Man's Best Friend (Eric/Dug)

[maxine]

Max was such a happy dog. She loved being outdoors! Outdoors was great! It was fun! It was exciting! There were always new people and new smells and new things to chase or roll around in (even though Master didn’t like when she did that, but she couldn’t help it really). And the best part was that she got to play! And playing was Max’s most favorite thing ever! Well, maybe aside from chasing seagulls or licking people. But playing was so much fun! She would play all day long if Master would let her!

And they were playing Frisbee and that was even more fun than playing fetch! It was so much fun because Max got to run and run and run and then jump up and catch the Frisbee. It was much harder though in this new body. She wasn’t quite used to it. Running on just her hind legs was different, but it was kind of how Master ran! She was just like Master now! Yay!

Max picked up the Frisbee from the ground where it had fallen and popped it into her mouth to run back to Master. She couldn’t very well hold it in her front paws the way Master did. That would look silly. And she was trotting back to give the Frisbee to Master so he could throw it again when a scent wafted her way on the breeze. It was a human scent! And that made Max really excited because she loved people! She really loved people!

She stopped in her tracks and sniffed the air. Yes, that was a definitely a person. And they were close! Letting out a muffled bark Max turned and trotted towards the smell of the person, Frisbee still in her mouth.

[dug]

There were few things in life that could make Dug Muntz legitimately angry or upset, and there were even fewer things that he could actually stay mad about. Dug's father leaving for South America and leaving him behind had turned out to be one of those very few things. Charles Muntz had known how much his son had wanted to travel with him, but he had refused, instead sending Dug to this school far away from anything or anyone he'd ever known.

With a little bit of time, Dug had adjusted fine, and even liked it here, but it always bothered him how little his father wanted to do with him. No matter how many times his father managed to do something that hurt him, he never got used to it. Plus, Dug had recently heard from various sources about his father's so-called veterinary research, which apparently included the hunting and killing of birds that needed to be on the endangered species list, which apparently every animal scientist knew but refused to admit, mostly thanks to the influence of one Charles Muntz.

Since then, Dug had fruitlessly been searching for a way to - for lack of a better way to put it - get back at his father. So far, the only idea he'd come up with was to spend as much of his father's money as possible. His first project was to acquire golf clubs. Lots of them. Good ones. Expensive ones. He was, after all, on the school golf team. It would figure, though, that the Tintagel golf course was undergoing some sort of construction or something the first time he wanted to play it.

Well, Dug wasn't going to settle for that, so here he was at the edge of Kilkenny Field, the biggest open, grassy area he could find, using it as a driving range. After taking a few practice swings, Dug finally swung for real.

.. Just as he saw someone cross the other side of the field that he was aiming at. "OH!" he yelled, dropping the club and waving his arms. "Hey! Uh, FORE!" he called. "Fore fore fore!" Dug ran that direction, still waving.

[Deleted]

All right Eric…just pretend that nothing has changed, you don’t need to make your poor dog sad again. It seemed like something along those lines was doomed to be Eric’s catch phrase for the rest of his life, or at least unless there was an off chance that she somehow changed back into her normal canine self. He knew that, deep down, that girl who was running around like she was force fed some uppers laced with the most sugary breakfast cereal imaginable, was very much the dog that he had raised from a puppy. The problem was that every time he saw the girl catch a Frisbee in her mouth, or display any dog-like behavior, he had to keep on reminding his brain of that, because his thoughts and what he saw just weren’t meshing together at all.

What was even worse, though, was the fact that people were definitely starting to wonder just what had gotten into that girl, and had even been offended when she went over to sniff them before Eric could really do anything to stop her. Those were the times when he had considered putting a leash on her like he used to, but those ideas were quashed almost immediately. If he thought people were staring now, the leash thing would only make things worse and he just really wanted things to remain as normal as possible. If that meant that he had to look at a little blonde girl running towards him with a Frisbee in her mouth, so be it. At least he knew it was Max.

Which was why he actually felt his heart leap to his throat when he realized that she was heading in the opposite direction. He knew that look, and it usually meant that someone was about to be sniffed and possibly licked, which was cute once upon a time. Now people were just going to find it creepy…

“Max!” he cried, proceeding to race after her. Well, there was one perk to her being human, at least, that being he could stand a chance in catching up to her since she was only using two legs now. “Slow down there gir—“

And that was about the time when something conked him on the head, in the midst of someone calling out “Fore!” which he had only noticed now that he stopped talking to Max and was now seeing stars. Well, at least Max seemed to have calmed down for a second…wait, she had, right? Shaking his head, he looked around to see if Max was still at his side.

[maxine]

Max loved other people! People were fun! They always had new smells, although sometimes they smelled like cats which Max wasn’t particularly fond of, but new smells were fun! She especially liked people that smelled like the ocean. Max liked the ocean. It reminded her of home. Although really, home was where ever Master went, because he always took care of Max. And she was his best friend. Home was with Master. But Master’s home was by the ocean where there were seagulls and Max got to go on the big ship.

