Another day was about to begin in the house of the Dalmatians. The sunlight was barely glimpsed through the windows inside this home almost entirely filled with Dalmatian puppies.
The eyes of a blond and very disheveled child, who answered by the name of Hunter, slowly opened as he mentally prepared himself from his mere awakening for the household chores that he would soon have to perform.
Like every morning since the cubs had begun sleeping on him, getting up completely had become a somewhat complicated task to perform without ending up stepping on tails or squashing puppies while he was doing his best to roll over and remove the excesspuppies that were on his infantile body.Two Dalmatian puppies, who went by the name Dan and Dixie, soon joined him as they too shed their many spotted relatives and began to yawn in unison while performing their morning stretches.
Once Hunter, Dan, and Dixie were fully upright and had shaken off what little sleep they still had framed in their eyes. Hunter and the two cubs soon found themselves heading to the kitchen, knowing that they would only have about two hours before the other cubs woke up and would start swarming everywhere, and consequently making the first household chores a very dificult thing to complete.
Dan placing each of each puppy's bowls one by one in its respective place as Dylan had indicated.
On Dixie's side, she found herself going over what kind of croquettes each puppy would eat, and whether in any of the bowls her mother would leave instructions on whether or not they should hide tummy medicine.
Hunter for his part would be restocking the kibble dispenser, and doing a check on its configuration to verify if it had not been changed by any curious puppies.
"Good Morning Kids"
The trio momentarily stopped what they were doing, and with curious eyes, turned only to see one of the only two adult Dalmatians making an appearance in the kitchen, Doug Dalmatian.
"..." Hunter was silent and went back to what he was doing.
"..." Dixie made herself small and covered herself with the list she was still holding between her front paws.
"Good morning dad!" Dan greeted with a positive smile as he set his father's bowl, "Did you sleep well?"
Doug approached the table and let out a yawn before replying: "I slept like a dog son"
Dan laughed a little, "Don't we all do it dad?"
"...", Hunter from where he was shot a glare at the puppy. dan wasn't wrong, but the fact that it still implied that Hunter slept like a dog caused him to earn a glare from said blond boy.
"I mean- Almost everyone?" Dan seemed to smile awkwardly for a few moments as he swallowed hard and felt his collar suddenly tighten around his neck, "uh, we sleep good"
"It's good to hear that," Doug commented positively, "This is the last day of your punishment after all."
"Our last day?", Dan questioned as he placed another bowl and looked at his adoptive father, "Has a whole month passed?"
"Yup, after today you three should be completely free of chores," he informed the three with a fatherly smile, "How does it feel to know that this is your last day of chores, kids?"
"Uh. I don't know," Dan shrugged, "Kind of strange. It didn't feel like a month at all. "
"Ah, that's just hard work altering your perspective of time, son", Doug nodded and informed him with some pride, "You will understand better as you get older. And even more when you meet a pretty dog that attracts you and you start your own. family"
A chill ran through Dan's body, he was still at the age where the prospect of getting a girlfriend was a kind of taboo, "Thanks dad", he ended by thanking, "Now I'm afraid of growing up"
"Hah, don't worry son", Doug pulled Dan into a hug and shook the top of his head playfully, "You're still too young to be afraid of that kind of thing."
"Hehe", Dan scoffed a bit as he pulled his foster dad's paw away. doug had been keeping the three of them company every morning since they woke up early. Dan appreciated the gesture, but Dixie and Hunter almost always chose to be silent whenever Doug spoke to them.
"How are you two doing over there?" Doug asked as Dan pulled away and continued with his task.
"Meh," Hunter exclaimed without turning to see Doug, who is being much more focused on doing the last checks before starting to use the kibble dispenser.
"I'm fine ...", Dixie exclaimed in a whisper that only Dan and his father could hear well, "... Thanks for asking"
"I-it's good to hear that dear," Doug exclaimed with a smile still on his muzzle but in a defeated tone with his ears flopping.
He still didn't quite know how to approach his adopted daughter Dixie, the shy puppy still seemed to act quite distant with him, and every interaction he had with her denoted a certain tension of discomfort on the part of her puppy.
'At least this time she's talking to me,' Doug mused, 'It would be nice if she stopped having the habit of leaning so much on Dan when she wants to communicate with others.'
He soon shook his head and erased his defeated expression to turn and look towards the human in a happier way.
"And you, Hunter, how are you doing over there?" He asked, "Doing more of your awesome updates?"
Hunter let out a very small, silent annoyed sigh. It was clear that Doug was not satisfied with his first answer of: 'Meh', and now if he does not answer, he risks that said Dalmatian continues looking for a topic of conversation that makes him speak, preferably using more than one sentence.
He had no idea why Doug did that. It seemed just like a waste of time for Hunter.
Unfortunately, interacting once a day with Doug had become another part of his routine from which he could not escape without generating further annoyance or discomfort.
"I'm just getting the kibble dispenser ready," Hunter finished explaining in a bored tone even without looking away from the kibble dispenser.
His updates to said kibble dispenser had taken the machine from a less improvised appearance, to one more optimal for child-puppy handling and in keeping with something that only the mind of the little genius boy Hunter could shape using only highly improvised materials and a mind completely willing to abandon its reality. Doug was more than grateful to the boy for making those improvements to the kibble dispenser. Now even he could understand more easily how it worked without the latent risk that pressing a wrong button would end up causing an explosion of croquettes.
It was reassuring to him that the kibble dispenser was no longer a time bomb that exploded with terrifying regularity at least once a week.
One less fire hazard to worry about.
"Are you going to eat Dad? Or going to wait for the other? ", Dan asked, this one having already finished ordering the bowls and seeing his foster dad.
