This sucked. Sucked a lot.

Not the victory in the Surrounding, that was great! She had even gained some battle skill out of that one. All the civilians were saved too, so that was good right? (Though honestly, they were on the bottom of her list. She didn’t care too much about the liabilities). The after part had been great, and they had eventually all gone home. All in all, it wasn’t the most wonderful experience, but it had been somewhat rewarding.

She couldn’t stop picturing Howlite’s face though- that was the problem. The emptiness her chest felt that accompanied Howlite’s picture kept haunting her. She had almost died up there. Howlite had almost gotten her starseed- almost. She’d watched it happen to Björn, but never imagined it happening to her. Not big tough Sailor Draconis. She was slowly learning that senshi did not mean invincible, it just meant stronger. That was definitely a tough concept.

So she’d been in a funk recently. The image of Howlite had burned so securely into her mind that she had to burn it out with something else. Something cute.

A puppy.

It was a good plan right? Puppies always cheered people up, right? That was what you saw on T.V. all the time after all, so how could it fail? Talia had ended up at the local pound with her mother, searching for a dog. Most of them were fully grown, but Talia didn’t think she was quite ready for a fully grown dog yet. Not to mention she was dead set on the idea of "puppy" and "cute." Once Talia faceted to something, she wouldn’t clear off of it until it suited her.

Convincing her parents had probably been the hardest part, definitely. After being missing for so long though, they were more than eager to accept her with open arms. Well, her mother’s open arms anyways. Her father was away defending a man in another state, so he had to be told over the phone. He sounded relieved in a patriarchal way, but her mother’s arms felt much safer and warmer than her father’s voice over the phone. They thought she had ran away because she was angry at them. How was she supposed to explain it? "No mom, I didn’t run away, I was just chillin’ in space"?? Somehow, her parents had been able to simply look past her disappearance. They were too overcome with joy at her return to care about the reason she had left them in such despair in the first place. From time to time, she would catch her mother giving her a worried glance, but that was to be expected. Talia always just brushed off the looks, but she felt guilty every time. A big part of her wanted to just reveal the whole thing to her mother, but she knew she could never do that. Ever. Rule one of senshi club was don’t talk about senshi club, right?

Needless to say, when she requested a dog, there weren’t too many complaints. Mostly just a "how much" and "can you take care of it" sort of parenting. Talia’s mom was excited anyways- she loved animals and was happy to finally gain one for the family. She had driven her out to the animal shelter herself to help pick out the perfect puppy. Talia had just agreed to let her come along, because she knew if she resisted, her mother would just pester her further.

So they found themselves in the back of the shelter, looking at various dogs. There were all sorts of puppies, from Dalmations to Labradors to Golden Retrievers to Daschunds. The mother and daughter twosome took turns holding different dogs, laughing about how wiggly they were, how this one’s nose looked funny and that one’s tail was hilarious.

Eventually, they came to a stall near the end, though not the direct end. In it was a small, white Pomeranian wiggling around, apparently trying to fight the sides of the cage. Talia instantly burst out laughing. As much as she tried to keep a cool façade around company, this was just too much. Talia looked at the pound attendant who had been sent to help them, and asked if she could hold the dog. The attendant gave her a hesitant look, then smiled, apparently vetoing any sort of negative decision.

As soon as the dog was in her arms, she knew it was the one. It sat there calmly for a few moments, just adoring the feeling of being held. It was adorably cute too. She asked the lady what breed it was, and the attendant calmly responded Pomeranian. Pomeranian huh? Talia tickled the little dogs stomach, and it went wild. Wiggling, yipping, licking, it was all present.

Talia turned to her mom and made a mocking childlike face at her mother and said, "Can we keep it? Can we? Can we?" Subsequently, her mother laughed and took the dogs from her arms and calmly replied, "yes, yes I think we can."

((WC: 839))