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 Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2014 10:22 am
It had taken Chester some time to find the right one at the adoption center. He had to bear in mind what he knew about Zia, and not just the fact that she seemed to want the companionship of a dog. If that was all he went in there with, he would have picked the first one, or maybe just all of them. No, he had to remember that she lived in a large place and... well, she would probably be over at the carnival a lot with it, so it would have room to run around and...
Chester did not know much about dogs. He wanted one that he thought she would find cute, and he was hoping he had picked a good one. It seemed friendly enough, curled against him as he carried it across the road, toward Zia's place. He looked a little silly, a very serious looking man carrying a fluffy puppy while it wore a pink bow, but that was not his fault.
He always looked grumpy and puppies, he found out, always looked cute.
He managed to make it to her door without too much trouble, though, and had only gotten stopped along the way four times to let people pet the dog before stiffly telling them he had somewhere to be. They all had scurried off, confused by his attitude but delighted by the dog.
The person at the adoption center that this dog was half husky, half rottweiler. In Chester's head, that meant it would probably be very pretty, and as a puppy it was fluffy as all get out. Girls liked fluffy puppies, right? And it would be a good companion and perhaps a guard dog for her, to keep her safe, which he liked.
Having never owned a dog, he did not really know what all went into their care. He assumed he would be able to help, and it would all be fine. He knocked on the door and held the puppy in front of him, it waking up from being snuggled in the crook of his arm and looking around in wonder, tongue lulling out and little tail wagging.
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Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2014 8:30 pm
Even when Zia had been expecting Chester she answered the door half a mess. This time around he caught her in a loose shirt and work out shorts in a lazy attempt to survive the heat. Apparently the large windows that were perfect for watching stars were less perfect in the summer daylight.
Seeing who it was, she froze, trying to figure out if she was okay or completely mortified. Chester had seen her in worse states of disarray. But that had been friend!Chester and not boyfriend!Chester. And those thoughts were quickly pushed aside when she saw what he was holding. Holding out to her.
"That... whose dog is that?" She asked cautiously, but after a brief second of eye contact with the fluffy little thing a loud squawk managed out.
"I- jya--... aw, hi, baby," She babbled, squealed, cooed at the thing and made little half gestures like she was going to pet it and then pulled her hands back, looking wide eyed up at Chester's face. Fluffy puppies were never unwelcome but someone showing up at your doorstep with one kind of warranted some sort of explanation.
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Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2014 12:51 pm
Chester was not going to complain about how Zia was dressed. He was not going to comment on it, either, of course, but in the quiet of his mind he took a moment to approve of her look and to store that memory for reference later. For now, he stayed focused, looking at her very seriously as he held the puppy out in front of him, hands under its arms as it looked up at Zia hopefully, wagging its fluffy tail.
"It's your dog," he said stiffly, awkwardly. So giving people presents was not on his list of experience, and he could not say he actually knew what he was doing. He knew that she was lonely without a dog and that she liked them, and he had thought that was enough to mean she wanted one, but he had not actually taken the time to ask. Now he was suddenly thinking he might have been giving her a burden more than a gift, if she did not actually want to take care of a new dog...
He nodded at her, as if giving her permission to pet the puppy, holding it out to her again. The puppy yipped, not quite able to bark just yet, excitedly at the promise of a new person to pet it. The one hold it right now, after all, was not particularly cuddly.
"I thought you wanted... uh. Well. I got you a dog. If you... wanted one. It's a puppy." In case she thought it was an adult dog, because that's what adult dogs looked like.
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Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 8:29 pm
"Mmmy dog," Zia repeated after him, raising one eyebrow at the explanation. For a second, between the shifting change in expressions, it was marginally unpredictable which direction she was going to go in as she covered her mouth with her fingers and knitted her brow in thought at the wiggling little body being held out to her.
But a shrill whimper of a sound and a sniffle keyed the look into being more like trying not to cry before she finally broke and scooped up the puppy with a full on wail. There was a discernible "Hi, baby!" Addressed to the dog in all the blubbering and cooing and babytalk and her sentiments seemed to range from overwhelmed to stupidly ecstatic.
Logic said that dogs were not good gifts and usually weren't typical ones to receive out of the blue, and it was a childishly naive gesture to drop on someone.
However Zia was not nearly socially mature to consider any of that and any creeping feelings of doubt she had were easily overridden. Because puppy.
"Don't stand in the hallway, come inside!" Zia managed to spare some headspace for Chester as she juggled the wriggling and excited dog from one arm to the other, trying to keep a grip and pet it at the same time, but when she spared one arm to reach out and tug and Chester's arm, it jumped out of her arm and made a break for it. Or it would've if dog paws and slick hardwood didn't make for a lot of running in place and sliding.
