From the Skies to the Heavens

Fourteenth Prompt: Pet

Word Count (for drabble only): 622 words

Ema had never been much of a dog person. She'd never had a pet as a child, and her first experience with a friend's dog ended with furry rampaging and broken science equipment. Not quite the start to a beautiful relationship.

The little kid Ahlbi's dog was no exception. Not only did it get into things and bark, but it actively tried to steal anything it deemed 'frilly'. Even when the item in question was more suggestive than frilly, the dog still found a way to ruin her evening, and Ema had yet to let the matter drop.

After months and months of working around the clock, Nahyuta finally announced that the two of them would have an entire evening to themselves. It wasn't every day the two of them could have a formal date, and Ema had jumped on the opportunity, going online and buying new clothes for just the occasion. Shipping had been a nightmare, but when the dress arrived, she was far from disappointed.

The investigator had never been much of a girly girl, but that didn't mean she didn't care how she dressed. And besides, who wouldn't go a little overboard for a date when such a thing was so rare? She'd just wanted to impress her boyfriend.

Unfortunately, Ema had made the poor decision of stopping in to wave at Apollo after picking up her package from the customs center. She'd opened the box up already to see what was inside, and hadn't closed the lid properly before making the walk over. Not that she'd noticed at the time.

"Hey, Apollo! How goes the defending?"

"Drowning, as usual," Apollo grumbled, not even looking at her as he walked off with an old set of files. "These years-old cases are a pain to retry. Especially on top of the new ones."

"Have any resulted in an overturned verdict?"

"A few, but not very many. Most of the cases don't have a chance of new evidence being found, so giving them a retrial does nothing but get their hopes up." He sighed. "It's sad to watch, but there's really nothing else I can do. I hate not being able to find the truth every time."

It was at that moment that Apollo's young assistant walked in, the dog in tow. "Don't feel down, Mr. Justice! You're doing Khura'in a great service!"

Apollo smiled. "Thanks, Ahlbi.

Just then, Shah'do began to bark, jumping up and down in Ema's direction. She hadn't known what it was doing at first, and didn't catch on until its teeth were planted firmly into the fabric of her dress.

"Shah'do, no! Put that down!"

Ema tried to pull her package away as the boy grabbed a hold of his dog, but that only made things worse. With an earsplitting rip, the piece of the dress in the dog's mouth was removed from the rest of the dress. She cried out.

"What did he get?"

"A dress I ordered. I was going to wear it on..."

"On what, Miss Skye?" Ahlbi popped up, handing the scrap of fabric back to her. Like that would help. "I'm sorry for what Shah'do has done."

Ema sighed, reluctantly acknowledging his apology. "On my date tomorrow with Nahyuta."

"Ema... you know Nahyuta doesn't think much about that stuff."

That didn't help.

"Maybe you could-"

Ema stormed out the door before he could finish, holding her nose and looking through a boutique of Khura'inese fashion. What could she wear that didn't make her look like some priestess?

She hated dogs.

A/N's: For the original challenge with the setup I'm following, drabbles could not be more than six hundred words. But since this isn't for an official challenge, I've decided that word limit is more of a suggestion. And that this series needed something lighter after what I wrote last time.

Hope this was a bit milder of a read, thanks for stopping in, and I'll see you on the far side!