sigh
Emitted by a brown German Shepherd, who lay idle on a bean bag in the lookout, watching TV, or rather, stare at it...
However, his thoughts were soon interrupted by a certain dalmatian who entered the room but somehow tripped over nothing and fell over
"Oh hey Chase! Didn't see you there" the dally cooed as he tried getting up from his earlier fall
Chase turned around and saw Marshall lying on the floor in front of him
"Oh... well atleast you noticed me..." he mumbled
"What did you say?"
"N-Nothing!"
Marshall could almost hear the hint of sadness in his voice but shrugged it off. After all, Chase was the most serious pup of them all, even though he would occasionally joke around with his friends, he was never really known to have any deep negative emotions (unless you count count anger and worrying-). So it was absolutely normal, at least according to Marshall, to think that he had just misheard the police pup.
"Say Chase, the pups are playing 'Pup Pup Boogie', I was actually going there myself right now, wanna join us?"
"Nah, I'm good"
"Really? But you love playing that game..."
"I'm really not in the mood right now"
"Aw c'mon! it'll be fun! We'll all have a competition and see who wins!"
"No Marshall, I... just don't want to right now.."
"But... why..?"
"BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO OK?!"
The dalmatian was quickly taken aback by his best friend's sudden uproar
It took him a second to realize what he had done and Chase quickly started apologizing
"S-sorry Marshall" he stuttered "like I said I just don't feel like it today, maybe next time..."
"Oh uh... ok" the fire pup said, trying his best to sound cheerful though clearly hurt by the shepherd's actions.
As he ascended up the elevator, he could hear the faint music of the game, it got clearer as he reached the top of the elevator and his thoughts faded just as quickly as they had come. He exited the elevator and found two pups who seemed to be enjoying themselves very much while two others watched in excitement, rooting for either-
"Get ready to lose Zuma!"
"Not gonna happen Skye!"
Marshall walked to where Rubble and Rocky stood.
"Who are you guys cheering for?"
"Definetly Zuma" said Rocky
"Skye isn't so bad herself, I'm rooting for her" the english bulldog followed
"What about you Marshall?"
"Oh, I'm not sure, both of them are actually pretty good, so... I guess both..?"
"Hey! You can only cheer for one of them!" The mixed breed cried.
"Since when was that a rule?" The dalmatian exclaimed
The pups were too busy with their shenanigans to notice a certain ten-year old walk into the room
"Hey pups, what's all the noise about?"
"Ryder, tell Marshall he can only cheer for one of the players, not both"
Ryder giggled "Oh it's alright, he can cheer for whomever he wants, besides, I'm cheering for both of them too"
"Not you too!" Said Rocky
"Hah! See, I told you!" Marshall stated proudly
As the pups continued their futile bickering, the boy looked around and did a mental headcount of his pups: Skye, Zuma, Marshall, Rubble, Rocky- someone was missing, then it occured to him-
"Have you pups seen Chase?"
"Yeah, we saw him a while a ago and asked him if he wanted to play with us, but he said he didn't feel like it" said the cockapoo while still trying her best to beat her friend
"Ya, I ran into him while on my way up here, he seemed kinda... sad" said Marshall while almost whispering the last part of his sentence
"What was that?" Questioned the ten-year old
"Oh, uh nothing!" The dally squeaked "But um-" He continued "I think you should go and check on him, you know, just to see how he's doing, generally..."
"I was thinking the same" Ryder said, as he took the elevator back down
He was surprised to see his pup lying so listless, peering at the TV, as if trying to create a hole through it and on top of that showing no interest to his surroundings, heck, he hadn't even noticed Ryder walk into the room.
"Chase..?"
The shepherd's ears perked up at the sound of his name, he turned around to see his owner standing there
"Oh uh, hey Ryder..."
"What are you doing here all by yourself?"
"Nothing, I was watching TV but it started to get boring so now I'm just, more or less, lying here"
Ryder went and sat down on a beanbag next to his pup
"Don't you wanna play with the others? I know how much you love 'Pup Pup Boogie'"
"Not really interested right now"
"Why? Something wrong with the game?"
"What? No! The game's fine and all, I'm the one who doesn't wanna play it..."
"Any specific reason?"
"I just don't want to"
"Chase... are you ok?"
Chase was startled, his eyes widened and he looked up to face Ryder
"Y- yeah, I- I'm great!" He stuttered defensively
"Are you sure you're ok?"
"Never been better!"
"Then why have you been out here alone for so long? This isn't like you"
"Oh uh... I was just, uh- tired! Ya tired from our last mission, it was exhausting really, so I just thought I'd chill out a bit"
Ryder looked suspiciously at Chase, he knew something was wrong, after all, Ryder obviously knew each one of his pups better than anyone else, but he also knew that it wouldn't be right to force Chase into doing something he didn't want to, he'd tell him when he thought the time was right...
"sigh, ok if you say so, but if something is troubling you, don't be afraid to reach out ok? We're all here for you"
"Ryder, I told you I'm fine, you dont have to worry about me"
"Ok then"
He got up and walked out of the lookout, knowing too well something was wrong, what he didn't understand was why he wouldn't just say it...
A/N: 1016 words, not bad...
Anyways hi! This is actually my first fanfic and while it may not be perfect, I've tried my best.
Hope you guys enjoy it, I look forward seeing you in the next chapter!
This is Lydian signing off
Peace!
