Puppy Training

[Patch]

(September 4th, in Dragon's class. Closed to me and Angel, picking up where Fire and Brimstone left off with their sparring match)


"Oh, hi, Angel," Patch's tail waved back and forth in happiness at seeing his newest friend. Though it wouldn't be fair to say that he'd fallen head-over-paws for her, the dal was undeniably smitten by the female's attractive looks, and the fact that she was approaching him again had to be a good thing in Patch's book. Then again, he was the only other canine present that he could see, so that might have been the only reason she had chosen him above anyone else. Even in spite of the fact that this was a combat class and would have to fight, however, Patch was glad to see her; the spotted pup figured he would still rather spar with someone he knew than someone he didn't. They weren't actually going to hurt each other after all, that he was fairly sure of; he saw his siblings play-wrestling all the time at home, and while this was a bit more serious, he couldn't imagine it getting too rough.

"Looks like we're sparring partners," he offered, lowering himself into a perparatory crouch the way he'd seen Ol' Thunder do a million times before... then paused to throw the end of his tie over his shoulder to keep it from beneath his paws, before returning to his position. Tripping himself on it during this class, not only in front of Angel but everyone else too, would have been the absolute height of embarassment; especially after she'd only helped him sort it earlier that day.

Angel looked as if she was on the defensive already, so Patch didn't hesitate a moment longer; the dal leapt forward, forepaws outstretched to bowl Angel over in what he hoped was a fairly good imitation of the One-of-a-Kind Wonderdog.

[Angel]

So it would seem that fate had brought Patch into her paws once again. She'd seen him first, of course, but still... It was strange how things had worked out, wasn't it? He had wasted no time in determining that they needed to spar together, too. The next thing she knew, Patch was leaping at her with the intent of bowling her over. Truth be told, Angel wasn't all that used to trying to do combat against dogs her size. She had learned how to deal with bigger dogs effectively enough, but Patch was different. It was just going to have to be done, though. If she admitted she was on unfamiliar territory, that would just give Patch an advantage.

The street dog in her wasn't going to admit that she was winging her first move.

In order to avoid getting bowled over, Angel leaped to the side and hoped that Patch didn't end up colliding with whatever had been behind her. Truth be told, Angel hadn't been paying a great deal of attention to her surroundings. There was no telling what could have happened from there. The smarter dog in her was telling her to take advantage of the fact that Patch's tie would be so easy to grab, but she didn't go for it. Not yet.

[Patch]

"Ooof!"

The only thing Patch collided with was the floor; when Angel had moved, the young dalmatian had been unable to catch himself in time, and it had leapt up to meet him hard and fast. For a moment Patch lay where he was, blinking back stars and dazedly hoping Angel wouldn't take advantage of his current state, before he scrambled back to his paws and rounded to face her.

Well, that hadn't worked.

He supposed, in hindsight, that he should have expected her to move. Not even Thunder's oponents always stood still for him, after all, so Patch had no idea why he'd imagined Angel would. Giving himself a quick shake - and throwing his tie back over his shoulder again when it flopped down to its typical position as a result - Patch pondered his next move.

What would Ol' Thunder do in a situation like this?

The obvious thing to do would be to go for Angel's tie, Patch figured; it was hanging there very temptingly, an easy grab even for him. But given how much of a pain his always was to undo whenever it got pulled, Patch didn't particularly want to inflict the same upon the girl he was growing to like a lot. Perhaps it was a soft-heartedness that the male would come to regret; he decided, however, to forgo the tie, and instead circled her until he could see her tail where it poked out from beneath her skirt.

He thought her guard may have lowered slightly, he wasn't sure; either way, Patch jumped forward and tried to grab the fluffy appendage in his maw. He wouldn't bite hard, of course; but if he made contact, he would hold on and not let his grip be shaken.

[Angel]

...What was he doing?

