King's Heir (A Dadmare fic)

21

The walk to the dog breeder was a humble and quiet one, small banter casually thrown between the brothers. Some topics included training and some of the lessons that their father was giving them, it was peaceful.

When they entered town they were immediately greeted by smiling faces and the excitement of waving children who all seemed rather happy to see them. The two teens attempted to wave back each time, not minding such a happy greeting as they traveled. However, there were some... unpleasant looks as they walked through town. They hardly paid attention to them though, Error and Cross being to busy playing amongst themselves.

The tussled around the entire way to the breeder's and as they approached the fence around the home the two were immediately greeted by seven playful Eskimo puppies jumping at the fence. Each pup adorned a color of a specific color, identifying them and preventing a mix up. Error awed at the little pups, watching them jump around excitedly at the sight of visitors.

The two brother's slipped through the gate, careful of the dogs surrounding them. The puppies followed them to the door, a scruffy calico cat lazily greeting them as it rest on a window seel. It's tail swayed lazily and Cross smiled, giving the cat a gentle head scratch in return for the meow- to which the cat attempted to bite him- before he knocked on the door. It swung open and the two were immediately faced with another skeleton... er... hybrid? The top part of their body was skeleton, the bottom part was snake. This particular inhabitant was rather different from most of their population, Error recalled, he believed they came from an AU called Lamia-something. There were only two other hybrids like him and they all lived together, which Error thought was rather sweet.

The lamia's tongue flicked and Error smiled at the fact that they were being greeted by the energetic yet more ration occupant of the house. "Boys! It's good to see you!"

"It's good to see you too, Slither." Cross greeted back and Error giggled a bit at the lamia's name. "I don't think you've met Error."

Slither seemed to perk, his eyes clancing down as the puppies ran after their mother who came inside. Those slitted eyes landed on Error and he waved nervously smiling a bit in a desprate attempt to seem friendly. "Stars, it's been a while since I've seen you!"

Error paused, a little confused as Slither rushed them inside, making sure the cat was inside as well before shutting the door. "Mhm, you were so tiny then though, I doubt you remember! Coil, Vice and I babysat you once you know, I don't think you were very fond of us though."

Error flushed a bit, of course, he forgot how social his father is with the kingdom. "Well this is an unexpected turn of events." Cross gave a chuckle and nudged Error with his elbow, the younger brother flinching at the contact against his ribs. "Thank you though, it probably meant a lot to our dad."

"It was no problem!" Slither smiled, "But you're here to see the puppies, not chitchat, we can save that for later!" The lamia looked back toward the small pack of puppies tussling and playing with each other. "I'll be helping Vice fix his heater, winter isn't the best season for us lamias."

The boys nodded, watching the snake hybrid slither away to another reason before turning their attention to the puppies. The two smiled before sitting down only to be greeted by loveable balls of white fluff. Cross laughed as the puppy licked at his cheek and Error was content with letting the pups climb and play with his hands. This was, in Error's opinion, heaven. The puppies were so soft and huggable.

The younger brother couldn't help but laugh as Cross was being buried in balls of white fluff. His attention was soon directed to the cat, its eyes never leaving him and holding a look of what seemed to be curiousity as it sat, perched atop a bookshelf that stood next to a cat-tower. Error met it's eyes for a moment before quickly looking away, he knew not to look cats in the eye.

The feline let out a meow, moving to its cat-tower before making it's way to the ground. It's tail held up high and the tip barely curled, it trotted over and rubbed itself against the prince's side. Error looked to Cross who seemed way too distracted by the hoard of puppies that surrounded him. Well, Error didn't get the pet the puppies much but rather he got a cat to climb into his lap and curl up. He was a little surprised but moved to make the best out of the situation.

His hand brushed over the calico's soft fur, encouraging a small purr from the cat's throat. The feline's paws moved slowly, kneading against the young skeleton's femur which prompted a smile to form on Error's face. This went on for a while, the felidae peacefully sleeping in Error's lap as the puppies began to tire out and head to sleep themselves.

Cross couldn't help but chuckle at Error's state, "Geez, you managed to tame Jasper, huh?"

Error paused before giving his sibling a little hum, "Her name is Jasper?"

"His," Cross corrected with a small chuckle, "Jasper is a boy."

"But I thought all calico cats were female." Error pouted a bit and Cross smiled a bit.

"Well, you haven't had that talk and I am ahead of you in the science lessons so far but living creatures, excluding plants I think, have these things called chromosomes." Cross explained with a hum, thinking about what to say next. "A chromosome basically holds your DNA? Like your life code, you get that, yeah?"

Error nodded, scooting a litter closer as he listened to Cross's explanation. "There are two chromosomes that I know of, X and Y. XX would be a girl and XY would be a boy, now the chromosomes don't hold the same amount of coding and can only hold certain types of coding. For example, because female cats have two Xs then they could be tri-colored. The same thing doesn't happen for XY though."

Error nodded a long, his hand still rubbing through the cat's fur in a slow and soft movement. "So does that mean that Jasper is an XXY?"

Cross chuckled bright and patted Error's head gently, "Exactly! Just wait until you learn about genetics though, that stuff is a mess."

Error giggled softly. He was finally enjoying himself and relaxing. He didn't feel sad, instead he felt excited and interested. It was nice to have something to distract him from troubled thoughts. It was also nice to have a sweet old cat curled up in his lap.

"Like him, huh?" Error jumped at the sudden voice and turned his head to face Coil, the more calm and lazy lamia of the trio. "Sheesh, didn't mean to frighten ya kid." He laughed, slowly snaking over to get a better look at the two boys. "Ya like old Jasper?"

"I.. uh... yeah, I like him." Error mumbled, feeling a little uneasy at such a lazy and carefree tone of voice.

Coil laughed then, "You can take him home if ya want then, we've been trying to find him a place to live for a while now." Error tilted his head, confused as to why they would want to get rid of such a sweet old cat. Seriously, Jasper was such a love able cat. The lamia shook his head, "Now don't give me that look, if you were twenty-two on your ninth life would you wanna spend it in an energetic environment?"

Error looked to Cross and they shared a look before Cross smirked a bit, giving his younger brother a closed-eyed smile. "Dad did only say we weren't allowed to bring a puppy home, that's clearly not a puppy."

Error grinned and lifted Jasper out of his lap and into his arms, "Welcome to the family then, Jasper."