The last couple of months had been amazing. A dream come true in so many ways. Spending the previous two months in Africa working at a nature preserve had been something she’d been wanting since college.

And yet at the same time that it had been exciting and fascinating, it had also been exhausting. Or maybe that was more because of the 20 hour trip home because of the delay her flight had had in Europe because of the weather. Twenty hours of travel, only to get home in the middle of the New York night, yet having trouble sleeping.

Because of that, Zoe was quite tired as she was walking through the park on her way back home after stopping by the zoo. She needed to get back on the schedule, the sooner the better, and so she had gone to talk to her boss less than twelve hours after getting back in the country.

But that was all taken care of at this point, and Zoe was making her way back through the park. A nap sounded like a very good plan when she got home. But picking up the pace wasn’t going to happen.

Dante sighed as he went through his routine of walking Duke through the park. He felt like he'd fallen into a rut lately; he hadn't really gotten out much, hadn't heard from his sister in awhile, hadn't really done...anything aside from the usual song and dance. He was realizing that starting a new life was hard, especially when your only friend and companion was a dog. He loved Duke, the dog had been with him through thick and thin, but sometimes you just needed a human companion.

He'd met someone awhile back. Someone he liked, but when he finally got the nerve to call her about a month prior, he was told she had gone to Africa. Every now and then he'd think on that and find himself spiraling into a pit of sadness and self-doubt.

Suddenly, however, Duke perked up and took off at a full run, quickly exhausting the leash, which slipped out of his hand as the dog bounded through the park.

"Duke!"

He took off as fast as he could, trying to catch up to the wayward bulldog-mix but if Duke didn't want Dante to catch him...Dante wasn't going to catch him.

Duke followed the familiar scent of a woman he knew--a woman he liked, and stopped in front of her as Dante came walking up later, panting.

"Damn it, Duke! I--"

He looked up to see Zoe, and his face turned a light shade of pink. "Oh, uh....Hey Zoe..."

Zoe wasn't really paying attention to the people around her, really just enough that she wouldn't accidentally walk into someone as she made her way home.

Then she heard her name being called from behind her. Turning, Zoe frowned when she didn't see anyone she recognized. At least she didn't until a large black dog came bounding to a stop in front of her. Zoe shook her head at herself; she'd been looking for a human, which was a little ridiculous for her considering the number of animals she could understand.

”Duke?” Zoe questioned, bending down to pet him. Only to notice that he had a leash attached to his collar dragging behind him. ”What are you doing, Duke? Where's Dante?” As she finished speaking, Zoe grabbed ahold of the dog's leash. Standing up only to come face to face with said human.

As she just stood there as Dante stammered out a ‘hey’, Zoe wasn't sure what to say. Even if she hadn't been so tired, Zoe wasn't sure she'd have a better idea. ”Uh, hi,” Zoe said, feeling a little awkward standing there. Then she held the leash out to Dante after a couple of moments. ”Here, you probably need this.” Did it make the most sense? No, but she was tired and not really sure what to say.

Dante froze as he looked at her. Did she even know he'd tried to call? Or did she think he just stood her up? Either way, it probably wasn't a very good impression.

Meanwhile, Duke wasn't as conflicted. He merely sat in front of Zoe and gave a happy bark, tail wagging as Dante finally caught up to them. Then, Zoe handed him the leash and he took it with a nod. "Yeah...he got away from me. I don't know what got into him...he normally doesn't do that," he said, shooting the dog a glance only for Duke to wag his tail, tongue lolling out of his mouth.

"So uh..." He paused a moment, looking at her. "How was Africa?"

Dante seemed to be slightly out of breath when he stopped in front of her and Duke. Though with how fast Duke would have been able to go, that really wasn’t very surprising. But Dante didn‘t know what had gotten into Duke. Zoe just shrugged. ”With how he was calling me, I’m guessing that he came looking for me,” Zoe said softly, not really looking at Dante as she spoke. It was kind of weird, being here with him in the park again. After the last time she had seen him, when she had shown up at his apartment suddenly, she really thought that he was going to call her.

Yet, he hadn’t.

Yes, she had left for the job in Africa a couple weeks after that encounter, but that had still been two weeks in which Dante hadn’t called her. After a few months since the previous time he’d promised to call, and then hadn’t. And now he was standing in front of her, a man she really liked, who she had thought had really liked her back.

Talk about feeling awkward.

”I should probably…” Zoe said softly, already turning slightly to continue on her way home when she heard Dante’s voice again. ”It was really good,” Zoe said, turning back to mostly look at Dante. But not directly, not quite. ”Incredible, actually.

“Wait,” Zoe paused, her eyes finally darting straight at Dante’s. ”How did you know I was in Africa?”

"That makes sense. I mean, he was rather fond of you from the start," he said with a smile.

Dante could feel the tension, the awkwardness in the air. He could only imagine what she thought about him; after all he knew what it looked like, what it seemed like. He promised twice that he'd call her, and as far as she could tell, he just didn't. So from that perspective, he really couldn't blame her for not even making eye contact with him. Leaning down, he scratched Duke behind the ears as she started speaking again, kind of glad she hadn't left like she'd started to.

"Oh, I uh...I tried to call you. Your friend told me," he said with a shrug, as if it was nothing. Though he was sure it was probably too little, too late.

"I guess I'll be seeing ya," he said quietly as he turned to walk away, but for him it wasn't as easy.

Damn it Duke, if you don't come on...

It did make sense that Duke would come looking for her in the park having gotten her scent. Even if right now Zoe was wishing the dog hadn’t. But she just nodded, not noticing the smile on Dante’s face because she wasn’t fully looking at him.

