The Ereri Project!

Puppy (Werewolf)

Levi was surprised to find a sleeping dog on his front porch when he got home from work that night.

After an exhausting, irritating workweek he was ready to kick the dog out of this way and tell it to go.

Until he realized it was a puppy, not just a small dog, and it was injured. And there's supposed to be a blizzard tonight.

He sighs, annoyed at himself for caring, and picks it up before unlocking his door and going inside. He grabs a spare blanket to lay on his couch before resting the dog on it.

He thinks for a moment that it actually looks kind of like a wolf but he just chalks it up to the breed looking similar and goes to change out of his scrubs.

He walks back out to find the puppy isn't on the couch anymore, but limping toward the door. "Hey," he says. The puppy freezes and looks back at him.

"You're hurt," he says. "And it's snowing, I'll let you go in the morning after I look at that cut on your leg and feed you."

He's not sure if the canine can understand, but it seems to, limping back over to the couch and unable to get back up on his bad leg.

Levi lifts it back up, reminding himself to eventually check if it's a boy or girl.

It's probably just the injury on its leg but he's never seen a puppy this low energy, almost like it's upset over something.

Levi examines the cut and gets a growl from the pup when he accidently touching it. "Oh, you do make noise," Levi says. "Hold on, I think I have some disinfectant and gauze in the closet."

He blames it on being a nurse, but he has a rather large and full stocked first-aid kit in every closet of the house. Even if it is usually only him here.

He sits back down and dabs disinfectant on the puppy's cut, even despite the quiet growling. He's pretty sure it won't bite him or it would've already.

He wraps some gauze around it, loosely so it won't restrict movement, and goes to put the first-aid kit away again.

The puppy stays on the couch, just lying there sadly. Levi sits on the floor in front of it and pets it. "I dunno what you've been through tonight," Levi says, though he's not sure if it's even comforting.

"But you're safe now, we're the only one's here."

With that, the puppy closes it eyes and Levi tries to find something to eat.

His small kitchen has next to nothing of nutritional value (he's usually eats in the hospital cafeteria because it's convenient so it's easy for him to forget to buy groceries).

Luckily he at least has some lunchmeat still within the sell-by he can give the dog to eat, but what for himself?

There's a frozen dinner in he thinks he's had since he moved in, a box of Kraft mac n cheese he doesn't feel like making, some milk, a couple eggs, some ice cream, some frozen uncooked chicken, some frozen vegetables, and some leftover salad from yesterday's lunch.

He grabs the salad and a fork and goes to eat on the couch. There's never anything good on TV this late so he puts on some dumb cartoon channel and the puppy's ears perk up.

He lifts his head and starts watching the TV. Levi cocks an eyebrow. Do dogs watch TV? Is that a thing?

Especially because this puppy appears to be a stray what with its lack of a collar and tags, Levi is confused.

He almost changes the channel but the puppy makes a noise that almost sounds like a laugh so he gets curious and leaves it on.

The puppy wags it tail when the opening music for the next episode comes of and Levi can't help but smile at how cute that it.

"Hey," Levi says, putting down his now empty salad container. "You want something to eat now?"

The puppy lets out a quiet yip so Levi goes to get the lunchmeat.

The puppy sniffs the bologna like he's confused by it for a moment but when he takes a tentative bite his eyes seem to light up and he happily eats the rest of the slice.

Levi feeds it the rest of the pack while petting it.

By now Levi realizes it's midnight and he's been up since around four-thirty. He gets up again and stretches, switching off the TV.

The puppy looks sad but Levi doesn't want to leave the TV on all night just for a dog. He pets it once quickly before walking to bed.

He's about to turn his lap on when he sees the puppy sitting in the doorway, whimpering quietly. Levi sighs and pulls the blanket back again. "C'mere," he says.

The puppy wags its tail and runs over, getting comfy on the bed beside Levi. Levi ends up petting it until he falls asleep.

...

Levi wakes up to the sound of running and howling.

But not from a dog.

Oh no, he thinks.

He peeks an eye open to see a little boy rolling on the floor grabbing at his tail.

There are dog-like ears on top of his head poking out from messy chestnut hair. Levi's eye twitches.

Where did the puppy go? And where did this child come from?

Somewhere in the back of his mind he already knows, even before he notices the bandage on the child's arm where the puppy's cut had been.

He sits up and clutches his head like he has a headache.

There's a gasp and the side of his bed dips and the child jumps up, he makes himself comfortable lying across Levi's lap.

"Good morning, master!" he says excitedly. "My mummy called me Eren but she said when a human took me in they should pick my name! What do you want to call me?"

Levi stares at the small, naked child on his lap, already exhausted at the prospect of taking care of him but knowing he can't just kick him out now.

He sighs and pets the child between his ears (Levi notices that his hair is covering where human ears would be and he doesn't want to know if they're there or not) and smiles as gently as he can.

"Eren is fine," he says.

Eren wags his tail happily. "Thank you, master."