Housepets: Attonement
Posted: Sat May 28, 2022 10:47 am
I haven't been here on the forums for very long, but I felt like posting a fanfic I've been working on for a while now, set 2 or 3 years after the current point in time in the comic. It starts off mostly about Keene, but I have written some future chapters which will focus some on Fox, Tarot, Jata, and posssssibly Kitsune, though I'm not certain about that one.
Story summary: Keene's living a lovely yet lonely life with his boyfriend, but still he seeks to make things right for the animals of the world and make some friends along the way. Fox, having now spent at least a sixth of his life in heaven, seeks to make the real world better for himself and his friends by being the best K9 (and friend) he can be. But this requires forgiving many and coming to terms with the mistakes of others. After Tarot's recent failure in Egypt, only barely escaping with the world intact, Tarot's been seeking to destress. However, a new emerging conflict may be the perfect opportunity to prove herself to the world. With trouble brewing in his homeland of Feraga, Jata comes to Babylon Gardens seeking help, and, possibly, forgiveness. What starts as a confused attempt to solve a few interpersonal struggles becomes a great pursuit for the animals of Babylon Gardens to fix their mistakes of the past, and hopefully crack a lot of slightly (but not particularly) funny jokes all the while.
This first chapter's short, but I want to update pretty frequently, so they're all going to be at least somewhat short.
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Chapter One
(The First Chapter)
---
Breel cocked his eyebrow at the ferret next to him. “You’re doing what?” he asked, sounding halfway curious and halfway exhausted.
“I’m making a documentary about how pets are the backbone of human society.”
“You think pets are the backbone of human society?” asked Breel, smiling faintly.
“Yes! Of course. But I can’t exactly convince anyone else without making this documentary.”
Breel put on his oven mitts, and opened up the cookie-cooking contraption. “You’ll have to remind me, what is a documentary again, dear?”
Keene sighed. “Sometimes I forget you’re from the 1800s. It’s… oh, it’s like a tv program, but everyone believes it.”
Breel smiled wider, knowing Keene was probably oversimplifying. Still, he entertained the bored ferret. “That sounds pretty dangerous,” he remarked, setting the cookie-laden baking tray atop the oven to cool. Keene reached for a cookie, but Breel grabbed his hand. “Wait for them to cool, dear.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Keene complied, albeit with a huff. “Anyways, documentaries are how the upper classes tell the average Joe what to think.”
Breel merely nodded. “Oh, are they now?” He was starting to remember what documentaries actually were, and he was pretty sure Keene was misunderstanding the point, like he often did when blinded by passion. But that’s one of the things that made his boyfriend so endearing.
The marten padded over to a chair while Keene continued to talk. “Yeah, they are! But they’re all made by humans. There’s so many nature documentaries that treat us animals like oddities, but I want to prove we’re part of the normal world! That we’re equal to humans!”
Breel draped himself across the seat of the chair, humming as he thought for a moment. “Do you… know how to film? Or write a script? Or… Whatever else may be involved in the filming of a ‘documentary?”
Keene grinned. “Oh, you see, my brother’s a videographer/director! I’ll get his help. It’s not like he’s particularly busy…”
Breel paused. “Your brother’s a director? Which one?”
“...Breel, I introduced you to all my siblings many times. Don’t you remember all the family reunions?”
Breel chuckled, sounding a little guilty. “The only ones of your siblings I can tell apart are Lana and Duke.”
Keene groaned. “Well, that’s something we’re going to need to fix! Anyway, Rock’s the director.”
Breel looked up at Keene, not even a hint of recognition flashing across his eyes.
“The gray one…?” Keene supplied.
“Oh! That one!” said Breel, getting up to prepare a plate of cookies. “Want any milk with your cookies?”
“I don’t want soggy cookies, Breel. How many times must I tell you? I prefer orange soda.”
“Water it is, dear,” Breel said with an exasperated sigh.
“I love you so much,” Keene said, although slightly disappointed he wouldn’t be getting any orange soda.
