[Sweet Pea] Imagines & Short Stories

Dogs.

You had just gotten your new apartment on the ground floor of th building, so you were blessed with the small garden you'd always wanted for your dog, Pepper. Your neighbor had a dog as well, you heard it bark at ungodly hours, causing your lovely lady to join as well and keeping you up all night.
You never met your neighbor, you knew it was a guy because you heard his voice, but you had never seen him before. You also knew he owned a motorcycle, that was another thing that woke you up at ungodly hours. What was this guy doing out so goddamn late? Not that it was any of your business.
You knew all kinds of random facts about the guy living next to you from what you picked up over the time you had lived there.

Which was two weeks as of today. Your neighbor wasn't home again, his motorcycle wasn't parked on its usual spot. You always took a moment to admire it when you went on walks with Pepper.
Walking back into your living room, you saw something in your garden and Pepper was barking at it as well already. When you got closer you saw it was a large black dog. "How did you get in here?" You asked out loud, with Pepper still barking at your side. Once she wiggled herself past you and through the small opening between the back door and its frame the other dog started barking back and you immediately recognized it as the dog from next door.
Since your neighbor wasn't home you decided to give it some food and water and let it stay at your place until he got back and explain what happened.

Lucky for you the two dogs got along pretty well, but it had gotten awfully late and you didn't want to go to sleep before the guy next door got back so you could return his dog.
By now it was 4am and you really needed sleep, so you got up and wrote a note, telling the guy his dog was at your place and it was fed and safe. At least then he wouldn't have to worry.
You put the note in his mailbox and went back inside and into bed immediately.

For once you slept through the entire night without begin woken up by barking dogs. You thought about offering the guy to watch his dog whenever he was out for the night so you could have some actual sleep.
Both dogs were still sleeping as well. Yours on her pillow and his on your couch.
After making yourself some coffee you checked your mail and found a small note.
Hey,
I'll pick up Hades (the dog) after work
Thanks for keeping him safe!
Send me a text so I can let you know what time I'll be there.
His phone number was scribbled on the bottom and it was sighed with 'the neighbor'

You quickly texted him a simple 'hey this is your neighbor' and got to work. You were glad he would let you know before he'd be visiting so you could make sure Pepper was outside, she never got along with other people that entered your house, although she seemed to have no problem with other dogs.
Most of your day was spent doing work around the house and finishing up a work assignment. Working from home had been great for you. That way you still had time to do everything else around the house without losing time with traveling, and you could walk your dog during the day instead of only early in the morning and after you got home again.

You were rummaging around in your kitchen, cooking and cleaning and paying no attention to your phone at all so your doorbell ringing came totally unexpected. Both dogs started barking at the loud noise and you did your best to quiet then down before opening your door but sadly there was no way of shutting them up and you had to welcome your guest into your annoyingly noisy home.

You opened your door only to find a very handsome guy in a leather jacket and oil smudged jeans. "Hi. I'm the neighbor, I'm picking up my dog." He said after a moment, you now realized you had been staring and felt bad immediately. "Yeah, hey. Come in." You stepped out of the way and let him in, walking after him as he found his way to the living room where he got jumped by Hades the second he saw him. "Hey boy, yes I missed you too." He happily spoke as he sat down, hugging his dog. Pepper also got close tot he new guy in your living room and you could only stand and watch in awe of how well she behaved around him, letting him pet her and being a super sweet dog. Normally she'd try to attack anyone who'd get to close to her or at least growl and bark.

"She's really pretty." He stated as he got up from the floor and walked over to you. "I'm Sweet Pea, by the way." He held out his hand, which you took as you introduced yourself to him as well. You turned to the dogs playing together and smiled. "They really like each other." You stated, walking back to the kitchen where your food was cooling down quickly as you sighed at how you forgot about it so easily.
"I could order some food if you want?" Sweet Pea offered, appearing behind you without a warning and slightly scaring you in the process. "Oh, no you don't have to!" You assured him, there was noway you were gonna let him pay for food when you only just met.
"come on. I wanna thank you for taking care of Hades. Look how happy he is, that deserves a thank you." He looked really pleased with how his dog was doing and his genuine loving smile made you feel things you hadn't felt in a long time. "Alright, fine. But this is a one time deal, okay?"

The two of you agreed on ordering pizza and while you waited you took your time to get to know each other more. You learned that he opened up his own car garage and still had other jobs on the side as well which explained why he was gone so long all the time. "Hey, if you think it's okay I could watch Hades more often? I work from home so it's no extra work for me." You really didn't mind having another dog in your house and to be fair, you loved the idea of being able to sleep at night, but before Sweet Pea had a chance to answer the doorbell rang, telling you your food arrived. You didn't know the place Sweet Pea offered to order from but you now knew thst it was thr place had a new customer. "Wow these are really good." You said with your mouth still full of food, getting a laugh from the boy who pulled a piece of meat off his pizza and fed it to his dog. "They might not be the fastest pizza place, but it's really worth the wait." He agreed, taking another bite of his pizza. "You offered to watch Hades more often before the pizza guy arrived, right?" You nodded yes. "If you really want to that'd be great. I'm gone a lot now I got my own garage and all." He felt bad for bot being able to make time to take care of his dog anymore and this seemed like a great option.

After you agreed on the dogsitting situation and finished your food, Sweet Pea took Hades home again after wishing you a good night and thanking you once more.

You had been watching Hades on and off for a month or two now, sometimes having him stay for the night or even multiple days depending on how busy Sweet Pea was and this week he had a week off so Hades would be home as well.
It was a week of barking through the night and no sleep for you at all.
You noticed Pepper's behaviour being different than usual, she acted strange so you took her to the vet and got some surprising news.

You got back home and went to see Sweet Pea to let him know what you found out. You weren't sure how to tell him so your best choice was to just say it as it was without trying to make a story about it.
"Hey, I think your dog got my dog pregnant." You simple said as he answered the door. He stood there, not knowing how to respond and put his head in his hands. "Really? Shit, what are you planning to do?" He wondered as he offered you to come inside.
You had never seen his place before. He had been at your place a couple of times to have pizza or take-out together when he didn't have enough time to cook and shower between jobs.
His place looked a lot cleaner than you'd expected since whenever you saw him he was covered in oil stains and from your experience with other mechanics' homes like your uncle's or your dad's friends' places that were always a mess of spare parts and uncleaned.
Looking around you took everything in, it looked so nice. Old school, but nice. And Hades' corner of the room was amazing. It aas near the heater, there were pillows and toys for an antire pack of dogs, it even had an automatic feeder and the back door had a huge doggy door so he could go outside.
"Why don't you sit down, make yourself at home." He spoke offering you a can of soda. "It's all I have at the moment. Didn't have time for groceries yet." He apologised and sat down next to you.
You two discussed what you were gonna about the whole dogs situation and eventually agreed on sharing all the costs and check with friends if anyone was interested in buying a pup and else they'd go the a shelter that was willing to take them since more than two grown dogs was a little too much for you to take care of.
After a while the conversation had turned into joking around about everything and nothing. "You know," he started out of the blue. "I'm actually kind of jealous of Hades." You looked at him in confusion and raised an eyebrow, asking for an explaination. "Well, he got to sleep with the cute girl next door." He admitted. Almost causing you to spit out your drink. "I'm sorry, what?" You said laughing and coughing.
"What? Too soon?" He asked still laughing at your reaction.
You let out an amused sigh and moved closer to him, resting your head on his shoulder. "If you really wanted to, you should have just asked."