#yes the dog is part husky so when i say he howls...

[givemetherapyimawritingtravesty]

have we explored transfemme lily yet? mtf lily evans?

I need to go searching when it's not midnight and the dog isn't literally howling at me to go to bed.

[pokedawriter]

PART 2:

The answer was no. No I had not. Time to fix that, I guess.

I go up the rest of the stairs, careful to skip the more sketchy ones. As the poor college student I am, instant ramen will once again be my dinner tonight. But I am no peasant! I add a soft-boiled egg to my ramen, like the classy bitch I am.

A classy bitch who’s poor, but a classy bitch nonetheless.

Stepping onto the balcony, I slurp my noodles while looking out at the nearby woods, enjoying the peace and quiet. The trees rustle with the breeze, the multicolored leaves shifting around. Beneath me, I hear another balcony door slide open then… the sound of a fan? I place my mostly empty noodles on the balcony railing, then lean over the edge.

My downstairs neighbor is putting a blanket over his balcony railing, before he heads back inside. The fan is positioned to be blowing into the apartment, though I can’t see inside. I do hear sweeping inside, and moments later, gray tufts of fur float onto the balcony. He must be the guy who owns the dog.

I lean over the railing a little more, hoping that I’ll be able to see the pupper, but the wind decides now’s a good time to blow a little harder, which sends my hair into my face and my noodles over the edge…

Splatting right onto my downstairs neighbor’s blanket, the now completely empty noodle cup rolling on his balcony.

“Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!” I yelp. Before he can respond, I run back inside my apartment. Shoving my feet into my shoes, I hurry downstairs and knock on his door. It soon swings open, revealing a taller man with a mop of brown hair on his head. He sort of reminds me of a beanpole, but now is not the time to think of gardening. Or beans.

“I am so sorry! The wind knocked my noodles over. I thought it would be heavy enough not to be blown over,” I explain quickly, silently lamenting the loss of my classy-bitch-egg that I never got to eat.

“It's fine,” the man replies, his voice gruffer than I expected. “I can just wash it again. Shame my dryer isn’t working though.” A small puff of gray fur rolls out of his apartment and stops on my foot.

“Do you have a dog?” I blurt out. It's too late. My brain is thinking about one thing and one thing only now: dogs. The man stiffens a bit, as my thoughts whirl about what type of dog he has. It must be a long haired breed, right? Since there is all this fur. And this grey color… Oh! The howling last night! I must be a husky! Oh my gosh, there is a husky in there and I may be able to pet it if I-

“No, I don’t,” he says slowly, his eyes darting around my face.

I can’t help it when my expression falls. “Oh.” Then confusion. “Then why do you have so much fur in your apartment?” Ah yes, I love it when my mouth is much faster than my brain.

He pauses for a little, his mouth open slightly. Damn his canine teeth are LORGE. “My… cousin brings his dog over sometimes,” he trails off.

So pupper sometimes, got it. “That’s awesome!” I smile. “Next time he brings the dog over, may I meet it?” I bounce a little, then almost slip because my shoes aren’t on completely. I take this moment to make sure my heels are actually in the shoes.

“Uh,” my neighbor sweats a little, biting his lower lip. “Maybe..? The dog isn’t very friendly.”

Oh. Once again my face falls and my disappointment must be very obvious because my neighbor flinches slightly. I try to pick up my smile. “It's okay! The dog’s comfort is most important.” His eyes widen a little. “Anyways, sorry about my noodles,” I smile sheepishly while rubbing my neck. “You mentioned your dryer’s not working. If you want you can borrow mine. Or I can look at yours? Or both?”

“It's really no problem,” he mumbles looking backwards into his apartment, probably towards the blanket. I shake my head.

“That’s what I should be saying,” I sigh. “It's getting colder at night now, it's important to have enough layers.” Gosh, I sound like my mother. “It's not like we have fur to cover our bodies,” I joke. My neighbor does not laugh. Embarrassment decides to crawl up my cheeks and make them redder. “A-anyways! Please let me look at your dryer!”

For a moment I think he’ll say no again, as he examines me, sizing me up. Finally, he steps aside and opens the door more. I step inside and he closes the door behind us. “I never caught your name,” I say as I follow him in.

“Diego,” he says simply, leading me into the living room.

“Nice to meet you, Diego. My name is-” my words catch in my throat. Diego’s place is destroyed. The couches are torn up and ripped, their stuffing popping out in some spots. There are gashes on the walls and floors, but the most prominent issue is the sheer amount of fur that is EVERYWHERE. He must have groomed that husky in here for there to be that much fur, jeeze.

Diego glances back at me, examining my face as I take everything in. My rationality is asking how the hell this place got so busted, while my anxiety tells me to shut up and not ask. “Bet that dog is a cutie,” I say, deciding to focus my attention on the dryer.

“Maybe. More a menace though,” he mutters the second part under his breath but I laugh anyway. His dryer, like mine, is in the kitchen and I walk over to it as he gets his blanket from the balcony. Like everything else, it's blanketed in fur. I press the start button and it goes, surprising me.

“Seems like it's working just fine?” I turn to Diego, confused.

He shakes his head. “It’ll go, but it doesn’t dry anything.” He says as he shoves his blanket into the washer.

“Does it still get warm?” He nods, and I think I already know the solution.

I open the door and pull out the lint catcher and, yep, it's completely full. Pulling out the carpet of lint and holding it up, I look at Diego, my mouth in a tight frown. The only word that escapes me is “Bruh.”

He tilts his head slightly like a confused puppy. “What’s that?”

“The lint trap, man. You gotta clean this out every time you use the dryer,” I say, grimacing. “You’re lucky this didn’t start a fire!”

His eyes go wide, looking between me, the lint slab dangling from my hand, the dryer then back at me. I shake my head, put the lint trap back and place the compacted fluff into the trash. If he doesn’t know this… his vent is probably clogged too. I look at his room and the open balcony door with the fan outside and the fur rolling around on the floor.

“Okay, Diego, this is what’s gonna happen,” I sigh. “Can you pull your dryer out while I grab something from my apartment upstairs?” He nods and as I start to leave I hear a rubber rumble as he easily yoinks the machine away from the wall. Who knew Mr. Beanpole had it in him.

A few minutes later, I’m back from my apartment with the leaf blower my dad insisted I bring, despite me living in an apartment. Hose to the vent, I turn the blower and we go to the balcony and watch the lint fly out from a vent on the side of the building.

“We’ll let that go for a few minutes, then we can use the leaf blower to blow all the fur onto the balcony or out the front door,” I smile.

“You’re very handy,” Diego returns my smile with a little one of his own. “Do you think… you could look at something else, too?”

“Of course,” I nod. Yesss, give me all those good neighbor points and forget that fact I dropped noodles from the sky.

He points to his window air conditioner. “This isn’t working as well compared to when I first got it. And it heats up a lot.”

“Something’s probably wrong with the filter,” I say as I go over to it, turning the machine off. I open it up and- yup, the filter is dirtier than my search history. JK, haha… at least I didn’t say that out loud.

An explanation and a call later, I’m sitting at Diego’s desk ordering him a new filter because the landlord, as I fucking predicted, said he wouldn’t cover the cost of a new one. “Does the dog come often?” I ask, scrolling through Amazon.

“Dog?” Diego echoes back as he does the head tilt thing again.

“Your cousin’s dog?”

“Oh! Yeah, uh, that dog,” he looks away for a moment. “About, uh, once a month.”

“Once a month? And you get all this fur?” I look at him, eyes wide. Maybe I’m off on the husky mark. Maybe it's a great pyrenees? Or a chow chow? Who knows.

Diego’s face goes red and he looks away. “Um, yeah.”

“Then you’ll definitely want a filter that also helps with animal hair,” I scroll a bit and select a few for him to choose from. “Here, sit here.” He obediently sits and looks at the options while I go back out to the living room and use the leaf blower to remove the fur all over the ground. Once it’s on the balcony, I take the puffs by the handful and toss them over the ledge. All better.

Now his living room. Still a clawed mess, but… hey, I could fix it. A bit of caulk or spackling compound there, then sand and add primer and paint… maybe it's for the best that the landlord didn’t come to replace the filter.

Diego emerges from his office moments later. “Um… thanks, for all your help.” He bites his lip, and shifts his weight from leg to leg.

“Sure, happy to help,” I smile back. “And, uh, sorry about the noodles.”

He shakes his head. “It's alright. You’ve more than paid me back for that.” He looks away for a moment, then extends his hand. “Would you, um, be willing to trade phone numbers? You seem to know a lot more about home stuff than I do.”

I can’t help the huge smile that crosses my face. “Sure!” I take his phone and enter my contact information. Always good to get my neighbor’s contact info. Plus! This means I can ask him when the dog is next coming.

He sends me a text and I confirm I got it. I was going to put his full name, but then I saw he put me as ‘Sky Noodle Girl’ in his phone, so I put him as ‘Doggie Diego’, which he rolled his eyes at, still smiling.

I head back up the stairs and enter my own apartment. My still very empty and not unpacked apartment. Fuck. And I have homework. Double fuck.

And I didn’t even finish my noodles!

…

I’ve been here for two days and three nights and my shit shack is already testing my patience. Well, the landlord is.

“My foot went through one of the stairs,” I try to say as cordially as I can. The fresh scratch from the broken wood stings, a bit of blood trickling out.

The landlord doesn’t even look at me, opting instead to scroll on his phone. “And?”

“It's a safety hazard,” I manage to say through gritted teeth.

He shrugs. “Not my problem. I live in the basement.”

This motherfucker-

“If it bothers you that much, go fix it yourself,” his game jingles happily, and he sneers. “Not that you can.”

Once my skin clears up, I lose 10 pounds, fix those damn stairs, finish my homework, learn how to properly do eyeshadow, comb my hair and become mentally stable, it's over for this bastard.

Until then, he can go fuck himself on the broken pieces of wood that was the stairs while I actually do something about it.

One rage building session later, I’ve replaced all the stairs to the first floor.

I lay on the ground next to my new stairs, which still need to dry from the paint, properly zonked. Hyper-focusing it great to do things, but fuck, the exhaustion finally catches up to me, my body sore. Swallowing feels like sandpaper is trying to go down and my stomach growls angrily at me for forgetting its existence.

Two familiar faces appear in my view: my neighbor from the first night and Anna.

“What are you doing?” Anna asks. She’s in the exact same doll clothes as before, her blush still overwhelming her face, but at least she blinks at me now. Even if it does seem awkwardly forced.

“Laying on the ground,” I croak out.

“You sound thirsty,” she states. I nod. “Want me to get you water?”

“Please do,” I force a smile and Anna disappears from my sight. Weirdly, I don’t hear her footsteps. Must be one of those creepy kid things.

Well, it's just me and the neighbor from the first night.

“Would you like assistance in sitting up?” he asks with a smile. I nod and soon I’m sitting upright.

“Whew,” I hold my head, feeling the blood rush down. There’s a puff of heat on my neck, then… cold water splashes onto me.

“MOTHERFUuuuuuuuuudger. Fudger,” I manage to withhold from cussing, again, as I look up and see Anna with an empty glass, her arm through the railings.

“Bad, Nikolas,” she puffs. “Don’t touch the quiet door lady.”

I might have been splashed, but my neighbor, Nikolas, is soaked, his hooked nose and black hair dripping with water. He grimaces, but dries his face with a white handkerchief.

“He was just helping me up, Anna,” I try to reassure her, giving her a smile. Hey, at least she likes me. I’ll take my good neighbor points where I can. “I’m okay.”

“Yes, she’s quite fine,” Nikolas grumbles, and he glares at Anna. Which, uh, excuse me, is not a look to give a child. But it seems like this is a normal interaction for them, as she only further narrows her eyes at him.

All the outdoor lights flicker and I glance around. Are the shadows on the walls growing? Does the building seem… taller? A shiver runs down my spine and the hairs on the back of my neck shoot up. What the fuck? Man, I must be tired.

Nikolas sighs and lifts both his hands in a surrender position. “Message received, Anna.”

All of a sudden, everything is normal again. Anna nods and turns around, and I hear her steps this time as she walks away.

Now I level a look at Nikolas. “Don’t pick fights with kids, man. Not cool.”

He looks at me wide eyed, with one brow higher than the other. “Pardon?”

“You gave Anna a nasty glare there,” I shake my head. “That’s not cool, man. She’s just a kid. It's a lot better to explain to her why dumping water is unacceptable than glare and go quiet. Even with children, communication is key.”

His mouth opens slightly and he narrows his eyes as if trying to examine me closer. Then he shakes his head. “Fine.”

I nod. “Good.” There’s a short pause. “Hey, does the electricity falter like that often?”

“What?”

“Do the light flicker like that often? If it was just one of them, I’d think the bulb was dying but since it was all of them, there might be a problem with the building’s wiring,” I explain.

Nikolas looks like I just asked him if he had a foot fetish: thoroughly confused, disappointed and questioning his existence. “... What?”

Just as I’m about to ask him for the third time, Anna's voice suddenly comes from behind me. “Water.”

I jump slightly, but gratefully take the glass. “Thanks, kiddo.” I smile and ruffle her curly hair, which feels strangely like yarn. Huh, that’s cool. I wonder if that’s natural or not.

I down the water in and feel instantly refreshed, then I hand her the glass. “That hit the spot.”

Anna nods then parts her lips to show all of her teeth. Creepy, but I think that’s her attempt at a smile so I try not to flinch.

“Well,” I stand dusting sawdust off myself. “I think I should get some food and some rest.”

“What about your wound?” Nikolas says as he also stands.

“My what? Oh.” Right! The cut on my leg from when the stair broke earlier. It suddenly stings again, as if offended I forgot about it.

“It's fine. Just a scratch,” I laugh it off. I wonder how he knew I was injured? I have long pants on, so he couldn’t see it. Maybe my pant leg rolled up while I laid down. “I gotta put the tools back in the shed, but I’ll go straight home to clean it up afterwards.”

Nikolas and Anna both nod, Anna still showing all her teeth. He says something quietly to her, and the corners of her mouth lift into a proper -though slightly forced- smile.

But did I step on glass or something? It sounded like something cracked.

With nothing underneath my foot, I chalk it up to my overactive imagination and put the tools back in the shed. Once I leave, the stars are out and both Anna and Nikolas are gone. I head over to the stairs and I’m about to step on them, when I remember they still need to dry. Fuuuuuuuck.

I order Chinese delivery instead and eat on the ground next to the stairs. Once I’m done, I test the paint with my finger. Satisfied that it's dried, I go back to my apartment, shower and head to sleep in my bed for the first time.

As I drift off, I wonder how Anna and Nikolas got up and down the stairs without messing up the paint? Anna probably did creepy child magic or something and I imagine Nikolas parkouring up in his black suit, causing me to chuckle.

…

I was hoping to sleep in since I didn’t have class today, but a knock at my door wakes me from my slumber.

“Just five more minutes,” I groan. The knocking pauses, but comes back after a bit. Somehow, I drag myself out of the warm, soft, perfect bed and make my way to the front door, opening it a crack. “Yes?”

Nikolas stands there, under an umbrella for some reason, with his brow furrowed. He looks sunburnt, which might explain the umbrella. “You fix things, correct?”

“I mean, I guess?” Man, I should really start being paid for this. I’m too poor for free labor.

“Well,” he grimaces. “My roof has a hole.”

My eyes go wide and I stand taller. “Your roof has a what?”

“There is a hole in the roof, in my apartment,” he explains. “I tried to call the landlord, but…”

An annoyed sigh escapes me. “He said figure it out?”

Nikolas shakes his head. “No. He said he would get it fixed.”

“Well, that’s a new one,” I smirk. Damn bastard is finally doing his job.

“Yes, but,” Nikolas glares behind us, as if the landlord was there. “He said it could take several weeks.”

“WEEKS!?” I might have just woken someone else up with how loud I yelled.

Nikolas cringes but nods. “Yes, weeks.”

“It's about to be winter.”

“Yes.”

“There will be snow. And rain.”

“I’m aware.”

“And he can’t be bothered to fix it sooner?” I fume. Now that’s just fucked up. “I should report his ass to the police-”

“No!” Nikolas says quickly, and I blink. “He’s, uh,” Niklolas pauses and his eyes dart around, as if searching for words. “... A family friend? So, I don’t want to report him. I just want the problem fixed.”

There is a long pause. Oh, shit, I’m supposed to answer.

“Okay… I’ll try to fix your roof, but I need you to promise something.”

Nikolas frowns. “... Go on.”

“Be nicer to Anna,” I say simply.

He studies me for a moment then nods. “I can do that.”

I turn to go get changed, then face him again. “One more thing.”

“Yes?”

“Please pay for the materials. I’m so poor, man. I have $34.28 cents in my bank account, right now.”

He laughs. And I mean really laughs. Which, kind of rude to laugh at how poor I am, but I did say it in a half-joking way, so he can get a pass (I really do only have $34.28 though, so please buy the materials, Nikolas).

“That,” he chuckles. “I can do.”

A trip to the hardware store, a ladder, a shingle or two to Nikolas’ knee, and a saw later, the hole is patched. It's not perfect, but it's good enough until a proper roofer can come and fix it. I climb down the ladder and dust my hands.

“The hole appeared because the wood rotted. The shingles above the hole were missing, which explains how the water got there,” I explain to Nikolas. “So I cut out the rotten parts, created a frame, added new plywood, tar paper and shingles, and badabing, badaboom, it's done. And it only took me…” I look at my watch and sigh. “5 hours.”

Man, my time perception is absolutely fucked. I thought it had only been 2, maybe 3 hours.

Nikolas, who’s been under his umbrella while inside as well, exhales, his shoulders relaxing. “Much appreciated. Your handiwork is to be admired.”

My cheeks heat up at the compliment and I look away to hide my smile. “Aww, shucks. Well, thank you.”

“My dear, it is my pleasure,” he smiles, and I notice -like Diego- Nikolas also has pointy canine teeth, however, his are longer and more narrow than Diego’s. “Now, I can handle the clean up, you get some rest.”

He escorts me to his front door and as I’m about to leave, he asks me to wait, then pulls out a wad of cash, bound by those little strips of paper, and hands it to me. “For your hard work.”

“What?” I look at the money incredulously. “I can’t accept this.” Gosh that money looks good. If I take it, I could probably afford rent this month. Maybe even next month too! It's very tempting...

I shake my head, my inner self crying. “No need. You already paid for the materials. I was happy to help.” I can already see me groveling to my father for cash.

“I insist,” Nikolas says as takes my hand and places the money in it. “You’ve greatly helped me today. The first floor stairs have also never looked better.”

“Thank you,” I smile and tell myself not to spend it on video games. “I really appreciate it.”

We bid farewell, and when I get to my apartment, I count the cash. $100… $200… $300… $400… $500, oh my fucking gosh, its still going. $600… $700… $800. The final amount is $800.

Bro that’s enough for 2 months rent and then some! I can afford something other than noodles! I could buy meat.

You move into a suspiciously low rent apartment, that’s in some disrepair but not enough to account for the price. It turns out the other occupants are all evil supernatural beings. They set out to torment you, but then discover that you have done more to repair the building than the landlords.

[yamagique]

Part 2 Adventure in dog sled

Part 1 - Part 3

Tenn: We reached the snowy mountain. Nikaidou-san, you keep shivering. Are you okay?

Yamato: So cold… I might not be okay. We still have to go forward deeper in the snow, right?

Tenn: Yes. We won’t be able to see any aurora from here. We have to keep going until the base camp.

Yamato: Still far from here…

Tenn: But the weather is uncertain. It’d be good if it’d clear away by the time we reach the base camp. 

Yamato: Yeah… By the way, how do we get there?

Dog: Woof!

Tenn: …! A dog’s barking?

Yamato: W- Why? So many dogs…

Interpreter: Hello! Welcome to Northmare! I’m the interpreter of the dogsled’s instructor. I look forward to working with you! Those dogs and this instructor will guide you two to the base camp!

Instructor: I Look Forward To Working With You!

Yamato: Yes, I look forward to working with you! Your Japanese is good too!

Instructor: Thank You!

Tenn: I also look forward to working with you. It is amazing that those dogs will come with us.

Yamato: Those are dogs that seem smart. Are they all husky? Their appearance looks quite different  though. Huh? Wah!? They approached us!

Tenn: Fufu. It’s ticklish when they lick us. You’re all so cute.

Yamato: There, there… ahaha! Compared to dogs in Japan, their fur is stiffer. 

Tenn: They have to fight against the cold, after all. Inside, it’s warm. 

Interpreter: The two of you already get along with the dogs. That’s great! In dogsled, mutual trust between the people riding and the dogs is important.

Tenn: I see. The dogs are carrying us through the vast snowy mountain after all.

Yamato: Thank you in advance, guys.

Dog: Woof!!

Shade in and out

Crunching…

Yamato: Woah! They’re running so fast! Ahaha! Even though right before the wind felt so cold, I’m having so much fun now!

Tenn: It feels good. The landscape is quickly changing!

Yamato: It’s like we’re in an attraction! …Hm? In the snow! If you look closely, you can see a path for the sleds to run on!

Tenn: …that’s right, I can see it. That means a lot of sleds must use this path!

Yamato: Ah! Oh… we’re almost to the resting point!

Recording staff: Here, a hot chocolate! Until we set off again, we’re also taking a break from recording. Please, the two of you have a good rest.

Tenn: Yes, thank you. …pff. That’s sweet…

Yamato: Haa, that’s warm… I revive! Even though I wear gloves and boots, I’m stiff from cold to the very end of my fingers and my feet.

Tenn: I agree. There are only places where you can see aurora. …hm? This is…

Yamato: What is it?

Tenn: Hum, that’s… The instructor is looking at the dogs’ paws.

Yamato: …! They’re not injured, right…

Tenn: …Let’s go ask him!

Yamato: …Excuse me!

Interpreter: Yes? What’s for?

Yamato: The instructor  was looking at the dogs’s paws… Is something wrong?

Interpreter: Aah, he’s checking whether the sweat on the back of their paws has frozen. If the sweat froze, it becomes painful for the dogs so he makes sure everything is okay at each break.

Tenn: So that was the reason. …I’m glad to hear they’re not injured…

Yamato: What a relief.

