Ten is crawling, his paws slowly moving through the grass with his chin touching the floor. His nose catches the right smell and the dog mentally smirks, changing his direction. He is making the best to not move his tail, to not give away his position as it could ruin the whole mission.

He moves from under some bushes and slowly scans the view ahead of him. There are kids running around, other dogs playing with each other and Ten growls when one of them, a Boston Terrier, turns to him. He is in no position to play around now, maybe later with a tasty bone… only if he got to share it, which doesn’t normally happen...

Anyway.

His eyes look for a particular black haired head and he finds it, a few meters away from him giving him his back and sitting in the grass with a book in his hands, apparently reading what could be the most interesting book in the world (Ten will never know, he can’t read). His tail moves automatically and he growls again, this time to himself.

He keeps on crawling again, slowly, with his eyes fixed on the human. It’s not only when he’s less than a meter away that he prepares to run and jump onto his owner’s back, but the male human turns around first, as if he was expecting the dog all long. Ten tries to turn around and run back to the bushes, but it’s too late for that. He feels a pair of hands grabbing his torso and pushing him into what could be the most fluffy hug he’s ever gotten.

The Shiba Inu is not as small now, he has grown enough to reach his owner's face when he stands up and his paws are finally half of the human's hand (he likes to think it's at least half).

“Ha, gotcha!” Johnny smiles and hugs the dog a bit more hard. Ten tries of his grip, but it’s obvious they’re some fruitless attempts as he will never get off the embrace, and his body has betrayed him too, enjoying the affection as his tail starts moving.

Oh, but this is not the end.

Ten has prepared his last resource. It is a weapon he uses only in extreme measures (and when he feels like it), and it’s obvious this situation needs nothing else but extreme measures. He turns around to face the human and he sticks out his tongue. Johnny’s expression changes in matter of milliseconds and Ten knows he still has a chance to turn the tables to his advantage.

He positions his paws on Johnny’s shoulder and starts liking his face. But really his off, not letting any part of his face remain dry, making sure to get to those impossible places like Johnny’s inside ear.

The male human falls behind with a laugh, now trying to pull the canine off him, screaming for mercy and Ten smiles as he keeps .

“Okay, okay, you won, stop it” Johnny giggles covering his face with his forearms, and Ten does a move. (It’s a move ‘cause he knows how much the human hates it, but he does it nevertheless). He starts Johnny’s hair. “Ahh! Ten, no, I hate that!”

Johnny pushes the dog with one arm and Ten rolls around the grass with a smirk still in his face.

“Why do you always have to do that” Johnny complains, trying to clean off the inside of his ear, but Ten knows he’s not actually mad. He never is.

It’s been a almost a year since Ten got adopted by this human. Before Johnny, Ten thought he’d never get a family of his own like every one of his siblings did. Even though Johnny has been the only one there for him for the past months, he really couldn't ask for anything better. He didn’t want anything better (because there was nothing better than just Johnny).

Johnny got a higher position in his job a few months after his adoption, along with a new and bigger apartment, one that had a little balcony for Ten to bark at the birds in the morning.

They got used to each other’s presence quite fast, Johnny bought a bed for Ten early in the year, but that bed has been long forgotten as the canine prefers to sleep in the human’s embrace, being constantly drugged with his scent. Ten knows Johnny’s schedule better than anybody else, knows how the human is normally tired on Fridays and comes with a beer of his own to drink before passing out in the bed.

He knows how much Johnny hates when Ten makes a mess in the room, so he stopped doing it (okay, not stopped entirely but doing it less frequently). Ten also knows how much Johnny likes having some fun times with other male humans, a new one every Saturday, always locking Ten outside of the room. But it’s fine by Ten, since he always gets a new and fresh bone to bite on the whole night until he falls asleep from the fatigue.

Ten knows his human like he knows his own body.

“Let’s go now” Johnny announces, standing up and cleaning dirty off his . Ten wants to complain, since he had planned to play with some other dogs later, but before he could even try to fake a cry, another human approaches them.

“Uh-hey”

This human is tall (every human is tall for Ten), but he is not as tall as Johnny. No, he is nowhere Johnny’s height, Ten notices. His hair is black, like Johnny’s but he has the sides of his head shaved off, letting his theoretically large upper hair to fall nicely around. This new human looks nervous, and instead of taking advantage of the situation and go play with other dogs, Ten stays sited besides Johnny’s feet.

“Uh.. hello.” Johnny answers in return, still picking up his things.

“Were you reading that?” The new human asks, pointing the book. Johnny has to look at the cover of the book to process the question, and he nods with a weird small smile.

"Why? Have you read it?"

The new human laughs nervously. "Not really, just curious."

‘Weird.’ The canine thinks. Johnny looks nervous, like when he tells Ten he didn’t buy any treats for him but he did, he just hid it somewhere in the apartment. Why is Johnny nervous?

“Oh, cool” The new human answers with an awkward laugh. Johnny follows him on it. “Is that your dog?” now both humans look at Ten, and the dog feels suddenly like a third wheel in what could be the most awkward interactions two humans ever had before him.

“Yeah, he’s Ten” Johnny answers proudly, kneeling down to caress Ten’s scalp. The canine smiles in return. “You want to pet him?” his owner offers, but Ten walks back in rejection.

It’s not like Ten doesn’t like strangers, he actually loves them. More than once Johnny had to take Ten off someone’s face because the dog got too excited of making new human friends in the park. But this human feels different, like a threat.

