Eleanor was still humming the tune of the performance song on their way back home. It was so catchy it got stuck in their head.
Then again, any songs Triple D performed got stuck in their head by default, Eleanor really was a huge fan of those actresses.
"You're back late." Their mother, a woman by the name of Eliana, commented as they walked inside.
"I was hanging with Kirby and my new friend." Eleanor reminded her. They loved their mom, but sometimes she forgot whenever Eleanor told them stuff.
Eliana paused from reading the newspaper on the couch to look up at them. "A new friend?"
Then again… they might have forgotten to share some details. "Yeah, we met at the park!" They beamed. "It was really funny, they thought I was someone else because I looked like a classmate of theirs."
"What do you mean by that?" Eliana raised an eyebrow.
"Well, my friend's from San Fransokyo, they're visiting here on vacation." The room felt like it got colder, for some reason. "You ever been there, Mum?"
They looked up at their mom, there was a cold look on her face. "I haven't heard about that place in years…"
"So you have been there?"
"It doesn't matter." Eliana got up, placing her newspaper on the table and leading Eleanor to their room. "No more words about other places, time for bed dear."
"Yes Mum." Eleanor closed the door and got into their pajamas, brushing their teeth and getting ready for bed.
Something was off on how quickly their mom changed the subject of San Fransokyo, Eleanor didn't know much about the city Karmi went to school with, but according to Kirby, there were a lot of superheroes happening there.
Maybe Mum had a bad experience there and doesn't like thinking about it. They reasoned. I could ask Grandpa about it tomorrow.
Eleanor didn't know who their father was, so the closest they had to a fatherlike figure was their mom's father, their grandfather was the only one in the family who believed in Eleanor's ability to talk to animals. Everyone else thought they had an imagination, which was true, but not in this case.
I wish I knew why I could talk to animals but the rest of my family doesn't. It was something that kept them up at night, wishing that someone would believe them, until the day that wish came true in the form of Kirby, and now Karmi.
A warmth filled their chest as they felt sleep wash over them, even if their mom didn't believe them, they had friends who did now.
Friendship Circle group chat:
Kirby G: I can't sleep. All I keep thinking of is that emo poodle
Karmi K: Y
Kirby G: Swear I saw that poodle before, talent show maybe?
Eleanor M: I can't sleep either
Eleanor M: but I'm not thinking of poodles
Kirby G: No you only have dalmatians on the brain
Dawkins D: huh
Karmi K: Hi Dawkins!
Dawkins D: I'm doing late night work and my phone went off, don't humans usually sleep at this time?
Kirby G: Bold of you to assume we're normal humans
Dawkins D: Fair enough
Eleanor M: Hey Karmi I have a weird question
Karmi K: Shoot
Eleanor M: So remember when you mistook me for your classmate David?
Karmi K: Yeah, if I didn't know any better I'd say you were his twin
Karmi K: Why do you ask
Eleanor M: My mum acted weird when I mentioned SF
Kirby G: So did my aunt when I told her you went to school there.
Kirby G: she said something something Boss Awesome idk who that guy is
Karmi K: Oh he used to protect the city before Bh6 showed up!
Eleanor M: bh6?
Karmi K: Big Hero 6. The greatest superheroes, they're chill and nice and they've stopped some really nastly baddies
Dawkins D: Superheroes are real?!
Kirby G: Did you not hear about the Avengers?
Dawkins D: I THOUGHT THEY WERE A COMIC SERIES
Karmi K: ROFL
Another morning at Regents Park, Diggs was just lying beside a tree when the sounds of "Park! Park! Park!" hit his ears and he saw the horde of pups bolt into the park.
"That was earlier than normal." He and Domino were at the park by themselves, their humans going off to a museum. It was weird, going places without their human companions by their sides, but Camden gave them a sense of independence, it was weird, but nice at the same time.
