Behind The Mask

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     There's not a single word that can describe the thoughts and emotions that Chase is feeling right now. One of the most important things in his life was to make sure to hide his scars. It's the only reason why he wore a hoodie his whole life. The pups basically never saw him without the hoodie, nobody has.

But here he was, no hoodie and sitting in front of the kittens and the two Humdingers who Chase almost saw as his own parents, even if they weren't dogs. But even so, they weren't supposed to see this other side of him. Never.

Chase only stared back at their worried expressions due to the German Shepherds reaction. They stared at each other for what felt like hours. Slowly, Chase uses his paw to push the rest of the blanket off of him and Helga and Arnold have already figured out what he was planning.

"Hold on a second," Arnold said as he now stood up and watched as Chase backed away a little bit, but still kept his horrified look at the two of them. They could tell the German Shepherd was afraid and confused. "Look, please don't run. We just wanna help." Humdinger tried but even his smoothest voice wasn't working.

Chase looked back and forth between Helga and Humdinger, not noticing that his breathing was rapidly increasing. He shivered. He felt cold. Nothing could've prepared him for this kind of moment. It all happened way too fast, way too sudden, way too soon. This wasn't supposed to happen at all.

But then, Chase felt something tug on his front legs, as his fur brushed other fur and warmth radiated on his body. The German Shepherd calmed down as he felt this sudden warmth. He looked down to see the kittens of the catastrophe crew snuggle upon his paws and front legs, nuzzling their heads against his fur.

He was surprised by their actions, but nonetheless, sunk into the warmth that they brought. His breathing slowed down as he stopped shivering and got comfortable. He then looked back up at Helga and Humdinger who were sadly smiling at the sight of their cats trying to comfort the shepherd.

"I...I..." Chase stuttered but was then interrupted by another hug, only this time, Helga wrapped her arms around the pup, trying to comfort him as best as she could.

The pup only felt more warmth by her hug and he couldn't help holding back the tears as he finally let them fall onto Helga's shoulder.

Feeling her shoulder getting a little wet, Helga only smiled as she softly pulled Chase closer to her, not wanting to let the poor pup go.

Mayor Humdinger warmly smiled at them but then sadly frowned as he looked back at the visible scars on Chase's body. How did he get those? Humdinger thought with a hint of sadness but also anger. But he can also see Chase's paw still shivering a little bit, knowing that the shepherd was still cold.

"Hey, Helga?" Humdinger softly called out and Helga glanced at him, "Can you make some homemade chicken noodle soup for him?" He asked and Helga already knew why. It's not only the fact that Chase was cold, but Arnold thought it was best to let him and Chase talk alone.

"Okay," Helga agreed and softly pulled from the hug and looked Chase in the eyes as she lightly tapped his nose with her finger, "I'll be right back." She said as she stood back up and walked to the kitchen.

But before, she looked back at the kittens and gestured to them to come and help her, to which they hesitated because they wanted to stay with Chase, but they followed.

When Helga and the kittens left the hallway, Humdinger turned back to Chase and sat down on the bed right next to the shepherd.

Humdinger placed his hand on his shoulder, feeling the texture of his scars which shocked Humdinger. This wasn't done by accident. Somebody abused this pup. And now knowing this, Arnold got angry. What kind of psycho would do such a thing? He thought to himself.

"Who did this to you?" Chase looked up and was surprised to see Humdinger angrily looking at his scars. The German Shepherd didn't expect this kind of reaction from him. But then, Arnold looked up at Chase with a sad look.

Chase sadly looked down at his scars once again, trying to avoid eye contact, giving Humdinger the message that he didn't want to answer. As much as Humdinger wanted to push to know who did this to him, pressuring him isn't the best idea.

After Humdinger calmed himself down with a couple breaths, he spoke back in his soft voice.

"Does Ryder know about this?" He asked and Chase didn't nod his head or anything, just looked at his scars. But his look answered for him.

"Really? What about the pups?"

This time, Chase softly nodded his head side-to-side. Humdinger looked down at Chase's paw and noticed that it was still shivering. But it wasn't just because of the cold.

Humdinger looked back at Chase and saw that his teeth were gritted and his eyes looked intense as a couple tears began streaming down a little bit.

Humdinger moved closer and this time, wrapped his hands around Chase and pulled him in a hug which surprised the small pup. But the warmth he felt made him feel comfortable. Humdinger then whispered in his ear.

"It's okay. You're safe now."

More tears came onto the shepherd's eyes as he rested his head on Humdingers shoulder. Arnold felt the clothing on his shoulder getting wet due to Chase finally letting out some of his tears that he's been holding for a long time.

Humdinger pulled the shepherd in closer as Chase cried a little more.

He felt...

Loved

"Hey, next time...don't hesitate to come by. I'm always happy to have you here." Arnold said and Chase couldn't help but actually smile at that sentence as he slowly nodded his head up and down.

"T-T-Thank you." Chase thanked in between tears and Humdinger smiled. Then, after the small interaction between the two, they separated from their embrace and even Humdinger had to wipe away a couple tears of his own along with Chase.

"Okay, why don't we go ahead and eat. I bet you're starving." He suggested and after wiping the last few of his tears, Chase agreed and the two slowly walked towards the kitchen.

It took for a while, but Chase found it...he found a place where he felt loved and safe. He felt protected. He finally found a place where he can truly call...

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