And the person out on the field definitely smelled new and interesting. She’d never met this person before, she could tell. He smelled different than anyone she’d ever smelled before and every human smelled different. Every dog too, for that matter. Everyone had a smell that was not like anyone else’s and that was how Max knew she’d never met this person before because she’d never smelled his scent before.

Max only half listened when Master called her name. He was always calling her back, but she really wanted to sniff this person and lick them so they would know that she liked them. People usually responded well to that. Well, most of the time they did, but lately they hadn’t. But maybe they just didn’t like dogs, which Max thought was a very silly idea. How could anyone not like dogs? Dogs were the best ever!

But Max turned around when Master stopped talking in the middle of his sentence. That wasn’t like him, so she stopped mid trot and turned around. She looked at Master, her head cocked to one side in a puzzled manner. “Master hurt?” Max asked, moving to his side. “Max get help?” she asked much more concerned about Master than the new person. Master was more important and he was looking very funny.

[dug]

Still running, Dug looked up and squinted around at the sky, trying to spot the ball he'd just hit. Unfortunately, he half-tripped and nearly fell flat on his face when his foot hit a sprinkler. Dug grunted unintelligibly under his breath, stumbling to a halt while he tried to regain his balance. When he finally got his gaze up from the ground, he saw the person he'd previously seen coming closer.

It was really weird, actually. The way she was acting reminded him of something, something that was really common back home. Even though it was apparently just a really blond chick coming his way, something about her mannerisms reminded him of when one of his father's larger more.. excitable dogs was running to him wanting to play. Getting that vibe from a human was pretty disconcerting. Thankfully the girl was distracted by something before she got to Dug.

Well, it wasn't something just she noticed. Before then, Dug had finally noticed the guy chasing after the girl, probably calling her name.. Right before getting hit in the head with Dug's golf ball. He cringed, "Oh, dang, dude, I'm so sorry. That was a total accident, I promise," he called, switching his walk back to a faster trot/run pace. Did she just call the dude master? Well that was weird.. and, ya know, kinda kinky.

[Deleted]

So it turned out that Max had, indeed, found her way back and was currently proving herself to be as good of a dog as he had always known she was, because as much as he knew she loved to go off to assault new people with doggy kisses, that nothing could stop her from making sure he was okay. He blinked a few times, hoping that’d get those purple and green stars away from his vision and then smiles sheepishly at his…well, girl dog. Yeah, that sounded like a good way to refer to her. Then again, that could’ve been the conk on the head talking.

“Nah, you don’t need to get help, Maxie,” he assured her absentmindedly, massaging his head just before he realized that Max wasn’t the only one who was talking to him…oh. Right. That golf ball had to come from somewhere. Not that Eric cared all that much, because somehow he doubted that he had made someone hate him so much that they went through all the trouble to aim a golf ball at his head, and besides, Eric wasn’t the grudge holding type.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, physically brushing off the apology. “I probably should’ve ducked sooner,” he then admitted with a laugh…that is, before he noticed the look on the other guy’s face, and that was when what Max had actually said occurred to him. Out of all the things that had shocked him about Max being a person…oddly enough, her calling him “Master” hadn’t been one of them, but from outside, he could definitely see how it’d be…unorthodox. Creepy was probably a more accurate term, but again, Eric was trying to not make himself feel like a total weirdo for, for all intents and purposes, having full blown conversations with his dog in public, and said dog was now making him look like…you know what? He didn’t quite want to know just what was on this blonde kid’s mind. There was only one thing to do: deflect, deflect!

Clearing his throat, he then asked, trying to keep it casual, “Did that shot get you any closer to the hole, at least?”

[maxine]

Good dogs always stayed with their masters when they got hurt. And Max was a good dog. So she could leave him when he might need her. Master getting hurt was not a good thing. Max knew that getting hurt was not a good thing and Master took care of her, so she would take care of him. Every dog took care of their master at some point in their doggy lives. It was time for Max to take care of Master.

Max wasn’t sure that Master was alright, even though he said he didn’t need her to get help. She looked at him worriedly. “Okay?” she asked Master. Then she held out her front paws. “Help up?” she asked. “Master not look good.”

She was too worried about Master to even pay too much attention to the new boy. He smelled like grass and outdoors and Max liked that about him. She liked outdoors. Outdoors were fun. And if she had been in her own body she would have wagged her tail politely at him. But she was still worried about Master, because if he wasn’t okay then who would take care of Max? Who would take care of her?

But Max was also an easily distractible dog. She looked at the new boy that smelled like outdoors. “What playing?” she asked, not having seen the golf ball, not that she would understand the game of golf anyway. She was only a dog after all.