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[illdrinktothat]

 District 7 is even colder than Walter remembers it being, and that's saying something. He's thankful that Caro's speech is held inside - outside's more or less a blizzard, at the moment - and even if 7 is about as bad off as 12 is, they still manage a reception that can be called reasonably warm, given the circumstances. It's a better atmosphere than the one he was greeted with on his Victory Tour, at least. Still he mostly suffers through the party despite it, and despite the refreshments. He sees very little of 7's resident Victors, especially Murphy, but that's mostly to be expected. They're not sociable people. Not in this setting, at least.

He gives Weyoun credit that the Escort tries to get them free of the festivities and back to the train as soon as they can - but he goes and throws something of a wrench in those plans. They're not going back to the train. Not tonight, no. He's going to go visit with Murphy while he has the goddamn opportunity to. The rest of the team can skip it if they want, he doesn't care.

Soo now he's trudging up the icy, snowy path road to the Victor's Village. It's not even that long of a walk but it's uphill and... well, 12 gets cold and icy, but not like this. He's wearing the best fucking coat he could find and about four layers of clothes and he's still fucking freezing. And Murphy's house would be the last fucking one in the row. <I>Goddamn you antisocial bastard,</I> as if Walter isn't exactly the same way.

He's grateful when he does finally reach the goddamn steps of the house. It's basically the same as all the others, not even really all that different from the ones in 12's Victor's Village. The brief cacophony of barking that greets him when he knocks is something else entirely. How many more dogs has he even gotten since last time?

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[illdrinktothat]

"Shut up," Walter grumbles. He reaches down between his layers of shirts and a moment later, Bourbon's head is peeking out from under his sweater. She looks plenty warm, at least. "Murphy, if your dogs eat my cat, I'm going to eat them."

That's about when four puffballs easily three times Bourbon's size come scrambling down the hall. They're like mobile, barking balls of fur, some black, some white, and one a combo of both. Of course, they immediately converge on Caro with all the enthusiasm of untrained puppies.

[caroflower]

Suddenly puppies. Puppies everywhere. Well okay, it only seems like everywhere. But there are... four of them bouncing around Caro and barking. She blinks at them. They're actually... kind of cute. And they look warm.

So after a moment's hesitation, Caro kneels down in the middle of the sea of puppies. Normally she would cautiously offer a hand like she'd done with Spot and Bourbon, but there are puppies all over the place. They seem to have already made up their minds, anyway. She sticks a hand out and pets any puppy who holds still long enough to sniff at her hand at all, which mostly ends up with them licking her hand instead. Close enough. And then she realizes pretty quickly that she'd better start petting puppies with both hands, because they seem to understand that humans have two hands. Well.

[murphypendleton]

Murphy just cracks up laughing. "Sorry," He says to the whole puppy situation in a way that's pretty obvious not the least bit sorry at all. He's hoping she leaves with one of the goddamn things, actually.

He at least shoos the majority of the dogs out of the room and back into the den, save for the puppies around Caro and Daisy, who's mostly just placidly sitting back on the stairs. "The cat'll be fine. I'm never gonna hear the end of it from Charlie if he sees her, though."

[caroflower]

Caro's not entirely sure how it happened, but she's now sitting on the floor with a fluctuating number of puppies in her lap. The one black one seems content to stay, but the other three are wriggly puppies who are very excited about everything, even if they're mostly centered around Caro at the moment.

"How did I even end up here?" she asks no one in particular. The puppies certainly don't know or care.

[illdrinktothat]

Walter really isn't sure how Caro's situation happened either. He looks away for one moment, and the next she's covered in puppies. The appropriate response is of course to crack the fuck up at her.

...Which agitates the tiny cat in his shirts. Bourbon starts mewing again, this time incessantly. It kills the laughter since it's also accompanied by sharp kitten claws in his chest. He's got to take a moment to pry her off and, well, he's not sure what. She tenses up and fluffs her fur out at the sight of the noisy barky things, so he doesn't put her down just yet.

[caroflower]

Caro looks up to halfheartedly glare at Walter, but then he's pulling Bourbon out and... Bourbon is now more of a fluffball than usual. Caro can't help it, she giggles a little at the tiny fluffed out kitten being guarded rather fiercely by Walter. It's just such an unlikely looking combination.

The puppies continue to swarm, but they're also beginning to be interested in the other new person and his tiny fuzzy thing. The black puppy, however, is more or less staying where he is. Huh.

"I think it's your turn," Caro says finally.

[illdrinktothat]

Walter isn't really any happier to see the puppies than Bourbon is. He gently pushes them away from his legs every time they try to stand up and jump at him. Which is something of a task, given there's three of them. "No. No." He frowns down at them, holding Bourbon even higher up, as if they had any chance of getting that far. "You little furry assholes go find someone else to pester."

[murphypendleton]

Murphy's just amused as shit at all of it. He might have invited them over with this sort of thing in mind, actually, but good luck getting him to admit it. Still, he does go and scoop up the three puppies annoying Walter. It's a big squirmy armful he regrets but they see something new, and they won't give up. He leaves the little black one with Caro.

Of course, it's about when he's moving to put the puppies back in the kitchen behind a gate when there's some very loud footfalls from upstairs.

