2020-10-03 - Star in our Universe

In the morning at the hotel in Seattle, Lilith wakes up early like it's goddamn Christmas. The night before would typically see her sleeping in with the sweetest kind of exhaustion, they'd had rampant sexual release and laid in bed to nuzzle before a late room service dessert and movies until sleep. It was a state of relatively pure relaxation they hadn't had in a long while, something incredibly due given the past weeks. With tousled hair and nude skin, she flips back the covers, goes immediately to start the jacuzzi bath, then sits on the bed to order a variety of breakfast room service before crawling back onto the mattress on all fours to bounce Byron around.

Stealing a kiss, she singsongs right against the man's mouth with a grin she can't fully squelch, "Who's getting a dog today? Weeeee are." She pauses, then informs, "Also we're eating room service fruit and having coffee in the jacuzzi together because we're beautiful and ridiculous."

So that's what they do before checkout. When ready and changed, Lilith has her hair in a curled ponytail with accent makeup, fitted and tailored jeans snug on her hips and long legs. She's paired a rusty red v-neck sweater to cling on with the denim and her lace up boots have darling wedge heels, pieces of gifted jewelry adding subtle dressy sparkle to the snazzy casual outfit. There's a bit of a drive east of the city, just outside one of the suburbs.

When they arrive at the fostering and training kennel out on a piece of land, the woman comments aside on parking her SUV, "...I almost feel bad taking a dog from all this space to stuff in a penthouse, but... not that bad. Are you excited? He better like me a lot more than the cat does, that's pretty much my only criteria."

Byron was on vacation, practically, and unless it's a prolonged time away (like on their France trip), he might opt out of working out in the morning. Perhaps this is why Lilith is able to sneak off before he's even roused out of sleeping, but there's a point before she even returns that he's already awake and waiting for her. Catching her as she bounces about on the bed, he pushes his mouth against hers for that kiss before she practically squeals about their getting a dog. Unlike Lilith, Byron's own excitement towards the whole adoption was a mild one. Pets were something that he could take or leave, never having any until recently.

The morning is filled with a nice soak in the hot tub accompanied by fresh fruit and coffee. As he changes, he stares at his reflection in the mirror, eyeing the healing scar on his shoulder before it's covered in cloth once he tosses on a navy blue shirt with silver leaf patterns and begins to button it up before pulling on some comfortable navy trousers. There's a point where he gets a text message during the ride right before they reach the kennels. "Excited? Sure babe." He seems more distracted than he is excited. "Lilith. Easton's back."

It's probably a good thing Lilith has rolled to a stop when Byron says that, because suddenly her head snaps over to stare at the man with intense blue eyes, "... what? Did he not tragically disappear? Did he just pull some shit or owe the wrong guy to make him skip? Did he come back sane...?" The stipulation of 'sanity' may not be a particularly easy thing to gauge in a place like Gray Harbor. The brunette's fair and fine features are momentarily bothered, as if her mind is starting to recall something unpleasant, but whatever it is doesn't stick around to nag or upset her much, just a tiny bobble reminder of what it's like to be alone and fighting to survive for...

They're not in Gray Harbor. She's not forgotten, they're still at day trip levels of distance and time gone, but her mind dismisses the upsetting thoughts far more easily and quickly than it might any other time. Mostly, though, she just stares at Byron with wide eyes, waiting for him to give her the details while her hands are still resting with absent grip on the steering wheel. Eventually, she slides them into her lap after turning the car off, "... are you sure this isn't some suspicious bullshit rumor to upset Bennie?"

In the distance, there's a man walking out of a house next to a kennel run and yard with a seattle PD cap on, some stocky middle aged guy in cargo pants and a t-shirt, vaguely ex-military in bearing. He's still a bit away from where they're parked in the drive, though. Beside the house, some of the kennels have dogs in them for training or fostering between placements and normally, that's where the woman would probably already be looking for their dog if she wasn't busy staring stunned by news.

"From what I'm told, he started shooting at people. So he came back with a gun." Byron murmurs rereading some of the texts sent him. "de la Vega was there. Shooting back at him. But Alexander says that everything is fine and that Bennie's taking care of him." His brows lifted, still processing all of this, he pulls up his email app to send out a slightly more formal message to the other investors: Easton Marshall is back in town. We may need to speak with him soon.

