It wasn't often that Al was gone from the house this late in the evening, but even Max could tell Delilah was getting antsy. He'd already told her that his brother would be home soon-- inventory's holding him up, girl, I'm sorry-- but the whining and staring at the door was starting to look... well, pathetic.
And Max hated thinking dogs were pathetic. It wasn't like it was their fault they couldn't do anything without their humans; he could go on an endless tirade on the evils of domesticity, but Al had already sat through it a couple of times, and Max didn't need to be reminded that nose candy made him more than a little insane.
He blew air softly through his lips. Samson was snoozing comfortably in his crate as he always was at this hour of the evening and likely wouldn't need surveillance. Delilah, he was sure, wouldn't be sleeping any time soon (frankly, Max was surprised Al let her sleep in his bed what with how carefully he'd trained Samson, but whatever), which made the starvation even more sad to think about.
So, getting to his feet, he went to grab the leash hanging off the hook near the kitchen. He was pretty sure the sleek, deep red one was Delilah's, since it matched the shiny red stone hanging off her collar alongside her nametag. If it wasn't, that was Al's fault for not labelling shit right.
"Hey, girl," Max said, walking up to her and crouching by her side (because Delilah didn't go nuts the way Samson did when her leash jingled-- another weird dog thing, he guessed).
"You wanna go for a walk? I don't know if you'd hunt with me or anything, but, uh, we could walk to the hardware store, maybe, and..." Dogs don't speak English. Say her master's name. "And, like, catch a ride home with Al...?"
Another hour without Al slipped by. Quill lifted his head from his paws, whimpered, and wandered into the kitchen. His nails clicked on the tile floor. The low hang of his neck and turned - back ears emphasized his misery.
For a moment, he looked wistfully up at the handle of the door. It would be so easy to transform and leave when Max was otherwise occupied ; surely, he would just blame the wind or a lapse in locking the door. — but Quill was stopped by the thought that Max might worry. He nosed at the handle with his long, slender snout and then sat.
Another hour ... and another. Quill finally moved back enough to lay down. He refused to take his eyes off of the entrance. Max said that Al was delayed. Quill understood, but it did not make him hate his lover's absence any less. His whining grew more pointed, more pathetic, as if somehow his piercing cries could summon Al home.
At Max's approach, Quill sat up. He stretched, yawned, and turned to face him. The pretty red accessories he wore matched the scarlet of his eyes in the low kitchen light. She was only an alley dog, not purebred, Al always excused. Some mix of mutt in her made that color. Quill cocked his head at the word "walk" — after all, most dogs knew that one — and slowly began to wag his tail.
The mention of Al's name, though, brought out a full - body response that even Quill couldn't have anticipated the strength of. He stood, barked softly, and pawed at the bottom of the front door. It seemed at first that Delilah thought Max meant he was home. However, Quill grabbed the leash in his teeth and tugged on it, insisting that he understood there was an additional element to Max's proposal. His tail swung hard enough with excitement that it almost took him off of his paws. Standing in place for Max to clip everything together was difficult, but Quill managed. A pink tongue thanked Max when he moved too close, swiping over his cheek.
Quill wondered if Al would have laughed at how viscerally he reacted to the sound of his name. The vampire felt no shame. He was simply too excited. Outside, he circled Max's legs while he locked up, rubbing his beautiful dark fur into Max's pants. Al's extended shift had been torture to the old thing ( whose dependence on his lover was so great that even the mere scent of him brought a deep satisfaction ), and Max promised to free him from it in a way that would be agreeable to all parties.