Domino, who was also resting by a tree, shot up. "Nice! It'll be great hanging with my littermates again." He could already spot Dakota trying to climb a tree, maybe she could give him some tips. "C'mon Diggs!"
But as they were walking to the crowd, Diggs heard a scoff. "Uch, one was hoping the ruff-raff wouldn't come today."
There was a corgi behind him, she had a light brown coat and wore a fancy collar. "Ruff-raff?" Domino glanced around the park.
"One was talking about you." Her expression turned to disgust when locking eyes with Domino. "You mutts shouldn't be allowed to wander without humans."
Diggs growled, the corgi stepping back as he stood between her and Domino. "We have humans, and frankly I don't like how you're speaking to my family." He curled his lip. "Who are you?"
"Clarissa Corgi." She huffed. "My apologies, I thought he was with them." She pointed a paw to the playing dalmatians. "Spotted pests always cause a ruckus."
"Hey!" Domino felt angry at the way she spoke to his family. But her name sounded familiar. "Wait a second, Dolly mentioned you once!"
Speak of the devil, and she shall appear. "Heard my name!" Dolly skated into the scene, she shot Clarissa a glare. "You bothering my friends, corgi?"
"Hmph!"
"Do you know who this upstart brat is, Dolly?" Diggs raised an eyebrow, the corgi sputtering at the insult.
Dolly groaned. "Unfortunately, she's one of our neighbors."
"One is unfortunate to have you dalmatians as neighbors!" Clarissa huffed. "Running around with no humans to keep you tame."
Diggs held his paw to keep Dolly from lunging as he noticed anger in her blue eyes, but he didn't realize Domino would do the same. "Just because they're smart enough to manage themselves without humans, doesn't mean you can belittle them!" The pup was inches away from the corgi's face, his teeth bared in anger. "Humans have to do complicated things like taxes or pay the bills, if they can do it, why can't you? Or are you too entitled to lift a paw without your human having to do it for you!"
Clarissa merely raised an eyebrow, not intimidated by the puppy barking. "For one who claims to have a human, you act more like a rabid beast." She turned away from the group, walking away from them.
"Don't let what she said get to you." Dolly placed a paw on Domino's shoulder. "She's just a hater."
"More like a Karen." The pup scoffed. He didn't care what that corgi said, she was just a snobby brat of a canine, spoiled to the point of being rotten.
She snickered. "Yeah, that works too! Oh my dog I have to tell Dylan that, he'd love it!"
As Dolly skated off, Diggs shot a glance to where Clarissa had left. "That corgi is trouble." He had an uneasy feeling in his chest when she was nearby. "I wonder if she's been causing problems for the Dalmatians."
"If she is, I'm gonna steal her toys." Domino huffed. "Or whatever people do when they're getting revenge!"
Diggs shook his head. "Domino, no, just… no." Why did he have to be the responsible one?
Meanwhile with the Khans…
"Woahhh." Haley and Ryan were fawning over the huge statue of a dinosaur that was in the museum.
Karmi smiled at her siblings' reactions, they did insist on seeing the prehistoric exhibit in the Camden History Museum, their reactions were so cute.
"I wonder if it's a T-Rex!" Haley exclaimed.
Ryan thought otherwise. "I dunno, it has a smaller head."
"Maybe it's a small T-Rex!"
Baymax ended the small argument before it got big. "Ryan is correct, the dinosaur statue is of a Carnotaurus."
"See those horns?" Karmi pointed to the skull of the carno. "We're lucky that they're not around today, otherwise the head charges from them could destroy buildings!"
"One destroyed my house in Ark Survival." Ryan pouted. Karmi vaguely recalled that their parents bought him that game for the holidays, her little brother had a lot of fun taming dinosaurs and making his own little Jurassic Park.
Baymax patted his shoulder. "There, there."
"It's okay, the carno I got made it pay." He replied, glancing over to the biotech major. "I named mine after you sis, but I forgot that it was a boy but I kept the name because you'd still be the coolest big sibling ever, even if you were a boy."
