As nuts as this week had been, life sure was a hell of a lot simpler as a dog. It didn’t stop him from worrying about his two wards, but having Clarice around helped with that. Despite the tension between them lately, John trusted Clarice more than anyone else here. As long as she was here, he knew Dash and Violet would be well taken care of. Admitting the puppy inhabiting his body needed to be taken care of, too, wasn’t easy, but he trusted her with that, too. And maybe he liked the way she looked at him when he was a puppy. This little swap had put a few things in perspective.
Both Johns - the puppy and the puppy in the man’s body - had somehow ended up in bed with Clarice at night. The fact that she’d even remotely allowed it made him wonder if she was softening toward him and if things would change again when (or if) Atlantis decided to switch them back. Either way, he thought he’d make the most of it while he could get away with this. Maybe he could blame it on the fact that he was trapped in a small, furry body, but curling up next to Clarice was one of this best things he’d experienced. He didn’t want to be a dog forever, but as he drifted off for the night, he couldn’t help thinking he could really get used to this.
The best things in life were categorically and inarguably dogs. There was a mental list to prove this, and it was almost as big as the one Clarice had mentioned to John with all the things unrelated to Dreamer that she loved about him. It was only natural that even he had melted Clarice’s heart when he’d found himself in the body of a puppy. Despite everything that had happened before (and during) this weird transformation, Clarice had first wanted to help, and then she’d been willing to put all her feelings on the backburner because - and yes, that was pathetic - if it was more acceptable to be close to him while he was a dog then that was double the blessing. Plus, he had kids to look after when he could barely look after both his selves. Clarice held grudges but never as hard as to put them ahead of people in need.
That she had found herself besieged by a bunch of dogs and having to stay over every night since John had switched had been… weird, but functional. The fact that while he was a dog there was no limit to how cuddly she allowed herself to be was logic only she understood, maybe, but it worked. Until the puppy in John’s body had gotten jealous and climbed into bed with them all as well. Clarice had learned to fold up into a fetal position to fit everybody in her bed, but on the other hand, the more dogs the better she slept. Sort of.
Morning light saw her wake up with John under her chin, the other puppy near her knees and a cold spot where Domino had been, probably having drifted off to Dash or Violet’s in search of a less crowded room. And there was John’s human body, curled up at her feet. Clarice wiggled her feet playfully and attempted to turn around and stretch. “Come on, shift. Man, you were never meant to be so big you lazy, lazy baby.”
Half asleep as he still was, the first clue John had that he was back in his own body was the sound of his own voice grumbling back at Clarice. “‘m not lazy, ‘m tired.” Hearing those words come out in man-voice rather than the distinguishably different voice he’d spoken with as puppy!John snapped him awake and he sat up quickly, maybe a little embarrassed to find himself curled up at the foot of Clarice’s bed.
Clarice’s mouth was open wide into a yawning grimace when John spoke, and it took her sleep addled brain a second to realize that the direction the voice was coming from was wrong. The puppy who had been John proceeded to whine when she continued trying to roll onto her back and accidentally elbowed him. Immediately, Clarice pulled herself up against the headboard of the bed, legs bending at the knee as she stared down at John, boxers-clad with pants half off, twisted and visibly gnawed into at the foot of her bed. They had been lucky enough to manage to keep him wearing most of the clothes he had first woken up wearing, and then some pajamas after the bonfire, but evidently t-shirts were bullshit and lounge pants slid down way too easily. The puppies ran between Clarice and John, wagging tails and greeting them while she stared at him and her face went beet red. “Okay.”
The tips of John’s ears turned pink as he slid off the bed to at least pull his pants back on, torn though they were. Wow, this was embarrassing. “Uh, sorry,” he offered to Clarice as he reached down to offer the two puppies a little pet. Despite his earlier objections about keeping them, they were definitely growing on him. Maybe because he’d just spent the better part of three days as one of them.
“This has been a wild couple of days, huh?” he said, mostly because he was trying to adjust to the insanity of having been a literal puppy and now being back to himself and he was remembering the things he’d said at the party the other night, which added a whole other level of self conscious to things now. He thought he should probably find a shirt to put on, but at the same time, he didn’t want to leave the room and come back to find out Clarice had portaled out of the house before they had a chance to talk.
His instincts were absolutely correct, as Clarice’s hands twitched over her knees with the need to open up a portal she could roll into, straight out of this situation. As it turned out, she could be as avoidant as anyone and there was a lot to avoid here. She threw her legs over one side of the bed and bent over to locate her socks and shoes. “Yeah, uh, super wild. I guess I should probably go, since you’re all good now and... Yeah.”
While putting on her socks and combing her bed-hair with her fingers Clarice managed to look nearly anywhere but in John’s direction. Clarice got up and pulled on her hoodie. One of the puppies pawed in her direction, which stopped her from calling Domino over. She always stopped for puppies. Offering them some scritches behind the ears, she smiled, then gazed up at John. Immediately, Clarice let go of the puppies and shuffled awkwardly past John to go get her own dog. “There’s still some food in the fridge if you guys get hungry, and the pups are good for it too.”
Obviously that had been a stupid thing to say. John might be a good leader. He might be good at helping other mutants learn to use their powers. He might be good at a lot of things, but when it game to this kind of stuff, he could be pretty dumb. He was, however, smart enough to know he should just let her leave.
“Don’t,” he see, reaching for her hand as she started to shuffle past him. “Don’t go, Clarice.” He might be a man again, but he could still adopt that puppy dog expression to help plead his case here. “Please.”
