Tramp lied at Jim Dear's feet by the fireplace. He was currently enjoying the comfortable heat brought by the fire and the house as a whole.
It was only a few days ago that he had saved Junior, the baby in the family, from a devious rat. Though initially mistaken as a threat, Lady managed to reveal his heroic deed and her two friends were able to save him from the pound.
He couldn't help, but chuckle at the last part. When he first interrupted a conversation between three collared dogs, his eyes immediately fell on the adorably naïve Lady. He paid the other two no attention as he rudely entered the yard. That and the time that they berated him for allowing Lady to get sent to the pound, made him certain that he'd never befriend them. After Trusty broke his leg however, the three started to warm up to each other.
"Do you feel comfortable?" He was broken out of his thoughts by the one he had fallen in love with, Lady.
"Pidge, that's the third time you've asked me today" He laughed, "is something wrong?"
She went to lay next to him, "Not at all, I just want to make sure you feel at home here."
He gave a confused look, "Why wouldn't I?"
"It's just that you seemed to be rather happy on the streets. I want you to be just as happy here." She explained.
Tramp pondered on this for a while, before saying, "Maybe I would take the streets over a house, it has everything I could want out of life, freedom, food and water..."
Lady listened intently.
"...but the streets don't have you Pidge. Where you go, I go."
Neither said a word after that, opting to instead smile warmly at one another and drift to sleep.
He woke up the next morning in surprising comfort. It still amazed Tramp that he used to sleep in a stuffy barrel, right next to a train station. Now that he was here, curled up next to Lady, he realized just how comfortable the house life was.
Carefully he pulled himself away from Lady and tip toed out of the room. He wasn't too worried about waking her, she seemed to be sleeping deeper than when he first arrived. Her scent had also changed slightly. He decided that it was strange, but nothing to worry about.
He reached the kitchen and crouched through the doggy door, it was still slightly chilly outside. Surveying the yard, he looked for a place to do his business. He promised Lady to avoid going outside, as he still needed a license, but when he needed to go, he needed to go. And he didn't think that Jim or Darling would be too pleased with him, doing these things inside the house.
His eyes ultimately landed on a bush near the fence. Just before he could relieve himself however, a familiar, surprised voice spoke from behind.
"Tramp!"
Tramp turnt slowly to meet the eyes of his best friend.
"I was hearing whispers, but... I didn't think any of it was true..."
Taking in a deep breath, Tramp readied himself to explain, "Listen Buster just-"
Buster cut him off, "You're a house dog!"
Suddenly those angry words filled him with a sense of shame and for a second, a very brief second he considered making up a stupid excuse, jumping over the fence and having some real, street life fun with his friend, but he instead chose to stop those thoughts. He lived in here because of Lady, nothing else.
In his thoughts he had missed most of Buster's angry, long and admittedly selfish rant, only picking up the end of it, "...living the cooshie, pillow life!"
He looked at Buster, who was salivating and panting in all his rage and chose to skip the explanation and just get to the point, "I fell in love."
Somehow Buster grew even angrier, "So that was also true."
Tramp tried to get through again, "Buster-"
"What's her name?" He cut in.
"Why does that-"
"What's her name?!"
"It's Lady."
"Lady." He spoke her name like it was poison.
"I love you and the streets, but I love Lady more than anything else." Tramp explained to his somewhat calmed friend.
"Lady," Buster repeated the name again, "ok... well now you have a choice to make."
"Buster-"
"Me or Lady?"
