Page 81 of Wrestling with Daddy

“Why?”

Ken was the first one to say Ash could be a lot to handle, but he was also one of the best pups he knew. He just avoided letting the younger guy know that, lest it get to his head.

“Ash… uh, he just went into puppy mode and he came to me and was trying to nuzzle me, and I didn’t…” Nathan swallowed. “I didn’t know what to do, okay? And like, he hadn’t said he was going to do that, and I didn’t have my muzzle on, and it came out of nowhere!”

Ken paused. “It came… out of nowhere… that someone wanted to play as a pup… in a pupnic.”

It couldn’t sound outlandish only to his own ears.

“It was too much, okay?!”

Nathan’s fearful stance was soon replaced with an angrier one, one which exclaimed and waved his arms around to prove his point.

“Deep breaths, boy,” Ken warned. He’d been right about that incoming headache. “You’re going to have to explain it all a bit better than that.”

“Or you can just hug me and tell me it’s all good,” Nathan had the nerve to grumble, apparently, arms crossed over his chest, chin tucked down.

Giving him a side-eye, too.

“Careful, brat,” Ken’s tone dropped lower this time. “I want to hear your side of the story, and I want to comfort you because you were clearly upset when you came in here, but I’m not tolerating any disrespect.”

“T-that’s not–” Nathan started spluttering.

“I want you to apologize. To both Ash and Lee.”

“But I did nothing!”

Ken pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know what you did or didn’t do yet, do I, boy? What I do know is that Lee had to stop what he was doing to call me and check in on you, and Ash, who you saw hadn’t wanted to get any of us involved in the pupnic shenanigans, texted Lee. So, why did Ash feel like this was something that needed Lee’s involvement, Nathan?”

He hadn’t realized it at first but Ken had started to pace the room while Nathan stood cowering against the wall.

It wasn’t a look he liked. There was just not much he could do with the little information he had. The swings between fear and self-righteous anger weren’t helping, reminding him too vividly of the other boy who shall not be named. The one who made him swear off brats because they were all the same type of trouble.

With another deep breath in, Ken was able to stay still, look into Nathan’s eyes.

Nathan wasn’t responsible and couldn’t be held accountable for the actions of other people, especially other people he hadn’t even crossed paths with once.

“I just ran, okay?” the boy blurted out eventually. “It’s no big deal, I just made up some shit about a work call and headed back here. That’s it. I didn’t doanything.”

“So… Champ, that’s Ash’s pup name, tried to play with you, and you blabbered some excuse and left.”

“Yes, I guess.”

Ken frowned. It just didn’t make sense. There had to be something he was missing.

“Weren’t you excited to come here, and specifically to the pupnic, because you wanted to play with others?”

“Well, yeah, but that was a lot and I wasn’t expecting it!”

That anger was right there again, setting all of Ken’s alarms on fire.

“Apuptried to get close to you, who you knew was anotherpup, and it was a lot.” A part of Ken felt stupid, having to repeat everything slowly. It was that nagging sensation that he was missing something forcing him to do it. “Tell me, Nathan, what were you expecting if not… that? Because, in my experience attending and supervising many moshes, that’s one of the tamest things I’ve heard happen in one.”

“Well, yeah, fine, but…” Nathan stomped. “I don’t want to talk about it. And I did come here. That counts, right?”

“We are talking about it,” Ken corrected. “I told you, I need to be able to read you, to understand you, to know what you’re feeling. I was serious then, and I am now.”

Nathan’s eyes widened then, his rigid posture slightly deflating. “That’s not fair.”