Adrian had been volunteering at the animal shelter for a couple of months now, and he's been loving it ever since.

At first it was just to help build up his character profile on paper, to show people more of his competent and reliable side.

But then he ended up sticking around longer than expected, to help look after the needy animals that he cared for deeply.

Every animal at the shelter had their own story, some were more unfortunate than the others. So Adrian made sure he spent some time with all of the animals, spreading the love that he had for them all.

After changing the hay bedding for the rabbits, he went round the pens to feed all of the animals and refill their water bowls. Adrian then had to go round and clean up any waste and litter around the shelter.

Now that he finished with his usual jobs, he got to have fun and play with the animals. But there was one particular animal that Adrian had a special bond with.

He went to the play pen area, with only one dog there at the moment. And immediately Ollie dashed towards him, wagging his tail in the process.

"Hey baby!" Adrian cooed as he stroked Ollie's head.

Ollie was a mix breed between a Dachshund and a Maltese. After being admitted for being malnourished, underweight and mistreated by his owners, Ollie was a very scared, slightly older dog.

It took time before Ollie gained his weight back to become healthy, and Ollie became more energetic and friendly as he was getting looked after properly.

When Adrian first saw the state Ollie was in, his heart sank. Adrian wanted to make Ollie better, he was hateful to the people who would deliberately mistreat any harmless animals.

So he took extra time when looking after him, playing with him so he would become less shy over time.

And it worked, whenever Adrian was around Ollie was as excited as any other happy, affectionate dog.

"I missed you Ollie." Adrian sweetly expressed as he gave Ollie a treat, who was happily barking out loud before nibbling on the biscuit. "Sorry I haven't been here as much as before."

"Ollie missed you too." Shelly, the manager of the shelter, told Adrian as she watched them both play around. "This little fella is always so excited when you're here."

Ollie was chasing after Adrian's hands as he waved them around, getting Ollie to follow them to try and high five them.

"Who's such a good boy?" Adrian kissed the top of Ollie's head before he start rubbing Ollie's belly.

Ollie laid on his back as Adrian was still being affectionate towards him. Both of them were all too happy being around each other. Their energies bounced off each other, making the pair a great duo.

"Did anyone come and see him?" Adrian asked Shelly.

Shelly gave him a disappointing look. Adrian just wanted someone to take care of Ollie, he's been at the shelter for a while now and still no one wanted him. "How come you still won't adopt him Adrian? You clearly came about Ollie."

Adrian looked at Ollie, feeling sad that he may not be able to give Ollie the kind of home he needed. He wanted to, so desperately, but he was genuinely unsure if he would make a good dog owner for Ollie. It was just the matter of if he had enough time to look after Ollie properly, and if he can afford to give Ollie everything he needed.

So Adrian tried to make it up to Ollie by spending as much time as he could with him while they were still together.

~~~~~~~~~~

Adrian was sad when he left Ollie, feeling disheartened at his cry, and by the fact that he had a home to return home too, while Ollie had to stay at the shelter.

So every time Adrian came home to his mom after visiting the shelter, it was a routine for him to give her his puppy dog eyes. He did this as he was slowly convincing his mom to

adopt Ollie. It's been going on for a while and Adrian was sure it was working, slowly but surely.

"Pleeeaaassse!" Adrian begged as he asked her again. He couldn't take it any longer, knowing that he had a ready made home for Ollie. The last cry from the animal made Adrian want to step up his game and look after him.

"It's just not practical." Sally dejectedly told him. "Dogs are quite expensive, they're going to take so much of our time with exercising, training, and what if he gets lonely?"

"But Ollie's an indoor dog! He's already well trained, and he's so adorable mom. He's older than some of the other dogs at the shelter so it will be harder for him to get adopted."

Sally also loves dogs too, she used to have one as a child before her family had to move away. They were unable to bring their dog with them to the apartment complex her family had to move in to. Sally ended up devastated saying goodbye to her childhood dog.

"I promise we are both able to look after him properly, Ollie gets a good, loving home and don't underestimate everything Ollie can give us too!"

Adrian showed her another picture that Shelly took of Adrian and Ollie together. Sally's heart softened at the picture of the happy duo.

Adrian's words left an impact on Sally. "I guess, we can look at the adoption process, there's no harm in that at least."

Adrian squealed in excitement, hugging his mom tightly at the prospect of potentially bringing Ollie home. "You won't regret this, you're the best, mom!"

Sally laughed at Adrian, "We're just looking into it, don't get your hopes up to soon. Now go take a shower, you stink of crap."