Tenn: Yes. It’s impressive how they can keep running in the snowy mountain with such thin paws. Compared to us humans, they have much stronger paws.

Interpreter: It’s not just their paws. Their five senses also surpass ours. For example, they have particular ears that enable them to hear sounds that humans can’t hear. Like the sound made by aurora.

Yamato: The sound of aurora?

Tenn: Aurora makes sound?

Interpreter: Yes, they do,  it’s as if they react and howl. I’ve heard there are people who can also hear those sounds though.

Dog: Woof, woof!

Yamato: Oh! It looks like they also understand our conversation.

Tenn: They’re clever. They’re strong. Those dogs are really impressive. They’re even good-looking when they pull the sled. It’s an honor working with you.

Dog: Woof!

Yamato: Yeah! After all, they really do get what you’re saying, aren’t they?

Tenn: Yes. 

Interpreter: Ah! It looks like we’re about to set off. Please, get ready!

Tenn: Understood.

Yamato: …That said, the clouds don’t seem to move away. Actually, aren’t there even more clouds?

[thisentertaining]

As the Blue Spirit Howls

Zuko was not a good shifter.

Azula could switch between her wolf and human skins between steps. Not Zuko, he needed several minutes before he even started the shift, and that was on a good day. If it had been Azula who Animal Control found in that alley, they would have walked away convinced that their eyes had played a trick on them. There had never been a dog there.

But Zuko's long transformation would have only revealed his kind to the world. Father may think he has no honor, but he wouldn't stoop so low as that. Even if that meant being dumped in animal shelter, trapped as much by the 24/7 security cameras as by the cage bars.

He had the worst luck. -

"Come on guys!" Aang said as he lead his friends through the clamoring barks of the shelter. "I want to show you my favorite dog! He's a sweetheart."

Aang lead the pair to where a monstrous beast of a dog was growling with raspy barks loud enough to drown out the rest of the shelter. His bright white teeth contrasted against golden eyes and a bright red scar that stretched over the side of his face as he lunged against the cage door.

Sokka laughed nervously. "Did the word 'sweetheart' change meaning when I wasn't looking?"

Chapter 2

Read On Ao3

“Come on guys, I want to show you my favorite dog! He’s a real sweetheart.” Aang said excitedly, voice raised to be heard over the loud barking that filled the air. Katara and Sokka followed behind, Katara looking around and coo-ing at the animals as Sokka frantically took ‘artistic’ pictures and boomerangs to post to his Instagram. The eldest of their group was proud to boast a couple hundred thousand followers. He had deleted comments, and his friends hadn’t had the heart to tell him that 99.9% of those followers thought that it was a parody site making fun of ‘artsy’ Instagram accounts. The .1% was the two of them.

“I think it’s great that you’re doing this Aang, this seems like the perfect place for you.”

The younger boy grinned with a blush as he accepted the praise. “Thanks! I just really wanted a place where I could help out!”

“And play with cute animals.” Sokka said with a snort.

“That helped.” Aang admitted, dragging them along to one of the back corners of the shelter, the section with less cute puppies wagging their tails and squirming, and more hardened looking dogs who watched them warily with low rumbling growls or furious barking. He of course, lead them to a cage where the dog was doing both.

It was a huge beast, a husky mix likely, though it was hard to tell. It looked like the dog had been shaved bare recently, though inexplicitly it’s fluffy black tail hadn’t been touched. The light smatterings of bristly fur that was starting to grow in on the rest of him did nothing to cover the smattering of scars that littered a body just this side of starvation. It certainly didn’t hide huge burn that stretched fully across one side of the dog’s face. It covered his squinting gold eye completely, touched a bit of his snout then wrapped around his head to completely mangle one formerly-pointed ear.

The dog’s face was a mess of color, from the pink skin, the black fur trying valiantly to grow in, gold eyes, bright red burn, and the bold white teeth that were stark against his lips as the dog maintained a constant warning growl. The growl only got louder as they neared, until it morphed into the loudest, most grating barks that the sibling had ever heard. Still, Aang continued forward as the monstrous dog started snapping, pacing, and lunging against the kennel wall.

Huge black-padded paws sent the kennel doors bulging as the dog snarled and threatened, his raspy barks drowning out the others in the shelter. Huge teeth snapped, and only the bars of the cage separated them from the children’s faces as the dog stood on long legs. Its tail lay inert between its legs, moving with the furious lunges of his body but not in any way that even remotely hinted at a ‘wag’.

“Uh, did the meaning of the word ‘sweetheart’ change when I wasn’t looking?” Sokka asked as Aang moved towards the cage latch. Aang simply grinned at him and slipped into the kennel.

“Wait!” Cried Katara frantically, obviously not expecting the boy to actually go in. She looked around in panic for a staff member who could stop her friend from being mauled by the beast.

However, the dog had backed away from the door as Aang opened it, and while his growls and ear-splitting barks did not cease, he was no longer lunging but pacing back and forth along the back of the kennel. Aang sat crossed legged on the cage floor and scooted forward until the dog had no more room to pace and it lay down with a huff. The growls and barks continued, but it did nothing more as Aang started freely petting its short, bristly fur. “His name is Blue Spirit, or Spirit for short. They found him in the alley behind the Blue Spirt bar. We’re pretty sure he was abused.”

“Duh.” Sokka muttered, but Katara jabbed at him with her elbow.

Aang continued, seeming to barely notice the interruption. “They even sent some officers to the bar, but no one would confess to recognizing him or his owner. I know he looks pretty scary, but he’s actually really sweet.”

The dog snarled, and let out a sharp bark, as if protesting the characterization. Aang immediately cooed and scratched his back harder. “Yeah, youse a sweetheart, yes youse are.”

The dog growled again, but didn’t so much as snap. Instead, he seemed to be leaning into Aang’s touch more and more. Katara cocked her head before moving to go into the cage as well.

“Wait!” Sokka protested. “He was psycho like 2 seconds ago, I don’t think this is a good- no of course you don’t listen to me. Why would you listen to me?”

The girl slipped into the cage and shut it carefully behind her. The dog eyed her warily, but didn’t even bother to growl at her like he had with Aang. Instead, it huffed out an irritated sound and looked away.

“See!” Aang beamed as she hesitantly knelt beside him. Katara offered her hand for him to sniff, which the dog did exactly twice before looking away with another huff. “He can tell if you’re nervous and isn’t so loud. He’s actually loudest once he starts to trust you. It’s kinda cute.”

The dog jumped to its feet, barking loudly into Aang’s face as though in protest. Sokka let out a bark of laughter and finally entered the, now cramped, cage as well. “Don’t worry boy, you aren’t cute. You’re big, tough, and scawwy, right buddy?”

Blue Spirit growled at Sokka, making him yelp, but the older teen didn’t move from his spot in the cage. With a calculating glance at his friend and sister, Sokka pat the dog on the head twice, as which point Spirit seemed to realize that no one was really intimidated by him anymore and turned to attack one of the rawhides in the cage. The dog brandished the toy at them when he tore off a chunk as though to prove that his teeth were powerful and to be feared. The group simply cooed at him and resumed petting.

_______

Zuko huffed and dropped the rawhide, collapsing with his head on his paws. This kind of stuff never happened to Azula.

“You should see him when little kids come in.” Aang continued babbling.

Of course, Azula was a much, much better shifter than him. A prodigy. Just thinking the words left a bad taste in his mouth. That may have been the disgusting dog food he’d been forced to consume for the past month.

“They don’t usually come back this far, but if they do then he doesn’t do anything. Just lays down calmly in the back like a good boy, no barking, no growling.”

Zuko was not a good shifter. He just didn’t have good control over his shift.

“And I swear he glares the ones that do scare the kids into submission. I saw a toddler pull his tail once and he didn’t even flinch.”

That wasn’t to say that he shifted unexpectedly like the movies portrayed it. That wasn’t the issue, that had never been his issue. His problem had always been the opposite. He was great at maintaining the shift, both as human and wolf, but transitioning between the two? That was harder.

“That’s really sweet.” The girl replied.

He growled again in rote protest against Aang’s favorite descriptor for him, but the new boy had just found that spot behind his good ear and he was too busy pressing into that hand to argue any more.

The shift that took his family seconds would take him several minutes of intense concentration. The more emotional he was, the longer it took. It had been taking a lot of time lately.

“Okay, fine, he’s growing on me.” The strange boy said, obligingly digging into that spot even harder. The girl was running her hands over his back, and Aang was carefully looking at his paws in a way Zuko knew was an actual vet’s trick. He wondered idly if that was what the boy was interested in doing. Volunteering in a shelter would be a good move if he was.

If Azula had been woken up in that alley by animal control (Azula would never have fallen asleep in an alley. He wasn’t sure what she would have done if she’d been kicked out and disowned and was half-starved and homeless, but it wouldn’t have involved sleeping in a dirty alley after licking disgusting drying beer off the ground in attempt to get any moisture into her parched body) she would have just shifted, yelled and threatened, and they would have walked away embarrassed that they had mistaken a girl for an animal, convinced it was a trick of their minds.

“I knew he would.” Aang said proudly. When had his tail started wagging? Why couldn’t either of his forms be good at lying? “Just don’t get too close to his face, especially the part with the…”

But not Zuko. By the time he had the been able to fight through the exhaustion, hunger, and blurriness from his reluctant drink to even start the process of shifting, they had already forced him into a cage in the fan and were slipping that stupid hoop-stick thing off of him so that they could close the door. He’d been so distracted on trying to shift that he hadn’t fought properly to escape.

A stupid mistake.

One of many.

“I can’t believe someone could do that.” Katara said softly. “Especially to a dog as sweet as this.”

He hadn’t been a dog at the time. He’d taken the form of a loyal son. That had been another mistake. He once thought it was a mistake he could fix. He’d given that up the night in the alley. Now he could only hope that this mistake wouldn’t be as permanent.

“Well, that’s the thing… you see-“

“Aang, we cannot get a dog.” The girl protested and Zuko blinked. They were getting a dog? Oh, right. “You know what Officer Fong would say about pets.”

Zuko’s brows furrowed. Fong… he knew that name. That was one of the officers who placed people into witness protection. More specifically, he was the officer who had organized the concealment of a witness known by the codename Avatar. The witness who supposedly held the key to ruining Father’s entire livelihood.

“We have Appa! And Momo!”

The witness who Zuko had been relentlessly hunting since the day that Father disowned him.

“We have Appa because he’s a licensed, therapist prescribed therapy dog to help your trauma and keep you from accidentally karate chopping people.” The boy said bluntly. “We have Momo because you can sneak him around in your pocket when they move us.”

The witness whose capture was supposed to ensure that Zuko could return to his home, to his family.

“It’s not karate, its-“

The witness who he had given up searching for when yet another dead end left him with an empty stomach, and a tiredness that allowed him to finally give up on the insane dream that Father still cared for him at all.

“Aang, if I have to listen to your list of martial arts that you’re magically good at one more time, I’m going to fall asleep on the dog.”

Zuko would have growled at that, but his mind was moving to quickly, his heart feeling like it was exploding in his chest. It couldn’t be. Avatar was supposed to be a hardened gangster, or a skilled hacker, or shrewd fixer, or… not a kid. He wasn’t supposed to be some kid.

Aang pouted. “We aren’t supposed to have social media either, Sokka.”

Maybe it wasn’t. Fong had to have several cases, right? (Never mind that Avatar was supposed to have two companions, not eyewitnesses but people he had told everything. Codenames Boomerang and Bender)

“I can’t disappoint my fans Aang. Besides, no one knows it’s me. There are no faces, no names, no comments, I don’t even tag our locations.”

Zuko had to know. Fong was good. It was hard to get any information on Avatar, but Zuko was able to get a few tidbits here and there. The pertinent one: he was supposed to have tattoos. Supposedly he had blue arrows on his head and hands.

The girl sighed loudly. “Not this argument again.”

He had hair covering any head tattoos, and Zuko didn’t see anything on his hands, but he had to be sure.

“Great, then we can go onto a new argument. So, Appa is great but he’s more my dog than anything because I have to take him like, everywhere. You guys deserve a pet too and Spirit is- uh. Spirit?”

Zuko had risen to a sitting position and met Aang’s eyes before leaning over and very deliberately licking a large swath down the boy’s wrist. His tongue came away covered in a bitter tasting powder that sat thick and heavy.

“Did you guys see that?” Aang asked, voice raspy in awe. “He’s never done that before, with anyone. It’s a sign!”

“Awww.”

“Aang. That does not change anything.”

“But Katara-“

They were arguing, but the words were rushing around Zuko, lost in the blood rushing in his ears as he stared at the small wrist, and the pointed tip of a tattoo that he had revealed.

[martelldoran]

i have too grieved a heart (redux)

Fandom: HP Characters: Lily/Narcissa, Snape, James, Mary, Dorcas 

NSFW: no

Summary: After the incident at the lake, Lily realises that more than just her relationship with Severus Snape is doomed. She now must say goodbye to Narcissa.

Read on AO3

May 1976

Lily Evans was many things. She was a witch first and foremost, and currently – though not for very much longer – in her 5th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was a proud Gryffindor. She was muggleborn, the first witch in her family. She was a talented potion maker, often spending her free time down in the dungeons mixing her brews and revelling in the multicoloured fumes. She was a dab hand at her charm work and liked to summon little sparkling lights to brighten up her study spaces. She was a passionate friend. She was bright, loved nothing more than spending her afternoons listening to records in the sun, and adored being outdoors surrounded by nature. Yes, Lily Evans was many things.

But at that precise moment, on a sunny afternoon in May after having just sat her Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L, she was absolutely fucking furious.

“Evans!”

It was the bellowing voice of James Potter. He had not stayed to try and remove Severus’s underpants as he had said, instead choosing to charge after her. Reaching the steps to the main door with her breath rushing and chest tight, she didn’t pause.

But then a hand closed around her wrist.

She wrenched herself away. Her wand was lifted and a spell teetered on the edge of her snarling lips as she spun round.

“Do not touch me!”

The boy staggered back onto the grass, hands lifted with the palms facing her. His mouth was a small ‘o’ shape and his hazel eyes were wide.

“Okay, I won’t.”

Her wand did not lower and neither did his hands. White knuckle fury still beat through her.

“I’m sorry, Evans. I went too far. I always go too far,” he said, his voice was tight, restrained as he measured each word. “Not that it’ll make a difference but I’ll apologise to Snape too, though I think I burned that bridge a long time ago.”

This last part he added as an afterthought, saying it more to himself than her. He shifted from foot to foot before slowly lowering his hands. The normally perfectly tousled black hair had fallen flat and was falling into his eyes but he didn’t try to fix it. Instead he continued looking right at her. It made him look like a little boy again.

“I am sorry. Truly. I hope you can see that, Lily. If not now, then later.”

He had said his piece. With a stiff, defeated nod of the head, he turned and made his way back to the lake. The fury had lessened somewhat. She watched his retreating back for just a moment before beginning her ascent up the stairs once again.

Half way across the Entrance Hall he made himself known to her, calling her name. Somehow having detangled himself from the clutches of Sirius Black, he must have skulked in a bush until he’d seen James leaving. Severus Snape’s normally pale, sallow face was flushed and his eyes darted around the hall, never resting on her face for long.

It was as if she was seeing him for the first time. And she was repulsed.

“Lily,” he began, taking a step towards her.

She retreated and raised her wand once more.

“Stay away from me,” she growled, in no mood to hear his excuses.

She knew what he’d say. She was a vengeful, wrathful god, ready to smite down those who had wronged her. She was Artemis condemning Actaeon to die by the jaws of his own dogs.

“Lily, please, I’m sorry,” he pleaded. He had his hands up like James but he took another step towards her. “I didn’t mean it. It just slipped out.”

“And is that supposed to make me feel better?” she snapped, wand trained on his face. “How many times have I heard you say you’re not like them, Mulciber and Avery? Then heard you defend them in the same breath? You agree with what’s being said, don’t you, by the one they call the ‘Dark Lord’. Maybe not all of it but there’s something in there isn’t there, that calls to you.”

Severus, inching forward, shook his head vigorously, lank hair dancing on either side of his face.

“No!” he wailed. “I don’t, I don’t think that, Lily. You’re my friend.”

She wavered. He was her oldest friend. He’d introduced her to magic, told her she was special, been there for every rant and every time her sister rejected her. Emboldened by her indecision, he took yet another step towards her.

A warning shower of red sparks streamed from her wand and crackled at the boy’s feet. He yelped and jumped away.

“I told you. Stay. Back. I don’t want you anywhere near me.” Her voice rose, ringing in the empty Entrance Hall. It was deserted, everybody had surrendered themselves to the sunshine. She hardened herself. “I see it now Severus, you’re one of them or if you’re not, you want to be. You and that fucking chip on your shoulder.”

She gave a humourless laugh, staring him dead in the eye. Her rage had not cooled but she was steady, held up by steel and smouldering fire.

“You’ve made it clear where your loyalties lie. And let me tell you now, if we come across one another out there” -- she gestured vaguely around the Entrance Hall – “I will not hesitate to cut you down.”

At this, he lurched forward, a cry on his lips. He tried to reach for her.

‘Petrificus Totalus!’

The spell screamed within her mind hit him square in the face, freezing the boy’s pained expression to stone. He tumbled to the floor, landing frozen on his side. She was Medusa victorious

“I warned you. Come near me again and I won’t be so lenient.” In that moment with fire coursing through her veins, she meant every word of her threat.

Turning on her heel, Lily tore up the staircase. All in a rush, she could feel the weight of everything that had just happened come crashing down around her. Hot tears bulged in her eyes and a golf ball sized lump in her throat threatened to choke her. A bathroom, a bathroom was what she needed, somewhere nobody would disturb her. Without thinking she turned her course to the girls’ toilet on the second floor.

Bursting through the door with a loud, resonating bang, a painful, heavy sob wracked her body. She stumbled towards the nearest stall and locked herself in. Animalistic wails tore from her mouth and echoed off the tiled walls. It was like her grief had manifested into a physical form and was joining her for a macabre duet.

Hugging herself, she crumpled to the floor. With her back to the door, she leaned her head back against the wood and let the grief she felt come in waves. How had it come to this? All she’d wanted to do was help her friend and now here she was.

Lily had been called a Mudblood before. More times than she truly cared to count. But never had she imagined, even in her wildest dreams, that she’d hear that word come from the mouth of someone she considered her friend, let alone said with such venom.

Tears slid in a continuous stream down her flushed cheeks. They hung off the end of her chin and pooled in the hollows of her neck and collarbones. Slowly, a damp patch grew down the front of her robes but she paid it no mind. Lily was a raw, gaping wound and nothing else mattered but her pain. Her mind was a jumble. The scene by the lake replayed in a hideous loop. Then it was the argument in the Entrance Hall. Severus’s pained expression was seared onto the back of her eyelids and her words echoed in her ears.

How long did she sit there sobbing? She cried and she cried and then, when it seemed like she had no more tears left, she cried once again. Time had no meaning in that cramped toilet stall. It could have been seconds, it could have been days, she didn’t care. Noone would come in here and disturb her anyway. They would hear her howls, assume it was Moaning Myrtle off in one of her moods and steer well clear.

Eventually, however, she stilled and the tears dried up. There was a certain calmness to her now. With a dull realisation, she was unsurprised about Severus. Some dark part of her already knew that he was lost. He wanted to be the best, he always had. And if following this man got him what he wanted then so be it. He would do it.

Ever since they were children, there had been this urge to prove himself and to rise above everyone else. It came out when they raced across fields and threw stones into a lake. It came out during exams and every time there was a potion or poison to be brewed. Glory would be his one way or another.

“Lily? Lily, are you in here?” Dorcas Meadowes’s husky, mellow voice cut across her reverie. She hadn’t even heard the door open.

“Yeah, I’m here.” Her voice was thick and raspy with disuse.

“Will you come out? We’re worried about you.” She was closer now, right outside the door.

“I can’t. I never want to come out,” she moaned. Her face hurt. There was no need to look in a mirror to see how awful she looked, she could feel the swelling around her eyes and cheeks.

“Don’t say that, come on, open the door,” Dorcas reasoned, giving the handle a gentle shake.

When no answer came, there was a weary sigh and she murmured, “Alohamora.”

Lily shifted her weight off the door just enough so that she wouldn’t keel over when her friend opened it. Dorcas knelt next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. The redhead leaned in, the familiar scent of wood smoke and amber in her nose. Dorcas’ shirt was open at the collar - her blue Ravenclaw tie undone and hanging loose around her shoulders – exposing the dark skin of her throat.

“Let’s go.”

Not wasting any time, Dorcas pulled Lily up by her armpits and observed the damage. Her glittering black eyes skated over her from top to bottom. She pursed her full lips together and tsked loudly.

“Oh dear. You truly look awful, you know that,” she said, a sad but understanding smile on her face.

A sniffle and a half-hearted quirk of the lips was all the answer she received. With a sigh, Dorcas propelled her from the bathroom. Quick steps and a firm hand on the small of her back guided her through the corridors. They didn’t meet a soul, the castle was almost deserted. Through the fog clouding her brain, Lily registered this and was thankful. The last thing she wanted was for anyone to see her, a Prefect, like this.

“Oh, good heavens! Is everything alright Miss Evans?” It was the deep, plumy voice of the Fat Lady. She ignored the portrait’s question.

“Pygmy Puff,” she mumbled. Somehow, from somewhere, a new wave of tears rushed up and threatened to spill down her cheeks.

The portrait swung open but Lily didn’t move.

“Marlene is waiting for you, honey. Go on in,” murmured Dorcas, giving her a gentle push.

Silently, she climbed through the portrait hole, leaving Dorcas to make her way back to the Ravenclaw common room, and was immediately met by Marlene. She appeared in a whirlwind of blonde hair, ready to ferry Lily up to their dormitory. The common room was full, that much she knew, and she could tell that every single pair of eyes were trained on her as a heavy silence fell. But she was too tired to care. She wanted to go to bed.

“Is Remus here?” she rasped.

Marlene nodded and pointed to the cluster of armchairs by the fire where all four of the Marauders were staring at her. All but Peter Pettigrew were unnaturally still, caught in the spell of Lily’s dishevelled appearance. Peter couldn’t seem to stop himself from twitching, fidgeting with anything he could lay his chubby hands on.

