dog sitters // C.H. (on hiatus)

(two) miss too little clothes

The sun has just risen and Calum is still awake, sat at his desk with a stack of manuscripts. Being a freelance copy editor, Calum is used to sleeping at odd hours of the day; it's not like he had to report to an office every single day. His daily alarm sounds, setting his oldest dog, Darcy, in a barking frenzy. Roman follows suit, his barks startling Egypt, Jackson and Lady; Calum's other three dogs.

Suddenly, all five dogs are all barking at the same damn time. This is a daily routine; Calum is used to it. Every morning when his alarm rings, all of his dogs will bark along with the alarm, as if they think the alarm clock alone is not enough to ensure Calum wakes up on time.

He strolls into his room and switches off the alarm and sits on his bed, all of his dogs jumping onto his bed and pouncing on him, licking him and begging to be scratched and patted. "Alright, alright, calm down, you guys! Who wants to go for a walk?"

All five dogs freeze, their heads tilting when they hear Calum say 'walk'. If there is anything Calum's dogs love more than they love their master, it is walks. They absolutely enjoy going on walks with Calum and because of the number of dogs he owns, Calum is known as Calum Milan around the neighbourhood; which makes him happy because Caesar Milan is pretty much his hero.

"Stay here," he instructs his tail-wagging dogs sternly and walks to the closet to grab each of them a sweater and their leashes. He quickly dresses them and leashes them up and all five of them scramble to the door, patiently waiting for Calum as he slips into a coat and his walking shoes on top of his blue sweater and grey sweat pants. "You ready?" He asks, holding their leashes in one hand as he locks the door to his apartment. They all take the elevator down from Calum's seventh storey apartment to the first storey, and exit the building into the street and embark on their walk, Calum greeting the security guy, "good morning, Walter!" as he passes him.

To everyone else, it looked like a tough feat, walking five dogs of different sizes. But Calum has had so much practice that it's the easiest thing ever to him.

Midway through their usual route that consist of nothing much other than plants, buildings, more plants, cyclists and a few more apartment buildings, Calum and his dogs stop by a Starbucks for his usual shot of coffee that would help him to finish editing this manuscript he was currently reading. He ties his dogs' leashes to a lamppost nearby, instructing them to sit there quietly and that he would be back in less than a minute. A few seconds after he disappears into the store, a girl jogs by the tame dogs, and backtracks when she notices five dogs sitting on the sidewalk outside Starbucks.

"Oh, you poor little things!" she cries as she works on removing the leashes from the lamppost. Calum's dogs jump at her playfully, not understanding why they were being untied but happy anyways because Calum taught them that they should be friendly to anyone who comes near them. "Are you cold? Don't worry, I'll take you home and I'll keep you warm and feed you, okay?" she says, kneeling on the floor and petting the enthusiastic dogs.

Just as she is about to walk away with the dogs, Calum appears with a cup of coffee in his hands and is confused when he sees his dogs untied and with some random girl in nothing but a hot pink sports bra and a matching pair of hot pink shorts that did not even reach her mid-thigh.

"Excuse me, miss too little clothes, where the hell do you think you're taking my dogs?" Calum questioned, startling the girl and stopping her in her tracks. She turns around to face Calum and the fact that she has the prettiest blue eyes he has ever seen in his entire life angers him even more. First of all, how dare she have such pretty eyes when he's stuck with boring brown and second of all, what on earth is she thinking she's doing with his dogs!

"Oh, so you're the asshole who left five dogs outside in the cold?" the girl snaps back, annoyed. "It's not that cold! Plus, they're wearing sweaters - wool sweaters at that - can't you see?" Calum argues, almost dropping his coffee on the ground when his dogs start jumping and barking at him. "And if it's really as cold as you say then how come you're okay?" Calum asks, referring to her attire. "That's because I'm working out, you asshat!" she screams, agitated that this random guy she met had an issue with her attire. "Whatever you say! Just give me back my dogs!" Calum roughly tugs the leashes from the girl's hands, making her wince from the pain. Even though he does not want to, he mutters an apology as she rubs her wrist. "Whatever, douche. Don't let me see you treat your dogs like this again or I swear I'll report you for animal abuse!"

"Stop jumping to conclusions! I'm the nicest person ever to my dogs and if they could talk, they'd tell you!" Calum considers accidentally pouring his coffee all over this annoying girl's body, but decides not to since he doesn't want to waste his money. Or scald that girl. Dammit! Why did he have to be so weak! "Right! And by the way, I'll walk around naked if I want to, so keep your comments about how 'little' clothing I have to your fucking self, because I do not care!" She stomps off, finally leaving Calum alone with his dogs. "What a bitch, huh," he says, earning a bark from Lady. "Oh, you're not a bitch, baby girl! That girl who tried to steal you, she's the bitch!"

After taking a quick sip of his coffee, Calum and his dogs begin the walk home, with Lady leading the pack. Lady suffers from Small Dog Syndrome. She's the tiniest of Calum's dogs, a little Jack Russell and Chihuahua crossbreed, but for some unknown reason, she has assumed herself as the leader of Calum's pack; which includes Calum as well. The other dogs and Calum were fine with it, though.

Within twenty minutes and thanks to his rushing dogs, Calum is in the elevator, riding up to his apartment. When the elevator door opens, he is greeted by not the sweetest surprise one would like, sat at his doorstep.

Michael.

And no, he is not alone. He is there with a large suitcase and a few trash bags.

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A/N: ok I have a few things to address:

1. I am so so so so sorry that I've taken forever to update this! You do not understand how sorry I am!!

2. All of a sudden I have almost 300 reads on this fic and there's only 1 chapter? I definitely did not cry when I found out.

3. This is most likely going to be a double update, I hope!

4. Thank you so much for reading, I appreciate it so much!!! Please vote and comment I'll love u for like ever, and ever and eternity and infinity :-)

5. Oh and watch out for that lady who almost stole Calum's dogs....I don't like her already

6. PLEASE VOTE PLEASE VOTE pls I'm just a poor lil girl