Survivor

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Alton. I’m Robin.” He told him, smiling warmly while stepping to his door and unlocking it. When he had, there was a staircase that led up to another door and Robin quickly hopped up the steps to get to it. Opening up that second door, he gestured for the man to follow him. His home was quaint; pastel in color but bright and cheerful like Faerie himself. “Would you like for me to bathe your dog or would you like to do the honors?” He asked, moving to his linen cabinet and pulling out a couple of wash cloths, shampoo, conditioner, and body wash for the man to use. The bottles were travel-sized, being something Robin kept just in case he had guests who didn’t like what he had for himself. “The bathroom’s down the hall and to your right and these are for you.” He said, handing over the items he collected for his guest.

By the time he was at the man’s place he was nearly red in the face. He was being treated so nicely after an accident and he didn’t know what to make out of it. Ares had stopped walking when he got into Robin’s home while Courage wandered in circles around him. “I do it!” He said in a hurry, but cringed right afterwards at how insistent that sounded. “You’ve already let me into your home and offered a chance to clean off-” Ares looked down as he spoke and saw Courage start to pad off to the side. He bent down to scoop the pug up before mud and whatever else they had on them could get on the floor. With the other arm he took the other items and nodded sheepishly. “Thank you again for this.” With his dog and the other things he went down the hall and into the door on his right like instructed. 

“Please, let me help you?” He said, letting his kindness show in his eyes while he adjusted the man’s coat. “You won’t get me smelly or anything. I’m just taking you into my home to shower. Possibly feed you, and your dog, something.” Robin said, motioning towards the back of his store. “Just this way. Come along.”

Again he wanted to refuse and he made a few more tries before quieting down with a defeated slump to his shoulders. “Okay..” He said with a soft sigh. As much as it stank to be soaked in sewage water he still didn’t want to drag someone into this mess. “That’d be nice, thank you very much. I’m Alton by the way, um, what’s your name?”

Robin was heading to his bakery after dropping off a cake a customer ordered, knowing that they were completely satisfied and blown away by it’s beauty. But, as he heard barking and a dog ran past him with a butterfly on his nose, Robin’s fingertips went to his mouth and he quickly moved to hold his hand out to cars to keep them from hurting the man and his dog. It was crazy, seeing a man willingly go into a sewer. He must really love his pet.

Looking over to him as he came out, Robin gasped softly at the sight before moving to take off his sweater and wrap it around the man. “Oh, no, it’s fine. You needed to take care of your pup. Come along, then. We’ll get you cleaned up, okay?” Robin offered, smiling warmly to the human and hopefully guiding him from the open sewer.

Without hesitation he dove right in, not thinking of what he was doing, and eventually retrieved his idiot of a dog. Courage was pushed up to the streets before he clambered up completely worn out. God knows what had soaked him and when he finally pulled himself out onto the road he saw someone had stopped nearby. Of course, that had to have been just his luck. “It’s.. It’s, um, yeah, it’s what it looks like,” he said in a defeated tone as Courage skipped up to him and lick at his leg.

Kitt smiled when he spotted the dog. He loved animals but was afraid of keeping any in his home because he was always too busy taking care of his flowers. In a way those were his pets. “I have some beautiful gardenias up near the front of the store if you want me to show you.” The fae blinked at the mention of his baking. “Yeah, I sell a few things that I make in my spare time. Mostly cakes and cookies but I made a batch of macaroons this morning if you’re interested. Nothing goes better with some flowers than something sweet.” 

Ares was already nodding at the sound of being shown some. “Of course. I’d love to see them, and I’d like to buy a few of those too if you don’t mind.” Again, it wasn’t because he minded competition it was just that he loved to learn how other’s baked. Someone he could tell the process a baker went with by sampling and other times he asked but was usually shot down. 

Kitt waited until he put the final touches on his drawing before he lifted up his head to look at who had walked into his shop. “Hi,” he said softly. “Just keep him from really touching anything and you’ll be fine.” He slid off the front of the counter and gave the man a small smile. “Anything I can help you with? I’m having a sale on peonies today.” 

“Oh, alright,” he said with a smile. Courage was already pulling on his leash from wanting to smell everything but he kept the pug in check. “Um.. No thanks, but if you have any gardenias I would like to look at them. But I, um, heard that you baked as well? Or this place had baked goods or something of the sort?”

Kitt sat on top of the counter alone in his shop. No one had bothered stopping by in over a hour and with the plants watered and given their daily love and care he had nothing better to do than sit and sketch out his plans for a cake he wanted to attempt. His tongue was stuck out like it always was when he sketched and he was too distracted when the door bell rang so he didn’t bother to look up at the visitor. 

