# Ch 5: First Impressions Author: comidacomida Tags: Bull Terrier, Character Development, Family, Friendship, Gay Relationships, Human, Humor, Relationships, Slice-of-Life, harsh language First Impressions copyright 2011 comidacomida The first time that my brother Sullivan actually had a chance to meet my Jason was a pretty damn great weekend if you ask me.  Sully and I had a whole day to get back into the swing of being brothers.  We spent the day wandering around New York going here-and-there and doing the usual site-seeing that most out-of-towners do except I helped him avoid getting taken for all he was worth.  See... the thing about New York (and most other big cities, I'll add) is that people who live there tend to get along better than those who don't.  If you ever find yourself in a big city it pays to have someone who knows the place going with you. Anyway, I took Sully to all the usual places-- the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street (the little bastard flipped the building off with both paws-- I was laughing for a minute straight).  We strolled down Broadway and across Time Square, but he kept pestering me about seeing ground zero for 9/11. Even though I kept trying to get him to change his mind I eventually gave in.  Yea, I know, I shoulda grabbed Sully by his curled tail and dragged him back to the apartment, but what'cha gonna do?  It was his first time in New York.    This was before they started actually working on the memorial, I'd like to note.  I'll save you the boring details and summarize with a quote from him saying, "Wow... it's not much to look at." just to prove I was right.  It was already dark by the time we got home, which meant it was up to me to get something put together for dinner.  Have I ever mentioned how much I love the fact that almost every restaurant in New York delivers?   After dinner, Sully and I settled down to watch some TV.  I claimed one side of the couch and he took the other, leaving a respectable middle-cushion distance between the two of us.  I don't know if anyone else ever had the experience of having to pick up where they left off with a brother after a paw-ful of years apart, but let me tell you something: it really isn't as hard as it sounds-- even with the gap of one cushion between us we still managed to pretend we weren't trying to pin the other's tail with our own.  I won, by the way. We stayed up late playing video games since Sully brought his console.  Now, despite what you might think, I don't actually have any video games of my own.  Between constantly being on the road and keeping an eye on Jason I don't really have much time for games so it's what Jason calls 'a bad investment'.  If you're not much of a video game person there is one thing you need to know: never play a versus game against a 16 year old pup who is. It's embarrassing... really.  It doesn't need to be said but: he won... a lot.   Jason's plane was due in at 1pm which meant that we had plenty of time that morning to sleep in.  Unlike how I was at his age, Sully was up early... really early... like nine.  I heard him shuffling around the apartment doing who-the-hell-knows-what.  It wasn't until I heard the shower turn on that I finally dragged myself out of bed.  It's strange when you first have the feeling that you're getting older... I mean, he's not even ten years younger than me, but that apparently makes a lot of difference in how much sleep you can manage with... or without. It was right around the time I was waiting for the coffee to finish brewing that my ears perked at the strange sound coming from the bathroom.  Moving closer to the bathroom I focused on the sound: an electric buzzing.  At this point, I would like to remind everyone that didn't know that Dogs don't shave-- that's a human thing.  Personally, I like all my fur where it is on my face, thanks. Now, I'll admit that I can be something of a perverted Dog from time to time, but even the thoughts going through my mind at that moment were a little... extreme.  In my defense, only a few buzzing tools belonged in the bathroom and if you recall that Dogs don't shave, that limited the possibilities further.  Considering that Sully is my brother and, as far as I knew, was a good little breeder (or would be once he got his cherry popped), it kinda made me pause when I heared him grunting in time with the sound of resistance from the buzzing.   Jason had never been into the whole 'sex toy' thing so vibrators aren't something you'd find in our place... but that doesn't mean I didn't know what one was.  The continued sounds from the bathroom pulled my ears up faster than a draw string... I mean, to be honest, there weren't many possibilities as to what ELSE it could have been.  At this point, I think I need to explain something about our bathroom door-- it doesn't always close right. Standing outside the door I could see through the crack.  I wasn't peeping, exactly, but what I saw DID make me pause.  I caught a half-view of a very naked Sully in the bathroom mirror-- one paw had his tail pulled to the side and the other arm was out of view back toward his rump.  If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't have thought it was possible... I mean... he was my sixteen year old little brother!  