When The Past Becomes The Future

Questions

Just a quick warning, there is a little language in this chapter, so I'm rating it this one T+. Enjoy!

Rocky yawned and sniffed around before opening his eyes. A familiar, oceanic smell hit his twitching nose and he smiled. He opened his eyes and looked directly into Zuma's emerald green ones.

"You're awake already?" Rocky asked. Zuma nodded his head.

"How long have you been looking at me?"

"Houws," Zuma replied. "You look so cute when you sleep. You make small snoring noises, and your nose twitches."

"How do you know all of that?" Rocky asked, blushing
"Let's just say I'm always watching you," Zuma answered him, licking his nose. Rocky closed his eyes happily.
"What time is it?" Rocky asked.

"The sun is almost up. It's a good thing you woke up when you did, we need to be getting back." Zuma said.
"You could've woken me up you know," Rocky said, yawning.

"Yeah, I know, but I didn't want to," Zuma murmured, running his paws softly through Rocky's fur.

"You are too much," Rocky replied, standing up, shaking himself. He touched his neck and smiled at Zuma.

"Thinking of me?" Zuma asked, showing pearly white fangs.

Rocky nodded his head shyly.

"Come here, Zuma," he said, picking up Zuma's blue collar. Zuma came over to him, and Rocky nuzzled his neck before slipping it over his neck and clicking it in place. Zuma licked his cheek and sniffed around for his. He located the orange fabric easily against the green grass and placed it around Rocky's neck.

"Come on, we gotta go," Rocky said, trotting back the way they had come. They met Marshall about halfway there.

"Hi, Marshall!" Rocky said.

"Oh, hi guys," Marshall said, looking up from the ground. His voice was less...cheery than it normally was.

"Whatcha doing?" Zuma asked. Marshall was silent for a while, and when he spoke, his voice cracked.

"Just thinking about my life before I was captured," Marshall said, tears rolling down his cheeks, staring at the ground. "So much has changed, I don't know if things will ever be normal again for me..."

"Marshall don't cry..." Rocky said, crying himself. He hugged the poor spotted black and white pup.

"I'm sorry, I just really want my old life back..." Marshall cried.

"Yeah, I know. So do I." Rocky said. "I'm sorry, this is all my fault."
"No, it's not!" Marshall said. Rocky broke away from the dalmatian."

"That's not what Chase told you," Rocky said bitterly, looking away from him.

"You...heard that?" Marshall asked anxiously. "I'm sorry! We didn't mean to hurt..."

"I'm going inside," Rocky said quickly, ignoring Marshall's question. He padded away from him, leaving the pup even more distressed. Rocky shoved his growing guilt behind the doors of his heart. He'd kept them shut since he left Jason's facility the first time, and they had never been opened fully. They had come close when Marshall diagnosed the problem behind his powers, but Rocky had managed to close them in time, with Zuma's help. They were the source of all his self-loathing and his lack of self-esteem.

They caused all the pain in his heart and all the shame in his mind. He knew he needed to let it out, but he didn't want to revisit all those memories. So every time he was hurt or shamed, he shoved those emotions behind those doors. He tried to forget out them, but they poisoned his mind infecting everything about him. And it was slowly killing him. As he walked away, tears formed in his eyes, he found that it was getting harder to ignore his feelings. He told himself all the time that if he didn't think about it, it didn't exist, even though he knew he was lying to himself. But it was a lie he wanted to believe.