Angel couldn't help but cock her head to the side as she watched Patch move around her. She would have expected another frontal assault, but at least Patch was thinking more cleverly than before. It was right when the realization that her tail was still a target hit her that Patch actually went for it. His hold wasn't necessarily a fierce or painful one, but the feeling of having her tail in what was essentially a foreign mouth had caught her by surprise. A surprised yelp escaped her, and it became all the more apparent that she needed to actually try and come up with some kind of move of her own. What in the world would she have done if a bigger dog had gotten her by the tail?

...Use her legs, of course. It wasn't as if they were glued to the floor. While she wasn't necessarily a strong dog physically, Angel could at least try to make Patch let go by kicking him. She'd just have to try and avoid hurting him too badly. So, with that in mind, Angel raised her hind legs and struck out at Patch's chest. The more effective thing to do would have been going for his face, she realized, but she didn't want to damage him there. Not this soon in their friendship... Or whatever it was they had. Knocking the wind out of him should have been good enough... Right?

Angel sure hoped it was enough. The force should have made Patch let go of her one way or another. If not, she'd just have to try something else. It was like on the streets; she couldn't let some other dog beat her straight away. Especially not if they just so happened to be one of the nicest dogs she'd ever met.

[Patch]

"Eeuurgfff."

The sound was more grunt of pain than any actual intended coherent vocalisation. Angel's paws had caught the centre of Patch's chest with enough force to drive him backwards; and though the dalmatian tried to keep gripping her tail, a moment later he found himself sitting on his rear with a mouthfull of fluffy fur that he's apparently managed to strip from Angel's tail. Nowhere near enough to have left it bald, of course; but possibly enough for her to have felt it.

Spitting to try and clear his maw, Patch again scrambled back to his paws and gave himself another shake - and this time forgot to throw his tie out of the way over his shoulder. He frowned thoughtfully; this was proving to be harder than he had anticipated. He couldn't tackle her, or even hold her, apparently. What other options did he have?

Besides the tie. Patch was still determined not to make her suffer that way, even if it would be his easiest option by far. Was that just him being too nice for his own good?

Again, the male started to pad a circle around Angel in the hopes that it gave him some ideas. He could maybe go for her ears, or try and latch onto another piece of clothing - the loose folds of her shirt or skirt, maybe? Or he could try and surprise her with another tackle and hope it went right this time? Or even try for the throat; he'd have to be even more careful then, but that was what dogs did in serious fights, right?

Or he could wait for Angel to make her move and react to that; in fact, as long as it was taking Patch to chose his course of action, that was likely going to be what ended up happening.

[Angel]

Oh, she'd felt it all right. Fur being ripped from her tail would have been hard to miss. Thankfully, though, it looked like it was a negligible amount of damage. She looked back to inspect it while Patch spat out the fur, and tentatively gave her tail a wag. So far, there didn't seem to be any problems and it looked fairly normal still. That was all she really could ask for in the grand scheme of things. In the time she'd taken to observe her tail, however, Patch had taken the time to start trying to observe her again. He was circling her, and Angel dropped into a defensive position so she could determine what she ought to do too.

He was taking a lot longer to pick an option this time. This gave Angel plenty of opportunities to go at him, too. Maybe it was finally time for her to take advantage of the fact that his tie was so tantalizing to the eye. While Patch continued to debate, Angel leaped into action and did her best to get behind him. As soon as she was there, the fluffy female went straight for Patch's tie. She didn't tug on it hard enough to choke him completely, but it should have been enough to make it known that she had gotten a hold on it.

Now it was just a matter of how Patch would retaliate. That much was going to be interesting.

[Patch]

"Hey!"

Patch saw what Angel was trying to do, alright, and spun around to face her; but before he could react further, his tie was in her maw. Perhaps she hadn't been pulling hard enough to mess it up fully this time; Patch would never know, because as soon as he had become aware of her grip, the dalmatian had reacted on instinct and ducked backwards. If Angel's tugging hadn't caused the knot to jerk tight, his own action certainly did. It didn't choke him, she was pulling at the wrong direction for that; still, what had just seconds ago been a nice neat knot nestled in at his collar was now suddenly a tiny scrunched-up thing that looked quite ridiculous.

