(How did it come to this? Right this way my good fellow!)

Run run run! Drew growled as his legs propelled him down the hallway as fast as they could carry him. It was his shirt! His! If he ran into a few people and things (like that table with the vase that went crash!) then oh well. It was his shirt! His! Short Stuff was not allowed to have his shirt! And once his shirt was hidden he'd get his pants and wallet too! Drew ran and ran and he even ran up the stairs and down the stairs!

If a small part of him just smirked at the puppy-like behavior and sat back then it wasn't noticed as Drew the puppy ran through the hallways of the Mansion as though his furry little tail were on fire. After all, Drew was fully enjoying himself so there was no reason for him to try and limit the dog thought processes. Causing trouble for Short Stuff when he was in puppy form had a distinct advantage. Short Stuff could never be sure if Drew was doing it on purpose or whether it was just doggy stupidity.

Sliding around a corner, Drew ran for it some more. These legs were difficult to use at high speed. He slid this way and that from time to time. The shirt trailed out behind him, sometimes tripping him up. But Drew would not stop because Short Stuff couldn't have this shirt! Nosiree!

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.

Down the stairs. Break the vase. What a cute freaking puppy.

"Aww, look at the puppy. Are you and Cafas practicing for a baby?" A certain donkey shifter snarked as first one mutant ran past him sitting on the living room couch, then another. "Or is that Cafas?"

"Shove it," Calley panted in passing, grabbing the banister to propel himself into a tighter turn. And now they were going back up the stairs. How nice. Really, Sam should put this thing on the payroll, and have it teaching conditioning.

"Kiss and make up, you two! Ha!"

They were back in the boy's hall. The puppy was running headlong... back towards the stairs at the other side. Oh, no. No. They were not doing that again. If pup wanted to play quadruped race time, Calley could oblige. He struggled out of his shirt as he ran, the daffy duck print blocking his vision completely for a moment. Then he leapt, fluidly shifting in mid-air as he triumphantly descended upon the unsuspecting—

Girl coaxing a puppy. If the puppy had been lured over, he'd be included in that furry flop, too.

A pair of pants still dangled from one of the tiger's back legs, with the greatest of feline dignity.

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 puppy was bolting past, which was... unexpected, yet also nothing short of expected. Damn. Gina had turned to watch the puppy sprint past, looking almost forlorn with disappointment. She was being denied her opportunity to fawn over the adorable speckled puppy. Drats.

In her moment of inattention, an immense shadow eclipsed over the gargoyle, and Gina redirected her attention towards the only to see an airborne tiger descending in a pounce towards Gina.

Oh. Dear. God.

Gina didn't have time to scramble out of the way. One moment, a tiger was sailing towards her, legs outstretched, and the next, Gina was being utilized as its landing pad. A yelp of alarm and fear was squelched out of her under the immense weight of a full-blown tiger. At least her wings cushioned Gina from being totally crushed, but still-- she couldn't breathe.

This was what she got for braving the boys' wing of the dorm-- she got steamrolled by a tiger, of all things. Gina shifted slightly, wedging her arm under her body so that her lungs had room to expand and contract. She inhaled with great difficulty, exhaled--

"You're -sigh- crushing my -wheeze- spine," Gina observed. And her lungs, and her ribs. With some struggle, Gina lifted her head, to find that she was wedged under the tiger's belly. Off of one of its legs, what had once been jeans dangled off of its leg. Mutant. The puppy circled back and started attacking said jeans, as if to pull the tiger off of the flattened gargoyle.

"Good puppy," Gina huffed, letting her face settle against the carpet. She recalled once meeting an animal shifter in the laundry room, and sighed. Being squished into the floor of the hallway wasn't nearly as endearing as a pair of cat ears.

"Geezus, Calley, is that you?" Gina rasped, turning her head towards the front end of the tiger, "Get off of me, you weigh a ton."

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.

Good puppy! He was a good puppy! Drew's tail waved merrily from side to side. Praise for being a pain in someone else's posterior was awesome! He dropped the pants leg as Calley moved to wander over to Gina and licked her cheek a good half dozen times. Then he backed off and sat down, tail still wagging this way and that. Gina could get up and then Gina could play with him! Yeah that would be fun! Annoying the tiger wasn't fun anymore. Now Drew wanted to play with Gina! A feline protest that Calley only weighed a half ton was all the warning Drew got. Before he could run anywhere, Drew was pinned under a half ton of orange and black fur.

"Urf!"

