Impup Whisperer

Ari waved goodbye to his coworkers and headed out the back door of the cafe. The rain from earlier had cleared up, so the evening air smelled clean and fresh. 

He was only about a quarter of the way home when he was caught off guard by an Impup racing past him. After the initial surprise, Ari shrugged, not thinking much of it. Wild imps were always around, and Impups were apparently quite common, from what he’d heard from Hutch. 

As if his thoughts summoned the other bun, Ari heard Hutch call out for him from behind. They caught up with him, putting their hands on their knees and panting as they caught their breath. They held a small metal cage.

“Hi, Hutch… Is everything okay?” 

One Hutch had caught their breath, they stood up straight and  pointed in the direction the Impup had run off to. “I’ve been chasing that Impup around all day, but it’s got so much more energy than imps usually do…” They looked up at Ari. “Are you free right now? I’d love your help in trying to catch it.” They held up the cage, shaking it slightly. “I don’t want it to hurt itself while it’s so hyper.” 

“I… Okay.” He’d just gotten off shift, but hadn’t been terribly busy, and Ari had nothing else going on tonight, so he decided to help them out. At the very least, they could consider a show of gratitude for all the work they’d put into teaching Ari about his imps that he just seemed to keep collecting. “What do you want me to do?” 

Hutch explained their game plan, and the two went to work.

~ 

“Now what?” 

It hadn’t taken much time at all to catch the rowdy imp once Ari joined the chase; in less than an hour they had cornered it, caught it, and brought it back. 

“Now I try to get it to calm down enough to teach it some basic tricks.” Hutch put the cage on top of the front desk of the Imporium, crouching slightly so they could get a better look at the imp inside. “Impups are usually very obedient, especially when they’re with a bun that they’ve taken a liking to.” 

“So judging by the way this one ran away from you whenever you made kissy noises at it…” 

Hutch blushed, and something close to a pout came across their face. “I guess it doesn’t like me…” 

Ari felt bad just looking at them. “I’ll stay until we get it to behave, okay? Would that make you feel better?”

Hutch looked up at him, eyes sparkling. “You mean it?” 

“Sure, Hutch.” Ari chuckled at the immediate change in disposition. “Just tell me how to help.” 

Hutch grabbed the cage off the desk and placed it on the floor. “Let’s try playing with it until it tires out a little, then I’ll start with the usual training!” 

They opened the door to the cage and the Impup dashed out. It raced around the room, making sharp barking sounds at every other imp it saw, sending many of them scurrying away into various hiding spots. After trying to climb up onto a stack of imp beds and sending the pile tumbling down, the Impup seemed to remember the two dolls in the room with it and bolted over. 

It came straight for Ari, barking again as it stood on its hind legs and pawed at his pants. Ari tried to gently push it away with his foot, but the imp kept coming back, getting more and more enthusiastic until - “Enough!” 

To Ari’s surprise - and Hutch’s, judging by the way they were looking at him - the Impup immediately stopped, standing as if frozen as it looked up at Ari.

“I’m not the trainer, go over there.” Ari pointed over at Hutch, and the Impup quickly trotted over to Hutch before turning back to look at Ari, head tilted. “There, it seems to have calmed down now.” 

“Umm… I don’t think that’s quite right.” Hutch took a couple steps away from the Impup and patted their thighs, calling for the Impup to come over to them. It didn’t, instead continuing to stare at Ari, waiting. 

“Oh?” Had it… Imprinted? Was that the word? Ari patted the side of his leg, and the Impup came running over. How does it even know what I want if it’s been wild this whole time? “Well… At the very least, it seems like it’s ready to take instructions now.” 

Hutch stared at Ari and the Impup for a few more seconds of shocked silence, then shook their head as if to clear their thoughts. “Yeah, okay, let’s do this!” 

Hutch spent the next half hour or so coaching Ari through the process of teaching tricks to the Impup. Regardless of how nicely Hutch asked it, the imp completely ignored them, only listening to Ari’s commands. And it learned fast. ‘Sit’, ‘lay down’, ‘spin’, even ‘dance’. Ari was impressed, and got a little bit of an ego boost from the fact that this imp would only listen to him, and would follow his directions to the letter. But eventually it was time for the inevitable conversation. 

“I guess I have to take it home, don’t I.” It was more a statement of confirmation rather than an actual question. Ari hadn’t intended to get another imp any time soon. He especially didn’t expect to be bringing one home after his shift today. “If it won’t listen to you, Imporium Extraordinaire, I can’t imagine you’ll have much luck selling it.”

Hutch and the Impup both looked up at him with matching expressions, big eyes begging him to give in. “Impups are good with being around other imps, and I know that’s important since you have some already…” Hutch trailed off as they saw Ari’s raised eyebrow. 

“It didn’t seem very friendly to the others when you first let it out.” Ari gestured vaguely deeper into the Imporium. Several of the imps that had been scared into hiding by the Impup’s earlier boisterous ‘introduction’ had poked their heads out of their hiding places, with the braver ones coming closer to watch the training montage. 

The Impup looked at Ari’s hand, then looked over to where the other imps were, and seemed to understand what he had said. It trotted a few feet closer to the other imps, then laid down, looking at them and whimpering softly as its tail wagged back and forth. A Furdin padded over, leaning down to sniff the Impup, then rubbed their faces together. The Impup’s wagging tail sped up, and it turned its head to look at Ari. 

Ari sighed light-heartedly. “How am I supposed to say no when it's so eager to please?” He turned back towards Hutch. “How much?” 

Hutch shook their head. “Absolutely not! I wouldn’t have been able to catch it without your help. And like you said, it only wants to listen to you, so it would be mean of me to profit off of its love for you.” 

“Is it love?” Ari laughed, rolling his eyes playfully. “Alright, I think it’s a bit too soon to use words like that, but…” He patted his leg again, and the Impup interrupted whatever interaction it had been having with the other imps and returned to his side, seemingly prancing with pride. “Good b-” Ari cut his sentence off, glancing at Hutch to see if they’d noticed. But they were distracted cleaning up the various toys and treats the two of them had been using for training. 

Ari looked back down at the Impup, where it sat patiently, tail going a mile a minute. “Alright little guy, off we go then?” 

He said his goodbyes to Hutch and heading out, the Impup happily following him.