And she didn't seem to be letting up; so despite his earlier reservations, Patch did the only thing he could.

He went for her own tie.

The instant he felt the strip of green fabric in his mouth, the dalmatain yanked back on it with all the force he could muster. He felt kind of bad, still, for giving her a knot that would be a real pain to undo later; but honestly, he hadn't been able to think of any other reaction. Besides, fair was fair, right?

They must have looked kind of silly, he belatedly realised. Both standing there, pulling on each other's ties like some strange game of tug-o-war gone wrong; without much in the way of a clue of what to do next, however, Patch simply kept on pulling, casing both his and Angel's knots to screw up still further.

[Angel]

Really, Angel hadn't known enough about how ties worked to really figure out what the reaction would be from her pulling on Patch's. All she'd been able to guess at was that it would likely choke him. She hadn't thought about the angle at which she was doing the puling or anything else like that, really. Well, it was too late to really do anything about it. Soon she felt her own tie being yanked, and then... Well, the two found themselves at a bit of an awkward position. They must have looked so childish, pulling on each other's ties the way they were, but she hardly cared. Angel wasn't about to admit defeat just because she had a difficult knot to deal with now.

The little stray had to think of what the best course of action would be now. She could keep pulling on Patch's tie and hope for the best, but that seemed silly. Besides, Angel really didn't want to make herself look any more childish than she already had. What, then, could the mixed breed hope to accomplish now? The best thing to do may have been to let go of Patch's tie. It seemed reasonable enough to think that if she let go of Patch's light blue tie, he'd let go of her green one. But then what? She didn't really have a followup plan for letting go of his tie.

Come on, there's got to be something you can do...

If nothing else, she could try smacking Patch across the snout with her paw. Even with how she'd been living on the streets, her claws shouldn't have been sharp enough to do any real damage. The most she'd do was make his muzzle sore. So, as Angel let go of Patch's tie, she raised a paw and attempted to smack the top of Patch's muzzle.

[Patch]

Patch felt the release of his tie as Angel let go, felt it drop back down to dangle between his legs - though where the knot had formerly been neatly up against his collar-button, it now hung a slight way down his chest looking rather pathetic with how small and tight it had become - but now that he had hold of Angel's, the dalmatian wasn't willing to let go quite so soon. With the freedom of his own tie, he pulled back on hers in earnest, hoping that maybe now he could jerk Angel off her feet so he could get on top of her and pin her-

He never got the chance. A yelp slipped Patch's maw as Angel batted at his muzzle, and he let go of her tie on reflex, falling back a pace or two to massage his nose. It hadn't hurt much, not really; it had been the shock of it more than anything else that had caused him to cry out. Once he'd finished rubbing his nose, Patch looked back up at Angel again.

He winced slightly. He'd really done a number on her tie; just like his, the knot no longer hugged her collar smartly, and had instead screwed up even smaller than he would have imagined possible. Perhaps if he hadn't liked her so much, he wouldn't have thought a lot of it; as it was, though, Patch felt kind of guilty for messing her tie up so much. Even if she had done his first.

"Um, if you want me to help you with that after class...?" he began to offer, then stopped and shook himself.

Focus, Patch!

Sure, she'd helped him when his had got in a mess earlier that day; and sure, he wanted to return the favour if he could, particularly since he was to blame here; but stopping to ask would only get his tail kicked by her. Once more, Patch flipped his tie over his shoulder - not that it mattered now, already being in the state that it was - and pondered his next move again.

Come on, Patch. Be clever... do a feint or something.

Since that wasn't a bad bit of self-advice, Patch went for it. He darted forward, as though he was going to go for the girl's tie once more; then at the last moment changed tactic and threw himself at her midsection instead. This time, he was sure, she wouldn't have chance to dodge, and with a little luck he would bowl her clean onto her back. Whether that actually worked out or not, was another matter entirely.

[Angel]

Only then did Angel really see how her tie's knot had been messed up. She was about to try and fix it  by sticking a claw in as far as it would go to pull it free when she caught Patch's words. Really, she should have made some little remark about being able to handle it herself. The only thing that stopped her was the fact that Patch was running toward her once more and apparently going for her tie again. Angel prepared herself to try and retaliate, but when it looked like Patch was about to go for her tie for real he succeeded in faking her out.

