2019-08-17 - The 19th POTUS is a Good Pupper

[EARLIER]

The Friendzone app. It's not something Easton usually pays that much attention to honestly. He missed out on a lot of the social media stuff being deployed and before that it was a different time. But for whatever reason, sitting out on the deck in his new patio chairs (fancy ones with rocking motion) he was flipping through the app. And just so happened to see a posting for puppies, which he casually opened and his eyebrows shoot up. He flips to phone mode and moves to put the phone up to his ear but somehow in his excitement the phone slips out of his hand and goes flying off the balcony. And while normally someone might exclaim something in anger about the phone or just a general cussing, all that comes out is "PUPPY!" Luckily he can retrieve the phone with a little TK special and he manages to calm himself enough to pretend to be a normal person on the phone to arrange the drop off.

[NOW]

And now Easton is on the floor with the pup, a classic tan and black English Mastiff that currently chewing on an old tee-shirt that Easton pulled out for this purpose. The door to the balcony is open and there is music playing. A beer sits on the coffee table, nearly forgotten in the midst of PUPPY!EXCITEMENT!

Despite Bennie 'slowing down', she's still juggling three regular jobs and two little side ventures. Occasionally that means she has to bring work home with her, and the order of today is mailing out some of her handmade jewelry. Of course this means toting everything to Easton's apartment, and so she's shouldering open the door carrying a large plastic tote full of envelopes, shipping labels and merchandise.

All which promptly gets dropped when she sees the tableau in front of her.

Bennie merely steps over all the supplies as if they no longer exists in favor of approaching Easton and the puppy as if she's just seen divinity itself. Normally an ear splitting screech of joy would threaten the structural viability of any surrounding glass, but instead she's just so awe struck no sounds emit from her mouth but a tiny little squeak.

Barely even conscious of the door opening Easton is totally immersed in growling back at the puppy and watching it flop about. It's still in rough shape from how it was found so he's being gentle, plus there will be plenty of time to wrestle it when it grows as large as him. He finally looks up when the boxes drop to the floor, which also cause the puppy a bit of a start.

"So.." Easton starts to explain but then it's obvious that Bennie isn't even listening as she brushes right past him. He laughs and scoops up the puppy to hand it up to her. "I'm thinking either Gunner. Dog Tom. Or Rutherford B. Hayes."

Naming a dog is hard y'all.

Bennie sinks to her knees to accept the large ball of puppy fluff, not trusting her arms to support its weight considering how absolutely bowled over she is. "Oh my god, I now understand the meaning of 'puppy love'. He's ...perfect!" She noses her nose against the pups, falling into instant baby talk, "Yes you are. Yes you are!" Then melting a little more but at least returning to her normal voice when she tells Easton, "Puppy breath!"

"You're missing an opportunity," Bennie sets down the wiggling body and promptly lays down next to it. "It would have to be Rufferford B. Hayes. But I totally like Gunner. And Dog Tom is a little creepy."

Finally remembering his beer, Easton takes a big drink as Bennie snuggles the squirming pile of floof. He just nods about the term puppy love, he adds "It's a really good thing puppies can't talk, because I'd do just about anything they'd ask."

Easton furrows his brows at Bennie's suggestion. "Rufferford is funny, but just straight naming him Rutherford B. Hayes would be hilarious. And Dog Tom isn't creepy. Creepy is having your dead best friend watch you have sex with your girlfriend." Breezing /riiiight/ past that he adds "But you're right. It's Gunner." He leans over and buries his in the puppy and growl-whispers "Isthat yername? Areyoua Gunner?"

Just when you thought Bennie's smile couldn't physically get any wider, it's constraints have never been tested with the sight of Easton and his new puppy scruffing together on the floor. "Look at those paws! He's going to be a giant. Where did you get him from anyways? Besides from heaven." It's a good thing they aren't baby people, because they're going to make people sick enough as it is with little Gunner.

"I know!" Easton seems excited about the fact that the dog is clearly going to be small horse sized in the not too distant future. He finally manages to pull away from the puppy long enough to greet Bennie with a light kiss. "Friendzone post. Actually that goth psychiatrist from the bar ended up finding a litter of pups that were abandoned." Nope, not adding details. That's way too close to sad dog stories and then he might actually show some emotion, er, upset Bennie. Yea. That.

"You ever have a dog as a kid?"

Bennie tones down her smile long enough to kiss Easton back so her lips curve softly to his, but it immediately springs back up when they lean away from each other. "Oh so is that what she wanted at the bar with all that sexy whispering." Her knuckles lightly bap his shoulder playfully, but that's the extent of any display of jealousy. "Nope! This'll be my first pet! Joint pet. Pet with visitation rights. Never even so much as a goldfish. What about you?"

The kiss is lingered on, even if it's ever so light. Then he laughs at Bennie's guess, "Do you know what she asked me?" In his best sexy secret tone he raises his eyebrows, "To cancel her fries" He then adds a wink before saying, "No. Really. That and I thanked her for taking Billy down the other night." Straightening up he regards her with a look and says, "Were you seriously jealous? Because she's uh.. super not my type?" Besides the whole stopping serial killers and bringing puppies thing.