Karmi blinked a few times, as if processing what her brother said or the fact he named a video game dinosaur after her.
"How come this doesn't show the rest of the body?" Haley noticed that they only saw the head and some of the legs of the dinosaur.
"That is because there has been only one Carnotaurus skeleton to have been discovered." Baymax told them, his screen bringing up an image of the full skeleton. "Currently, it resides in Argentiago, South America."
The twins awed. "Ooooh."
"I think I see a T-Rex skull over there." Karmi pointed to some of the wall displays. "Did you tame one in your game and name it after Haley?" She nudged her little brother.
He shook his head. "No, I named her after a dodo."
"Meanie!"
"I'm kidding, I named you after a raptor!"
Their parents walked in at that moment. "You kids having fun over there?" Zachary asked them.
"Dad did you know that there's only one Carbosaurus skeleton in the whole wide world?!" Haley bounced up in excitement.
"Carnotaurus." Ryan quietly corrected.
Haley pouted. "Nerd!" Karmi shot her little sister a look. "Sorry!"
A laugh came from their mom. "Well, glad to see you kids having fun."
"We found some neat science exhibits." Zachary told them. "You'd like them, Karmi."
The biotech major perked up a little. "Where?"
Her parents exchanged looks, that wasn't good. "I can show you." Her mother told her.
Oh no… Karmi could tell that she was going to have to confront her mother about what happened at the Dalmatians house, and that horrible comment she made.
Not like she had a choice, considering her siblings didn't see the problem, and Karmi was too shy to cause a fit in the museum, so she followed Molly out of the dinosaur room, just as Haley and Ryan crowded the T-Rex skull.
She didn't speak at first, wanting to see what her mother would say at first. "I… I should not have said what I said a few days ago." Molly started off the conversation in an awkward tone of voice.
"Now you admit it." Karmi rolled her eyes. She half-expected her mother to interrupt in offense of her sarcasm, but she didn't, instead staring at the biotech major with a look of guilt. "Do you know what I told Dad about the whole thing? I told him that I thought you blamed me for what that lady did."
"No, I never!" Molly exclaimed. "But it sounded like I did, didn't I?"
Karmi nodded. "I mean… I know you don't like me, Mom, but I didn't think you didn't like me that much."
Her mother merely frowned, confusion in her eyes. "I never said I didn't like you, you're my daughter."
"Then why do you always second-guess my choices?!" Karmi hissed, careful not to raise her voice to draw the suspicion of strangers. "First it was going to SFIT, then you questioned it when Big Hero 6 showed up, and now you don't want me to leave?"
"Because I worry about you." Molly sighed. She didn't want her daughter, her eldest and clever daughter to get hurt, but she didn't realize in the process that her actions could be hurting Karmi. "Zachary was right, I'm so scared you'll get hurt when leaving the nest, I've made it your prison."
Wasn't that ironic? Karmi mused. That her stepfather had been more of a responsible parent than her mother was. If he wasn't around… She shuddered at the thought, thinking about what-ifs didn't help. "I'm sorry that I've stressed you out during this trip, but Karmi… I only worry because I love you, you're one of the greatest gifts life could ever give me, you're becoming such a strong and brave woman, I couldn't be more proud."
Karmi was stunned, she had never heard her mother compliment her like that, she only got more shocked as Molly gently pulled her into a hug. "You don't have to forgive your foolish mother, I wouldn't forgive mine if she said half the things I've said to you. But you deserve to know that I never disliked you, not even when you threw a fit when Zachary and I told you that you'd be a big sister."
"I have no recognition of me ever complaining about Haley and Ryan's existence." That was the only thing she could say.
"Well, you were eight, sweetie."
For some reason, that got Karmi to sniffle a little. "I… I love you Mom."
"I-I-I love you too sweetie." Now her mother was crying too.