“He doesn’t look like he wants me to pet him.” The new human laughs. “Uh-oh, anyway, I was wondering…”

“Yeah?” Johnny’s hand abandons Ten’s head and the dog starts missing it right away, clinging onto his owner’s leg.

“Uh… do you live near here?” Johnny’s eyes widen. “ that came out wrong… I-i, just-uhm… I’m visiting a friend, a very annoying friend, you can see him there” Johnny and Ten look back where the human is pointing, and they see another male sitting on a bench, and both recognize him right away.

Ten runs away towards him, excitedly.

“Oh, Taeyong!”

“You know Taeyong?” The new human asks. “Terrific.”

“Is there something wrong with that?” Johnny says.

“No, it’s- just…” the stranger stutters, and it’s actually loosing its charm. “I just spent the last 20 minutes telling him how good looking this other guy in the park was, and he somehow convinced me to come and ask him out but he forgot to mention the part where he knows that very attractive guy with his very cute puppy liking his entire face an- I should just shut up, shouldn’t I?” he laughs nervously and Johnny smiles.

“No, it’s fine” Johnny answers back. Ten comes back, bringing Taeyong with him.

“So?” Taeyong smiles, two seconds away from laughing his off. “How'd it go?”

“You’re an ” the new human concludes.

Taeyong gasps dramatically. “How could you say that?”

“You kinda are” Johnny agrees. “You never told me your name, though.” He says to the unknown human.

“Chittaphon, where are your manners?” Taeyong laughs, finding this whole thing like the best joke he’s ever told. “Johnny hyung, Chittaphon. Chittaphon, Johnny hyung.”

“Chittaphon?” Johnny repeats. “So you’re-”

“Thai.” Chittaphon cuts him off out of nerves. “Yeah… and you are-”

“American” Johnny answers.

Ten is looking up at the three humans, moving his face as he takes his attention to the one talking. And this ends up getting him dizzy, in which he falls off to the ground in a playful manner.

“We should get going.” Johnny announces, lifting Ten up into his arms and the dog turns into a cat for 5 good seconds before he growls when Chittaphon tries to pet him. “Hey, easy.”

“Weird” Chittaphon frowns. “I love puppies and puppies love me”

“Ten is no stupid” Taeyong whispers into his ear. Chittaphon wants to ask what is he talking about but Taeyong doesn’t give him a chance. “Oh, how about we eat at your place Johnny?”

The older frowns, but nods nevertheless before Chittaphon could say something to bail them off. Ten falls from Johnny’s embrace but doesn’t stop looking at the Thai the whole way back home, smelling something fishy about him.

(Could it be that he owned a cat?)

When they arrive back home, Ten runs right to his bed, somehow trying to show off he has a place of his own in the big and cozy apartment. Then, he goes for one of his toys and brings it to Taeyong for him to throw it.

“Aren’t you being an excited fella?” Taeyong laughs, doing like the canine wanted him to, and throwing the toy far away.

It takes for Ten just a few seconds to come back with the toy, offering it again to Taeyong.

“Here” Johnny takes the toy instead and offers it to Chittaphon, “you throw it to him.”

Chittaphon does as told, throwing the toy to the other side of the living room, and the toy bounces against the wall and falls on the floor. But Ten stays put in his place staring at the humans with a poker face, not having a single thought of going to look for the toy.

Chittaphon can’t believe his eyes while Taeyong is busy laughing his off in the floor.

“What the- Ten is not normally like this” Johnny frowns, going straight to the dog and lifting him up. “Here, take him.”

“What? Me-e?” Chittaphon points at himself “but he hates me, it’s kind of obvious”

“It is” Taeyong adds from the floor.

“He’s just awkward with you, that’s all.”

“What if he bites me?” Chittaphon asks, and Ten listens carefully to the question. He could try to…

“Ten doesn’t bite, because he’s a good boy.”

Oh well. Every intention of biting the Thai goes down the drain as Ten hears the last words. He knows the owner will get really mad at him if he bites the Thai, and there’s nothing worst in the world than having an angry Johnny. Chittaphon grabs Ten and they look at each other, starting a staring contest. Johnny and Taeyong walk into the kitchen, leaving the two alone.

“Why do you hate me?” Chittaphon jiggles Ten, and the canine fights against the need of moving his tail. “I like Johnny” the human whispers, “is that why you hate me?”

Chittaphon doesn’t know why he’s asking, it’s not like Ten is going to answer him. And Ten doesn’t. Instead, he pees all over the human.

“Oh fu- no, stop!” the other two males come back rushing, and Johnny takes Ten off Chittaphon while Taeyong is trying to not cry as he laughs in the floor, again.

“I’m so so sorry” Johnny apologizes, putting Ten aside and focusing on Chittaphon.

Okay, this is not what Ten wanted.

“This has got to come off” Johnny says, referring to the peed clothes, “come, I’ll borrow you a shirt.” His owner grabs Chittaphon by the hand and pulls him into his room.

That is not what he wanted either.

Half an hour later, the three males are sitting on Johnny’s couch playing some video games while Ten is being punished locked outside in the balcony. He eyes his owner with his puppy eyes, expecting for him to come back and forgive him. But Johnny acts like the puppy doesn’t even exist.

Instead, Chittaphon, using one of Johnny’s clothes and still blushed because of that, is the one looking back at the canine, preoccupied.

“Shouldn’t we let him in?” Chitt