Joe, Ben and a puppy (headcanon)
Happy Birthday, we-only-have-one-braincell-and-eleven-hours-difference-in-timezone writing and fandom partner-in-crime. Couldn’t have asked for more. Love you.
Please please please make a HC about Joe sharing Ben's love an attention when/if(?) they get a puppy. HAHA
Joe gets Ben a Jack Russell Terrier puppy the same year they finally decided they’re moving in together (which loosely means coming back from wherever they were working/filming, to one place which is sort-of home) as their anniversary gift and Ben cries (because Ben cries at everything, isn’t this canon anyway) and tells Joe, ‘This means we are never breaking up.’
Joe replies with, ‘Good luck thinking I will ever let you out of my life.’ And that makes Ben laugh-cry, and Joe kisses him and more seriously tells him that he loves him, so much, and Ben says, ‘I love you too, you big sap, you have no idea.’
And Joe proceeds to call upon defense and explain how he is not a big sap and Ben listens to him and nods and laugh and after a while shuts him up and makes him lose his train of thought by kissing him.
Joe is glad now that Ben has Sammy to cuddle with at night whenever he’s not with Ben or goes to bed later than the blonde.
But then he realizes he kind of misses Ben’s cuddles. He doesn’t say it though.
He also starts waking up early to feed Sammy whenever Ben had a long night or just arrived at ungodly hour in the AM from wherever he was filming or attending press, etc. and he wants Ben to sleep in as much as possible.
He’ll sigh, barely awake and tell Sammy, ‘You’re lucky I love your papi this much.’
Ben does everything with Sammy. Swimming, taking naps, running/walking at the park.
So what does Sammy do with Joe? Go for drives, that’s what. Sammy also has the same cute habit like his papi. A bit of wind in his face, steady drive on a long road and he’d fall asleep like a baby. Joe would end up taking a pic and sending it to Ben and Ben would reply with, ‘Have I never told you how much I worry about your driving habits?’
Joe would reply, ‘No. You and Sammy just end up sleeping every time.’
‘Just keep your eyes on the road, love, please.’
Joe would listen, for like, 10 minutes. Then he would start taking random, funny pics of him and Sammy and send them to Ben anyway.
Another thing Sammy likes to do is to stand on any possible surface on Joe’s body whenever he is lying down on his back or stomach, reading or scrolling through his phone, or sitting and typing away on his Macbook. Said surfaces include but not limited to: shoulder blades, along the spine, chest, torso. The best is when Joe is sitting at his work desk and Sammy could stand up on the back of his neck and shoulder blades so it gives him a good vantage point to look outside the window and bird watch.
Sammy loves bird watching. So much so that Ben notices one or two that would actually be comfortable enough to land and stay near Sammy while the pup just sits and watches them. Once, he fell asleep watching them, and that’s when Ben and Joe decided they need a bird bath and a bird feeder in their backyard. Sammy has never been so overjoyed in his life when the birds start coming by more regularly.
Sometimes Joe likes to jokingly say Sammy is Ben in a pup form. He rarely ever leaves any of them alone (except for maybe when he bird watches). He gets excited and jump in when they’re sitting together/cuddling/kissing on the couch/in bed and Ben had to actually put him in another room/outside to play/bird watch otherwise they would never be left alone to have some time to themselves and get frisky (ahem).
As much as Ben spoils him (he carries Sammy around like a baby and talks to him like he’s one too sometimes - Joe does neither) it is actually Joe that Sammy knows he could get away with most things, because generally Joe reacts to Sammy’s behaviour in real-time and is none the wiser about what have actually happened previously. For example, Ben might have fed Sammy breakfast, but he’d come to Joe, who could be doing work at his desk, generally pretty oblivious to his surrounding, and sits down on the floor and places his head on Joe’s feet, making a sad face and whimpering ever so slightly. After a while, Joe would ask him what does he want? Is he hungry? Want a treat? And that’s how Sammy ends up eating multiple times in a day and gets away with it.
But Ben notices this eventually, and they start having a Sammy feeding chart at home where they tick completed mealtime for Sammy so they don’t overfeed the pup. Joe still usually ends up being the one giving him more treats anyway, because he can’t look at Sammy’s literal puppy-eyes and does nothing about it.
Like Ben, Sammy also has no chill and is possessive af. He doesn’t like it when papi or dad doesn’t want to play with him or do something with him, and he dislikes it the most when people he doesn’t know come too close to either papi or dad and gets touchy-feely with them.
But he loves kids. Probably as much as he loves birds, if not more. The best thing after going to the park and running around playing with any kids who wants to play with him there, is going to one of those Mazzellos’ lunches/barbecues/get-together where he gets to play all day long with the kids, and the first time they brought Sammy to the Mazzello family house, the kids don’t clamber all over uncle Joe or drag uncle Ben to play ball with them too much/for too long. They love playing with Sammy because he’s a smart boy who adapts himself to any game they’re playing, and even sits down all prim and proper when the girls decide they want to play tea party and never touches their dolls or teddy bears whenever they play pretend house or picnic with them.
Sammy would also be the catalyst of ‘are they or aren’t they?’ question surrounding their relationship. They don’t parade their relationship, confirm anything or appear in any event as a couple, so sometimes when they’re promoting a new movie (either as actor or director) they get asked this and their answer is always the same, they don’t discuss their private lives.
Joe never thought he would ever have a dog in his house, clean (after) him, feed him, play with him, bring him to the vet, generally does everything a dog owner does (just with less Sammy-is-a-baby behaviour/attitude like Ben), but then again he never thought he’d have a boyfriend that he’d be in a long-term relationship with, so sometimes he tells Sammy ‘I’m lucky to have you and your papi in my life,’ when Ben isn’t anywhere within earshot to hear him.
