Philophobia: A GerIta Story (Rewritten)

Chapter Fourteen (Ludwig) - with an important note at the end

Feli staying at my house seemed to set off a chain reaction.

Suddenly, it seemed he was over here all the time.

Okay, in reality it was more like two or three times a week since he works and relies on other people to drive him, but it's still way more than before...considering before had been zero times a week, I guess.

He often came with Gilbert and Matthew on days he was free from work, and Feli joining the three of us for dinners was now a part of the routine I settled myself into.

In addition to Feli, Lovino and Antonio came to dinner once as well.

At first, it had been one of the most stressful dinners with Matthew and Gilbert I'd ever experienced, but eventually I actually started to enjoy myself, especially when I got used to Lovino's humor sense.

Lovino and Antonio were both full of stories of Feliciano, and it became an impromptu competition between them and Gilbert to see who had the most embarrassing story of their little brother.

The other four loved it, while Feli and I had been mortified.

However, by the end of the night, we were laughing together as Feli and I got our revenge with stories of Lovino and Gilbert, which Matthew happily added to despite the playful betrayed look on Gilbert's face.

Though...I couldn't help but notice none of the stories included Lovino and Feliciano's parents.

They included Antonio's moms, or school, or their grandfather, but no mention of their parents in the dozens of stories told.

I knew there would be a reason for it, so I didn't ask, but it did make me curious.

Antonio, Feliciano, and Lovino left late into the evening, and that night I collapsed into bed and slept without a single nightmare.

That had been a few days ago, and now I was waiting for Matthew and Gilbert to arrive with Matthew's service dog in training.

Padfoot, the dogs now official name, had arrived two days after the promised date due to a few issues and had been settling into Matthew and Gilbert's place for the last two weeks, which meant they hadn't been able to come over in that time. Outside of messages, I had predominately been back to my isolated state, which was strange to return to after spending so much time with actual people in person.

However, it did give me the time to complete editing my third draft and begin my fourth, so some good did come from it.

Today was the first time I would be meeting Padfoot, and we were going to introduce him to Alaric. The other dogs were in the backyard, with Alaric at my feet.

See, Padfoot is four months old and has little experience with other dogs besides the other dogs within the matching program, so we decided him meeting Alaric, a neutral dog who is not only well behaved but very calm compared to some of my other dogs, would be the best idea for right now and then slowly we'd introduce the other dogs over time.

I look up when a knock sounds at the door, Alaric does as well before looking at me for a moment, and I stand from the couch, looking out of the peephole to see Matthew and Gilbert outside.

Both Gilbert and Matthew smile when I open the door, and despite how much I love them, I want to see Padfoot and how adorable he is just a little bit more.

I'm definitely not disappointed.

Padfoot is already a big boy despite being four months. According to the last time they measured, he's 46 pounds and 19 inches. Padfoot has paws too big for him that Matthew told me he sometimes trips over, and a huge head with big eyes that look at me in excitement as he wags his tail quickly.