Angel and Jennie

[x-firestar.livejournal.com]

Angel finally gets to see Jennie and manages to put her foot a little in her mouth. But she's learning.



Angel screwed up her face as she hunched over her math homework, a pencil clamped firmly between her teeth. She was normally a fairly decent student - a lot of B's, one or two in either direction - but she was really having to work lately. Part and parcel of her internship was she had to keep her grades up. It was okay to slip up but slacking was totally not okay.

She'd taken over a quiet corner of the porch outside because not many people ventured outdoors for very long in the winter. Nodding to herself, she scribbled an answer on the paper and glanced up, blinking as she spotted movement. It was a fairly big - bigger than Buddy, anyway - dog and Angel straightened. She'd heard what was going on, after all.

"Hey...Jennie?" she called out, craning her neck to take in her friends new, uh, form.

The dog froze and it's ears pricked. Jennie's eyesight was still not the greatest, but the voice was Angel, and Angel for some reason smelled a lot like burning marshmallows, and red bull. Jennie's tail wagged in spite of herself and her head tilted in a clear indication of "Hmmm?"

Slacking wasn't slacking if it was because of checking out a friend who'd turned into a dog, Angel decreed, and scrambled to her feet to go over to Jennie was. She couldn't help it, she giggled a little and crouched down. "Dude, this has got to stink but at least you turned into a handsome dog instead of one of those vibrating rat dog things."

The dog snorted at being called handsome. Handsome was never used to describe Jennie. Jennie had never really considered herself very pretty. She could be hot, yes, but handsome? She looked imperiously at Angel.

Angel blinked back and then giggled, clapping a hand over her mouth. The entire situation wasn't really funny…but it was at the same time. "Sorry," she apologized after a moment, trying to school her features. It was kind of hard. "…dude, I should totally ask you once this is done if you can understand what other dogs are saying. Are they all just saying "hey" over and over again?" She started patting around in her pockets, pulling out bags of snacks and food from seemingly nowhere.

Jennie shook her head. She was still a person and such couldn't understand dogs. And the other dogs she had encountered in New York had seemed to sense the same and stayed away from her. Probably confused the hell out of them or something. Jennie stood and stretched the unfamiliar muscles in her back. The whole situation was weird, like wearing ill-fitting clothes and being unable to take them off.

Angel sulked slightly at the head shake. "That's sad, actually. It's like none of the benefits but all of the bad things." After pawing through cookies, candy and a health bar, Angel suddenly produced a thing of beef jerky. "To make up for the giggling," she said, grinning. "I figure that you're still you and like what you like? But uh, dog stomach and all that. The last time Buddy got into my candy supply, dad had to take him to the vet for a week. And then he had to wear one of those cone things." He hadn't been able to go through doors very well and it really shouldn't have been all that funny. But it had been.

Even though Angel couldn't see it, Jennie was blushing. If dogs could blush. She shook her head slowly.

No offense hon. But, uh, no...

She got it pretty quickly or at least the no part. "Whoops?" she said, deciding to chew on it herself. "Um, you'll totally tell me post-dog state if I did a bad thing just there, right? Because I really am trying to stick to that think first, act later and tact thing we were talking about in Japan." Corrections of that kind didn't make her feel uncomfortable any more. It was a resolution after Japan. And also because she'd rather she messed up in front of Jennie or someone at the mansion than the station.

The dog made a noise that sounded like "it's okay," and bumped Angel's hand with her nose. The other girl had been getting better, Plus, Jennie felt it was an honest mistake. At least Angel hadn't gone "Lookit the puppy! Whose a widdle puppy!" like a couple of the other mansion residents.

Angel giggled at the gesture and then propped her hand on her chin. "So, honestly, how bored are you in that form?" she asked.

Jennie shook herself. Actually, she was far from bored. There was a host of new smells to incorporate, for one thing. Running was another unusual, and not entirely unfun experience.

Plus, she was also suffering from canine ADD.

There was a moment when Angel looked like she was going to say something, thought about it and then decided not to. The joke about "But Jennie ate my homework" wasn't really that funny and totally tactless. Though she might be amused by the train of thought once she was, well, undog-ed. "Bet you're glad we don't have any kid bits around," she commented, scooping up the snacks and shoving them in her pockets where they belonged. It was like a 7-11 had taken up residence in there. "My younger cousins were awful to dogs." She glanced back at her homework and wrinkled her nose. "Wanna keep me company while I finish up?"

Jennie shrugged. She had nothing better to do. Or at least until she got bored.