lol so this one is kind of...odd. Idk, pepper spray seems like a weird tool to whump a character with (i don’t know if people would consider it whump but it’s painful as hell), but I watch Unus Annus and thought yes plz after watching their pepper spray video. The second half of the chapter is kind out of place. It felt too serious when I was writing it but I left it in anyway.
cw: assault using pepper spray, less whump mostly caretaking (as usual). Then tw for yelling and arguing. Then the usual human trafficking/pet whump/dehumanization stuff.
Dan blames himself for even letting him out of his sight. He should have learned the first time. Don’t let him run off on his own. Don’t ask him to do something on his own. You don’t want a repeat of the coffee incident. But he feels bad keeping Blondie at his side 24/7. He’s a fully capable young man who can do things on his own, so if Blondie wants to run back to the chocolate snack aisle in Walmart while Dan shops for frozen meals, he should be allowed to do that.
But of course it’s not that simple.
It’s never that simple.
First a woman starts shouting, and Dan can hear it from five aisles down. His first instinct is to find Blondie, but the voice in the back of his mind tells him to head towards the sound of chaos. Now there is the sound of a toddler crying loudly, as all children do, and a sharp yelp of pain followed by a fit of coughing. It’s the wet, barking sort of cough that happens when something is lodged in your throat. Dan prays under his breath that Blondie isn’t somehow mixed into the situation, that he’ll come bopping around the corner with a box of cosmic brownies in hand and they can pay and silently slip away.
But of course it’s not that simple.
It’s never that simple.
There is a middle-aged woman and child. The woman is wiping the child's face with the bottom of her shirt, and trying to hush the crying kid while she curses intermittently. Then there is Blondie. He’s not screaming like he was when the coffee was spilt on him, but he’s on the floor, wiping his face and wheezing desperately between each forceful cough. His face is covered in a clear, runny liquid and his eyes are screwed shut. In between this all is a young Walmart employee, probably a high schooler who is definitely not getting paid enough to deal with this sort of situation, but she’s trying to keep the peace.
There’s a can of pepper spray on the floor. It’s leaking. As soon as Dan kneels down at Blondie’s side he can taste the lingering spray in the air. It irritates his lungs and burns, even without being sprayed. He can’t help but cough.
“Hey hey, hey--” Dan reaches for Blondie but the moment he touches him, Blondie flinches back against the shelves of chips so hard it sends a few bags tumbling to the floor. He’s whimpering, kicking weakly in a pathetic effort of self defense. When a hand takes hold of his wrists he tries to squirm out of the hold but he’s wedged against the shelf. “Hey--”
“Please don’t!”
“Blondie, it’s me! It’s Dan. It’s me.”
All efforts of struggle seize suddenly and Blondie reaches out for Dan, grasping for more of him to hold onto. He leans forward, blindly searching for a forearm to latch onto. “Dan,” He coughs and wheezes. “Dan. Help. Please.”
“I’m right here, Blon-” Dan tries to speak but his throat itches and he turns his head away to hack into his arm. They need to move; get away from the area. “I’m right here.”
“Keep that damn thing on a leash!” The woman, whom Dan doesn’t have to assume is the assailant, shouts. “If dogs and cats can’t run around the store without a leash, then neither can he! He could have hurt my son! He could have attacked us both!”
“You’re fucking kidding me. He wouldn’t hurt a god damned flee if it killed him.” Dan coughs and then forces himself to ignore the woman. Fighting isn’t going to help right now. Blondie is wiping his hands and rubbing his face and all he is managing to do is spread the pepper spray around even more. “Stop touching your eyes, Blondie, don’t touch anything. The more you touch the worse it will get.”
“It burns.” Blondie rasps. Drool dribbles from his lips and he tries to spit any trace of the chemical from his mouth, but it’s not working. Nothing's working. It just keeps getting stronger and stronger. His heart is drumming violently in his ears. “It burns, Dan.”
“I know, honey.” Says Dan.
“I can’t breathe!”
“I know, we’re gonna fix that. Just sit tight.”
Dan turns to the young employee. She’s crying too and hacking into her arm. The spray must be agitating her too. This is bullshit. She shouldn’t have to deal with this. “Excuse me. Miss.”
The girl looks like she’s ready to run from the situation, like she’s expecting Dan to yell at her for something she clearly had no control over. “Y-Yes?”
“Go grab me two gallons of milk and some towels if you have any. Please. And hurry.”
