Puppy Love - 3. Chapter 3

Pulling up in front of his own camp, Blaine unloaded the pup before unloading the supplies that he had bought. After setting up the Kennel, Blaine grabbed the open can of dog food and poured a small amount in the dish before setting it in front of the pup. He hated to see how the pup wolfed the food down, proving again how starved he was.

Grabbing the brush that he’d bought, Blaine walked over and sat in his chair before calling the pup over to him and picking it up. Running the brush through its course hair, Blaine started wondering about a name.

“What do you think little guy, what should we name ya?” Blain chuckled as the pup barked at him. “Well, I guess we could call ya Ruff, that would work. You were in pretty rough shape when I found ya. Then there’s the fact that you lived in the rough wilderness, so I guess that’s your name.”

***

Blaine groaned as he sat up in his tent. It had proved to be a long night, as the pup cried all night after being put in its Kennel. Levi had assured him that the pup would get used to it, but Blaine figured that he would get accustomed to the sound of the pup whining before then. Slipping into his jeans, Blaine quickly put his shoes and socks on before opening the Kennel and taking the pup out to do its thing. Stepping out into the chilly morning, Blaine shuddered and quickly reached back into the tent to grab his jacket. Slipping it on he walked towards the water’s edge and smiled when he seen the pup follow along behind him.

“You’re sure up early this morning,” said a voice from behind him.

Whirling around, Blaine was surprised to see Levi standing behind him, a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and a thermos in the other. Turning back towards the water, Blaine wasn’t surprised when Levi walked up beside him. He was surprised when a cup of steaming coffee suddenly materialized in front of him. Taking the cup offered to him he gazed questionably over to Levi.

“I figured you’d probably had a pretty rough night and could use a cup of coffee.”

“How’d you know that I’d be up early?”

“I wasn’t sure that you would, but I’ve had a pup before and they tend to wake up early. That’s if they sleep at all, and normally when you first start crate training them they are up most of the night wanting let out.”

“Yeah, well, that fits Ruff perfectly.”

“Ruff?”

“Yep, that’s his new name. He barked at me and I figured that the name seemed to fit him pretty good.”

“Yeah, that sounds like it should work. So what are your plans for today?”

“Don’t know, haven’t really thought about it yet. Figured I’d go for a small walk or something, take Ruff along.”

“Might be a good idea, just don’t forget the leash, first off you don’t want him running off and second, the park rangers can be pretty big asses about that kind of stuff.”

“Yeah well, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because I just happen to be one of those asses.”

“Oh. Shit. Sorry Blaine, I didn’t mean it like that. I was just saying.”

“I know what you were just saying. Don’t worry about it, I know the rules and even though I’m the one that enforces them I know that it doesn’t give me a license to break them.”

“That’s good to know,” Levi said, hating that he put his foot in his mouth. Here he was, trying to get to know Blaine more, and he inadvertently called him an ass. It was suddenly proving not to be his morning. “So, you want company on that walk?”

“I don’t know if that would be a good idea Levi. I’m not the most fun person to be around at the moment.”

“Well, I’d say that’s almost an understatement, but we don’t have to talk about anything if you don’t want to or we could talk about the pup. Sometimes it’s good to talk about what is bothering you though.”

“Maybe, I just don’t really feel like talking about it at the moment, but if you agree to drop it, you can come along with me and Ruff.”

“Then let’s go,” Levi said before turning on his heel and heading towards one of the trails.

“Before we go I need to put a shirt on and grab the leash.”

“Ah, wanted to get the pup outside so it’d quit whining huh?”

“Yeah, something like that,” Blaine said before striding towards his tent.

Levi watched as Blaine disappeared into his tent and come back out with a bright red t-shirt clutched in one hand. Levi laughed at the way the pup dogged every one of Blaine’s steps. “Seems like he knows who his new owner is.”

“Yeah, he’s been like that since I brought him back here yesterday. He probably would have been quiet last night if I’d let him sleep with me, but I can’t do that until I know that he’s not going to have an accident in the night.”