In a daze, she approached the four boys. Although she could feel James’ eyes boring into her, taking in every single red blotch and the puffiness of her face, she refused to look at him. If she did then there was no way to stop the tears that were once more lingering right beneath the surface.

“Remus, I can’t do my rounds tonight. Can you cover?” Her voice was dead, a thick monotone that didn’t sound like her.

“Uh, yeah, yeah of course I can. Whatever you need.”

There was a slight pause before he asked, “What will I tell Cissa?”

But she had already turned away, Marlene her golden shadow.

“Whatever you want. I don’t care,” she sighed.

In that moment, she didn’t. She couldn’t bear to think of Narcissa, with her star bright eyes, gleaming hair and the purest of pureblood status. It hurt too much.

Never before had the walk up to her dorm seemed so long. Every step was an effort. It was like her bones had been replaced with lead and added weights had been strapped to her ankles and wrists for good measure.

The quiet of the dorm was a blessing. Not bothering to undress, Lily kicked off her shoes and collapsed into bed. Marlene perched on the edge. Her blue-grey eyes were stormy. Words pressed up against her lips, clamouring to be released but she kept her mouth shut tight. She simply stroked Lily’s hair, placed a gentle kiss on her forehead head, told her to get some sleep and bade her goodnight. With a flick of her wand the curtains to her four-poster shut, enclosing her in blessed darkness.

It didn’t take long for sleep to claim her.

When she awoke, the grey light of the pre-dawn leaked between the curtains of her bed and the familiar snuffles and even breathing of her roommates cradled her sleep addled mind. She was still in her robes from the day before, rumpled and creased. Her sleep though deep had clearly been plagued by ceaseless tossing and turning. Mouth dry and tasting stale, Lily sat up and pawed at her still puffy face. The damage of the day before a cruel mask she would have to wear for a few more hours yet.

Lily slid from bed as silently as she could, gathered her wash bag and towel, and slipped into the stone stairwell. Before the cold could seep from the flagstone through her socks to chill her feet, she flited upstairs to the wash room. Peeling off her soiled robes, she shivered as the cool air met slid over her bare skin.

The shower’s warm water was bliss. It beat the last of sleep’s cobwebs away, leaving her mind clear and focussed. Of course, all she could think about was the previous day’s events. If it hadn’t been clear to her before, it was now. For some witches and wizards, it didn’t matter what she did or who she became. It wouldn’t matter if she was the most powerful witch or the most talented. For those few people, she would be a Muggleborn before all else, a parasite siphoning off magic from those who they deemed needed, no, deserved it more.

Names flashed in her mind: Rodolphus Lestrange, Evan Rosier, and, of course, Bellatrix Black. Narcissa’s sister. Her sweet, darling Narcissa who she loved so dearly. Bellatrix’s name appeared in The Daily Prophet almost daily now. The young witch made no attempt to hide her name or her loyalties. The more chaos and misery she sowed the better. It was reported just yesterday that she was single-handedly responsible for over 80 muggle deaths and had seriously injured several muggleborn witches and wizards over the last few months. Details on the way she conducted her business were scant but gruesome. Torture was her art and her greatest pleasure. After all, what information could a muggle possibly give her? No, it was all a game.

As she pondered these thoughts, Lily scrubbed herself clean with care and precision. She dragged the sponge across her skin until she was pink and raw. A growing sense of dread grew in the pit of her stomach and settled there, rock hard and heavy. There was something she knew she had to do.

She couldn’t shake the feeling of dread for the rest of the morning. It was there while she dressed, and crowded her while she ate a solitary breakfast in the Great Hall. Her owl, Artemis, somehow knew she was there and brought her that morning’s copy of the Daily Prophet but she couldn’t bear to open it. She didn’t need to know about the latest terrors and growing anti-muggle sentiment that was growing in certain wizarding circles. Any other morning it wouldn’t be an issue, but after the previous afternoon’s excitement, she could live without it.

Th first of her friends to make their way to the Great Hall that morning was Mary MacDonald. Mary had not changed much in the five years she had known her. She was still small and slight and still wore her hair in a blunt bob with a heavy fringe that hung into her eyes. When she rose to meet her, the Hufflepuff embraced Lily without a word. They stood like that, intertwined, for several minutes.

“Yesterday was a bit shite, wasn’t it,” said Mary, stepping back from their hug.

Lily chuckled.

“That’s something of an understatement.”

Mary inclined her head and shrugged one shoulder.

“Look, I know that Severus has been your friend for a long time, but maybe it’ll do the two of you some good to have some distance? Let the dust settle. He can maybe get his priorities in order,” she offered.

Lily wasn’t so sure but she nodded anyway.

“I meant to ask,” she said, with the most unsubtle change of subject known to witchkind. “How did Dorcas find me?”

“Oh, well, we looked for a while but couldn’t find you so we asked Remus, who asked Sirius, who asked James and for some reason, he knew that you were in the bathrooms,” Mary explained. “I don’t know how he knew. He disappeared up into his dormitory and when he came back, he knew where you were.”

“Curiouser and curiouser,” Lily murmured, unable to work out how on earth James Potter could have worked out where she’d been hiding.

After a few more minutes, Lily left Mary in the Great Hall and hurried up to the owlery. She scratched out a quick note and sent Artemis out to find the addressee.

As she watched her owl swoop through the sky, she felt a tremor of trepidation through her body.

A rap on the door alerted Lily to her presence. She swept into the spare classroom with a flourish, her long, white blonde hair swishing as she twirled. Star bright eyes twinkled at her and a broad smile adorned her face. She was as brilliant as a winter’s day and just as beautiful. Lily’s heart wrenched and she longed to fall into her embrace, to lose herself to a thousand kisses.

Narcissa pulled her close before she could say a word. She cupped her face, one hand slipping through her hair, and kissed her deeply. Lily could feel her resolve weakening with every second. All too soon, Cissa pulled away with a coy smile.

“Hello darling.” Her voice was warm, an undercurrent of excitement running through her words.

Her head was cocked to the side and she ever so gently pushed a stray strand of hair away from Lily’s face. The redhead shifted out of the embrace needing to put space between them. If she felt her touch again then she knew any remaining resolve would leave her.

“We, uh, we need to talk,” Lily mumbled.

“Uh oh, that sounds ominous!” she laughed, her smile hadn’t faltered for even a second.

“This has to end.”

The words were out like a bullet train.

Narcissa let out a cold, humourless laugh.

“No. Don’t be ridiculous. This isn’t ending. Lily, come on, this is us,” she insisted, reaching to take her hands. But Lily avoided her touch.

Hurt flashed across Narcissa’s face. It was only for a second then a mask of cool collectedness covered it.

“Is this because of what happened at the lake?” she asked, very matter of fact. “Snape is an idiot. Mulciber and Avery are rubbing off on him.”

She was being dismissive. Of course she was. It was her go to defence mechanism.

“Well, yes. They are. That’s part of the problem. What he said, there are others who think that as well.”

“And they’re wrong.”

“Even when it’s the likes of your family saying it, Cissa?”

There was a beat where neither of them said anything.

“Oh, come on, Lily! Just because my family runs their mouths about Muggleborns and blood purity doesn’t mean I believe that nonsense.”

Lily wanted to stop this. She wanted forget about the lake, the war, and the man hellbent on securing pure blood supremacy but there was no turning back now. Even if she wished it with all her heart, she couldn’t go back to how it was before. If there had been such a thing as before.

“Bellatrix isn’t just running her mouth though is she. She’s killing people Cis. She’d kill me too.” The words faltered in her mouth, turning to ash.

She couldn’t keep looking at Narcissa. She shone too brightly.

The blonde shifted, stiffened.

“I wouldn’t let that happen.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. But you told me yourself what she did to Dromeda. Why wouldn’t she do the same to you?” Lily reasoned in a quiet voice. Her eyes were trained on the hem of her robes. “I don’t want to be the reason you get hurt. . . And I don’t want to get hurt.”

The pause was bloated, filling with unsaid words, waiting to burst open like a sore.

“That’s bullshit Lily and you know it. We could run away. I could protect you.”

“I know that you would try but your loyalty is to them, not to me, and I wouldn’t ask you to choose. But, I can’t be with you like this. Your family would never accept me, never accept us. It was always a fool’s game to think otherwise.”

“You know what, Lily, you could have been a Slytherin with that attitude,” Cissa snapped, lips pursed and jaw jutting.

“Yeah, well we both know why that didn’t happen.”

“There are Muggleborns in Slytherin!”

“Oh, and Elijah Robertson’s head just magically cracked itself open on the flagstone did it?”

Narcissa drew up short, whatever she was about to say died in her mouth. And whatever it was must have left a sour taste judging by the way her face twisted.

“N-nobody knows who did that.” She faltered, voice meek and unsure. It was an unsettling role to see her play.

“Yeah. Sure. But it’s an open secret. Everyone knows that it was Dolohov and his goons,” Lily scoffed. She could feel her ire beginning to rise, heart racing. Before she could argue any further, she added, “I’ve made up my mind. I can’t be with you anymore.”

With a huff, Narcissa slumped against a desk.

“I don’t want this to end.”

It was a whispered admission. Tears glimmered at the edges of her star-bright eyes and there was an almost imperceptible wobble to her bottom lip.

“I know. But it has to.”

Lily hated seeing her like this, hated the fact that it was her fault. She shifted, twisting her hands together. They sat in silence once more. There had been a seismic shift between them and now they stood on opposing sides of an endless ravine. There was nothing either of them could say that would bring the other back.

“So, that’s it,” murmured Narcissa. Her tears remained unshed and her light had dimmed. Their eyes met and Lily thought she saw the faint ghost of a smirk pulling at the corners of her mouth. “I don’t suppose I get one last kiss?”

There was no question. Pushing off the desk she had been leaning against, Lily closed the gap between them in two strides. The pull was as magnetic as it had always been. With gentle hands at her waist, she pulled the blonde girl into a standing position. The rich silk of her robes was slippery under her fingers; its familiarity calmed the fluttering of her pulse. The expensive perfume Narcissa so loved to wear tickled her nose as they drew closer.

Their lips brushed together like a sweet whisper. Again and again and again. They were all featherlight touches.

Until they weren’t.

They were a thunder storm breaking through a summer drought. Mouths hot and bruising, they drank each other up. Hands tangled in hair and grabbed at clothes; all Lily wanted to do was lose herself in this last fevered embrace. She gripped the girl tight, crushing her against her as if they might sink together and never be apart. Heart pounding and blood rushing in her ears, her mind was a tumultuous sea of everything Narcissa.

But, with time, as with all things, they slowed. Foreheads pressed together, still breathing each other, their eyes locked together. A pink flush had crept into the blonde’s cheeks and her lips were cherry red. They stayed that way until their breathing stilled and became even once more.

It was Narcissa that pulled away first, smoothing her hair and straightening her clothes. She now avoided Lily’s gaze, trying to compose herself.

Lily said nothing. What more could she say? Anything else would be an insult.

Cissa brushed and brushed and brushed down her robes but the wrinkles in the silvery silk would not disappear so easily. She paused, head bowed, and sighed. When she raised her chin once more her jaw was set and eyes tight, but that practised mask of cool collectedness was full of cracks.

“I will see you around, darling,” she said, squaring off her shoulders and drawing herself up to her full height.

With a flash of a smile and an airy wave of the hand, she spun on her heel and left. It was only as the door snicked shut that Lily allowed her tears to come. From some unknown reserve, the tears came and fell silently onto her cheeks. She had never felt more alone.

[rikerxworf]

Drabble idea: Worf and Will spend Christmas in a cabin in Alaska and Word gives Will an Alaskan Husky puppy as a Christmas present.

Aww Alaska!! ;w; Thank you for the idea, this was very fun to write!! ♡

They sat down at the Christmas tree, getting comfortable on the wooden floor while the wind howled outside.

Will knew what present was left. They had already exchanged all the others. Worf noticed his excitement and gave him a timid smile. “Close your eyes,” he said.

Despite knowing, Will obeyed. He heard Worf beaming out of the cottage, and then only a few seconds later rematerializing in the same spot. A small whine accompanied his return.

Will smiled. The last few months have been leading up to this, and now all that preparation and anticipation tingled inside of Will like fireworks waiting to go off.

“C’mon,” he heard Worf say, all gently. “Walk. You can walk.”

There were sounds of soft paws moving on the floor, and Will opened his eyes – and his arms. “Come here!” he smiled, and the small puppy clumsily jumped in his direction. Laughing brightly, Will picked her up for some cuddling. Worf sat down beside him and smiled fondly. Shoulder leaning against Will’s…

Oh, this was all too good to be true – the perfect Christmas Day.

“She’s so soft,” Will beamed in disbelieve. “You’re so soft and fluffy, aren’t you!”

The Alaskan Husky puppy they had picked some weeks ago gently bit his fingers as he held her up, waving her little paws. “You wanna go to daddy, hm?” Will asked her. Oh, he loved this baby-talk.

Worf’s eyes widened. “I am not her-”

“Yes, you are,” Will grinned and sat the puppy down in Worf’s lap, where she writhed with a yawn that exposed her snow-white teeth. Will watched Worf’s face soften at the image and said, “We’re both daddies now.”

Worf looked up at him with parted lips, and Will leaned in to catch them in a kiss. “Thank you,” he whispered.

When Worf growled in bliss, the pup beneath them whined – it was probably meant to come out as a courageous howl. Playfully, Will ruffled her hair. “She’s almost as soft as you,” he quipped, which Worf answered with a fond eyeroll.

They tried out the electric blanket soon afterwards. From their spooning position on the bed, they could both watch their new dog sleep by the fireplace.

“She needs a name,” Will mused.

“Will the suffix be Daughter of Worf, or Daughter of William?”

Will rolled around to face Worf with a mock-frown. “What?”

“You said we were her fathers,” Worf replied quietly, and Will had to lean against his chest to not burst out laughing and wake the pup. “You’re my favorite when you’re joking around,” he sighed blissfully.

“Who said I was joking?” Worf asked before sinking his lips into the crook of Will’s neck.

Reminder: Please don’t ever buy pets as “surprise gifts”! Stay safe! ♡

[dogtrainingscoop]

Miniature Husky Full Grown | Alaskan Klee Kai Husky

“The Miniature Husky Full Grown will grow to 16 inches and weigh up to 35 pounds as an adult. So, their size is much smaller than the standard Siberian Husky.”

Miniature Husky Full Grown are the darlings of the dog world! Everyone’s obsessed with their wolf-like appearance. But, not everyone can get a standard sized Husky. That’s why the Miniature Husky exists!

The Miniature Husky Full Grown is a smaller version of the Standard Siberian Husky

Author: Vernon Mclean

Miniature Husky Full Grown — Thesis Short Version

The Miniature Husky Full Grown is divided into three varieties by height:

Toy: up to 33 cm.

Miniature: 33–38 cm.

Standard: 38–43 cm.

The weight of a Miniature Husky Full Grown ranges from 4.3 to 10 kg depending on the height in the withers. In general, it is a harmonious dog with strong front and hind legs, especially strong hips. The body length is slightly longer than the height, so it seems a little elongated. The head is wide enough, but not round and not flat, the muzzle looks like a wide wedge, narrows to the nose. Ears are necessarily triangular and standing, and their ends are slightly rounded. The tail, unlike the Siberian husky, twists into the ring and rests on the back or sides, it can not be straight or too high set.

The color of wool in the representatives of the breed can be black-white, gray-white or red. The average lifespan of a dog is 14 years.

Despite the bias towards this breed, many of the Miniature Husky Full Grown has many positive traits. They always treat their master with trepidation and tenderness. They are agility and sometimes excessive activity. Loyalty to the owner is expressed in the constant desire to protect him from danger. In the form of guards, they are weak, but can warn their masters through barking.

Breed Characteristics — Miniature Husky Full Grown

Size: 13–17 inches.

Weight: 20–35lb.

Lifetime: 12–14 years.

Coat: Double coat of medium length.

Color: Lots of different colors and blends of white, black, red, brown and saber.

Temperament: Naughty, loyal and outgoing.

Intelligence: Highly.

Socialization: Independent but very sociable with humans and other dogs.

Destructive behavior: He becomes destructive if he gets bored and if he doesn’t exercise properly.

People’s skills: They can be stubborn but friendly.

Good with children: Yes

Activity levels: Very high energy level.

History Of The Miniature Husky Full Grown

The Miniature Husky was bred in Wasilla, Alaska, from the early 1970s until 1988 by Linda S. Spurlin and her family. The breed was originally obtained by crossing Siberian huskies, Alaskan huskies, and they were also added to the barks and American Eskimo dogs to reduce the size of the breed without signs of dwarfism. She was engaged in breeding as a private owner, and in the late eighties allowed to use the genus for general breeding. The subsequent unification of the genus occurred after the breed was recognized by clubs and associations for rare breeds. The Miniature Husky, or dwarf husky, better known as the Alaskan Klee-kai was officially recognized by the American Rare Breed Association in 1995. The United Kennel Club (UKC) recognized this breed on January 1, 1997.

Miniature Husky Full Grown or Other Dog Problems..??? We have a Solution for You….

So you’re reading this page because your dog is doing something you don’t like — some behavior you want him to do differently — or simply stop doing:

😩 Housebreaking “accidents”

😩 Barks too much

😩 Jumps on people

😩 Chews on your hands

😩 Constantly seeks attention

😩 Pulls on the leash

😩 Aggressive toward people or other dogs

😩 Chews on the furniture or your belongings

😩 Did I mention housebreaking “accidents”

The list goes on???

“How can I stop my dog from….?”

One of the most common questions dog owners ask me is: “How can I stop my dog from (doing some specific behavior problem)?”

But before you start pulling your hair out, take a moment to step back. Yep, you’re probably not in your neighbor’s good books right now. No, you’re not going to be able to let the problem go on forever. And sure, you might have some work in front of you.

But hang on this is do-able……

When a dog jumps or barks, it’s for a reason. Understand that reason, and you’re already well on your way to finding a solution.

So, let’s cut to the chase. If you’re sick of questioning his behavior problems, it’s time to find out exactly what you can do to put an end to both.

WATCH VIDEO: Discover How To Quickly Stop This Behavior Using Simple, Yet Highly Effective Exercises…(video will open in a new window)

Play The Video

External Characteristics — Miniature Husky Full GrownA.The Miniature Husky Full Grown is characterized by the following external signs:

The transition from the frontal part to the muzzle is moderate. The skull has a wedge-formed shape, and the muzzle is narrowed to the nose.

The size of the muzzle is equal to the size of the head from the occipital to the forehead. The lower jaws do not stand out. The lip is predominantly black, but let’s say a lighter, hepatic color for dogs of red-white suits.

The nose is predominantly black, but white inclusions are allowed (snow, in lighter suits — dark gray.

The medium-sized eyes are planted a little obliquely. Coloring of the cornea is different, and can combine different shades. The incision of the eyes is either almond-shaped, or oval or round. The rim around the eyes should be black, and the light suits should be dark gray.

Ears are triangular upright, the tips are rounded, positioned perpendicular to the head. Thickly covered with wool. They look big relative to the head.

Body structure: medium-sized cervical section arched and raised. While running, the dog stretches the neck so that the head is parallel to the torso. The top line, from the withers and the front of the sternum, is straight. The sternum itself is wide oval in shape, slightly protruding behind the front paw line. Krup is powerful. The lumbar department is shortened and powerful, the groin is flat and already chest.

The front paws are flat, the shoulders go back at an angle, about 100 degrees relative to the shoulder blades. The stumps are shortened, slightly tilted, are strong and flexible.

The hind limbs are slightly divorced, the shin and plus form a small angle relative to the heels and hock joints, which form a 90-degree angle relative to the ground.

Paws form an oval and have a thick wool cover. The pads are thick and dense.

The tail is fluffy and wrapped in a pretzel. The tip is painted in a darker tone.

The wool cover is double. The pile in the neck is longer than on the body and forms a gate. The undercoat is thick and tender, and serves as a support for the top layer of wool.

B.Psychological Characteristics — Miniature Husky Full Grown

Although the appearance of Miniature Husky Full Grown is very similar to huskies, the nature of these breeds have significant differences:

Miniature Husky is fun and loves to participate in games, never refuse to have fun in the fresh air or take part in long walks;

The dog does not cope well with loneliness, so this breed is not suitable for those who are absent all day at home;

Miniature Husky do not bark, and communicate with the owner, and some sounds the dogs make are very similar to human talk, it is also possible to note the vocal abilities of dogs of this breed and also very funny the art of washing themselves with their front paws, like cats;

The dog is very affectionate and obedient in a group or family, and will keep guard with strangers;

Well-trained, memorizing many commands and performing them with pleasure;

Can easily live in an apartment and in a country house;

Does not conflict with other pets. They get along well with children, never showing any signs of aggression.

Intelligent and Pleasant Temperament — Miniature Husky Full Grown

At first glance, the Miniature Husky Full Grown gives the impression of an intelligent animal that moves naturally and understands everything around it. Although in the past it was used almost exclusively for tracking purposes, due to its beauty, intelligence and good and cheerful nature, it is increasingly becoming more popular.

The Miniature Husky gets along great with people, and they especially like small children. In the presence of a child he will probably try to warm them up or entertain them. They respond ok to strangers and are generally not aggressive, but will be cautious if you are also cautious. If a Miniature Husky sees that it can trust a stranger, he will quickly surrender. It is not safe to leave it with other small animals such as cats.

He is very energetic during a game and rarely aware of his size, so when you play games you should be careful, especially when close to a small child. It needs to play games, also a lot of movement and a lot of owner attention. They are stubborn, very strong for their size, so when training miniature huskies from an early age, you work hard on showing them that you are dominant. They normally live in packs, so if you do not make them aware that they’re not the leader of the ‘pack’, you could have problems. If you don’t meet their needs for running and playing, they will most likely become restless, destructive, and depressed.

These dogs don’t bark, they are mostly quiet. Howls can be heard causing people to immediately associate them with wolves. Their howls can be heard several kilometres away.

Subtleties of Care — Miniature Husky Full Grown

The Miniature Husky Full Grown is not difficult to care for. These dogs are clean and rarely end up dirty. Many members of the breed spend about an hour and a half on their hygiene daily. They do not have a pronounced dog smell and normally no bad breath. The only thing they can not clean, it’s paws, when there is wet and dirty weather.

