#hard to have sympathy when the owner clearly knew the risks of letting their cats out

[how2skinatiger]

While there are certainly issues with the game shooting industry in the UK, this is a clear case of keep your cat indoors, especially when you’ve already had multiple cats die the same way.

[currently-in-fanfiction-hell]

Days at the Hunter Base, CHAPTER 4: Finding Shelter (Originally from my Quotev account)

"Please, Alia! Can we keep it?" X was basically on his knees and begging at this point, holding the little Beagle puppy he'd found in a box on the street with his hands.

"Correction, X, can you keep it?" Zero rubbed his hands against his face, clearly tired of dealing with this, "Besides, I'm allergic to dogs, remember?"

"You just put up that front after what happened with the Golden Retriever! And besides, we're Reploids, we can't have allergies!" X snapped.

"For the seventh time, X, we can't adopt it, no matter how cute it is." Alia said, trying to keep her calm.

"But- I promise to take good care of it! And it needs a home, what kind of person-or Reploid, do you have to be to abandon a puppy and leave it in a box?!" He shivered, looking back at the moment when he found the Beagle in an alley, all cold and wet, staring at him with its big, wide eyes.

"Riiiiight, you said it yourself, X, remember the last time you tried to keep a pet?" Zero said, half-grumbling and half-smiling, remembering the Golden Retriever X had picked up that day, while everyone still couldn't remember how X had convinced them to let him keep the puppy, but what came afterwards was a complete disaster, who would've thought that a cute, little puppy could be so...destructive?

It started off fine, the puppy was very obedient, barely caused a ruckus...then after two weeks...

The entire Hunter Base turned into a destructive whirlpool, the puppy started toppling things over, chewing on everything there was in the base, and scratching Reploids every chance it got (It had a strange attraction to Zero's helmet in particular.)

Even then, X insisted on keeping it.

Even with X's (and everyone else's) efforts to take care and tame the little troublemaker, things just got worse, furniture was constantly being destroyed and replaced, janitors were forced to work overtime, and in some cases, some unfortunate Reploids were sent to the infirmary.

Eventually, Commander Signas had enough of all the madness, and sternly told X to take the beast to an adoption center, told, no was not an option.

Hesitantly, X brought the puppy to the adoption center the very next day, Zero could vividly remember X trying to hold back tears, while X knew that it was the right thing to do, he couldn't help but feel a little sad.

 While Zero was relieved that the little beast was gone (that meant his helmet was safe) He still tried his best to comfort X.

"It's not like it'll be abandoned a second time, X." Zero said, trying to show as much sympathy as possible, "I'm sure that they'll take good care of the puppy until they find someone who's willing to adopt it, maybe they'll even be able to tame it." He half-joked, while he was just saying this to cheer X up, he sincerely hoped that they'd be able to tame it, so that when it eventually got adopted, the new owners wouldn't have that much of a...problem compared to them.

"You're right." X smiled, wiping a tear from his eye before it could come out, "I just hope that it's new owners will be able to take care of it better than the entire HQ could." He laughed a little, Zero was glad that he managed to lift up X's spirits.

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"Well, that was over a year ago!" X argued.

"X, we can't risk it," Alia tried to reason with him, "Besides, there's a chance that the cycle might repeat itself." She said.

"Alia makes a good point." Zero said, "I don't want to see you get all emotional again if Signas asks you to take it to the adoption center." He smirked.

X sighed, "Alright, I suppose you two are right..." He looked at the little Beagle, "It's just... The thought of this puppy being abandoned by its owners is really saddening, and I don't want it to go through it again."

"Think of it this way, X," Alia said, "If you take it to the adoption center sooner, the faster it'll find a better owner!" She smiled.

"And the sooner you send it to the adoption center, the less attached you'll be to it, meaning that it'll be less painful to say goodbye." Part of him wanted to add, "And plus, it'd make the lives of everyone here at HQ a whole lot easier." But he decided that it was enough coming from him.

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Sometime later, X and Zero headed for the adoption center, upon arriving at the door X looked at the puppy, cuddling in his arms, he petted it on the head and quietly said, "I hope you'll get to live in a good home."

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Shortly afterwards, they stepped out of the adoption center, thankfully, this time X had no tears to hold back.

"You know, Zero..."

"Hm? What is it, X?"

"When we can finally get rid of Mavericks once and for all, don't you think it'd be a good idea to get a pet? I've always wanted one."

"...No thanks, the Golden Retriever was more than enough."

They both laughed as they continued walking back to Hunter Base.

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(Author's Notes): I gotta admit, I didn't exactly like this chapter, I mean, I wanted to write a fic about X adopting a wild dog, but coming from a person who never had any pets (unless you count the two turtles and two goldfish), this was hard to write.

This chapter may not be my favorite, but I was desperate to get an X chapter out, heheh.

P.S: The retriever was based off of my cousin's dog, That thing is a little tornado of it's own! The barking, the torn bedsheets and sofas, the scratches on my knee... Ironically, she's a Beagle! Made me wonder if I should've reversed the dogs' roles...

And the joke about the dog's attraction to Zero's helmet was based off of.... well, his helmet, more specifically, when you look at it from the back, they look a little like cat ears to me, so that was a "cats and dogs" thing, if you will.