Crappy title I know, but I just can't resist a rhyme. This chapter takes place at the same time as the previous chapter.

“We’ll be back in a few hours.” Baekhyun mumbled something incoherently and barely nodded his head as he registered his owner’s words.

“He can’t even hear you. Beef sleeps like a rock.” Tao whined, a large pout on his face.

“Just let him rest.” Kris smiled. Honestly, he didn’t want to wake Chanyeol and Baekhyun when he planned on leaving out for the vet with Chen and Tao. They had to leave super early for their appointment, scheduled intentionally by Kris to avoid as many other humans as possible. Chanyeol and Baekhyun had known for weeks about the appointment and how early the others had to leave, and had in fact reminded them about it right before bed. Which is mainly why Kris didn’t see any point in waking them up.

But of course Chanyeol would never let Kris leave the house without kissing him goodbye and wishing him and the others a safe trip. He actually woke up a bit before Kris to be sure that he wouldn’t miss them leaving. Kris insisted that Chanyeol remain in the bed and not follow them out to the car though. The pup deserved that much.

“I’ll make sure Baekhyun calls you later Taozi.” Chanyeol said, the kitten’s hand. But Tao pulled his hand out of Chanyeol’s.

“Don’t bother. I don’t want to talk to him.” Tao whined again.

“Tao, don’t be like that.” Kris said, gently but still with a serious tone.

“It’s fine hyung.” Chanyeol said with a smile. He wasn’t offended by Tao’s actions. He understood how the boy was feeling. The poor kitty was just upset that his favorite hyung didn’t wake up to tell him goodbye before his big, scary vet trip. Chen patted the kitten’s back. He and the others knew that he didn’t mean any harm.

“We’ll let him sleep now, but then get out revenge once we get back.” Chen said with a wink. Tao nodded. He was still upset, but tried not to show it.

“We have to get going now.” Kris whispered. He leaned down and placed a kiss on Chanyeol and Baekhyun’s foreheads. Chanyeol blushed as his tail thumped wildly under the sheets. A small smile spread formed on Baekhyun’s lips. Tao stuck his bottom lip out and pointed at his forehead, wanting a kiss as well.

“Yah, why are you begging for a kiss? We’re all going to be together.” Chen asked, rolling his eyes. Tao kept pouting until Kris chuckled and placed a kiss on his forehead as well.

“So spoiled.” The catdog mewed.

“Alright, let’s go.” Kris whispered again. The kitties waved goodbye to Chanyeol as they slowly exited the room.

During the car ride, Kris picked up some breakfast sandwiches for Chen and Tao to eat so they wouldn’t be hungry at the vet.

“You guys remember what’s going to happen, right?” Kris asked. The hybrids visited the veterinarian semi-frequently. They were pretty healthy so Kris didn’t feel the need to schedule so many checkups if they weren’t truly sick. Thus he didn’t take them as much as the average hybrid owner would. Still, their vet insisted that they at least have a checkup at least two times a year. So, reluctant as he was, Kris tried to make sure the boys were up to date on all of their shots and other health needs.

However, that fact that they didn’t go to the vet as frequently meant that his pets weren’t all too comfortable with the situation. He always got nervous about them being too fearful of the procedures, from not having experienced them enough, and possibly needing to be sedated.

“We’re not getting shot are we?” Tao asked, his mouth full of food. Chen burst out laughing at his cute error. Tao on the other hand tilted his head in confusion, unsure of what the beagle was laughing at.

“Well…I don’t know if you’ll need a shot, Tao.” Kris said, trying his hardest not to laugh out loud. “At least not yet.”

“I don’t want to get shot. I hate getting shot.” Tao whined sadly. Chen only laughed harder, causing him to nearly choke on his food.

“Chen, quiet down there.” Kris chuckled. He could see his puppy through the rear view mirror lying face down on the back seat in an attempt to muffle his extremely loud laughter. It didn’t work all too much.

“What are you laughing at, hyung?” Tao meowed cutely. He still had no idea why the beagle had burst out into laughter to suddenly. But Chen couldn’t answer, he was simply laughing too hard. He’d only just managed to get his food down safely.

“Chen is just a goofball.” Kris replied. Tao stared at his hyung quietly and patted his back in the hopes that he’d calm down and avoid choking.

“How long are we going to be there?” Tao asked, taking another bite of his sandwich.

“Well, I’m hoping it won’t take too long considering how early we’re going. There shouldn’t be that many people there, but I’m not sure. We’ll just have to see when we get there Taozi.

