Chapter 54 - 54 - Puppies' Day Out

Fang was sent off to school after breakfast, despite his protests and worries over Ren. Ren repeatedly assured him that he was all right, and Pax promised to keep an eye on Ren and take him to Dr. Gordon if he didn't feel better soon.

Once Fang left, Ren heaved a sigh of relief.

"What's the matter with you?" Pax asked archly.

"Nothing," Ren replied absently. He wasn't sure if anything was wrong with him, either. He didn't feel ill or uncomfortable; just a little tired. He didn't want to make people unnecessarily, so he thought he may as well behave as normally as possible and go to work.

Pax frowned, but didn't say anything.

"Let's go," Ren said. "I really do want to finish up early today and spend time with the little ones."

"What a doting parent," Pax remarked, rolling his eyes.

Ren grinned at him and stood up.

The moment he reached the door, though, two small, warm bundles of fur leaped at him and refused to let go. Ren picked them up, rubbed their little heads and returned them to their basket. As soon as he turned to leave, though, Smoke and Shadow jumped out of their basket and latched on to his trouser legs, refusing to let go and whining piteously. This happened several times, much to the amusement of everyone else.

Finally, Ren shot Pax a helpless look with the two puppies in his arms. "Can I bring them to office?" he asked mildly.

Pax couldn't hold in his laughter anymore. "All right," he said. "Your fur-babies really missed you, it seems."

Steward Paul quickly readied a basket of supplies they'd need for the puppies and handed it to Pax.

Then the two men and the two young pups got into the car and were on their way to Sirocco's office.

Within ten minutes of Ren's entry with his two pups nestled in his arms, word about their presence spread through the entire office. So many people found excuses to turn up at Ren's chamber with inane questions just to take a look at the puppies that both Ren and Pax were fed up by lunchtime! Even worse was the fact that every time someone new came in, the puppies would rush to Ren and cling to him. At one point, Smoke and Shadow even climbed into his coat pockets and watched the visitor with their little heads sticking out of Ren's pockets.

This particular visitor was a lady with a particularly high-pitched voice and her squeals of delight frightened the two puppies so much that he nearly threw an ink bottle at her to driver her out. Fortunately, Pax took charge of the situation and showed her out before Ren could give into his urge to fling something.

Pax came back quickly and took a few pictures of Ren with the puppies in his pockets and sent it to Fang and Wolf before Ren could object.

"I've asked them not to let anyone in for now," he told Ren. "But I'm afraid people are just too curious and will find something urgent to come over anyway."

Both men sighed and looked at the two puppies, who stared back at them with large, luminous golden eyes.

"They really do have eyes remarkably similar to yours, you know," Pax remarked.

Ren nodded. "That was one of the first things Fang told me after he picked them up," he replied.

They worked in silence for a short while before the intercom rang again. The legal head of Sirocco had dropped by with some paperwork.

Ren and Pax looked at each other and sighed again. They let the guy in - but as expected, he was here just to see the puppies. The paperwork he brought along wasn't due for another six months!

Pax groaned after he managed to send the legal head away and stared at Ren in dismay.

"There's no way we'll get off early like this," he said.

"Fang will worry if I stay late..." Ren muttered.

"Then we need a solution for your babies who are too adorable for their own good," Pax retorted.

"I think I'll give them a tour of the entire building," Ren said finally.

"Good idea," Pax said. "Otherwise we'll not get anything done today."

Ren grinned mischievously. "What can I say? My sons are natural charmers!"

And thus, Pax sent out a notice that CEO Ren would be visiting each department with his two fur-babies Smoke and Shadow in the afternoon.

That gave them some time to wrap up the real urgent things without any disturbance. The two pups were also quite well behaved and slept peacefully as long as Ren fed them their milk at regular intervals and remained within three feet of them.

"I wonder why they're so clingy today," Ren murmured absently.

Pax, in fact, had been pondering over the same question all day. It was definitely unusual.

Ren kept his word and took his puppies on a tour of his office. They were really adorable and since they were well cared for, they were quite chubby and furry - besides, even the cold faced Ren couldn't manage to look cold with two super cute small creatures sitting on his shoulders as he walked around.

His employees cooed over and admired Smoke and Shadow, making Ren feel like a proud parent. Many pictures were clicked on the sly, and someone even managed to take a video when Smoke got curious about a good luck bamboo plant on someone's desk and accidentally turned it over, frightening himself and leaping into Ren's arms, and then Ren pacified the pup with tender eyes and gentle strokes of his finger until he recovered.

That video went viral among the Sirocco employees all over the world in a matter of hours. Pax found out about it and downloaded it himself as well, sharing it with Fang, Wolf and the staff at home.. He didn't stop the employees from watching the video, but gave everyone a stern reminder not to leak it to the public.