Chapter Text
It was a pleasantly sunny day out in Brisbane, Australia. Most everyone was out and about enjoying their weekend, even the weather wasn’t as smoldering heat as it often proved to be, it was a great day. But it wouldn’t stay that way for too long.
Mackenzie was over at the Heeler’s home that day, with Bluey inviting the border collie over to hang out. The two of them were just relaxing in Bluey’s room at the time. Bluey’s family were all at home as well, just off doing their own things. Bingo was in her room, listening to music and texting on her phone. She had been moved into what once was the nursery, leaving Bluey with a much bigger room as a result. Bandit and Chilli were both upstairs relaxing in the living room as they watched TV. Why they essentially had two living rooms Mackenzie would never understand but hey, not his house to judge.
Mackenzie was sitting atop Bluey’s bed, humming softly to himself as he read a book. Was he normally the type to read books? Heavens no, books were lame, 99% of the time he’d rather be on his phone and scrolling through his feeds, but he was interested enough in the plot of the book to actually read through it so he didn’t question it. Bluey on the other paw was laying down on the same bed, her head towards the headboard of the bed, while her legs were closer to Mackenzie. She was on her phone, doing what she did best, watching videos mindlessly. She had the volume low enough as to not distract Mackenzie as he read his own book, all in all, they were both just taking this time to relax.
Both of them were blissfully unaware of the weather outside though. The sunny skies in Brisbane were hard to miss, but what was a rare occasion in itself was when it rained. And speaking of the devil… Grey clouds would slowly begin rolling in around Bluey’s town. Nobody took notice of this change of bright blue skies to a blanket of grey clouds that surrounded Brisbane until eventually… pitter-patter.
Mackenzie’s ear twitched as he heard it. A water droplet hit the window at high speed. Mackenzie pulled his head away from his book and then turned to Bluey’s window when he saw it. The sky was bathed in grey. “Whoa, I think it’s gonna rain!” Mackenzie exclaimed as he slowly put his book down and climbed out of Bluey’s bed and walked off towards the window curiously. This got Bluey to pull her head away from her phone as she watched him.
“Really? Whoa!” Bluey said curiously, tossing her phone to the side as she ran over to meet Mackenzie at the window. They both looked curiously out the window as the rain started off small. A small drizzle, just a few raindrops hitting the window, it could honestly just be mistaken for a sprinkler system shooting up really high. But it got bigger. Said drizzle turned into a light shower, and even more rain came pouring down. “Oooh, please be a downpour, PLEASE!” Bluey cheered, her tail wagging as she was equivalently watching paint dry. This elicited a small laugh from Bluey. Of course, if they wanted to they could just check their weather app and see how badly the rain was going to fall, but Bluey seemed too enthralled with watching the raindrops hit her window to think too.
Mackenzie smirked, deciding to pull away from the window as he walked over to the bed to collect his phone. He gave it a curious look, pulling up the weather app. Within a few seconds, Mackenzie had found the weather for the rest of the day, and it seemed to strike fear in his heart as he dropped his phone on the bed in shock.
At that exact moment, a downpour started, causing Bluey to cheer as the rain began hitting her window hard. “Haha yeah! Downpourrrr!” She cheered loudly before running over and grabbing Mackenzie’s arm. “Let’s go outside, Mackenzie!”
“No way! Wait actually, yes way! I’m going home!” Mackenzie exclaimed, scooping his phone back up and reaching to grab his hoodie hanging on Bluey’s door.
“What?! No, you can’t!” Bluey exclaimed back at him, looking at his hoodie and rushing over, snatching it up and back to the other side of the room. “YOU said you’d hang out with me all day! You can’t just leave midway through!”
Mackenzie flinched, watching Bluey run to the other side of the room with his hoodie. “Wh- Bluey! Give me my hoodie back!” He shouted, rushing over to try and take the hoodie back before it was too late.
“NO! At least tell me why you’re leaving early!” She gasped, quick to run away from him as he charged for her. She ran to her bed, jumping on top of it and holding the hoodie high up. Of course, Mackenzie was taller than Bluey, as they grew to be adults it made sense that their size difference became more pronounced given the normal science jargon. But needless to say, Bluey wasn’t very fortunate when it came to her size, and wound up on the smaller end of the spectrum, just smaller than her mother currently. Whereas Mackenzie had grown out nicely, becoming pretty tall, and one of the tallest in their friend group, only barely being shorter than Snickers of all dogs! Sausage dogs are longer alright, but that length translated into height.
