As the rare shafts of light that the dog could see and had been watching in nervous, excited anticipation all day oh so cruelly told him that it was still somehow too early for him to be making his way back up to the surface, back to her, he ignored them and padded towards the entrance they had used the previous day anyway. The surface was unsurprisingly still scary and foreign to him, in a much less pleasant way than Duchess herself, but waiting for her there instead of here would guarantee that she wouldn't be left waiting for him if she arrived early… not that the thought of him would be able to motivate her to wait long… and that he could impress her… try to impress her… by conquering the ladder up to the surface himself. As he made his way to said ladder, the last thing he would've expected happened; something completely unrelated to her was able to stop him in his tracks. A group of Rats, seemingly not feeling any less kindly towards him despite their altercation yesterday, guarded a busted up and rusted cage containing a rat he could hardly see through the mass of those surrounding them… her.
The dog had only been faced with this situation once before, when he was much younger, and yet it had burned itself into his memory along with the very uncharacteristic trace of fear that had emanated from the surrounding group and was currently emanating from this one. This rat, she had… "Dogs! Rabies! Stay away or guard!" The dog failed to process the Rat's usage of the plural form of his pseudo name as he backed away from them… from her in fear… until he backed right into a much more welcome her; Duchess. "...Oh Fenrir… h-sh-they have rabies?! Poor thing-guy." She-she saw the Rats as things? Surely she saw him that way too… He turned towards her reassuringly while being the opposite of reassured himself. "...Yeah… don't worry, they've got it under control. She's not getting out… Do you wanna go to the surface?" As if answering his question, that same distinctive sound of something hitting a metal pipe from yesterday, muted as it traveled through the ground but still audible, sounded in the distance. Duchess flinched harder than he had ever seen, practically reaching his height before standing up straight again and causing worry to course through him.
"...Would it be possible for us to stay down here?... Would it be okay with you?" He dipped his head affirmatively, luckily managing to replace most of the tension in her eyes with relief and… gratitude? before instinctively leading her in the direction he had come from, away from the anxiety-inducing surface and Rats. Said Rats whispered what motifyingly enough sounded like "More dogs" to him as he strode past them. At least it didn't seem like she had heard that… As they reached the long ago abandoned mattress that he used as a bed, he realized too late that it wasn't good enough for anyone used to the surface, let alone her, despite it being a massive improvement from the pillow that had hardly been recognizable as a pillow that he had used as a puppy before it had been available, presumably cast aside into the depths of the sewers just like he had been. Her contented… barely disturbed at all somehow… sigh as she lay down on his bed, stretching out her elegant, long back legs before returning them to her side… snapped him out of his contemplations… at least, it exchanged his worn-out, tired contemplations of his past for new and exciting ones of his present and… future? with her.
Unusually emboldened, for him at least, he jumped onto the mattress and settled against her side, all of his senses filling up with the exhilarating feeling of her against him. Her voice and… affectionate? gaze towards him eventually broke into his awareness. "Sorry, I just… it's Duke…" She uttered this name as if he should already be well aware of its significance and the respect normally bestowed upon it but lacking here, and he looked at her confusedly. "Who's that?" Briefly, the confusion in her eyes matched his before being replaced by saddened apprehension, and there was a long pause before she answered him. "...The Leader of the Pack… my boyfriend…" Her words shot through him like… well, what rabies probably felt like, and he had to strain to hear what she said next over the ringing in his ears. "I don't love him… but I deserve him, and these cuts…" She ran a paw over the cut on her muzzle as the realization that she thought she deserved it, deserved anything less than luxury almost entirely undercut the realization that it hadn't been inflicted upon her by the Rats… it had been this Duke foxer! The dog realized that he was now standing up, alarming her by digging his claws into his mattress, and he forced himself to settle back down. "Duchess, you don't deserve to be treated badly, you're amazing…"
He trailed off in terror as he realized what he had just said, his anxiety only worsening as Duchess gracefully sprung off of the mattress and stood beside it, forlornly facing him and the way they had come. "I'm not, I… he found me locked up and abandoned in this place where… I think… I think they were… breeding me for pups… I couldn't stop them from taking them Fenrir knows where, I couldn't even take care of them properly I felt so awful in there… so he deserves to be able to take what I owe him from me, and I… deserve to have it taken…" Before the dog could even begin to formulate a response through his shock and horror, that foxing sound came from the surface, the sound that made her so scared, that he now knew came from a reprehensible wretch who could somehow find it in him to hurt her. Duchess flinched before turning away from him and fully in the direction they had come, alarming him further, and he quickly made his way back to her side as she addressed him. "...I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come down here again, not when he might follow me and he's what I deserve anyway… goodbye, Dog-"
She trailed off as that sound interrupted her utterance of the closest thing he had to a name, dipping her head to him before running in its direction. The dog immediately set off after her, his instincts screaming at him to catch up with her despite her much longer legs and his total lack of a plan in the event that he managed to accomplish this. He only became aware that he had shouted after her, imploring her to wait, as the echoes faded along with her presence. And yet his legs were still carrying him forward… his speed, which was breakneck for him, unbroken. He reached the group of Rats currently acting as a guard for their sickly member after what felt like an eternity, her lingering scent and memory bestowing upon him the ability to speak despite his fear for her and the potential of a them consisting of her and him. "I'll guard her tonight, you can rest."