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There’s a dog in his house. Or is it a wolf? Whatever it is, it’s huge and colored a black so deep it looks blue. And it’s in his living room. He’s already dreading how long it will take him to clean up the coarse hair that he knows is imbedded in his carpet and couch. But he might not even have to do that if the beast staring at him with glowing yellow eyes eats him like he’s absolutely positive it will.
“Uhhh,” creeps out of his mouth against his best judgment. “Hi? Are you going to eat me?”
The creature huffs out something that almost sounds like a laugh. Or maybe that’s just Shiro’s hopeful wishing. It flicks its long tail out from behind itself with a look that reminds Shiro of impatience. He can’t help but glance over at the fluffy tail because the white on its very tip catches his eye—wait, white? Why does Shiro feel like he recognizes that tail?
He looks more carefully at the dog (wolf?) sitting on his shag rug. The more he takes in, the more he feels like he knows this animal. From the ears, one standing upright and the other flopped over, to the lighter patches of fur that run down its back and across its chest.
“Kosmo?” Gods, he hopes that he’s right. He really, really doesn’t want to get torn apart right now. He’s already had a long day at work, and all he wants to do is eat two or three boxes of mac and cheese and collapse into his comfy bed. And thankfully, judging by the slow wagging of pure fur that makes a deep thumping noise on his floor, he guesses that he’s correct. Thank the heavens.
He doesn’t know why his neighbor’s beast of a pet is in his house, but he’s just glad that it isn’t a wild animal. He wasn’t planning on being murdered and eaten today and is glad to keep his plan of staying at least somewhat alive. “Why are you here, buddy? Is Keith here, too? How did you get in?”
As if the dog is going to answer him. He doesn’t know if he could handle it if it did. “Keith?” He calls out, “Are you in here?” He waits a few seconds and earns himself an earful of silence accompanied by the steady thump thump thump of Kosmo’s tail. “Guess not.” He works his way slowly, so very slowly, over to Kosmo. He might know this dog but that doesn’t mean that it still won’t lash out if he’s too hasty. “Can I sit with you?” He thinks the dog rolls its eyes as he lowers himself down onto the rug. He dumps his briefcase down next to him and breathes a heavy sigh of relief, leaning into the mountain of fluff behind him.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
A while later, both Shiro and Kosmo startle from their cuddle puddle on the floor when a loud knocking bangs on his door. He can only guess that it’s Keith from the way Kosmo’s tail starts to look like a propeller from how fast he’s wagging it. He gets up slowly, his bones and muscles aching from laying on the floor for so long.
They creak in resistance as he makes his way through his small house over to the front door. The second he opens it, he’s barraged by fast and distressed talking from Kosmo’s owner.
“Shiro! Please, please tell me that Kosmo is somehow here. I’ve been looking for him for hours and he’s never gone for this long, Shiro please you have to help me find him I’m losing my mind here—”
“Keith! Slow down. Kosmo’s here and has been for a while. I don’t have your number and I didn’t see your car so I figured you were out and would eventually either get home or turn up here,” Shiro explains calmly. He guides Keith into his house and shuts the door behind him to keep out the chill of the winter air. “He’s in the living room.”
They walk through a high archway and there lays Kosmo in the same spot Shiro found him in. His tail continues to thump but he doesn’t rise from his lying position.
“Kosmo! You bad boy, what are you doing in Shiro’s house?” Keith rushes over to him and starts to scold him while pressing his face and hands into Kosmo’s shaggy fur. “You were supposed to stay home and watch the fairi—uh..the canaries . You were supposed to watch the canaries and make sure they didn’t get into trouble!”
Shiro’s day has been too long to wonder why Keith would put his dog in charge of the birds that he apparently owns. Apparently he trusts Kosmo enough to not eat them, but that’s not Shiro’s place to judge.
“I’m so sorry that he bothered you, Shiro,” the man with black hair turns his face over his shoulder and gives Shiro his best guilty expression.
“Oh, it’s no problem. I just don’t understand how he got in!” Shiro is diligent about keeping all doors and windows locked whenever he is outside of the house. Come to think of it, they’re usually locked when he’s inside too. How in the hell did Kosmo end up in his living room?
Keith lets out a breathy chuckle and curls his fingers into the black fur of his dog. “I don’t know either, sometimes it seems like he just teleports places.” Why does it feel like that’s more than just a joke? Shiro’s too tired to think about it. Kosmo doesn’t seem to find it funny either as he bumps Keith with his snout.
“Haha,” Shiro says awkwardly. He scratches the back of his neck, a nervous habit he picked up from his grandfather. “So, uh, why do you think he came to my house of all places?”
