Gavin Lucas (viciouscircle) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2019-11-04 05:30:00 |
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Entry tags: | #january 2018, charlie, charlie x gavin, gavin |
Who: Charlie and Gavin
Where: Charlie’s house
When: Saturday morning, January 6th
Status: Complete
It was snowing when Charlie woke up. It was a pretty sight, despite knowing how cold it probably was outside and she watched it fall outside the window for a few moments before turning her face to press a kiss to Gavin’s bare shoulder. He was still sleeping rather comfortably so Charlie was careful as she slipped out of bed and grabbed her robe to pull on.
Yawning, she headed downstairs to start a pot of coffee. Once that was brewing she pulled some eggs and a package of bacon from the fridge. The smell of breakfast would probably wake Gavin up, but she also didn’t mind it if he slept for a while. He had closed the bar and gotten to Charlie’s rather late. And then she had kept him up for a while longer so… Charlie smiled a bit to herself and started cracking eggs into a bowl. There was a vague desire to do this every morning, which reminded her that she had a few houses bookmarked in her phone that Gavin might be interested in, but that conversation could come after breakfast when they were both fully awake.
Gavin always slept better at Charlie's house and it wasn't just that she had a very good bed and a bed in general was always going to be more comfortable than a couch. Sleeping next to her was soothing in a way he'd never felt soothed by another person. Her house smelled good, she smelled good, her things were pretty and neat, it was like escaping all the shit out there and finding refuge in paradise. He was hazily aware of that little kiss on his shoulder but it still took him a good twenty minutes before he woke up properly. It was probably the smell of food wafting up from downstairs. It wasn't strong but it still tickled his senses and reminded him he hadn't eaten in a while.
He got up, rubbed his eyes and went looking for his clothes. It made him wish he'd brought clean ones with him, the ones he'd been wearing the night before weren't dirty as such but it would be nice to wear something he hadn't been wearing all night in the bar. When he'd done a quick job of brushing his teeth and gotten dressed he headed downstairs and followed the tempting smell of breakfast to find the far more tempting sight of Charlie. "Morning," he murmured rustily, patting her ass as he stepped up to her by the stove and snuck a kiss on her neck. "That smells good," he said with a little smile and it wasn't just the scent of breakfast that he liked breathing in, that was for sure.
Charlie was nearly finished with the eggs when Gavin entered the kitchen. Her skin tingled where his lips touched against her neck, and she realized that it had been so long since she felt the kind of happy butterflies dancing around in her stomach, but with Gavin they seemed to be constant. "Good morning. There's coffee. This should be done in a few minutes." Charlie motioned to the coffee maker with the spatula. It was really nice having someone to make breakfast for. "Did you sleep okay? I wish I could say I feel bad for keeping you up so late, but..." Charlie shrugged and flashed him a smile.
"That is absolutely not something you gotta be sorry for," Gavin replied with some amusement. He had been kept up so often by bad things, being kept awake for something worthwhile was a welcome treat. "Always sleep well here, I think it's the company," he added with a crooked smile as he helped himself to the coffee, grabbing a cup from the overhead cabinet. He'd spent enough time here that he was starting to feel at ease helping himself to things, at least in certain places. Some rooms still remained strictly Charlie's but he didn't need it any other way. "Did you sleep okay? I didn't keep you up with my snoring, did I?" He wasn't even sure if he snored, probably sometimes, he just hoped it wasn't loud like Joseph's since he really didn't want to be like his father in any way.
Charlie slept better when Gavin was in her bed too. She had missed wrapping herself around someone at night, and waking up beside them. "I slept great," she said, reaching over to turn off the heat for the burner. "If you snored, I didn't notice." Charlie probably wouldn't have minded it even if he had kept her up. She supposed they were years away from certain traits annoying the other. Blissful obliviousness to each other's flaws was one of the best parts of any new relationship. The thought made her smile a little as she grabbed some plates down from the cabinet. Through the kitchen window there was movement in her backyard that caught her eye and Charlie spotted a dog walking across the yard towards her deck, pausing occasionally to sniff the ground. She had no idea how it got into her yard with her fence, but she noticed immediately that it didn't have a collar. And it was shivering. Setting the plates down on the counter, Charlie hurried over to the back door to unlock it. "There's a dog outside," she told Gavin, sliding the door open and immediately tensing as the cold winter air wafted around her.