Letting his phone sleep, he turns to look at Lilith, "i told him that we'd be coming home soon." He then leans over to press a kiss onto her cheek, "We'll ask more questions then. Funny, he had a gun, I think, but not his phone." His eyes turn to regard the middle-aged man, "Is that the guy we're supposed to meet?" His side of the door is already swinging open to exit and greet the guy.

"Yeah, go figure..." Lilith comments passively, her lashes blinking a few times fast to bat away the lingering surprise that came with the news Byron had to give from his phone. Leaning her face into Byron's kiss, she can't help but smile after he's asked the question and indicated the man coming their way to greet. It reminds her why they're parked there all over again and she practically skips out of the SUV to come around and up the drive to meet with the man alongside Byron, "Right, Sergeant Miller, I think, was the name."

"Aren't you two a pretty pair?" The man has dark brown eyes and sun-tanned and roughened skin, his tall and bulky frame immediately putting a solid handshake out for Byron, then he does the same for Lilith, "Sergeant Gary Miller, everyone around here just calls me Sarge. Nice to meet the Thorne couple in person. Come on through the gate and around back with me, you're in for a sight today. While we're walking, do you have any questions you want to ask before you meet the dog?" The brunette woman opens her mouth as if to correct after a glance at her ring, but after looking up and aside at Byron, she just closes it to grin some and murmur the obvious that she really hadn't considered much since writing it all over notepaper in middle school.

"... my last name is going to be your last name."

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Byron did look at the info Lilith had given him which had Miller's name on it. Stepping out of the car and waiting for Lilith to circle around the vehicle to join him before approaching the guy with a firm handshake on the ready. "Nice to meet you, Sarge."

"Pretty? Lilith's enough pretty for the both of us." Hearing him mention the 'Thorne couple' has the businessman amused. "Most of the information that I would normally ask was provided for. I guess the only thing that comes to mind is whether the pup has any behavioral issues. Anything that we ought to know."

When Miller starts to lead the way, Byron turns to respond to Lilith with a little grin of his own, draping an arm across her shoulder, "It has a nice ring to it."

"Not exactly. Temperament issues aren't necessarily behavioral problems. Truth is, the dog is friendly and excellent at following commands... most of the time. We got to looking at the dog's papers and pedigree... and from talking to the family of one of the breeders, there's a little bit of wolf in him they flubbed to hide. We're not supposed to have wolf hybrids of any degree as force dogs, can't rightly have them in airports either, they don't call 'off' the same reliable way. Once they're on a track or attack, they tend to be independent enough to want to see it through, nevermind what we command."

The Sarge answers Byron with an explanation he knew he was going to have to give the couple, gesturing around the kennels where some shepherds with more typical coloring are dozing, as well as a few airport hounds in training, "People get spooked when you say a dog's a little wolf. Outside of working duties, it shouldn't be any issue, it's not like you two are going to sic him on targets."

At this point while walking, Lilith looks up and aside at Byron with her brows raised a little, gauging the man's reaction because she didn't know about the wolf thing, but it's probably fine and it is probably only like a quarter wolf from the sound of things, anyway. She leans against his side with the arm slung around her, wondering of the man, "... so he knows a lot of commands?"

Duh, Lilith. But after a moment, she wonders with tacking on, "They aren't German, are they?"

When they get around to the back, there's a training session with three dogs happening. One is on takedown with a man in a padded suit. Another is on an agility course being timed to g through obstacles. The dog they came to see, however, isn't doing anything so very physical-- it's standing and sniffing through a bunch of bags with intense rooting and they can only see it from behind to recognize the brilliant white coat.

Of course they weren't going to sic their dog on anyone. Byron cracks a smile when the man brings that up as if trying to assure Sarge that they weren't planning on doing anything dangerous with the wolfy beast. "So they'll make great watch dogs then? Not that we have an issue with people breaking into our apartment." They do live in the penthouse after all... "But I like knowing that if it does happen, the dog could at least alert us to any intrusion and hopefully, scare them off with just his barking alone."

If this were a regular shelter, Byron may have gotten dirty looks from the person showing him around. It's very often that shelters would sell a dog as being family friendly and non-aggressive, but the hounds here were being trained for protection, so this is all normal banter. He also doesn't say anything when Lilith asks if the dog was German and lets Sarge field that one.