She nods and takes off sprinting. Dan gets a look at the child who is bawling as well because the mist of chemicals got him too. “Stop rubbing his face.” Dan snaps at the mom. “You’re just spreading it around. Don’t touch his face. That girl is running to get milk to help wash it off. Don’t touch anything until then.”
“This wouldn’t have happened if you people would just put your damn animals on a leash!”
“He’s not a fucking animal!”
“Are you really going to defend yourself by telling me that he’s a person? He’s not an animal but he’s still your pet?”
“Jesus fucking christ, lady.” Dan sighs and turns back to Blondie. Because he doesn’t have a rebuttal. She’s right.
Soon after, the employee comes sprinting down the aisle with not two, but four gallons of milk and three managers in tow. They jog over to the scene. “Sir, we’re going to clear the aisle. We have a place he can hose down in the back, if you’ll follow us.”
Dan scoops his hands under Blondie’s arms and lifts him. “We’re gonna go rinse this stuff off, okay? I’ll lead you to where we’re going, just hold tight. Hold onto me.”
There’s nothing for Blondie to do but follow and try not to trip. He can’t open his eyes and his eyelids are shut so tightly that it’s giving him a headache. Heat just keeps rising. It’s making him dizzy.
“Focus on breathing.”
He can breathe. It's just that every breath he takes feels like he’s gulping down air and not actually inhaling. It’s unsatisfying and makes him feel frantic, like he’s not actually breathing, but he is.
“You’re doing good so far, kiddo.”
The mother and child are escorted somewhere else while Dan and Blondie are brought to the storage in the back. It’s chilly and unwelcoming, but there are few people back there and it gives Blondie some more privacy. He knows there must have been another crowd gathered around. Just because he could see doesn’t mean he couldn’t feel their gawking stares.
It takes an effort not to try to rub away the red hot burning around his eyes, and when he raises his arm instinctually to touch his face, Dan gently swats his hand away. “Don’t touch.” He orders.
“I’m sorry.”
Blondie continues to blindly follow Dan’s lead until they come to a stop. His entire body is buzzing and he can’t tell whether he’s itching to sit, or stand, or move around, or lie down. He feels Dan gather his hair up and coax his head to the side, then suddenly he’s being bent over something. Blondie braces his hands on what he’s pretty sure is a sink. For a second he resists because he can’t see what’s going on and it’s terrifying, but the firm hand on his shoulders keeps him down. Don’t fight. Don’t fight.
“Alright, keep your head tilted. I’m going to pour water over your face. Just push my hand away when you need a break. Then we’ll rinse with some milk. Okay?” His head is tilted at a 90 degree angle, but Blondie nods. “Okay.”
Despite being warned, Blondie still flinches when he feels a splash on his face. It’s cold and the pressure isn’t very strong. Relief isn’t as immediate as he had been hoping and it feels like there is a thick layer between Blondie’s irritated, burning skin and the water that prevents the spray from washing away. Now, a new problem arises when he realizes that he can’t breath, and he hasn’t been able to catch his breath since the woman sprayed him. He runs out of breath quickly and frantically shove’s Dan’s hand away.
“Okay. Good. Good job, Blondie. You’re doing good. Doing great.”
Blondie is allowed to stand for a moment to catch his breath. Each intake of air sucks in more residual spray and each time he thinks about it, he’s sent spiraling into a coughing fit. Everything makes everything else worse. Coughing makes the blood in his head throb which makes the burning worse, which makes breathing worse, which makes him cough again. The only thing keeping him grounded is the hand holding his hair off of his neck and out of his face.
“Milk.” He demands with a wet cough.
“You want to catch your breath first, honey?”
Can’t. Now. “Please, it burns.”
“Okay, lean over.”
The milk is even colder and provides a more noticeable relief, but it doesn’t last very long. Blondie pulls away after only a few seconds and wheezes. “Could I…” He’s being needy. “May I please have a towel?”
“Sure thing, baby.” Dan coos. “Here. Just dab it, don’t try to rub your face dry.”
The worst part is his eyes. Then it’s his lips and the tip of his nose. It hurts in all of the worst ways possible, like acid. The burning sensation of a pepper is unlike the burning sensation of fire. When you pull your hand off of the stove, the burn still stings, but it goes away. It’s not a blistering heat, it’s a million little needles pricking into his skin. After being sprayed minutes ago, the pain is still climbing. It’s not going away because it has yet to reach its peak.