~~~~~~~~~~

"Is Brody still upstairs?" Adrian asked his mother, letting go of the hug he was giving her.

"Think so, haven't heard a peep from your bedroom." She told him.

Adrian wasn't quite sure how to approach the topic. "Thanks, for like, not kicking him out this morning. He got super drunk last night and I just thought it would be safer for him to stay and sleep it off."

"Boys will be boys."

Sally went back to the kitchen to finish her cup of coffee and make lunch, while Adrian went upstairs to take a shower. He wanted to get rid of the animal smell that was looming over him.

Quickly checking inside his room, he saw that Brody was still indeed asleep in his bed. Knowing that he was there, Adrian closed the door again as he went to take a shower.

~~~~~~~~~~

After scrubbing every inch of his body, Adrian tied the towel to his body as he went into his bedroom for a change of clothes. Opening the closet, he was in the middle of reaching out and picking his outfit when he heard Brody groan himself awake.

"Morning sunshine." Adrian thought it would be funny to tease Brody, so he pulled the curtains wide open to let the sunshine in.

Brody quickly averted his eyes, using his arms to block the light from blinding his vision.

Adrian knocked over the remote control that was on his desk, making Brody jump at the loud noise that was making his head bang even more.

"Okay okay, I deserve it." Brody said out loud and not looking anywhere in particular. His head was still in pain from the hangover.

Deciding he had enough of his little fun, Adrian handed Brody a glass of water and aspirin to deal with the pain.

Brody thanked him as he ingested them both. He swallowed harshly as he felt relief, knowing that the effects will soon kick in.

"How much of a mess was I?" Brody asked.

Adrian looked at Brody's disheveled state. His clothes were bunched up and wrinkled, the brown hair that Adrian liked weaving his fingers through was all over the place, and Adrian could see a hint of the pillow case etched onto his cheek.

Adrian still found him sexy and desirable.

Covering the thoughts he had with a cough, Adrian scratched his chin as if he was reflecting about last night, "You were drunk enough to think it was a good idea to climb up my house so late at night, and annoy me into letting you sleep over. However you were sober enough to not have any injuries when I checked you this morning."

Brody facepalmed himself, embarrassed about getting that drunk and making a fool of himself. "I don't know what came over me."

Adrian just shrugged his shoulders. "No big deal."

"Did your mom freak out with me being here?" Brody didn't like the idea of putting them both in an uncomfortable position.

"She's cool with it. When I told her this morning she just thought the whole situation was too stupid and funny for someone like you, the all sensible and mature type."

Brody low key took that as a compliment.

"Although I left out the part where your alcohol breath was on my neck all night long. I'm pretty sure I got second hand drunk from absorbing your breath through my skin last night." Adrian joked.

Brody laughed as he then took in Adrian's appearance. He was still covered in a towel and a little bit of water was still dropping from his skin. Adrian was within reaching distance so Brody pulled him in closer.

"Are you trying to seduce me like this?" Brody teased as he went in to kiss him.

Adrian quickly blocked it with his hands. "Not with your morning breath."

Brody ended up kissing the palm of his hand as he then settled for cuddling Adrian instead.

Adrian smacked his legs. "Stop! I'm going to get you all wet."

Brody wiggled his eyebrows. "That's kind of the idea."

Brody then went on to place a kiss on Adrian's collarbone, all the while making Adrian sheepish and turning his face into the colour of a strawberry.

Adrian would have let it carry on, who knows how far they would go, if his mother wasn't waiting for them downstairs.

"My mom's making lunch for us, she could come in any moment and I rather not have her catch us getting it on and stuff."

Brody used his self-restraint to let Adrian out of his hold, letting him get dressed as Brody just watched him.

"If a stripper gets paid to take their clothes off, are you going to make me pay you for putting clothes on?" Brody asked as he continued staring at Adrian.

Adrian barked out with a laugh, trying to process where Brody's mind and logic was at. "What the hell are you on about? Does that make me, like a reverse stripper?"

"Just a really bad one." Brody quipped back.

Adrian was sarcastic when he told him, "Thanks for your insight Sinclair, that's super kind of you to say that."

Brody finally left the bed. "Clothes on, clothes off, either way I enjoy the sight." Brody left through the door to get cleaned up in the bathroom.

"I'll remember that!" Adrian called out loud as Brody left the room.

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