It was no secret to anyone that Gavin loved dogs but his love for them did not make him oblivious to the danger they could pose so he followed Charlie, instantly going on high alert. A strange dog could be aggressive, he'd seen first hand what some people trained their dogs to do - or neglected and abused them enough that they turned feral. The dog in Charlie's yard didn't seem to be either of those things but Gavin stayed on guard anyway, watching it cautiously. "How the hell did he get in there?" he muttered but the dog looked at ease, not aggressive, not defensive. It was a beautiful black and white Border Collie and as far as Gavin knew, that breed didn't easily anger. "You leave the gate open?"
"No, I haven't opened the gate since the snow started," Charlie said, shivering against the cold. She only had on a robe, the rest of her pajamas strewn about the floor upstairs. She hadn't exactly planned to take a step outside so early this morning. A quick scan of the yard and her fence didn't reveal any holes or broken wood and the dog bounded up the two stairs onto the deck, its tongue hanging out as it approached. It didn't have a collar and Charlie smiled as she knelt down a bit to pet it. It leaned immediately into her hand, licking quickly at her palm. "He's freezing," Charlie told Gavin, glancing up at him. "Do you think its safe to bring him inside for a bit?"
That was very clearly a friendly dog so Gavin had no problem with it coming inside. Quite the contrary. He always felt like Charlie needed a dog too, a home always felt safer with one around and in general more like a home. Gavin couldn't imagine spending any more of his life without having at least one dog around. This dog might already have owners out there somewhere and they might have to take it back as soon as they found out who those people were but... maybe it'd encourage her to get a dog of her own. "Where'd you come from?" he murmured warmly as he stepped back to let Charlie get the dog inside and close the door. "Did you jump the fence?" He'd seen dogs do a run and jump like that plenty of times and sometimes worried his own dogs would get out of the yard that way but so far they'd been good boys and stayed put.
Charlie quickly shut the door and brushed some of the snow from the dog's coat. He kept trying to lick her hands and she grinned before scratching behind his ears. "You are adorable," she said. A bit smaller than Gavin's dogs, which was fine with Charlie. Not that she was already thinking about keeping him, but... "I'll get some water," she said, straightening and turning to find a small bowl to fill. "Do you know what kind of dog it is?" She generally knew the basic breeds, but she couldn't really put her finger on what kind of dog this was, other than he was cute as hell. "Have you seen him around town at all? Animal control is usually pretty good at picking up the strays."
"Looks like a Border Collie," Gavin said, studying the creature as he spoke. "Could be a mix but then there's a lot of Border Collie in him. Beautiful dog." He reached down to gentle ruffle the back of its neck and there was no sign that there had ever been a collar there, no snag in the fur or anything. If this dog had a collar, it had been a very soft one. "Where'd you come from?" Gavin mumbled. "Someone looking for you?"
Charlie filled up a bowl with some water and set it down on the floor. The dog didn't take long to approach it and he began to drink as Charlie ran her hand over his damp fur. "What should we do?" she asked Gavin, looking up at him as she continued to stroke the dog's fur. "Put up some signs? I don't want to take him to the shelter. He'll just get tossed in a cage until someone claims him, or doesn't." The dog lost interest in the water and sat down, his dog flopping about as it panted happily. He really looked like he was smiling at the both of them. "Maybe we should feed him?" Charlie had owned a dog years and years ago when she was still a teenager, but Drew hadn't wanted one in their house back in New York, so it had been quite some time since she knew how to take care of an animal. Gavin would know better than she would what to do.
"We can take him to the vet, see if he has a chip," Gavin replied. "But yeah, right now he probably could do with a meal and a towel. We don't have to take him to a shelter, we can find the owner on our own." He couldn't imagine bringing a dog to a shelter, if he went there he was more likely to bring one out than in. "I'll go find something for him to nibble on and a towel, hold on." He snuck a kiss on her cheek before wandering off. At least the dog wasn't filthy, just wet. Bathing dogs could be a pain in the ass, especially when he didn't know the temperment of said dog yet.
