"What? We're getting a dog?" you questioned the butler of the manor. "I thought you hated—"

"I do. However I do not have choice in these matters; this is the master's ruling." You only barely contained your excitement; you did like both dogs and cats, but you greatly preferred dogs. They were so lovable that you had once thrown a temper tantrum to get one when you were younger.

"I see. And who's that silver-haired man clinging to your shoulder?" you asked, and Sebastian glared back at him, making the man flinch.

"The dog, Pluto." Your eyes widened.

"U-Uh, Sebastian, are your eyes broken?" To prove his point, the man called Pluto barked and panted.

"No, unfortunately." Pluto licked the side of Sebastian's face, irritating him further. "Greet your new caretaker, Pluto." When Sebastian said 'Pluto', it sounded more like he was insulting the man than calling him by name. Pluto whined. "Now, Pluto," Sebastian growled, and frightened, Pluto fled behind you, clutching your legs. Sebastian sighed, withdrawing a cloth from his breast pocket and cleaning the saliva off his face.

"So you want me to take care of him? But he's so fond of you." you said uneasily, still not entirely convinced this was a dog. Sebastian gave you a look.

"I believe I've told you before that I detest dogs, F/N. I want you to keep him out of sight and preferably far away from me. And if possible, please educate him into becoming a guard dog instead of a family pet."

"Wasn't that your job?" you asked curiously, and Sebastian closed his eyes, his smile seeming almost threatening.

"I can reduce your pay, F/N," You chuckled nervously and ran off with Pluto, dragging him by the spiked collar around his neck, panting when you reached the yard.

"Woof!" Pluto exclaimed, and when you turned your head to look back at him, you were looking at a silver-haired dog—that was over ten feet tall.

"Holy shit," you whispered as you met eyes with the hound that had previously been a human. He tilted his head at you. "I think I might need help..."

<><><>

You and Finny took the task together and first worked on getting Pluto's habit of setting everything on fire under control. Unfortunately, during the training, several trees suffered the consequences and rapidly burned to the ground, catching the attention of Sebastian.

"What is happening out here?" he asked you, and you tried to hold back Pluto as he attempted to run to Sebastian.

"Training," you said awkwardly. Finny had gone to replant the burned trees, so you were left to defend yourself alone. Sebastian gave you a look that said he was not amused. Something told you a cat had ran away from him as a result of the trees being burnt down. "B-But look! I've almost got his fire-breath under control! Pluto, Inferno!" you yelled, pointing at the sky, and blissfully, he listened and shot a plume into the air. Sebastian sighed.

"At least you've made progress. Be sure to keep him quiet while the master retires tonight. We don't need him howling loud enough to wake the dead." You nodded, and Sebastian walked away, no doubt about to return to the cat, not that you blamed him for it.

"Thanks Plu-plu; you saved me from a scolding," you murmured, patting his upper foreleg. Pluto woofed in response, looking at you and suddenly bursting into flame, getting smaller. At first, you were shocked, thinking he had suddenly burned away when the man from before, now naked, knocked you over and started licking you. "N-No, Pl-Pluto, get off!" you yelled, blushing insanely and laughing.

"Ruff!" Pluto exclaimed, sitting up and sniffing the air, and you covered your eyes. That was another thing you'd have to fix: somehow make it so that whenever he transformed, he would appear fully clothed.

"Pluuuuto! What are you doing?!" Finny asked, dragging the man off you and also blushing. You stood up and brushed yourself off.

"Thanks Finny; I don't know if I would've been able to get that weight off me."

"No problem, F/N!" Finny replied cheerfully as Pluto whined. The dog had already developed an attachment to you, it seemed.

<><><>

It had been several days since Pluto was introduced to the manor, and he now generally behaved according to your commands, though there were two things you still hadn't managed to sort out. The first was that you had no ideas of how to make clothing that would somehow fit him in both his forms. The second was that you simply could not get him to stop jumping on you, no matter how much you scolded him.

But today, you were utterly baffled by him. Why?

Pluto has knocked you down for what seemed like the tenth time when he suddenly said, though quite roughly, "F/N." Naturally, you first thought you were hearing things. But he said it again, astonishing you.

"Plu-Plu?" you questioned, looking around to make sure one of the other servants wasn't trying to pull a prank on you.

"F/N," he growled again, and your mind filled with ideas. What if you could teach him how to speak intelligibly? What if you could teach him to be both human and hound?

