Private A Cool Dog

[Qrow Branwen]

FEBRUARY 15, 110 | evening
@Kakashi Hatake ​

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When Qrow was asked to watch Ryuji's "Pokemon", he got a blank stare. Then the kid actually explained it was that weird dog that he met in the hospital, and he actually considered it. There were already...too many animals in the house, but honestly they all coexisted just fine. And, if it came down to it, he was handed a weird red and white ball thing that he could apparently store the little fucker in. Ryuji showed him how it worked, but it just seemed...fucking weird to shove the dog inside the ball. It'd apparently be fine, but Qrow still didn't like the idea. The dog was actually pretty damn well trained and behaved. Sort of excitable, but generally listened when disciplined. Still, Qrow checked in with Kakashi, not wanting to fuck his shit up too badly. Felt like a dick move to bring in a foreign dog, when there was already a herd, and a badly named cat in the mix. And a tortoise. And an opossum.

The dog had spent the day with Qrow and the cat named Dog at his shop that day. Rai seemed to enjoy it. Played with the cat, and generally had a good day. Only really got...shocky when over excited - and even then Qrow had only been hit a handful of times. The two animals were happily sitting together in the passenger seat of his truck, as he pulled into the driveway - a picture which he took for Ryuji to show the kid his dog was just fine.

Qrow opened up the car door - which Dog jumped out of a headed straight for the front door of the house - meowing loudly to be let in. Rai stayed in the passenger seat - excited but not sure what was happening. Kinda reminded Qrow of Ryuji, honestly.

"C'mon, idiot," he scooped the corgi-sized dog into his arms, and walked to the front door. Rai wiggled in his arms but seemed happy about being held. There would probably need to be a whole process of introducing animals, anyway - so keeping the weird hotdog off the ground was probably a good call anyway.

The front door opened and Dog raced in - Rai eagerly sniffing at the air of the new home.

"I'm back," he announced - watching several assorted animals run by but not really pay any attention to him. Rai continued to wiggle in his arms, causing him to adjust his grip, "Got a little bastard for you to meet. Think you'll like 'em."

 

[Kakashi Hatake]

Kakashi had made a point to express appropriate amounts of hesitation and disdain about the idea of taking in another stray for the week, but honestly... no amount of dogs would ever be too many dogs for Kakashi. He had finished up at the shop early, trusting it to a couple of younger kids he'd hired a few weeks back, and had spent part of the afternoon picking up treats, and a few toys. The shop dogs didn't have much interest in that kind of thing, nor did Kakashi expect them to be particularly interested in an actual dog, so it seemed like a good idea to bring something for the newcomer to mess around with.

Getting back to the house, Kakashi had cleaned up. Recalling his ninken in their puppy years, he studiously examined each room and moved anything that was probably going to be right at mouth level for Ryuji's pet. He slapped covers on the electrical sockets, suspecting that some kind of lightning dog would probably be able to short out the house if he got the mind to do so. A few things, Kakashi hauled into the spare bedroom, closing the door behind him. He shut the bathroom door as an afterthought.

He was still debating the kitchen cupboards and if it would be worth investing in child locks when he heard the door open. Making a note to ask Qrow for his opinion about it, Kakashi sauntered into the hallway, hands in his pockets, and eyed the lightning dog with practiced nonchalance. His mask was up and his eyepatch was on, but Qrow knew him well enough at this point that he'd probably be able to read his internalized excitement as clear as day from the way his visible eye focused on the mongrel.

"Put him down, Qrow. I put the tortoise in the spare room, and Yogurt is outside terrorizing the neighbors. The shop dogs aren't going to care about him." Kakashi said blandly, sinking elegantly into a crouch, hands extended for lightning dog to come over. He channeled a bit of chakra through his palms, and arcs of electricity crackled between his fingertips. "I want to meet him." Kakashi announced bluntly.

 

[Qrow Branwen]

Despite the fact Kakashi had both his mask and eyepatch on, he could see that idle excitement in the guy's eye. Qrow mirrored it back with a smirk, as Rai wiggled around in his arms - clearly wanting to get to Kakashi as quickly as possible. Maybe someday Qrow would be an animal's favorite person, but today was not that day. Remembering that dogs don't work like cats and he couldn't just let go and the fucker would be fine, he carefully set Rai down on the ground.