Clarice’s eyes widened so much she had to blink several times only to gain back some moisture. She stopped and stumbled slightly backwards, staring down at her hand, which John had reached for and was currently holding. Telling herself to be cool, Clarice looked up, brow furrowed. Maybe he was turning back into a dog, or into a unicorn or something else equally stupid. Or maybe he had forgotten something, or she had. Or maybe what he had said during the bonfire was racing through his mind over and over about as hard as it were racing through hers. Clarice wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or scared. Something about how he looked and how he asked her not to go told her it wasn’t just something they’d forgot about the dogs. Her voice was barely a whisper when she asked, “You okay?”
It would have been easy to say he wanted her to stay for the kids. Dash and Violet liked Clarice and their lives had been uprooted enough lately with one loss after another. He could have even pointed out the the puppies were used to her and Domino now and that they’d miss her if she left now. John knew that even if those things were true, though, none of that was why he didn’t want her to go and he knew it. Maybe his confession on bonfire night had been prompted by whatever magic Atlantis put in their drinks, but that didn’t make his words that night any less true and he’d heard her when she’d said she had a list. He’d probably been stupid to ever doubt her.
“Yeah,” he answered just as quietly. Just because he’d realized he was a dumbass didn’t mean he had any clue what to actually say right now. With words failing him, he reached out with his other hand to cup her cheek and slowly - enough that she could stop him if she really wanted to - he leaned in to kiss her.
This shouldn't be so shocking, and yet Clarice managed to look and feel bewildered the entire time John was coming closer, that feeling to be outdone only by the thumping of her heart in her ears and chest. She didn't want to stop him. In fact, once she got over the initial shock she put cupped the back of his head and deepened the kiss; the only reason why she had to break it only seconds later was that her heart-rate made her breathless too quickly.
It wasn't lost on her that John could probably hear her heart going nuts right now. She gave a breathless chuckle, lowering her head only a little but without pulling away too much. "Okay, I know I'm a great dog owner and you're welcome but this is a bit much."
John’s answer was a bright smile and a little shake of his head. “Hilarious,” he said. “You should do stand up. You’ve obviously missed your calling in life.” He could definitely hear her heart racing, but he decided to be polite and not call attention to that fact for the moment. She’d kind of gone above and behind for the past few days, so he figured he kind of owed her.
“I’m an idiot,” he murmured, still smiling as he looked down at her. “I guess I needed to spend 3 days as a dog to figure that out, so thanks for that Atlantis.” Maybe Atlantis hadn’t turned almost a dozen people into their pets for a few days just to teach him a lesson, but it had still had that effect on him. As weird as the whole situation had been, it had also made things clearer for him.
“I don’t know, using my calling just to sort of mess with you doesn’t feel like missing it.” Clarice teased, grinning brightly. If there was one constant in her life, was being a smartass in any situation. She dropped her hand from the back of John’s neck to his chest and, keeping silent for a moment after he called himself an idiot, shrugged.
“If you think I’m going to counter that moment of self-awareness…” She didn’t finish her sentence but shook her head instead, smirking. Because God, he was frustrating. And she had almost called him an idiot all on her own at the bonfire. “You should be thanking me. I stuck around despite my better judgment.”
Well, surely no one was expecting a romantic, beautiful declaration of devotion out of Clarice.
Chuckling, John shook his head. He definitely didn’t expect her to disagree and he was pretty sure she’d called him a lot worse in her head. He was grateful she’d stuck around. John knew he was lucky his moment of self-awareness hadn’t come too late, too.
“Speaking of, uh, sticking around, how would you feel about moving in here. You, me, Violet and Dash. You’re really good with them and I think having you as a guardian, too, could be really good for both of them.” While he had to admit he would love having her here, the kids were a part of it, too. They’d both had a rough couple of months.
Clarice’s brow furrowed and she took a step back, eyeing John like she was confused by what he had just been talking about. Which she was. If anything, she was expecting him to elaborate a little on having been an idiot, maybe at least declare how awesome he thought she was. Asking her to move in was… unexpected, to say the least.
“You can say you just really like me around, you know? You’re allowed to say that. You don’t have to bring the kids into this.” She craned her neck forward, narrowing her eyes. “Unless you were just running a grift on me to get me to co-parent the Parrs with you ‘cause you’re in over your head. Cold, Proudstar. Stone cold.”
“I do really like having you around,” he admitted, “but I think they do, too, and maybe I’m an okay guardian, but I think we’d be better doing it together.” Even though Breckentale mostly felt like another life, Dash and Violet still felt like family. He’d agreed to be their guardian in part because that protectiveness he felt toward them hadn’t really faded and he wanted to do right by them.
And, yeah, he did like the idea of Clarice being around. He really couldn’t deny that.
There it was again. The perfect storm of reasons that had made Clarice kiss John that first time (for real, anyway). Being wanted, important, made to feel like she belonged. That maybe she could help make anything better. John asking her to help him take care of Violet and Dash meant he thought she could be any sort of good in their lives - all three of them. He had no idea how much that meant to her. Her expression softened immediately into a mix of endearment and thankfulness. And of course, once again, Clarice threw her arms around John’s neck and kissed John for it.
It wasn’t as rushed and brutal as last time she’d done this; they weren’t about to die and this wasn’t exactly the culmination of an avalanche of feelings. Not in the same way, at least. She didn’t break their kiss as quickly this time (though her heart was still going nuts in her chest), but when she did, Clarice closed her eyes and smiled. “That’s a yes, by the way.”
“Oh, that wasn’t you letting me down easy?” he teased as he tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear. It felt like a large weight had been lifted from him in this moment. He’d called his feelings complicated, more than once, but he realized now that he’d been making it a lot more complicated than it really needed to be. There was a part of him that was still slightly terrified he was going to find a way to screw everything up, but he did his best to push it aside, because he couldn’t really remember the last time he’d been as happy as he was now standing here with Clarice.