Quiet Night
The small apartment was quiet for once, a stark contrast to the ambient noises of Gotham that echoed outside thin walls. The squeal of tires and odd noises you couldn’t place, broken with the ringing sound of a bang only sometimes followed by exclamations of people or barking of dogs. Quiet was something that the inhabitants of the run down apartment rarely experienced, though the current silence could be attributed to the fact half of the normal inhabitants were currently missing from the location. While the other half were left behind to lay their heads and await their owners return, two lumps huddled in the same worn dog bed. Despite the fact that there were clearly two set out, one held the trophy of being one of the first signs of life in the room in the beginning. Moved from a room with shimmering floors to thin walls hardly mattered with the familiarity and comfort it held. It kept the two lumps elevated from the cold wooden floors, there was only so much being indoors could do during Gotham’s nights.
An oddly ethereal green glow emanated from one of the lumps, lighting up the space like a glow in the dark sticker dipped in a radiated puddle. It was a stark contrast to the soft brown lump, fur once far duller and thick with dust before they had been led away from near endless sand. The quiet was interrupted by shuffling as the glowing green lump turned on its back, paws flinging across the other dog it had decided to invade the space of. Said dog was already drifting on the edges of consciousness at each sound drifting in from outside. It was largely different from the silent landscape and such hollow concrete walls that her soft steps had once echoed around. So when the small pitbull let out a sleep bark and rolled around again, the mutt let out a disgruntled huff in response. Whatever little dreams the glowing pup was experiencing left it to give small yips and whines before it sneezed itself awake. The pitbull let out a grumble and turned to playfully gnaw at its sleeping companion's head, hoping to wake up its playmate.
The other dog, given up on returning to its nap, let out an irritated whine as it moved its head away from the over energetic pup. Though there was a weary fondness in her eyes, the movement that she used to press down on the shaking green ball of fur with her paw was more similar to annoyance as she bopped the little pest. Said furry pest popped up from her paw like a rubber popper. It bounced around her with excited yaps, much to her exasperation, before going as still as a statue.
One of its floppy ears lifting up an inch and tilting around as if hearing a noise. The mutt followed the pup’s movements, only out of mirroring them as she couldn’t notice the same would-be-unsettling shift that it did. A different, though just as familiar, cooler green glow came through a wall across the apartment. The wallpaper seemed to ripple as a white haired figure drifted in, shoulders slumped as if they were carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. They drifted over to the couch, green drenching the corners and surfaces of the room, floating parallel to it before dropping like they remembered gravity existed. Once they hit the fabric of the thrifted loveseat with an unnaturally soft thump, a bright flash lit up the apartment as two rings spread over the figure and left a dark haired man face down on the seat.
A green blur shot across the floor to the couch, skidding to a halt before the glowing pup rubbed its face against the man’s hand fervently. A soft laugh came from him as the hand moved to scratch behind the pitbull’s ears gently.
“Hello to you too, Cujo.” His tired voice came. Cujo yipped excitedly and jumped up to lick at his owner’s face as the man fought to not get any slobber in his mouth or nose.
“Hey- hey- I missed you too bud!” Cool hands like the furthest part of the infinite realms ruffled Cujo’s fur before pulling the glowing pup against his chest like a baby. Cujo rubbed his head against that chest before settling against the man's chest, listening to the sluggish heartbeat. The soothing sounds of his owner's heart was interrupted by a loud growling noise that came from his stomach. Cujo perked up to start yapping at his owner. His silly owner forgot to eat again! He didn’t understand why his owner’s stomach still growled, it was obvious that he was a bit different but in the end weren’t they still dead?
“Looks like it's dinner- breakfast time?” His owner sounded a bit confused, looking over at the clock on the wall before nodding gravely.
“Binner time.” He set Cujo down and made his way to the kitchen. Cujo’s earlier fuss was quickly quieted as he saw his owner turn on the stove. Oh No. It wasn’t a secret that his owner was at his most lethal when at the stove. Cujo let out a whimper, his ears drooping as he ran back to the dog beds and dug his way under his friend. Dog huffed at the little pup as he tried to burrow his way to safety, lowering her head back down to the edge of the bed with a deep sigh, staring off at the impending disaster with caution. If he hid long enough, maybe other owner would return soon and they would be saved. That hope intensified as the smell of smoke filled the apartment not even ten minutes later and he felt his scruff get pulled as his friend stood and backed them into the furthest corner.
In the kitchen still, the two could see their owner holding a flaming pan away from himself with a panicked expression. At that moment Dog lifted her head towards the bathroom door where a muffled thud came from, to which Dog responded with a bark that absolutely could be heard doors down. Silence followed the thud for a few moments before there was a sudden scrambling and the door was thrown open, showing their disheveled other owner with one arm still in his leather jacket. He sprinted across the apartment to grab the flaming pan before pulling open a window to chuck it outside. There was a stretch of quiet as their owner held his face in his hands with their other owner breathing heavily braced against the window frame.
“Doll… If you were hungry, we had leftovers,” The amused voice of their other owner broke the silence. Dog wasted no second bolting from Cujo’s side, bringing her nose to their other owner’s outstretched hand with gentle sniffs and stock still muscles. Only before dissolving into wiggles of excitement as the hand reached around to scratch her ear. The moment of horror and most likely further disaster all but forgotten by the mutt.
“There was?” Their owner lowered his hands, a horrified look on his face at the revelation. The sight was enough to make their other owner's shoulders shake with repressed laughter.
“Stop- stop laughing.” The scolding was as ineffective as either owner's past attempts at scolding Dog’s barks down to a quieter level, as he also began to hold back laughter that creeped into his voice. Both of them dissolved into giggles while Dog warily watched for any remains of fire. Really, a little fire wasn’t much compared to what she had seen alongside their other owner, but in the hands of… Dog ducked around their other owner’s legs to shove her head through them, staring at their owner almost expecting him to combust at any moment.
Cuji wiggled happily at the light air, leaving the corner with skittering nails on wooden floors to go launch himself at their other owner.
“Why don’t we get takeout?” He suggested as he picked up the wriggling green blur, a fond smile on his face as their owner nodded, somehow not sent crashing to the ground with the squirming pitbull in his arms and the mutt tangled between his boots.
“I think that's for the best.”
