Chapter Text
“…I’m looking for something stable and sturdy. Something I can’t forget about. Something that won’t die on me.”
“Okay, okay. Listen, I can show you an option that we have, but… you might not like it. And you can’t tell anybody we have him here. This whole place could go belly-up and I can’t lose my job.”
“I hear you. I won’t tell a soul.”
“Okay,” Samuel grinned. “This way. He’s in the back.”
The young man was led down a long corridor of kennels: plenty of dogs yipped and yelped, jumping up against their doors, but the customer was taken straight down past them all and into another room.
“…we didn’t really have anything… large enough for him. We don’t know how to treat one of these. He’s in the free room. He’s… very shy.”
“Dangerous?”
“No! No, goodness. He wouldn’t hurt a fly.” Samuel unlocked the door slowly. “But… he’s scared of just about anything and everything.”
When the door opened, the customer was very surprised at what he found.
Sitting there in a corner of the room, huddled up on himself, sat a boy with caramel brown, fluffy ears and a matching fluffy tail up in between his legs, peeking out at the visitor with one eye.
“…you have a hybrid?”
“He’s not officially supposed to be here.”
“The government is taking all the unowned hybrids away,” he breathed. “If he’s not chipped, he goes to be destroyed.”
“That’s the thing. He is chipped, but when you hold him under the scanner, the information comes up blank.”
The two young men stared at the small pile of boy in the corner, shaking and whining.
“…look at him. He’s frightened out of his wits.”
“…we have no idea what happened to him before he came here. We can only assume he was treated very badly.”
“…can you give us the room for a moment?”
“…sure. I’ll leave the door open in case you need to leave.”
The customer walked into the room carefully, softening his footfalls as much as possible before plopping onto the floor in the opposite corner as the hybrid. The hybrid never took its eyes off him, cowering more and more into its little corner.
So he leaned out and grabbed a tennis ball, pawing it from one hand to the other across the room.
At first the hybrid just stared, and he felt like an idiot. Then the hybrid slowly relaxed, watching the ball. Very slowly, very tentatively, the hybrid inched closer on all fours until he was just a little out of reach, watching the ball go to and fro.
“Does it look like fun?”
The hybrid whined, backing away a little.
“Shhhhhhhh. It’s alright. I won’t hurt you.” He smiled gently. “Here, I’m going to roll the ball to you now. Can you catch it?”
Its tail seemed to come up a little from in between its legs.
“Okay. Here we go.” He gently let the tennis ball roll from his palm: he made sure to do it softly, and the ball stopped right in front of the hybrid. “…now, you roll it back to me.”
Gently the hybrid got down and sniffed it. After a few moments of contemplation, he nudged it with his nose, rolling it back.
“Good boy!” the man praised, catching the ball in both hands. “Wow, look at that! You did that! Do you want to try it again?”
After they had carefully rolled the ball back and forth a few times the hybrid’s tail was entirely out from between his legs: it wasn’t wagging to and fro, but it was a start.
“You’re doing so well,” the man smiled. “…what’s your name, little one? Hmm?”
The hybrid sat there, mute.
“…do you speak at all?”
No answer.
“Can you hear me?”
At this the hybrid whined a little, ears twitching.
“Okay, you can hear me. That’s a start then, isn’t it?” He looked at the forlorn hybrid for a moment. “…how would you like to come back with me?”
It didn’t seem to understand.
“I’ll keep you warm, feed you your meals, play with you, walk you. I’ll buy you… clothes.” The hybrid was only wearing long boxer shorts. “And toys. And you can stay in my house with me.”
It cocked its head to the side a little, staring for a moment. He had big, large brown eyes. They were beautiful, really. With long, luxurious eyelashes.
“…I don’t know a lot about taking care of hybrids. But I’ll do my best. You can help me along when I get it wrong. What do you say, hmm? Would you like to have a home?”
At the last word its ears perked up and it smiled, letting out a single joyful bark, its tail flying up happily.