He’d tried calling her. Dante had finally called her, while she had been in Africa, and was told she was away. Zoe blinked as she looked at Dante. He’d called her, months after he’d first said he would, and that was all the explanation he was giving her?

Then he turned to walk away. Except that Duke wasn’t leaving like Dante wanted him to. But Dante’s words had left a frown on her face. ”Why did you bother calling?”

The way she said that, her words, the look on her face...it cut pretty deep. And reminded him why he took so long to call her in the first place. Dante winced as he turned around to face her, just sitting on the ground next to Duke, who was supposed to be mans' best friend, but instead seemed to be taking her side.

He sighed deeply as he looked up at her.

"It took me that long to get the nerve," he admitted. "I mean, I don't exactly have the best experience with this kind of thing, so...I was afraid. Afraid that if I did call you'd change your mind or something," he said, not making eye contact as he spoke.

"It was good to see you, though."

Dante just sat there, because Duke still wasn't moving, and he knew if the big dog didn't want to go anywhere...

Then there was nothing he could do about it.

Dante was trying to leave, but Duke was staying put, it seemed, content to simply sit there. This was what she had asked Duke to do all those months ago, wasn’t it? Why had the dog taken so long?

And, since he was apparently not leaving, Dante sat down beside his dog. Which left Zoe looking down at him as he started to speak again, and it was his turn to avoid eye contact. All Zoe could do at first was stand there and look down at him, the confused frown only deepening.

This was all kinds of awkward, in so many ways that hadn’t yet been present between them until today. Even when she’d shown up on his doorstep after not hearing from him for a couple months, it hadn’t felt this awkward.

”You think I wasn’t nervous and afraid?” Zoe finally asked in a whisper. ”When I came over to your place, I was scared you wouldn’t want to see me, that you hadn’t called because you never wanted to see me again. But...why would I have changed my mind? I like you, Dante.”

The awkward settled on the pair like a thick fog as Dante looked at her, listening to her speak. She...liked him? That made him feel a little better, but there was so much that could go wrong. But...there was always that what if, for better or worse...For effect, he let out a breath, releasing a thin stream of white smoke, mentally shaping it into simple shapes, including a heart before letting it dissipate into the air. Then, he stood to his feet.

"I like you too," he murmured. "A lot. But...someone's changed their mind about me before, ya know?" he sighed. "If one person can do it, it's hard not to think that other people can, too...and that's why I didn't call until a month ago. I...I just don't know. It's confusing, but I do know Duke likes you, so I guess that's a good sign, right?" He chuckled lightly before pulling her into a hug.

Dante didn’t say anything at first after her little revelation that she liked him, that she had been scared going to his place a couple months earlier because she had worried he didn’t want to see her. He was silent,

Silent, but expelling some smoke to play with as he sat there. Zoe just stood and watched as Dante formed the smoke into shapes. He should be saying something, shouldn’t he? That was how these things were supposed to work, wasn’t it?

Finally, Dante stood up again and started speaking. Zoe couldn’t help the small smile from appearing on her face as he told her he liked her. Zoe’s smile didn’t last long as Dante continued, though. He’d been so worried about the possibility that she might change her mind about liking him that it had taken him four months to call her about another date? Zoe remembered him talking about the divorce being bad, but she hadn’t realized that the woman had messed him up this much.

Then, before she could even respond to what Dante had said, he pulled her into a hug. Zoe smiled as she wrapped her arms around him in return. ”Animals do seem to be able to tell that,” she finally answered, still standing there hugging Dante. ”But from what I’ve heard, that woman was a piece of work, and I hope I’m nothing like her.”

For the most part, one could consider Dante's mutation next to useless. It had no offensive use, and the only defensive uses were small smokescreens and spitting smoke in someone's face. Yet, Dante was reliant on it; just being able to breathe and bend smoke to his will tended to make him feel better.

Dante rested his head against the taller woman's shoulder as he held the hug. "Well, I hope you're nothing like that too. Duke likes you, I like you, but..." he looked up at her. "The world has ****ed us both up pretty badly," he said, the smile growing a little weaker as he spoke.

"It really is good to see you though."

Zoe felt Dante's head resting on her shoulder, and she smiled a bit wider. Resting her head against Dante's, Zoe realized that he was actually shorter than her. She didn't think that she had noticed that before. Then he was straightening up, so Zoe lifted her head to look at him.

"You should listen to Duke," Zoe told him softly. "He's a pretty smart dog as far as I can tell."

As Dante continued, what bit of a smile that was still on Zoe's face disappeared. "Maybe it's time that things turn around, then, and things will start getting better."

Then Zoe glanced away for a second before a small smile grew on her face once more. "I am glad we ran into each other," she said softly as her eyes returned to his. Suddenly, she was very aware that his arms were still around her, and that hers were still around him, and Zoe blushed slightly.

He smiled, his head leaning on the taller girl's shoulder, though if anyone had brought up the fact that he was an entire two inches shorter than her, he likely would have been offended by it. His height was just something he was self conscious about.

"He is pretty smart," he mused, looking into her eyes as she continued to speak. "Would be nice for things to start turning around," he murmured, smirking slightly. But he was still afraid it wasn't going to work. Then again...if it didn't work...at least he tried?

"I'm glad we ran each other too. You uh...I don't know...wanna hang out sometime?" he said with a smile.

Dante was willing to admit that Duke was smart, at least in terms of the dog liking her. In other respects, Zoe knew that dogs really weren’t all that smart, but they were damn good at reading people.

Then he asked if she wanted to hang out sometime. Zoe returned his smile with a happy one of her own. ”I’d really like that,” she said softly. ”I haven’t exactly ‘just hung out’ with anyone in months.” She paused for a moment, turning her head to stifle a yawn. ”That’d be nice.”