Someone else speaks up somewhere else in the room and Blondie is reminded that he is unsure of how many people are watching. He feels vulnerable and wants to hide behind Dan. He desperately wants this to be over. He wants to see Dan. He reaches out, feeling slightly delirious.
“I’m right here.” The hand that grabs his own is unmistakably his master’s. He squeezes tight. “I’m not going anywhere, I’m right here.”
Another minute passes and the relief of the milk has long since been forgotten.
“More water?”
“Please.”
“Alright, lean over.”
….
It takes a full forty minutes for the pain to actually start letting up. It’s another twenty minutes after that until Blondie can even open his eyes, but his face still feels like it’s being scorched.
Dan is running the water again when one of the managers asks. “Did you see what caused this?”
“No, but it sure as hell wasn’t him.”
Blondie pats his face with a washcloth doused in Milk. He doesn’t know how to wash the spray from his ears.
“Are you sure?”
Most of the spray has been rinsed off, but some still remains. As it turns out, trying to rub pepper spray out of your eyes only serves to rub it deeper into your skin and make the burn last longer.
“I’m positive.” Says Dan, then he asks in a quieter tone. “Blondie?”
He is still bent over the sink. He stares up at his master with eyes that are teary and red from irritation. His heart leaps into his mouth for a moment. “Yes sir?”
“Did you do anything that would have caused that woman to pepper spray you?”
He shakes his head vehemently. “I...I don’t think so, sir. I didn’t try to.”
The disembodied voice, which Blondie still hasn’t bothered to check for a face, speaks up far away. “The woman is adamant that she saw you as a threat. You weren't threatening her or her child in any way?”
In aisle 10 there had been a woman and a child, and a pet without a leash. Blondie had known exactly what he was looking for. He had walked carefully and calmly over to the Andes Mints for a treat on the road. If you had seen him from behind, without a clear view of his collar, you would have thought him to be any other customer.
The problem is, an off-leash pet can be considered dangerous very easily. The result in a reported “dangerous pet” is a hefty fine, one which would put a decent dent in Dan’s wallet, and depending on the severity of the situation a pet might be taken away from their owner for “retraining”.
“N-No sir. I swear.” He answers the manager and directs himself to Dan. “I swear. I didn’t do anything. I promise.”
Dan stares down at him. He smooths a stray hair out of Blondie’s face and massages his shoulder. “I believe you, Blondie. I know.”
The manager sighs. “Well, we’ll have to check the cameras.”
“Fine then. But I’d like to see a recording for myself too.”
….
Much to everyone else’s dismay, the recording from the security camera corroborates Blondie’s story. A tall and scrawny blond figure walks down the aisle keeping as much distance from the woman and child as he possibly can until he reaches the Andes Mints. The candies are on the other side of the cart and Blondie has to pass where the child is sitting at the front of the trolly. Just as he’s pulling a bag of mints from the shelf, the woman sprays him and subsequently ends up spraying her child as well. It takes a second for Blondie to react to the pain. He drops the bag of candy and stumbles back. Moments later Dan appears and the video stops.
“He shouldn’t have been off leash.” The woman says.
“And you falsely accused him of threatening you and your child.” Dan spits back.
“Ma’am, we can report Mr. Schmidt for bringing a pet in without a leash, but in doing so we will have to also report you for improper use of pepper spray on a pet, if Mr. Schmidt chooses to press charges.” The very tired looking Walmart manager explains.
Mr. Schmidt? Blondie sits on the floor near Dan’s feet, still wheezing slightly and trying to sooth his skin with a wet hand towel. It takes a moment for him to realize they are talking about Dan.
“You can’t do that!” The woman squealed. “Because of that thing, my child ended up getting maced!”
“You were the one who maced him!”
“Because your animal wasn’t on a leash!”
“He’s not a fucking animal!”
“Fine!” The woman stamps her foot. “Your fucking human pet wasn’t on a leash!”
“He was just grabbing a snack!”
As the volume of Dan’s voice steadily increases, Blondie feels like shrinking away. He wants to curl into Dan’s looming shadow and hide. An innate part of him feels like he needs to hide from Dan because he knows better than to bother an angry master, but part of him wants to take Dan’s hand and pull him into the darkness with him so they can just rest. He’s exhausted. He still feels like he can’t entirely breathe and just wants to go back to the truck and lie down.
“He got too close to my child!”
“So you pepper spray anyone who gets within two feet of your kid?”
“So you let your pet run loose without a leash?”
