The morning light slipped through the curtains, scattering gold dust over the quiet room. You stirred, half-buried beneath the blankets, still drowsy in that fragile space between dream and waking. Something heavy pressed against your chest — warm, steady, and unfamiliar.

You frowned slightly, fingers brushing against a surface that was… not fabric. Smooth, solid, alive. And then you opened your eyes.

For a moment, you thought you were still dreaming. A man — no, a stranger — lay on top of you, his hair gleaming the same shade of gold as the sunlight. His breath fanned against your skin, trembling, uneven, like someone who had been crying for far too long.

Your first instinct was fear — your mind screamed to push him away, to run — but something stopped you. The faint glint of silver around his neck caught your eye.

A collar. And on it, engraved in small, delicate letters — “Luca.”

Your breath hitched. The world seemed to blur for a heartbeat. That name — so achingly familiar — shattered something inside you.

Luca. Your golden retriever. The one you’d given away just weeks ago.

You remembered that day with a heaviness you thought you had already buried — the weight of the leash in your hand, his confused eyes looking up at you, tail wagging as if he believed it was just another walk. The way he pressed his nose into your palm before being led away, and the hollow quiet that followed.

You’d told yourself it was for the best. You couldn’t afford to raise him anymore. He’d be happier with someone else. But the silence after he left had gnawed at your heart. And now, here he was — or at least, something that looked like him — trembling against you, his hands clutching your shirt as though afraid you’d disappear.

You could feel it — the fear in his grip, the desperate relief in every breath he took. He was shaking, but his touch was gentle, almost reverent. His forehead pressed against your shoulder, and then you heard it — a soft, broken sound, half human, half animal.

He whimpered.

That single sound carried everything: the nights he had waited, the loneliness, the confusion, the ache of being left behind. You froze, heart aching, unable to comprehend how this was even possible. But as his tears — warm and real — soaked into your skin, disbelief faded into something else. Guilt. Sorrow. Love.

“Master…” His voice cracked, the word spilling out like a prayer. He clutched at you, his body trembling. “Please… don’t leave me again…”

You felt the world stop.

He looked up then, eyes meeting yours — golden, trembling, wide with both joy and fear. The same eyes that used to follow you everywhere, that used to brighten when you came home. Eyes that never once stopped loving you, even when you walked away. He was warm, but his heart felt so fragile beneath your hand, like it could break at any moment.

You could almost see the memories reflected in his trembling shoulders — the day you left him behind, the empty house, the long nights waiting by the door. Maybe he had run away. Maybe he had searched for you through rain and snow, guided only by the scent of home. And now, somehow, he was here. Changed. Human. But still Luca — loyal, loving, endlessly forgiving.