“I don’t have time Bluey! I need to leave before it gets too bad!” Mackenzie ran over and attempted to snatch the hoodie away from her.
“Ugh… Darn it Mackenzie!” Bluey groaned. She was clearly upset with Mackenzie needing to leave early. She didn’t want him to go, especially so soon. She was looking forward to playing outside with him in the rain, just like how things were when they were kids, heck, they even played a bit in the rain as teenagers, but now as adults, it seemed the border collie didn’t want to play games as often and she was upset to see that. “Fine…” She admitted defeatedly, which got Mackenzie to stop trying to jump up and take the hoodie from her.
Mackenzie breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you Bluey… Look I promise I can come back tomorrow and we can-” Mackenzie didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence before it happened…
CRASH!!! The sound of thunder boomed, sounding into the room. Now that wasn't too bad, just a thunderstrike nearby perhaps? But Mackenzie... Mackenzie reacted much more harshly to this.
Mackenzie quite literally yelped, his loud cry sounding throughout the entire house, suddenly jumping up and before he knew it, or even had the time to process it, he had suddenly thrown himself onto Bluey, causing her to topple onto her bed.
“Oh? Thunder? I didn’t know it would- OOF!” Bluey was cut off as Mackenzie suddenly jumped into her, causing her to fall onto her back, cushioned by the bed. “Ough… Mackenzie what the-” She didn’t even get the time to ask him what the heck he was thinking because she was met with Mackenzie pressing his face deep against her chest, arms wrapped around her as he hid his face.
Now Mackenzie was usually on the calmer side of things, he didn't really like having any outrageous emotions, or at least he didn't like to show it. He never did tell anyone about his fear of lightning and thunder either, besides, it hardly rained, much less a thunderstorm that happened in Brisbane anyways, so he didn't need to tell anyone really... But now Mackenzie was cowering, shivering as he hid his face against Bluey’s chest. The only sounds in the room were Mackenzie's soft whining and whimpering as he cowered in fear. Had Bluey not been just there, the border collie might’ve tossed himself underneath her bed and hid there. “M…Mackenzie? Are you-”
For the third time in a row, Bluey was cut off, though this time by her parents as Bandit threw open the door, followed by Chilli right behind him. Chilli was the one to speak up first, “Bluey?! What happened? He heard a yelp and we- oop!” Chilli felt a bit embarrassed as she walked in on what looked to be a personal moment. Bandit was a bit shocked but said shock was soon replaced with that of the stereotypical overprotective fatherly rage.
“Oi, what do you think you’re-” This time, Bandit was cut off as Chilli jumped in, stopping Bandit from making it to Bluey’s bed. Chilli shot him a stare, a signature of hers as if telling him to cool it, or else. Bandit narrowed his eyes for a moment back at Chilli but eventually stopped, looking away. “Chilli he’s literally-”
“I know I know- but I don’t think we have the full story here sweetheart…” Chilli attempted to reason with Bandit as she then turned back to face Bluey and Mackenzie. Now that she had the time to process it fully. She heard the soft whining and whimpering that came from Mackenzie as he hugged Bluey tightly. While Bluey was looking between Mackenzie and her parents, showing a face of empathy for Mackenzie, though showing one of worry to her and Bandit, most likely because of the position they were in. “Do you… want to explain it to us Bluey?” Chilli asked Bluey curiously.
“Oh- uh yeah…” She gulped, fidgeting around in place for a moment as she slowly pulled herself to sit up, with Mackenzie still holding on tightly, as if hanging onto her for dear life. “I think… Mackenzie is afraid of thunder.” Bluey admitted softly, bringing a paw to rest on his head.
Bandit paused for a moment, coming down from his short-lived rage as he looked between the two. “Oh jeez, is that it?” He asked, a bit embarrassed over the fact he overreacted so harshly moments ago.
Chilli breathed a soft sigh in response, “I see, thank you Bluey.” With that, she then turned to Bandit. They both exchanged glances for a moment as Bluey held Mackenzie softly, beginning to pet his head as if to reassure him and help him calm down. “Are you sure he’s afraid of lightning?”
Bandit added onto this, “yeah, after all, he might just be trying to” Chilli stopped him from finishing his sentence, punching Bandit’s shoulder lightly, getting him to shut up. “Erm- what I meant was… Are you sure he’s afraid of thunder? And not just… Afraid of me?” Bandit tried to pass it off, though really what he wanted to say was the thunder excuse was just that, an excuse, one to get to hug Bluey- or do something much more.