“Yeah, that’s always a good idea, besides; the crate won’t hurt him at all. He’ll learn that the crate is for sleeping, as long as you don’t put him in it constantly when he’s in trouble. If you do that, then the pup will quickly learn that the crate is to be hated and will be that much worse.”

“I’ll have to remember that.”

“Yeah, it will work out, you just have to remember that,” Levi said as he watched Blaine strip of his jacket and quickly don the shirt over his skin before slipping the heavy jacket back on.

“Yeah, it will, just have to get used to it. If you’re going to go with, let’s get going,” Blaine said before bending over and snapping the leash to the matching blue collar. As he started walking the pup quickly got used to the slight pull of the leash and fell in step next to Blaine.

“The fact that Ruff already seems to love you is really going to help you out in training him, especially for leash training. Pups usually pull at the leash a lot more than he is right now. As long as he’s with you he seems to be fine. I want to check something though; can I have a hold of the leash for a minute?”

“Sure, what are you going to do?”

“I just want to see something. You stay put and I’m going to try and go up the trail a bit with him and see how he reacts.”

Blaine watched as Levi started walking off with Ruff. At first it seemed like all was going well, at least until the pup realized that Blaine wasn’t with them and stopped. Levi kept walking but the pup started pulling at the leash more. Levi finally let go of the leash and they both watched as the pup headed straight back to Blaine.

“He definitely knows who his owner is. I hope you planned on keeping him.”

“Yeah, I kind of decided too, I’m hoping that nobody comes to claim him because I wouldn’t want to give him up right now.”

“I can see that, you guys have a pretty good bond already. Normally it takes a lot longer to create that type of a bond with an animal. I treat pets all the time that have been with their owners for years and they still don’t stick to them that much. He must have sensed that you needed a friend.”

“I have friends, that’s not what my problem is.”

“So, what is your problem then.”

“A bad break-up. Basically having someone I trusted turn on me. Someone doing their best to ruin my life. That about sums it up,” Blaine said without really thinking of what he was saying. He knew that Mark had tried to get him to talk about it, but he just hadn’t felt comfortable for some reason. He figured that the main reason because he wasn’t sure who he could trust. He had trusted Christian and Christian had turned out to be someone that he should never have trusted in the first place.

“Well, break-ups are always hard, but that doesn’t mean you have to isolate yourself, that is what you’re doing, right?”

“Yeah well, when you’re ex decides to out you to your parents and then you’re not allowed in their house, it kind of makes you want to be somewhere else.” As if he had suddenly realized what he said, Blaine stopped in his tracks, wondering if he had just fucked up by admitting to Levi that he was gay.

“So, I’m guessing that means that your parents didn’t take the news too well?”

“Nah, but then, I don’t know that many parents who do take that kind of news too well.”

“Well, I don’t know about that, mine didn’t seem to mind the news all that much.”

“You mean, you’re…” Blaine stuttered.

“Yeah, I kind of thought that I gave that away when I told you that I had found something that I liked looking at.”

“Yeah, well, sorry to say it, but I was kind of out of it.”

“Yeah, I know you were. I figured it was either that or that it didn’t bother you when you didn’t try to pummel me. Just wasn’t exactly sure which one it was.”

“Sorry about that, it’s just been a rough few days.”

“Sounds like it. So what did you mean about a bad break-up?”

“Well, not a whole lot. Been with the guy for about six months or so, gave up my apartment to move in with him.”

“So that’s what you meant when you said you’d have to find a place with a yard?”

“Yeah, don’t have enough saved up to just move into a place, so I’ll be staying out here for a couple weeks more than likely.”

“Well, if you ever need it, there’s a spare bed at my house, plus there’s a yard that Ruff could run around in.”

“Thanks for the offer, but we’ll be fine. I’m used to spending a lot of time out here, and if Ruff is going to be mine then he’ll have to get used to it.”

“I’m sure he already is used to it Blaine, who knows how long he’s been out here on his own.”

“Yeah, I know, but now he’s not on his own, so hopefully he’ll be okay with it.”