“Do you want them to report me or not?”
Their voices are reaching a critical volume. The argument has turned into a shouting match.
“I want you to be held responsible for your actions!”
“What actions?! Neither of us hurt anyone!”
“I was just trying to defend my baby!”
“From a kid who was just grabbing some chocolate!” Dan bellows with the full force of his lungs. “Look at him! Does he look like he could hurt you even if he tried?!”
Ouch.
“Woah, woah, woah!” The manager who seemed to have been caught up in the debate finally speaks out. “Okay, enough of this. If you two are going to have a catfight, we’re going to charge both of you with disturbance of the peace.”
“He started it!”
Dan opens his mouth like he’s about to rebut but thinks better of it and turns away. “If you’re going to report me, I’m pressing charges. An assault charge like that will give you jail time, or a fat fine at the very least. I’m not going to take this further if we don’t need to. We could just walk away from this, lesson learned.”
From the ground, Blondie can see that both Dan and the woman are still fuming, but they’re at a stalemate. As much as this lady seems to want to report Dan, the evidence of assault is pretty damning on her part.
“Fine.”
The manager deflates in relief and escorts Dan back to the front of the store. He pays for the items they needed, like paper plates, frozen meals, and a bottle of eye drops before heading back to the truck. Blondie tows behind, continuing to press the lukewarm damp towelette that no one paid for to his eyes. He watches Dan with a careful eye and doesn’t miss how his posture is tense and he’s walking too fast. Only a fraction faster than he normally walks, but still too fast to be relaxed. He’s pissed, but he still opens the door for Blondie and allows him to crawl into the semi first.
“Go sit on the bunk.” Dan tells him. Blondie obeys and is wary. In another situation, he wouldn’t be shaking, but he’s never seen Dan angry. Sure, he’s heard him curse someone out on the road, but road rage isn’t the same thing. This is plain and simple anger and angry masters are like fields of landmines. It’s best just to stand still and wait for direction.
The rig is cool from the AC running for over an hour and it feels good to sit on a bed rather than the cold concrete floor in the back of Walmart. Despite the rumbling engine, the truck feels silent. Dan lumbers around as carefully as he can, crouching near the mini freezer to store the frozen meals, setting the paper plates in the tiny cabinet, and unboxing the saline eye drops near the bed.
“Lie down for me.” A mess of golden hair falls onto Dan’s pillow as Blondie lies back. “I won’t touch your eye, but I’m going to hold your eyelids open so I can put these in alright? It might burn again at first, but it’s gonna flush out what’s left in there.”
Dan leans over Blondie holding his eye open with his thumb and index finger. His touch is overly gentle, like he’s trying to make up for something. He squeezes a few drops out into the corner of his eyes and releases, letting Blondie blink away the excess tears. They repeat the process for the other eye and Dan notes to himself how unnaturally blue Blondie’s irises look when the whites of his eyes are bloodshot and pink. So vivid they’re almost purple. Meanwhile, Blondie’s stare shifts back and forth between his master’s eyes. They’re brown but they’re so dark that in some lights, they look almost black.
“I’m sorry, Blondie.” Dan says, twisting the cap back onto the saline solution bottle and tossing it into the bedside cupboard.
“What?”
“I’m sorry for being so loud back there. I know you were scared. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
True, Blondie had been shaken up from hearing his master yell. He thought he had heard Dan raise his voice before, but what he had heard from previous moments now clearly seems to have not even scratched the surface. When Dan shouts his face gets red, his nose scrunches up, and his eyes narrow. He looks mean. He sounds mean. He wonders how the woman in Walmart didn’t burst into tears on the spot, but then again, she was screaming just as loud as Dan.
The corner of Dan’s lips quirk up in a bittersweet smile. He leans down and swallows Blondie up into a hug until he’s almost entirely eclipsed beneath him. He buries his face in Blondie’s shoulder and breathes in. It would be a suffocating embrace if it were anyone else but Dan, but Blondie pulls his arms up around Dan’s shoulders and holds him tight. For now, this is good.
Tags: (I might stop doing these. Idk, it’s helpful for me to give the chapters more traction but Idk.)
No- no please- I'm sorry- I'll be a good dog I'm sorry- *curls up to protect their face and throat, eyes shutting in fear*
*stops and crouches down, before petting your head again*
Oh, Dog. I don’t think you’ll ever be good. Maybe I should take away the collar and your dog tag. That way, when I take you outside you’ll never come back. You can be alone.