Despite what it might sound like as a fantasy, I do want to point out that the real thing is NOT sexy. "Hey, Sully..." I called.  I coulda backed off and left him to his work, but I HAVE mentioned before that I'm not the smartest Dog on the planet.   "GYAH!" he shouted, fumbling.  The shout surprised me and I almost lost my footing, paw gripping the door knob to the bathroom to keep upright.  I overbalanced the other way and ended up pitching the door open instead.  The full view of the bathroom main event suddenly became very clear to me.  I laughed... hard. I wasn't laughing at Sully, to be honest... just the stupidity of the situation.  See... when I said Dogs don't shave I meant their muzzles.  Hell... most Dogs don't shave at all, but in Sully's case he was very particular about his tail, and things finally made sense; Sully was shaving his tail. "JD!" my brother screeched, turning away from me with an expression of pure horror on his muzzle.  Looking back, I really feel sorry about what must have been going through his head at that moment especially since he was so uptight about his tail in the first place.   "Sorry!"  I really didn't have much else I could have said at that point. Anyway, that's when I learned about just how much Sully hated his long fur.  It took a few minutes for us both to calm down, but when we both did we had a chance to sit down and talk.  Well... I sat down anyway, closing the toilet lid and using it like a stool while Sully continued trying to trim his tail fur.  After a few more of his grunts and watching him make more than one complete circle trying to get a good angle I snatched the clippers from him.   "Hey!" he objected, but I bopped him on the nose with two fingers. "Turn around." I ordered him.  He grumbled, but complied, and I started doing a better job at what he couldn't do so well by himself, "I have no idea what the big deal is." I told him. "That's because your tail is normal." he countered, crossing his arms in a display of teenage angst.  I was familiar with that pose-- I used it often enough. "Yours is normal for you." I explained, "If you didn't obsess over it as much then no one else would." "Easy for you to say... you don't have a damn curl in yours either." "Language." I reminded him, giving his tail a yank.  He yelped.  "Stop bitching." I said, and continued shaving, "You're cleaning up the fur when we're done." "I planned on it." he answered, "Ex-CUSE me for wanting to look good for your boyfriend." the little shit added in 'that tone of voice'. "Why?" I asked pointedly, "trying to steal him from me?" I showed him I could be just as much of an ass.  Sully just stood there grumbling, ears flat against his skull as he simmered.  Despite trying to think otherwise I had to realize that we both had the same 'angry stance'.  He remained just like that through the end of the shaving.  "There." I said, setting the clippers on the counter, "a 'normal' furred tail." I announced.   Sullivan spun around once, then twice, before pausing to look over his shoulder in the mirror as he moved his tail left then right.  "Wow..." he said after a moment, "that's a LOT better." his mood increased immediately, "you're pretty good at that!" I rolled my eyes, "Yea... it's a lot easier when you don't have to reach behind yourself to do it." "Anyway," he announced, pulling me up off the toilet, "get the hell out... I wanna shower before we go." "Wow... what gratitude." I joked, but let him do his thing.  I grabbed some coffee and got dressed myself.  I was checking the computer again for the arrival time when Sully finally got out of the bathroom.  I heard him mull around in the living room (that's where he was storing his stuff) and then he meandered into my room. "Take a seat, I'm almost done." I announced, hitting the print button so I'd have record of his arrival gate. "There isn't anywhere to sit." Sully countered. "The bed, numb nuts." I politely invited. "What?" he asked, moving away from it, "No!  That's where you and your boyfriend probably do it."   I rolled my eyes, "Ugh, seriously, Sully... you're not a puppy... it's not like we don't change the bedding." Sully huffed, but took a seat, "I was trying to be funny." "Being funny would be telling you that we do it a lot more often on the sofa where you slept than we do in bed." I grinned at his exclamation of disdain.  He didn't stop grumbling until after we got in the car. The drive to the airport was not a bad one... the sun even came out for a little while.  Sully was bundled up again, obviously not used to the colder weather of New York.  It wasn't long before our talk about this-and-that finally got around to Jason. "So... what's he like?" Sullivan asked out of the blue. "The senator?" I asked, (we just got finished talking about politics), "How should I know?" "No... not the senator-- your human." "Oh." I chuckled, "Well... he's great." "Great adjective." Sully answered, leaning his head against his paw, elbow against the car door, "Mind increasing the IQ level a little and being a bit more specific?"   "Well..." I noted, grinning evilly while Sully wasn't looking at me, "He has a really cute ass and he does this one thing with his tongue--" he followed up with another exclamation.  