i'm so stumped for the anniversary drabble and i can't seem to get any more than 200 words down so here's the emergency back-up drabble for day 21 /sobs/ i'm going to try again tomorrow and see if i can save it looool

baekhyun and dog in that mama era teaser. that is all.
 

Donut is bad dog. He ate my collar! Sehun and I couldn’t get a new one, but Jongin took me and we found a pretty black one. I hope nobody notices what it really is... I always think I’m too attached to my collars, but I really feel disowned without one.

Apart from milk, chocolate fish and cuddles, Joonmyun usually doesn’t go through a lot of things. The latest addition to the list of exceptions appears to be, oddly enough, collars.

When Sehun and Jongin had adopted him, he’d come with the standard collar every hybrid at the adoption centre wore – simple, brown and uninteresting, with Mrs. Park’s phone number on it – and they’d immediately taken him to the pet store to get him a nice new one.

That had gotten lost somewhere within the first few weeks, and after a great deal of shy Joonmyun being too afraid to tell his owners that he’d misplaced his collar, they’d gone out and bought him a new blue one.

It lasted a solid six months until Jongin accidentally broke it by pulling on it too hard. Sehun had just pinched the bridge of his nose and made another trip to the pet store to buy a second collar, red and shiny with a wee dangly metal tag with Joonmyun’s name on it. From then on the catboy had become meticulous about it, strapping it on securely after his showers and taking caution to never let it out of his sight. It got to the point where he was almost uncomfortable without it on. 

It’s lasted until today.

Joonmyun had been at the vet’s for a general check-up and Kyungsoo had asked for him to remove all his clothes for an examination. The catboy had taken off his collar and thrown it onto a nearby chair and Kyungsoo’s Labrador must’ve thought, oh, a toy! and charged for it before Sehun could rein him in.

Now it’s a chewed up, ruined mess as it swings side to side from Donut’s jaws, the dog wagging his tail in an overly-happy manner that his friend’s just given him a new toy to play with.

“Look what you did!” Joonmyun shrieks, clutching his head. “You’re a bad, bad dog! You were supposed to sit there and keep me company during my check-up, not eat my collar…”

Donut woofs and munches on the catboy’s collar some more, making Joonmyun scream and throw up his hands before running back to his owner with a muffled sob.

“Oh dear,” Kyungsoo says, at the same time Sehun fixes the dog with a murderous glare. Donut seems to at least understand that there’s a very displeased person reprimanding him and drops the collar, tail drooping between his legs.

“We’ll go and get you another one,” Sehun sighs, patting the catboy’s head sympathetically. “Don’t cry.”

Joonmyun manages to hold in the tears while they’re in the car, sitting in the front seat glumly. Every now and then he raises his hand to touch his neck, rubbing the bare skin like he’s trying to touch something missing. Sehun feels terrible for him because he knows the catboy wears his collars with pride, his heart happy to have owners to call his own.

They park outside the pet shop and Sehun’s just about to get out of the car when Joonmyun pulls him back.

“Sehun, look,” he says worriedly, mouth turned down in a frown, “it’s not open today.”

The drive home is silent.

“Why don’t we wait until tomorrow?” Sehun had asked, but Joonmyun’s expression had clearly read that he wasn’t sure he could wait that long.

When they get home, Jongin seems to have a solution.

“You do?” Joonmyun asks, eyes wide with hope.

“Sure. Go and wait for me in the car.” Jongin swipes up his keys from the kitchen bench, purposely avoiding Sehun’s suspicious gaze following him as he walks out the door.

“I’m going to start on dinner soon,” the blond yells after him. “Don’t take too long!”

Jongin pulls up outside a small store hidden on a side street in town. The window is covered with a curtain and while that makes it come off as a place nobody wants to go, the building is painted in shades of soft orange and white.

Peaches and Cream, a sign says on the window. Serving all your adult entertainment needs.

“Huh? Why are we at the toy shop?” Joonmyun asks, following Jongin inside. Well, it wasn’t exactly a toy shop for children per se, but Jongin understands the sentiments all the same. He winks at his catboy.

It was an ingenious idea when he came up with it, really. What other place had collars to sell, and at this hour of the day? “Hey Chanyeol, how’s it going?”

Where Sehun’s high school friends had turned out into vets (Kyungsoo), Jongin’s high school friends went into entrepreneurship of the seedy kind (Chanyeol).

It’s not seedy, Chanyeol had insisted, punching his friend on the arm, but Jongin and Sehun are Chanyeol’s favourite (if not most regular) customers.

“Yo!” The tall guy behind the counter waves, a grin on his face. He’s busy wrapping up what looks like a male customer’s gifts to his girlfriend, bits of sticky tape stuck on the fingers of one of his hands. “What are you shopping for today?”

Jongin shakes his head. “Nah, not me,” he says. “I’m just after another collar for Joonmyun.”

Chanyeol gives the catboy a speculative look. “Sounds like you have a bad history with them, huh?”

Joonmyun blushes but thankfully Chanyeol doesn’t about it any further, unlike a lot of other people he knows. Jongin often complains that Chanyeol likes to talk a lot, but Joonmyun doesn’t see him all the time so he doesn’t really get that impression. He’s cool, as far as the catboy is concerned.

“Baekhyunnie, where are you?” Chanyeol calls into the back of the shop.

“Stacking up s!” a voice shouts back, and Joonmyun has a slight urge to cringe. Baekhyun likes talking even more than his owner and there’s nothing he won’t casually discuss, as if he’s commenting on how brightly the sun is shining today. He’s a great listener and absorbs everything in a conversation with gusto.

“Come out and give Joonmyun a hand, won’t you? Go and help him find a collar.”