When caring for a miniature husky, you should adhere to some simple principles:

The Miniature Husky Full Grown is not prone to diseases and is not allergic.

Due to the rare molting, the wool should be combed out as needed. To avoid oral diseases, you need to replace rubber toys every now and then.

Ears are a weak spot, so it is worth paying more attention to them.

The food should be varied, because mini huskies along with an active lifestyle can rest half a day. The diet should include both dry and wet food, vitamins in the form of treats and vegetables.

Twice a year you should cut their claws.

Because of the thick undercoat, the miniature husky does not need additional warm clothes in winter. And for the same reason should not be under direct sunlight in the summer for a long time to prevent overheating.

Character and Upbringing — Miniature Husky Full Grown

Some of the Miniature Huskies are cheerful and energetic, but not showing a predisposition to war and endless running. They love to play with different toys, to practice on sports, but most of all they like to spend time with the owner. Miniature Huskies is a cross between active terriers and quiet chow chows. They managed to gather the following qualities and characteristics:

Loyalty;

Distrust of outsiders;

Lack of malice and aggression;

Stress resistance

Learning.

These pets are unpretentious, largely due to a strong nervous system and thick wool. They do not need to wear any extras in winter or in the rain, the moisture will not get to their skin, and they’re also not scared of frost for the very same reason. They are happy to walk for several hours, but if they live in a house, then from the yard they will come to eat, sleep and check the situation in the dwelling. Miniature Huskies will not run to a stranger with joyful barking and a desire to get a little bit of affection, this dog will gently sniff and will not allow any companionship. But it will never bite, but will simply step aside and look out for potential danger.

For the same reason, it is valued for its watchdog qualities, it copes perfectly with the function of a small dog. If a child grew up with such a pet, there will be no problems in communication between them. Miniature Huskies are adapted to life in a pack, in foreign nurseries they are often kept in spacious enclosures with other dogs and would live together without judging relationships and instigating fights.

This breed is suitable for active people, home-owners find it difficult to maintain an optimal balanced life with these pets because they are active and love their games. But a responsible and active teenager can cope with the upbringing and care of a small and energetic dog. Miniature Huskies need to walk, play games and socialize with other dogs. Therefore, future owners need to expect that playtime could mean a 1.5 hour break in the afternoon, and maybe also some in the morning — around 30 minutes. Many owners note that miniature huskies like to talk, silently pronouncing words-like sounds, attracting the attention of a person or begging for goodies.

Food and Menu — Miniature Husky Full Grown

The Miniature Husky has a fast metabolism due to their small size and mobility. This in many ways forms their diet and diet. Since the weight of the Miniature Husky and the growth vary greatly, there are no specific portion sizes. The standard formula for Full Grown adults is: 3.5% protein of total weight. For example, a dog weighing 10 kg should receive 350 grams of meat or dairy products. For puppies up to 6 months the ratio is different — up to 7%, but they get food more often for normal growth and digestion. The approximate menu of an Miniature Husky Full Grown looks like this:

Meat products: 60% of the total daily serving.

Dairy products: 20%.

Cereals: 10%.

Vegetables, fruits and greens: 10%.

Meat for this breed of dog is suitable lean, chicken or turkey are well digested and give enough nutrients, but not excluded and beef, occasionally sea fish. Miniature Huskies are happy to eat kidneys or raw liver but it can disrupt digestion. Dairy products are also recommended: cottage cheese, rye. From cereals choose the least allergenic and the most useful: rice and buckwheat.

Helps in brushing teeth and vitaminizing carrots, green apple, pumpkin, and parsley is indispensable in the winter-autumn period. They are given fresh or steamed. It is better to remove Onions and Cabbage from the menu of the Miniature Husky.

The right food for Miniature Husky Full Grown:

Whether small or large, every dog appreciates it when meaty food gets into its feeding bowl. And pet’s health will also benefit from food with a high proportion of Meat / Protein. Make sure that the meat is always at the top of the food decoration, regardless of whether it is dry or wet food you offer to your dog. With puppies of smaller breeds, including Miniature Husky, follow the manufacturer’s instructions for feeding and include delicacies and snacks in their daily food intake. If you are doing a lot of pet training and prefer to encourage food intake, it is especially recommended that dry food croquettes be used to reward them. So your little dog will work for food without exceeding the permissible calorie limits. Smaller chewing bones or dried tripe fragments are excellent for treating, but always give them to the dog under supervision! Also, make sure that the animal always has enough fresh drinking water. If you want to go on longer trips with your pet in the summer, take a water bottle!

Important Nutrients for your Miniature Husky Full Grown:

Protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and trace elements are the main nutrients that must enter the dog’s body through its food. They provide him with energy and ensure that his vital functions remain healthy. In contrast, missing nutrients can put a heavy strain on the whole body, bones, muscles and internal organs, as well as lead to diseases.

1.Proteins

Undoubtedly, protein is the most important source of energy for your dog. Amino acids in protein are vital. Meat is a particularly excellent source of protein. Therefore, it is advisable to feed the dog at least 70% of meat. Basically, it can be almost any kind of meat: beef, lamb, pig, rabbit or poultry. Among offal, liver, heart, kidney, spleen are recommended. The dog’s high need for meat is no accident, since it is a direct descendant of the wolf, so it is one of the carnivorous predators. Its strong teeth and chewing muscles, relatively short intestinal tract and particularly aggressive digestive fluids are the perfect “tools” for meat consumption. It is important that the meat is not cooked, as the protein content becomes denatured and unusable. Fresh, raw meat has the highest protein content. As an alternative to meat, fish may be given once or twice a week. It is also recommended to serve as freshly as possible, as it contains the most unsaturated fatty acids, easily digestible protein and vitamin D in this form. Salmon, cod, redfish, anchovies, crustaceans or shrimp are among the fish species.

2.Fats

Unsaturated fatty acids from fish are of great importance as they contribute to improving the protection against inflammation and the immune system. Dogs primarily need omega-3 fatty acids of animal origin, but omega-6 fatty acids in vegetable oils are also important, which is usually sufficiently found in meats. Oils are essential to absorb important vitamins in your pet’s body. Therefore, it is always worth watering vegetables with a little animal oil, such as salmon oil. In order to avoid overweight four-legged food, the fat content of the food should be significantly less than its protein or carbohydrate content. In addition, nuts contain natural fatty acids, which is recommended only when grated or ground.

3.Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates found in potatoes and grains, which is not a vital nutrient for dogs. Most of the food available in pet shops contains carbohydrates, so it is not necessary to give them separately. If you only feed your dog raw food, it is best to feed it to your dog in flakes such as oats or millet flakes.

4.Vitamins and trace elements

Your dog’s diet should contain vitamins and trace elements, which are found primarily in vegetables, fruits and herbs. Nutrients interact with each other, which means that one is often needed for the other to be absorbed. Therefore, we do not recommend a one-sided diet, so do not give meat to your pet, for example. It is ideal if a dog eats about 25% of vegetables and fruits with 70% meat and only about 5% grain. Celery, carrots, courgettes, pumpkins or domestic fruits such as apples, pears or other berries may be brought to the meat when grated or lightly cooked.

5.Calcium

Calcium is found primarily in milk and dairy products. However, an overdose of calcium can be dangerous, especially in dogs that are not yet fully developed. Therefore, it is advisable not to include milk on the menu of adult dogs or only to a very small extent. Cow’s milk is a particularly unsuitable ingredient, as it rarely leads to allergies or other intolerance.

Possible Diseases — Miniature Husky Full Grown

Since the removal of this species, no genetic defects have been identified, which means that there are no characteristic diseases in Miniature Huskies. However, there is always a risk of contracting canine sores such as cystitis, diarrhea, fleas, lichens, colds and poisoning.

Very rarely can a blood disease be detected, where a lethal outcome would be inevitable, if no action is taken in terms of treatment. But it’s more of an exception to the rule.

Despite excellent health, it is still necessary to vaccinate Miniature Huskies. The first planned comprehensive vaccination is carried out by the breeder, when the puppy reaches the age of 8–9 weeks, and the second — after 3–4 weeks.

Subsequent preventive vaccinations are carried out at a year’s interval.

The vaccine includes products capable of resisting dog ailments such as parvovirus (hemorrhagic) enteritis, piroplasmosis, leptospirosis, plague and rabies.

Pros and Cons — Miniature Husky Full Grown

The Miniature Husky Full Grown looks very similar to the Siberian husky: black and white, gray-white, brown-white or pure white, blue eyes. Among the Miniature Husky there are also “harlequins”, in which one eye is blue and the other is amber or brown. The differences are in the shorter face, large ears and tail raised ring, like a rough one. And, of course, the size — the height of these dogs on the withers can be from 32 to 45 centimeters.Of course, such a dog is much easier to keep in an urban environment than large dogs. This baby inherited its best qualities from the Huskies: it does not freeze even with a hard frost, does not require a haircut, does not bark, loves children very much, trains easily. Miniature Husky is a very mobile and energetic dog, a little prone to diseases. Almost odorless and rarely causes allergies. But twice a year, like Siberian huskies, they take a shower and require special care for wool during this period.

Of course, such a dog is much easier to keep in an urban environment than large dogs. This baby inherited its best qualities from the Huskies: it does not freeze even with a hard frost, does not require a haircut, does not bark, loves children very much, trains easily. Miniature Husky is a very mobile and energetic dog, a little prone to diseases. Almost odorless and rarely causes allergies. But twice a year, like Siberian huskies, they take a shower and require special care for wool during this period.

The main disadvantage of this dog is its price, which is not affordable to all. The first puppies in the Russian kennel were born only in October 2013. In American nurseries, the cost of a Miniature Husky can be as high as $5,000.

When choosing a pet one should take into account that it is a very active breed, which requires daily long walks and games, as well as a lot of attention. Miniature Husky can’t stand to be alone. But on the other hand, this little copy of Husky will reward you with its dedication and give you a lot of positive emotions.

Would he be a Good Pet — Miniature Husky Full Grown?

Yes, Miniature Husky Full Grown makes a great pet, but only for the rightful owner.

Although they are friendly and loving, they are not a good choice for novice dog owners and less active people.

The ideal owner of a Miniature Husky Full Grown will be an active, open person who can provide the dog with enough places to walk, run and plenty of time to participate in joint activities.

A bored Miniature Husky Full Grown that’s left alone (inside or outside) is a recipe for disaster.

A Miniature Husky needs active and engaged owners, as well as a lot of training and socialization to avoid bad habits, including running and more running!

A Miniature Husky is an ideal companion that you will have alongside you on all kinds of open adventures and sports such as backpacking, running, walking and all other kinds of physical activities.

5 Fun Facts About a Miniature Husky Full Grown

Husky almond-shaped eyes allow them to squint and keep snow out of their eyes.

They are very good escape artists.

One of the few breeds of dog with penetrating blue eyes.

Due to their double layer, they can withstand extremely cold weather.

They are very loud and like to howl.

Power of Love — Miniature Husky Full Grown

Although Alaskan Miniature Husky Full Grown likes to be in the ring, Linda S. Spurlin emphasized in her publications that the primary purpose of human-created dog breeds is not to perform at exhibitions, but to enrich human life. Today, the Miniature Husky fulfills its useful mission as a therapy dog in hospitals for incurable patients and in nursing homes, and is also a welcome and successful breed of dog in agility games. It is also bought by many people who are enchanted by the mystical northern beauty of the husky, but do not take on the sporty lifestyle and reinforced fence that comes with it.

The Miniature Husky gives them the northern illusion while remaining a pleasant matured, obedient and easy-to-use social dog. With his kind nature, he warms people’s hearts, gives love, and receives love in return, but he is not suitable for all people. If you choose a dog, you need to know the characteristics of the breed, your own housing situation, your rhythm of life and your free time with your dog number. You must find a dog that you can love and care for with all your soul from the beginning until the end arrives.

PuppyTrainingScoop.com is wishing you all the best with these training methods!

Our GIFT to You — You might also want to look at the following Training:

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How to Clicker Train a Dog — Fastest Reward Training. The Puppy Training Shortcut — Tips to Clicker Train your Puppy with Easy Steps. How to Clicker Train a Dog the fast way..

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When Do Puppies Stop Chewing… People complain of Chewing, Nipping, Mouthing, Teething and Destruction. Here’s some Quick Tricks…

How To Crate Train A Puppy — Crate Training 101:

How To Crate Train A Puppy — Best way to crate train your puppy! Using crate training can help puppies sleep at night and prevent potty accidents..

How To House Train A Puppy — EASILY Potty Train Advice & Tips:

How To House Train A Puppy EASILY — For Potty training take your puppy outside frequently — every 2 hours — and after eating or drinking..

Puppy Training — Want Your Dog To Listen? Our Easy Guide:

First Week Puppy Training — Important Skills to Teach in the First Week. Starting at 8 weeks old…. Proven Training Methods….

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Teaching Puppy To Sit — Is it possible within Minutes:

Teaching Puppy to Sit — At 7 Weeks you can expect him to start learning simple obedience commands such as “sit,” “down,” and “stay”.

To get your gift — Yes Access Here

[xenoredux]

The Legend of Silver Fang - Episode 4: The Gang Wars

If you haven’t read episode 3 yet, you can do so here.

As mentioned before, the major story beats and overarching plot are the same. This is written under the supposition that, in fantasy land, this is a mini series with episodes that run about 2 hours in length each.

Some things to be aware of going in:

This story is violent as shit!!! CONTENT WARNING FOR: Animal injuries, animal death, drowning, cannibalism, disembowelment, illness via poisoning, and other bloody Epic Bruh Moments. Maybe don’t read ahead if dead animals upset you

I was trying to achieve a decent adaptation that combines the strongest elements of the anime and manga. It will not be precisely like either and will occasionally totally deviate from both

This isn’t meant to be “better” then the canon. It’s just the way I’d go about rewriting the Akakabuto arc if I had that level of ungodly power lol

Character designs made to represent several mentioned characters can be found here, here, here, here, and here. Others will be left up to the reader’s interpretation. A link to the next episode will also be provided at the end. If a link isn’t available, the next episode just hasn’t been posted yet!

YES THIS IS THE ONE WITH THE NINJAS IN IT

The first, second, and third platoons are heading to Kasumi Dake. It's an admittedly creepy part of their road trip. The mountain is as misty as its name implies, as is the surrounding, half-dead forest.

To make matters worse/spookier, the once pale blue sky has turned a garish grey, and thunder rumbles as it begins to rain. The Kai Bros confirm they're on the right trail to the mountain, so none of the more crybabyish among them (lookin' at you, Hyena) have an excuse to leave.

Still, it'll be harder to deal with this matter during a storm, so the army huddles together under a rock overhang, being afforded just enough room to keep out of the weather's way. The Kai Bros detail how much of a bullheaded pig Moss is as everyone listens. Akatora says that Old Fattycakes has been trying to cagoule he and his brothers into joining his dogmafia for legit years now, and he just gets madder every time they tell him to get lost.

Unexpectedly, Ben gives a heaping helping of benefit-of-the-doubt to this crimelord, insisting that he's got to have something going for him if he has a huge pack. At the very least he must hold a belief his followers share. Nobody can hazard a guess as to what such an ideology could be, but it gets the dogs thinking.

Cross says this means they should try to handle the situation peacefully if they can, only launching a full blown takedown if Moss proves he's just your run-of-the-mill dictator. The Kai Bros aren't happy to hear the army might go soft on Moss, but they don't complain.

A moment later, Hyena begins to slink away from camp. Great asks where he's going and the Weimeranar twitches, says he needs to take a leak. Hyena says he could always stay under the rock, though he's not sure if he'll be able to keep from wetting himself much longer, and Great is so icked out that he all but tells Hyena in an Italian accent that it's time to take a piss.

Hyena snorts and tells the crew to keep an eye on the group's baby as he might wet himself instead, and he's already gone by the time Gin realizes he was being picked on by a nerd twice his age.

Smith laughs and tells Gin not to take anything Hyena does to heart. He's always been a wormy little guy. That's probably why he falls in behind Sniper so easily. He doesn't have the balls to pull any nasty tricks without his German Nanny around. Gin laughs and tugs on Smith's ear appreciatively.

It would seem as if Smith doesn't know Hyena as well as he thinks, though, because Hyena, though he did stop to pee, is up to some nasty business indeed. He's wandered into the forest, howling gingerly to attract the locals' attention.

He garners a response as a booming, gravely voice tells him to either state his business or get the fuck off his lawn. Several dogs who exude the same energy as smoking bikers with sleeve tattoos encircle him, cornering him against a boulder. As Hyena hyperventilates, he looks up top the boulder and shrieks.

Hyena's gaze meets with that of the biggest, heaviest dog he's ever seen. Shorter then Ben but with twice his body weight, the animal is a hulking English Mastiff mix with a spiked collar and, curiously, a coat mottled with zipper scars from stitches long since healed.

Beside the dog are two others; like bookends, they stand beside him, the leftmost looking like a slender, younger clone of the absolute unit of a dog and the rightmost being a Siberian Husky. There's no doubt about who the big guy is: Kasumi Dake's own godfather, Moss.

Miles and miles away, Hidetoshi leaves the hospital to head to a board meeting. Outside of the hospital, Daisuke is standing in the rain with a colorful, cartoon character clad umbrella. Hidetoshi tells Daisuke he should go home, Gohei's asleep and it's past visitation hours. Daisuke shakes his head and looks at John. The dog tries to follow Hidetoshi into his car but is gently pushed away.

Before Hidetoshi drives off, he gives Daisuke a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry about Gin's disappearance," he says. "We'll find him someday, I promise you that." Before Daisuke can respond, the good doctor has already put peddle to metal.

Daisuke sulks and begins to walk home, seemingly lost in thought. John sighs melodramatically as he wanders through a pet door into Hidetoshi's office. The shepherd's eyes float across the photos adorning the walls, each one reigniting a memory of bloody exploits past. John scoffs about how Hidetoshi - and most of the men in the village, for that matter - have given up hunting, which just goes to show how much of a pack of quitters humans are.

His mind wanders to Gin. He's been thinking of the Akita more and more these days, mulling over their last exchange. If he's to be perfectly honest, John's gotta admit that he's fearful for his sorta-friend's wellbeing.

Enough is enough. All inaction and no killing makes John a dull boy, so it's time to return to the mountains. He'll kill three birds with one stone: make sure Gin is okay, return him to Daisuke (by force if necessary), and maybe kill a tyrannical bear or two if he has time for it. John smugly grins at his totally foolproof plan as he runs out. It's time to become the village hero. It's time to actually make a difference.

The rain finally lets up. Back under the rock the dogs are coming to realize this, and so they begin leaving their resting place. Akatora reminds Ben once more that he and his bros are, like, SUPER willing to kill Moss if he doesn't listen to reason, to which Ben, with his most fatherly of smiles, tells them to start chillin' with the killin'.

But before anyone does anything, Gin points out that Hyena never came back from his pee break. Ben heaves an exasperated sigh. Gin gathers this isn't the first time Hyena's pulled some dumb, inconvenient shit.

Smith mutters about "that goddamn idiot" under his breath before saying he'll do the honors of finding the lost complaint factory. Having begun to strike up a friendship with Smith, Gin channels his inner five year old and excitedly asks Ben if he can go with.

Ben allows the boy he's essentially adopted to run off with his friend and the two young dogs scampering off. Ben chuckles and says dogs Gin's age always need a reason to keep moving. A moment later the group departs.

Meanwhile, Hyena has been filling Moss's head with both disgustingly transparent flattery and heinous lies. The story the little traitor's come up with goes something like this: he's a feral dog living with a nomadic pack run by a dude called Ben. The pack has recently encountered the infamous Kai Ken Short Kings who've tricked Ben into thinking Moss was seeking to destroy all competing packs. This has led to Ben waging war on Kasumi Dake. Poor Ben is just too stupid and smelly to know any better, but he's powerful and dangerous to trifle with nevertheless.

Moss smells a rat - possibly a large, grey, snively one - but he allows Hyena to leave his territory unharmed. He turns to the Mini-Moss at his side and asks what he thinks of the situation, addressing him as Jaguar.

Jaguar is Moss's son from a litter wherein he was the only survivor. He's only 2 years old, just a touch older then Gin is. The youngster puts on a bold face and says that he doesn't believe any pack's leader would buckle to three dogs he dwarfs just to start a random war. Moss agrees, saying that the Kai Bros are too up their own asses to recruit assistants anyway.

That said, the husky at his side, Lloyd, still believes caution should be taken. The little wormy guy might've been lying about the Kai Bros, somehow having discovered their beef with Moss, but there's no saying a large pack of feral dogs couldn't be seeking to do them harm.

Moss decides to send two of his men to spy on the pack and learn more about its intentions. In a parallel to Gin's departure with Smith, Jaguar asks if he and Lloyd may do said spying, his desire being to prove himself to his old man. Moss agrees so long as his son keeps himself safe, and he proudly watches the two slink off into the forest.

Elsewhere, Gin and Smith are trying and failing to find Hyena. Smith's getting increasingly annoyed at the little bugger, cursing and complaining about the inconvenience. Suddenly, both he and Gin smell something coming. It's not Hyena, but someone else. Two other someone elses, in fact. The two run and hide somewhere they won't be spotted to watch their new company.

As Gin and Smith sit atop a rocky ledge, two unfamiliar dogs run by. Smith hazards a guess that they're two of Moss's men as and the two strangers come to a stop. Gin and Smith gasp - Hyena is standing in the strangers' way! Moss's dudes ask what Hyena's still piddlefarting around here for when, in a shocking display of effort, Hyena lashes out and bites the Mastiff in the neck.

Gin and Smith can barely contain themselves - what the hell is this idiot doing?! He's going to get everyone in trouble! Gin can't stand by and let this happen. He's about to spring into action but stops when he notices a dark shadow descending on the group.

The shadow is from an illusive cling-on the pack hadn't realized was following them: General Sniper! The Doberman dives onto Lloyd, landing the perfect blow and snapping the Husky's neck on impact. Lloyd dies instantly, his body tumbling to the ground. Sniper gives a wildly cliche evil laugh. He turns to a confused Jaguar as the Mastiff punts Hyena aside.