The dog dashed with...a literal shock of electricity, to get to Kakashi as quickly as possible. Entire body was just wiggling as the little fucker stared up at him. Qrow slowly walked closer - arms crossed in front of his chest with a smile on his lips as he watched. He was probably enjoying this more than he should have, but fuck it. It was cute as shit.

"He was good at the shop all day. Ended up liking Dog more than I was expecting," he admitted, leaning on a nearby wall as he watched.

 

[Kakashi Hatake]

Kakashi eagerly braced himself for impact as the sparky dog bumbled towards him like a sausage-shaped rocket. Extending his hands, he caught Rai in his arms and then fell back with a thump, giving a muffled bark of laughter as a jolt of electricity merged with his chakra network, feeding into the lightning Kakashi had already been brewing, spitting it right back into the dog's coat. There was a moment of hesitation between them, and Kakashi got the impression that Rai was making sense of what had just happened.

Then the roughhousing continued, with a great deal more electricity being traded back and forth between them until Kakashi looked up at Qrow with his eye wide and delighted. His hair was even more ridiculous than usual.

"Of course he did. He's good. I can see that much. Ah? Yes, you're good." Kakashi had no desire to baby talk at toddlers or infants, but his weakness against a cute dog was legendary. He crossed his legs and eagerly hefted Rai up and into his lap, rubbing him all over, zapping him and being zapped in return.

"I guess he'll have to stay in the spare room with me all week." Kakashi mused, making a point to sound put-upon about it, even as he roughly tussled Rai's ears. "I bet he'll give you a shock if he wants to get up in the middle of the night. At least it's not going to do any harm to me."

 

[Qrow Branwen]

Qrow continued to watch the two of them, with a fucking fond smile on his lips. Made him feel shit when Kakashi got like this. It was just so damn different from how he typically held himself. Not even trying to come across aloof. Just baby talking the static-shock-sausage, as the two of them played and...shocked each other back and forth. Rai lifted onto the guy's lap, as Qrow's gaze wandered around the house - noticing little things moved around that were previously at Rai level.

Kakashi had basically baby-proofed the house.

Qrow's gaze dropped to his feet for a second, reeling back a wave of thoughts he didn't ask for. Thankfully Kakashi started talking to pull him out of his own head.

Spare room?

Qrow rose a brow, before the guy explained. The dog had officially stolen Kakashi, fully. He wasn't jealous - just sort of entertained how quickly this weird dog had wrapped this ninja around his paw.

"You're two of a kind, huh?" he smirked, setting himself down next to the pair - giving them both some space so he wouldn't get shocked. He shook his head with a smile as Kakashi continued to play with the dog's ears.

 

[Kakashi Hatake]

Qrow sat next to them on the floor, but Kakashi continued to flop Rai's ears back and forth with a calm, placid smile hidden behind his mask. The initial bout of excitement had dissolved into contentment, and it was with very little thought at all that Kakashi hauled the dog into his lap, continuing to play with his ears, flopping them this way and that.

He glanced over at Qrow and flashed a hidden smile. "Birds of a feather." He agreed, leaning over to brush their shoulders, which was enough to send a hell of a static shock into Qrow. It probably stung, but Kakashi doubted if it was anything worse than that. "So... this is Ryuji's dog, right?" Kakashi kept playing with its flopsy ears as he spoke, getting a bit more comfortable with the big, sausage-shaped sparky dog in his lap.

"How does he deal with the electricity thing? It packs a pretty good punch."

 

[Qrow Branwen]

Qrow's smile somehow grew even fonder at the damn shoulder bump. His eyes narrowed at the shock - surprised how much of a fucking jolt came off of the two. He idly rubbed his shoulder as Kakashi continued to play with the damn dog's ears. Apparently dogs liked that, judging by Rai's happy reaction to pretty much everything that was happening.

Honestly it seemed like one of those things that humans would like, but dogs would only deal with because those assholes are the ones that gave them bacon.