"Nope. No pets for me either." He then smiles and says, "Joint pet. Rufferford G. Hayes is our dog." With that settled he stands up and goes to get another beer. "Need a drink?"

There is a shocked gasp as Easton tells her the truth, and her hand clutches to her heart as if she just had it ripped out and she flops to the floor, the dramatic display conveniently covering up the falter of a smile to occurs at the mention of Billy. Of course Gunner immediately waddles over to lick her face, thinking she's in actual distress and wanting to make it better, causing the blonde to dissolve into a fit of laughter. "I'd love one!" She says to the beer. "You know, I think we're going to need a bigger bed."

"What? Noo. No dogs in the bed. No dogs on the couch." Easton states this firmly. But gentle reader do you think there is any chance that this decision will hold for even a single night, let alone longer? It will not. But he says this with conviction as he grabs two more beers and makes his way back to sit down on the floor.

"I'm texting Sutton though to let her know she's a dog aunt. And then Alexander. And.. maybe other people" He pulls out his phone and shows Bennie a photo of the dog that he's going to be sending around. So many puppy texts.

"Uh-huh." Bennie says without conviction about the dog/furniture ruling. The disbelief is palpable. "He's going to need a collar, and some bowls, and some /actual/ toys. And a visit to the vet. And leash!" She starts making a list - which does not include a dog bed - as she mutters a thanks for receiving the beer, of which she takes a little sip.

"Oh no no, that picture won't do. You're a proud papa now, Easton. Gimme your phone and hold your baaaaaaaby."

"I may have spent the entire time waiting for her to drop him off buying those things online." Easton confesses. He obeys the order and picks up the dog who promptly licks at his beard scruff causing him to close one eye and laugh, basically it's the quintessential perfect holding a puppy picture. He nuzzles the dog some more and then lays back down on the floor with him.

"Tom'll be psyched." Easton says it without thinking, a big grin on his face that freezes in place when he realizes what he said. He shakes his head a little and his brow creases, "Maybe. Ugh, that's fuckin' weird." Can dogs see ghosts? Probably. How does any of that work? And it's still not actually Tom. He distracts himself from those thoughts by taking a big swig of beer.

Easton's phone snaps up, and Bennie doesn't take just one, but a series of photos in quick succession. No doubt it will be the first of many eating up both of their phone's memories. "Oh my god, look'it!" She flashes the camera screen to show Easton, marveling at the picture just as much as she did actually living through the moment. "That one's getting framed." She declares before she settles into a cross legged seat near Easton's hip. "Fucking weird doesn't even cover it? Ooh, maybe Tom can ghost walk him when we're both at work."

Grinning at the picture of him and his dog, Easton forgets for a moment about Tom. He agrees, "Yup. Oh goodness we are so going to be those awful people who bore the shit out of their friends with pictures of their pet." He turns to her with a small smile, "It's gonna be great."

Putting an arm around her he sighs at the thought of Tom. "Yea, I don't think so. Tom can't touch shit unless he's using my Glimmer to do it." Surprise. He probably failed to mention that when he let Tom scrub up that one time. "But Tom fuckin' loved dogs. He found this half-dead stray in Marjah and nursed it back to health. I swear I wasn't sure if it was a dog or a jackall at first. Just ugly as sin and all mangled." He trails off to take a sip before continuing the story. "But Tom was dead set on it. And of course we were kind of psyched to have something almost normal." He doesn't finish the story though. Instead he sets down his beer to pick up Gunny. Because Gunner will for sure get further shortened.

"So yea.. probably no ghost walkies."

It's a very thin line, trying to show support when Easton talks about his military past without it being construed as sympathy. Bennie's hand settles on the arm strung around her waist, fingertip drawing nonsensical patterns through the light smattering of hair on his forearm. "I imagine it can be the little things like that you missed the most on deployment. Judd once went apeshit with joy when I mailed him a care package with Twizzlers and baby wipes in it. What was that dog's name?"

Easton smiles, both at the physical contact from Bennie and also the squirming puppy. He agrees, readily "Yea. It's weird. The missions were almost easy? Like you only had time to focus on doing what the squad needed to do, keeping my men alive and killing anything out to get us. But the time back at camp? It felt like torture, just this limbo of watching injured marines come back or waiting for the call that we needed to go support another squad." That may be the most he has ever. Ever. Talked about his time overseas with anyone outside of a fellow Marine. So that's progress at least.

"Baby wipes and twizzlers!" He laughs and says the items as if they were old friends. "I would killed for a sister like you." He then admits, "Except for the weird incest thing where I'd really want to fuck my sister then. But ya know maybe a cousin?" He grins, aware that making a cousin sound better makes it worse. "The dog's name was Owen, some inside joke from Banks he never explained but found hilarious."