Jaguar runs to Lloyd's side and starts shaking him in an effort to revive him. Sniper just guffaws and tells Moss's precious son that his death is necessary for the cause. That cause being, of course, a war between Moss and Ben's packs, a war which will hopefully lead to Ben's demise. He punctuates his insidious plan by slashing open Jaguar's left shoulder, sending the inexperienced dog rolling in the dirt.

Meanwhile, on the cusp of the village, Daisuke is looking around the forest, bow clutched in hand. He's calling Gin's name and murmuring about how his dog had had a strange fascination with the feral pack in the area. Could Gin have come out here? And Daisuke had thought the rain had let up, what is this sticky substance dripping onto his shoulder?

The child turns to see he's being overlooked by a bigass bear with a set of hugeass teeth. As he screams bloody murder, the bear begins climbing down towards him. The animal roars hideously at Daisuke as it approaches.

While Daisuke cowers and falls on his ass, the shadow of a dog passes over him and snags hold of the animal's muzzle. It's John, heroically putting the kibosh on his departure so he can save the shrieking boychild.

Back at Kasumi Dake, Gin's had enough. He leaps down from his hiding place and bops Sniper upside the head, smacking him just far away enough to distance him from Jaguar. Smith joins Gin while the brindle scolds Sniper for his heinous deed, fully planning to follow his chiding up with an asskicking.

Smith joins in the Sniper-bashing bonanza by spitting in Sniper's face and telling him he can pull whatever bullshit he wants, he'll never overpower Ben. Hyena tries to intrude and save/stroke Sniper's ego, but Smith just chases him away, offering him a hearty whooping for his treason. Distracted by the injustice taking place, nobody notices as a bleeding Jaguar limps off.

Sniper, flustered with his failure to assassinate the canine equivalent of a 19 year old, throws himself headlong into Gin, ready to rip him to pieces. He's Too Slow, though, and Gin leaps into a nearby tree out of his reach.

A look of fear flashes in Sniper's eyes. He's not afraid of Gin killing him, but instead of his physical prowess. The Boss is also capable of vertical leaping and other anime asspulls. This convinces Sniper once and for all that Gin truly is the Boss's kid. Aight! All the more reason to kill the kid.

"Do you know why they call me Sniper?" he calls up as Gin readies to leap down. "Snipers are known for their accuracy. They never miss." Gin lunges down at the Doberman. Sniper bares his razor sharp fangs. "I never miss."

Gin realizes he's about to be assblasted by the general's teef, so he does a barrel roll in midair fast enough to dodge Sniper's fangs but not his force. He's sent backwards, colliding with a tree and having the wind knocked out of him.

As he struggles to get up, Sniper looms over him and steps on his head. Mr. S begins sadistically cooing at the young dog, promising him he'll bury Gin and Ben alongside each other when they're both dead.

But there's several episodes left for me to write, so of course Smith comes back and boots Sniper out of the way just in time to save Gin's life. A bloodied, battered Hyena follows behind Smith, but he's useless to help his boss now. Smith grabs Gin, flings him onto his back, and, with great effort, runs away. Sniper and his now worthless henchman give chase, hollering about how the two should've been more obedient to their superior. The Spaniel just bails, desperate to get away.

Perhaps too desperate, because he's unable to stop when he realizes he's run into the edge of a cliff. He screams as he and a barely lucid Gin fly over the edge, both of them dropping into the stream below. Sniper and Hyena watch wordlessly as the soldiers disappear from sight.

As the dogs duke it out, Daisuke is still cowering and John is still bear wrastling. Problem is that John overestimated himself. Without an armed human at his back, bears are like twice as hard to kill now. The shepherd tries his best to keep pace with the bear, but he's getting more and more tired by the second. He quickly begins to realize he can't save Daisuke despite his promise to Gin. His eyes sting with tears of desperation.

Just before the bear is about to abandon the puny pooch and start chomping on the child, an ominous howl is heard.

The dog, the bear, and that kid over there gaze up as a muscular, heavily scarred dog leaps to Daisuke's side. Daisuke takes one look at the dog and faints dead away, overwhelmed by all the shit that's happening.

The dog is Riki, better known to John as The Boss, and his ferocious growl and rippling dog pecs alone are enough to drive the bear out of sight. As the bear stomps off to gossip about this event, The Boss Dog turns to John.

The leader's voice drops to a mellow, low tone, and he asks why John's back here instead of with the other soldiers. If he recalls correctly, John was going to follow Ben on his cross-country trip. John snorts disdainfully and says neither Ben nor Muscles McGee here are his leader. Nobody leads someone as hardcore as John.

The Akita Killyou nods thoughtfully, irritating the edgelord before him, before asking what John plans to do now. In a moment of foolish boldness, John spits that he's going to lead the boss's pack now. The battle-worn bitchboy better ready himself, because John's about to steal his position... by force.

Elsewhere in a stream, two other dogs are doing their best to survive. Smith struggles to keep himself afloat with Gin on his back, but he's growing weak. The Spaniel inevitably succumbs to his exhaustion and begins sinking.

As the water floods his faceholes, Gin regains consciousness with a snort. He treads water for a sec and realizes his friend is underwater beneath him. "Smith!" Gin exclaims before diving in. He returns the life saving favor to Smith by yoinking him up by his collar so that his head is just above the water.

After he catches his breath, Smith confides in Gin that maybe dropping 20 feet into a raging river wasn't such a good idea. He feels battered enough that he thinks he's broken something. He urges Gin to let him go, but Gin stubbornly shakes his head no. Smith's eyes widen as a rumbling sound fills his ears. He looks further down the river and sees a wave of foam flowing over a cliff's edge. This stream leads to a waterfall!

Smith demands Gin let go and save himself, but given he's the hero of this story, Gin adamantly refuses, instead clinging to his friend. As the two reach the fall's edge, Gin turns Smith to face upward, shielding him with his body as they fall into the lake below.

Meanwhile, Riki and John stand off in earnest. The Ohu leader has agreed to battle John for rank, and he doesn't seem the least bit concerned about defending his title. This is likely because all it takes to down ole Johnny boy is a single, well-placed smack with the fangs.

As John collapses, the leader stands over him, offering to help him up onto his paws. John refuses to meet the other dog's gaze, but the boss just smiles. He tells John that he'll be keeping his position as leader, but that John is always invited to join his ranks. He'd be honored to have such a powerful spirit fighting alongside him.

John's ego is more then a little hurt, so he just snarls that what the boss and his soldiers are doing is stupid. A ragtag group of mutts cannot bring down a monster the likes of Akakabuto, and he's never going to change his mind about that.

The boss nods, but he must respectfully disagree. His power is hard to overstate - hell, he can scare bears off with a funny look. And yet he knows he couldn't kill Akakabuto alone even if he tried. He says that there's strength in numbers not when a bunch of directionless cowards join forces, but when those who are strong as individuals work together.

John's forehead crinkles before the boss offers him a bow and runs back into the woods. John is left panting beside Daisuke, who he then begins dragging back to the village.

Dusk comes and goes, bringing nighttime with it. The platoons have been waiting for the return of their soldiers, but it's been taking an awful long time for them to return. They'll never meet Moss at this rate. Chutora suggests that Hyena, Smith, and Gin have all died, to which Cross responds by cuffing him upside the head.

The two are about to squabble when Ben tells everyone to knock that shit off, he can smell blood. Everyone is suddenly alert as a stranger with a gash in his shoulder stumbles into view, collapsing not 20 feet from the pack. Everyone rushes to help him as he falls over. He meets Ben's gaze and manages to utter "Are you Ben..?" before losing consciousness.

"Oh shit," panics Akatora, "It's Moss's kid!" Everyone is taken aback. Great asks Ben if he believes Gin and Smith had attacked this guy without permission, but Ben doesn't think so. It wouldn't be like either of them to do something so rash. Akatora insists that all brindles regardless of breed will fight to the death at a moment's notice, really showing his internalized brindlephobia.

Kurotora worriedly wonders aloud if Moss has killed Gin and Smith in retribution. It would explain why they never came back. Cross tries to slow everyone's roll so they stop coming to conclusions while Ben directs the dogs to finally get in line. Whatever's happening, they need to get to the bottom of it, and they'll only do that by meeting Moss. They leave Great behind to keep an eye on Jaguar as they peel off with new purpose.

Somewhere else in the Kasumi Dake river valley, Smith awakens on the shore of the lake covered head to toe in mud. As his eyes adjust to the darkness, he realizes that Gin is sitting in front of him. He also looks like he had a deep cleanse day at the spa. Gin is overjoyed to see Smith has woken up. He says that he was worried Smith had died, to which Smith playfully tugs at his ear and assures him it'll take more then some water to do Commander Smith in.

But they can't keep horseassing around. Ben and the pack are in danger if they don't clear up this situation ayy ess ayy pee. The two scamper off to find, well, everyone.

As all this is happening, Moss and his gang have found Lloyd's body, and Moss is, to put it delicately, super fucking pissed. He's appalled at the death of his comrade and sick with worry for his son. The others try to soothe him by saying they haven't found Jaguar's body, suggesting he could still be alive, but Moss is too livid at the idea of his sweet baby boy being dead to care.

Remembering what Hyena had told him, Moss swears death on every single soldier following that bastard Ben. He tells his men to prepare for war as he shakes with rage.

The aforementioned Ben and his soldiers are continuing along when Akatora suddenly tells everyone to hol' up. The Kai Ken has just become aware of a kind of smelly smell, a smelly smell that smells... smelly. Ben's all like "Nani the fuck" when suddenly some bassy-ass voice starts screaming obscenities at them.

Up atop his glorious rocky throne stands Kasumi Dake's most beloved mobster. The dogs are in awe of just how fuckin' CHUNK Moss is as his own packmates surround him.

Moss presumes correctly that the dane at the front of the pack is Ben, and he demands to know what he's done with his son. Cross boldly screams back, demanding to know where their missing soldiers are. Moss doesn't give a response, not even the classic I Asked You First, because he's too busy shoving boulders down from his rocky recliner.

All it takes is a few hard shoves to cause a veritable rockslide, unleashing a torrent of boulders onto the Ohu dogs. Ben hollers for everyone to get out of the way, and nobody needs to be told twice.

The slower and less fortunate of the dogs are crushed like barking insects as the larger boulders collide with them. As he scurries away, Ben notices Cross about to become one of these smushed pups as she's too busy shoving others out of harm's way to notice the rocks tumbling towards her. Desperate, Ben throws himself against her with all his might, knocking her clear out of the path of destruction seconds before he himself is pummeled.

Cross and the other survivors collect their bearings before looking back on the destruction. Cross shrieks in horror at the sight she's met with: a bleeding Ben, his eyes shut and his tongue lolling from his mouth, can be seen lying in the jumbled mess of rock. She cries guiltily out to her beloved as the Kai Bros hold her back.

It's too late for the big man. Angry tears flow from her scrunched up face as Cross's wails turn into growls. That fatass on the hill WILL pay for this.

Back at base camp, Jaguar has regained consciousness, and he's having a pleasant chat with Great about how some little grey shrimp and his bossy German friend have been setting up both his dad and the Ohu dogs to fight an unnecessary war. Great is only a little surprised that the obviously evil Sniper would pull this kinda shit, but he thanks Jaguar for the info anyway.

Feeling better after being able to rest, Jaguar rises to his feet and insists the two hurry to his dad's domain. He'd feel awfully guilty if anyone were killed over this misunderstanding.

Jaguar'd better get ready to get guilted because a handful of soldiers have indeed been killtd. Several bodies can be seen poking out of holes between boulders, including the upper half of the dane in the red necklace. Given she was Ben's second in command, Cross prepares to lead the troops into battle in earnest. Moss is about to do the same, telling his men to kill everyone who wasn't crushed. The two armies of dogs collide, snapping and tearing into each other.

Cross and the Kai Bros lead the charge, though, strangely enough, Moss isn't at the forefront of his own army. Instead he's following behind them, urging them on. Cross sees red at the sight of her man's murderer and lunges at him, chomping down as hard as she can into his shoulder.

Cross is no weakling, but Moss is covered in so much visceral fat and muscle that her teeth don't even draw blood. Moss coughs out a smoker's laugh as he flips onto his side, smushing the Saluki and knocking the wind out of her. The Kai Bros call out to their new commander as Moss grabs her by the throat.

Watching from a hilltop nearby, Sniper grins cruelly at the bloodbath before him. He laughs in a most edgy way as Hyena licks his own wounds beside him, quite a bit less amused at the sight of a buncha people who trusted him getting murked.

Sniper notices Hyena's not feelin' the deadly vibe and tells him in a slippery voice that he should be happy. When Sniper's the new leader of the platoon, then the Ohu army, Hyena will be his right hand dog. Hyena forces a giggle, but truth be told starting a war between two innocent parties feels suckier then he expected it would.

The battle rages on. The Kai Bros desperately call out to Cross, but she's unable to escape Moss's gargantuan, flappy jowls. He begins to shake her like a ragdoll and she snarls in desperation and fright. All hope seems lost until the bark of a young, overpowered dog echos across the valley. The Ohu soldiers look up despite the onslaught tearing into them.

A shooting star crosses the night sky, and at the end of its trail a silver brindle akita leaps into view. Gin flings himself into the scruff of Moss's neck. Smith is following close behind, and he canonballs onto the dog that's got hold of Akatora's leg. Smith hollers for everyone to stop, they've been set up!

The Kasumi Dake pack gives pause, but Moss doesn't. He releases Cross and flings Gin off of him, snarling at the insolent kiddo. Gin tells Moss to cool it, his son Jaguar is still alive.

Gin has Moss's undivided, if disbelieving, attention now. Gin goes on to explain that it wasn't he and Smith who attacked Jaguar and Lloyd, it was this shitty dude and his henchman who the Ohu dogs had once believed to be a friend. Smith backs up Gin's account while Gin looks around wildly to find Ben and make sure he's also aware of what's gone down.

Upon realizing what Gin is doing, Cross gives a cough and hobbles over to him. She has tears in her eyes, and she's unable to articulate what she needs to say.

Gin is about to ask her what's wrong when he sees something out the corner of his eye, something red that stands out against the greys of the rocks. The  red, round thing catches a sliver of moonlight. Gin gasps as he realizes what - who - it is.

It's Ben, dried blood smattering his unmoving face, the rock that downed him lying on top of his chest. Gin joins in Cross's desperate weeping. He hadn't know Ben for long, but the mountain of dog and his unceasing patience had made an impact on the kid.

Sorrow turns to rage as Gin sets his sights on vengeance. He turns to the silent crowd, demanding to know who the fuck killed his Army Dad. Moss, totally uninterested in Gin's grief, demands back for Gin to explain where his son is. Gin makes it abundantly clear that his empathy is finite as he lunges towards Moss, catching him by the waddle-like roll of skin under his chin. "I'll kill you!" the Akita screams. "I'll fucking kill you!"

Moss only responds with a laugh that rumbles through his body. He's about to mention how very kawaii it is of Gin to attack him when he suddenly finds himself flipping over. "Huh?" he manages to gasp as Gin turns the old clown upside down. Moss is so heavy that he ground around him shakes when he strikes it, and his mobsters look on in awe.

Moss laughs once more, admittedly impressed, before deciding he's done playing games. He kicks Gin's comparatively small body off of him and sends the young soldier crashing into the side of the boulder that smushed Ben.

Gin wheezes a cough as he glances over Ben's lifeless face. Gin's eyes glaze over with tears once more as he turns to Moss, promising the fat bastard that he'll kill him before the sun rises. Moss accepts the challenge, telling Gin to say that to his face not online see what happens. The two run at each other for like 2 seconds before they hear a familiar voice calling out for its father.

Great and Jaguar have successfully located the gang war. Moss immediately loses all interest in Gin, overjoyed to see his son truly is alive and well. Jaguar's shoulder is caked in thick, black shards of dry blood, but he's otherwise doing okay.

As Moss runs over to embrace his son, Jaguar mimics 2009 internet culture by confirming this whole thing was indeed a trap.  And moreover that Akita kid and his friend saved Jag's life after Lloyd was killed.

Moss thanks his kid for the plot summary of the day, but he's not sure that'll end the war now. Grateful though he is for Gin's service, Moss knows that the youngin won't stop til he's avenged Ben.

Gin and Moss are about to face off again when everyone hears a weak, breathless voice. The voice tells everyone to stop, and its request is punctuated with the scraping of rock against rock. Everyone looks to the rockslide as one of the boulders shifts upwards.

The shadow underneath the rock slowly begins to rise, revealing a broad four-legged muscleman with a bloody face and a necklace of red beads. It's Ben! Looking rough but definitely alive, he rolls the boulder off of himself with a growl.

As his friends run over to him the big lug reveals his sense of humor hasn't been crushed to death either by telling Gin all his carrying on had made it impossible for him to sleep.

The Kai Bros tackle their commander as Cross cleans his face of blood. Gin admiringly gazes with tearful eyes up at Ben, and Ben smiles warmly back at him. Moss's mafioso are touched by the scene. Even Moss is a little overwhelmed by Ben's machismo.

As his companions calm down, Ben takes a step towards Moss. The dane doesn't want to be rivals. He sees all dogs as equals. His only enemy is that dickheaded bear back home. Ben bows and makes his intentions clear: he's humbly asking for Moss's assistance. Jaguar backs him up, detailing what Great told him about the Ohu army's noble cause to pummel Akakabitchboy into a much-deserved early grave.

Moss thinks this is a neat idea and all, but if he's going to be falling in line behind a buncha army boys, he's gotta make sure their leader is up to snuff even when injured. He tells Ben he'll join him if, even in this condition, he can kick Moss's ass.

Moss barrels towards Ben, and Ben makes good by doing what Moss asked. He kicks the Mastiff's ass by grabbing his neck and slamming his head into a rock. The Big Boy tumbles away, shaken by the impact.

Just as his men are about to run to his defense, he lets loose another one of his rumbly, gravely laughs. He's seen all he needs to see. Moss lifts himself up and promises Zombie Dog he and his pack's loyalty. After all, Moss is getting to be an old man. Instead of wasting his winter years lazing on rocks and farting himself awake, he'd rather die fighting for something that matters.

"We're not going there to die, Moss," Ben says to the old coot. "We're going there to fight so that we may keep living." As the verbal contract is sealed, both packs form one. The dogs celebrate their new allegiance with a chorus of howls. Gin joins the howling, forgetting about his aches and pains from a long day of getting the shit kicked out of him. As he looks to the shimmering moon above, his rich brown eyes seem to fill with stars.

Unamused by the poetry of the scene, Sniper is still watching Dogfight TV from atop the hill, except now he's pissed. Sniper isn't a decent enough person to understand how two enemies can become friends, and he's shaking with fury to see his lbr pretty simplistic plan crap out on him.

Hyena's less angry then he is ridden with anxiety. Since the Ohu dogs are still alive and have recruited new friends who hate both him and Sniper with a passion, he's expecting retribution for the whole war instigation thing. Sniper doesn't speak. He's too busy glaring at Ben, Moss, and the little silver thorn in his side to think of anything but vengeance.

Sniper throws his paws up in the air and decides he needs to disappear til the heat is off of him. As Hyena tries politely and submissively to explain that Sniper will literally never be free of the sins committed here today, Sniper snaps at him.

Hyena rolls onto his back as Sniper commands his underling to continue the ruse and rejoin the pack. Hyena wants to argue, but he wants to live as well, so he keeps his whimpering mouth shut as Sniper plods away. As soon as his silly little stub tail is out of sight, Hyena groans in worry. "Here we go again," he says to a laugh track.

After a few more minutes of screaming at the sky, the dogarmy takes off. The platoon is at least twice as large now, powerful enough to curbstomp most non-bear foes in their way. And so the group fearlessly continues their road trip, running day and night over a 48 hour period. Destination: Iga of the Mie prefecture. Goal: recruit some dogs with uber special skills. Hotel: Trivago.

The dogs quickly reach Mie. Ben mysteriously mentions a particular dog from his past being here, and everyone's automatically like YEAH ITS ASS KICKING TIME. Except hold up, Ben says this isn't the type of guy they wanna fight into submission, but rather speak with. This piques the pack's curiosity, but Ben is too busy reliving memories of past exploits to share. Instead, the Kai Bros decide they've got rumblies in their tumblies, and so it's time to kill some shit.

The three run off to beat a boar onto a metaphorical plate. They're joined by Papa Moss, a guy as big and powerful as any wild boar. The pack applauds the efforts of the deadly dwarves and generous giant as they settle in to devour the fallen piggie.

While everyone stuffs themselves silly, Cross nuzzles Ben's neck and tells him she's glad he didn't actually get curbstomped by a rock. Ben licks her head and agrees that being alive is pretty sweet. That said, if ever the platoon needed a new leader, he trusts that she'd be able to fill his shoes. She'd rather not think about it, so instead she curls up beside Ben and rests her head on his back as he enjoys his share of pork.

Just out of both sight and smell, a pair of eyes watch from the shadows as the Ohu dogs have their fill. The eyes swiftly glide across the way to notice another, much more pitiful pair of eyes focused on the same sight.

The pathetic eyes, the lids around them sagging in self-pity, belong to one anxious, hungry Hyena. He murmurs to himself that life is so unfair, wishing for all the world that he could play some Linkin Park right now.

The stranger in the bushes watches Hyena pout, though they're unable to hear him sniveling to himself about how he'll never find a way back into the ranks. They also watch as a slab of meat falls from the tree directly above Hyena, and their eyes widen. So do Hyena's, but for a different reason. He looks up at the meat's mysterious origin and sees a very strange dog on the branch above him.

The dog is of average size with a muscular build. Her coat is brown with a pale tan underbelly, and atop her scarred head is a fluttery lock of hair reminiscent of a mohawk. In a hollow, airy voice she tells Hyena that the meat is a gift for him.

Hyena spends a single moment thinking WTF The Fuck before the meat seduces him with its juicy goodness. Having had nothing to eat for like three days, Hyena makes like he hasn't eaten in three years and snags it up greedily. It smells weird, but he's too hungry to care.

As he takes his first bite, the Bizarre Tree-Dog leaps from her branch to another. She rapidly takes off and out of view by playing hopscotch in the trees. This gives Hyena a spook, so he snags the meat up and tries to scramble off before realizing that the strange dog is coming back.