"Go back to bed, Charlie." He calls out at something short of a bellow, but it's useless. He can hear the 8 year old barreling down the stairs already.

Not a moment later, and the kid's in the entry way in his pajamas, smiling brightly at Walter and Caro.He's both very cheerful and wide awake, apparently.

"Hi!" Caro gets the first greeting from Charlie before he turns to the still-frowning Walter. The man's gruffness is not even a problem for the kid, he just grins up at him and especially at the kitten he's holding. "Hi Uncle Walter! Is that your kitty?"

[caroflower]

Caro cracks up laughing at Walter. And then Murphy swoops in and scoops up all the puppies but the black one that seems content to stay with her. Hmm.

And then Charlie comes bouncing down the stairs and oh god, what do you even say to little kids? "Uh, hi." Good job, Caro.

She awkwardly shuffles back up onto her knees, because she's not sure if she should get up or not. The puppy protests until she adjusts her arms around it so she's balancing it against her torso. She's not... holding it. Nope. Not her.

[illdrinktothat]

"Hey, kid. Kitty's a little..." Walter sighs and looks down at the extra-puffy Bourbon in his hands. She seems to be trying to burrow back under his jacket, at the moment. "Kitty's kind of freaked the fuck out right now."

He glances up in time to see Caro with a puppy in her arms. That gets an arched brow and even a little smirk.

[murphypendleton]

"It's past your bedtime," Is what you say to little kids, according to Murphy. It's not inaccurate either.

Charlie's too busy being completely overjoyed at a very small kitten to actually care about such paltry things as bedtimes, however, so he adds a firmly. "Charlie."

"But daaaaaaad!" Charlie turns and gives his father his best sad face. "I never get to see uncle Walter! And he brought a kitten and the new Victor lady."

After a minute of Wild West-esque staring down, Murphy relents with a sigh. "Fine. But only for a little while."

Charlie not only goes straight back to being overjoyed, but decides grabbing Walter's free arm is a good idea. He tugs him in the direction of the living room. "Come on, I want to show you something!"

[caroflower]

Caro glares at Walter. Stop smirking. Then she's blinking at being "the new Victor lady." Well, it's not the worst thing she's been called this week.

And now it looks like the party is moving into the other room. Caro gently sets the puppy down on the floor and stands. The puppy is not thrilled with this, but he trots along after Caro readily enough. Huh.

Oh hey, and it's actually warm in here. Caro can unbutton her coat now.

[illdrinktothat]

Walter's too busy navigating being pulled into another room while dealing with his cat. His small, agitated, demanding cat, who's once more underneath his sweater because he can't really fight her while he's stumbling after Charlie.

"Alright, alright, I'm comin. If it's another pinecone I swear to god..." He's mostly kidding about the last bit.

[murphypendleton]

"Nooo, it's not a pinecone." Charlie laughs. Whatever it is, he has to go digging around in a chest behind the sofa for it for a couple minutes. Which means he finally lets go of Walter, at least. After a moment he manages to pull out a... deer skull and one antler, broken off. "We found it outside town, isn't it awesome."

Charlie illustrates the awesomeness by holding the antler up to his head and looking very pleased with himself.

Murphy, for his part, settles down into an armchair followed shortly by Daisy, who ends up more or less on his feet. He's pleased as can goddamn be that one of the puppies took a liking to Caro.

[caroflower]

Caro follows along, puppy trailing along behind. She ends up sort of hovering awkwardly in the doorway as Charlie shows off the skull.

She... really doesn't know what to do with herself. So she turns and looks, and sure enough, she has a little fuzzy barky shadow. Well okay. She leans down and scoops the puppy up and holds him, mostly for something to do. He's very cute.

"Oh eurgh, let's not," she says, wrinkling her nose as the puppy licks her face. Dog breath. Nice.

[illdrinktothat]

"You sure it's not a pinecone," Walter squints skeptically at Charlie shows off his prize. "Because I can't tell, it might be."

Bourbon seems to have calmed the fuck down for the moment, so Walter flops back onto the sofa and sets her on the cushion beside him. It means kitten exploring the room time has started, but that's fine. It'll keep Charlie busy. Doesn't mean he's not gonna be watching that cat like a hawk, though.

[murphypendleton]

"Uncle Walter! Don't be ridiculous." Charlie's already got a chiding sort of laugh down. "It's from one of the deer. I wish I had both antlers though."

The cat immediately distracts him; the skull and antler end up set aside and forgotten almost as soon as she's padding around on the couch cushion. Charlie's pretty good with approaching her alright despite his age, at least. He just really wants to pet the kitty so badly.

Murphy catches a glance of poor Caro awkwardly in the door, so he gestures around. "Make yourself at home." And take the puppy when you leave, for fuck's sake.

[caroflower]

Caro would really like to plop down on the couch next to Walter, but there's a number of reasons why she shouldn't. So instead she splits the difference and sits down on the floor next to where Walter's sprawling all over the sofa. She's comfortable enough on the floor anyway, and now the puppy is a safe distance from Bourbon, she's a safe distance from the mystery that is Charlie, and she still gets to more or less sit next to Walter. Perfect plan.

And she'll just, uh, pet the puppy. Because this is awkward somehow. Well everything is awkward when you're Caro, apparently. At least the puppy is still cute and apparently not tired of her.