Since the incident at San Fransokyo, Karmi had often avoided being around her mother, who was adamant that she'd stay home and never come back to the city just because of what happened. Even if she wanted to protect her, Karmi was not happy with her mother trying to make her choose how to live her life.
But now was the first time she had let her mother hug her since her parents came and took her away from San Fransokyo. Karmi had almost forgotten what her mother's hugs felt like, and how warm and safe she felt with them.
Despite the emotional conversation on the way to the science exhibits, Karmi was still eager to explore. "Oh wow, they have a whole slide on medical biology!"
"That's great, sweetie." Molly commented. She didn't want to ruin the moment by saying anything else, but she did notice her daughter avoiding some of the biotech parts of the exhibit.
Even if Karmi denied it with all of her might, Molly knew that what had happened at Sycorax had damaged her love of biotech in a way. A way she wasn't sure Karmi would recover from, as her daughter seemed to assume that taking a step back from her work would be the key.
Molly hoped that it was, if her daughter's career had been ruined because of what Diane's actions did… She had half a mind to sue the company despite Karmi's insistence on not punishing the biotech company for the actions of the clone.
"How did it go?" Zachary and the rest of their kids were waiting by the entrance.
Haley and Ryan went to the exhibit to see what their big sister was up to, Molly was glad that her youngest kids could be there for her eldest. "I don't think she'll truly forget what happened, but at least we can move on from it."
Her husband sighed with relief. "Thank goodness!"
"Karmi mentioned that she talked to you about the incident." Molly murmured. "Thank you Zach, if it wasn't for you being the mediator, I don't think I'd be able to keep such a good relationship with my daughter. You didn't have to do that, but I'm thankful for it."
"Hey, I've said it once and I'll say it a million times, I just want our kids to be happy." Zachary explained. "Just because I'm not the one who sired her, doesn't mean that I love Karmi like she's my own daughter, because she is!"
Molly chuckled. "Right."
It was a blessing to her, that Karmi had been too young to ever remember her late biological father. Most would consider it a cruel thought to have, but considering the man was a literal con artist… she couldn't care less, considering she only found out about his criminal misdeeds after he croaked.
When Zachary came into her life, he didn't even bat an eye at Karmi and had adopted her as one of his own before they even got married.
"Thank you for reminding me that not all the bridges she had set on fire have been burnt to a crisp." She leaned against his shoulder.
"Anytime." Zachary hummed. "I'm sure Karmi will be okay."
Even if they expressed it in different ways, they both worried about Karmi's recovery, and hoped that she'd be able to move on from the things that she had been put through during the monster crisis.
Although it worried them that Karmi had strongly voiced her opinion of returning to San Fransokyo, it at least reassured her parents that although she had been wounded, her fiery spirit hadn't been killed.
The rest of the museum trip was great, Karmi just let her siblings lead her around the various exhibits. "Hey, there's some about the history of Camden!" Haley pointed to one that had a statue of a dalmatian. "This one looks like Dom!"
"Does it?" Karmi raised an eyebrow at the statue. The features were more hardened than the pup, but that might've been due to the fact it was a statue, and of an adult dalmatian no less.
Baymax looked down at the plate. "This is a statue of a dalmatian named Pongo, according to to my search he is-"
"The Pongo?!" Haley cut him off. "The one that's from the story about a hundred-and-one dalmatians? The Pongo who, together with his partner Perdita, took down the big bad Cruella who kidnapped dozens of puppies in London?!"
"Yes."
Karmi snickered. "Guess since that event put Camden on the map, they made sure he got a memorial in the museum." She glanced to the right, there was a statue of his partner, and there was a biography about their human owners. "Says here that after the incident, the family moved to a farm a little out of Camden."
"The Dalmatian Plantation!" All three kids jumped as Zachary approached the group. "We'll be heading there in a couple days, you'll get your share of dalmatian history then."
"Cool!" Haley looked excited for that trip.
Ryan glanced back to the statues. "I wonder if Dom's family knows about the story."