“Where would you be without me?” the marten joked, leaning on the smaller ferret a little.
“Heck?” Keene said.
“Oh… Huh, I guess that’s quite literally true.”
There was a moment of quiet bliss as the two eagerly snarfed down their cookies, barely even leaving any crumbs. Breel was a seriously talented baker, despite coming from a time where, according to Breel himself, food was “almost never good.”
This moment abruptly ended when a very loud knocking assaulted their ears, Breel and Keene both jumped in surprise. Usually when they had visitors, there would be a call ahead of time- Keene had made sure there were security details on duty at all times after the ‘NegaBreel’ incident, when both Keene and Breel had narrowly avoided kicking the bucket due to an evil mirror version of Keene.
Whoever was knocking on the door right now had made their way past the security detail and was, from the sound of it, not particularly happy.
“Should you get the door, or should I?” asked Breel.
Keene decided to enact his flawless plan for dealing with unhappy visitors. “Breel, go get the peace offerings- er, baked goods. I’ll deal with the front door.”
“On it,” said Breel with a jolly chuckle. The marten leaned down to give Keene a quick peck on the cheek, before walking into the kitchen and grabbing more cookies. Keene, meanwhile, steeled himself and headed to the front door.
When the door swung open, Keene was not expecting to be greeted by an absolutely furious black cat, a tired looking dog with bags under his eyes which were seemingly accentuated by the spot covering one of them, a very amused looking mouse atop the dog’s shoulder, and the other members of the K9 unit standing a bit behind them.
“Fido? Sabrina? …Spo, was it? To what do I owe the pleasure?” asked Keene. Despite the whole… thing… with Jata happening almost ten years ago, Sabrina really didn’t like Keene, and the ferret couldn’t imagine Fido found him particularly tolerable.
Though on the upside, the mouse probably didn’t have much reason to hate him.
“Why. On Earth. Is JATA EN ROUTE TO BABYLON GARDENS RIGHT NOW!?” Sabrina shouted, spitting in Keene’s face.
Keene froze. “What?”
“Didn’t you see the news? It was like, on the news. All of the channels,” Spo lazily murmured.
Keene sighed. “Why on earth would I be watching TV?”
He then shook his head and looked quickly between the livid cat, tired dog, and… mouse. “He’s coming HERE!?”
Sabrina hissed. “You didn’t know?”
Now would be a good time for Breel to diffuse the situation, thought Keene. “Why would I know? He cut contact with me after the incident.”
Sabrina rolled her eyes. “Of course he did. Well, on live TV he claimed that he would be staying at the Milton mansion, so…”
Fido piped up. “Mister Milton, sir, could you maybe pay for us to have an all-expenses paid vacation, to say, anywhere but here? I’m not really in the business of confronting my old enemies.”
Sabrina turned to her boyfriend. “Don’t you dare try to suck up to him while I’m trying to make him suffer.”
“Ah, yeah, well, you see, I was just thinking that maybe if we weren’t here when-”
Keene rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry about this. It’s annoying, but I just need to tell my sister to stop. My sister, who, by the way, is the one that manages this kind of thing now, so complain to her if there are any issues in the future.”
“I don’t have any way of contacting Lana and I doubt she would listen to me,” Sabrina pointed out.
It was at this point that Breel emerged from the house with a platter of cookies. “Come in, come in, everyone!” Breel insisted, beckoning folks in. “We’ve got enough cookies for everyone.”
“Breel always cooks like he’s expecting guests to come,” Keene joked. “Perhaps because our house keeps getting barged into.”
Sabrina scowled, but headed in following the lead of the marten. Fido and the rest of the K9 Unit came inside as well, Fox and Ralph each giving Keene a suspicious glare. Only one remained outside, that being a massive black dog. Mungo, if Keene remembered from the temple, though he hadn’t ever really introduced himself.
Keene looked over at the other K9s, who shrugged for a second before Fox doubled back around to talk to Mungo. About thirty seconds later, Fox came back with a slight smile.