"I'm going to wait for the others son," Doug told him,
"Okay," Dan nodded and said as he left and took his place at the table.
Dixie soon finished doing her homework as well, having deposited stomach pills in certain bowls that belonged to puppies that seemed to have announced to their foster mom that they had a slight tummy ache.
Dixie having saved the rest of the tummy medicine, she withdrew and sat in her place still next to her brother at the table.
Hunter, having finished checking the kibble dispenser and having refilled it, went to the kitchen and retrieved a carton of milk along with a deep plate that he brought with him to the place where Dixie and Dan were sitting who were following him with the look.
After doing that, he marched off to the kibble dispenser, took the fire hose away from him, and proceeded to fill the puppies's bowls and his bowl with kibble.
He soon found himself accompanying Dixie and Dan to breakfast sitting cross-legged with his elbows on the table. He proceeded to fill his plate full of croquettes with milk, with the intention of fooling himself into thinking that he was not eating dog food but a kind of cereal with a very bad cardboard taste that left a bad taste in his mouth to meat and vegetables.
The kibbles tasted awful, like always, but Hunter at this point had stopped looking for a way to make them taste less like dog food, and more like human food.
The cubs next to him only started digging into their bowls when he dipped his spoon into his first spoonful.
breakfast for Hunter, Dixie and Dan had started before the others could join them, and I witnessed how Hunter seemed to suffer with every spoonful he gave his plate full of kibbles and milk.
It was something difficult to see, but for Dan and Dixie it was even more painful to know that Hunter would rather have breakfast completely alone and without company than just be there to see him with pity.
It was painful to know that Hunter had grown used to suffering in complete solitude for so long. just ... wishing for something that was impossible to obtain from the start. The love of his only family ..., Cruella De Vil.
Dixie and Dan did not know very well if it was instinct or something more primitive, but something deep within the brothers pushed them and gave them the necessary strength not to abandon Hunter every time they understood and felt how the child thought that suffer in Silence was just normal for him.
They would not allow him to suffer alone, something within their nature as dogs did not want to allow this poor human child to suffer in complete solitude.
They still didn't quite know what to name that feeling, but somehow they thought it had something to do with what humans always liked to mention regarding dogs being man's best friends.
Maybe it was that or something else, they have not yet matured enough to understand one hundred percent everything that goes through their heads.
Maybe it was even because they enjoyed the tummy scratches that Hunter gave them as a gift while staring at the wall at times.
They weren't quite sure yet, at the moment, it just felt organic somehow for them to act the way they did.
For the moment they were just following their instincts. An instinct that almost screamed at them: 'Don't leave that kid alone or he's going to do something incredibly stupid!'
Dixie and Dan were pretty sure they didn't want to find out what it was that stupid thing Hunter was most likely going to do if he was left alone again.
'Ywan'
A loud yawn made Dixie and Dan raise their muzzles from their respective bowls, a sleepy Dolly had just arrived.
"Good morning dear," Doug greeted, "Did you sleep well?"
"Like a dog", Dolly replied to her dad with a smile, before turning her attention to the trio who were just finishing their breakfast, "Good morning, guys. I see you already prepared everything. Good, that gives me more time to rest"
"Enjoy it because our punishment ends today, Dolly", Dan exclaimed towards Dolly, "After today, we will be free again"
"Didn't you and Dixie mention that you were going to keep helping us?" Dolly questioned.
"Well yeah, now that I remember, we said something like that", Dan admitted, before adding, "But not every day- Maybe you just tues- huh?"
Dixie stopped him when she pinched him a bit to get his attention. And shook her head, Tuesday they couldn't help.
"Wednesday?" Dan blink and asked looking at his sister.
Dixie instantly shook her head again. That day either, that day the favorite cartoon of both brothers was shown.
"Thursday?"
Dixie was shaking her head again. That day they passed the repetition.
"Friday?"
Dixie looked up and thought about it for a few moments, before looking down and shaking her head again.
On that day Christmas would be celebrated ... in a couple of months.
Dan rolled his eyes and let out a sigh, "Saturday? Saturday and Sunday its okay?"
"Hmm", Dixie this time let out a mumble as she thought about it. Saturday and Sunday seemed like a good morning to help out.
"Yep", Dixie ended up nodding with a smile on her snot.
"Okay", Dan said to his sister nodding, before turning to Dolly who was looking at them in a funny way, "Dixie and I agree that we can help Saturdays and Sundays with the housework, its that good enough? , Dolly? "
Dolly crossed her paws, "It depends. Hunter is helping whit the Dawkins part? "
"Uh, I'm not really sure," Dan exclaimed, then turned to see Hunter, "Hunter, would you help us with this, please~?"
"Whatever," Hunter exclaimed as he stood up with his plate and walked away from the table, "It's not like I had anything better to do than be the silly pet of a Dalmatian family," he muttered.
"That's the spirit, champ!" Dolly called in a mocking tone, earning a blank look from, "What?", she said, the both brothers just shake their heads and in silence just retreated a bit after Hunter to leave their empty bowls.
having finished his breakfast, Hunter retired to the upstairs bathroom of the Dalmatian home to take a shower, Dan and Dixie just with for him in the entrance.
As the water fell on his head, he allowed himself to cry, as his tears mingled with the water and dog wash that ran all over his face.
questions like: 'How long will this sadness last?' And, 'why don't they just leave me alone?' They only widened the river of tears that formed under Hunter's eyes.
"... When will they realize I'm not worth it?" Hunter exclaimed to himself with his head hanging down.
Hunter's self-loathing continued to increase at an alarming rate with each passing day. He didn't think he deserved anything around him.
He just want to be happy again, but he still don't know how.
(To be continue)
((AN: The reviews motivate me to continue writing this story. Please comment and let me know your opinion, thanks for reading))