The Li Hua Mao nodded, but deep inside he was nervous. He was always fearful when going to the vet. The people always gave him a hard time because of his accent and usually spoke to Kris the entire time as if the kitten wasn’t even there. It made Tao feel so insignificant, like he was a lesser being.

Chen, as he calmed down from his laugh fest, also soon began feel slightly anxious at it sank deeper and deeper into his mind what was about to happen. He hated the vet. Hated it. They always treated him like some kind of freak for being half cat and half dog. And they were never discreet in expressing their disgust towards him. He knew good and well that Kris’s presence was the only thing keeping him from being physically harassed as well. Suddenly the boy’s stomach started to churn. He started feeling nauseous and his began temperature began rising.

“Kris, I don’t feel so well.” The pup whined.

“What’s wrong, Dae?” Kris asked, concern evident in his voice. Tao too looked at his friend in worry.

“I feel sick. I don’t want to go the vet today.” Chen moaned, and Kris didn’t miss the way his voice cracked.

“Well if you’re feeling bad then we definitely need to get to the vet.” Kris said with a slight chuckle. But Chen only whined more in response. Kris sighed. He’d only wanted to lighten the mood. He knew that the beagle was afraid and was most likely making himself feel sick through worrying too much. Tao wrapped his arms around his smaller hyung, pulling him into a hug. He nuzzled his face into Chen’s, an attempt to calm his nerves. But the other male was incredibly tense, his body much stiffer than usual. He was also very warm and it worried Tao.

“I think he really is sick, gege.” Tao mewled, fear lacing his words as tears formed in his eyes.

“Both of you, just calm down. Take some deep breaths.” Kris said, reaching a hand back in comfort. He could hear the kitties inhaling and exhaling. “Everything will be fine Chen.” Kris added, patting him gently on the leg. Tao the dog’s face in the same way a mother cat would console her kittens. He was relieved to feel Chen’s body relax and sink into his touch. He still smelled tense, but at least he was calming down.

Chen sniffled. He still felt sick to his stomach. Tears had already began to make their way down his cheeks. Tao moved to wipe them away with his sleeves.

“It’s going to be okay. Nothing bad is going to happen, and no one is going to hurt you.” Kris said, his voice even softer. His hand was still gently stoking Chen’s knee. The pup sniffled a few more times and let out a breath he didn’t even realize he’d been holding. The dog nodded at his owner’s words, but he was still afraid.

The rest of the ride was moderately quiet. By the time Kris had arrived at the vet’s office, Tao and Chen had fallen asleep in the back of the car. For a moment, Kris wasn’t sure whether to just let them sleep until it was time for their appointment or make them go inside. He hated making them uncomfortable, but he figured having them wait inside would at least get them used to the atmosphere once again. And thus he gently shook the boys awake.

“Chen Chen, Taozi, wake up.” Kris cooed quietly. The half puppy and kitten yawed simultaneously. Tao rubbed cutely at his eyes while Chen stretched against the seat.

“Where are we?” Chen whined, his voice a bit groggy from sleep.

“We’re at the vet’s office.” Kris whispered. “We need to go inside so I can check you guys in.” Chen shivered at the thought of going inside, but he didn’t want to plead with Kris. He hated being such a scaredy cat, especially in front of his dongseang. So he wrapped his arm around Tao’s shoulders and crawled out of the car.

As expected, no other patients were there yet. It was still really early, so Kris was hoping they’d get in and get out. While Kris was at the front desk checking them in, Tao and Chen found a place in the corner to sit. They felt safer in the small space, far away from the desk.

“Chen-ah?” Tao mewed. His head was resting on Chen’s shoulder and his eyes were nearly closed. He was clearly trying to go back to sleep.

“Yeah?” Chen’s voice quivered as he answered and he mentally scolded himself. He wanted to seem brave for Tao, but was already failing miserably.

“Are…are we going to get shot?” The kitten asked, screwing up his words once again. This time, Chen couldn’t laugh. He was too nervous about the possibility of the ordeal as well. He took the large kitten’s hand in his own and slowly rubbed his thumb on the back of his flesh.

“I don’t know if we have to get shots.” Chen said, correcting Tao. Tao nodded, both as a response and a confirmation that he understood his error.

“I hope we don’t. I don’t like it.” The black kitty’s voice was still at a whisper. He was obviously still afraid.

“Me neither, Tao.” Chen mumbled softly.

I’m scared.” Tao whined. The tall cat had pressed his body so close to Chen’s that he was nearly on top of him. His face was practically buried into Chen’s cheek. The beagle kitty began calming Tao’s ebony ears. The action always calmed him, yet none of the hybrids ever found out why. They figured it was just one of his quirks. Luckily, he seemed to start relaxing at Chen’s ministrations.