“Mungo says he’s not going to try entering a house intended for animals a fifth of his size.”
The other K9s looked around at each other, generally nodding.
Finally, they made their way to the now-cramped kitchen of the house, Breel setting the cookies on the table and pouring drinks for people. The way the marten helped make everyone feel at home was really admirable to Keene, who often felt like it was far easier to make everyone hate you.
Like, other than Breel, did he even have any real friends? The closest things would probably be his siblings, his butler Jeeves, and his not-quite-a-rivalry with Tarot. And his interactions with Kitsune were never exactly negative, he supposed.
Meanwhile, Breel and Kevin had known each other for about two minutes now and were already apparently best friends.
Keene sat down, stoically grabbing a cookie while keeping a rigid posture. “Okay, let’s get up to business now.”
Sabrina nodded. “Let’s.”
There was an uncomfortable silence.
“I’m… not entirely sure how to approach this, to be honest.”
Sabrina thought for a moment. “How about we call Lana?”
“I suppose we could do that, but if Jata is already on the way here, we’re still going to need to deal with him.”
Sabrina groaned. “What I don’t understand is why he’s coming back!? The wolf pack messed him up last time.”
Fido nodded. “Plus, I saved him, so what reason does he have to try again?”
Keene was about to shout for Steward or some other servant to help him do research, before quickly realizing that he lived with just Breel and his security detail. He instead stood up and grabbed a laptop from off the counter, before setting it on the table and sitting back down.
“Luckily, we have a pretty good way to find out,” Keene stated.
“-And then I was like, dogs don’t have wings!” Kevin said to Breel, his volume seeming to increase while the laptop loaded.
“Not on earth they don’t,” Breel agreed with a hearty chuckle.
“What’s Earth?” asked Kevin.
Luckily, at this point, the laptop finished loading, so Keene tuned out and began to search stuff up.
“Let’s see here…” he said. “Okay, so, here’s a news article… The small African island microstate of Feraga, some three hundred miles northeast of the Seychelles, is in a state of turmoil. Ten years after the death of their longest reigning king, the crown prince has yet to marry and become the new king. In turn, this has created conflict within the royal house of the nation, in addition to the calls from everyday citizens for democracy. The Feragan economy has completely collapsed in on itself, and now even the prince himself seems to be fleeing. It appears this - OH REALLY!?”
“What?” asked Spo, who had been falling asleep before Keene’s sudden outburst.
Keene seethed for a second. “Look at what it says next!” he exclaimed. “‘It appears this goes to show how animals are incapable of running a country for themselves!’ That’s what it says!”
“Neither are humans,” Sabrina said with a brief eyeroll. “But that’s not important right now. If this article is to be believed, then Jata appears to be coming to Babylon Gardens looking for either refuge or help. From you,” the cat added, poking Keene in the stomach.
Keene folded his arms, idly rubbing them with his paws. “This could be useful for the ECP,” he thought aloud.
“Keene, you better not be about to prop up a dictatorship entirely because it’s led by animals…”
“Not quite,” Keene murmured. He looked around his crowded dining room.
At this point, Fido and Spo had both fallen asleep on the table, Fido still holding half his cookie. It was clearly evident they were both tired and bored.
Breel, Kevin, and Fox were engaged in a lively conversation about Heaven and Earth and possibly even Heck, the large doberman clearly not understanding a word.
Ralph and one of the other K9s were sitting at the table, anxiously eating cookies.
And of course, Sabrina was looking over his shoulder at the laptop.
“But I think maybe there’s a more… moralistic way to prove to the world what we really are. No more magical hijinks. No political hijinks. No, like, hijinks at all. I’m forming a plan…”
Sabrina snorted. “Welp, you can count me out. Make sure Jata doesn’t come after me or Fido, and we’ll be good, alright?”
Keene nodded.
“And if you try to marry me off again, so help me I will tear all of your bones out of your body through your stomach one by one.”
Keene gulped. “I’ll refrain from marrying you off again in the future.”