This time she's not alone. She and two other dogs of the same unidentifiable breed leap down from the trees and into circle formation around Hyena. Hyena the Cowardly Dog practically pees his no-pants as they inch towards him.

While this is happening the Ohu dogs are allowing themselves to kick back for a moment. Ben figures his mysterious new ally is close, so giving everyone a second to rest ain't a bad idea.

Gin is too excited by the new sights and smells to rest, though, so instead he pokes around curiously. He hears a rustle in the bushes as if something is sneaking away, but he can't see anything. Instead, he hears a new sound just a moment later. It sounds like someone screaming, and that someone sounds like someone he's met - and disliked - before...

Hyena continues trying not to evacuate his bladder as the strange dog approaches him in earnest. She glares at him and asks if the dogs pigging out on pig over yonder are his bros. Hyena says they are, and that they'll kick the ass of anyone who dares fuck with him.

The stranger has to keep from rolling her eyes at the obvious lie as she commands Hyena to tell them this: Maya ("demon arrow") of the Koga Clan is telling them to leave this forest at once. Should they not heed this warning, the pack will face the wrath of the malevolent Koga leader.

The Kogas each do a boss-ass vertical leap into the trees. They're off again, rushing through the leaves as quick as physics will permit. As they go, Hyena finally legit pees himself and just about faints, never having been more afraid of a reminder that trespassing is impolite.

He curls into a shuddering, urine-soaked ball. This is without a doubt one of the worst days of his life. And it's about to get even worse because a dog he's never seen before has emerged silently from the bushes.

The dog isn't one of the Kogas, but instead a red, brown, and white Rough Collie. The animal has a handsome face and a rehearsed-looking gait, walking as if he's trying to impress someone. The Collie stands over Hyena while Yeenee hides his face and his literal pound of flesh. "Who are you?" is all the Collie gets out before both he and his find notice something coming towards them.

It's the Ohu pack, and they're less then happy to see Hyena has returned. Jaguar is especially pissed that the little war criminal dares to show his face again, and he's ready to smack the weenie's head in when Akatora tells him to back off. Nobody is gonna kill diddly shit without Ben giving the a-okay. That said, who is this weirdo standing beside Hyena? Did he bring the little bugger back?

Cross closes the distance between herself and The New Guy (2002) and asks where he's come from while Ben approaches Hyena. It doesn't take a dog the size of a small horse much to look intimidating, but Ben's never looked scarier then when he shows his disapproval of his former comrade.

Hyena insists that he has no clue where Sniper is now, and that he only did what he'd been told him because Sniper had threatened to kill him if he didn't. Moss tells the shivering whelp that he doesn't believe him and that it wouldn't matter if that was true anyway. Hyena was an accomplice to the murder of one of his men and the attempted murder of his only son. The little bastard can never be an Ohu soldier given what he's done.

Alongside all this in a conversation you'd expect to be had over tea instead of the future corpse of a criminal, Cross and Gin politely grill the Collie.

The fancypants's name is Wilson, and he's an old circus performer who's traveled the world. His speech is eloquent, his demeanor is goodnatured, and the dude is clearly ripped under his piles of fur, all of which convinces Gin that he'd make a fine soldier. Gin asks Cross if Wilson can join them, but she's not too sure. She asks why a performing dog is out in the middle of nowhere.

Wilson sighs and looks drearily at Gin, seemingly deep in thought. He had escaped the circus several years ago, he explains. Back then, he'd had a wife named Lean and a son named Londo. His boy was about Gin's age when he was murdered by someone Wilson refers to as The Devil Dog, a cannibalistic cultist monster who Will's owner had tried to train to be a circus dog as well.

The man had been impressed by the dog's unique appearance and flexibility, but the mongrel hadn't liked being bossed around. He mauled the ringleader, killed AND ATE Wilson's family, and escaped back to his followers in the woods. These woods.

Cross seems especially shaken by this retelling of family slaughter while Gin offers his condolences. Wilson kindly accepts Gin's pity, but he insists he doesn't need it. He plans on getting his revenge soon enough, both against The Devil Dog and another unmentioned foe of his. Gin's about to ask what other sinister being has added a hefty dose of trauma to Wilson's backstory when Hyena, weeping like a baby, comes crawling across the dirt to cling to Cross's ankle.

Cross snaps out of her empathetic stupor as Hyena begs her to convince Ben that he's deserving of forgiveness. She reacts as one would to stepping on a piece of gum and pulls her paw away, her face crinkling in disgust.

Even more desperate now, Hyena turns to Gin. Gin's reaction is more volatile then Cross's - he starts growling at Hyena as if ready to attack - so Hyena gives up on finding allies before he has a chance to beg Wilson for backup. Ben pads up to him as the grey dog trembles pitifully.

"Hyena," Ben says, his voice almost unrecognizable with hatred, "you are no longer my subordinate."

Everyone is pretty sure this is Ben's final statement before he whips out his katana and teleports behind Hyena, but he has yet to move. Ben's suddenly bombarded from all sides with suggestions. Jaguar wants to kill Hyena! No, Moss does! No, The Kai Bros do! No, Cross says Ben shouldn't do it! Great agrees, Ben's too good to kill a worm like Hyena!

A loud "Be quiet" is all it takes to silence the platoons' wild jabbering, and Ben is left standing in silence over the deserter.

A moment later and without warning, Ben snaps into action and at Hyena's neck, grabbing hold of him in his powerful jowls. Gin finds himself taken aback. Hyena's shitty, it's true, but Gin's never seen Ben looking so much like a cold, hard killer. Ben's not really gonna splatter Hyena's gutless guts all over the place, is he?

Nah. The dane instead tosses the Weimeranar into a tree, knocking a tooth or two loose and probably causing a few fractures on impact. Hyena wails about the pain he's in while Ben advances on him. Hyena's pleas fall on deaf ears as Ben snarls at him. Hyena is allowed to live... for now. But under one condition: either he brings Sniper back to the platoon to pay for his crimes, or Ben will use his particular set of skills to find and kill both the mastermind and his henchman.

Moss and Jaguar are a little pissed that their would-be life-ruiner isn't rotting in the dirt, but Ben calmly asks them to grin and bear it. It's better to take out an evil and banish his lackey then kill the lackey and lose track of the evil, yeah? The Mastiffs agree, if a bit begrudgingly.

Gin sighs in relief. Ben puts up a tough front when need be, but he wouldn't really kill Hyena. It'd be like kicking a puppy, only somehow less literally.

Before Hyena leaves, he realizes Smith is chewing on his chunk of meat. He whines about starving, so Smith taunts him over how they let him live and yet he's still unsatisfied. Gin's a little too shaken for joking around so he tells Smith to give the dweeb back his Lunchables.

Smith giggles his frat boy giggle and tosses the meat back to Hyena. Sniper's starving steward has gone back to eating when suddenly a dark shadow falls over Wilson's face.

Wilson wastes no time in leaping over the dogs in his way to reach Hyena. He demands that Hyena spit it out, what do you have in your mouth, bad dog, spit it out, drop it, spit it out I said. Just like my dog does whenever I catch him chewing something he shouldn't, Hyena tries to swallow his bounty before someone else can get his icky spit on it.

Hyena is a baka, Wilson says, because that's no regular meat. It's the flesh of another dog.

"GASP" gasps everybody in horror. Even though he only chewed the dog flesh for a second, Smith starts puking up the pork in his stomach. Hyena turns a deep shade of green and looks like he's about to follow suit. A shaken Gin tells Wilson not to joke around, but he knows the Collie isn't lying. Akatora turns accusingly towards a now puking Hyena.

The Weimaraner tries desperately to explain his innocence between mouthfuls of stomach acid. He says in a panic that he didn't know he was cannibalizing - the meat was given to him! Ben starts to regret letting Hyena live as he demands to know who would've gifted some rando a hunk of Roasted Rover when Wilson begins snarling towards the treetops. "It was them," he growls, his eyes burning with hatred. Everyone looks up.

It's the strange dogs from before, the ones with the fauxhawks. Maya gazes down at the confused canines. Then she and her compadres disappear up into the leaves. Determined to get to the bottom of this, Gin superjumps after them, discovering they've swooced just out of view. This catches the dogs off guard, and they begin leaping from branch to branch to get away. Gin's experience in neighborhood parkour comes in handy and allows him to effortlessly keep pace with them.

The rest of the pack follows on foot, trying to keep pace with the flying squirrels/dogs above. Gin's convinced he's almost caught up to the cannibalistic coterie when one of their unseen comrades leaps down on him from above. The dog rabbit kicks Gin in the middle of his back, effectively knocking him from the air and into the dirt. The pack doubles back to make sure Gin hasn't acquired any especially nasty booboos. Gin's alright, but now the squirrel dogs are gone. 

As everyone begins discussing what to do next, Ben verbalizes his internal monologue for the audience's sake. Those dogs were 100% ninjas, or at least trained in the art of ninja-ing, which means they must be part of his target's pack. Wilson asks who Ben's looking for, to which Ben replies he came here to find Iga's Akame ("red eye").

Great interjects and, as kindly as one can, accuses Ben of pursuing a cannibal in the hopes of making him a soldier, but Ben assures everyone he wouldn't be looking to add dog-chompers to their ranks. Either Akame's changed since Ben last met him or something weird is going on.

Gin tries to imagine what this Akame could be like. He'd earned Ben's trust somehow, but if his namesake and this recent experience are to be considered, maybe Akame is a red-eyed tyrant who eats other dogs. Gin imagines a bestial dog with a mohawk and two bloodshot eyes leaping from the trees and descending on other dogs, eating them alive.

But there's no time to keep spooking himself because Ben has instructed everyone to get moving. It's time to figure out what the hell is going on.

The pack continues their trek. Instead of shinobi dogs, though, they mostly just find a buncha trees and rocks. Some soldiers are becoming so impatient they're wondering if it's time to interrogate the surrounding foliage when Gin picks up a weird scent. The smell is unpleasant, metallic, and strangely organic. He pursues the smell to find...

The bloodied corpse of a Kishu Inu being chomped on by the ninja dogs AAAAAAAAAA!!! Beside himself with disgust, Gin accidentally gasps a bit too dramatically, and the cannibals turn to face him. Gin snarls and dives towards them. As Ben and Cross come to see what the commotion's about, they see Gin has already launched into a lecture about how these are some very, very bad doggies. Shame on them! Naughty naughty!

"Fuck off, kid," is all one of the Kogas manages to say before the rest of the packup comes in as backup. Wilson meets eyes with of one of the Kogas, his gaze filled with hate. The shinobi smirks, well aware of who Wilson is. As this staring contest takes place, Ben asks the ninja dogs to tell him if they know Akame.

The smug asshole gazing at Wilson thinks fast, saying, "Sure we do. He's our leader. He overthrew Master Kurojaki ("black devil") a while back. We're just following his orders. Ain't that right, guys?"

The Koga looks back over his shoulder at his crew and gives them a slippery smile. The dogs rub their two braincells together long enough to realize what he's doing and they grin back, nodding. They punctuate their unreliable narration by telling the soldiers to leave before bounding away into the trees.

Gin is about to follow them when Ben croaks out that there's no point. Gin follows orders and joins the others in looking to Ben for guidance.

Ben is looking mournfully down at the broken white body before them. The dog is indeed dead. He's covered with bite marks, his innards poking through deep gashes, his fur stained with thick patches of blood. Ben remarks that he's ashamed of having brought everyone here to ask for a cannibal's help, but they must stop this treachery before they can continue their mission. Likewise, they should do a body good and bury the poor sucker. It's the least they can do to make up for the tragedy.

Smith and the Kai Bros begin to drag the dog away so as to lay him to a more dignified rest. As they do, another much more alive white dog watches from the trees above.

He looks very much like the other dog, likely because he is also a Kishu Inu. He gives pause as he sees the Ohu soldiers drag the other whitey away. He mutters to himself about how he's never seen these guys before and that it's probably safe to assume that anyone holding a dead guy is evil. Could they be working with the cultists? The dog's not sure, but he hurries off regardless.

Deeper in the forest, a monument to a forgotten era, a dilapidated human house, stands tall. It's the Kishu's destination, and he leaps to it swiftly. He calls out to his Chief from outside the long abandoned building. "Kirikaze?" a measured voice greets him. "Come in."

Kirikaze ("misty wind") bounds in and immediately begins detailing what he's seen: there's a buncha new kids on the block, a whole assload of them, and after he saw Goody Proctor dancing with the devil, he saw said pack with their doglips fastened around the legs of a fallen comrade. He suggests that the pack may have killed the poor little white guy because they're in cahoots with the cult.

The measured voice calls down to Kirikaze from the rafters of the house. The dog it's attached to tells Kirikaze to gather the others, they've got a homestead to protect. If these n00bz truly are a threat then they must be eradicated. As he lays out his plan, the speaker turns his head into a sliver of sunlight. He's a magnificent white Kishu, paler then any of the others. He squints in the ray of light, his purplish-red eyes glistening thoughtfully.

Meanwhile, the fallen fair-furred friend has been buried in a shallow but otherwise decent grave. Ben bows his head over the distended dirt covering the dog and whispers a prayer. Gin, as if reading his mind, asks who Akame was and why Ben wanted to enlist him. Moss chimes in and says that he's not all for blindly following Ben into a cannibal's lair. Ben decides it's time to stop being so ~*~mysterious~*~ and comes clean with a flashback.

Back when Ben was still a hunting dog, the Kai Bros weren't the only dogs his owner nursed back to health. You see, Ben and his master were out playing Rooty Tooty Point-n-Shooty in the woods when they saw a white animal leaping from tree to tree.

Ben's master had thought the creature was a squirrel, so he'd shot at it and hit it. The man and his dane had approached it and found it to be not a squirrel but a Kishu Inu. The dog was a stark white, whiter then any other animal Ben had ever seen. The albinistic dog had been shot in the leg, and he'd looked at Ben as if pleading for sympathy.

Despite the dog clearly being feral, Ben's master took him home to heal him and raise him as a hunter. It's not every day you see a canine leaping through the trees, so the man was pretty determined to keep the albino no matter how much the dog snarled and hid in back of his prison, a tall, wire pen with a sturdy roof. It took a while for his leg to heal up, but within that time the dog - obviously named Akame - confided in Ben and became his friend.

Akame didn't like the idea of working for The Man (either the individual or the sociopolitical concept), and he especially didn't like the idea of being a house pet while his pack languished in the woods. Without his guidance the other Kishu ninjas would be at a loss for what to do.

Ben was hard pressed to believe this random guy was a ninja solely because he could jump super good, but when Akame stated that his wife had had a litter before he'd left and he'd never gotten to see his children, Ben's heart melted like the cheeseball it is. 

Ben had looked deep into the pleading dog's pigmentless, pinkish eyes and decided he wasn't going to orphan any of his puppies. He broke Akame out and escorted him back to the forest. That had been several years ago, and now, if the cannibals were to be believed, Akame was leading a band of murderers.

Ben gives a weak chuckle and wonders aloud if the mohawk dudes were Akame's sons and daughters. Cross looks like she's about to soothe him when Moss interjects that it's cool, man, everyone makes mistakes. It's not Ben's fault his good nature was taken advantage of, not so long as he's willing to put an end to this volatile tomfoolery.

Ben nods, his determination returning to him, and he and the others get back to their favorite activity: running towards an undefined location. But holy canolli, what's this? A gust of wind blows past the pack's noses, sending the eternally intimidating scent of strangers whooshing through their sinuses.

Everyone looks around but they're unable to see where the smell is coming from. All except protagonist Gin, obviously, who is the first to look up. He makes a weird noise in the back of his throat, alerting everyone else to look too.

A barrage of Kishu Inus jump down on top of them, each hollering curses and victorious announcements of triumph over evil or some shit. One of the Kishus screams about Kogas, only confusing everyone further. One of the dogs announces the ninjas' attack move like this is some kinda anime. "Raikaken!" ("thunder blossom blade") she shouts as the wave of white engulfs the army.

The white dogs dip in only once, tooth-smacking every face and ass they can reach. Then they all leap back into the branches before anyone has time to understand what just happened. Flustered, Gin jumps into the trees and calls after them to put up their dukes. Ben instructs everyone else to follow on foot again and the chase begins. Gin calls down to the soldiers periodically to make sure they're following behind.

Watching from a short distance away is an excited mass of Koga dogs. Maya has lead them there to enjoy the show, and she's brought her hubby with her.

The man himself is a unique specimen indeed: the Koga leader is a touch taller then his comrades. He's got a torn left ear and a dark coat of brindle merle. Just between his front paws sits a toddler-age puppy who is clearly his own, the child bearing the same unique markings. The Koga leader grins in amusement, pleased that his cult can kick back and watch as innocents fight their battle for them.

Meanwhile, despite his efforts, Gin is falling behind the Igas. They manage to hurry out of his range of sight and smell, and so he comes to a frustrated stop. As his sides heave with exertion he calls down to Ben that he's lost the lil buggers. Gin leaps down to rejoin the group and explains that he doesn't know what happened, dude, they just up and disappeared.

Smith's face crunches up stoically. He announces that he's not willing to let this go so anticlimactically before he begins sniffing around. The others watch as he takes major nose-hits from the ground and then pauses. He points instinctively at a patch of dirt for a moment before remembering himself and setting to digging. Within moments he manages to unearth something peculiar: one of the Kishus!

The white dude's head is the only part of him exposed, and he's unmoving. "Is he dead?" someone asks. There's a small wave of shrugs. The group quickly assumes the corpse was buried by the cannibals to serve as a midnight snack and they begin to walk away.

Gin follows behind, but he notices Smith hasn't left the presumed cadaver's side. Smith murmurs something about the holedog not smelling dead when one of the "corpse's" eyes opens! The dog snarls viciously and grabs Smith by the collar. As Smith screams and the soldiers double back, the Spaniel is yoinked into the hole and out of sight.

Gin reaches the hole first and notices that it's not just a hole. It's a tunnel, and both the Kishu and Smith have disappeared into it. He tries to leap in and follow, but Ben pulls him out of it by his curly-cue tail.

Gin's insolent about the ass portion of his spine being used as a handle when there's a comrade who needs saving, but Ben says it'd be too risky to follow after them. They're fuckin' NINJAS, my guy, this is clearly a trick they've set up for intruders.

Cross wonders aloud where the tunnel may lead and Ben surveys the area. It takes him all of 3 seconds to realize that oh my goodness there's a house like 50 feet away.

Ben is instantly certain that the ninja bastards live there given no human came out screaming about the massive pack of feral dogs. No doubt the tunnel leads to that building, and that to get to the bottom of this mess the pack will have to go there. They'll have to surround the building's perimeter and then launch an attack.

That said, Ben's a little wary of leaving the tunnel unguarded. Given he previously had his opportunity to go spelunking taken from him, Gin jumps at the chance to explore some hole. Ben tells Gin that he's to WATCH the tunnel, not explore it, as he could be attacked by the ninjas.

Gin pouts as the other dogs go to surround the house, but he still chirps a "Good luck" to them as they take off. As soon as everyone else is gone, Gin gathers all his bravery (and insolence) and dives into the tunnel, still determined to find his friend.

Inside the dirt tube, Gin realizes the Kishus' squirrel-tier leaps are only matched by their gopher-tier digging abilities; the tunnel widens substantially, and it's impressively long. On the other side of it, the dog who 'napped Smith drags him out and under the house.

It doesn't take the dog more then a second and a whiff with his powerful schnoz to realize Gin, in all his smelly post-pubescent glory, is following him. He just shakes his head and makes a brief trek out to a scrape connected to the tunnel. The scrape dips into the lake beside the house, and with one swift motion the dog lifts the single wooden board separating the water from the dig-out.

The water goes roaring down the secret tunnel, which Gin can hear despite not knowing the context. Gin was just thinking that this was all too easy before looking up and reading the above paragraph. Just then, a torrent of water comes wooshing down towards him, flooding the tunnel and knocking him back with the force of a thousand spitting goldfish. He can only manage to cough out a swear before he's carried away.

The other soldiers have taken this time to organize themselves into a nifty little formation around the house, but they come to realize that nobody knows where the littlest recruit is. Cross tells Ben that when she went back to the tunnel to check on Gin he was nowhere to be seen.

Ben's certain the kid has gone down the hole against orders, but there's no time to be upset. Wilson says there's precious little time to save Smith. If Akame really is cannibal chief, he won't keep his men from their next meal for long. Despite his reinvigorated concern for his friend and fellow commander, Ben is wary of leaping into action too suddenly.

Inside the house, Smith is lying unconscious on the floor. Something that feels like another dog's paw (3 guesses as to what it is) touches his face. He slowly opens his eyes.

As the world comes back into focus, he lets out a high-pitched yelp. He's surrounded on all sides by stark white dogs, each one eyeing him harshly. One of them approaches him and he responds by screaming and running into a corner.

Smith starts wailing about how they shouldn't eat him because black and white dogs taste like ass and cause explosive diarrhea when another Kishu, one that was just out of sight, leaps from the rafters right down beside him.

Smith falls into a heap as the newer new guy looms over him. This guy is even paler then the rest; his fur is so pale it seems almost translucent at the edges. The other dogs are clearly annoyed at Smith's bellyaching but this guy just stares at him with expressionless red eyes.

"You're a Western breed, aren't you?" asks the super-white dog, finally breaking the silence. "I've never seen a dog like you before. What are you doing out here?"

Smith chokes out something about traveling to which the dog responds by asking why he and his friends are in this neck of the woods. Smith says that he and his buds are trying to recruit soldiers, which, judging by the super-white dog's reaction, was the wrong thing to say. The Kishu says that Smith's clearly with the Kogas. Smith barely knows how he got here, let alone where this conversation is taking them, so he tries to flee once more.

The neon white dog grabs him firmly by the scruff as he runs past, then slings him back into the corner. As Smith's noggin grows a goose-egg, one of the Kishus leans towards the super-white guy, their obvious leader, and informs him that she and the others are pretty sure that the "soldiers" are outside the manor, no doubt ready to overtake it at any moment.

Neon White tells his pack to ambush the dogs from out the tunnel while he interrogates the hostage. All but the leader depart, leaving a confounded Smith looking on.

