Coming Through! (Calley and Gina)

It was a quiet day, one such day in which there wasn’t any homework left to be done, nor friends to hang-out with (or bother), nor havoc to be wreaked. It was just… peaceful. Thus, given such a period of rest, Gina was out, patrolling the halls in search of new friends. If none of her current acquaintances were available, then she would simply have to make new acquaintances. It was as simple as that.

Ginas’ ventures that day had led her to the boys’ dormitories, and she was lingering in the open door of one room, in which four boys were relaxing and talking loudly.

“Hey guys, I’m going to go get some food,” Gina announced, “Want me to grab you anything?”

In general, there were polite declines, so Gina dismissed herself with a one-shouldered shrug, and slipped into the hall, closing the door behind her. The petite gargoyle was heading towards the main living room when a sound struck her ears—the sound of thunderous, galloping footfalls. Gina paused, stepping aside and looking up the hall to see what was causing the ruckus…

Only to see a puppy stampeding towards her.

Now, rationally speaking, if one saw something in a school for mutants, in which something didn’t seem quite right, the logical assumption would be that it was a mutant. Why was an adorable grey puppy with black speckles bolting down the hall with a t-shirt clenched in its teeth? A logical person would say, “Mutant.”

But Gina?

Gina saw a puppy. And logic went to Tophet.

Who wouldn’t be absolutely taken by the sight of a galloping puppy? Particularly when it was all legs, and those adorable floppy ears and the big brown eyes? It didn’t help that its tail was gyrating like a propeller either. Gina gasped at the sight of it, holding her hands to her mouth.

“Oh my gosh,” she said to herself, “Look at that adorable puppy.”

That shirt probably belonged to someone, though—the adorable puppy probably shouldn’t have it. Gina dropped to her knees, and attempted to call it over.

“Here, puppy… come here, puppy,” Gina called out, patting her legs. If the puppy opted not to listen to her, Gina might just grab the shirt as the puppy bolted past. Judging by the vice grip the puppy had on the shirt, it might work.

Rrrrrr! It was a most fearsome puppy growl that crawled out of his throat as the winged girl, the more human part of his mind helpfully named her Gina, tried to coax him to coming over to her. His shirt! His! Maybe she didn't want the shirt but it was his shirt and she needed to know that! When his sharp puppy ears picked up on Short Stuff catching up fast Drew darted past the winged girl only to hear a thud. He whirled around to spy a tiger flopped in a semi-regal fashion on top of Gina! A tiger! Had Short Stuff shifted? Considering that the tiger didn't look to be in a hurry to maul Gina Drew guessed so. But that didn't matter. No what did matter were the pants! Just hanging there around the cat's back legs. The shirt was dropped and forgotten as Drew leaped toward the tiger and latched onto one pants leg.

Rrrrr!

New toy! New way of annoying Calley! Maybe even get the big, heavy cat off of Gina!

"Rrrrruff!"

His pants now! His! Just like the shirt! Inwardly Drew gave a chuckle at being able to act so ridiculously. If only Allison could see him now, she wouldn't be accusing him of being boring! Not that that mattered. Right now he had pants to steal from a tiger! Rrrr!

The tiger sat up with the greatest of delicacy. Or at least, the greatest of delicate intents. He didn't really mean to step there, or on that. Why did she have so many appendages, any way? Even a cat only had five: seven was clearly just showing off.

This. This was all the puppy's fault.

He refused to even call it "Andrew," much less "Andrew Julius Leroy": clearly, the fight-picking man was reacting even worse to shifting to puppy than Katrina had to shifting to cat. The guy's human mind was marinating in hyperactive idiocy.

Not that it was a change for the worse. The tiger narrowed condescending blue eyes at the tug of war: the puppy's entire body strength versus the staying power of his stripped posterior.

Yeah. Yeah, those pants weren't going anywhere.

"Only half a ton," the tiger modestly muttered, before flopping to the side. With any luck, that would be a total puppy pinning pwnage.

The puppies tail was still whirling frantically as it ambled over and started to lick at Gina’s face. Gina grinned, turning her face aside until the puppy sat itself down, still propelling wildly.

“Hey puppy,” Gina greeted, letting her face rest on the floor once more.

>> "Only half a ton."

“Details,” the gargoyle retorted, uttering a half-chuckle and half-wheeze as the animal-shifter got up carefully, though a misplaced paw found itself stepping on her tail. Gina winced. Anything was better than being crushed to death, but… ow. Gina sat up, watching as Calley reoriented himself, and promptly flopped onto the squirming puppy.

