Page 82 of Missiletoe
VIX
“Ahhhh! Down, Trixie!” Baz did a graceful little dance as he dodged Trixie’s greedy attempt to steal snacks off the tray he’d brought. “I just got here—at least let me get my coat off first.”
Baz worked hard to remove his coat and fend Trixie off at the same time, but as agile and amazing as he was, his height ended up being his downfall. No matter how high he lifted the tray, Trixie still managed to reach the contents with her nose.
Trixie is a big girl.
Baz probably wouldn’t have noticed the loss if he hadn’t turned to see several cupcakes sitting innocently on my lap. I’d put them there after Trixie teleported them into the shadow next to me.
Baz gave a laugh and plopped down beside me on my new, super extra-large dog bed I’d bought for my napping spot in our animal shelter. I was forever on the hunt for a dog bed that would fit both me and Paris on it comfortably, but for now, I’d had to settle for me and half of Paris, or me and all of Baz.
Maybe I should just knit one.
“It must be nice to have a magic dog who can teleport things to you,” Baz said as he snatched one of the cupcakes off my lap and stuffed the whole thing in his mouth in one go after taking off its little paper cupcake panties.
Baz can pretty much fit anything into his mouth. It’s a gift. Yes, I totally mean it in a dirty way, so don’t even pretend to clutch your pearls.
I grabbed my own cupcake before Trixie could take down the rest of them. I knew they weren’t really for me. Trixie was only using me as a plate, but I loved her, so I didn’t mind. She let me use her as a pillow all the time, so it made us even.
“Why did you draw a cupcake on top of this cupcake?”
Baz scowled, “It’s not a cupcake. It’s an explosion! A manly, manly explosion.” Then he eyed my cupcake critically and added, “Maybe I should have added more bodies to make sure I got my point across.”
“Those are bodies? I thought they were lumpy sprinkles.”
“Hmph, you just lost yourself a cupcake, mister.” Baz snatched my cupcake out of my hand and stuffed it into his mouth too. That time, he forgot to take off its panties, so he got a cross-eyed expression and started choking.
I let him get on with what he needed to do in order to get back his ability to breathe and snatched up the last cupcake. Normally Trixie would have chowed down on all of the cupcakes in seconds and been on the hunt for more, but one of the cupcakes she’d grabbed had had peanut butter inside, so she was stuck mlem, mlem, mleming the peanut butter for the foreseeable future.
“Why is there red snow on this Christmas tree?”
Baz lost the fight with his cupcake and swallowed it down, panties and all. Then he took my other cupcake, shouting, “It’s a bloody dagger, you pleeb. I swear I am never baking for you again.” Then he ate my fucking cupcake, though that time he remembered to free it from its panties.
I sat there cupcake-free, because my bed was warm, and I wasn’t leaving it for anything. It was ball-shrivelingly cold outside, I didn’t have my Paris-shaped heater with me, and Baz was too small to be of any use in the warming department.
He and I can snuggle all day long, and we’ll still be popsicles. You know the kind that you can break apart and share with a friend? That’s us in the winter.
So anyway, I was contemplating asking Trixie to get me more cupcakes once her mouth was unoccupied when the back door opened and released a gust of freezing air.
“Why is Vale stuck inside the blow-up snow globe by the front door?” Apple asked, ducking smoothly as he and Adam entered through the back door. A gust of cold air and snow billowed in with them and I shivered.
Like Baz, Apple was also holding a tray, but since he was on Adam’s shoulders, Trixie couldn’t reach it through normal doggy means.
If she wanted the little crunchy rolled-up hotdog thingies he had on there, she’d either have to teleport onto Adam’s shoulders or be a good girl and wait until Apple put them down. And since Adam’s shoulders were occupied, she was going to have to choose the good girl option.
Too bad the good girl option meant I wasn’t getting snacks unless someone took pity on me.
“Paris wouldn’t let me use lethal force for my security measures for the shelter, so I had to get creative,” I responded. “Can I have one of those?”
“Sure!” Apple responded merrily. “All you have to do is get off your lazy butt and grab one.” He took a hotdog thingy and put it in Adam’s mouth. Adam made a noise of happy surprise and then snarfed the snack down.
Adam is a simple guy. If he has Apple and plenty of snacks, he’s happy.
We should all be so lucky.
“Are you going to set Vale free at some point?” Apple asked.
I shrugged a shoulder. “I’m sure he’ll make it out on his own eventually.” Nothing was getting me out of my almost-warm pet bed, especially since Apple and Adam had allowed winter to join us inside.
