Welcome back, my lovely reader!
It's time for a bit of relationship bonding! No, not that kind of bonding! Wait... is that an S&M joke or a bounty hunter joke? Anyway... Yes, the girls are doing their own thing, and the boys are doing theirs!
What kind of things? Why meaningful relationship building of course! Nothing lewd on the horizon of this story, nope, no girl love or boy love what, so, ever...
Let's jump right in!
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Episode 3:
Are you sure about this?
"You handle a stick pretty well, isn't that sedan of yours automatic?" Joseph said calmly while leaning back in the passenger seat of his car. His eyes were closed and his ears were perked as he listened to the shifting of the gears while Isaac drove.
Isaac smiled at the words while shifting into the next gear and accelerating as he merged onto the interstate. "My first car was a manual, my first three cars were actually. Man, this girl's a monster though. I'm no car guy but even I can tell you've put the work in on her."
Joseph opened one eye to look over at the larger dog while he drove, seeing how supremely confident he looked behind the wheel. "I've missed working on her. I asked Mom to drive her to work at least once a week to keep her parts moving. So why did you get your current one in automatic then?" The fox flicked an ear as he noticed the slight flinch from the wolf at the simple question.
"I guess I just wanted something simpler," Isaac said, trying to sound casual.
"Hmm... I'm not as perceptive as your wife, but even I can tell I struck a nerve on that one." Joseph cast his gaze towards the front windshield. "Sorry about that..."
A silence filled the cabin of the car for several moments before Isaac finally spoke out once more, "It was a simple question, nothing you should have expected any kind of reaction over."
"You wanna talk about it?" Joseph looked back at him, Isaac having settled into a comfortable speed, and removed his handpaw from the gear shaft.
"Not really," He responded pointedly.
"Well, I'm here if you want to talk about it, Isaac," Joseph spoke put before closing his eyes again and enjoying the warmth of the afternoon sun on his face while they drove.
Several minutes passed while the two sat there in silence. It was nearly twenty minutes before the wolf spoke out once more to end the stalemate of silence., "My ex-wife couldn't drive manual, so I got it in automatic in case she needed to drive it."
Joseph didn't bother opening his eyes as he responded, "Ah, so that's it. I knew you had been married but wasn't clear on the details."
Isaac nodded feeling a lump in his throat as if his body didn't want him to elaborate on the issue further.
"Sorry to drag that up. I didn't expect car talk to go there." Joseph said as he lazily opened his eyes, seeing the sun had sunk a few more inches into the horizon since he closed them.
"It's fine, you couldn't have known. I will tell you more about it someday," Isaac sighed before cutting his eyes over to the fox while he was on a straightaway. Joseph felt the wolf's gaze and looked back at him with a smile showing on his muzzle.
A comfortable silence settled around them once more and Joseph yawned wide showing his sharp teeth before huffing out and flicking his ears up. "Soooo... how did you and Karen meet anyway?"
Isaac grimaced at the question before looking at the fox apologetically, "That's probably a story I should tell you with her permission."
The fox snorted through his nose and looked out the window, "Damn man... is there anything you can talk about?"
Isaac felt a bit of sympathy for the other dog, all his questions having to be deflected like this. "Sorry, but I don't want to disrespect her and it was an... unorthodox meeting."
Joseph thought about it for a few moments before shrugging. "Alright, I will ask Karen later then." He nodded to himself in thought for a few more moments before speaking up again, "Well then... you said you didn't do the bounty hunter thing until you two got together, what sparked that?"
The wolf bit his lower lip at the question and Joseph shot him a look, seeing instantly he had struck on another topic he didn't want to answer. The fox sighed and looked back out the side window. "Nevermind..."
"Did Karen tell you what happened to her when she was younger?" Isaac spoke up in response.
Joseph thought back to the talk a few years ago, the one she gave him when he found out Isaac was with her, "She alluded to it, but she never gave me the hard details."
Isaac nodded and hesitated before speaking once more, "That person I introduced you to, Keys. I paid them to find the info on where the guy that did that to her was."
Joseph looked back at Isaac with a surprised glance, "Damn... you hunted the guy down for her?"
"Well, I had planned to..." Isaac grinned as he looked ahead at the road. "She figured it out, because as you know... there is no hiding anything from our rabbit."
Joseph couldn't help but grin hearing the wolf refer to Karen as theirs instead of just his. "Yeah... she is one perceptive girl..."
Isaac nodded as he continued, "At any rate... long story short. We hunted him down together and brought him back to pay for what he did. We felt the work suited us or more to the point, Keys thought it suited us."