At that moment Kris walked over and prepared to sit in the seat next to the seat beside Chen, put Tao put out his arms, wanting his gege to be near him in this time of need. Chen scooted over to the seat to the left of him, allowing Kris to sit in between both hybrids. Each latched onto one of Kris’s arms in an instant.

“Everything alright guys?” Kris asked, though he knew how terrified they were.

“Gege, are we getting shots?” Tao whined quietly. Chen felt the smallest of smiles tugging at his lips upon hearing Tao use the proper terminology. He was still scared, but that wouldn’t stop him from being proud of the kitten.

“I’m still not sure Tao.” Kris sighed, patting the boy on the head.

“What did the desk lady say?” Chen asked, snuggling closer to Kris’s side.

“I asked, but she didn’t know. She’s just the receptionist, not a doctor, so it’s not surprising that she didn’t know.”

“How long are we gonna be here?” Tao asked.

“Hopefully she’s about to give the information to the doctor and he’ll call you guys back in a few minutes.” The blond man replied. The hybrids remained silent, simply keeping their grip on their owner as if the physical contact would make their fears go away. Kris pulled the kitties close, placing a kiss on each of their foreheads. He rotated between caressing their faces and ears, whispering calming words of encouragement.

“Um excuse me, that’s not allowed here.” The three men looked over to the receptionist who almost looked like she was trying her hardest to avoid looking at the trio.

“Pardon?”

“Just because this is a vet’s office doesn’t mean you can make out with your animals in here, sir.” The woman said. “That’s disgusting and no one wants to see that.”

“First of all, I wasn’t making out with them. Second, we’re literally the only ones here.” Kris challenged. He knew the woman was just being rude and that there was no rule against kissing ones pets, but he knew it was enough to make Chen and Tao even more uncomfortable.

“Do you really think I want to see that crap? Besides, rules are rules, Mr Wu.” The woman said with a huff. Kris wanted to tell her off, but he knew it would only make his hybrids uneasy, so he let it go.

He let out a sigh and took to petting the boys on the head instead.

“Gege…I’m scared. I don’t like her.”

“Me neither…” Chen whined, cuddling up to Kris. He began nuzzling his head under Kris’s chin, but was startled by a sharp noise. Kris looked over to the direction of the noise.

“What now?!” He demanded, glaring at the woman again.

“I just said that stuff isn’t allowed, Mr Wu.”

“I wasn’t kissing him. What are you talking about?”

“No weird, , stinky stuff you hybrid people do with those things. If you can’t take a break from that for an hour, you best start calling for home visits.” The woman stated. She left her chair to go to the back after she finished speaking, leaving two shaking hybrids and one furious owner.

“Who the hell does that chick think she is?” Kris muttered. He noticed that Chen had pulled away from him and the dog had fear painted on his face. Kris tried to pull the smaller boy back towards him, but Chen pulled back.

“Hyung, no. We can’t. That lady will…”

“I don’t give a crap about her. She doesn’t make the rules here.” His owner replied. Kris decided not to force Chen to stay close to him if he didn’t want to, but he did wrap his arm around the pup’s waist. It made Kris more comfortable as his owner to have him in his grip.

“But she’s scary ge.” Tao whined. “She might kick us out.”

“She can’t do that. We’re patients and have every right to be here regardless of her opinion on hybrids.” Kris replied placing a kiss on Tao’s forehead. Normally the cat boy would be blushing or giggling like a little girl, but this time he couldn’t help but worry about the nasty receptionist yelling at them again.

“Um, excuse me. Mr Wu?” The woman had returned to her desk with some papers in hand.

“Yes ma’am?” Kris asked, sending a hard glare at the woman.

“You still need to fill out some paperwork for those things.” she said simply. The hybrids flinched against their owner.

“Excuse me?” Kris asked, blood pressure already rising.

“Your…um, pets…can’t be looked at until this paper work is done. Just send one of them over here to get them” She held out the papers between her thumb and index finger, as if they had already been contaminated by the hybrids. Kris was fuming on the inside. Not only did that woman constantly refer to his beloved hybrids as ‘things’ she acted as if they weren’t even part human with the ability to understand her. And no doubt she wanted them to go to her in an attempt to harm them. Chen and Tao shivered at the mere thought of going over to the woman, but Kris got up instead. He roughly took the papers from the woman’s hand, making sure he had a nasty look on his face.

“Thanks...” He said with most vicious voice he could muster. He glanced at her nametag for a second to put a name to her face. “…Sica?”

“It’s a nickname.” She replied, barely looking up at the blond man. Kris slowly made his way back to his chair, partly wishing he could have socked the woman in the face.