“Good,” said Sabrina. She then shook Fido awake, telling him it was time to go.
Keene shrugged, deciding he should probably be at his mansion whenever Jata arrived. As Sabrina and Fido left, he went over to Breel to tell him his new plans.
After he did so, he heard a cough from the table. Ralph, the head of the K9 unit, was looking at Keene with suspicion.
“Yes?” asked Keene, trying his best to look innocent.
“That confirms it. I’m sending some of the K9s along to make sure you don’t cause an international incident again.” Ralph said, eyes narrowed.
“Oh, that should be alright, as long as they stay somewhat out of the way,” Keene said, hoping if he went along willingly, Ralph’s suspicion would go down.
“Fox and Mungo will do. If need be, Mungo can probably take on Jata,” said Ralph, more to himself than to anyone else. “Officer Fox! Please inform Officer Mungo of your duties and then carry them out!”
“Yes, sir!” Fox said with a salute, before his tail began to wag quickly and he bounded outside.
“The rest of the K9s! Back to the station.”
Kevin, the one Keene didn’t know the name of, and Ralph himself then headed outside as well, leaving just Keene, Breele, and…
“Tarot?” asked Keene, doing a double take. “Why are you- of course you’re here.”
Tarot was standing beside the door, looking slightly annoyed.
“For what it’s worth, it wasn’t anything mystical this time. I was just staying over at Sabrina’s,” the pomeranian explained.
“Ah, I see,” Keene said with a nod.
Breel offered Tarot a cookie. Tarot accepted the cookie.
“I don’t suppose you’re coming along for the ride?” asked Breel.
“I guess I am,” Tarot said. “I actually didn’t predict this would happen, but then again, Jata was halfway across the world when he decided to travel.”
Keene huffed a little bit upon hearing Tarot would be along for the ride. He didn’t mind the pomeranian anywhere near as much as he did Sabrina, but that time in the temple had been pretty annoying, and none of their other encounters had been lovely.
“I guess we should get a move on, then. I’ll call Lana while we’re in the car,” Keene said.
Breel nodded, grabbing his boyfriend by the hand and briskly walking out, a pep in his step.
Tarot shrugged and followed behind.
---
Thank you for reading!
Story summary: Keene's living a lovely yet lonely life with his boyfriend, but still he seeks to make things right for the animals of the world and make some friends along the way. Fox, having now spent at least a sixth of his life in heaven, seeks to make the real world better for himself and his friends by being the best K9 (and friend) he can be. But this requires forgiving many and coming to terms with the mistakes of others. After Tarot's recent failure in Egypt, only barely escaping with the world intact, Tarot's been seeking to destress. However, a new emerging conflict may be the perfect opportunity to prove herself to the world. With trouble brewing in his homeland of Feraga, Jata comes to Babylon Gardens seeking help, and, possibly, forgiveness. What starts as a confused attempt to solve a few interpersonal struggles becomes a great pursuit for the animals of Babylon Gardens to fix their mistakes of the past, and hopefully crack a lot of slightly (but not particularly) funny jokes all the while.
This first chapter's short, but I want to update pretty frequently, so they're all going to be at least somewhat short.
---
Chapter One
(The First Chapter)
---
Breel cocked his eyebrow at the ferret next to him. “You’re doing what?” he asked, sounding halfway curious and halfway exhausted.
“I’m making a documentary about how pets are the backbone of human society.”
“You think pets are the backbone of human society?” asked Breel, smiling faintly.
“Yes! Of course. But I can’t exactly convince anyone else without making this documentary.”
Breel put on his oven mitts, and opened up the cookie-cooking contraption. “You’ll have to remind me, what is a documentary again, dear?”
Keene sighed. “Sometimes I forget you’re from the 1800s. It’s… oh, it’s like a tv program, but everyone believes it.”
