and then I discovered a feeling
This couldn't be happening. There was no way that it was happening. He absolutely couldn't be lost, no matter what the evidence pointed to David had grown up in this city. He had always lived here and he had recently spent an awful lot of time on the streets, more than he ever had before. He should know this city like the back of his paw. This shouldn't be an issue at all!
It was an issue, though. No matter how many times he said that it shouldn't be, no matter how many times he told himself that he should know exactly where he was it didn't change anything. He was lost and alone in the middle of the city and every step he took to try and right himself only seemed to make it worse than it had been before. He had no idea where he was and every time that he told himself the next street would be one he knew, the next block down would be familiar to him he was forced to admit that it wasn't true in the least.
This was all Jeremy's fault. Yes, it was all his fault because of that cocky grin and charm, because of the words that he said and the intensity in his bi-colored eyes... All of that and more had lead him to leaving to go and see the other dog, but JJ was a dog on the move and that was something he had only vaguely hinted at before. He knew, of course, that life on the streets wasn’t precisely an easy thing but he had thought JJ would be in the same place that he had been numerous times before. He hadn't thought that JJ and the few dogs that were in his "pack" would just move on him like that. The worry had begun to build up in his mind and in his chest that something had happened to them, that they were hurt and needed his help (though what help one dog could provide when they were a group and he was not he didn't know). He had spent a frantic couple of hours scouring the area, nose to the ground as he paced back and forth in the alleyway and followed what he thought was a promising scent trail. It had been the strongest and it had lead him through plenty of back streets and alleys across what he hadn't realized at the time was blocks and blocks of the city.
Now that he had finally picked his nose up from the concrete of the sidewalk and focused on his surroundings he had realized it had lead him into and through areas that he had no right being. This most definitely wasn't the territory of the cocky blond dog that had stolen his heart. He had no idea whose territory it was and how he was supposed to get home at all and that was a terrifying idea. He could feel simultaneous anger and panic overtaking him, the anxiety that he did his best to keep hidden pushing and pushing at him until it practically set his teeth on edge and he wondered if he wasn't going to just sink down on the ground and turn into a somewhat catatonic mess at the overwhelming thoughts that were beginning to assault him. The more he thought, the more and more that became a reality until his somewhat wobbly legs gave out from under him and he sank down to the concrete. He lay there for an indeterminate amount of time - hard to tell when you were trying to focus on just breathing - and his brain kept hammering at him, asking him what he was going to do now, and then hammered at him more when he realized he didn't have an answer for himself.
It was just as he was beginning to spiral further that he noticed two white paws splotched with light tan come into his view, right in front of the end of his nose. He blinked, eyes coming into focus and staring less at nothing at all and more at those two paws. His brain was busy trying to catch up with itself amidst the feelings of panic and couldn't quite make sense of what he was seeing even when he knew what it was that he was seeing. He, thankfully, didn't have quite enough time for his brain to realize fully that those two paws meant that it was a stranger standing in front of him - something that probably would have sent him right back into another panic - before there was suddenly a face right in his line of view, complete with a pink nose sniffing at him and some of the darkest blue eyes that David had ever seen staring right into his own hazel ones.
“Youse lyin’ right in the way,” the owner of those dark blue eyes told him, a heavy accent to his words that momentarily confused David before his brain slotted the words into the right places. On most individuals, the words probably would have been threatening, angry, put out, aggressive. This dog just sounded confused, honestly.
“Yes,” David spoke around a slightly wheezed out laugh.
His simple response seemed to confuse the other dog even more. The other male blinked at him, silent and considering, before the head raised up from where he had been staring intently at him. David expected him to wander off or push past him, even snap at him, but he did nothing of the sort. Instead, he could just feel the other’s eyes staring even more at him. “Yeah, maybe you oughta not do that,” he finally said. Such a simple statement. If only it were that easy!
He gave another slightly wheezy laugh that quickly turned into a noise of surprise as the other dog suddenly insistently nudged at him, pushing his muzzle into David's ribs almost belligerently. He let it happen for a few more nudges - mostly out of a shocked confusion - before the annoyance boiled over the somewhat hazy feeling he had been encapsulated in after his small bit of panic. “C’mon,” the other dog said, grunting a bit with the effort of pushing at David. His effort was finally rewarded as David scrambled his long, lanky body up from the ground with a glare for the rude shoving that he had just endured. At the very least when he was standing it felt like he was suddenly towering over the other dog, giving himself at least the feeling of advantage in size. “Ay, there we go!” the other dog cheered.