“Just fill these out guys.” Kris said, shoving the papers at the cats. His voice was rougher than he intended for it to be. He was mad at the woman and it was already being transferred into his interactions with his pets.

“Kris ge…” Tao whined, tears already forming in his eyes.

“It’ll be fine, Tao.” Kris said, his arms folded tightly. The black kitten sniffled and stared down blankly at his paper.

Chen’s hand twitched as he filled out each section on the paper. He was getting more and more nervous. Why couldn’t they ever go out and not suffer from rude comments from humans? The receptionist had already berated them and possibly wanted to hurt them as well. He could only imagine how unpleasant the doctor could make their time there.

“Hurry up!” The woman yelled after about 2 minutes. Chen flinched at her voice, dropping his pen on the floor.

“Don’t yell at them!” Kris yelled back, pulling Chen closer to his body.

“I have other things to do, Mr. Wu. You should have taught those things to write before you came here if you weren’t going to do it yourself.” The woman said harshly.

“We’re the only ones here. What else do have to do?”

“That information is classified, Mr. Wu. My job entails more than just waiting for the patients to fill out a simple form.”

“Your job is to make sure all of the patients’ are signed in and see their doctor. So do that.”

The two humans continued to go back and forth, with Sica throwing around several anti-hybrid slurs and Kris combating with profanities his pets rarely ever heard him say. It only made Chen and Tao even more nervous. It took about 5 minutes for Chen to actually finish filling out the simple paper.

“I…I’m done hyung.” Chen whispered, tugging on Kris’s sleeve. Kris took it without a word to his beagle.

“Took that freak long enough.” The girl huffed. Kris was nearing his limit on how much he could take from this woman. If she were a man he would have probably punched her long ago.

“If you open your mouth one more time, you’ll get more than these papers when I get over there.” Kris said, his voice full of anger.

“It’s a free country, Mr. Wu.” The receptionist said with a smirk.

“Tao, are you done yet?” Kris asked, voice softer than it had been in a while.

“I…I…” Tao stared blankly at his paper. Kris took it from the boy’s hands only to see that Tao hadn’t filled a single thing out. He hadn’t even written his name. Kris looked up at Tao to find tears streaming down the kitten’s face.

“What’s the holdup?” Sica yelled again, obviously irritated.

“Hold on.” The blond male huffed. “Tao what’s wrong?” he asked, turning his attention to his weeping kitten.

“I…I can’t read it.” Tao sobbed. Kris was confused for about five seconds before he realized what was going on and wanted to smack himself in the face. No wonder the boy had been so nervous when he first gave him the sheet. He’d totally forgotten that Tao’s reading comprehension of the Korean language wasn’t nearly as strong as his speaking abilities. And honestly, it was sort of Kris’s fault. He’d just kind of slacked off on teaching Tao how to read Hangul as he tended to handle any matters that would have required Tao to read or write. Now he was seriously regretting it.

Chen immediately took the sheet from his owner and began filling it out as quickly as possible. He mentally scolded himself for forgetting that Tao rarely ever practiced reading or writing Hangul and not handling it from the start. If he wasn’t so focused on his fear of dealing with that woman, he would have filled Tao’s out forever ago.

“What now? The tall one can’t read?” Sica asked. “Is he stupid or something? Because I don’t have time to deal with idiot cats who can’t even…”

“He’s Chinese, leave him alone!” Chen barked. He was shocked to hear those words leaving his mouth. He wasn’t sure where all of the anger that was currently bubbled in his chest had come from all of a sudden. But that woman harassing Tao because of an issue such as this was too much to handle.

“And you never bothered to teach him to read Hangul? Or is he too stupid to learn? Are Chinese hybrids dumber than Korean ones?” The woman directed her words to Kris. She refused to acknowledge the hybrids’ existence even when they spoke to her.

“Stop making fun of him!” Chen snarled. Now he was furious and feeling incredibly guilty. Tao didn’t deserve this kind of treatment. Chen and the other beagles were to blame for not having Tao study Korean writing.

“Where the hell is the manager? I’m through putting up with you.” Kris had already stood up and made his way to the counter where Sica, despite her boldness up until this point, was shying away.

“You get back! I swear I’ll call security if you do something!”

Tears were pouring from Tao’s eyes. He was terrified every time Kris got into an altercation over them. He always worried about his precious owner getting hurt. Chen scooted over and wrapped his arms around Tao, his tears away. At this point he didn’t give a crap about what the woman was thinking.

“Excuse me?” Both Kris and the receptionist looked up to find a man in a white coat looking up at them.