As they pass the dogs in training, Byron watches each of them with intense interest, fascinated by their aggressiveness and physical strength. Then they come to the white wolf wo looks to be learning to sniff out drugs or contraband of sorts. That was the one. Rather than bring this up, he prefers to watch to see how well the K-9 does in this task, watching its body language and so forth.

"Nope. They're in plain old English. If you take him with you today, I'll send you an email list of all his learned commands." Miller tells Lilith in regards to what language the dog 'speaks' for commands. She breathes out a puff of air in relief, because that's a lot less learning to do on her end, then she stops as the man guide does to watch the white shepherd dog root around the stacked bags and luggage with its nose on directive. Sidestepping in front of Byron to lean back against him as she watches, the brunette steals a brief, but utterly incandescent smile back up and over her shoulder at the man now that she's seeing the live dog in action with her own eyes.

Despite the woman's excitement, she stays silent, dark head a bit tilted to gauge the dog's posture. The animal's tail is high with curving while on task and the way it smells around, it also bumps and nudges around while following a track. Suddenly, it leaps a few bags to drop down and sniff underneath the stack at one of the buried bags and starts to pull at the straps with teeth once it's yipped huskily with alert. The dog is rewarded with a treat and a small duck toy which it seems to be absolutely ga-ga to have in its mouth. Abruptly, Miller whistles and the dog comes bounding over to circle the man's legs on arrival with greeting gallop of excitement.

Then it stops to look up at Byron and Lilith before bringing its toy over to nudge against the man's leg to take it. The woman herself is absolutely frozen with delight and a general lacking of knowledge when it comes to properly introducing herself to a dog, she just kind of stares until Miller prompts Lilith's hand outward with instruction, "Just let him have a sniff and that's pretty much that, he's not skittish with people, as you can see. He's big on sharing. We call him Beau here, you two thinking anything fitting yet now that you see him?"

Catching that relieved look on Lilith's face, Byron teases, "It would have given you the incentive to learn a new language though. Quite a missed opportunity." When the dog seems to have caught a whiff of something, the dark-haired man watches in anticipation to discover what exactly the white dog had found. "It's a very focused dog." He comments over to Miller as they watch the white pooch in action. Then the dog is rewarded with not only a treat, but a toy as well. "Does it favor that particular toy? Will we need to use it to properly reward him?"

Soon after he asks this, the piercing whistle is heard and his gaze follows as the dog trots over to the group. "Good boy!" Thorne calls out, before he feels the nudge against him with the dog pressing his nose and that toy against the man's leg. Leaning forward to try and tug the toy away from the ghostly dog, Byron's eyes lift over at Miller hearing his instructions and he does just that, letting the dog sniff at his hand before he makes a grab for the duck. "Hey, Beau." Both he and Lilith had discussed about what they'd name the furry thing, but he has to wonder if it's confusing when new people start calling him by something different.

Snow Cone. Blizzard. Spirit. All of those names pop into his head again and he could very well utter any of them. However, his eyes look over at Lilith, watching that excited expression on her face, when he tells the man, "We were thinking of name him Sirius. Like the satellite radio station." He then quickly adds, "Like the dog star."

"I wouldn't say he's too particular about the toys, but he seems to like the ducks-- he's got a few duck toys, we'll send them along if you guys get along." Miller tells Byron, adjusting his cap while watching the pair interact with the dog. When Byron has the toy in hand, he gets it easily from the dog's mouth and once the toy is passed over and the dark-haired man has said the name that Lilith finds so snazzy for a white dog, she visibly takes that as a good sign. Dropping down into a squat, the brunette woman tests one thing that would NEVER work on their cat in a million years...

Lilith outstretches her arms to see if the dog comes to her for cuddles on mere gesture and she about gets bowled over in her lowered down position with the enthusiasm of it. Once the animal is right in her personal space, he sits with some happy panting and allows arm wrap and a rub down with the woman's hands on the tail end of her hug hello. With widened, excitable blue eyes, she looks up at Byron like love-on-command is the most fascinating thing. She's never had a dog either and the alley cat they incorporated into their life is very pick and choose about his moments of affection with her.