A chip. Charlie had the instinct feeling that the dog wouldn't have a chip. She gave Gavin a small, grateful smile as he went off to find a towel and she settled down on her knees on the floor, laughing a bit when the dog turned toward her and began to lick her face with enthusiasm. She didn't even mind it when he got his damp paws on her robe. Almost immediately Charlie knew this dog had come to her for a reason. It was a crazy instinct to have, but it was there, regardless. When Gavin returned, the dog was all but sitting in her lap, sleeping. He opened one eye lazily to look at Gavin before closing it again and Charlie took a breath and offered him a small smile. "I don't think he has an owner. I think he came here for us."
Gavin had put a few pieces of meat on a dish and he put it down next to the dog before draping a towel over its back and beginning to rub at its fur. "You think so, huh?" he muttered with a little smile. It sounded like something Amelia would say, superstitious but without the fear, almost childlike in its naive hope for good things. "Maybe you're right. Maybe this is your dog." They'd talked about getting one from the shelter for her, it was one of those things he was never sure if they were really going to do or if they just liked talking about it but it had been a nice little plan.
Charlie wanted to correct him that it was their dog, but the dog did feel like hers. And Gavin wasn't exactly living with her enough to help take care of it. She wondered if the dog would be okay when she went back to school. Maybe she could pay Amelia to come around and walk him during the day, or at least let him out into the yard. "Do you think Max and Rude will enjoy having a new friend?" Charlie asked, holding the dog still as Gavin dried him off, though it wasn't that difficult, since the dog seemed more than happy to cooperate. "I know some dogs are... territorial and everything."
"They'll love a new friend," Gavin replied, sure of that fact at least. He'd never had a problem with them when they met other dogs on the beach and the like, though he'd never taken them to the dog park. That had more to do with the place giving him the creeps than any sort of socializing problems with his dogs. Max was a little shy with other dogs at first and Rude was always wary but they warmed up to them pretty fast. Their mistreatment in the past had come from people - not other dogs. "I think they'll get along just fine." He was thinking along similar lines as Charlie, the things they'd need to do - have the dog checked up, make sure his vaccinations were in order, that he was healthy and whole. "When do you go back to work?" he asked and he figured he could take care of those things if Charlie didn't have time, he genuinely enjoyed doing things for her and if those things involved a dog - all the better.
"Monday," Charlie said, letting the dog go when he pulled away to get at the food Gavin had set on the plate for him. "Maybe if I can get things settled, I could give a key to Amelia. Do you think she would want to earn some extra cash coming over to walk him?" She knew how Gavin felt about his daughter being out by herself, but Amelia seemed pretty capable and independent. Charlie wasn't even sure when the vet clinic was open, because they would definitely have to make sure the dog was healthy before she decided to keep him around. He didn't seem feral, or dangerous. Just happy to be there.
"I can take care of the vet, get him checked for a chip," Gavin told her. "If you want. Amelia would love something to do. I know she's been talking about getting a job but nobody thinks she's ready for that but her so... dogsitting, yeah. She'd love it." He just hoped the dog wasn't chipped because he had a feeling Charlie would be upset if she had to return him to someone, she seemed quite taken with the dog already. "If there are owners I won't take him back without letting you say goodbye," he added quietly.
It didn't really occur to Charlie that the dog might be chipped and it probably showed in her face as she looked up from the dog to Gavin. But then she smiled, because she just had that instinctive feeling that the dog was a stray and needed a home. Hers, specifically. "Thank you," she murmured. "That's a big help. And make sure Amelia knows she's not obligated if she has other things she would rather be doing. I'll make sure to get her a key to my house." Gavin already had one, but it wouldn't take much to get a second made for Amelia. Charlie ran her hand over the back of the dog's fur. Even damp it felt pretty soft. "So.. I probably shouldn't name him until I make sure he doesn't have any owners, right?"