"Did I ever tell you why we called Tom, Banks?"

"A lot of hurry up and wait." There is a great deal of that being an EMT as well, but thankfully Bennie doesn't have to do that in the middle of the desert encamped away from civilization. At the mention of being his relative, Bennie's nose scrunches up. "Distant cousins. Like eight times removed cousins." There is a shake of her blonde hair while she takes a sip of beer, pulling her lips away from the rim to answer, "Only that's what your tattoo means."

"Yup." See? The secret is, with a puppy in his hand Easton can talk about lots of things he couldn't before. This is also true with enough alcohol to take down a moose in him, but the risk of him passing out or throwing up or both is far higher with that method. "Sure. That sweet spot of still sending me care packages but also still wanting to makeout with me. Maybe girl next door?" Of course the underlying truth being that he didn't have close family or relatives to send him things. He had Katherine near the end at least.

"So Tom. He was literally the worst with money, I have ever, ever seen. He would get his paycheck, immediately blow it, realize he still owed people a shit ton of money and somehow be more broke after getting paid than before. We found out he had seven bank accounts. All overdrawn. He declared bankruptcy. Three times." Easton laughs as tells the tale, even though money worries and owing people money is probably not a laugh a minute thing for Bennie. He tries to keep it light. "I told Jenny when she agreed to marry him, don't let him touch a single penny, take his money and treat him like five year old who's going to spend it all on candy and pocket knives." He shakes his head, taking his hand off Gunner to pick up his beer and take a drink. "She was really good for him.."

"I can totally play the part of the girl next door." Bennie says with a flip of her hair over her shoulder. "Knowingly leaving my curtains open and the lights on when I get undressed at night. Sunbathing in the backyard and 'forgetting' my bikini top is untied when I sit up..." So she gets her ideas for GND out of every typical teen movie, but hey!

As he starts his story about Tom, she laughs affably along with his inability to maintain money. There is this handy thing Bennie can do which is better than trick of glimmer: she can dissociate. So his troubles don't reflect in her eyes until Easton mentions he was married. Of course that breaks her heart a little. "Then I'm glad he had her. Do you still keep in touch with her?"

"That.. is a fantasy I never knew I had. And now I do." He grins and leans over to kiss her, apparently falling squarely within the demographic for such obvious shenanigans. He pulls back though when Gunner starts to whine and bark at them. "Oh no, no barking about that. That's going to happen a lot. And more."

Watching Bennie realizes Tom was married dampens his smile. He nods and says, "Yea. I call." They have a kid. He wants to say it, but just can't bring it up right now. Not because of her. He trails off to pet the dog for a bit. Trying to recharge maybe.

Very quietly he admits. "Somewhere over there, I uh.. " He looks up at her with a smile, and obvious difficulty in saying this part. He swallows some beer to help it along. "I watched enough guys die that I knew. I knew I was going to die there. And that I would never have this." He pulls her a little tighter. And yes he feels guilty about it. But he's working on being grateful. Working on it.

Bennie hums into the kiss, startling out of it when Gunner gives his protest. "He's mad I'm muscling in on his turf. Don't worry, little Gungun. Daddy will always love you more." And it's not a hair Bennie seems perturbed about splitting. She pets Gunner's snout, curling up her fingers when he goes to playfully bite them.

She's tried really hard through everything he's said to keep the touch of sadness out of her eyes, but at the last bit she can't help but feel them soften. "And then it was Tom that didn't make it back..." The corner of her mouth gets tugged into her teeth.

His beer is set down so he can properly hold Gunner again with this free hand. He has to alternate scritches with holding the puppy's mouth closed when it tries to bite him.

Easton doesn't seem to mind her reaction to his admission. He just gives a stilted bitter laugh and says, "Just another one of the millions of things I got wrong." There are thankfully fewer than that, but there are still plenty of decisions and judgement calls he made that keep him up some nights. "And not just Tom, plenty of other good marines. Soldiers, like Judd. Just a fuckin' wa-" He stops himself. Officer mode re-asserts itself as he can't tell a family member their loved one's death was a waste. As much as he wants to just vent. To scream that. He shuts up. The beer is remembered and the rest of that one downed as well.

"Sorry. I'm rambling."

"A waste. It's okay, you can say it. Hell, I agree. Mostly, I just wish I knew what happened." Bennie is shifting to stand with a little rock of her hips. "At least you could give Jenny that. Well, hopefully the washed down version of it, but I think she must find it a comfort." Her hand is extended down to help Easton peel himself off the floor. "C'mon, let's take the little fluffer nut for a walk. We'll teach him how to pee on Byron's tires."

Easton doesn't verbally agree, but gives a small nod. He narrows his eyes at her not knowing what happened, though he's familiar enough with how that goes. He says, "Yea. She knows. And, she's glad I was there. I mean, I am too. He wasn't alone." It's one of the very small comforts. He accepts the hand up and stands with effort. "Yup. Too bad we can't leave a bag of flaming dog shit for the ghost cops."