Gerard knew he shouldn’t be in this place, this den of misery and pain; its small rooms bare and cold.  A cacophony of whimpers and cries greeted him as he followed the shrivelled owner down the corridor, intent on inspecting the occupants kept there.

“What about this one?  She’s young, a very pretty little… thing.” Sneered the old man

Gerard turned to look; she was huddled in the back of the small grey room, she cowered under his gaze.  He looked into her eyes and knew.

“Yes, this one will be fine.”

He handed over his money to the man and stepped into the room.

*****

Gerard crept silently into the house in the early morning, the sun barely peaking its rays over the horizon.  He placed the bags he was carrying onto the floor at the foot of the stairs and adjusted the box in his arms.  He climbed the stairs, hoping his absence had not been noticed; Frank was usually a heavy sleeper, he probably didn’t even know Gerard had been gone.

Gerard placed the box at the foot of the bed and crawled in under the covers.  Frank stirred and turned over in his sleep, wrapping his arms around Gerard.  He blinked awake when he felt Gerard’s clothes and cold skin.

“Morning sleepy.”  Said Gerard.

“Morning.  Where’ve you been?”

“Nowhere important.”  Gerard kissed Frank’s nose, hoping to distract him from further questioning.

The box at the end of the bed twitched and Frank sat bolt upright in bed.

“Oh, Happy Birthday by the way.”  Smirked Gerard as Frank carefully crawled forward and lifted the lid to the box.  Frank gasped and reached into the box to pull out the tiny bundle of fur.  The tiny tan puppy shook against his chest as he murmured soft words to her and stroked her back.

“I saw her in the shelter and knew she was ours.”

“I love her.  Does she have a name yet?”  Asked Frank.

“No, not yet.  I thought you’d like to name her.”

Frank grasped the puppy under her front legs and held her out in front of him.  He looked over her slowly watching her wriggle and squirm.

“I think she looks like a Bella.”

“Hmmm, me too.”

Frank cradled Bella to his chest and crawled back up the bed to snuggle into Gerard’s arms.

“Best. Birthday. Present. Ever,” Frank exclaimed as he tucked the tiny puppy in between their bodies and watched her yawn happily.

They sat snuggling in the silence, Frank’s eyes had slipped closed and he could hear Bella’s little snuffled snores from her place smushed between his and Gerard’s bodies.  Gerard stirred, stroked his hand down Frank’s chest and rested it on Bella’s neck, playing with the soft fur there.

“We should introduce this little one to Mama.  You want me to fetch her?”

“Yeah.  Mama’s not going to be pleased, remember when we introduced her to Bunny?  That was bad enough, and that cat isn’t even ours.”

Frank scooped Bella into his arms as Gerard slipped off the bed and padded barefoot out of the room.  Frank heard him walk down the stairs and call to Mama; her bed was in the kitchen, she was too fat to climb the stairs every night.

Gerard reappeared a few minutes later carrying Mama, Frank’s chubby little pooch.  Frank climbed out of bed, Bella tucked against his chest.  He placed her on the floor and watched her stumble around, the way puppies do.  Gerard approached and placed Mama down too just in front of Bella.  The puppy ran forward enthusiastically.  Mama growled and took a step back; she looked over at Frank and waddled over to him, her nose in the air.  She bumped her nose against Frank’s leg and he bent down to pick her up.

“Be nice Mama.  That’s Bella, your new baby sister.  She’s here to stay so you’ll just have to get used to her.” 

Frank placed Mama back on the floor and she looked over at the frolicking puppy with curiosity.

“She’ll get used to it baby.  I promise.”  Said Gerard.  “Maybe Bella should play with other puppies for now.  I honestly think Mama’s too fat to play.”

Frank made an offended sound and picked up his dog.

“She’s not fat.  It’s glandular.” 

“Whatever.  I’ll call Patrick and set something up, I’m sure he just got a new puppy.”

***********

Patrick arrived at the venue early in the day, Penny held tightly in his arms.  He stepped into the dressing room come dog play area to find Frank standing with Bella tucked under one arm as he busied himself making drinks.  Gerard leant against the table smiling amusedly at the pair.

“What if Penny plays to too rough?  Bella might get hurt.”

“Have you seen Penny?  Mama could swallow her whole.  Bella will be fine.”

Frank sighed.  He’d keep an eye on her just in case.  He greeted Patrick, knelt down to place the puppy on the floor and watched as she cautiously walked towards Penny.  Gerard dragged Frank over to the couch to join Patrick.

Penny sniffed at Bella; Gerard was right she was tiny, her fur sticking out all over the place.  The two seemed to like each other; both wagging their tails happily.  Well, Bella was wagging her tail; Penny was more wagging her whole back end, her tiny body twitching happily as she plodded forward.

The door opened and a loud bark was heard followed by a shouted ‘Hemmy. No.’ An English Bulldog tore into the room and slid across the floor colliding with both puppies in his excitement.  Pete followed his dog into the room.

“What the hell!”  Cried Frank.  He was out of his seat before Gerard could stop him; scooping up Bella he cuddled her to him. 

“She’s fine, she’s fine.”  Cooed Frank.  He took his seat next to Gerard again and placed the struggling Bella into his lap.

Hemmy and Penny chased each other around the floor barking loudly at each other, Penny was clearly Hemmy’s favourite. Bella struggled and squirmed on Frank’s knee but he didn’t let her down.  Gerard placed his hand on Frank’s arm.

