Snippets/Give ups/etc.

Lucy and Cale

Ray had forgotten how sharp teeth can bite.

When Ray first got Lucy, he had noticed her face first. Obviously, as a kid, he had wanted a pretty doggy. His parents had wanted a gentle one. Lucy was both.

She was a Bernese Mountain dog, pretty, known to be gentle. Ray loved her, so he was very sad when they had to leave her alone for three or four days with a babysitter.

He was happy when they got back early, he wasn't when he saw Lucy again. She was bloody, hurt. And she looked at him like a stranger. Little Ray reached out, sobbing a little and calling for Lucy when her jaw opened and her teeth dug into his arm. Then, he wasn't sobbing for Lucy; he was sobbing because of Lucy.

Ray learnt how sharp teeth can bite then, but he got over it.

Lucy had suffered under their sitter's hands, and on her road to recovery, Ray was there. He got bitten more times than he can count, but he learnt sharp teeth can be soft sometimes.

He thought Cale would be the same.

He was wrong.

When Ray met Cale, he wasn't looking for a pretty face, and his parents weren't looking for a gentle personality. Ray also wasn't six anymore.

Cale had been a mean boy, a bully. And, weirdly enough, Ray had seen him and thought of Lucy. So, he approached Cale.

Ten-year-old Ray was a weird little thing; he knew when Cale had bitten and barked at him while Ray just held tighter. He had glued Cale back together, and Cale had watched him do it and grew softer too.

So, yeah, Ray had forgotten how sharp teeth can bite.

Cale wasn't like Lucy, Lucy was safe. Cale wasn't. He was still in that home, and, at some point, broke because of it.

So when he bit Ray, it was hard. It was violent. It was frightening. And Cale hadn't felt sorry. Not then.

Ray hadn't quite left like he should've. Because he wasn't looking for a pretty ending. Because his parents weren't looking for a gentle soul and weren't there to tell him otherwise. Because Ray saw Lucy in Cale.

He stayed anyway, the soft fluff Cale could bite but not hurt. Cale didn't know then that, although he didn't bleed, he burned.

And Cale, like Lucy, got noticed by his parents. Except Cale wasn't a gentle soul, and now his parents were there to tell him 'no'.

"You haven't met him!" Ray had cried, clinging to his mom.

"We don't have to." His dad had said, angry for Ray. Ray didn't want him to be, he didn't need to be. Ray didn't want it.

"That boy isn't good, darling. We don't want to see you with him." His mom had huffed, patting his head. Ray had clenched her shirt in his hands then.

He didn't respond.

He, unlike some, didn't bite.

He left Cale alone, not because he wanted to, but because his parents bought the teacher's supervision and any attempt to get close was nipped at the bud.

But his parents should have known Ray wouldn't leave Cale alone for long.

Ray came back the following year, with new, un-bribed teachers. And continued following Cale around like nothing ever happened.