Breel smiled wider, knowing Keene was probably oversimplifying. Still, he entertained the bored ferret. “That sounds pretty dangerous,” he remarked, setting the cookie-laden baking tray atop the oven to cool. Keene reached for a cookie, but Breel grabbed his hand. “Wait for them to cool, dear.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Keene complied, albeit with a huff. “Anyways, documentaries are how the upper classes tell the average Joe what to think.”
Breel merely nodded. “Oh, are they now?” He was starting to remember what documentaries actually were, and he was pretty sure Keene was misunderstanding the point, like he often did when blinded by passion. But that’s one of the things that made his boyfriend so endearing.
The marten padded over to a chair while Keene continued to talk. “Yeah, they are! But they’re all made by humans. There’s so many nature documentaries that treat us animals like oddities, but I want to prove we’re part of the normal world! That we’re equal to humans!”
Breel draped himself across the seat of the chair, humming as he thought for a moment. “Do you… know how to film? Or write a script? Or… Whatever else may be involved in the filming of a ‘documentary?”
Keene grinned. “Oh, you see, my brother’s a videographer/director! I’ll get his help. It’s not like he’s particularly busy…”
Breel paused. “Your brother’s a director? Which one?”
“...Breel, I introduced you to all my siblings many times. Don’t you remember all the family reunions?”
Breel chuckled, sounding a little guilty. “The only ones of your siblings I can tell apart are Lana and Duke.”
Keene groaned. “Well, that’s something we’re going to need to fix! Anyway, Rock’s the director.”
Breel looked up at Keene, not even a hint of recognition flashing across his eyes.
“The gray one…?” Keene supplied.
“Oh! That one!” said Breel, getting up to prepare a plate of cookies. “Want any milk with your cookies?”
“I don’t want soggy cookies, Breel. How many times must I tell you? I prefer orange soda.”
“Water it is, dear,” Breel said with an exasperated sigh.
“I love you so much,” Keene said, although slightly disappointed he wouldn’t be getting any orange soda.
“Where would you be without me?” the marten joked, leaning on the smaller ferret a little.
“Heck?” Keene said.
“Oh… Huh, I guess that’s quite literally true.”
There was a moment of quiet bliss as the two eagerly snarfed down their cookies, barely even leaving any crumbs. Breel was a seriously talented baker, despite coming from a time where, according to Breel himself, food was “almost never good.”
This moment abruptly ended when a very loud knocking assaulted their ears, Breel and Keene both jumped in surprise. Usually when they had visitors, there would be a call ahead of time- Keene had made sure there were security details on duty at all times after the ‘NegaBreel’ incident, when both Keene and Breel had narrowly avoided kicking the bucket due to an evil mirror version of Keene.
Whoever was knocking on the door right now had made their way past the security detail and was, from the sound of it, not particularly happy.
“Should you get the door, or should I?” asked Breel.
Keene decided to enact his flawless plan for dealing with unhappy visitors. “Breel, go get the peace offerings- er, baked goods. I’ll deal with the front door.”
“On it,” said Breel with a jolly chuckle. The marten leaned down to give Keene a quick peck on the cheek, before walking into the kitchen and grabbing more cookies. Keene, meanwhile, steeled himself and headed to the front door.
When the door swung open, Keene was not expecting to be greeted by an absolutely furious black cat, a tired looking dog with bags under his eyes which were seemingly accentuated by the spot covering one of them, a very amused looking mouse atop the dog’s shoulder, and the other members of the K9 unit standing a bit behind them.
“Fido? Sabrina? …Spo, was it? To what do I owe the pleasure?” asked Keene. Despite the whole… thing… with Jata happening almost ten years ago, Sabrina really didn’t like Keene, and the ferret couldn’t imagine Fido found him particularly tolerable.
Though on the upside, the mouse probably didn’t have much reason to hate him.
“Why. On Earth. Is JATA EN ROUTE TO BABYLON GARDENS RIGHT NOW!?” Sabrina shouted, spitting in Keene’s face.
Keene froze. “What?”
“Didn’t you see the news? It was like, on the news. All of the channels,” Spo lazily murmured.
Keene sighed. “Why on earth would I be watching TV?”