Gavin was trying to be logical about this. The dog looked well cared for, not starving, not covered in matted fur - it was likely that someone was looking for him right now. At the same time it didn't feel like that was the case, his intuition telling him the dog was here to stay. That didn't make much sense though so he ignored it as best he could and shrugged, giving Charlie a crooked smile. "Can't just call him the dog," he told her, even if naming the dog was probably a terrible idea if she didn't want to get too attached. "I don't see why he can't have a nickname."
Charlie knew a nickname was essentially a name. And she knew naming a dog was as good as becoming emotionally attached to it. But it didn't feel like a bad idea to her. She already knew that he would be coming home to stay for good after Gavin took him to the vet. "I'm terrible at picking names," she said, grinning a little when the dog turned back toward her to start licking at her hands. "What about Baxter? No, that sounds too much like a dog's name." She chuckled softly. "What does he look like to you?"
Gavin hadn't named his own dogs, he hadn't even had a whole lot of say in what his kids were named, so he didn't feel at all qualified for the task. Baxter sounded nice to him and he had no idea why it was a bad thing to name a dog with a dog's name. "You want a human name for him?" he asked, studying the dog. He looked smart, speculative for a dog, but that didn't mean he couldn't have a 'dog's name'. "I don't know... Bosco?" No, that was just some random name he thought of from an old cop show he'd been binging. "I think you're on your own in this," Gavin said almost apologetically. "I'm shit at names."
"Well, I mean, you have Max which is a human name," she pointed out with a grin. "I think Baxter is going to stick. I mean, maybe it's a human name, but have you ever met anyone named Baxter?" Charlie scratched behind the dog's ears again and he rewarded her with several licks to her face. "And you're not shit at names... I mean, you have a dog named Rude. Unless that was his name when you adopted him." It was possible the dog already had a name, and a family, but Charlie felt like Baxter would stick. "I don't know... do you like Baxter? I don't want you coming over and just grunting at him," Charlie teased.
Gavin let out a little laugh at that. He'd love the dog even if it had a crappy name, but no, he didn't hate the name. "It's a good name," he told her. "I thought you were the one who didn't like it. He looks like a Baxter though." Maybe that's why he'd thought of Bosco, because it sounded similar. "And I didn't name either of my dogs, maybe I should have. I thought - at the time - they wouldn't take to new names." And now he knew that giving them new names might even have helped them get over their past or something. Maybe that's what they all needed to do - move the fuck away from Point Pleasant and change their names. "Amelia keeps calling Rude 'Rudy' and he still answers to her," he said, pretty much thinking out loud at this point. "So maybe..." He dismissed it, smiling at Charlie again. "He really likes you. I hope he doesn't have anyone else."
"Well, I like their names, and I'm sure they probably would have answered to whatever you called them... they seem pretty happy." Baxter, that was now his name, settled on the floor between them and rested his head in his paws. Charlie realized their breakfast was probably cold now and she cringed as she looked up toward the counter. "Oh gosh, breakfast. I forgot about it. I can start over so we have something hot to eat. Do you need fresh coffee?" She began to get to her feet, already thinking about going to the pet store to get things Baxter would need. Assuming he wasn't chipped, but Charlie didn't feel the urge to wait and find out.
To be fair, Gavin had forgotten all about breakfast too but he thought they had a good reason at least. He reached down to pet Baxter's head before straightening up and picking up the towel. "I could do with fresh coffee," he agreed, giving the dog a crooked little smile. "I'm sure the food is still good, even if it's not hot anymore." It hadn't been that long and he was more used to eating crappy food than she was so that breakfast - even cold - just sounded like a treat. "Don't you worry about that," he added, resting his hand on Charlie's lower back as he leaned in to give her a quick kiss.
"I'll heat it up on the stove," she told him, turning the burner back on and setting the pan of eggs on top. "I hadn't made the toast yet, so that shouldn't take me long." Charlie was hungry and if she had places to go later, it was smart to eat something. It didn't seem as though the dog was going anywhere anytime soon, so there was nothing wrong with making a good breakfast and enjoying it. Besides, Charlie was more than willing to spend as much time with Gavin as she could, while she could.