Chapter Text
The lively chirping and crickets had sung their hymn to the frosty morning dew and the sun and its rays shone through the curtains and gently illuminated the room over the sleepy canines. Buster woke up first with his ears up and tail rapidly thumping against his soft pillow bed.
Will had to replace his old one, but Buster, once he got his teeth in and a few scratches onto it, finally found it comfortable to sleep in. Will clicked his tongue a few times disapprovingly, but Buster didn’t care. The bed was for him and made an extremely good point as he sat down with his paws neatly placed and then fell on his side, lolling his tongue and asking for belly rubs. His owner folded on the spot and offered him a few scratches before the rest of the merry troop demanded the same treatment.
Buster lovingly remembered that day as he started to get ready for the day of chasing birds and the squirrel that resided in the tree trunk near the house. His daily agenda was decided, and he proceeded to wake up his pack and get them ready to howl for their morning food.
The little pup silently huffed a good morning to Duke and Bowie, who had lazily greeted the pup and given morning kisses, yawning and shaking off the sleep from their body. The rest of the pack was roused from the light clicking of their paws on the wooden floor and sniffing around in case anything had changed during the night. Other than a smelly bathroom and a sweaty towel on the floor, nothing was out of the ordinary.
What got Buster interested was the light huffs and puffs of distress coming from his owner. That was weird and he trotted over the bed where Will’s smell was the strongest. His nose worked overtime as the fresh smell of sweat and musky odor reached his senses and the shaking figure in the bed produced sounds of pain.
Buster whined, alerting the rest of his pack that something was wrong. He barked gently, telling other pups to come over and watch over their loving owner.
Something was wrong, and all Buster could do was offer a little wet kiss on Will’s outstretched hand that was near the edge of the bed. The hand was shaking and was covered in sweat. Buster sniffed the stress on his owner and rapidly tried to soothe him.
Jumping against the edge of the bed and supporting himself on his hind leg,s and nuzzled against Will and whined, trying to soothe his human. Duke walked over in support. He was the larger of the two and could easily reach over the bed to Will’s face and soft curls. He gave his owner loving kisses and calmed Buster down as the little pup, although spirited and a pack leader, was worried the most for his dear human.
Duke huffed, letting the pup their human was alright as the rest of the pack circled the bed and sniffed around for the smells. They answered the calls of distress and began whining and barking in support.
Theor human still hadn’t calmed down and began breathing laboriously as if gasping for air. Duke recognized it as ‘bad’ and recalled something called bad dreams from his human. The whine of stress increased, and the big dog jumped on the bed and settled himself on Will’s shaking form. He had grounded his owner as much as he could and positioned his head on his chest. The loud stutters began to soften, and the shakes calmed down the moment Duke put all his weight on his human, and Buster appreciatively barked loudly and continued to soothe with his dog kisses on Will’s hand.
Their human somewhere amid their whining and worried noises, murmured ‘I am okay, buddy’’, and sighed back to sleep completely unaware of his nightmare.
Bowie joined Buster on his side, pawing at the sheets and huffing at the strong odor their human had made during the night. He gently poked Buster to stop with the licking as the sleeping figure seemed to breathe normally once again. With that, Duke took this as his cue to bother their human with other worries.
First on the agenda was their breakfast, and with a few barks of agreement, the pups started to howl their hymn of the starved. Will, for his part, ignored them for a few minutes before Duke decided to howl directly on top of him and pull the blanket off of him.
‘’Okay, you menaces, enough!‘’ Will clicked with his tongue and rose to rub his sleep away from his eyes and caught Duke in his arms, and cuddled his noisy boy. Duke huffed amused, and enjoyed the belly rubs before their human greeted the rest of the dogs.
Will apologetically cooed and told them he was completely fine as he saw that his pups had been circling him, Buster still at the edge of his bed, trying to soothe him with his sloppy kisses.
‘’I am okay, boys. Just a nightmare. You did good, Duke. Such a good boy.’’ he calmed the distressed pups and kissed Duke on the top of his head. A sloppy one was returned on his cheek, and that made him chuckle. He loved his pups, protecting them during his nightmares, despite howling like the gates of hell had been opened to get their bellies full.
With that, his day had been set to start, and he stumbled out of bed once Duke allowed him to move. He rewarded Duke with another ‘Good boy’ and with the merry troop, he headed to the kitchen. All of the pups knew where he was headed and obediently followed him to get their morning treat for doing a ‘job well done’.
Buster was happily wagging his tail and watching over his human until their breakfast was placed in their bowls and the breakfast was in full motion. Buster did not eat until he saw Will take a bite of his own. He had whined until Will reassured him with a pat on his head that he was completely okay and gave the command to eat.
Buster happily took the chance to get his belly full with a delicious home-cooked meal. He proudly wagged his tail as his human was safe and sound, and his pack would protect him against everything.
For now, avenging his human with a chase after the birds on his morning walk will do.