“No! No of course not Dad!” Bluey protested before sighing. “I think he knew it was going to be a thunderstorm when he checked his phone… and he was trying to leave really badly but I… may have…” CRASH!!! The sound of thunder boomed once more. Looks like there’d be more than just one thunder strike.
This was once again followed by the shrill yelping of Mackenzie, hugging Bluey tighter and trembling heavily. His entire body shook in fear. Bluey had to resist the urge to strike the border collie for a moment as his hug grew uncomfortably tight, but she managed to get him to loosen up a bit as she began stroking his head, petting him softly. “S-Shhh Shh, it’s OK Mackenzie…” Bluey attempted to reassure him.
Bandit and Chilli were once again looking at each other. Well, that confirmed it, much to Bandit’s dismay. Chilli sighed, “what were you going to say Bluey?”
Bluey shook her head, “I… I may have tried to keep him from leaving, so he didn’t get to leave before the first lightning strike. That’s when he shouted loudly and hugged me, and then you two came in.” She finished explaining, looking guiltily at Mackenzie. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, I swear I didn’t-”
“No no, Bluey it’s alright! I don’t think any of us were prepared for this. Actually, you did the right thing!” Chilli explained before sighing. “It’s better you kept him here, we can deal with him this way, imagine him caught out in the storm? He would’ve been a mess!” Chilli explained before looking down sympathetically at Mackenzie.
His whimpers continued to fill the room as he blocked out all the sounds surrounding him. He was left a shivering mess and it showed.
“Well… What’re we gonna do about it?” Bandit asked curiously, giving the two of them a curious look. “I sure hope he doesn’t expect to be hugging Bluey until the storm ends,” Bandit grumbled. Chilli was ready to give him another death stare, but Bandit was right.
“With how hard he squeezed you just then, it’s probably best we get him something else to squeeze the crud out of.” Chilli sighed, “and sooner the better, or else your father might do something he’ll regret.”
“What?! Can’t I be ensuring my daughter isn’t fooling around with someone she shouldn’t be?” Bandit exclaimed.
“We’re NOT doing anything of the sort!” Bluey argued. Her face was turning red with the accusations being hurled their way.
While it was true… she had mild feelings for Mackenzie, it was unclear if they had blossomed past that point. They were just feelings… unclear, and uncertain, and Mackenzie certainly hadn’t shown any interest in the blue heeler romantically before this, so there was no point getting up in arms about it. Besides, it was hardly the time for it.
“Alright alright, let’s put a pin in this for now.” Chilli sighed, turning to face Bandit. “You.” She pointed to his face, “call his parents and let him know he’s at our place, and ask if they can come to pick him up so he doesn’t have to walk home.”
“Hah! Don’t have to tell me twice,” Bandit smirked, leaving the room.
“And Bluey, try to get him to calm down. I don’t know how long the storm is going to go on, but those thunderstrikes were decently far apart. If we’re lucky the storm is moving away, but if we’re not it’s just the beginning for Border Boy over here.” Chilli walked over and gently rest her paw against Mackenzie’s chest. She took note of his heart, beating rapidly. “Just keep him from freaking out dear, he’s panicked and afraid. You never want a panicked doggy to feel like they’re cornered and on the end of the rope.” She told Bluey, holding one of her paws. “And don’t worry, I trust you and Mackenzie aren’t doing anything of the sort! You know how your father can get overprotective from time to time! Just promise you’ll keep him calm.”
“Right… Right of course Mum! I will!” Bluey nodded, looking down at Mackenzie and then back to her. “I won’t let you down, Mum.”
“That’s my girl.” Chilli smiled warmly, leaning close and giving Bluey a soft kiss on her forehead. “I’m gonna go find something durable for Mackenzie to get his paws on rather than you, so your father isn’t inclined to kick his ass, and you aren’t inclined to suffocate if he squeezes too hard. Chilli said jokingly, smirking at the two.
This elicited a small laugh from Bluey as she nodded, “alright Mum! Don’t be long!” Bluey smiled warmly at her mother. Chilli nodded back and left the room next, leaving Mackenzie and Bluey by themselves. Bluey continued to gently stroke his head. She didn’t want to admit it… but she liked seeing this vulnerable side of the Border Collie. It was a bit refreshing to see it compared to the always cool and collected Mackenzie she knew near and dear.
Mackenzie shivered, his breath staggered a bit, but he finally spoke through that entire ordeal.
“I… I’m sorry…”