Chanyeol’s puppy appears out of the store room, a box in his hands that he sets down on the counter so he can give Joonmyun a happy hug. Baekhyun is a Samoyed hybrid, with fluffy white ears on his head and an even fluffier tail that knocks over items around him if he doesn’t control himself while wandering around the aisles. Joonmyun is a huge fan of petting him because they’re both very small (and Baekhyun’s just so fluffy). They’d met after Joonmyun had been adopted and needed toys of the adult variety to fill his toybox.

“Hi Joonmyun! Come with me, I’ll see what we have in stock.” Baekhyun takes Joonmyun’s hand and they go for a walk through the store, passing the shelves of s, condoms, prostate massagers and all these things Joonmyun has seen before on previous shopping trips here but still has no idea what they’re for. Jongin trails along behind them.

Baekhyun stops somewhere in the middle of what looks like the section, the contents of which still give Joonmyun the creepies. There are ball gags to his left, spreader bars on his right, ropes behind him and next to the wall where there’s an assortment of whips hanging, Baekhyun is pointing to what looks like an endless selection of collars.

“So what kind of collar kitty are you?” he asks. “Plain? Sparkly? Spiky? Oh god, I remember when Chanyeol went through this phase once, where he was into spiky stuff for months. Everything hurt for like days afterwards, I swear if he ever goes through that again–”

“Uh, no, just plain will do,” Joonmyun says in a small voice.

“Eh? Like black?” Baekhyun wrinkles his nose. “Really? Nothing fun? I honestly don’t think we have just your average collar, Joonmyun. You might as well go to the pet store.”

Jongin stifles a laugh.

Joonmyun grimaces, tail dropping disappointedly. “It was closed.”

“Funny. As if you would find any collars for… for…” Baekhyun’s bushy tail suddenly stops wagging and he narrows his eyes, firstly at the catboy, and then Jongin, who he jabs his finger at. “Don’t tell me. Are you going to make him wear a collar? As a casual collar?” he demands.

Joonmyun hadn’t even made it that far in terms of putting two and two together, but he peers closely at some of the collars on display while Baekhyun argues with Jongin and thinks, some of these aren’t that bad. There’s one that has studs on it, but it doesn’t suit his taste. Another one has a chain welded to it but it’s too cumbersome to be something he can wear every day. The chain though, could definitely come in handy some time. He deliberately avoids the spiky collar, skips the next one that looks small enough to choke him to death and also the monstrously thick one that would probably feel more like a cast for a broken neck than a collar.

Joonmyun digs around in the middle of the next row, Jongin and Baekhyun still debating the issue several paces away, the puppy looking ridiculously adorable with his fuming red cheeks and irately twitching canine ears. He finds a collar with a large steel D-ring in the front and another one behind it with multiple smaller D-rings.

The second one would be better, he giggles to himself, tugging it out to have a closer look. Jongin and Sehun could each hook a finger into his collar at the same time and pull if they wanted to.

“Would he be here if he wasn’t desperate?” Jongin points out. “He doesn’t feel comfortable without a collar! That’s why I’m getting one for him, because he wants to wear one!”

Baekhyun turns and rounds on him. “Joonmyun!” he protests. “You don’t have to buy one, you know. Just wait until the pet shop opens tomorrow and you can get a normal – oh my god.” Baekhyun’s jaw hits the ground. “Did you actually find one?”

Joonmyun stands on his tiptoes to check out his reflection in the little mirror on the wall. The leather is a rich, deep black, shiny and strong. It looks nice and it stands out temptingly against his skin.

Wow. Jongin’s starting to have some indecent thoughts already.

“Jongin, can I have this one?” Joonmyun pleads, trotting up to his owner to let him have a look.

Baekhyun pulls the catboy aside to inspect him. “Well, it doesn’t look all that bad on you,” he says reluctantly. He is so going to convince Chanyeol to let him wear a collar at all times from now on. “But are you sure you want this one? In fact, what even happened to your last collar?”

Joonmyun’s kitty ears flick back and forth as he tries to remember all the collars he’s been through. “I lost my first one,” he admits, scratching his head. “Jongin broke the second one because we were having and he yanked on it too hard.”

Baekhyun splutters with laughter and Jongin groans, a hand over his face.

“And Donut tried to eat my third one today at my appointment.”

“Oh, I like Doctor Kyungsoo!” Baekhyun exclaims, tail wagging at full speed again. “He says he doesn’t like me though, because I him too much. But I like visiting him all the time. Oh hold on, did you say his dog? Uh, yeah, Donut doesn’t have a brain. I bet he would eat my sock if I gave it to him.”

Jongin clears his throat.

Baekhyun reaches around Joonmyun’s neck to undo the collar for him. “Sorry, back to work,” he coughs. “Well, maybe you should get this one then. It’s basically made for pulling, if you know what I mean. Made to stay, made to last.”

“Please?” Joonmyun pleads again, and Jongin can’t find it in him to resist. It was what they’d come here for anyway, right? Baekhyun throws his arms around Joonmyun in a hug, takes his hand again and drags him up to the counter so Jongin can pay.

“You got him a collar. Well done,” Sehun says sarcastically when Joonmyun comes to the dinner table with it strapped around his neck. “Superb. Fantastic. Absolutely magnificent.”

“What’s wrong with it?” Jongin asks over a steaming bowl of rice. The catboy looks thrilled with his newest purchase, even loading his own bowl with vegetables and munching through them. He’s going to make sure Joonmyun never, ever loses this one.

“I’ll tell you what’s wrong,” Sehun starts, but Joonmyun reaches over and pats him on the hand.

“Jongin said he had an idea if you didn’t like it,” the catboy says serenely.

“I don’t think we need any more ideas from him, Joonmyun.”

“No, really. Jongin bought me the chain that goes with this collar. He says if you put it to use, you might change your mind about it.”