For The Dogs

Who: Sammy and Geo
Where: The minivan
When: Early evening.

Geo slouched back down the driveway, feeling water trickling down the back of his neck from the rain. He was about to head for the house when he thought better of it, veering off for the minivan. It was unlocked, like he'd left it, and Fugazi was curled up on the seat. Pointy ears perked up when the door slid open, and Geo was soon met with a puppy launching himself at his face, barking happily. Geo grinned, scruffing at the dog's ears as he gently pushed him out of the way enough to hop into the dry van. "There y'go, good dog."

Once he was comfortably settled on the seat Fugazi had just abandoned, he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, flipping it open while Fugazi entertained himself by chewing on the edge of his shoe. hey, sammy, he texted, come out to the minivan for a sec?

The sounds of his cell phone vibrating – or maybe more the feel of it where it rested on his chest – woke Sammy from where he was napping on the couch and he started, nearly knocking it to the floor. At the last minute, before it could connect with the floor, he caught it, flipping it open to read the text that had just come in from Geo. His heart did a little flip-flop as he hoped that the text wasn’t about anything bad.

hey, sammy, come out to the minivan for a sec?

And like that the feeling eased. Sammy rolled off the couch and got to his feet slowly, making his way silently to the door and letting himself out into the – woah, cold! – rainy night. Tucking his phone into his pocket he dashed through the rain, sliding quickly through the still open door of the minivan and falling into one of the back seats.

"Oh, cut it out," Geo teased, popping his head over the seat. "It's not that cold." He ducked down and scooped up the puppy, plopping him down on Sammy's lap. "Someone wants to meet you!"

Sammy’s protest that, yes, it was to cold, was cut off by the addition of a warm, wriggling puppy to his lap. He blinked at it slowly before leaning down and putting his face close to its, putting his hands on the – well, what he supposed were the puppies shoulders anyhow. He looked back up at Geo for a second, long enough to send a ‘what’s its name?’ questioning look at his brother before he stroked gentle fingers up the sides of its neck and then back down, feeling the softness of the fur.

Geo leaned over to rub behind the puppy's ears with a grin. "He's Fugazi. I figure it shortens nice...Fuga or Z.z..." Fugazi started licking Sammy's fingers. "And, yeah, he likes to do that. As a warning." Too late of a warning, of course, but Sammy would survive a little dog spit alright. He just hoped Sammy wouldn't ask where the dog had come from...

There was a bit of eye-rolling at the name, but most of Sammy’s attention was still on the dog as he fuzzed underneath Fugazi’s chin, leaning back in the seat to get more comfortable. “What is he?” He loved dogs, really loved them, but he could never remember their types all that well. This dog could be a German Shepherd for all he knew – but it probably wasn’t. He leaned further back to avoid the tongue as it came at his face, tipping his head back so it could only get at the bottom of his chin.

"Husky!" Geo grinned. "I was talkin' to some lady I ran into-" Before that lady tried to kill me "About dogs, don't remember why and I was talkin' 'bout taking Cece and Yu's lil' sister to see Eight Below...next thing I know, there she is with this guy." He gave the puppy's tail a tiny tug - the puppy spun to try and nip his hand. "I figured you wouldn't mind keepin' him in here for now? He's pretty well behaved, but I..." Don't want him in there with Marek. The words went unspoken, but they were fairly obvious.

“Keep him in here,” Sammy signed easily, sliding off of the seat to sit on the floor with his back against the door. He laughed – short exhalations of air – as Fugazi acted cat-like and pounced on him, big old puppy-paws coming down on his stomach as he made a lunge to lick Sammy’s face again – this time he managed, tongue swiping up Sammy’s entire face. “Is he going to lick Blade and Kit to death?” He asked, pretending to be worried as the youngish-ducks in the back spoke up.

"Naw, don't think so!" Geo leaned over the back again to scoop up a duckling in each hand. "I would hope not, anyways..." The ducks protested, but he ignored that, setting them down. Fugazi came galumping over to investigate, ears at attention. "Play nice!"

The puppy seemed to listen, just snuffling at feathers curiously.

The ducks bobbled away from Fugazi, necks stretched out as the moved towards Sammy making urgent little noises at him. Kit made it into his lap and then Blade ran around to hide behind, and Sammy laughed, looking at Geo again as he shook his head. “They don’t want sniffed, I don’t think!” He said as Blade peered out at Fugazi, his head between Sammy’s side and arm. "Though Kit is braver than Blade.”

Fugazi followed all the way to Sammy's lap, then stopped, hopping backwards and forwards, looking somewhat confused. Geo laughed, nudging the puppy's tail with his foot. "Stoppiiiit, Fuga. Don't chase your brothers." Fugazi spun to nip at his shoe - Geo pulled it back, rapidly, and Fugazi seemed to puff up, pleased that he had vanquished the shoe.

Not to be out done – and finding a little bit of bravery – Blade surged out from behind Sammy and attacked Geo’s shoe as well, striking out with his bill like a cobra then pulling back to hiss in his duckish way at the offending footwear. Sammy reached out and picked Blade up, pulling him back but losing Kit in the process. He aimed an exasperated look at Geo as if to say “Should we have let them meet?”