He then shook his head and looked quickly between the livid cat, tired dog, and… mouse. “He’s coming HERE!?”
Sabrina hissed. “You didn’t know?”
Now would be a good time for Breel to diffuse the situation, thought Keene. “Why would I know? He cut contact with me after the incident.”
Sabrina rolled her eyes. “Of course he did. Well, on live TV he claimed that he would be staying at the Milton mansion, so…”
Fido piped up. “Mister Milton, sir, could you maybe pay for us to have an all-expenses paid vacation, to say, anywhere but here? I’m not really in the business of confronting my old enemies.”
Sabrina turned to her boyfriend. “Don’t you dare try to suck up to him while I’m trying to make him suffer.”
“Ah, yeah, well, you see, I was just thinking that maybe if we weren’t here when-”
Keene rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry about this. It’s annoying, but I just need to tell my sister to stop. My sister, who, by the way, is the one that manages this kind of thing now, so complain to her if there are any issues in the future.”
“I don’t have any way of contacting Lana and I doubt she would listen to me,” Sabrina pointed out.
It was at this point that Breel emerged from the house with a platter of cookies. “Come in, come in, everyone!” Breel insisted, beckoning folks in. “We’ve got enough cookies for everyone.”
“Breel always cooks like he’s expecting guests to come,” Keene joked. “Perhaps because our house keeps getting barged into.”
Sabrina scowled, but headed in following the lead of the marten. Fido and the rest of the K9 Unit came inside as well, Fox and Ralph each giving Keene a suspicious glare. Only one remained outside, that being a massive black dog. Mungo, if Keene remembered from the temple, though he hadn’t ever really introduced himself.
Keene looked over at the other K9s, who shrugged for a second before Fox doubled back around to talk to Mungo. About thirty seconds later, Fox came back with a slight smile.
“Mungo says he’s not going to try entering a house intended for animals a fifth of his size.”
The other K9s looked around at each other, generally nodding.
Finally, they made their way to the now-cramped kitchen of the house, Breel setting the cookies on the table and pouring drinks for people. The way the marten helped make everyone feel at home was really admirable to Keene, who often felt like it was far easier to make everyone hate you.
Like, other than Breel, did he even have any real friends? The closest things would probably be his siblings, his butler Jeeves, and his not-quite-a-rivalry with Tarot. And his interactions with Kitsune were never exactly negative, he supposed.
Meanwhile, Breel and Kevin had known each other for about two minutes now and were already apparently best friends.
Keene sat down, stoically grabbing a cookie while keeping a rigid posture. “Okay, let’s get up to business now.”
Sabrina nodded. “Let’s.”
There was an uncomfortable silence.
“I’m… not entirely sure how to approach this, to be honest.”
Sabrina thought for a moment. “How about we call Lana?”
“I suppose we could do that, but if Jata is already on the way here, we’re still going to need to deal with him.”
Sabrina groaned. “What I don’t understand is why he’s coming back!? The wolf pack messed him up last time.”
Fido nodded. “Plus, I saved him, so what reason does he have to try again?”
Keene was about to shout for Steward or some other servant to help him do research, before quickly realizing that he lived with just Breel and his security detail. He instead stood up and grabbed a laptop from off the counter, before setting it on the table and sitting back down.
“Luckily, we have a pretty good way to find out,” Keene stated.
“-And then I was like, dogs don’t have wings!” Kevin said to Breel, his volume seeming to increase while the laptop loaded.
“Not on earth they don’t,” Breel agreed with a hearty chuckle.
“What’s Earth?” asked Kevin.
Luckily, at this point, the laptop finished loading, so Keene tuned out and began to search stuff up.
“Let’s see here…” he said. “Okay, so, here’s a news article… The small African island microstate of Feraga, some three hundred miles northeast of the Seychelles, is in a state of turmoil. Ten years after the death of their longest reigning king, the crown prince has yet to marry and become the new king. In turn, this has created conflict within the royal house of the nation, in addition to the calls from everyday citizens for democracy. The Feragan economy has completely collapsed in on itself, and now even the prince himself seems to be fleeing. It appears this - OH REALLY!?”
