[The apartment itself isn't ground floor, but Tim kicks himself for claiming it anyway. The traffic is something he very foolishly had forgotten all about and now: this.
It sounds like someone is trying to kick in his door when all Tim had wanted was to keep writing his notes, hunched over a low coffee table and Etraya's public network forum on display. He growls, train of thought successfully derailed.
--someone is trying to kick in his door.
Tim is scowling, opening the door and his mouth
and then he's not.]
Lily?
[A wolfdog. Golden eyes. Small framed. Off white, gray tufts of fur over her shoulder and hips and Tim's frozen with the door open only halfway because he doesn't know what] Where'd you find her? [The words are rough; Tim's mouth hot and dry. His eyes are, shockingly, dry too. Tim turns them to-] Damian? [He doesn't know what to call the boy, so the name is soundless. The fear isn't.
A boy and his dog, on his doorstep. A boy and his dog. A boy and his dog.
Rude.
It sounds like someone is trying to kick in his door when all Tim had wanted was to keep writing his notes, hunched over a low coffee table and Etraya's public network forum on display. He growls, train of thought successfully derailed.
--someone is trying to kick in his door.
Tim is scowling, opening the door and his mouth
and then he's not.]
Lily?
[A wolfdog. Golden eyes. Small framed. Off white, gray tufts of fur over her shoulder and hips and Tim's frozen with the door open only halfway because he doesn't know what] Where'd you find her? [The words are rough; Tim's mouth hot and dry. His eyes are, shockingly, dry too. Tim turns them to-] Damian? [He doesn't know what to call the boy, so the name is soundless. The fear isn't.
A boy and his dog, on his doorstep. A boy and his dog. A boy and his dog.
Tim swallows around the lump in his throat.]
She recognized you.
[Or else she wouldn't be leashed.]