Back from a small vacation he had heard there was another baker in town. Of course he was curious but not in a competitive way. Meeting people who loved to bake was always a welcomed thing with him. So with Courage on a harness and leash he set out to find this rumored place. His steps lead him to a.. Flower shop? Ares was slightly confused but he walked in anyways to see someone on the counter top sketching rather intensely. “Um.. Hello?” He said tentatively, hoping that Courage wouldn’t be paid attention to. “Sorry to bother you, but I hope dogs are.. Allowed in here?”

There was a pain that surged through Storms body - it felt as if his blood was on fire. Howling with pain he looked back to see his leg caught in a iron trap laced with liquid iron - double the pain. This shouldn’t have happened seeing he was a few feet from the west territory. He wasn’t trespassing as far as he knew. He tried to pry the trap open - only to burn his hands, he wasn’t strong enough to pull them apart in his state. Panting and sweating he got up -  attempting to use one leg to get anywhere but where he was. He was only able to go a foot or so before the chain on the trap pulled back. Hearing someone or something in the bushes he growled backing away - perhaps it was the man who had put this trap out. “Who the fuck are you!” 

It was Courage that got himself into this mess. The pug had been acting fine on the way home when all of the sudden the dog shot off towards the woods. Now they went to the woods every so often for walks but never at night and never this fast. Ares had no choice but to chase after his dog until Courage stopped to bark at something. Everything was fine until he heard someone or something yell. It sent major shivers down his spine and he was almost too scared to find out what it was, but he knew that was the exact reason why Courage was going off like an alarm. So with a deep breath he sucked it up and walked out of his cover to see a man trapped in a snare. Just the sight of how much blood there was made his face go pale and the shout at him didn’t help him either. With wide eyes he clutched Courage tighter as he tried to work his mouth into speaking. “I-I-I u-um. Alton, m-my name is Alton.”

Levi smiles warmly at Alton’s words. “Tough habit to shake, I guess,” said the wolf. “Be careful. We can’t have you going out of business. I might die from pastry-withdrawal symptoms.”

Amusement crinkled the corners of his eyes as he tilted his head a bit. “That sounds like a terrible thing to have. You shouldn’t worry though. Even if this place does close down for some reason I’ll still be making things. Just one a more personal level so like.. Christmas pound cakes- or fruit cakes if you prefer that route.”

gage-moore

Business had never been so busy before. After the shop was fixed up and the store hours returned to normal things hit off on a train for him. Customers came in and out from open to close and it left him exhausted but he never thought bad of it. The amount he had lost from having to repair the store had been covered within less than a week but it seemed like things just got even more busy somehow. Breaks weren’t taken that often and he rarely had time to take Courage out to pee. He himself barely had time to piss actually.

Somehow the thick of the crowd had left and the store was left empty except for him and his pug. Ares took this opportunity to actually sit down in his chair at the counter for the first time today. It was leaned back against the wall and his feet were put in one of the shelves behind the counter. His eyes closed and he figured that he’d only rest his poor eyes for a few minutes. He was a light sleep anyways. 

Wrong. Within seconds he had knocked out and by the time he woke up it was from something in the real world that had roused him. “-elcome to Crone’s Sweets how may I-” Ares nearly flew up as he sat up straight and the chair scraped back down to the ground. “How may I help you?”

Levi raised a brow, “Did I sense hesitation there?” he teased. As much as he liked free food as the next person, he was far from willing to take advantage of someone as big-hearted as Alton. “I’m paying for all your sweets,” he said firmly, tipping his head down to direct a pointed look at the man. “It’s better better for the both of us. You get to make some money and I’ll have a little more self-restraint,” he chuckled, stuffing the last bit of cake into his mouth, “Which i clearly have deficits in.”

Again he parted his lips to deny the question but he closed it with a slightly shameful look. “You and I both then. Probably not the best that I always want to put things on the house to the customers I like,” he sighed. Which was an odd thing to say since he used to not give a damn about it. Giving free things to others like he was made of cash all the time. 

“A bit of both, I’d guess,” he said, grinning as he turned to look down at the pug, now looking up expectantly. “As much as you want some of this, buddy, it’ll kill you,” he crooned, stuffing another forkful into his mouth.

“How much do I owe you?” he asked suddenly, gesturing to the cake and coffee, figuring he’d better pay now before he could order more. His wallet was taking a beating since he started ordering cakes once a week to send to the department.

The reaction Courage gave to Levi’s prodding made him chuckle. If those wrinkles could get any deeper they would have at that moment when the pug whined pitifully. The question had the words of ‘its on the house’ shoot up to his lips but he managed to catch himself before he could say that. The damages from the storm took out a bunch from his savings and as much as he wanted to just let the guy have it for free he couldn’t financially. “$7.34.” Ares said a bit reluctantly.