Keith hums and stands, beckoning Kosmo to follow him, “I really have no idea. Maybe he just likes you? Although,” he sniffs the air and snaps his fingers. “Never mind. I mean,” he laughs lightly and Shiro falls in love with the sound, “of course he likes you as well. But, uh, your house smells like juniper.” When Shiro looks lost, he explains, “juniper is Kosmo’s favorite smell. I think it reminds him of home.”
“Home?”
“Where Kosmo came from,” Keith explains like it’s so simple.
“You mean the shelter you got him from? Huh, I’ve never been to a shelter that smells like anything besides dog.” Shiro ponders all the shelters he’s ever been to and volunteered at, and none of the local ones have ever smelt of anything that wasn’t urine, poop or wet dog. The place Keith adopted Kosmo from must have been really expensive. He wonders where Keith would have gotten that kind of money from. Their neighborhood isn’t rich, if anything it’s somewhere just above the lower middle class. Maybe he has rich parents? “You were lucky to find him in any case,” he says, “Kosmo is the best boy.”
Kosmo’s tail wags happily and he leaves Keith’s side to come to get pets from Shiro. He obliges with a hearty laugh, “yes you are! So good and cuddly.” He pats Kosmo’s head a few times after petting him and looks up to see a warm smile settled on his neighbor’s face. “He really was great. He gave me all the cuddles and warmth I could ever want.”
“Yeah, he’s good at that. He always knows when someone is in need of comfort.”
Shiro’s face heats up. Is he so obvious that even his neighbor’s dog can tell that he’s unhappy with his life? Oh boy, he’s going to have to work on that.
“Just had a long day at work,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Ah, I see. Well, Kosmo and I will get out of your hair and let you relax now.” Keith starts walking back towards the front door with both Kosmo and Shiro trailing behind him slowly. “Thanks for taking care of him while he was here, I promise it won’t happen again. Will it, Kosmo?” The dog in question just huffs.
“It’s really okay, Keith.”
Shiro opens his front door and leans against it. He watches Keith hesitate before he leaves, with his hand on the open doorway. He looks back before he goes and smiles with half of his mouth, a look that shakes Shiro to his core with how attractive it is. God, what he’d give to see those lips stretched into a full smile, or around his—
“See you later, Shiro.”
He blinks and they’re gone, leaving a chill of mystery in the air around him.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
Kosmo appears in his house often after that, always after Shiro has had a particularly trying day at work. Sometimes he comes over when Shiro takes a mental health day off because he can’t get out of bed without seeing the blank eyes of his fallen army brothers.
He always seems to know exactly when Shiro needs someone just to hold on to. His neighbor’s dog is a particularly good listener too, his head tilts and nods make it seem like he’s actually comprehending Shiro’s words. No matter how confused Shiro always is about how the behemoth of a dog gets into his house, it’s always overshadowed by the comfort he receives. Sometimes they lay on the floor like the first day and other times they play with toys that Shiro will never admit to anyone that he buys because of his lack of self-control.
Their time always comes to an end when Keith returns from work. His schedule seems to change daily because sometimes Shiro gets to spend four hours with Kosmo, and other days they only get a half-hour before the distinct knock knock knock sounds on Shiro’s heavy wooden door.
Tonight is one of the times that Shiro gets to spend a lot of time with Kosmo. He gets home at five-thirty, drops his bag at the door by the shoes he kicks off and collapses into Kosmo’s side on his couch. He doesn’t move for hours and just stares at the wall. He only realizes that it’s late when a telltale knocking interrupts his blank staring. He doesn’t want to get up, though. He can’t find the energy to do anything more than move his eyes in the direction of the door.
He finds himself started when Kosmo barks loudly, but all the reaction he gives is a tiny jolt. He hears Keith’s voice then, “Shiro? I’m going to come in, okay? Your door isn’t locked, which, come on dude you can get robbed. Well, I mean, not with Kosmo here. But still—” Keith cuts himself off when he sees Shiro laying on his dog. His face droops a little when he sees the state of his neighbor, a shell of the bright and smiling hunk of a man he knows. Or at least thinks he knows. “Hey, man. Bad day?” All he gets in response is a grunt. “Guess that’s a yes,” he says as he moves over to the couch and sits on the very edge by Shiro’s curled up shins. “Have you eaten?” He gets the slightest shake of white hair for that and takes it as a good sign that he’s feeling well enough to at least move his head. “Mind if I use your kitchen to make dinner, then?”
Keith gets another shake for that. “Cool,” he says and gets up, petting both Shiro’s head and Kosmo’s as he moves past them to walk to the kitchen.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
Shiro blinks and then Keith is back in front of him with the smell of dinner filling the air. He isn’t sure how much time has passed, but it doesn’t feel like more than five minutes.
“Let’s get you up and that stomach of yours filled, huh? Can you do that for me, big guy?”
