Hello dear! How exciting!!! Prompt: "Booker gets magicked into a dog and they find him and take care for him, all the while searching for booker who has vanished. Surprisingly for him they are devastated. Booker is pretty sure they will get over it, it's better as it is now. They love him as a dog and he don't need to fear that he will hurt them again." (if possible happy ending? O_O)
A/N: I’ve written something along the lines of Booker being turned into an animal with the Immortal fam looking for him before but this prompt from Selena is allowing me to focus it more specifically on Booker x Joe x Nicky so it is definitely not one I was going to pass up haha...
Thanks for the prompt, Selena and I hope you guys like this!
It makes no sense that they would worry.
Booker wriggles his way under Nicky’s fidgeting hand and plops his great head on his thigh, peering up to catch the absent smile that he bestows with a sneaky slice of beef from his plate. He tries flicking his tail but nothing seems to pull Nicky away from the discussion happening around the table.
“We could try again. Maybe he has a safe house he never told you guys about. Someplace he kept quiet?” Nile’s voice carries from somewhere behind him. Booker would turn to look but Nicky’s fingers have settled on the crown of his head and he is disinclined to move away from that touch.
“Maybe we can try Marseille,” Joe says softly in the way Booker has only ever heard in the quiet spaces in the nighttime when they’re supposed to be sleeping but they know they will spend the whole night talking instead.
Nicky’s fingers pause in Booker’s fur and he can feel him inhale as if to speak, but it is Andy that speaks. “It was where he lived with his family before Russia. All of his children were born there and he buried his family at Petites-Crottes before shifting them to Paris just after the First World War.” Booker sags against Nicky’s thigh. “He doesn’t really talk about Marseille. There really wouldn’t be a reason why he would go back there.”
Of course he doesn’t talk about Marseille. Why would he? By the time Joe, Nicky, and Booker became somewhat of a unit, it was evident that they wanted to strike some sort of identity for themselves and it hadn’t seemed right to bring his family into the equation.
Someone pats at his hind leg and he retracts it closer to his body. Perhaps this is a bad time to bring up how he bought out the block of buildings where he made a home with his wife and sons, and is a pretty successful landlord in all accounts.
He gives a low whine and that prompts whoever is at his hind leg to begin petting him gently, and for Nicky to resume his scratching. “Well, he must have gone somewhere. He can’t have disappeared, can’t he? Not in this day and age.”
“If anyone could, it would be Booker,” He hears the thread of reluctant pride in Joe’s voice and does his best not to wag his tail at the praise, and instead latches to the way he can see Nicky’s eyes turn a little sad.
It makes no sense that they would want to find him so early into his exile. Shouldn’t they be happier or at least contemplate the notion that he may not want to be found? On that same note, it does give him a frisson of unwanted happiness that they would even want to look for him. It’s a paradoxical concoction of emotions and he shifts away from Nicky to keep from thinking about it.
“Well, at least we have this one,” Nile sighs, fingers scratching up Booker’s side and his underbelly when he flops over for her quiet laughter. “We’ll need to find this big guy’s people soon. They must be worried about him.”
Joe moves into his line of sight and cradles his face between his hands with a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. Booker lets his jaw part and his tongue flutter out in a silly expression just to make the corners of his mouth twitch in amusement.
He hears Andy’s soft huff followed by the clink of a bottle being set on the table. Maybe if he can keep making them laugh now, they’ll let him stay once more.