“Are you always like this?” David found himself asking - snapping, really - before he realized that opening his big mouth was probably not the best idea right now. He was a stranger in a strange land, so to speak, after all. He should be keeping his head low, not antagonizing someone.
“‘Are you always like this?’” the other dog parroted back at him with a huff. “Talk about yer gratitude. Youse gonna wanna head on outta here. There's some tough dogs in this neighborhood, the kind that ain't gonna be as nice as me.” It was clear that David had pricked his pride a little bit and he took the tense moment between them to study the other dog. He couldn't help comparing him to his mate. JJ was all muted yellows with surprising swirls of color hidden in the depths, with big ears and paws and those captivating dual colored eyes. This dog was not brightly colored but that didn't mean that he didn't stand out. His coat was white, but full of patches of startling brindle and to top it off he was wearing a hat (one similar to the kind of hat that he had seen JJ wear before) and a red bandana about his neck. And, of course, those startling blue eyes. When David didn't respond to his words, however, the other dog gave another irritated noise and then turned away from him, one speckled front paw already lifted in motion to carry him away from the scene and from David.
That realization galvanized David. He was still alone, he was still lost and he was being incredibly rude to the one individual that had stopped to even look at him. “Wait,” he called out in what felt like slow motion around a tongue that felt too thick to speak with, wondering if he had even spoke the words aloud or not. “What's your name?” It was perhaps not the best or most original question but it at least stopped the other dog’s forward momentum and he glanced over his shoulder, eying David for a long second before he finally seemed to decide that he was willing to still talk to him. He turned back to face him fully, swaggering the few steps back towards where David stood..
“Yeah, ‘course I got a name. Everybody's got a name. The name’s Kelly. Ain't ya heard of me?” That last but was spoken with a smug confidence that made David snort a little, which the other dog blithely ignored. “I'm guessin’ you got a name too.”
“David.”
Kelly considered him for a moment and Davey could see his tongue moving inside of his muzzle, an idle thinking gesture. “Nice to meet ya, Dave. Maybe don't lie in the middle of the sidewalk next time, you get me?”
“I wasn't doing it just because,” he protested, feeling his nose wrinkle the tiniest bit at the insinuation and at the nickname. It rang startlingly familiar to how JJ had been when they had first met.
“Yeah? So what was you doin’, huh, Dave?” This time there was a tiny bit of a challenge to the tone even if it was still mostly confused.
David's ears folded back against the side of his head and he looked away, embarrassed. “I was a little overwhelmed-” he paused and scowled a bit at the snort but resolutely continued on. “-because I'm lost.”
An expression of both understanding and amusement blossomed over Kelly's face, a grin breaking out on his muzzle. “Well, why didn't youse just say so?” the other dog demanded. David bit back the desire to retort that he just had, hadn't he? “Where you supposed to be then, huh?”
“Manhattan.”
“Well, youse still kinda in Manhattan, Dave,” Kelly teased him with another quick grin and a wink. “Where in Manhattan?”
“East side,” he said with a grunt, trying to cover up his embarrassment as best as he could even when he knew he wasn't hiding it all that well. At least he hadn't ended up in Queens or the Bronx or something like that, though. That would have been really mortifying to know he had gone so far off course as to be in another borough.
“You're not too far away from where you need t'be. C’mon,” Kelly jerked his head at him in a clear “follow me” gesture, indicating the space before the both of them..
David pulled up a little at that, honestly surprised. “You're taking me there?””
“Why? You gotta problem with it?”
There was a challenge in the shorter dog's stature and a look in the deep blue eyes that made his stomach churn a bit. It was a look he had seen a few times before whenever he started showing his intelligence off, when he spoke better than the other dogs that he met, when he read a social cue wrong and took a terrible misstep. It was the look that said something along the lines of “this guy thinks he's better than me” or "who does this guy think he is". It was the kind of look that he had learned to dread because it meant that he was right back at square one and that nobody wanted to be around him. His ears folded back against his head again and he lowered his gaze a little. “No, just surprised is all. You could have just given me directions.”