Two is still my record.  He stopped asking questions pretty quickly after that, which was a good thing because I didn't want to ruin the surprise and I'm not really all that good with beating around the bush. I pulled into the airport and parked at one of the designated arrival areas, "So..." I said, turning off the engine, "Tell me about this girl you like..." Sully fidgeted, "Well... I know she doesn't have anything against dating Dogs..." "That's a start." I offered in what I hoped sounded like a supportive tone, "What else?" "I know she likes Chinese food." my brother shrugged. "Cool." I nodded, "What else?" "Her name is Nicole... she goes by Nikki." Sully put his head against the window and gazed out into the crowd. "So why haven't you asked her out?" I asked. "Because I don't know if she'd be interested and I don't want to look like a fool." he said, still watching people as they walked by.   "That's what happens when you like someone." I explained, "No matter what you do you end up coming across like a fool." "I bet you didn't." he said. I laughed, "Well, my case is a special one because HE came on to ME." I explained. "Really?" Sully finally looked back in my direction, "Do you...." he lowered his voice,"do you mean HE'S the guy in the relationship?" I laughed my brains out in response. "What?" he asked, "What's so funny?" "No... I'm not 'the guy' in the relationship... we're BOTH guys." I explained. "Then how do you... I mean, who... and who-- you know what?  Never mind." he crossed his arms and looked back out the window. "Relax." I told him, patting his shoulder, "We're both guys and we do more than... that." I said, "anyway, you'll get to meet him and make your own judgment." "Yea..." Sully nodded, still gazing out the window.  He suddenly looked back at me, "He doesn't lisp, does he?  You have to warn me ahead of time if he does." "He doesn't LISP, Sullivan... RELAX!" I rolled my eyes.   "Ugh..." Sullivan shook his paws, "If I were a human my paws would be sweating... why am I so nervous?" he demanded. "You just want to make a good first impression." I answered, paw going to my pocket when my cell started going off. "I hope I'm not this stupid-acting if we get a chance to meet Jason from Dog Eat Dog." Sullivan said, returning to gazing out the window. I somehow managed to hold it together by focusing on my phone.  I checked the number calling in and smiled.  "Hi, lover." I answered. "Well... that's quite a surprise." Jason answered-- I'm not usually much for nicknames, "What's going on?" he had a hint of curiosity in his voice.  Did I mention my human is REALLY good at reading me? "Oh... just waiting here for you at the curb." I responded, then glanced toward Sully, "It's him." I explained. "Your boyfriend, or Jason Campbell?" Sully asked with a smirk.  He must have thought he was pretty damn smart coming up with that based on the obvious answer-- as far as he knew I wouldn't call Jason Campbell 'lover'.   ~Jokes on you, smart ass.~ I thought to myself.   "Shh!" I waved him quiet since it was the easiest way to escape the shaky ground created by his comment.  I went back to focusing on my phone, "I have Sully here with me-- he can't WAIT to meet you."  I laughed inwardly at my own humor. "Oh." Jason responded, "So he's cool with it?" "About as cool as I guess he could be." I said, glancing at Sullivan, who looked back at me and stuck his tongue out.  "That's mature." I chided. "Alright..." Jason said, "I'm on my way out right now... I got to the baggage claim before everyone else and I'll see you in a minute." "Sounds good." I responded, "I'm gonna hang up now because I need my camera." my grin only widened. Sully glanced at me at that one, "Don't tell me you want me to take a picture of you two doing a welcome back kiss or something." he stated. "Nope." I answered, feeling my muzzle pull back in an even wider grin as Jason came into view. "Why am I worried?" Sully asked. "Probably because I'm about to start laughing at your expense." I answered simply, and pointed to Jason as he approached the car.   "OH! MY! GOD!" Sully exclaimed at the top of his lungs.  I got out of the car as he started flailing around excitedly.  Have you ever seen a little four legged puppy see someone after a day of being alone?  yea... it was kinda like that.  I closed the car door behind me and went around to the other side to meet up with Jason. "Is he alright?" Jason asked me quietly. "Yea... he's a fan of yours actually." I responded, taking his luggage.   It was about that time that Sullivan got his window to roll down. "You told me we were coming here to get your boyfriend!" he accused. "Yea... so I did." I answered, and glanced at Jason then back to Sullivan.  "Welcome back, Jay." I told Jason, and he picked up on what I was getting at, "Good to be back." and humored me with a kiss... right on the muzzle.  I had just enough time to aim my phone at Sully and click.  I still keep the resulting pic for blackmail purposes. Source: https://sofurry.com/view/224461 Previous: https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1642551-the-cohen-icosahedron-ch-4.md Next: https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/228443-ch-6-shattered.md