“I’m sure he will be, just give him time and I’m sure that things will work out. If you want, I come out here just about every weekend, and if you need anything you can always call and I can bring it out with me when I come.”

“That’d be cool, I guess.”

“I’ll make sure to give you my cell number when we get back to the campsite.”

“So what did you mean about your ex telling your parents you were gay?”

“Exactly what I said, but listen, not to sound rude, but I would rather not talk about that right now. It’s still a fairly touchy subject, seeing as how it just recently happened.”

“Okay, sorry, didn’t mean to push.”

“That’s okay, you couldn’t have known.”

“Yeah, but you had told me before that you didn’t want to talk about it and so I shouldn’t have even brought it up. I just want to get to know a bit more about you.”

“I understand that, and I’m not upset about it, but I would rather drop it now.”

“Sure thing, no more about it, promise.”

“Thanks.”

Blaine and Levi walked for a while in a companionable silence, Ruff trotting along between them. Blaine hadn’t realized that they’d gone as far as they had until he felt the sun beating down on him from above. Glancing down at his watch he was surprised to see that they had been walking for almost two hours.

“I guess we should be heading back,” Blaine said laughing. “I kind of lost track of time and I think someone is tuckered out.”

“Nah, I’m okay.”

“I wasn’t talking about you, I was talking about Ruff. This had to have been pretty rough on him. We may have to carry him back.”

“That’s quite a ways to go, but with us carrying him we’ll probably get back quicker. Besides, we did take a couple breaks.”

“Yeah, that’s true, but it’s past time for the little guy to get something in his belly, besides, since he’s already underweight I don’t think he needs any more of a walk today.”

“Yeah, you’re right there,” Levi said, bending down to pick the pup up. “I’ll take the first shift of carrying him back and then you can have your turn.”

“Oh, you mean you’re going to carry me back too? COOL!”

“Oh good lord, the man has a sense of humor,” Levi said laughing.

“Yeah, it just takes some time to bring out and I haven’t found that much that’s funny lately.”

“I understand that, we’ll just have to find you stuff to laugh at.”

“We’ll see about that, not so sure that I want a whole bunch to laugh at.”

“Laughing is always a good thing. I don’t think someone likes to be carried,” Levi said as Ruff started struggling in his arms.

“Maybe he just wants me to carry him,” Blaine offered. Reaching out he took the pup from Levi and felt a tingle in his spine as his fingers brushed against Levi’s. He jerked back quickly causing the pup to whimper softly before setting into Blaine’s arms. “See, I told ya, he just wanted me instead of you.”

“Well, that’s nice to know I guess.”

“Yeah, well, like you said, he knows who his new owner is.”

“Which is a good thing.”

“So, what prompted you to become a vet,” Blaine asked, wanting to get onto a subject that he hoped wasn’t touchy.

“Well, when I was younger I came across some kids beating on a dog. It pissed me off and I chased them off and took the dog to the vet. After that I always tried to take care of any animal that I found and back then our house kind of became a zoo. I brought home every stray I found. My parents eventually made me find homes for all of them, so it worked out, but I decided then and there that I wanted to help animals, so I became a vet.”

“Must have taken a lot of years.”

“Yeah, it did, but my parents were very supportive of my decision. What about you? What caused you to become a park ranger?”

“Nothing really exciting, just love being out in the wilderness. I figured I may as well do a job that I know I would enjoy, and what better than being able to spend every day out here?”

“That makes sense. I have always enjoyed being out here, it’s so peaceful.”

“Yeah, it is, that’s why I came out here. Gave me some solitude when I desperately needed it.”

“Well, when you need to disappear for a while it’s always a good thing to have someplace to go that you can enjoy.”

“Yeah, and other than you and my friend Mark, it’s just been me out here. Haven’t had to face very many people which is a good thing, because I don’t think I could.”

“I understand that, I’m sorry that I intruded on your solitude.”

“No, you didn’t intrude, just wasn’t expecting the company I guess and I was still a bit sore from everything that happened. It’s easier to push people away than let them get close.”

“Yeah, but if you need to talk you can always talk to me.”