"That appears to be logical." Baymax stated. "It is a story about dalmatians, and Domino's family are also dalmatians."
Well that's a little funny. Karmi mused. A family of dalmatians, the time period had changed, but the story stayed the same, didn't it? Maybe some of those pups are descendants of the original 101…
It wouldn't hurt to ask about it, the story of 101 Dalmatians had been translated from humans, perhaps there was more to the story that the canines themselves knew.
Teen Dorks Squad group chat:
Ari: How's everyone doing?
June: Not great…
Meg: *concern*
Ari: *also concerned*
June: Sorry I misworded it
Hiro: You worried about Steven?
June: Yeah…
Karms: He's not in serious risk, is he?
June: No no no! But he's thrown up a couple times and Mama is rly worried about him and its really hard being in the house rn
June: But also is that cowardly of me to just hide in the gardens with Jackie?
Hiro: No it's not! Sometimes I used to hide in the garage whenever Aunt Cass was rly sick when I was little
Hiro: Bc Tadashi would get really worried she'd leave us and we'd be alone again and it was hard being around him when he was that stressed
Rach: Is that how…?
Hiro: That's not how my parents died, they were on vacation and there was an explosion in the hotel they were staying in
Hiro: There was an accident, an error in the pipe system caused an explosion, lot of people got hurt, it was just bad luck
June: I'm sorry that happened
Ari: Me too
Meg: Yeah, that's really awful Hiro
Hiro: It's life.
Karms: I'm currently at the camden history museum atm, would anyone like to hear about how its going as a distraction?
June: plz
Hiro: Would appreciate that tyvm
Rach: Yeah vibes in chat are sour we need wholesomeness
"Bow-waka-wow!" Domino looked up as Dolly skateboarded over a ramp, doing a backflip to show off, her siblings clapped and barked their praises as she landed.
Domino made sure to bark compliments of his own. "Wow! And humans said that skateboard tricks were rough."
"Eh, they just don't have their heads in the game." Dolly spun her board. "Want to give it a try?"
"I'm good, thanks." He wasn't a sports dog anyways, he was a writer!
Wait, hold that thought. "Hey, how did you guys get access to phones and stuff?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Bought them online, why do you ask?"
"Oh well… My human-" He ignored the gag from DJ. "Does some writing and stuff, and I wanna learn how to do that because she sometimes asks me for feedback and it's actually kind of fun doing that."
Dolly nodded. "Aight, I'll bring that up with Dylan, budget's a bit tight so it might take awhile, baby bro."
"I'm not a baby!" Domino blushed. "And you don't have to call me bro."
She merely smirked. "You're one of us now, whether you like it or not!"
"Oh wow, I feel so included."
Dolly snickered, then went back to skateboarding the ramps.
Another dalmatian walked up to Domino. "You said that your human did writing, right?" She had green eyes, rather large ears and a bright pink bandana.
"Yeah, sometimes she does little drawings to illustrate a scene and it's really cool because then I can paint a picture in my mind!" He explained, noticing how she perked up when he mentioned the art. "Um, could you by any chance give me your name? I'm still trying to memorize everyone."
"It's Da Vinci, if you've seen the paint spots around the house, that's my artistic portfolio." She winked. "I also post some of my paper drawings on Snapgram, but mostly I like to paint just to paint."
"Cool!" His tail wagged. "I didn't know that we could use human social media." His humans had said something about using chat programs to help keep in contact with his family, so now he was more intrigued.
Da Vinci pawed one of her ears. "W-Well, Dallas got me into using it, she said it'd be a great way to share my art with the world."
Domino then thought about whenever he saw Karmi gush about a superhero drawing on Rumblr and could see the value. "Neat, I was kind of thinking it'd be cool to get a fanfiction account, because writing is cool." Man, did he keep using the word cool or what?
The painter raised an eyebrow. "Fan… fiction?"
