PA 3.5: End of a Tail

Chapter XVII Part III

"W-What?"

"... Patches hurt me. He hurt me, and I killed an entire school over it. When I removed his collar, he said just..." she narrowed her eyes, distraught, "the stupidest things to me, but I felt like he understood why I hurt so many people, and that scares me. I don't want to be the 'Hachiko Massacrer', I want to have friends, and live a good life, free of violence. I just don't know if I'll be able to do that when you're gone."

"B-But we had such a good time at home ec! We spent like, the whole day with one another!"

Coco smiled, chucking. "Yeah! That was really fun," she sighed, still smirking and looking at Brownie now, "but that's what I'm afraid of."

She stared at the dog, who went from panicked to depress in an instant, their eyes fluttering closed, then their whole head sagging in disappointment.

Brownie said nothing, remaining silent.

Coco grabbed the dog's arms, putting them to the side, and then wrapping her own around the dog's head, pulling them to her chest. Immediately, the corgi responded in kind, burying herself as far as she could into the cat's sternum. She wrapped her arms around the cat's back and squeezed with as much strength as possible, ignoring the pain caused by grinding her ears against the fabric.

Coco felt the corgi's tears beginning to soak into her outfit, letting some tiny bit of instinct worm its way into her head to get away from the dog, causing more of a mess and ruining the fabric, but Coco spat in the face of her usually angry demeanour, only clutching the dog's head harder. Brownie's whining grew in intensity until finally, she began to sob. Short, sharp, quiet whimpers spiked up to the cat's ears, almost making her shake with how intense they made her feel. She couldn't tell if Brownie was sobbing out of grief or joy. With every jolt of the corgi's body, Coco clutched her harder, ensuring the dog was embraced almost painfully.

"It's okay," Coco said, soothing the dog as she stopped squeezing so hard and began to pat the dog's mutilated hair. Only then did she notice the corgi's tail began to wag gently, and the intense sobs began to quiet down as Brownie adjusted her grip. Brownie fully wrapped her arms around Coco and tilted her head upward, now smashing her cheek against the dog's stomach as the final few tears ran down her face. They could both feel the warmth beaming from within one another, striking the other like the rays of the morning sun. Even if the corgi wasn't crying, Coco could tell every nuance of the poor dog's emotion just by virtue of that radiant heat, like some sixth sense gained from familiarity with the dog.

Wordlessly, both of them let the other know just how much it meant that they were there.

"Feeling better?" Coco asked.

Brownie nodded, her burnt, bloody fur grinding up against Coco's witch outfit.

Coco pat the dog on the head lightly, careful not to touch anything that might hurt her. "Okay, you seriously need to get cleaned up," she grimaced. "Ready to keep looking for the y- uh."

"Wait," Brownie said, stifling her words with the occasional sniffle, "we just won't ever break up! We'll stick together, no matter what. I'm glad you told me how you feel, because it shows that you trust me, instead of letting that bottle up inside and having it blow up." She forced a smile, "Thank you."

"Heh... No problem?" Coco shrugged. "Thanks for listening... Let's just deal with Patches, then worry about this, okay?"

Brownie nodded one more time. "I-I'm sorry for being so annoying."

Coco smiled. "It's alright."

There was a pause, then Brownie teared up, staring into Coco's eyes. "You're supposed to say I'm not annoying!" Brownie complained, her voice quivering with sadness.

The cat patted Brownie on the back. "But... I like how annoying you are."

"Coco! You're gonna m-make me cry!" Brownie whined into Coco's outfit, mushing her head into her chest incredibly hard.

"Okay, you're just making a mess now." Coco grabbed the corgi by the shoulders, lifting her back to a sitting position and staring at her. "C'mon, get up, idiot," she said endearingly.

Brownie did as she was told, wiping away the tears forming in her eyes as she leaned forward and got up, immediately complaining. "There aren't any b-blankets here, oh dog, why are we looking when there's no blankets?" Her voice was still filled with a sort of sad joy, giving the question an existential tone and letting Coco chuckle at the absurdity of Brownie's behaviour.

"W-Well, it's not really blankets we're looking for, more... uh... fabric of a certain type."

Brownie continued to whimper as she spoke, "Y-You mean the-" she took a moment to sniffle, "the yarn?"

Coco looked at Brownie. The bombay was halfway embarrassed, halfway panicking, sweat trailing down the side of her head before she sighed in admission. "YES, the yarn."

"T-That's so cute! Coco you're so cute!" Brownie wailed out, quickly hugging Coco again the moment she got up.

"I am not cute! It's just a... toy from when I was a kitten! I don't play with yarn like some kind of weirdo!" Coco grabbed Brownie by the shoulders, squeezing her eyes shut as she started forcing the dog off of her. "And stop being so touchy! That hug was a gift. It wasn't for you to take for granted!"

"But you're so s-soft..." Brownie said, a moment before she was pried off of Coco, nearly tripping as she stumbled backward. "I-It was in Angel's desk," she said, folding her paws up to her face and silently weeping in a weird mixture of joy and heartbreak.

"Angel?! Why does he have it?" she pondered, beginning to walk over to the desk.

"Coco? C-Can I have another hug?"

"Later! And no more crying, or no hugs!"

"B-But I'm so happy!"

Coco cocked an eyebrow. "You don't sound happy though?"

"I'm also really sad!" she said, beginning to calm down.

The bombay just rolled her eyes, then smiled as she turned around to rifle through her brother's things, finding a half dozen balls of yarn alongside fabrics and thread. The cat wiggled the large drawer out from its hinges, dumping the contents onto the center of the floor and drawing her wand from her back pocket. Brownie watched with great interest as she waved her wand about in precise motions, the yarn unravelling alongside the fabric, both then weaving perfectly into a thin blanket, just big enough to cover a single cat or dog, so long as they weren't Sparky.

"Coco!" Brownie clasped her hands together, tail wagging ferociously. "You're so damn cool!"

"Aaa! Stop flattering me!" Coco said, blushing as she began to focus on the next blanket's construction. "Just bring those down a-and help Olive set something up, okay?"

Brownie nodded, eagerly picking the magically crafted yarn blanket off of the ground and jogging to the door.

"And, thank you," Coco said, smiling.

Brownie simply smiled back, then went past the door frame, into the house beyond.