And Zia's attention was off of Chester just was quickly as she panicked and ran for it because clearly it was fragile and delicate and she had just had a mild heart attack already from the acrobatics.
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Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2014 2:20 pm
Chester nodded his head in response to her confusion. To him, that was more than enough clarification. This was her dog now, the big fluff ball that it was, and hopefully it would make her happy. Chester was selfishly addicted to seeing her smile, and he wanted to make sure she had all the things in the world to smile about, even if he had to work really hard to figure out how to make that happen. It was not his natural element, but he was willing to expand himself for her.
Because she deserved someone who would do that for her.
Letting her take the puppy, he watched nervously as she looked at first like she was going to cry. He thought maybe it was a mistake and he had once again failed to understand someone's needs and their emotions, but then she hugged the puppy and cooed at it, which helped him to relax a bit.
After he was invited, or rather tugged, in, he felt firm in his choice. This was what she needed, whether she had thought so or not, and he knew she would give the puppy a very good home. It would, in turn, give her the companionship and love that maybe her stoic boyfriend could sometimes lack in.
Then the dog ran off into the house, and moved to follow her.
"It did that twice on the way over," he said blandly, as if that was not something she needed to know about, or a possible cause of injury. The puppy seemed perfectly fine: it just had a strong will to explore. "It doesn't run very fast, and sits down when it's tired."
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Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2014 7:33 pm
"Ah!" Zia practically honked and covered her mouth, staring up at Chester with wide, shocked eyes that not only had the puppy done that, but kept doing that on the way over.
But after a bit of owl eyed staring in comparison to the tall, stoic man who didn't seem phased, the ball of fluff padding around her ankles and occasionally slipping absorbed her attention again.
"Is it a girl?" She asked, a little thrown off by Chester calling the puppy and 'it' and taking note of the pink ribbon. She scooped the tiny body back up again and babbled some more embarrassing and affection gibberish and she checked it over for nonexistent injuries. Satisfied the indomitable and undeterred furbag was still full of energy and relatively unharmed, she held her close like a baby and bounced on her heels as she looked up at Chester.
"She's perfect!"
Although with her hands full she didn't have the spare limbs to pull him down to her level so after a brief beat of confusion and glancing around to a solution to her inability to grab him she just bluntly told him, "You have to come down here and kiss me," And stood on her toes waiting.
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Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2014 4:45 pm
"Uhm."
Chester, in his infinite wisdom, had not sought to ask what sort of a dog it was. He did not know the breed, or the gender. He assumed it was a girl, because of the ribbon, but he was, in fact, wrong about that. It just happened to be the only ribbon the seller had left, and though it was cute, it was terribly misleading. The ball of fluff was a boy, and he was two parts very large dogs.
All information he probably should have gotten, but did not.
Her order distracted him from his lack of dog knowledge, though, and he nodded his head solemnly at her words. He looked very serious about it, but he always did, and she had to be well used to that at this point. He moved to her and kissed her affectionately, feeling relieved and, in his way, very happy. He was glad she seemed to like the dog, but ultimately he just liked seeing her smile, and earning such rewards as kisses.
Though he did, at least, know that he had played the new dog card, and could not turn to that tactic again for more praise and rewards. One dog was probably more than enough, and she would probably figure out his goals if he was too obvious about repeating himself. He'd have to come up with new ways to be romantic, even if that was not his forte.
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Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 5:51 am
Chester, serious and solemn, strong jaw and slick hair, could only derive a half stifled giggle out of Zia when his his head nodded. She reciprocated his affection awkwardly. She was usually being controlling when she kissed him, either as an initiator or keeping both hands on him both to guide and ground the actions, so the practice of only being able to stand on her toes and wait for his affection was new territory she didn’t get perfect just yet, really, but in spite of that bumbling, there was nothing but unmitigated adoration when she looked at him and her smile wide enough to make her cheeks hurt.
There was half a moment there, of staring, a contented sigh that made it out for a microsecond, but the wiggling furbeast in her arms would not let it come to pass. Her attention was taken over again when it started licking her jaw and was reacted to with squeals and laughs and trying to juggle its position again.
“Come on, baby, I think there’s a dog bed in one of the packed boxes,” She said. To the dog, not really to Chester, before she ran down the hallway with the very temporarily small body in her arms.
Scatterbrained as ever, she slid back with her arms free as if she’d forgotten something, leaving the dog padding around and sniffing at his new environment. She grabbed Chester in a hug tight enough to bury her face in his chest.
“Thank you for this.”
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