“Doctor! This patient was trying to attack me!” Sica yelled, quite over-dramatically if you asked Kris.

“Oh please. You’re not worth my strength. I was looking for the number for security.” The blond man replied with a roll of his eyes.

“Ehem.” The doctor coughed to get the attention of the squabbling individuals. “Why don’t you just let me do this check-up and you can be on your way, Mr. Wu.” The older man replied. Clearly he wasn’t interested in the spat and just wanted to prevent an altercation.

Nevertheless, Kris nodded and gestured for Chen and Tao to follow him. Tao was reluctant, sitting firmly in the chair, no desire to move. But Chen gently pulled him up, rubbing soothing circles on his back.

“C’mon Taozi. It’ll be okay.” The older cat said. Tao found comfort in his hyung’s eyes and slowly stood up and walked with him to their master. He felt pathetic, crying like this in front of the doctor. But the faster he went in, the faster they could leave.

Chen met the eyes of the receptionist who glared at Tao, knowing he was the weaker of the two. A low growl sounded in the beagle’s throat causing the woman to avert her eyes from the duo entirely. Chen was so focused on giving his warning to the girl, he missed the small smile that started tugging at Tao’s lips.

“Will they be getting vaccinated?” Kris asked. The question had been on all of their minds the entire time. Tao looked up at his owner and the doctor, interested in hearing the answer. Chen kept his eyes on Sica, the growl still present in his throat.

“No. Just a check-up and that’s all.” The doctor replied, seemingly very uninterested in Kris’s question. The trio headed to the back to get this experience over with.

Luckily the examination seemed to go by faster than the wait. Within no time, the trio was back in the car and on the way home. Kris decided to stop and get his boys some ice cream for all of the trouble they had to go through.

“I’m so sorry for that, guys.” Kris sighed after they’d pulled away from the doctor’s office.

“It’s not your fault, ge.” Tao sniffled, still upset. He’d cried throughout the entire check-up, causing the doctor to become quite irritated with the boy. The kitten was now curled up on Chen’s body in the back seat. He squished his body into a small, fluffy fur ball on Chen’s lap and snuggled as close to the puppy as possible.

“Yeah, that girl was mean!” Chen pouted. He rubbed his face onto Tao’s, trying to calm the boy with as much loving as possible.

“Yeah, but I lost my cool. I shouldn’t have let her get to me.” The man said.

“She was such a jerk though. She shouldn’t have made fun of Taozi like that!” Chen hated to bring up what happened, but he was just so angry. It was straight up discrimination to insult Tao’s intelligence simply based on where he was born!

“You kind of surprised me back there, Chen. I’ve never seen that side of you.” Kris said.

“What do you mean?” Chen asked, genuinely confused about what his owner was referring to.

“I just mean…I don’t think I’ve ever heard you growl before. Let alone bark so…aggressively.”

“Did I…did I really do that?” Chen asked, looking down at Tao. He was so concerned about defending Tao, he hadn’t even been paying attention to what he’d been saying. Or how he’d been saying it.

“You did.” Kris said. Tao also nodded in agreement.

“I…I…”

“Don’t be upset about it. You were protecting Tao. I’m proud of you, Jongdae.” Kris extended a hand and patted Chen on the knee.

“Really?” he asked, still surprised to hear what had happened. Tao nodded shyly, his dark eyes blinking softly.

“You were really brave, pretty hyung.” Tao mewed, the dog on the nose. “Thank you.”

“I was brave?” Chen asked, a smile spreading across his face. Tao nodded and proceed to rub his head against Chen’s cheek.

The pup smiled and returned Tao’s love by nuzzling back against him. Kris watched his pets in the rearview mirror with a delighted grin on his face. He was proud of his boys, who were able to maintain their composure and defend each other during their time of need. He had the best pets ever.

“Alright guys, what kind of ice cream do you want?” the man asked cheerfully. And the car will filled with screams of different ice cream flavors. Kris's gummy smile spread across his face. He just knew that the rest of the day was sure to be pleasnt.

I'll be honest. I didn't like this chapter all that much. It was supposed to be a Taochen with Chen being brave for the nervous Tao, but I feel like a focused way to hard on the stuff with Kris and Jessica and jusr adding for feuding for the sake of it :/ So sorry about that.

Also, I really hated that I did the cliched evil Jessica thing, but it was the first thing that popped into my mind:/ Oh and, please don't think I hate Girls Generation just becuase I've made two members (well ex-memeber in Sica's case) antagonists. They're actually one of my favorite groups :3

Anyway, I've got plans for the next chapters which will hopefully turn our better. Thanks for reading.