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Soot lived a life of true luxury. After he was whisked away to the dorm room of his new owner, he found himself spending most of his time lazing around on a very literal pedestal. It sat next to Thackery's bed, topped with a luxurious velvet pillow, and was typically home to Kari...but this was important. He couldn't let the poor thing grow up to live a life of deformity!

He'd pampered the minipet to the extent of his capabilities, bathing him, brushing him, even skipping a class or two just to be sure that he was doing okay. The protetion charms were lovingly applied on a twice-daily basis (with his fingers this time), but it seemed that the Cerberus still didn't quite have the hang of this whole charm business. Each time the foil was peeled back to reveal a slightly broken set of runes. This bothered him immensely, so he decided to help poor Soot. Beautiful stickers were applied to supplement his level of protection - it made plenty of sense, he thought, since they both went on in similar fashions. And cute stickers would definitely attract good things, right?

It was five days into the week when he noticed the changes.

As any good parent might, Thackery just knew that something was wrong. The charms behaved oddly on Soot's fur, and strange bulges and lesions began appearing...as if he might grow extra eyes and legs. It seemed that he was heading directly down the path of a very unsuccessful, unhappy life. This was all wrong!

"We'll get you some help." His words were perhaps meant to reassure himself more the lammit, cradled carefully in his arms. He'd made it to Ash's dorm as quickly as he could, the little pet swathed in a spidercake-printed apron, insisting to himself that he wouldn't cry.

By the time he knocked on his door, his eyelashes were slick and matted with tears, his cheeks flushed, and his eyes glassy. He whimpered and sniffled as he leaned against the door, smashing his cheek flat against it.

"Aaaash please I think Soot and I are going to die I can't live with myself, oh sweet Sally, Ash, I don't even..."

There was a moment of complete silence as Thackery settled into their embrace, seemingly ignoring the well-being of Soot for just a short time. No more sobbing, not even a whimper, and it seemed that he might have calmed down just a bit. The minipet wiggled weakly between them, serving as a reminder of 'yeah...I'm still here,' and fell still, giving in to its apparent fate.

Then he took in a deep, quivering breath, and it all spilled forth at once. The tears, the shaking, the babbling. Soot quietly slipped from his arms and went tumbling to the floor, where he found the wastebin and tipped it over, hoping to find some security within.

"I tried so hard, Ash, I really tried! I used my hands instead of my mouth or anything...mostly because it was a minipet and not you...but I made sure to wash my hands first and really...I really tried, you have to believe me! I don't think it worked, Ash, I...oh, Jack, Soot's gone all wrong. I can tell it." His tail wagged slowly, incapable of hiding the contentment that the pats on his head offered, but he stared up at him with a broken soul in his eyes as he pulled away.

"Is this minipet abuse? I feel like it might be. Can you fix him? Oh, no, just...oh no. What if...later, with a pumpkin, and I..."

He brought his hands to cover his aghast mouth. That wasn't something that he even wanted to think about, but it just spilled out, and now the idea wouldn't go away.

"Do...you think I'm terrible?" He reached to take his hand, holding onto it hopefully.

Hoping to find some sort of 'misery-loves-company'-esque relief at the sight of Ash's lammit, Thackery glanced in the direction he indicated, responding with a startled little jump. That was what would happen to Soot? This was not making it any better. Still, he did what was requested of him, forcing slow, deep breaths. It helped, but sent him into a bout of hiccups.

"You--hic--you did. You are really good at it. I'm kinda--hic--jealous, but...as long as I have you, we'll be okay." The little pep talk to himself continued his boost in spirits, and by the time he was finished, he was smiling up at Ash behind cry-tired eyes and scrubbed-pink cheeks. He never failed to straighten out any predicament that Thackery found himself in, even when it involved difficult situations like minipet welfare or the inability to choose a QueasyBake mix flavor. He needed to remind himself of that more often, he decided; how had he really thought that they were going to die just moments ago?

"Will you still teach me how? Like you said?" There was a brief pause. He seemed to be heavily considering something. The most determined [removed](eyes narrowed, smile knowing)" crept across his face. I wanna learn how to do it with my mouth."

Soot quivered from the safety of the bin.

Those strong hands petting him, doting upon him -- Thackery would never get tired of that feeling. With each kiss dutifully returned, he clapped his own hands together in excitement, ready to learn how to do all of this properly. To make it all right.

"The...chil...oh!" He pulled away just briefly, chewing on his lip as he looked at Soot. Poor Soot. Shaking beneath the wastebin so tremendously that the vibrations echoed through the silence.

In any other situation, it might have been a little unsettling to him that he'd forgotten to consider the minipets, but they were the last thing on his mind right now. Which would bother him for weeks to come, resulting in upping the amount of pampering them substantially, so it all ended up okay.

He was in the middle of considering a solution when the fingers curling around him clenched tighter, when that "we" emerged. His tail stopped wagging. His ears pinned backward as he hunched over, wincing.

"Hah...ha, hey, um, hey Ash, that...wow, okay, that kind of hurts, can you--" He wiggled his arm to try to loosen the reaper's hold on him, knowing that it was ultimately pretty futile.

That was what worried him.

It was such a deep pain, stinging and lingering and spreading to Thackey's core, mingling with that poisonous knowledge that Ash had...really just hurt him. On purpose.

He stumbled backward and hit his wardrobe with a yelp, panicked eyes fixated on him, darting frantically from his hand to his face to his feet with every motion.

"A...a hindrance?!" he cried, confused, bracing against the thick wood of the furniture, just in case he moved to strike him. "No, no, I'm not, I'm not in your way...I...no, Ash, stop it!" This was exactly when he might have stomped his foot down had he been standing. "Beside you. I want to be beside you all the time. Or following behind you. Not in your way."

Meeting Ash's frenzied gaze, he tried so hard to not even blink, to give him a constant of trusting and loving (and slightly terrified) eyes that he might find familiar. Anything to make him remember. Anything to get out of this.