“Or Ruff,” Blaine said laughing. “At least I know I could talk to him without having him talk back to me.”

“Yeah, I guess. Though he does talk back, you just never know what it is that he is saying. Though I bet that he’d tell you to be nice to the wonderful vet that you met.”

“Maybe he would, but then again, we’ll never know. He may not like everything that the vet did to him,” Blaine answered, gazing at Levi out of the corner of his eye and smiling softly at the dejected look that came over Levi’s face. He knew that Levi was interested in him, but at the moment he just could not see himself getting involved with anyone. At the point he was at now he hated even admitting to himself that he found Levi visually stimulating.

Blaine knew that if were to take Levi in his arms that the tip of Levi’s head would probably just meet his lips. He had to keep himself from looking into Levi’s hazel eyes because every time he did he felt as though he could lose himself in them. Blaine couldn’t believe how many times he’d had the desire to press his lips against the lush firmness of Levi’s lips or run his fingers through that shoulder length golden hair. He knew that he had come off kind of harsh with Levi, but he hadn’t wanted to let on that he was interested. He was still getting over the break-up with Christian and he didn’t want to chance getting hurt again.

Blaine hadn’t realized how lost in thought he’d gotten until he realized that they were just a short distance from camp. Now that he was more aware of his surroundings he could feel the heaviness of the pup in his arms. Deciding that they were close enough to camp, he set the pup down and unhooked it from the leash, letting it follow him and Levi back to camp. Upon reaching camp, Blaine grabbed the open can of dog food and put it in the pups dish before grabbing a beer for himself out of the cooler.

“Would you like one?” He asked Levi.

“Sure, if you’ve got an extra one.”

“No problem, I am definitely stocked up on beer. You can’t drown your miseries in booze if you don’t have the booze,” he said laughing.

“That’s true,” Levi said, sitting in one of the lawn chairs and taking the beer that Blaine handed to him. The day had turned out to be better than he had figured it would be. He had about half expected some more of the cold shoulder from Blaine that he had gotten yesterday. He had the feeling that the pup had softened up the man more than he would ever admit.

“So, how long are you going to be out here for?” Blaine asked.

“I have to head back into town tomorrow so that I can open the office up on Monday. I took Thursday and Friday off of last week so that I could just get away for a few days, but vacation can only last so long.”

“Yeah, I know that feeling. I’m lucky though, I have the next two weeks off. Took a couple weeks of paid vacation to figure out what it is I am going to do.”

“Well, don’t forget that you can always come crash at my place if you need to. Next time I come out I’ll bring one of my dogs and we’ll see how well he gets along with other animals.”

“Why didn’t you bring them this time?”

“One of my neighbors kids needed to earn a little extra money and asked if I had anything that he could do. I originally planned on bringing the dogs with me, but decided that it would be a good job for the kid.”

“That sounds cool; I bet he’ll enjoy that.”

”Yeah, though I’m sure the dogs would rather be out here, but sometimes it’s hard to get them to leave the cat and camping just isn’t a cat thing.”

“Yeah, I can imagine that. Though when I was younger I had a cat that went everywhere with me, it especially loved car rides.”

“You took the cat camping with you?”

“Yeah, sometimes, she loved it, but I was younger then and didn’t think about what could happen if she climbed a tree and fell or if any wild animals came into camp. I don’t bring cats on camping trips anymore. I don’t even have a cat at the moment.”

“Well, that might be a good thing with everything that you’re going through.”

“Yeah, I didn’t want to have to look out for anybody but myself. Now I have Ruff to look after though.”

“The good thing about dogs is that they can usually pretty much take care of themselves, but I’m glad that Ruff has you, it looks to me like he’s taken care of himself long enough.”

“You got that right; I just didn’t have the heart to turn him away.”

“What can I say, I’m a softy.”

“A pretty good looking softy from where I’m sitting,” Levi said, enjoying the blush that crept across the other man’s face.

Blaine enjoyed the idle chit chat between him and Levi and was almost saddened when Levi stood up to leave. He knew that he had said that he wanted the solitude, but he had gotten kind of used to having the other man around to talk to.