The dogs do indeed travel through the flooded tunnel. The gaping Earth-hole is only tall enough to allow for a small air pocket above their heads, so they're mostly submerged. While passing through their underwater subway system, the dogs see the floating, motionless body of a young brindle Akita. Several of their faces crumple at the sight, probably thinking about how war is hell and stuff, before they leave the body behind.

But hey, I'll let you in on a secret: ITS GIN AND HE ISNT DEAD WHODA THUNK. He's just playing aquatic possum while taking tiny, secret gulps of air. He waits until the last of the dogs has swum past before grabbing onto the end of his tail.

The dog seems surprised and he makes like he wants to turn around and face Gin, but there's not enough space to turn back. Gin has hitched a ride out, but he'll no doubt have to contend with the bastards as soon as they leave the tunnel.

Meanwhile, the Ohu dogs have come to the conclusion that Gin and Smith are super, hella dead by now, or at the very least imprisoned, and this stake out has gone on long enough.

Given the commander’s absence, Ben assigns Cross to Smith's place. Then he starts directing everyone on how best to ransack the house. With a nod and an oddly poignant "GO!", the dawgies leap into action, all of them galloping at full speed towards the building.

The Kishus are well prepared for times like these. Several pits in the ground containing live warriors open beneath the approaching hoard's feet, ninjas leaping up from within to snag onto some unfortunate underbellies. Others leap down and out of the trees, cracking skulls with their powerful bites.

Lucky for the Ohu dogs these attacks only slow them down, not defeat them. Ben continues to lead the hoard until it's formed a ring-around-the-rosie of running troops around the house. 

But before the soldiers can literally come full circle, Ben yelps in pain and unromantically tumbles head over heels. One by one the other dogs succumb to the same fate, each stumbling blindly and then rolling over. A chorus of pained, confused whimpers rises up as Smith and the lead Kishu exit the house.

Smith calls out to his friends, but the super-white guy stops him, telling him not to take another step unless he too wants to be skewered.

Turns out the ground has been littered with Hishi seeds. Hishi plants are a water grass with distinctly sharp, spiky seeds, and the pack has managed to slice their paws on tons of them. Tens of little doggy footses bleed into the dirt as Smith watches helplessly.

Akatora says that a few seeds shouldn't be enough to down an army, but he feels... like ass. Like, totally sick, and not in a good way. The Kishu nods and explains that, btw, the spikes have been poisoned. A death by poisoning is a deserved one for a bunch of cannibal cultists (which is my band name now, don't steal).

Ben realizes who this dog is and pipes up. "Akame? Is that you? Have you gone mad?" The Kishu's reddish eyes widen in recognition. His eyes dart to the red bead collar around the dane's neck. "Ben?" he says while approaching the commander. "What are you doing here? Why are you helping the Kogas?"

Ben counters by asking why Akame's leading a hoard of cannibals and suddenly everyone understands that a particular plot element has been reused. The good guys have been double crossed once again!

Akame apologetically explains to everyone but the audience that the Igas thought the Ohu soldiers were allied with the Koga cult to aid in their evil plan. That plan being, of course, to slaughter the remaining Iga warriors and overtake their manor. Before he can truly grasp all of this, Ben's stomach starts benchpressing his other organs and he rolls over in pain.

Akame tells everyone not to move, else the poison will spread faster. He sees his own dogs are coming to see what the deal is and barks at them to bring the antidote. One of the dogs, soaking wet, trots up, looking especially annoyed.

Before they go to get the meds, the most annoyed dog swings his curly tail as an exhausted Gin finally lets it go. Gin sputters out water and the Ohu soldiers perk up at the sight of him. Unfortunately, all of them are getting gutpunched from the inside, so they don't have the strength to go meet him.

Ben saves Gin's silver ass by explaining that he's with them. The Igas seem confused that Gin's not a Koga ally. Just then, the wind picks up and blows a now-familiar stink into everyone's noses. A white projectile falls from the trees and smacks one of the Igas in the head. It lands on the ground with an Icky Thump by The White Stripes, allowing everyone to see what it is: the severed head of a Kishu Inu!

Everyone who is able to lifts their heads to the treetops which seems to be the new entry point for all characters. One of the forest's largest trees is covered in the silhouettes of tens of mohawked dogs. On the highest branch stands the leader of the Kogas. Wilson's eyes widen and he squeaks out "It's him... The Devil Dog."

The Devil Dog laughs as Akame utters a SEETHING "Kurojaki." The merle brindle laughs gutterally, congratulating the Igas on their new feat in stupidity. These new guys here? They were innocent the whole time, duh! And their arrival worked out well to distract the Igas while the Kogas formed a new plan of attack. Now the filthy nonbelievers will be destroyed, and their ancient master's home will become the new domain of the glorious Koga clan.

It's only now that Gin realizes the Kogas outnumber the Igas pretty badly. Kurojaki instructs his soldiers to attack the enemy. The cannibals launch themselves tooth-first towards their foes. Kurojaki takes one look at Akame, smiles, and then disappears up into the tree.

Akame knows that the bastard isn't running away, he's just going to go and retrieve his secret weapon. He tells his men to defend themselves, the soldiers, and the manor while he pursues Kurojaki. The albino scrambles away while the others, Gin included, fight on.

Gin tears into the nearest Koga when he notices that one of the Igas, the youngest one, is scared to do the same. The dude seems inexperienced and afraid, not like the other warriors. One of the Igas calls out to him, scolding his little brother Hayato for being such a puss.

To demonstrate how hardcore ninjas have to be, Hayato's ubermasc big bro drags his Koga of choice back into the flooded tunnel, no doubt intending to drown both the brown dog and himself. Hayato cries out to his unnamed sibling, blubbering about how he wishes their father were here to help them. Jinnai, one of the Igas present, tells Hayato to dog up - Akame can't hold their hands forever, and they cannot shame their pops by showing weakness.

Hayato's eyes fill with tears and so do Gin's. Gin has an Epic Bruh Moment and realizes that the Igas are the children that Ben had freed Akame for, and in turn the albino has raised them to defend their home at any cost.

Gin can't help but think of Riki standing on the mountaintop, gazing down at Gin and commanding him into life-or-death battles alongside the other dogs. Would he change his mind if he knew Gin was his son? Hell, what if he DID know and just didn't feel like treating Gin differently? Gin is knocked out of his stupor as the Koga he's fighting kicks him in the face and runs away.

Gin's mind is elsewhere, though, so he hardly notices. Instead, he decides to help poor Hayato. Hayato's actually doing alright at holding his own and it's probably because he's gotten super pissed at his brother's death.

The idea of the day is #diekogascum, so Hayato allows his opponent to chase him to a strange looking plot of grass. Gin squints at the ground for a moment before looking horrified. Before he can tell Hayato to stop, the Kishu plays Follow The Leader with the Koga over the plot. The strange foliage turns out to be debris covering a pit trap. Both Hayato and his adversary scream in agony as they fall into it.

Gin runs over to see what's become of them. He gasps at the sight. Both Hayato and the Koga are dead. The hole is surprisingly wide, and it's filled to the brim with spikes worn to points. Both lifeless bodies slide wetly down the stakes, each leaving some of their guts strung up behind them.

Disgusted by the gruesomely skewered corpses, Gin gallops back to the others. That tears it, by gum. These Kogas are fucking WAY too much shit up, and the only way to stop this madness is to boot them into next Wednesday.

The Kogas are kinda swaying that way too because they've realized the Igas are willing to wipe themselves out so long as they can take some cannibals with them. Despite their greater numbers the Kogas have weaker spirits, and they really don't wanna be kabobbed to death today. The mohawked murderers leap back into the trees with Gin following right behind them.

This time they can't escape Gin's righteous anger as he snags one by the hind leg. Turns out it's Maya, and despite her skillz, she's no match for Gin's moralistic tantrum. He downs her in an instant, sending the two of them crashing to the forest floor.

Maya's got a nasty gash on her face now. Rivulets of blood pool beside her cheek as she lays unmoving. She weakly looks up at Gin and manages to gasp out a question: what the fuck? Also, is Gin one of the shinobis? Gin shakes his head and proudly introduces himself as a bearhound, but it ends up being pointless ego stroking because Maya loses consciousness.

An impressed Akame descends from the trees. He tells his men that Kurojaki has gone back to the Koga marshlands, probably to retrieve his scythe. Gin doesn't know what a scythe is, so he just asks Akame what they should do next.

After Akame explains the need for antidote to the youngster he apologizes for harming Gin's friends. Luckily, as the epic pwnage was taking place, some of the Kishus scraped together some rainy day herbs to cure the Ohu dogs' ailment. Unluckily there wasn't enough for everybody. Ben in particular ain't doin' so hot. He's refused to take even the smallest bite of antidote before all his men are cured.

Akame insists that they need more of The Cure (years active: 1978-present) asap and Gin is totally on board to gather some. There's just one itty bitty issue: the plantidote is a water root that grows exclusively on the perimeter of the Koga's wetland territory. Kurojaki and the Dogchompers will be on high alert given the preceding events, so it'll be an especially dangerous mission. This doesn't sway Gin at all, though he is a little worried at the possibility of a scythe being a machine gun.

The other Kishus here, Jinnai and Kirikaze, elect to also come with. And so he four go on the most nerve wracking field trip ever conceived. As they venture forth, Maya picks herself up off the ground, taking advantage of having been forgotten in all the excitement. Despite her flesh wound, a nasty grin spreads across her face. This is too perfect - the leader of the Igas is wandering right into her hubby's domain. She gives her body a rough shake before she stumbles back to the marsh.

While everyone else is running to the swamp, the Ohu dogs are taking their medicine. Smith is the only one well enough to dole out rations and he's having a heck of a time convincing Ben to take his meds. In fact, he isn't making any progress at all, as Ben just bats anything he's given away with a trembling paw. Ben insists in that fatherly tone of his that Smith feed all of the others instead.

Cross, the Kai Bros, and Wilson all try to share their herbs with him, but even as he grows too weak to speak he continues refusing everything he's offered. A single tear rolls down Cross's cheek as Ben's mouth whitens with foam. He meets her tearful gaze as his bloodshot eyes glaze over.

The sun begins to set on this long, dreary day. But hope may be on the horizon yet. Akame and his crew have entered the Koga domain undetected and have located the antidote! They each dive into the pond and yank the roots up, snagging as many plants as they can carry. Gin smiles in relief only to realize that the worst is yet to come. He and the Igas look on around the pond's edge.

The Kogas have soundlessly surrounded our hapless heros. An ugly, crackling laugh taunts them as Kurojaki steps out of the shadows. A bloody-faced Maya stands smugly by his side. Their infant son stands between daddy's front paws and meets Gin's eyes with an innocent, oblivious stare. Kurojaki takes a moment to survey the invaders in the lake. Between his jaws he grasps a sharp, sweeping blade.

----------

Thank you to everyone who waited patiently for this episode! We’re at the point where some of the biggest diversions from canon will start cropping up, so hopefully they’re enjoyable. And holy SHIT they keep getting LONGER

Episode 5: The Beasts

[guesswho-mp3]

[ Slim Shackled Wrists ]

Au: joker!kai x reader | Pairing: character x reader | Warning: manipulation, mention of crime/violence, joker!kai being a sexy mf | Rating: 16+ | Word Count: 1.4k

Her newest patient was unceremoniously dumped in his seat, the guard quick to shackle him to the table. Despite the fact that the cuffs provided ample protection from physical interaction on his part; the guard stood directly behind the newest inmate, hawk eyes daring him to move out of line. “Thank you sir, I can take it over from here, you may leave.”

“You sure, lady? It’s not safe to be alone with this guy. I saw what this psycho did on the news, he’s like a mad dog with rabies,” he warned. A high pitched cackle escaped the clown’s maws, the guard’s face quickly morphing into anger, burning red as he raised his hand in retaliation. “Shut up freak,” the order was punctuated with a firm push to the back of his head, resulting in it nearly smacking the table.

She stood up from your chair at the aggravated abuse. “That’s enough! Do not refer to my patient as a freak, he is here to receive professional help. Unless you want me to write a formal complaint against you, I suggest you go.” The guard scoffed but nonetheless turned towards the exit, the jokester snickering and waving as best he could in his restraints, sing songing bye bye.

“Stuck up bitch, don’t say I didn’t warn ya,” he muttered, shaking his head. With one last glance to the duo he shut the door, the resounding clang echoing in the sterile room and she turned to see the eyes of Gotham’s Most Wanted surveying her. The news had only ever managed to get shots of the back of his head when he was on his rampages, and even then they were always blurry from being captured at night.

Sitting across from him, she felt a weird sense of pride being able to be so up close and personal with the man who had the city on the edge of their seats for the past two months. Still despite his misdeeds there was something undeniably alluring about him. With all her years as a shrink, she felt like she was the one needing help this time with the very unprofessional thoughts poisoning her mind. There was a pull in her gut, something that made you want to stick her hand in the fire just to feel the sweet pain of it licking at her fingertips.

His garish orange jumpsuit seemed to devour him, a far cry from the stocky brutes that frequented Arkham, but she could see the faint outline of lean muscle from underneath the fabric. Emerald green hair and tiny flecks of white face paint around his hairline added to his mysterious and twisted persona. Red rimmed eyes, some fresh purple bruising near his jaw, probably from his scuffle with Batman, that brute. Refined nose. Porcelain cheek bones. Two shallow scars extended outward from his plump lips, giving him the appearance of a smile, how cute—

She cleared your throat. “I apologize for the mistreatment, that was uncalled for. Welcome to Arkham Asylum, we’ll just be doing a quick psychiatric evaluation,” she scanned through her notes, noticing a lot of his general information was blank. “It seems you have no name on file, and I hardly think it’s appropriate to refer to you as Joker. May I call you Mr. J?”

“Fine by me darling, call me whatever you like.”

She nodded, failing to ignore his husky tone and the charming way the pet name fell off his lips. Most patients when they arrived at Arkham were frantic, body trembling and eyes shifting, complaining of hearing voices. But he seemed cool and composed. Normal, even. The clinking of his handcuffs ricocheted off the tiled walls.

“Alright Mr. J. Now, why don’t you tell me what you remember about the incident.”

“Remember? Very dangerous proposition, doctor… Yes, very dangerous ahehe. What, do you want my whole life story? My deepest secrets, my darkest desires? Oh I know I have some that will make your toes curl,” he teased.

She brushed off the insinuation despite how much it made her ache and clicked your pen. “Perhaps the reason that landed you in here? Your childhood? Anything you’re willing to discuss,” she said with a reassuring smile.

He stirred, a switch flipped and he started laughing, half crazed at a joke known only to him. “Childhood? Memory? Yes, I suppose memories are a bit like children. Vile little things. A funny thing though, to reminisce. My father owned a gag shop in the East End. Whoopee cushions, hand buzzers, the whole shebang. A real comic that one, he loved to put smiles on people’s faces.”

“He sounds lovely.”

“He was.”

Her face turned into one of concern, giving into the honey trap. “D-Did something happen?”

He shrugged. “It was a rough part of town. With the murder of those billionaires everybody started getting…desperate. Started stealing stuff, murdering people. As if they were going crazy,” his voice took on a fevered lilt at the last word, hurried and frantic. She remembered what it was like back then, the murder of the Kwons seemed to lure out all the from the monsters from Gotham’s underbelly.

“One night somebody broke in. Daddy went downstairs to investigate and got a knife in the back. Mommy dearest was next, she screamed when she saw the body and he held a knife to her neck while she cried for help.”

He was feral, eyes unhinged as if he were being possessed by the killer. “You know what he said to her? As he held the knife to her? Why the frown, doll? You’d be so much prettier with a smile.” He flopped back into the chair like a marionette with its strings cut, wrath replaced by nonchalance.“ He carved a grin into her face while I watched. Then,” he positioned his thumb underneath his throat and pretended to slice it, making a croaking sound.

A wet gasp came from her. She’d heard her fair share of gruesome backstories but there was something about the image of his younger self; an innocent cherub with rosy cheeks and wide eyes having to be a victim to such violence that she absolutely couldn’t bear. She was horrified with the scenario her imagination painted, unaware to how engrossed he was in watching as a single tear cut its path down her cheek. He licked his lips.

Leaning forward, his eyes rounded, angelic innocence adorning his features. “You know you’re very pretty. Like a doll. Hmmm… My little harlequin.” he giggled. ”May I call you Harley?”

Her head hurt from the whiplash but her stomach, attuned to his remarks, fluttered. “I—

He blew a raspberry through his lips, gaze skipping to and fro across the room. “I can’t remember anything after that. But I was alone.”

“Alone?” A feeling she knew all too well. Her father having kicked her out at a young age, suffering constant neglect from the nuns at the orphanage. Even in college she spent your Friday nights hunched over her studies to earn her Masters rather than hanging out with friends, not that she really had any. He recognized the mourning in her cadence and became resigned.

“Not just physically. It was the sort of loneliness where you have no other option than to throw a ball back and forth against the walls of your own mind. Where every thud reverberates in your empty skull,” he wheezed. “I was spiralling, searching for someone to grasp my hand and show me my purpose in this cesspool of a world. But I finally found someone.” He was gazing directly at her now.

“You have?” She questioned, voice soft. Caring. Hopeful.

“Believe me never did I think I would find this person in such a situation. Where once I was a sole performer I finally found my partner to dance with through the chaos. Take the plunge and share my madness. Though… I’m sure you don’t know what I’m talking about, doc,” he wistfully sighed, interested in the view outside the barred window while still watching her in his periphery.

“Actually,” she shuffled in her seat,” I think I do.” She leaned forward, a movement he caught in the corner of his eye, a smile so wide stretching across his face threatening to split it in two. Mask relaxing into a coy expression, he drummed his fingers on the table.

“You feel a special connection with this person. Like they know you for who you truly are. Almost like it’s fate that brought you together.” He snapped his fingers. “Exactly!”

“Almost like… almost like you’d do anything for them.”

He surged forward, face one of predatory anticipation. “Anything?” She nodded, fingers traipsing over his wrists.

He peered down at his hands and howled with laughter, her own giggles matching his. “I think we’re going to have lots of fun, don’t you,” he pushed her glasses up and twiddled her hair, ”Harley?”

[multi-lia]

If your still doing headcanon of dream daddy how about Hugo finding and helping a Werewolf Robert. If possible 😊🐺

I want to say sorry beforehand because I don’t think I’m the best at writing werewolf AU, but I tried my hardest. I wrote a short story for background on how Hugo found werewolf!Robert and then some headcannons on him taking care of him. I hope that’s okay.

Hugo finding and helping werewolf!Robert

Decided to go with a Robert gif, hope you guys don’t mind.

Hugo wasn’t that close to Robert as he was the other dads in the cul-de-sac, but he knew something was up with him. He just got the nagging feeling, he needed to keep a closer eye on him.

One night, it was late, past 1 a.m. Hugo had been up grading tests and Ernest was in his bedroom hopefully asleep, but mostly likely on his phone. Hugo had happened to be looking out the window to see Robert getting into his car. This became a daily thing and Hugo knew he was out doing something. He wanted to get to the bottom of it. So, he decided to tail his car. It was an 8th wonder of the world how Hugo wasn’t caught by Robert, but he was able to actually see where Robert was going on these night drives and what he was doing

They were in a wooded area. Robert got out of his car and proceeded to walk into the woods. Hugo knew Robert would come out here at times to think or whittle, but couldn’t he just do that in the comfort of his truck. For a minute, Hugo thought of just turning his car around. That was until...

“... what the fuck was that?” Hugo had heard something he could only describe as inhuman.

It sounded like the cross of a human screaming and some sort of howling sound. Yeah, Hugo was sure he had shit himself, he didn’t know what to do. Then he heard a sound akin to a dog whimpering, but the sound was much deeper.

Hugo took a few deep breaths before he grabbed a flashlight from his glovebox and proceeded to get out of his car. This was dangerous, that ‘sound’ could’ve been anything, but he knew Robert was out there and he had to make sure he was okay. So, he set off in the direction that Robert went off in. He had been walking for at least 20 minutes, calling out Robert’s name, but there was no answer. He was about to turn around, figuring Robert had already left, when his flashlight highlighted the crimson substance on one of the trees. It was blood... It took every bit of courage in Hugo not to turn back and run. But he wasn’t only scared for his life, Robert could’ve been out in these woods. He followed the blood trail for around 100 feet until he came across a... body? It was covered in dark, dense body hair akin to fur. But it also had the similar anatomy to a man. A hairy naked bleeding man. It seemed like it was shot through its shoulder and thigh. Most likely the work of a hunter. Hugo then moved the creature onto its back to get a closer look at what it was when...

“Robert? Is that you? No, it can’t be...” his words trailed off.

A face slightly covered in dense fur was turned to him, the features were unmistakably Robert. Hugo immediately lifted the man onto his back. He was heavy, but Hugo knew he had to get him out of here if Robert had any chance of surviving.

Hugo brings the man to his car and lays him out in the backseat. He takes a jacket he had in his car and rips the sleeves off of it to wrap it around Roberts wounds. As he is getting ready to jump in the drivers seat, a hand grabs his wrist. Sharp claws dig into Hugo’s flesh causing him to yelp in pain. He snaps his head in the direction of Robert to see his dark eyes staring up at him.

“Thank you.” His voice is harsh and deep. It sort of comes out as a hushed growl. It’s obvious that Robert is in pain and Hugo knows he needs to get him help. Robert’s clawed hand releases the grip he had on Hugo’s wrist and seemingly passes out. Hugo takes his chance to climb into the drivers seat and get the hell out of there.

~Hugo was frightened and bewildered at the situation he was placed in

~Robert was hurt yes and needed proper medical attention, but...

~Robert obviously wasn’t human, Hugo knew he couldn’t take him to the hospital

~He finally got to the cul-de-sac and was going to pull up into Robert’s driveway when he remembered that he needed a key

~Robert was naked and he doubted his key was anywhere on his person

~That meant...

~Hugo rushed Robert into his house, as quietly as possible to ensure not to alert the attention of Ernest

~He placed him on his bed and turned the lights on to get a better look at him, Robert seemed to still be passed out

~It looked like both the bullets had gone completely through him, meaning that there wasn’t any bullet fragments inside his body

~This was good news, all Hugo needed to do was make sure to stop the bleeding and dress the wounds appropriately to stop any infections

~Once that was done, he placed a blanket over Robert’s body and put some pain medication and a water bottle on the nightstand next to Robert for when he woke up

~Hugo was awake the entire night, watching television didn’t help the unnerving thoughts he was getting

~What if it was a mistake bringing him here? Ernest is only down the hall from Robert. What if he hurts Ernest or him? The anxiety made him sick to his stomach and kept him up all night

~He didn’t even realize how long he had been up until Ernest’s voice brought him out of his thoughts

~“Dad, what are you doing in the living room?”