But honestly...Qrow didn't know shit about dogs. He just knew Kakashi's weird magic ones, which he basically wasn't basing anything off of. Honestly none of his pets were really anything to base any animal knowledge off of. Dog was...fucking weird for a cat, from what he understood. Soup was a...fucking tortoise. And Yogurt wasn't really a pet, and he should probably stop letting her into the house.

"Yeah, it's his and his girlfriend Makoto's dog," he confirmed. Honestly he was surprised when Ryuji asked him - kinda caught off-guard with the amount of trust that required. The kid had been fucked over by pretty much every adult he knew back home. Yet he was trusting Qrow with his pet. That wasn't a small thing.

"I was warned about it, but Rai normally is pretty good about not shocking people. He's a well trained dog," Qrow almost reached out to pet the weird sausage, but stopped himself, "Think you're just encouraging him to go fucking nuts," he shook his head, as he scratched his own neck, "As you said - birds of a feather, and all that shit. Probably nice for the little shit to be able to shock and not get in trouble for it."

 

[Kakashi Hatake]

Kakashi knew that if Rai was trained not to shock people at random, it was on him not to fuck up the work Ryuji had put into getting the issue under control. And so, with a great deal of disappointment, Kakashi firmly pushed Rai off his lap when he felt the next tickle of electricity along his chakra paths. "No." He scolded simply, focused strictly on Qrow so as not to give the moping dog an angle to weasel closer again.

"If he's not allowed to do it with Ryuji, we should keep to the same principles, even if it doesn't bother me." Kakashi explained, gradually allowing the sparky dog onto his lap again, only to nudge him off again when he gave Kakashi another good zap. "No." This was probably going to take a while, but it was Kakashi's own damn fault. He should have remembered that most people wouldn't want a dog who had learned to shock people for attention.

After a pause, he let Rai onto his lap again. "Thanks for telling me now before I could really wreck whatever training they did." Kakashi chuckled, going back to flopping Rai's ears back and forth, massaging the base of his ears now and then. "Is this the part where I solemnly swear to continue to pay attention to you, even though I have something new and exciting to fill my time?"

 

[Qrow Branwen]

That...was actually a damn good point. One that had been sort of kicking around in the back of his head, but he wanted the two to have a second to...shock each other or whatever the fuck was going on there. Maybe the dog could learn that Kakashi was the only person to shock, but that'd probably be a whole separate sort of training thing, that would likely involve Qrow...and being shocked. A lot. But honestly, he had no fucking clue with how dogs worked with this shit. This was very much Kakashi's wheelhouse, so he'd always lean into his judgement.

"Yeah, probably a good call there," he agreed.

Watching a dog be disappointed was a more complex emotion then he expected to see on that weird sausage's face. It was sort of funny, but some part of him knew better than to laugh. So instead he smiled, as the dog got shoved off Kakashi's lap for shocking him again.

Seemed pretty quick that Rai was catching on to not shocking meant Kakashi kept petting him. Smart lil fucker.

"He seems to already be getting the message, at least," Qrow chanced his luck and reached over to pet the dog too - silently pleased he wasn't zapped at the contact.

Qrow leaned to bump his shoulder against Kakashi's again - again pleased he didn't get zapped, "And this is the part where I say have fun with the weird little fucker. Just glad you two are getting along," he smiled - feeling like this was the merging of two of his favorite parts of his life at the moment. Maybe it wasn't Ryuji and Kakashi directly getting along, but it was a part of him, making Kakashi's fucking day. Just felt good.

"I'm still surprised the kid wanted me to watch his dog. Kid's...got a lot of issue with adults in his life actively fucking him over. This wasn't a small thing. Or he was fucking desperate," he smiled and shook his head at the end, before offering Rai another good scratch. Little dog wagged his tail with his entire body.

Just kinda.
Wiggled.

 

[Kakashi Hatake]

Kakashi was the type who preferred to have a very obvious divide between his life and Qrow's life. They basically lived together, and Kakashi recognized, with that, came their life, but he still valued having things that were his own. Likewise, Kakashi wanted - no, needed - Qrow to have things that were his.

Ryuji was one such thing that Kakashi had committed to being hands-off about, not because Qrow had ever suggested that that was what he wanted, but because it was what Kakashi wanted. It was something that was Qrow's, not unlike all the kids from Qrow's world, who, again, Kakashi had no desire to interact with. Just as Kakashi had ARMOUR, and his freelance missions, and even certain aspects of the shop.

