After his now normal morning routine, Aidan headed to his classes. He had his peace the whole morning, not once anybody talked to him, and he used it to get his work done before making his first sketches of the name-tag for Mark´s dog.
Not knowing how the dog would be called, Aidan decided on a blank block in the middle to the front, which would have space for the name. The backside of that space would be big enough to engrave Mark´s address. Seeing as he should design it like something he liked, he made a color palette, circling various colors around the blank space. The ring to connect it to a collar was the shape of a paintbrush, the holding side up. Meaning that below the palette was the tip a sweeping brush with a blue ending, as blue was his favorite color.
Knowing that Mark wasn´t as interested in art as Aidan was, he decided on another picture for the other side, which was a soccer ball design. It simply meant the color palette needed to be fully round and not oval like it would normally be. Only the paint brush would be visible from both sides.
It didn´t take Aidan long to rework the sketches into actual drawings, followed by coloring the whole thing like he wanted it to. He took his time to do all the details he wanted it to have, resulting in having it finished by the end of his day.
Meeting up with Mark, they walked to Aidan´s flat. Aidan felt a strong desire to press his nose, which was still behind his mask, into Mark´s groin, but fought it down. But he walked really close by Mark´s long legs, and more than once his side touched Mark´s leg. Something was wrong with that, but he couldn´t say what exactly.
Mark made his homework while Aidan read. If he wasn´t disturbed, he would finally finish it that afternoon. He had showed the name-tag design to Mark, and he seemed satisfied with it. And Aidan felt happy Mark praised him.
When Mark was finished with his work, he looked over the design for Aidan´s name-tag He liked it, he would just turn it the other way, meaning the soccer ball would be the front side and the color palette would be the back.
He was quick to decide what would he turn into it, along with an idea what to do about the leash he would need later for Aidan. Aidan handed him his bag without much thinking, to engrossed in his book. Mark found both Aidan´s phone and his wallet inside, both things he would need, while Aidan wouldn´t need them any longer.
With a few clicks, Mark turned Aidan´s phone into a long, rope-like leash, which would be adjustable from its hold in the form of Aidan´s phone. It had the extra feature of shortening into the hold even if it looked way too small to fit. And if Mark let it, it could reach up to twenty-five meters of leash.
Aidan´s wallet was pressed into a thin piece of metal, which than turned mostly round. A small clip formed on top of a short extension, the handle of the brush, on one side of the coin shaped piece of metal. Said coin then got a black and white soccer ball design with a plate inside, mentioning “Starny” as a name, followed by a smaller writing of “Aidan” in a second line, and “owned by Mark Romano” under it.
The backside of the coin turned mostly a brown wood like color, with a couple of color blotches around the center plate, which listed Mark´s address inside. Opposite of the holding clip another extension pushed out of the coin, shaped like the tip of a brush covered in blue color on both sides.
Satisfied with both items for Aidan, Mark disturbed Aidan yet again to get his attention. An annoyed “What?” came from Aidan.
Mark grinned down at him. “I just want your attention for something, no need to be annoyed. Aidan, you will latch this name-tag into your color, soccer ball side forward. Afterwards, you will also latch this leash into the respective ring on your neck. Both will stay on you, as you are unable to remove them alone.”
Aidan looked shocked as he took the name-tag from Mark. He clipped it in without reading it, instead focusing on Mark´s wide grin. The leash was latched into the back of his collar without even noticing it. Finally, Aidan started to speak: “Mark, what the hell? Stop treating me like your pet, I´m not a dog. You wanted that name-tag for your dog and not for me, right? And how did you make it so fast?”
Mark watched as the leash was shortened to only its hold on the back of Aidan´s collar before answering: “Right, you aren´t a pet, nor a dog (yet). Yeah, I wanted the name-tag for my dog, but it seemed fitting to test it on you. And it is made out of your wallet, while the leash was your phone before. Aidan, you won´t need either of them anymore. And you will also react to the name of Starny beside Aidan from now on, just like the name-tag says.” Mark grinned at him.
Aidan had already forgotten the first part, so only his added name was on his mind. “You can´t just rename me, Mark.”
“Don´t worry, it´s just a new nickname for you. I think it´s funny, so don´t bark about it that much.” Mark commented with a laugh.
“Woof woof woof, ruff ruff ….” Aidan barked in protest, and Mark understood his “It´s not funny, I don´t bark …” out of it. Then Aidan´s time was up, and with an annoyed look at Mark he returned to his book.