Geo just blinked, a baffled expression on his face. "Dude. Your duckie just attacked me!" He half-watched Fuga bounding after Kit, just to make sure the dog didn't chomp the duck or anything like that. That would be bad.

“I know!” Sammy signed as he set Blade behind him again, trapping him in the corner using right thigh and side as walls to keep Blade where he was. “I’m wondering if there are ways to train ducks, because I don’t want them chasing people just because they think their shoes suck.” Blade looked up at him at that and almost seemed to cackle, and Sammy paused in reaching for Kit long enough to wag one finger at Blade in a “Don’t do that!” gesture. Kit managed to evade him, chasing Fugazi now, and Sammy laughed. “We’re starting a zoo in my minivan.”

"Mmmm, yeah, no good raising vigilante shoe-ducks...." He chuckled, shaking his head. "Just wait until I bring home a tiger or somethin'." The thought of tigers made him think of the creepy werecat from last night, and he grimaced. "I gotta remember to give you my work number, alright? Don't let me forget before I go in next time."

Sammy nodded in agreement and signed a quick "Alright," before finally catching hold of Kit and moving to set him down beside Blade where neither of them could get out and go back to their terrorizing of Geo or his shoes. "I'll right a big note on your hand with a Sharpie, how does that sound?" Not that he actually would probably. It was just a suggestion and not much else.

"Ahhhhh, how about no? I don't think I want to go in to work with a number on the back of my hand. That's a bit high school, yanno?" Geo propped his feet up on the seat where neither puppy or ducklings could get to them. "I mean, I know I just graduated, but I'd rather not go back to that stage. College, maybe..." He looked at Sammy out of the corner of his eye. "Did I tell you I'm thinkin' about applying to NMU?"

“You didn’t.” Sammy said as he looked over at Geo, eyebrows rising towards his hairline. “When’d you start thinking of doing that? What are you going for? Do people who live in town – like you do – get a discount?” Yes, he was asking question after question, but this was a good thing! Geo wanted to go to college, and Sammy hadn’t thought he would ever want to.

"I dunno. After." He didn't have to say after what - Sammy would know. "I was thinkin' something to do with music. I mean, teaching about music, not actually playing music." He gave a shrug. "And I don't know. It'd be nice, but it's not like I'm broke." He'd rather be broke. "It wouldn't be before January, though, term started and everything..." And, with his major in mind and the fact that Marek was in masters courses, he wouldn't have to worry about meeting up with him in class.

There was a quick nod as Sammy agreed, leaning back against the wall of the van as Fuga bounced into his lap again with a sharp bark. “Yeah, but you start the process before then so you’re not trying to get in still when you want to be registering for classes, right?”

"Um." Geo looked sideways at the duckies before he finally admitted "I hadn't actually thought that far ahead. It's just...an idea right now, you know? Nothing concrete or whatever, so...." He shook his head again. "I don't know. I just know I don't wanna work in a bar the rest of my life."

Sammy snorted, nudging him with the toe of his sneaker quickly. “No one does.” He said as he let Kit wander out again towards Geo, heading bobbing forward with each step he made. “But, if you want in, in January – which isn’t a bad idea at all – you should apply now. Not, you know...wait.” Wait and have to deal with people asking what he was going to do, like they always did, and making Sammy want to punch them just because.

Geo scooped up the duckling, gently, nuzzling its feathers. "Yeah, I know..." He shrugged once, not really looking at Sammy. "It's just...I dunno, I feel like they'll laugh, or ask questions that I don't want to - or can't - answer...." He caught the slight scent of defense, and had to chuckle.

“They’re not gonna, unless you’re trying to get into specific programs. Most don’t require interviews.” Yes, he did check out college information when he got the chance, but that was because he was planning on heading to college straight out of high school if he could manage the scholarships. “We can go inside if you want; see if we can get on Helen’s computer to find the program…”

"Yeah?" He'd glanced over in time to catch most of that. "Seems we're gankin' her PC a lot these days..." 'Getting Sammy a Computer' was climbing higher on his list every day that went by. Especially if he got his own place - Sammy'd need some way to communicate with people who were Not Helen. And Not Marek. He'd need that - and Geo'd feel a lot better once he had it.

“Well, if she’d just let us use it, it wouldn’t be ganking it, but…” the ‘she won’t, so we are’ went unsaid as Sammy shifted Fugazi from his lap and moved to place Kit and Blade back in their box again before reaching to grab several blankets which could serve as a bed for Fugazi. He looked over at the little Husky puppy, cooing noiselessly at him. “He’ll be okay staying out here?”

"He'll be ok for now." Geo said, standing up and picking up the puppy. He cuddled the furball to his chest with a little grin. "You'll be a good boy, won't you? Won'tcha?" The puppy replied by licking under his chin - Geo let him for a moment before setting him down again. "I'm hoping that was a yes." He thought it was - so far the dog had behaved, and right now he showed every sign of continuing to behave as he padded over to the blankets and curled up, nose to tail. Geo nodded to himself, and headed for the door. "Let's go steal the computer."