Pedigree omega hybrid Dennis who is used to being primped and preened and trotted around at shows. He sits there patiently and is mostly just happy to get by-product/pseudo affection from being combed and having his ears and tail fluffed up and smoothed back down again. His tail wags slowly while he smiles and his eyes scan the rest of the contestants and the visitors.
Sometimes he gets in trouble because he just really likes to run around properly, and that's not what these shows are about. So when he's taken for walks outside during breaks, sometimes he makes a little dash for it. He always comes back! He's a good boy! He just really wants to get rid of all his energy, and he's never entered into the agility classes even though he'd love to run through tunnels and jump over tiny hedges!
Jack and Robby who decide to take a break from their medical conference and take a look around the city. Robby's speaking role is finished and neither of them have much interest in networking, and there's a show event going on at the ground floor of the conference centre.
"Don't make that face. You were the one who said he was bored."
"I said I didn't want to network with anyone that Gloria recommended. I said it would be nice to see more of the city than the inside of our hotel room-"
"Not usually what you say-"
"I didn't say I wanted to see some poor creatures being paraded around in a thinly veiled flesh market."
Jack's smirk softened, tilting downwards to match his gaze.
"Yeah, I know, Mikey. But I - I have to admit I'm curious, you know?" The silence carried on for a beat longer than approval or understanding would suggest. "Oh, don't make that face at me. I'm not - I don't want to go just to gawk. I guess. I wanna - I dunno, educate myself. Be more informed. I'm not trying to endorse it, I'm trying to understand it."
Robby grimaced, sighed, but let his legs follow Jack as they made their way down past the floors hosting the medical conference, shoulders tensing as the most obviously off-duty doctors and nurses made way for people dressed far too immaculately for their dirty business.
He tuned out as Jack paid the almost-certainly exorbitant entry fee, pulled a grimace at the receptionist who handed them their passes, and let Jack lead them into the unknown.
So far, everything had passed him by in a kaleidoscope of swirling fur particles, the scent of anxiety and excitement and, very occasionally and very troublingly, arousal, and a cacophony of noise that the comparatively staid lectures on emergency response times hadn't prepared him for at all.
They had passed all the trade stands selling any number of pseudo-science bullshit alternative hybrid medicine, treats to keep them sweet (Jack's mouth had become thin and tense as they passed), and eye-wateringly expensive insurance plans for the apparently pampered darlings being shown off.
The darlings themselves were all confined to little booths where they were all either napping or sitting on little stools while being combed and spritzed and tweaked like they were nothing more than a doll's companion toy.
Most of them didn't seem interested in Jack or Robby, or any of the visitors strolling around. Even when they weren't sleeping, their eyes were half-lidded and slid over them like water over smooth rock.
The one exception was a lithe, curly-headed puppy with big blue eyes with oddly pronounced bags underneath them that strangely did nothing to detract from the cheerful disposition.
He had a small smile on his face and one of his ears flopped at the tip as he looked around at all the new faces coming and goin. His tail kept up a permanent, steady wag, and Robby could tell the moment the omega made eye contact with Jack, because suddenly they lazy wag was threatening to become a small cyclone.
His voice was bright and eager, and Robby was resigned to his fate as soon as he saw Jack's answering grin start to spread across his face, changing it and making his eyes sparkle in that incorrigible way that Robby loved so much.
"Hey, buddy." Jack loped closer, hands in his pockets like he was capable of concealing his excitement from Robby at all. "You're looking very handsome today."
The kid beamed from between the pecking fingers of his handler, who paid no more attention to Robby and Jack than he did to his hybrid as he fussed and fluffed over his hair and the area where it weaved together with the soft curls of the fur on his ears.
"Thank you! I got grass seeds in my ears today." There was an ever so slight downcast to his voice and eyes, tail wagging slowly almost imperceptibly.
"Oh yeah? They stick like hell, you manage to get 'em all out? Don't want an infection setting in if you miss any."
The omega started to nod, but the movement was abruptly halted by his handler grabbing at his soft, perfectly-groomed ear and turning it inside out.
"I think we got them all, didn't we Dennis?" The man mused, pulling Dennis' turned-out ear this way and that, angling it towards the light.
His head lolled with the movement, eyes still on Jack and flicking once briefly over to Robby, who had been standing back, hands in pockets and eyes vaguely absent, letting Jack take the lead in the conversation. When he saw the kid looking at him, he summoned a weak smile and was rewarded with a tail twitch and a brightening of the kid's own expression.
"Denny, how have you managed to get knots behind your ears since I last did them?"
He spoke to Dennis, but rolled his eyes at Jack as he took a fine, metal-toothed comb to the incredibly soft, crinkly fur at the base of Dennis' ears and started to pull briskly through it. There was a slight tightening at the corners of Dennis' eyes, but no complaints.
"I've never handled one that hates being indoors as much as this one. Constantly pestering to go outside, and then he runs off half the time."
"No I don't!" This gets Dennis nothing more than another roll of his handler's eyes. "I always come back, it's not like I'm running away! I just - like to run around. It's not the same thing."
Jack doesn't know why the poor kid is looking at him like he's imploring him to believe him, but he feels the inexplicable need to reassure.
"Hey, I get it, kid. If I don't get out for a run or some time on the court at least once a week, I go stir crazy."
"He's not lying. It's insufferable."
A small, delighted sound leaves Dennis' mouth at Robby's dry interjection, and Jack is strangely satisfied to see both of them pink up a little bit. Robby's shoulders are starting to inch down from where they've been hunched up near his ears, and his eyes have those particular crinkles they get when he's looking at something or someone he's fond of.
Jack couldn't have anticipated that it would all be shattered so quickly.
"So, are you in the market for one?"
There was half a second where the question didn't quite register, and by the time reality caught up and comprehension sank like a stone in his belly, it was still too late for him to reach over and somehow forcibly close the man's mouth.
"Hybrids are a lot of work, but they're rewarding, especially if you're looking to get a litter out of them. You have an alpha you're looking to stud? Denny's fit for breeding and his owner is considering offers."
Robby's face falls like a cave-in at the narrowest point. His eyes dim and cast around for something else to look at while his lips tighten. Jack knows the signs all too well, knows when he's looking at Robby trying his very best not to take his rage out on or in front of someone who doesn't deserve it.
Jack doesn't think the handler will ever suspect just what Dennis' presence has saved him from, but he does have the time to feel a dull but keen ache in his chest at the sight of the hybrid's devastated face as he watches Robby walk away and Jack turn on his heel to follow.
He hesitates for a second, torn between watching the impossibly tense line of Robby's back and staying just a little longer to -
To do what? To rescue Dennis? One of countless unfortunate hybrids in the country, one of hundreds in this conference centre?
Jack swallows as he wonders whether the law would count it as theft or kidnapping. Chastises himself because he knows damn well what the answer is before the thought even ran its course.
He lifts his eyes to meet Dennis' blue, suddenly hollow ones. Feels like he owes him that at least.
"Bye, Dennis. It was nice talking to you."
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