“Well Blaine, I’ve had fun talking to you, but I guess I’d best get back to my own campsite and get something fixed up for lunch.”

“You’re more than welcome to stay here for lunch, I was just going to go for a swim and then fix something. Not sure what I’m going to fix, but I’ll figure it out.”

“You sure you don’t mind the company?”

“Nah, it’s cool. Well hell, guess I’d better at least go back to camp and grab my swim suit.”

“Why? It’s just us and I’ll promise not to look if you don’t,” Blaine joked.

“Oh, I don’t mind the looking but I wouldn’t want to embarrass you.”

“You won’t, besides, you’ve already seen me, and so I don’t have much to worry about there.”

“No, you don’t, you want to get the pup settled and I’ll meet ya down at the water?”

“You crazy? He’s going down there with us. He can either play around the water’s edge or he can join us in the water if he wants. When we get back up here I’ll go ahead and feed him.”

Levi smiled as he watched Blaine head down towards the water. He couldn’t believe how friendly Blaine had gotten after he had gotten to know him a little bit more. He liked the easy banter that had happened during the day and he had quite a bit more insight into the type of person that Blaine was. He smiled as he watched Blaine strip down and head into the water, the pup pacing along the shoreline.

“Well, you going to just stand there or are you going to come in? The water is nice and cool and pretty refreshing.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming,” Levi grinned before stripping out of his clothes and leaving them in a pile by the lake. He waded in and as soon as he knew that the water was deep enough he dove in. As soon as he resurfaced he noticed that Blaine had already swum out a bit further. Smiling he started propelling himself through the water only to be surprised when Blaine suddenly went under. He stopped and started treading water only to get an unpleasant surprise when he suddenly found himself being pulled under the surface. He came up spluttering only to find Blaine a short ways away laughing.

“Didn’t I tell you that the water was refreshing,” Blaine asked.

“Yeah, well, I’ll just have to get you back for that one,” Levi said before taking off and using his strong arms to propel himself towards his target.

Blaine realized his intention a second too late and Levi quickly caught up to him, dunking him under the water. This time is was Blaine who came up spluttering and they soon found themselves engaged in a dunking war. Blaine couldn’t believe how much fun he was having but he froze when he felt Levi’s dick brush up against his leg. Despite the coolness of the water he could feel the blood flooding his shaft and he felt his face heat up as his cock stirred slowly to life. Blaine decided that the best course of action would be too put some distance between himself and Levi and quickly swam a few feet away. He was stopped as a hand encircled his ankle and pulled him under.

When he came up he was spitting out water and turned to face Levi to give him a piece of his mind only to stop at the heated look in Levi’s eyes. As much as Blaine wanted to swim away from him he couldn’t tear his gaze away from those eyes. He was completely enthralled by the intensity shooting from those eyes and couldn’t even move when Levi started moving even closer to him. Blaine felt the shiver go through his body as Levi moved closer to him. He knew that he should move away but all thought were completely erased as Levi stopped in front of him and placed his lips against Blaine’s.

Levi felt as though the world had stopped spinning when he felt Blaine’s lips against his. Levi no longer felt the cold of the water, but the heat from Blaine’s lips warmed his entire body. All thoughts left his mind as he and Blaine kissed and they all came flooding back the second that Blaine pulled away. Levi looked into Blaine’s eyes and felt his heart break at the fear that he saw reflected there. He watched powerlessly as Blaine backed away in the water before turning and swimming swiftly towards shore.

After gathering his thoughts together he followed as quickly as he could behind Blaine, praying that he hadn’t just made a huge mistake. By the time he reached the water’s edge, Blaine was already gone and so was Ruff. Grabbing up his clothes, Levi headed towards Blaine’s camp, hating the fact that he had forgot to grab a towel from Blaine. As he got closer to the camp he noticed the towel sitting on a lawn chair and grabbed it, drying himself off as he looked around camp, hoping to see any sign that Blaine was still there. The fact that the truck was there was somewhat comforting, but he didn’t see Blaine or the dog anywhere in sight.