"Oh it's like writing a story about an already established universe! Karmi usually writes about superhero fanfiction but before she went to college she used to write fanfiction for these weird overly dramatic TV shows she likes watching." Granted, he had been brought into the family after Karmi went to college, but he had seen her typing away on her laptop the summer before things got crazy, as Diggs liked to say.
Interest sparkled in Da Vinci's eyes. "Oh wow, y'know the other day, my littermate Dobie was complaining about the season finale of this show she watched, Pirates in Space, I bet she'd like to try this fanfiction thing and write a better ending."
"Yeah that's one way you could do fanfiction." Domino beamed. "Or you could write behind-the-scenes stuff or write something really crazy or scary, or really sweet, or you could just make everyone regular pirates but they're on another planet!" The possibilities were endless when it came to writing, but it was just fun to play around with established characters.
Maybe one day someone would write a fanfiction about him one day, even!
"Perhaps I'll give it a try." Da Vinci chuckled. "But I wanted to stick to poetry, I'd ask Dylan, but he's always busy keeping the house clean and keeping order amongst us when Mum and Dad are working."
"Is that why you asked if my human did writing?" Domino tilted his head.
Da Vinci nodded. "Yeah, I thought I'd try something new! I wanna make a picture book one day, so learning how to write seems like the best idea."
"If you ever manage to publish that book, I'll convince my humans to buy it so I can give it a read." Domino told her. "But if the whole writing thing doesn't work out, you could try collaborating."
"Oh, hadn't thought about that." The painter blushed. "Uh, do you wanna learn how to paint, by any chance?"
He wagged his ears. "Sure!" It sounded fun, and it'd be nice hanging with his new friend.
The painting lesson went really well, Da Vinci kept telling him to have fun mixing colors together and find his style. Domino wasn't sure if he found his artistic style, but he did find that trying to paint a portrait of Diggs on the park wall was hard.
"We're not going to get in trouble for this, right?" He questioned. "I thought graffiti was illegal."
"Some walls you're not supposed to paint on, but the park walls are allowed to be painted on!" Da Vinci reassured him. "Although if someone paints something not kid friendly on the walls, it gets removed."
A scoff made them turn to the right. "Ruffians, dirtying up the park walls with your gunk." It was Clarissa, again, but Domino saw that she was next to a human chilling on the park bench talking to some fancy dressed lady.
"It's not gunk, it's art!" Da Vinci pouted.
Domino saw how the painter's fur was rising up, and placed a paw on her shoulder. "Don't pay attention to the Karen, they thrive off of it." That got her to smile again.
"Excuse me?!" Clarissa barked. "My name is Clarissa Corgi, not Karen."
"Most Karens aren't literally named Karen." Domino gestured with a paw. "If you were, I'd feel sorry for whoever named you."
Clarissa growled at the two. "Clarissa, what's the matter?" Her human stood up, wondering why she was aggressive all of a sudden, and then scowled when noticing Domino and Da Vinci. "The mutts bothering you again? Let's get out of here."
"Gladly, Hugo!" She huffed, walking out of the park while glaring daggers at the two.
Domino raised an eyebrow at Da Vinci. "What's her problem?"
"Dunno, I think she just doesn't like us because we don't have humans." The painter shrugged. "One time she gave Dylan this rock with fleas on it, and the whole house got infested."
His back fur rose up with a shudder. Fleas had been common in the hoarder house, no matter how hard he had scratched, the fleas wouldn't get off his fur, even when he was scratching hard enough to draw blood. "Yeesh!"
"Yeah, that's why Dylan's fur has been really patchy, Triple D's been trying to convince him to go to the spa but it's basically impossible to get him to take a day off." Da Vinci rambled. "Really worried about him, Dante predicts that he's going to have a breakdown one of these days if he doesn't get a break."
Domino frowned, he didn't know the dog very well but he agreed with Dante. Even Karmi took breaks whenever she was writing, or else she'd get burnt out and wouldn't be able to work on anything in general.