“What?” asked Spo, who had been falling asleep before Keene’s sudden outburst.
Keene seethed for a second. “Look at what it says next!” he exclaimed. “‘It appears this goes to show how animals are incapable of running a country for themselves!’ That’s what it says!”
“Neither are humans,” Sabrina said with a brief eyeroll. “But that’s not important right now. If this article is to be believed, then Jata appears to be coming to Babylon Gardens looking for either refuge or help. From you,” the cat added, poking Keene in the stomach.
Keene folded his arms, idly rubbing them with his paws. “This could be useful for the ECP,” he thought aloud.
“Keene, you better not be about to prop up a dictatorship entirely because it’s led by animals…”
“Not quite,” Keene murmured. He looked around his crowded dining room.
At this point, Fido and Spo had both fallen asleep on the table, Fido still holding half his cookie. It was clearly evident they were both tired and bored.
Breel, Kevin, and Fox were engaged in a lively conversation about Heaven and Earth and possibly even Heck, the large doberman clearly not understanding a word.
Ralph and one of the other K9s were sitting at the table, anxiously eating cookies.
And of course, Sabrina was looking over his shoulder at the laptop.
“But I think maybe there’s a more… moralistic way to prove to the world what we really are. No more magical hijinks. No political hijinks. No, like, hijinks at all. I’m forming a plan…”
Sabrina snorted. “Welp, you can count me out. Make sure Jata doesn’t come after me or Fido, and we’ll be good, alright?”
Keene nodded.
“And if you try to marry me off again, so help me I will tear all of your bones out of your body through your stomach one by one.”
Keene gulped. “I’ll refrain from marrying you off again in the future.”
“Good,” said Sabrina. She then shook Fido awake, telling him it was time to go.
Keene shrugged, deciding he should probably be at his mansion whenever Jata arrived. As Sabrina and Fido left, he went over to Breel to tell him his new plans.
After he did so, he heard a cough from the table. Ralph, the head of the K9 unit, was looking at Keene with suspicion.
“Yes?” asked Keene, trying his best to look innocent.
“That confirms it. I’m sending some of the K9s along to make sure you don’t cause an international incident again.” Ralph said, eyes narrowed.
“Oh, that should be alright, as long as they stay somewhat out of the way,” Keene said, hoping if he went along willingly, Ralph’s suspicion would go down.
“Fox and Mungo will do. If need be, Mungo can probably take on Jata,” said Ralph, more to himself than to anyone else. “Officer Fox! Please inform Officer Mungo of your duties and then carry them out!”
“Yes, sir!” Fox said with a salute, before his tail began to wag quickly and he bounded outside.
“The rest of the K9s! Back to the station.”
Kevin, the one Keene didn’t know the name of, and Ralph himself then headed outside as well, leaving just Keene, Breele, and…
“Tarot?” asked Keene, doing a double take. “Why are you- of course you’re here.”
Tarot was standing beside the door, looking slightly annoyed.
“For what it’s worth, it wasn’t anything mystical this time. I was just staying over at Sabrina’s,” the pomeranian explained.
“Ah, I see,” Keene said with a nod.
Breel offered Tarot a cookie. Tarot accepted the cookie.
“I don’t suppose you’re coming along for the ride?” asked Breel.
“I guess I am,” Tarot said. “I actually didn’t predict this would happen, but then again, Jata was halfway across the world when he decided to travel.”
Keene huffed a little bit upon hearing Tarot would be along for the ride. He didn’t mind the pomeranian anywhere near as much as he did Sabrina, but that time in the temple had been pretty annoying, and none of their other encounters had been lovely.
“I guess we should get a move on, then. I’ll call Lana while we’re in the car,” Keene said.
Breel nodded, grabbing his boyfriend by the hand and briskly walking out, a pep in his step.
Tarot shrugged and followed behind.
---
Thank you for reading!