Marcie was so... normal. Was normal the right word? Was she being normal? Kaden felt she was being more normal than him, anyway, and tried to use her normalness like a template, and send a smile back to her. It was a very twisted smile, though, and then the chocolate lab put her nose right in the middle of Kaden's palm and it was just like Hecuba would do sometimes, and Kaden slithered down onto his knees to wrap both his arms snuggly around the dog's neck.
This definitely wasn't normal. But Kaden hugged that dog like she was a long lost friend, his face buried against her fur as she tried to twist her head around and lick him. He hugged her like she was Hecuba, and she was looking after him. He hugged her like she was his old dog Sniper, and it was a really, really long time ago.