"Hey pups!" Diggs walked up to them. "Dolly asked me to check up on you, what's up?" He then noticed Domino's painting on the brick wall.
"Surprise!" He gestured to it. "I made my first painting and it's you."
Diggs teared up a little. "Aww, Dom, c'mere-" and then he pulled the pup into a bone-crushing hug.
"Ack! Need air!" He wheezed.
Da Vinci giggled seeing how happy Diggs was, it was why she enjoyed making art, so people could be happy. "Diggs, do you want to try painting?"
"No thanks, I'm good." He politely declined.
"Maybe we should head back to the others." Domino wiggled out of his grasp. "Before another judgy corgi shows up."
When rejoining the group of dalmatians, Domino noticed that Dylan was chatting with a husky. "Hey, who's this?" He was curious who this stranger was.
"This is Hansel, he's one of my good friends." Dylan explained, then turned back to his friend. "Hansel, this is Domino, he's one of the dogs I was telling you about."
The husky's ears perked up. "The one related to some of your siblings?"
"T-That's me." Domino chuckled. "Nice to meet you."
"It's a pleasure to meet you too." Hansel bowed.
Crash!
Dolly had crashed her skateboard into a park bush. "I told you not to do that triple backflip." Dante shook his head at the scene.
"Oh my dog, Dolly!" Dylan ran to his sister's side. "Dolly are you okay?!"
Hansel frowned at the scene. "For some reason whenever I'm around, Dolly seems to crash on her skateboard, I wonder if I have bad luck following me or something."
"I doubt it…" Diggs had noticed the lovestruck look in her eyes. "Pretty sure it's a puppy crush."
"Dolly's just a good friend." Hansel shook his head. "I was just asking Dylan if he wanted to go camping tonight, it's a guys night thing."
Domino raised an ear. "A guys night?"
"Yeah, one of those things with the guys, y'know?" Hansel gestured with a paw. "I gave Fergus an invite, so thought I'd ask Dylan and whichever one of his brothers wanted to come."
"Camping sounds like you'd get bit by bugs." Domino shook his head. "Count me out!"
But Diggs was interested now. "Mind if I tag along? I've never gone camping."
"The more the merrier!" Hansel grinned.
Dylan then rejoined the group, alongside Dolly. "Hey, whatcha guys talking about?" She was leaning over her brother's shoulder, head still spinning from the crash.
"Oh, Hansel was just talking about some camping thing he's doing."
Dolly stared up at the husky and Diggs could see the heart eyes as she grinned. "Ooh I wanna join!"
Hansel winced. "Uhh, it's a guys night. Sorry."
"Seriously?!" She scowled. "Is that even allowed!?"
Diggs rolled his eyes, teens were so dramatic. "Hansel didn't say that, he just said he was doing a camping thing with some of his guy friends, I'm sure if you asked nicely-" He sent the skater dog a look. "He'd be cool with doing a camping thing with both his guy and girl friends."
"You're not the boss of me." Dolly huffed. But she got the message. "Sorry Hansel."
"It's fine, Dolly! I'll be sure to clear out my schedule so we could have a camping trip too." Diggs hid a snicker as Dolly stared at the husky with heart eyes again.
"Ah, young love-ack!" He yelped as Dolly stepped on his tail.
Domino rolled his eyes. "You deserved that."
Later that night…
When Diggs had snuck out of the Thunderbolt Lodge to go to the park, he was surprised to see that Hansel had set up some tents and a campfire. "It's for the camping experience!" The husky even had brought a pack of marshmallows.
"I hope we're not making smores, chocolate apparently makes dogs sick." Diggs sat down next to Dylan. He noticed that Dawkins had shown up, as well as a few other dalmatians, and the fox he recalled who had stolen Karmi's phone.
Dawkins shook his head. "No of course not, we're old enough to know chocolate is bad for you!"
"I can't even digest it, and I'm a fox." Fergus gestured to himself. "Humans are weird for eating food that makes you sick."