He was all for Qrow, and Kakashi would support him down to his dying breath... But Kakashi respected the value of his own independence, and he was self-aware enough to realize that, even if he wanted to, Kakashi would never be able to tolerate sharing everything about his life with someone else, nor could he handle taking on everything about somebody else's life. He'd spent too many years alone, relying only on himself.

Besides, he and Qrow meshed beautifully in a lot of ways, but their views of childhood and what constituted a kid varied too much for Kakashi not to end up shooting himself in the foot if he ever met Ryuji or any of Qrow's other 'kids'. Kakashi would inevitably lose his patience with a bunch of young adults who, in his world, would already be seasoned veterans of war and death.

Anyway...

Why the hell was he even thinking about this?

"As usual, you're surprised that not everyone sees you as a piece of shit who wouldn't be worth pissing on if he was on fire." Kakashi teased lowly, rustling Rai's ruff enthusiastically. There was a bit of static build-up, but Kakashi assumed that was probably a biological thing, and not the dog deliberately trying to zap him again, so he let it slide. "I'm not the only one who sees you as a trustworthy source of decent advice, Qrow. Ryuji probably feels similarly, though I'm not going to speak for someone I don't know." He scratched behind the sparky dog's ears, smiling down at him through his mask.

"Why not just... ask? I doubt it's a big secret. He'll probably tell you in his own words why he trusted you with this thing."

 

[Qrow Branwen]

Qrow hadn't meant his comment about Ryuji to be self-deprecating, which made it all-the-more impressive. Really was just commentary about the fact Ryuji had been actively fucked by most people older than him. His dad, that fucking teacher. That sort of pattern left marks, whether anyone wanted to admit it or not; especially since it wasn't just people being mean to the kid. It was...violent.

"Actually for once, didn't mean it that way," he admitted - feeling the need to clarify, "As I said, kid's got a history with adult men ruining his life. Just surprising," he leaned on Kakashi slightly as he pet Rai - mind shifting from deep thoughts about Ryuji, to how much he just wanted a fucking dog. Not a magical one - not whatever the fuck Dog was. Like a real, actual, fucking dog.

"I can hear it now. I dunno. Just needed someone to watch the dog, dude," his Ryuji impression was better than it should have been, "But I'll ask the kid when he's back. Can't say he's a deep thinker, so it probably just felt right, and he didn't question it," which spoke fucking volumes, and Qrow knew he was over thinking it.

So he let out a sigh and plopped his head on Kakashi's shoulder and stared at the weird dog.

 

[Kakashi Hatake]

"Not everyone scars up the same way." Kakashi shrugged, figuring it was as simple as that. Everyone had their traumas and their triggers - he'd been around enough of that shit to know damn well how fragile even the strongest person could be, when they were exposed to the right thing - but there wasn't always a rhyme or reason to it. Kakashi could go for years at this point without really falling victim to his own issues, and then he could be eaten alive by them for months at a time for what seemed to be no reason at all. He could face a small army without breaking a sweat, but Kakashi had also hit the fucking floor more than once when a glint of light flashed off the wall just right.

Trauma was weird.

He leaned back against Qrow, nudging him hard. "Just don't overthink it, will you?" Kakashi didn't want to badger Qrow, or treat him like a child, but sometimes the huntsman needed a verbal reminder to let go of some of the things he liked to worry at in his mind. For a guy who turned into a bird, Qrow could be a dog with a bone about some things. "I doubt it's a deep, philosophical quandary." Qrow was a comfortable person. He was laid back, he knew when to listen and when to talk, and he had a wide breadth of experience that meant he usually had pretty good advice for every situation.

"You're a good influence, believe it or not. I'm not surprised that people his age take to you so well - you're probably what a lot of them want to be as they get old and decrepit." Kakashi grinned beneath his mask, already dodging any retaliatory swing Qrow was liable to make, taking Rai with him as he swayed to the side. "What was that stupid movie with the kid and the old man? What was his name? Miyagi?" Kakashi chuckled, now actively shuffling away before he found himself smothered under a throw pillow or something.