“Calley!” Gina gasped, “You’re going to crush the puppy!”

Gina stood stiffly, glancing down at the tiger-Calley and the puppy that was wedged beneath him. Try as the puppy might, it couldn’t seem to free itself—it wriggled desperately, and when that didn’t work, big brown eyes focused in on her. And, of all things, it whined.

“Calley…” Gina groaned. Of course she’d fall for the “adorable puppy routine”. Adorable puppy was adorable, and Gina was Gina. Gina loved puppies. She liked tigers well enough, but… come on, puppies…

Whatever the large orange furrball thought of Drew's tactics didn't matter. It was underhanded and more importantly it worked. Drew Puppy's appeal to Gina with the puppy eyes and whining had encouraged the fat cat to move. Drew scrambled to his feet and eyed the shirt he had been dragging. It was his shirt but now Short Stuff and the Gargoyle Girl, Gina was her name he thought (puppy thoughts having made recall a little more difficult), might play with him! Besides, he could try for some puppy revenge for the squishing! All thoughts of the shirt were abandoned as Drew wheeled toward the fat cat with tail wagging.

"Urf!"

As fast as his long and ungainly puppy legs could take him Drew scrambled up the side of the flopped over tiger to perch on the furrball's stomach. He stood there for only a second before jumping down and deciding that the long, elegant, stripey tail would make a much more fun toy! With a quick scamper, and a single fall, Drew ran for the tail and swatted at it with one paw before attempting to seize it in his mouth. It would be fun for tug of war!

Four legs in the air was no sign of resignation: lo, this was a cat's most defensible pose. All eighteen claws poised to produce puppy puree—

Except that Gina was watching. Hello, there. The tigger placidly bore the puppy's onslaught with all the patience of a gentle giant—

Oh you just try to touch the tail. You just try it.

--with pupils rapidly dilating, so baby blue was eclipsed by black. The tail foofed. The tiger smiled a wide, friendly smile as—

Gina. Kept watching. And talking in that small mammals can understand me oh yes they can voice.

"Yes, you silly puppy you, go on: play with nice Auntie Dapples," the shifter chuckled from deep in his chest as he rolled to back to his paws, tucking his tail firmly under his volumous rear and aiming a rasping cat lick at the ruffian's adorable face.

"You eat the tail," he whispered, while his mouth was in close proximity to pup's fun-sized noggin, "I pojesti¹ you."

---

¹ Serbian—појести: eat

Calley had the patience of Job, or he was at least very, very good at pretending. He tucked his puffed-out tail beneath his rump and sent a begrudging lick the puppy’s way. Gina simply smiled and watched. Totally precious. Absolutely, totally precious. Yes, Gina was won over by cute little balls of fluff, particularly Great Danes with floppy paws and heads that were too big for their gangly bodies.

The puppy licked Calley back and Gina smiled. Oh look, they’re getting along. Aaawww. The puppy then bounded away, barking excitedly, and bounded towards the young gargoyle. Gina wisely swept her tail closer to her legs, so that it wasn’t there to tempt the dog. She was infinitely more patient when it came to her tail (babies and small animals seemed to have fixations with it, as Gina had learned over the years), but that didn’t mean that getting it gnawed on or yanked hurt any less.

The dog stumbled over it’s own feet but got back up with the resilience of… well, a puppy.. and stopped in front of Gina, waggling from head to tail.

“The face of a killer,” Gina observed jokingly, kneeling down to pet the Great Dane puppy. He was obviously full of the crazies, and Gina wasn’t going to do anything to discourage it. She didn’t have any puppy toys on her persons though. All she had was a plastic bottle, long since emptied of a beverage. As if a puppy cares, it could still puncture a plastic bottle with its teeth. Gina touched the bottle to the puppy’s nose.

“You want the toy?” Gina inquired, before quickly removing the bottle from the dog’s line of vision and tapping at its leg, trying to get a reaction, “It’s gonna get your legs, you’d better get it quick!” Her tone was urgent, trying to grab the puppy’s attention. Gina wiggled the plastic bottle as if it was trying to squirm away, “Oh no, it’s going to escape!”

Gina liked to think she had a way with animals. Animals, and little kids. Puppies were like a mixture of both.

“Whose puppy is this?” Gina inquired of Calley, “Not yours?”