"It doesn't make humans sick." Dawkins pointed out. "Unless they eat excessive amounts of it, which they have a bad habit of doing whenever it's October for some reason."
"Or Valentine's day." Diggs flicked an ear, curling his paws beneath him and sitting next to Dylan.
The top dog was resting against Hansel, who was trying to open the marshmallow bag.
"Do you need help with that?" Dylan offered.
"I'm good, don't worry!" Hansel cut it open with his claws, and took out a fluffy white marshmallow. "Thanks for getting these for camping, Dyl."
Dylan smiled. "No problem!"
Was it just Diggs' imagination? Or was there a blush on the husky's face? "Ah, young love-" This time he got bit on the tail by one of the other dalmatian pups. "Yow!"
"You ruined the moment." The one with scruffy fur frowned at him.
"I used to go on camping trips with my family, back when my human lived in Norden." Hansel was explaining to Dylan. "They weren't as fun as these ones, my dad deemed those an 'alpha male' only event."
"And yet you said this was a guys camping trip only." Dawkins raised an eyebrow.
The husky nervously chuckled. "Look, I'm fine with doing a camping trip with the ladies, but I wanted to experience those guy camping trips without the whole toxic masculinity stuff."
One of the pups in agreement. "Word!" Diggs then noticed that they had similar build like Hansel and perked up his ears. "Some huskies take the whole macho thing too seriously just because we're connected to wolves."
"Exactly Drew." Hansel nodded. "My family took that too seriously, it's why I never told them I'm a poet."
Dylan frowned, placing his paw over Hansel's. "Sorry to hear that."
"It's fine." The husky reassured him. "Hey, can you turn your flashlight off?"
"Huh, why?"
"So it's easier to see the stars."
"Right." Dylan clicked it off, and as Fergus helped place the marshmallows on sticks for them to roast, the dogs looked up at the stars. "Oh wow, you can see Canis Major from here!"
Diggs squinted up, but he couldn't pick out a constellation. "Can't find any."
"Oh, bummer." One of the pups commented.
"I don't really focus on the stars anyways." He laid down on his belly, feeling the grass brush against his fur. "Not when I've got my folks who are better than some old stars."
Dylan gave him a look, but didn't chew him out. "Well I think it'd be cool exploring the stars." He murmured. "One day, I'll be the first dalmatian in space!"
"When you do that, let me know what the stars are like." Hansel was looking at the top dog like he was the stars, Diggs thought that was cute.
"Don't worry, I will!" Dylan smiled at him.
Forgot how cute pups in love were. Diggs smiled.
The marshmallows had finished roasting, and he gobbled his hot one up while a few of the other pups waited for theirs to cool. He felt a yawn escape his throat, and soon the whole campsite was yawning too.
But Diggs was the only one closing his eyes. "Didn't expect you to be the first one to hit the snooze button." Fergus joked.
"I'm old you fox." He joked back. "Comes with the territory."
Despite how dramatic the dalmatians were, Diggs didn't mind after-all, he was just happy that his family were happy after all the chaos that happened.
And maybe he thought of the dalmatians as a little bit like family too, and if anything happened to them… He'd protect them with all his heart, even if he was oceans apart by the time their vacation had ended.
And another chapter down! This one had... *shudder* Clarissa... no offense to Clarissa fans but she is not my favorite character after calling animal control on the dalmatians
Part of this chapter was based off of the Longest Night, it's an alright episode except the whole "camping is guys only part" blech, I tried fixing it though.
And of course some Khan family stuff happens, like I believe I said in an earlier author's note, Molly isn't a perfect parent, but she is trying her best, I did enjoy writing Karmi spending time at the museum with Haley and Ryan, wholesome family bonding!
Thank for you reading, be sure to check out Fallen From Power next week, which takes place at the same time as this fic! (Speaking of that, this chapter takes place during Chapter 3, The Bitten Hand)