“Don’t you think you’re being too overprotective?  She’s fine; she wants to be down to play.”

Frank huffed and looked between the puppy in his lap and the puppies playing on the floor.

“Would it help if I got down there with her?”  Gerard rolled his eyes but Frank knew he wasn’t fooling anyone; Gerard would use any excuse to get on the floor and play with his girl.

“Fine.”  Frank placed the puppy by his feet and Gerard reached into his bag and pulled out Bella’s green frog teddy. 

Pete looked curiously at the teddy.  “Why does that look so familiar?”

Gerard shushed him and crawled along the floor to wave the teddy in front of Bella.  Bob nudged Ray, who looked up from his guitar; the two laughed at Gerard’s antics.  Even Mikey looked up from his phone long enough to roll his eyes affectionately at his brother.  Bella ignored the other dogs and focussed on Gerard and the frog dancing before his eyes.  She snapped her jaws at its legs and jumped to grab it from his hands.

Gerard glanced around to Pete, talking on his cell phone; to Patrick, sitting cross-legged on the floor watching Penny and Hemmy wrestle and then to Frank who was actually pouting slightly.  He looked longingly at Bella and how much fun she was having with Gerard.  Gerard picked Bella up and walked over to Frank.  He sat down next to Frank and placed a kiss on his neck.

“What’s up baby?”

“She never has that much fun with me.”  Sulked Frank

“Aww.  You want me to teach you the dance she likes best?”  Frank nodded into Gerard’s shoulder as Gerard started to hum ‘It’s not easy being green.’

The dancing teddy seemed to catch Mikey’s attention; he looked up from his phone and squeaked in surprise,

“Mr. Hoppy?  Gerard, what the fuck are you doing with my frog?”

Frank quickly placed his hands over Bella’s ears and looked over to Mikey scandalised.

“Hey, watch your mouth in front of the babies.”

“Shut up Frank.  Gerard, did you steal Mr. Hoppy?”

Gerard looks as innocent as he can,  “Maybe.  Dude you’re  too old for a teddy.  Just let her have it, look how much she loves it.”  He waved at Bella on the floor; she was chewing the frog’s arm and rolling around happily. Mikey didn’t look impressed.  He dropped his phone and scrambled over to Bella.  Mikey fell to his knees and eyed the puppy warily.  He grabbed the frog’s other leg and a tug of war ensued.  Mikey thought it would be easy but Bella put up one hell of a fight.  She growled and clenched her jaws together.  Mikey pulled harder but this only caused Bella to shake her head.

After ten minutes of fighting with the tiny puppy, Mikey was covered in puppy drool and there were tiny teeth marks in his thumb. Bella wouldn’ give up her prize easily.  Her back up arrived in the form of Hemmy and Penny.  Hemmy butted his head against Mikey’s arm and Penny waddled over to nip at Mikey’s fingers.

Soon his three attackers overcame Mikey; he collapsed sidewards and ended up on his back.  Penny jumped happily onto his chest and Hemmy tugged at his pant leg; Bella jumped up to lick at his face and neck.  Mikey clutched Mr. Hoppy triumphantly to his chest.

Pete, Patrick and Frank finally moved to reclaim their dogs.  Patrick and Frank picked up their puppies; Pete leaned over Mikey,

“Dude, what the fuck?”  Asked Pete smiling down at Mikey, Mr. Hoppy still gripped tight in his hands.

“They ganged up on me.  Puppies are feistier than you think man.  But I won… the frog is mine.”

Pete held out his hand and pulled Mikey to his feet.  Patrick put Penny back on the floor and she wobbled over to Mikey; placing her front paws on top of his foot, she stared intently at the teddy.

“I think she wants the frog.”  Said Patrick from his place on the couch.  Mikey tucked Mr. Hoppy behind his back and ignored Penny’s huge puppy eyes.  Penny whimpered and snuggled up to Hemmy’s side.  Gerard handed Bella over to Frank and walked over to Mikey.

“Come on Mikes, stop being suck a baby.”

“Oh no.  Mr. Hoppy’s suffered enough.  He’s covered in puppy slobber.”

Gerard turned to the others and shrugged; he couldn’t force Mikey to part with his childhood friend.  Frank sat down with Patrick and placed Bella on the floor; Pete nudged her over to Hemmy and Penny with his foot until she settled down with them.

“Aww Mikey.  Look how sad you’re making them.”  He placed his arms around Mikey’s waist and whispered into his ear.  Mikey’s shoulders slumped and he dropped to his knees and crawled over to the puppies.  He held out Mr. Hoppy for Bella to take and went to sulk on the couch, pillow tucked under his chin.

Pete smirked and petted Hemmy’s head.  Gerard looked between his sulking brother and a smirking Pete.  He started to ask what Pete had said but decided it would be probably better if he never knew.  Even though Mikey looked like he was sulking outwardly; Gerard could see his brother was pretty pleased with himself, a tiny smile playing on his lips.

Gerard’s attention returned to Frank, who was sitting cross-legged on the floor next to the puppy pile.  He extracted Bella and positioned her on his knees; Gerard could hear him telling the three dogs to take good care of Mr. Hoppy for Mikey.

“Mr. Hoppy is Mikey’s favourite, okay guys?  You have to look after him or Mikey will be sad.”  Frank picked up one of Bella’s paws and waved it at Mikey mouthing ‘Thank you uncle Mikey’ at him. Mikey rolled his eyes but his smile widened all the same.