He wiggled and squirmed but trapped as he was beneath a massive tiger flank Drew was going nowhere. Blasted cute shifter boy. Well, if he was going to do that then Drew would use one of the ultimate puppy weapons! He swiveled his fuzzy head at Gina, turned on the puppy dog eyes, and whined. He whined and begged Gina, in the way of puppies, to move the big mean kitty. Why he would be Gina's bestest friend ever if she'd move the big mean kitty!

Gina had after all been paying him a lot of attention before the fat cat had barged in. Drew was willing to bet that she would fall for the adorable puppy routine easy as pie.

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…

A simple comparison was in order.

Tigers: Sleek and graceful, weighing in at a slim half ton, born to a fashionable set of stripes emulated by many a biped's article of inferior clothing and/or accessories.

Puppies: A half-formed lump of generic gray fur with disproportionate paws sticking out.

Tigers: A model of dignity and unruffled innocence as they turned their own baby blue eyes upon the unjustly judging gargoyle.

Puppies: Couldn't even man up to a little squishing without wibbling for help from a girl.

What a pussy.

With a dramatic sigh from tigger lungs, the noble jungle lord continued his flop-roll: off of the puppy, onto his back, with all four legs curled up to his chest.

"If he eats my pants," the shifter stoically intoned, "I guess we can just call it even for your coat."

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!

Calley turned his gaze upon Gina pleadingly, as if she were asking an impossible feat of him, and Gina pouted. She didn’t know the puppy was a mutant. She just knew that the puppy was adorable and that Calley was probably smushing him half to death. Poor, adorable puppy.

>> "If he eats my pants, I guess we can just call it even for your coat."

Again, with the coat. Gina chuckled, “I won’t let him eat your pants.”

She gave the tiger a reassuring pat upon one of its front paws and turned her attention to the little ball of chaos at-hand. The puppy yipped, tail swinging about so frantically that its entire body was off-balance as it surveyed tiger!Calley, who had assumed the position that most road kill did—all four paws to the heavens, and flopped in resignation.

The puppy scrambled onto Calley’s stomach, before springing off and pursuing Calley’s tail. He batted at it, tentatively, and then attempted to capture it in his tiny puppy jaws.

“Your tail’s about to become puppy-chow, Calley,” Gina observed, her own tail falling relatively still. If the puppy's attention was deferred, she didn't want her own tail teethed on.

“Hey, puppy,” Gina summoned the puppy, or attempted to, leaning down to pat on her leg. Her tone adopted an uncommon sweetness, dropping into that melody that girls' voices only got when they were talking to babies and cute animals, “Hey you, silly puppy. Don’t eat Calley’s tail. It’s not good for a puppy’s tummy. Come on, boy.”

She whistled faintly, and patted her leg again.

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

Gargoyle called for him in a higher pitched voice than she had previously used. Two floppy puppy ears perked at the noise and Drew swiveled his overly large puppy head toward Gargoyle for a moment. Then he went back to the fun (and floofy now!) tail. However the tail was now buried under miles, Drew was sure it was miles but distance was tricky from this height, of furry backside. His entire body seemed to pout for just a second. Then he was being licked and threatened by Shortstuff. If he could have then he would have smirked. Instead he just hopped right up and licked Shortstuff right back. All over the furry cat face he licked while sporting what he assumed was a stupid looking puppy grin.

Silly cat. As if he wanted to eat fuzzbutt's tail. Nope, Drew was just being as annoying as possible while he could blame it on being a puppy. Shortstuff seemed to already deem dogs the stupidest creatures on earth. So enforcing his stereotype while getting some revenge? It made Drew grin even as he ceased licking the cat's face and started hopping around an barking. It was play time! They needed to play with him or he might break something else! Drew bounced around the large cat and then around Gargoyle.

"Arf! Arf Rrrruff!"

One particularly energetic bound landed him wonky and down the puppy went in a tangle of limbs. Hrmph, he was much less clumsy on two feet. Drew struggled back to his feet and sat in front of Gargoyle waiting for his next chance to play. Or his next chance to irritate Shortstuff. Didn't matter which.

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?”

Oh yes, they were getting along. Awww, and d'awww, and b'aawwww. Chase the bottle, maul the bottle, oh no the bottle is attacking you whatever will you do you charming young creature.

"Oh no, not mine," the tiger intoned, licking one paw and rubbing it avidly over the puppy-defiled features of his own fearsome face.

"This fine specimen of canine maturity belongs to an even more refined bipedal gentleman; the sort of fellow who diligently patrols our city streets with an eye out for uncouth behaviors. He's... oh, green haired, taller than strictly necessary, and overly fond of sharing his body artwork."

"Said person is not at home right now, it seems," the tiger deadpanned, pinning his tail to the carpet with one paw so he could lick its fur properly back into place.