"Sit up, boy," you commanded softly, sitting across from Pluto as he looked at you with a curious expression. "Can you say my name again?" Seeming to understand, Pluto repeated your name. "Okay, can you say..." you looked for a familiar object and found a biscuit. "Treat?" Pluto didn't seem to understand though. You tried sounding it out for him. "Tereeat?" Pluto barked, and you rubbed your temples. This was probably going to take some time.

<><><>

"Okay, Pluto, what's your favorite food?" you asked the silver-haired male.

"Treats," he replied, seeming proud.

"Good. What's the brand name?" Pluto appeared to be thinking.

"Inn.. Innuko." You smiled.

"Now for the hard question: what are you?"

"Demon..." Pluto paused, searching. "Demon... Demon-hound!" You grinned and patted his head as you heard clapping from behind you. You turned to see Sebastian giving you one of his rare, at least somewhat sincere, smiles.

"I am impressed, F/N. Even I cannot teach a dog to speak the human tongue." Pluto tilted his head at Sebastian.

"Sebastian," he rumbled, and you glanced back at him. You hadn't taught him that yet. "Demon." Sebastian's eyes widened, and he smirked.

"Though you'd better keep your dog from saying those two words in order. We don't want the servants to have any ideas put in their heads." Sebastian walked away, leaving you confused. It wouldn't surprise you if Sebastian was a demon, but if the servants were fine keeping a demon-hound, then why was he keeping that a secret?

You shook your head.

"Okay, Pluto, let's go over the alphabet again; you still have a lot to learn." Pluto groaned mournfully as you lead him away from his tree-toy and towards the study.

<><><>

"Hey, F/N, what's Pluto doing...?" Bard asked you as you were helping Finny in the garden. You glanced up from your work to look at the chef.

"Probably still reading. I gave him some books from the library."

"Dogs can't read!" Bard exclaimed, dropping his cigarette near an innocent flower. You quickly snuffed it out before it could set the plants on fire. "He's probably tearing up the book right now, and if Sebastian gets mad at you, I'm not protecting you!"

"Have you talked to him recently, Bard?" you questioned calmly.

"Talked to him?! F/N, talking to a dog is like talking to a plant. Have you gone mental?" You shook your head with a smile. Your hard work had started to pay off already; Pluto could now speak full sentences, and if you could get him interested in reading, his vocabulary would expand tremendously, and he would be able to understand even more of your commands, such as 'Please, please get off me' or 'Put some clothes on'.

"F/N," the voice you had come to recognize said, and you vaguely saw Bard flinch back. Pluto pointed to a word in the picture book. "What does this mean?"

"Cavort, hmm? Let's see, it's like when I hold a treat right over your head, and you start dancing around. Hang on, I can get something that could help you a little more..." You quickly ran into the manor and into the library, retrieving a large, leather-bound volume and swiftly carrying it back outside. "Here you go; this is called a 'Dictionary'. Everything is ordered alphabetically, and you can look up words you don't know the meanings of in here." 

Pluto scratched his head, and you sat down, opening the book to the index. "See? Cs start on this page, so let's go there..." You turned the pages to the page number you had been pointing at. "Now, Cavort is c-a-v, so let's look... Here! It says 'to jump or dance around excitedly; frolic'."

"Thank you!" Pluto exclaimed, taking the book from your hands and resuming his reading.

"F/N, you're some kind of monster," Bard commented, lighting another cigarette.

"No, she's just a really good person!" Finny disagreed. "Teaching the little guy to read like that."

"Said the one who calls the gigantic dog 'little'," Bard grumbled, returning back inside. You chuckled, wondering what it would be like when Pluto could speak fluently.

<><><>

Now, it had been several weeks since Pluto had come to the manor, but in less than two months, you had taught Pluto how to read and speak, and you were planning to teach him how to write. (Not to mention he finally seemed to understand you were uncomfortable with him being completely naked, although it still didn't stop him from jumping on you from time to time.)

"F/N," Pluto said from behind you, though his voice sounded lower than usual. "I think I love you." You blushed intensely, thanking your lucky stars that he was wearing clothes.

"Wh-Where did that come from?" you asked, startled. His red eyes bored into yours.

"My heart," he said, almost whispering as if he was unsure of it himself. "You've taught me to be human, something not even the master I once thought to be the best did. However..." Pluto tackled you to the ground again, smiling as he licked you like always. "I'll always be your Plu-plu."