Shiro groans out what he thinks is an affirmative response because Keith reacts to it by linking their hands together and pulling him up. “There you go,” Keith’s voice is soft like he’s speaking to a child. Shiro finds that he doesn’t mind it like he normally would. It feels less sympathetic and more caring. He could get used to hearing Keith speak to him like that. It almost scares him when he thinks about it for longer and discovers that he wants to get used to hearing that tone in Keith’s voice. He hasn’t wanted like this in a long time.
“Good job, baby. Just a couple more steps to the table and you can eat.” Keith doesn’t seem to notice his slip, but boy does Shiro notice it. It makes his heart flutter in its cage and gives him the energy it takes to get over to his dinner table without leaning his complete weight onto Keith. He drops himself down into a chair when they get there and gives the smallest hint of a smile when he feels Kosmo flop onto his feet.
“Good boy, Kosmo. You’ve done such a good job taking care of Shiro today, haven’t you?” Keith coos down to him, “yes you have! Here’s a treat for you, handsome.” He gives Kosmo a steak that comes from seemingly nowhere. Shiro is sure he didn’t have such a big steak in his fridge, but he just adds it to the pile of things that intrigue him about Keith.
“You like mac and cheese right? I made my mom’s special recipe,” Keith says from where he’s suddenly sitting in the chair across from Shiro. “It’ll make you feel better, I promise.”
Shiro hums and lifts the spoon full of gooey macaroni to his mouth. His jaw feels like lead as he chews but the taste soon bursts on his tongue and he feels himself perk up.
“Ahhh, there it is. The look of someone who’s just tasted heaven.” Keith laughs in between his own bites.
“Hnnnn,” Shiro manages. “This is so good. What’s in this that makes it so good?” He stumbles through speaking with his mouth full of pure deliciousness.
“That’s a secret,” Keith winks at him. The way he says it makes it seem like it’s more than just some secret ingredient like tabasco sauce and more like something he would have to kill Shiro for if he told him. So Shiro drops it and continues to stuff his face.
He feels his spirit lift with some food finally in his stomach. After he’s finished, he pushes his bowl out and holds his stomach with his hands. “God, that was amazing. Thank you for making this for me, Keith. You really didn’t have to.”
“It’s what good neighbors do, Shiro. Plus you looked like you really needed it. Today was really that bad?”
“Mhm,” he hums, “don’t wanna talk about it though.”
“That’s okay, we don’t have to. It was enough for me to be able to take care of you. My dog does it enough, I figured it was probably my turn.” He grins brightly.
“Thank you, though, Keith. Really. This kind of made my week. What can I do to pay you back?”
“Don’t you dare even think about that, mister. I care about you, and this is what you do when you care about people. There doesn’t need to be payback or anything of the sort. This is what we do in my family, so just accept it.”
“Family, huh?”
Keith goes bright red. “Uhhhh..”
“Does that have something to do with why you called me baby earlier?”
“I did what ? Oh my god.” His neighbor buries his face in his hands and groans loudly. “I hate myself. Kill me now. Please, someone.”
“Uh-uh,” Shiro grins. “You’re not getting out of this.”
Keith lets out a high pitched whine that goes straight into Shiro’s heart. His brain records the sound and he vows to remember it forever. “You like me, don’t you?” He teases.
“I plead the fifth.”
“That doesn’t work when you’re sitting in my dining room, Keith.”
“Well, then I plead insanity.”
“I like you too.”
“I plead whatever is necessary to get me out of this—wait, what did you just say?” Keith lifts his tomato-red face out of his hands and stares at Shiro like he’s the one who just pleaded insanity.
“I said, ‘I like you too.’”
“Oh. Uhhh, okay.” Keith scratches the back of his neck and looks so out of place that it almost makes Shiro laugh, but he reigns himself in and just grins.
“‘Okay’? That’s all you’ve got?” Shiro is having way too much fun with this. “How about a ‘wow, Shiro!’ or maybe even an ‘I like you,’ since you chickened out and made me say it first.”
Shiro can see Keith’s brain short circuit just from looking at his face. “I- uh…” He whispers so quietly that Shiro can’t hear him.
“What was that?”
“I said… I like you.”
“Wow, Keith!” Shiro can’t help himself from teasing now.
“Shut up, you dummy. Do you want more mac and cheese?” Keith tries to change the topic to save himself from more embarrassment.
“Yeah, sure. But we’re talking about this afterward.”
“Sure, Shiro.” He fills their bowls without even moving his hands and—wait, what?
“Uhhhh, what.” Is what comes out of Shiro’s mouth as he watches mac and cheese float in the air to land in the bowl in front of him.
“Oh yeah, I’m a warlock.”
Shiro feels his brain explode right before he passes out in shock.