Kelly watched him again, eyes narrowed a little in suspicion before he walked over to where David was. He wondered if maybe he wasn't going to just knock him into the curb but then the other dog nudged him pretty hard with his shoulder, half-staggering him where he stood with the strength of it. “Why? So you can get yaself lost again?” There was another grin, accompanied by another one of those endearing winks. Then he gestured forwards with his paw. “So, let's go, Dave.”
The shorter dog took the lead, his pose confident, his trotting gait almost jaunty, and David picked up his own pace to keep up with him. The paths that they took were somewhat familiar to him. They took quite a few of the back streets and alleys that he had gone through before and slowly but surely there started to be more and more familiar landmarks around him. It was with a sudden jolt that he realized he quite fully recognized a street lamp on a corner that he had spent quite a bit of time sitting around with JJ, Crutchie and Gamble, wiling away the hours together. When he inhaled, he drew in scents that were the ones he was used to having all around him. He could even faintly smell the boys, himself. He was back in familiar territory.
As he realized that, a warmth and an excitement filled him because he was home but there was also a sudden, sharp sadness. Kelly obviously wasn't from around the same parts as David and the other dogs that he spent his time around. They hadn't spoken much, but he had been kind enough to him and had taken the time to lead him here. Furthermore, there was something about him that he couldn't quite put his paw on. It was a familiarity to JJ, he thought, but also something entirely different. David was never quite what you would call a coward, but right now he was almost afraid to really define what that might be. It was too convoluted, too much of a mess, and he was very tired from the rather long day and all of the stress that he'd had to endure. It was better to not try and add more stress, confusion and strife to that right now. "So," Kelly said, drawing his attention out of his inner thoughts. "Ya think youse gonna be able to find your way home again?"
David gave him a somewhat dry look at the question. "I think I can manage."
The brindle dog gave him a lopsided grin. "Just checkin'." There was a hesitation, an awkwardness, and then Kelly cleared his throat a little. "See ya around then, huh, Dave?" The previous confidence had evaporated at least somewhat, the other male fidgeting somewhat in place, shifting his weight from paw to paw. It was as if he wanted to say more but he didn't know how or what to say... and David wasn't much help there either. He had never been overly good at social things and especially not when he was tired and confused about a number of things.
"Sure, next time I get lost," he said with a small, weak smile at his lame attempt at a joke.
"Ha, naw! You got it now, don't ya?" Kelly quickly put a grin on his face, tipping another wink in David's direction. There was another awkward hesitation where neither of them knew what to say. Then the other dog shook himself off a bit, tipped another wink in his direction, and then turned to head back the way he had come, whistling a little to himself idly. For a long moment, David watched him, wondering if he should say out loud just how forced the cheerfulness sounded or if he should just let things lie and forget whatever his brain was trying to tell him. He had a good family, he had a good dog that had his heart, he had a good group of friends that were maybe a little rough around the edges but they looked out for him and taught him how to have friends and enjoy life a little more. No sense in shaking that up right?
"Hey, Dave!" The call came from further away and he jerked his head up, hazel eyes staring down the long stretch of sidewalk to where Kelly had stopped and was looking over his shoulder at him. "Just..." Kelly hesitated again, actually reaching a paw up to push the brim of his newsboy hat downwards a tiny bit, casting a bit of a shadow over his eyes. "Just don't be no stranger, okay?" The words were spoken quickly, gruffly, and finished with a huff. Then the other dog whirled around and made his way very quickly down the sidewalk until the last that David saw of him was his tail flicking around the corner of one of the alleyways that they had taken to get here.
He could only stare after him again for a long time before a tiny smile worked its way onto his muzzle. He shook his head lightly and gave a huff of a sigh. Life could never just be simple, could it? He was too tired to piece this all together right now. All he wanted was to get some food in his stomach and take a nap, really. Later, he would figure out where JJ had gotten to and give him a stern talking to and then... well, who knew. He had definitely learned by now to not expect anything solid out of life because it had a way of taking and shaking your plans up. He turned and made his way towards the alley where his family made their own home. His little brother, at least, was going to enjoy hearing all about this even if he would never let David live it down. At least it was familiar, though, and at least he was home.