This time, Patch succeeded in surprising her. Angel was unable to dodge the tackle, and she was bowled over onto the floor. She landed on her back and a soft grunt escaped her when she hit the floor. The landing hadn't hurt that much, but it had done enough to keep her on the ground for a few moments. Angel had been more stunned than anything else. In her present position, Patch would have been able to pin her down and do just about anything to her.

...Really, though, as she started to come out of her stunned state Angel realized that this might be a good thing. If he did try to pin her down, she could always retaliate by kicking her hind legs out in an attempt to shove him off. Yes, that may have been the best option. She'd just have to see what happened next to determine if she could do it.

[Patch]

He- he'd done it!

Elation blossomed on Patch's face; and it was a good thing for him Angel had been mildly stunned, because for a good moment or two, the dal was too caught up in his success to remember to make another move at all as he stood astride her downed form. It was only just before the little female began to come back to herself that Patch abruptly caught his error and hurried to correct it. Within moments, the spotty male had her pinned in what he assumed was a satisfactory manner; his forepaws pressed down on her chest, one either side of her mess of a tie, while one hind paw had settled down upon her fluffball of a tail and the final one sat firmly on the floor. The dal's tail wagged enthusiastically behind him. He had her!

He sort of wished he'd thought of the feint idea before their tie-pulling fiasco; then they wouldn't both had knots that would doubtless be murder to undo. Regardless, Patch was still incredibly pleased that he'd actually managed to best Angel - or at least, thought that he had. Just to make sure, the dal checked that his tie was still safely out of her reach over his shoulder; he didn't particularly fancy being throttled by her a second time.

"Yes! I did it!" he yipped happily, turning his attention fully back to Angel. Actually... having the pretty girl so near as directly beneath him as this was making Patch feel a little hot and uncomfortable, now that he thought about it. They were close enough to... to nuzzle, or trade affectionate licks, or something, had either been inclined to at this moment. A hint of flush rose to his cheeks, and his stomach did a little flip at the proximity between them.

"D-do you give up, Angel?" he asked hopefully. As much as he was sure being this close to her was an incredibly desirable thing, Patch hadn't entirely been expecting it, and he would be all too willing to pull away as soon as Angel answered in the affirmative. Until then, however, he'd keep her pinned in spite of his own discomfort; he had no intention of giving her the upper hand back.

[Angel]

Did she really want to go for it?

Now that she had Patch this close to her, Angel found herself on the end of the feeling that may have been all over Patch before. He was just inches away from being affectionately touched and licked. Her plan of kicking him off of her had disappeared all too quickly, and instead, Angel let him keep her pinned. Being this close to an adorable dalmatian was enough to make her forget the fact that they were in a training class. Luckily for her, though, Angel was managing to keep her smile from getting too goofy. Her breath was a bit fluttery and she felt her heart beating noticeably faster. Was this what it was like? Falling for someone...?

"You sure did," Angel finally managed to say in response to Patch's declaration that he'd done it. He'd managed to pin a dog who had a fair amount of street smarts on her side and experience in defending herself. Granted, said experience came from learning how to try and keep bigger dogs from overpowering her. It was still remarkable that Patch, a house pet, had managed to beat her right then.

"...Yeah. You did good, Patch," Angel answered. She had lost her drive to try and get him off of her long ago. For the moment, it seemed that she was admitting defeat. Besides, she'd humiliated them both enough with the whole tie pulling escapade. The less either of them spoke about it, the better.

[Patch]

She thought he'd done good? The prettiest girl dog alive - at least in his limited experience - thought he'd done good? Patch beamed from ear to ear, basking in her praise, and it was a long moment before he remembered that he should be getting off her now. In truth, the little dal was conflicted as to whether he actually wanted to step off or not; as hot and flustered as it was making him, he kind of liked having her so close; and having her pinned was making him feel acomplished, too. There was nothing to be gained from keeping her flat on her back on the floor, however, so Patch quickly stepped away, allowing the girl to regain her paws.

