fandomtownies | Furnado Animal Shelter; Friday [02/15].

If anyone needed Prompto at the shelter that day, they would find him laid out in the puppy pen. Yes, this was usually where anyone who needed Prompto at the shelter would find him on any given shift, but this was different. This was not the usual puppy pile, not by a long shot.

This was a sad, depressed, pathetic, desperate puppy pile befitting an ultimate idiot loser such as himself.

"You gotta pile harder, pups," he told them. "Just crush me to death with your weight. It's a far better ending that I deserve."

Nope. He still wasn't over the fact that he'd gone and sent Yang flowers and forgot to include a note. He's spent so much time obsessing and flailing and worrying about what to put on that note, too. He'd written about five hundred possible notes. And was so caught up in the distressing possibilities of what to even put in a note like that, that he'd totally blue-screened and didn't include any of them.

And then she'd gotten him a flower, one that did have a note, a note that he then started obsessing over instead to the point where, even if he'd had a text message all ready to go on his phone about a million times, he deleted it over and over and over.

Thinking about it now, under a pile of puppies, he let out a miserable little groan over how hopeless and pathetic he was, but then he looked up at the face of the puppy sitting on his chest and lifted his hand to start scratching behind his ears. "If you get hungry, buddy," he said. "Just eat my face. The world will be better for it. I'm a lost cause, boyo. I'm hopeless. I'm pitiful." But that face! Prompto's voice started to go a little mushy as his scritching turned into cute puppy face squishing. "Who's just a sad sack of crap who fails at life, huh? Ish it me? Ish it me? Yeah, it's meeee. Yesh, yesh, yesh. But who's a good boy? Ish it you? Ish it? It iiisssss. Such a good, good boy, yesh you are! The best of boys."

And, despite all that, he had to chuckle a little, especially as the puppy gave him a little encouraging lick on the face, and he settled into petting him, and sighing a little, but he was grateful. Puppies really did make everything better.

Furnado is open!

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So, Yang had a preeeeeeeeeeetty good idea who those mystery flowers were from. Unless she was totally wrong, in which case, she'd probably made a fool of herself.

In which case, it was probably best to rip off the bandaid and hope she could salvage their friendship from her idiocy.

So it was with a rose stuck in her hair and juggling a pair of tennis balls that she walked into Furnado, figuring at the very least, she'd get to play with some Good Dogs. "Hey, Cowboy, you around?"

Oh....shit.

Prompto almost just shouted out "No." He almost informed Yang that there were definitely no cowboys here, just sad sack losers not even worth her time. But he mostly just laid still in a mild panic, thinking that, maybe, if he just didn't move or breathe, he could manage to stay hidden under the pups. After all, if he could pull off being invisible when he was twice the size he was now, it should be a cinch doing it now...

Of course, it would be a little more difficult when the dog he'd been petting heard the voice, stood up on Prompto's chest, and let out a cheerful bark of acknowledgement. "Traitor!" Prompto gasped, struck by the betrayal. "And I called you the best of boys!"

...awww, who was he kidding? He couldn't be mad at that face. He was still the best of boys, and Prompto sighed and sat up, holding the dog close for snuggles as he called out, "M'over by the puppies, Yang!"

And then he held up the traitor and looked him in that cute puppy face and whispered, "If you're going to put me out of my misery, bud, you better get moving."

He replied by licking Prompto's face again. "Well, that works, too."

If he'd stayed quiet, she would have taken that as her cue to slink back to the dorms and spend the weekend feeling like a damn idiot.

"I shoulda guessed," she laughed, heading towards the puppy area. "Think there's anyone here who wants to play catch with me?"

Well, it definitely didn't sound like she hated him for being a total flake, so that was a good thing, right? "Only just about every single one of them," Prompto answered, wondering if he should get up or something, but, see, there were these puppies...

And he wondered if maybe he should say something more, but it seemed he was still plague with a severe case of a bluescreened brain. The best thing he could come up with was weak little "Hey, Yang," looking up at her apologetically with half his face still hidden in the fur of the very good traitor boy.

Oh Prompto, the lack of energy and hiding like that was an instant trigger to kick Yang's 'Caretaker Mode' into high alert. She couldn't help it; it was ingrained into her after over a decade of being the only Adult in the Xiao Long/Rose/Branwen household.

"You feeling okay?" she asked, frowning slightly as she crouched down next to him. "I can handle these guys for a bit if you need to go lay down somewhere."

And if that didn't just kick off Prompto knowing fuck-all about dealing with someone wanting to care for him. So he just lifted his head enough to offer Yang a crooked smile. "Nahhhh, I'm fine," he said. "But I wouldn't mind the company if you're not too busy."

The company? So he could just sit there and be tortured with everything that'd completely blown to smithereens? Yes. It would be good for him; maybe he might even learn something from it.

...but he couldn't have blown it too bad if she was here, right? Maybe he'd only blasted off a limb instead of just a killshot right to the chest. Maybe it was a good thing he'd messed up the note on his flowers for her; maybe she thought they were from someone else (who else would be sending her anonymous flowers, though? Not that he didn't imagine anyone else would, he'd honestly be surprised that more people didn't, but it would be nice to know what he was working against, here). Maybe the thought that they were from him wasn't even on her radar...

...but it wasn't so much about the flowers he'd sent, now, was it?

Prompto closed his eyes and tilted back his head a little, everything inside swirling so much that he'd nearly forgotten Yang was there. Definitely forgot to try to dig through all that to dredge up at least some attempt to deflect the conversation as far away from himself as possible.

"Prompto." Yang set down the tennis balls and immediate reached out to check his temperature and pulse.

...was it bad she was hoping he was actually sick, and not trying to find a way to let her down easy now that she'd put him on the spot by showing up at his place of work? Fuck.

Yes, she was mentally kicking herself, even as she gently reached out to check on him. Good job, Xiao Long. You fucked up again by being too impulsive.

Would it make Yang feel any better to discover that Prompto's face, at least, was burning up a little? Sure, it was just from the usual red beacon on embarrassment that was his face, but there was at least that.

And was a little too suprirised (and his hands a little too full of puppy) to really fend her off in time, though he did pull away a little when he realized what she was doing. "Yang, I'm fine!" he insisted, trying to throw a laugh in there as if to prove it. "Really. I swear. I just..."

Need a moment to figure out how to explain without making things worse.

...no, that'd need way longer than a moment. Catching his lower lip between his teeth for a moment, he shook his head. "Actually..."

No, that was garbage, too.

"Never mind."

Well, like that wasn't ominous at all.

"You sure you want my company, or do you want me to go?" she asked bluntly, though not accusatory, shifting her weight to the balls of her feet so she could be up and gone if needed. "'Cause you don't seem 'fine,' and I feel like I'm making it worse."

"Noooo," Prompto said, and it came out as way more of a whine than he would have ever wanted, and he winced a little hearing himself. He grunted faintly with the sigh that followed. "You're not....I mean, it's not...You're not making it worse."

And that, at least, was very true, because he did a fine job of making it worse all on his own. And he didn't think this could go any worse, anyway, since she looked just about ready to hightail it out of here, and then where would be be? So he better at least try or else it was definitely over, there, buddy.

"I do want your company; I always like your company, Yang. It's not...it's not you, it's me. I...I'm just...really, really....bad at this..."

Understatement of the year, ladies and gents.

He looked at her a moment, hoping he didn't look as pathetic as he felt, but fat chance of that. He shook his head, looked away, tilted his head back.

"Because I have no idea what I'm doing, either. Probably even less. I mean, I even messed up the note for your flowers..."

Furnado Animal Shelter; Friday [02/15].

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