actually brought him good attention for once.
Nagi stepped into the apartment, Swift right beside him, to see Schuldig standing in the middle of the living room, setting something up. "What are you doing?"
"Hm? Oh, hey, Nagi-kins! Come see this! I found the neatest little lizards, called anoles."
A note to my dear friends the readers. Thank you! I was happy when chapter one got three reviews, so I was really happy when the second got seven! Well, now we all know what a borzoi is, don't we? If they weren't so high-maintenance, I'd want one.
Poor Nagi. Dog dumped on him, and all these other pets accumulating around him. What? Something about torturing your favorite character the most? I would, but it's kinda hard to torture Farfie, and I've already done it. (see New Knives; also for more reference to the snobbish neighbors.)
Reviews:
Night-Owl123 – One week soon enough...?
ShadowCrow25 – You're right, they can't look after a single pet for a week. It's amazing they've lasted a weekend with four animals.
MalletWielderofDoom – Why, thank you! Arigato, danke, and thank you! bows I'm happy you like the idea so much! I'm very much an animal person, and I always have to wonder "What would these characters do with a pet?" for anything that I watch. Mallets from mallet space? Gweee.
Narijima Oh, yes, they will quite the zoo.I actually miss my gerbil a lot. Large black thing named Zeiram. (the creature from an anime called Iria) He didn't have a food dish either. It got turned into the water dish when he started chewing on the metal holder for the water bottle, and I never found any metal shavings. It's amazing he lived for four years... But, yes, they certainly do love shoving their shaving everywhere.
Flea Bitten – A Weiss for a pet? We'll have to see. I don't actually plan stories, but let them write themselves, so it might happen, it might not. We'll all have to find out, including me... And rats are cool. Can't wait to get one, but I have to wait until after college is over.
Yea! hugs Another new aunt! Congrats to you too!
Femfang Yes, my version of Farfie is... interesting. Humorous, ADHD, can be manic-depressive at times, and of course randomly homicidal. I loves him, my prrrrrrreciousssss... ahem Moving on. Does Crawford really know what's up? Well, he knows there's animals involved, but how many did he See?
Ptath Here it is! Wait no longer for chapter three!