The rest of the class still seemed to be busy sparring - and apparently none of them had gone in for the whole tie fiasco like he and Angel had - so Patch decided no-one would really notice if the two of them took a breather for the moment. Took a breather, and tried to do something about the admittedly rather pathetic state of their ties.

Since Angel's appeared rather more worse for wear than his own - even worse than his had been in the library that morning; he'd got carried away, Patch was embarrassingly aware - so aside from shaking his tie back down to a more typical position, Patch figured he ought to offer her assistance with her knot before setting to work on his own. Once she was up, he padded back to her side.

"Do you need any help, Angel?" he asked, eyeing up her wrecked tie-knot. His ears flattened slightly and an slight blush of embarrassment pinked his cheeks. He couldn't deny that she'd looked almost as good when it had been tied neatly as he imagined she would when she wasn't wearing anything beyond her fur; now... not so much.

"I sort of- ah- sorry."

[Angel]

As soon as he allowed her, Angel got to her paws and shook herself out. Her eyes flicked down to her tie soon after and a little smirk formed on her face. That little knot was the end result of their tie pulling tactic, and she honestly had no one to blame but herself for that much. It had been a childish tactic, she realized, but there was nothing to be done for it but to fix the tie. She lifted a paw to try and undo the knot when Patch spoke up. This got Angel to look away from the little knot and back to him. His tie wasn't much better, but it looked as though his knot wasn't as bad as her own. His offer to help wasn't about to be turned down. It only made sense that she'd let him help. After all, she'd fixed his tie once before. It was time Patch returned the favor.

"It's fine. The whole thing was my doing, so I guess I got what I deserved in the end," she laughed. She moved her paw to hold the knot a bit better and showed it to Patch. It wasn't long after that that she decided to answer his question.

"I wouldn't mind if you helped to fix it, though."

[Patch]

Patch could still only grin sheepishly out the corner of his maw. In truth, he didn't think Angel had deserved what she'd got at all. Sure, she'd started it; but Patch hardly held that against her and since he saw her as a very pretty and genuinely nice girl, it didn't make him feel much better about the damage he'd caused. Even if she was laughing it off easily, Patch felt like he'd done something stupid by retaliating in the way he had. He could at least have gone for her ear or something... quite honestly, though, the tie had just been way too tempting.

"It wasn't a bad tactic on your part," he mumbled slightly as she stepped forward to inspect Angel's tie as she held it out. What a mess... he had pulled much harder than he had meant to, and he wasn't sure the knot was even recognisable as the neat thing it had started off as. "I was thinking of it myself first, but I didn't want to mess you up... but that didn't really work." He shrugged awkwardly. If she hadn't used his against him, would he still have gone for hers? Probably, in the end, Patch figured. There was no way he could have ignored the tempting way the strip of fabric dangled for too long.

"Um, let's see..." he swallowed as Angel accepted his offer of help, and ventured another step closer before sitting to his rear and taking her knot in his own paws. The dalmatian made a valiant attempt not to appear too flustered, and turned his attention to the matter of her tie. If nothing else, he supposed, he could see the knot from a better angle than she could... maybe he could get something done.

Carefully, so as not to accidentally pull the seam, Patch worked one claw, then another, into the knot's centre. There wasn't much give to it... it had been well and truly screwed tight, no doubts there. But the spotty male wasn't going to be discouraged; he'd done this to her, he could undo it for her as well, right?

He hoped.

"This is probably going to take a while," he pointed out abashedly as he poked and prodded at the knot. That was, he figured, the one advantage of how often he'd stepped on his tie the first few days here; he'd got used to this process. After a moment, he spoke up again.

"So, uh, no hard feelings about this, Angel?" he asked hopefully, trying not to think about just how close together they were, for what was the third time already that same day. Was this going to become a regular thing? He wouldn't deny there was something he liked about Angel, but... he wasn't sure he'd be able to manage if their getting so close was going to become a common occurance.