Straightening up into stand after she's had a moment, she steps aside and urges Byron when the dog starts to back up and prepare for spring into the air, "... make that duck fly like a super bowl cowhide, baby. Let's see if he can keep up with you while you run." That's probably a non-issue since dogs are generally faster than humans even when they aren't athletic, but all the same, when a dog hands a man a toy, more often than not, it needs thrown.

Miller pipes in with suggesting then, "Tell you what. Go on back through behind the house with him, there's some space and a goldfish pond, try the dog on for size and let him get to know you some. Then when you're ready to decide, we'll get you all settled up for the trip to his new home." There's also a hefty adoption fee for a trained dog like this that he details as a reminder, then notates that the money goes back into training funding.

The toy is tested and squeezed. Most likely there's some dog drool already on it too, but Byron doesn't seem to mind any dampness. He already has a mind to throw it once Beau relinquishes it into his grasp. "We've got a walking town, so unlike Seattle. So we're sure to give him a lot of exercise." He talks as if he needs to convince the man that they'd make the perfect owners for the doggo, especially after seeing the way Lilith's face lights up when she leans in to give the dog that hug. He already knows that they are taking Sirius home.

Lilith then suggests that he sees how fast that dog can run when the duck is thrown and around this time Miller instructs them on just where to go to test this out. "Thanks. Though I got a good feeling that it won't take much at all for us to be convinced." Waving the toy gently in the dog's face, he tells the white shepherd, "C'mere, Sirius. Let's go play. Follow." He'll assume that's one of the commands and even if it's not the exact command, he says it anyway.

Heading over towards the back, he briefly checks out the pond with the dog probably trailing behind him, it's muzzle so close to the toy. He then waves it in the dog's face again before his arm lift and crooks. There's some excitement in his voice, because he'll assume that's how you talk to dogs when you want them to do stuff, "Get ready, Sirius. Run and catch this!" He says those words first before his arm launches the duck into the air, sending it a good distance.

Even though it's pretty damn well decided at this point, Lilith and Byron take a good spell of time to play with the dog and hang out behind the house in the decorated yard with the goldfish pond. When the man slings the duck into the air with sailing momentum, it might as well be a frisbee with less airtime, which makes it pretty impressive when the dog takes off at top speed to stay under the toy with launch upward to catch it at the last second. He's apparently done this a few times and wants a few more times under his doggie belt given the way he nudges Byron's leg with the duck when the canine comes back.

Lilith gets down on the grass near the pond to watch the fish and Byron and the dog with a most sloppy open grin of glee on her face while sitting with her knees drawn up, reclined back on her hands. When fetch is finished, she calls the dog over with drop and spread of legs to call him and draw him in for another hug and a whole conversation about what's going to happen now in the dog's life, nevermind the fact the shepherd has no real clue what she means. He seems to like listening to her, though, one ear kind of cocked upward while staring attentively and listening to the woman's voice from seat in front of her while he gets a rub down.

"We're going to take you home, and we're probably going to call you Sirius instead of Beau. It's because you're a bright white star in our universe now, I've always wanted a dog, and from the looks of you, it was worth the wait. There's a cat and he's an asshole, but it'll probably be fine so long as you don't eat him. And there's no yard, but I promise you'll get to go out as much as you want-- even if we're not home, we'll hire someone to make sure you don't feel cooped up. The important thing you need to know about us taking you from what you know, though, is that it's a place of so much love despite all the shit life throws-- you'll be happy. I promise. Okay? Okay."

Lilith has no idea why she needs to give this speech to the dog, maybe it's just as much for herself with this new responsibility, canines are much more effort than cats, especially large and active ones. She feels a little silly and dumb once it's all out, then looks up at Byron with a helpless, vaguely sheepish shrug before pushing up to latch onto the man now for a hug and a rampant kiss before they go back around front to sign papers and pay the fee and take the dog. Before they go, though, Lilith asks for an agility course and takedown demonstration from their new dog, because why not? It's pretty neat and it makes her double proud to have this particular dog instead of some purse and lap yapper.

On the way home, they stop at Petsmart and walk the dog around while getting all manner of doting supply and comforts before taking him home for the adjustment period involving all Penthouse dwellers. Everyone can't help but tell them he's such a handsome boy while he's trotted on a leash in the store.