Behind The Mask

Getting Better

     Another day has passed, and everyone gathered around Chase as Katie was taking his temperature. The German Shepherd coughed a couple times before the blonde took the thermometer from his mouth. Everybody was anxious a little bit, hoping they would get more good news.

Kate smiled at the results and looked back at the anxious pups.

"Don't worry, he's getting better. It seems the pain in his body has stopped and his temperature is slowly turning back to normal." Katie said, earning smiles from everyone and some of them even sighed in relief.

"But I still suggest you lay in bed, just in case." Katie turned to Chase who nodded back and rested his head against the bean bag.

The pups went back to doing their own things, some went out to Town to find some gifts for Secret Santa.

Tundra and some of the other boy pups were wrestling each other. A match result ended with Tundra lightly placing a paw on Rubbles chest, pushing him down on his back.

"Ha! I win." She said in a cheeky grin, making Rubble nervously laugh.

"Ah, you got me." He said, and Tundra laughed as she laughed it off and removed her paw, allowing Rubble to roll aside and get back up on his fours.

"Okay, so who's next?" She asked in an excited tone of voice.

"Wow, she's really competitive." Liberty said in a little surprised voice.

"Yep, that's how she is." Skye laughed, making Tundra smile even more. Tundra has always seen Skye as her best friend. The two of them have been friends for a long time, and it was difficult for Skye to choose who her best friend was. Zuma, Everest and Tundra were her three best friends, but in the end, she loved all three of them.

Chase watched from a distance as some of the pups wrestled, he then saw Rubble walking past the sick shepherd and into the kitchen.

A few seconds have past and Tundra and Zuma were playfully wrestling while Rubble came back with a bowl of pup-treats and sat by the police pup, happily digging into his food.

Chase looked over at the youngest member of the team and he just looked so innocent.

Flash Back

"Weally? He stawts every morning with that megaphone that is super loud! Especially today when we're all tiwed!" The Labrador began.

"It's pretty obvious." Rubble agreed.

"Well I'm just happy we're all on the same page." Rubble said with a slight smirk

"Yeah, and If I'm gonna be honest, it doesn't look good on him at all. On summer days, he wears it and it gets smelly! Seriously, why does he need to wear that all the time?" Rubble asked.

"Don't know dude. Sometimes, I wish that we didn't have him as the leader or police pup on the team. I know that's a bit hawsh, but c'mon, his authowity is really annoying. I wish we didn't have someone like that on our team." Zuma said.

Silence

"Agreed" The rest of the pups said.

Flash Back Ends

"You want one?" Chase was then interrupted from his thoughts and he slightly looked down to see Rubble holding up a pup-treat with a couple crumbs around his lips. Chase seemed a little surprised, but frowned at him.

"Nah, I'm good." The German Shepherd denied, surprising the Bulldog, by shrugging as he ate the pup-treat he tried to offer.

Chase then tried to go back to snoozing but he couldn't due to the large crunches by Rubbles jaw. Each crunch stopped him from even closing his eyes. The German Shepherd quietly growled and looked back at Rubble once again.

Looks like I won't be getting any rest Chase sighed as he lay on his back. He listened as he could hear grunts of the two pups wrestling and crunching food from Rubble.

Rubble, for some reason, looked over and saw Chase deadpanning at him. He was confused until he realized what the problem could be.

"Oh, am I...eating too loud?" He nervously giggled, and the shepherd only rolled his eyes. Chase mentally sighed as he already knew he wouldn't be getting rest and looked back towards Rubble.

"Hey, you know what? Me and you should have an eating competition! After you get better of course." Rubble suggested as he got up in an excited tone, but Chase didn't have any hype-up for it.

"No thanks. I'd probably lose anyway." He denied once again, adding confusion to the young pup.

"Huh, why would you say that?" He asked and Chase just stared at him with no emotion.

"Last time I tried, you finished your bowl of stacked up pup-treats in less than a minute. I couldn't even get halfway done." He explained, surprising Rubble, but then he embarrassingly giggled.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that." He nervously laughed once again and Chase sighed. He lied down on his back again and stared into the ceiling.

"Hey, can I ask you somethin'?" Chase asked, catching the yellow pup by surprise, but he nodded. While the other pups were playing, Chase turned his head towards Rubble.

"How much do you eat?" He asked, now confusing Rubble.

"Uh, I eat a lot. Is that what you wanted to ask me?" Rubble asked back.

"No, no." Chase said and went to his thoughts, trying to come up with a more elaborated question.

"Let's put it this way, how much do you have to consume or deal with, until it's enough for you?" The German Shepherd corrected. Now that was a question that Rubble found a hard time answering since he never had problems with being too full. There have been times, but minutes after, he'd want to eat again.

"Uh...I...I'm not really sure." He responded. But Chase only stared at him for a few seconds.

"Huh, I see." He responded and turned his back towards the small Bulldog.

"W-Wait, that's it?" Rubble asked in confusion.

"Yeah." The brown pup said and kept his back facing the pup in yellow. Now Rubble was left in confusion, but for some reason, he wasn't satisfied with his own answer, much less Chase agreeing with him.

Now, instead of eating his food, Rubble kept thinking over and over again.