~It was 7:00, if Hugo wasn’t so damn panicked, he would’ve told his son how proud he was that he got up on time, but he couldn’t say much

~He dropped Ernest off at school and went straight back home. He knew the ladies at the office weren’t going to like his last minute call in sick, but needed to take care of Robert

~When he got back home, he immediately checked up on Robert to see that he looked like he was back to normal

~No fur covering his body, no sharp claws, even the bullet wounds had healed to the point where they were just scratches

~Hugo knew what he had saw, he knew he wasn’t imagining things, but this was absurd

~He couldn’t explain any of it, but he didn’t have time to hypothesize. He ran a bath and put Robert onto his shoulder to get him into the bath

~It was only a few minutes until Robert woke up in the warmth and comfort of a bubble bath

~Hands we’re moving down his heated body rubbing the sweat, dirt, and blood off of him

~It was Hugo, who was doing this for him, rubbing his hands across his body gently to clean him

~Usually Robert wouldn’t be down for this, but his body was too sore and hurt like hell for him to want to fight back

~Plus, Hugo’s hands were comforting and it felt good to have some human contact

~“Robert, you awake?”

~“Yeah.”

~“I was worried about you, so I followed you into the woods. I know it wasn’t right, but I just wanted to know what was going on...” Hugo’s words trailed off as he looked into the eyes of Robert, he gulped, “you were hurt... shot two times. In the shoulder and thigh, but you’re okay now.”

~“Hugo, you don’t need to ask. I know what you’re thinking and you’re right.”

~“I am... you’re a superhero? Like the hulk?”

~“No, you dumbass, I’m a werewolf! For a teacher, you’re a fucking idiot you know that.”

~Hugo sat there stunned, a werewolf

~Robert was a werewolf, a handsome, husky man, but still a werewolf nonetheless!

~“I guess that does make more sense than being the furry version of the Hulk. When were you going to tell me?”

~Now it was Robert’s turn to look at Hugo, shocked

~“Why would I? I’m a fucking werewolf. I can’t just come out the closet as a creature most people don’t even believe exist.”

~Well, Robert was right, but it still didn’t settle well with Hugo. Robert was struggling... alone. He needed support

~“You’re right, but you still need someone you can lean on.”

~They shared a silent moment together. Their eyes staring deeply into each other’s. Robert’s lips parted to say something, but immediately turned his gaze elsewhere.

“Are you going to continue washing me or what?” On that note, Hugo continued to wash Robert’s body.

~Once he was all cleaned, Hugo brought him some pain medication and antibiotics to take. He also rubbed some ointment on his wounds that had healed to mere scratches.

~Hugo helped Robert out of the bath and gave him some clothes to wear.

~“Look, I appreciate you helping me out. You didn’t need to do all this, but you did. I really owe you one.”

~“It’s no problem. I’m happy I was there to find you and take care of you.”

~They shared another silent moment, before Robert laid his head on Hugo’s broad shoulder

~Hugo was a little surprised by this, but allowed Robert to lay there

~He ran his fingers through Robert’s graying hair and kissed the top of his head.

~“Robert, If you ever need help with anything, just call me.”

~Robert let out a soft chuckle, “I know you’ll be there, but I think I’ll be okay. Being what I am, I can’t let you get any closer to me. This is for me to figure out.”

~“You won’t hurt me. I know this is your problem, but—.”

~“I can and will. I mean look at your wrist. I know I did that to you and I could do a lot more. I’ve lived like this for a while, but sometimes I can’t handle my ‘urges.’ I’ll be okay.”

~Hugo takes the time to look at his bandaged wrist. He knew Robert was right.

~He helped Robert up and to the front door.

~“Are you sure—.”

~“Hugo!—” Robert’s face softened when he realized he had raised his voice, “I can walk to my house. You’ve already done enough.”

~And with that, Robert walked out the door and to his house

~Hugo stood there for a second, dazed and questioning if all this even happened

~He just had to trust Robert could take care of himself and was going to be more careful

~There was this odd tug at his heart he felt. Is it possible that he was starting to feel something for this man? Maybe, Robert was feeling the same tug at his heart...

That!Was!A!Lot! But I hope you enjoyed it and thank you for the request. I’m sorry this took so long to get out to you. This definitely tested my creativity and I’m happy you sent in a request like this. Not going to lie @wolf2009 I might make this into a series...

Requests are open✨🌈

~Lia’s Work

[smoothexpression]

@kimberwicke-altr-ego replied to your post “Hi there! I'm looking into dog breeds for a puppy in the nearish...”

This is an amazing write-up, thank you!! I was especially curious about energy/drive levels, house training, and the puppy stage. I'd heard about their tendency to be vocal - are we talking like husky level talking? Would my neighbors hate me? I've read several different websites and breed pages and haven't gotten a good "real person" feel for what they're like.

well i’m glad i touched on a little bit of everything! it is hard to clarify on the energy and drive of collies, because it really can vary from like the low end of medium (such as fox) to the high end of medium (dana). so really the only thing that might give you a solid feel of what to expect from your puppies is talking to your breeder or people who have bought from that breeder before (i highly recommend asking around some collie fb groups! it’s not all good advice, but it’s not half bad for connecting w/ a wide range breeders and their customers!) drive is pretty hard to define, it’s one of those things you just get a feel for when you see it in action. my collies enjoy training, they loooove working for treaties and using their brains, but they don’t really come up to me after a walk whining and begging to go work, but if i go out to the yard w/ the treat pouch they’re both on my ass ready to go.  for house training and the puppy stage i recommend the ebook before and after you get your puppy by ian dunbar, it’s free and it covers house training and socialization. i used a lot of this as well as control unleashed puppy edition for dana’s puppy training, her potty training went really very smoothly. i didn’t have fox as a puppy so when i brought him home at 10 months i basically just let him loose in the house and established a routine he had 2 or 3 accidents before getting accustom to the routine.  and yes. i’m talking husky level talking. they don’t just howl for no reason (for the most part, sometimes fox sleep howls) but they’re very very talkative. they don’t just bark they make a very wide variety of noises, you should check out my /tagged/videos or my insta @ thecolliefiles to see and hear videos of fox and dana playing together. if you’ve desensitized your collies to noises, and put up visual barriers so they can’t see outside, your collies shouldn’t be barking so much your neighbors hate you, pretty much when i’m inside w/ the dogs they only make noise when playing, and outside fox will bark at the fence w/ people pass (which is rarely, we aren’t on the street) but i can recall him away from what he’s barking at, he doesn’t just get ignored so he can do what he pleases (which would be annoying). treat toys and chews help keep collie mouths occupied w/ something other than barking too. teaching a “speak” and “quiet” command will also help. if you don’t exercise, play with, or train your collie, yes, you will end up with a dog that makes your neighbors hate you, but the same could be said of any breed really. it can be hard to get a feel for what collies are like w/o meeting a few of them, and being a rarer breed it can be hard to find some in real life to meet up with. even when i got fox i was surprised by him, he was very undog like, collies have an almost..... sighthound-esque attitude sometimes, a very... stately aloofness, while being so sensitive. they don’t emote quite like other dogs either, it was hard to really get a feeling for what fox was saying with his body language at first, but once you get used to them, it’s amazing how expressive they are.  dana was a whole ‘nother story tho XD she is out there and bold and reads like and open book XD so you can see why i emphasis talking to a breeder and getting to know their dogs! lots of diversity! 

[connors-heart]

to be human: [ch. 3: intoxication and infatuation]

playlist - ch. 1 \ ch. 2 \ ch. 4 \ ch. 5 \ ch. 6 \ ch. 7 \ ch. 8

[ being a DCPD detective, your job was relatively normal - that is until androids came along, more specifically, RK800 ]

pairing ⟶ connor x reader

fandom ⟶ detroit: become human

warnings/a.n. ⟶ [no warnings] ; to be honest this is just some good old fluffy filler with your favorite detective trio, and to be even more honest i wrote the last part of this chapter while i was high so who knows, maybe thc improves my writing ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

w.c. ⟶ 2.2k

tags ⟶  @dragoste-lunes - @swagfeatpayne - @erinacg - @thequirkyn3rd - @the-witch-in-silence - @odd-otter - @randomgrove254 - @johnmulaneyslut - @fanworrior - @sophster1881 - @wowowokapowie - @glyxiebear - @snooper1 - @nefelislytherinpride

“Connor, I’ve been waiting to speak with you,”

The android recognized the voice to be none other than Amanda, both her and the surrounding garden beginning to generate through his mind. “Hello, Amanda,” he greeted. She faced away from him, snipping away decaying roses from the garden’s lattice panel, “What process has been made on the deviancy cases?”

“We’ve begun to understand the concept of a majority of the deviants. Most cases tend to follow the same pattern of abuse and shock from humans, leading the androids to become corrupt,”

Amanda nodded, a moment passing before she turned to face Connor. “And what about you?”

A look of uncertainty fell upon Connor’s face, “What do you mean?”

The woman clasped her hands in front of her, treading toward him, “There’s been an instability in your software,” she began, “Something has changed in you, Connor,”

He blinked, “There’s a new detective working alongside Lieutenant Anderson and I. She empathizes for the androids, and…”

Amanda’s features became bitter as Connor trailed off. “And… I get an unfamiliar feeling when I’m around her. I’ve never felt it before, and it only happens when I’m near her, it doesn’t occur when I’m near anyone else,” he explained.

He watched as Amanda turned away from him, beginning to pace slowly in thought. Connor stepped forward, “Do you understand why this is happening?” he asked. She stopped in her tracks, turning once again to face him.

“She’s a distraction,” she spat, “she is not needed on this case,”

“She’s a great detective - one among the best in Michigan-”

“Connor.”

He sank back into place, biting his tongue as Amanda approached him once again. “I want to hear nothing of this feeling, nor this girl ever again. You exist and serve for only one purpose and that is to solve this mission, and only that alone. Do I make myself clear?” she growled.

Connor pushed down the growing feeling of doubt in his stomach, nodding in response, “Yes, Amanda,”

______

“Alright, I’ve been meaning to ask you this for a while,” you spoke through a mouthful of pizza, “Sinatra, Coltrane, or Simone?”

Hank groaned, “Jesus Christ… I’m gonna have to settle for Coltrane… maybe Sinatra,”

“Wow, Hank,” a clear look of judgement crossed your features. The older man threw his hands up across from you, “What?” he asked defensively, drawing out the word for effect.

“Nina Simone was amazing, c’mon,” you rebutted, leaning back into your chair. The two of you sat at his kitchen table, the police reports you’d been focused on for ten minutes now discarded beneath two boxes of pizza - which really, could’ve been just one pizza, if not for the fact that Hank refused to do half and half since he ‘didn’t want any fuckin’ pineapple in contact with any pizza he was eating.’

“Well of-fuckin’-course genius, but she doesn’t stand a chance against Sinatra or Coltrane,” he explained, taking a bite from his pizza.

Before you could go to counter that statement, the doorbell rang out, and alongside came both Cleo and Sumo barking and howling. You and Hank traded looks before he stood up to answer it as you went to distract the dogs with slices of pepperoni.

The door closed swiftly as Hank trudged back in, Connor at his side, “Well, look who decided to crash the party - Jesus, fuck, stop feeding that dog,” A guilty look crossed your face as you looked, Sumo snatching a final piece of pepperoni from your fingers, “Hey, Connor,” you offered him a smile, avoiding Hank’s glare.

“Hello, detective,” he replied as he took a seat next to you at the table.

“Well make yourself at home, asshole,” Hank mumbled, taking his seat as well.

“I was informed by Fowler that you two were going over the deviant files, correct?”

You and Hank traded glances, looking down at the scattered files beneath your pizza and beer bottles before looking back over at Connor, “Kind of,”

The android nodded, picking up the pizza boxes as he gathered the files. Before Connor could be met with the oncoming insults from Hank’s mouth, you stopped him, “How about we just relax for a bit, we’ve got all night to handle the files,” you suggested.

“I recommend going through these files as soon as possible, otherwise the likelihood of them being analyzed will decrease-”

“Please, Connor?”

Giving him a hopeful smile, he stared at you for a moment, before nodding and setting the files down. Hank sighed, taking a gulp from his beer, “I’m convinced this android would literally run into busy traffic for you,” he teased.

You scoffed, “Maybe, just maybe, being nice to androids couldn’t kill you and the rest of the world,”

Hank shrugged, “Maybe, maybe not,”

Shaking your head with a laugh, you turned your attention to Connor, finding him to be watching Cleo intently as the husky sniffed his pants and shoes. “By the way, what ever happened to you back at the cafe?” you asked curiously.

His gaze shot back up at you, “Nothing,”

You raised a brow suspectedly, “What happened at the cafe?” Hank asked.

“He just… froze? Kind of like when a computer buffers when you give it too many commands at once,” you answered.

Hank nodded slowly, eyeing Connor momentarily, “huh,”

“I assure you it was nothing, I was just, processing data,” the android refuted.

Both you and Hank nodded along, “Yeah, okay,”

A beat of silence passed before Hank exhaled as he stood, “I think this night calls for a drinking game,” he called out as he rummaged through his fridge.

“Don’t we work tomorrow, Hank?” you questioned as he slammed the fridge door, plucking two shot glasses from the cupboard.

He looked over his shoulder at you, curling his lip, “No one said we were getting Drunk,”

Connor watched as Hank slammed a glass in front of you and himself, the two of you bickering back and forth. A sigh left your mouth, “If I show up to work tomorrow hungover, I swear to God I’m going to kill you the first chance I get,” you spat as he filled your glass with whiskey.

A concerned look crossed Connor’s face as he watched as you and Hank continued to fill your glasses after several shots. He watched as you threw the shot glass back, grimacing once again as the alcohol stung your throat. Your name passed his lips warrily, “It wouldn’t be in your best bet to drink so much, as small as you are, your Blood Alcohol Content will cause extreme impairment,”

You stared at him through glazed eyes as Hank laughed, “Ha! he called you a fuckin’ lightweight,”

“I think I’ll be just fine, thank you,” you slurred, holding out your glass for Hank to refill. Connor sighed as he looked between the two of you, watching as you knocked back countless drinks.

Of course, it was barely a challenge to Hank and his developed tolerance, but as for you, not much could be said in your defense. “Do me a favor, and get her home safe tonight,” Hank spoke under his breath to Connor, watching as you laid on the floor, cooing Sumo and Cleo.

Connor nodded, “I will,”

He walked over, kneeling next to you, “Are you okay, Detective?”

You looked up at him, “Fan-tastic,” you muttered.

______

Connor whistled, beckoning Cleo to come out of the car as the two of you arrived at your house. “I just realized, we didn’t get through any of those cases except for like two,” you tiredly spoke as you exited the car, dragging your feet along the pavement as you wiped at your eyes.

“That’s alright, we’ve got all day tomorrow to work on them,” Connor reassured, helping you make your way to the porch. “Why do I have so many keys?” you mumbled before dropping your key chain clumsily. Before you could, Connor picked them up, picking the one that looked the most appropriate and unlocking the door.

“Thanks for being helpful, I appreciate it a lot,” you smiled up at him as he closed the door behind him, turning on the lights.

And there was the all too familiar feeling, shooting up Connor’s spine almost like electricity. He studied every aspect of you there was, from your disheveled hair to your bloodshot eyes - and you were still perfect.

Leading you to your room, Connor watched as you slumped onto your bed. “I’m gonna go get you a glass of water.” He took your mumble of a reply as an okay, before making his way to the kitchen, Cleo at his heels.

Until the past day or two, Connor wasn’t necessarily conscious of anything beyond his mission, which had made it even more questionable when he experienced whatever he was experiencing. He was beginning to no longer wonder why, but what if. What if these feelings had a purpose? If he genuinely wasn’t malfunctioning but feeling something? It was growing to be something he felt he didn’t want to push away or aside.

Walking back to your room, he kneeled beside your bed, shaking you out of your drowsed state as he murmured your name. You groaned, squeezing your eyes shut, “Connor. I love you, but you’re being unnecessarily loud right now,”

It felt like every single processor he had abruptly stopped working, the various thoughts running through his head suddenly stopping in their tracks. It couldn’t have meant anything, it was just a figure of speech, obviously. But whatever it was, the feeling, went through the roof, at the sound of you saying you loved him.

He blinked, “...what?”

“Do you ever run out of batteries? Or is there a power button I can press because I really need to get some sleep-”

Connor shook his head frantically, setting the glass next to your bed as he stood, “Sorry, of course,”

You watched as he began to make his way to the door, “Wait,” you called out.

The android stopped in his tracks, turning to face you immediately. “You should stay. If you can anyway, I mean, I don’t know, unless you go back to Cyberlife and charge for the night or something,”

He stood in silence for a moment before nodding, “Okay,”

The two of you stared at each other, Connor standing in the doorway before you caught on, “You can sit in the bed Connor, it’s fine,”

He nodded once again before walking to the bed, resting against the bedframe as he sat down. Turning the lights off, Cleo jumped into the bed as well, resting at your feet. Connor looked through out the room silently, analyzing the polaroids that hung above your dresser. He realized they were pictures of family and friends, recognizing one of them to be a candid shot of Cleo and Sumo lying next to one another on Hank’s couch, and another being Hank with a colorful cone on his head that read ‘birthday boy,’ a candle lit cake in front of him while his signature annoyed look rested upon his aged features.

His mind wandered back to the apparent feeling that rested in his chest. Even being the best model Cyberlife had ever created, it was difficult to dictate just what this feeling was. Thus far, the most he knew was whatever it was, it was clear it was only in response to you, and only responded upon gestures of kindness and ‘affection’ from you.

Connor had only felt it to be at its strongest twice, the first time when you’d held his hand, and the second only minutes before when you said you ‘loved’ him. He wondered if humans could feel it, knowing the wide variety of feelings humans had. Then came the question of what characteristics this feeling brought.

He knew it was a feeling of infatuation, desire, maybe even a need to care for you. He also recognized this feeling to be what some human’s felt towards one another.

Love.

Connor stopped, looking down to see you lying toward him, the blue hue from his jacket illuminating the soft, peaceful features of your face.

And he felt it again. He felt love.

His jaw fell, his lips parting slightly as he finally recognized what this was. It was no longer a feeling, but an emotion, and quite possibly the strongest of them all. A wave of denial washed over him as the dreaded words from Amanda rang through his head.

You exist and serve for only one purpose and that is to solve this mission, and only that alone.

Did this feeling, this emotion, make him a deviant? It was a question that became too noisy in his own head, a question that he didn’t want to confront just yet. But the possibility of loving you became something he just may have been ready to face.

[madamrogersstorytelling]

For your drabblr day, number 6 with Sirius woukd be awesome please. Thank you sweetheart 😙

You don’t even know how much I laughed when I read your request! I love this! Oh my, Sirius… And it took me a while to recover from that and actually start to write this haha. I also did this on mobile, so that’s why this looks funny.

Thank you for your request! I hope you like this!

I got a bit carried away and this is not what it was supposed to be, whops.

6. “Is there a reason you’re naked in my bed?”

Shortly after graduating from Hogwarts, you had moved to your own place in order to go after your dreams. The second you had figured out what you actually wanted to do in the world, you knew you were ready to work for it.

Going after your dreams wasn’t meant to mean this one certain black-haired boy who had practically moved in with you. His explanation was mostly just meaningless mumbling against the comfy pillow you loved but he always stole or running around and barking happily.

You had started to form your very own conclusions from all those pieces he gave you. No way in honor of your Patronus, you were not going to tell him anything. It was nice to have him there; his embrace was always open for you, he knew exactly what to say to make you laugh after a hard day or just because, you loved him even when he was being a bit annoying. His animagus form was nice to have around as well. People complimented you about your dog when you were walking down the streets. When you got home, Sirius would burst out into a loud laughter, which sounded like howling for the most part, and it didn’t end easily.

He was also very distracting, sensual and that kind of a man who knew exactly what to do to get your skin heated and your cheeks turn red. Benefits of being a boyfriend of a few years; he had learned to know you from your toes to the top of your head, from the bottom of your heart to the most clever brain he had ever known.

And then there were his habits. His habits of showing his love, want, guilt, frustration… Sirius Black had a very rich scale of emotions and his way of showing them was even richer.

You understood Remus. He had told you Sirius would be hard to handle. Not in the most obvious way possible, but yeah. Sometimes he was moody. And always very good at getting what he wanted.

You came home that day feeling light and happy and a bit silly, but you had finally succeeded in something you had struggled for months with. When you had been walking down the street, you had started to giggle randomly and some older people had looked at you. Let them look, no one could take away this proud feeling. You had to tell Sirius. He was always cheering you, always telling you you were going to succeed.

But what you found wasn’t exactly what you had been waiting for.

You had called his name from the door, and his answer came from your bedroom. For a second you wondered why from there but your brain figured out he had been bored and was just giving himself a tour.

But no.

”Sirius, I did it! I…”

You never ended the sentence. He was laying on your bed against the headboard without anything you could call clothes. He had nothing on, except this shitty grin he always had when he knew he caught you.

Because yes, your cheeks were turning hotter. And you were babbling a bit.

”Oh, come on, Y/N. You’ve seen me naked before,” he said with a teasing tone. It was true but you never had seen him naked like this.

”Is… Is there a reason you’re naked in my bed?” you managed to form an understandable sentence. You had hard time not to let your eyes roam against his body. It felt even harder than the task of the day.

”Yes, there’s always a reason why I’m naked in front of you,” he let out a laughter in the middle of his sentence. He moved a bit, the covers were rustling, and you killed a swallow. ”I thought I would reward you.”

”Reward me?” your cheeks were even more red now if it was possible.

”It was obvious you’d do it. And I thought you earn a reward. I’m proud of you,” the last sentence came slowly, the rustling of the covers was like a tune behind it, and Sirius got up. When he stood in front of you, looked right into your eyes, let his tongue wet his lips.

”Thank you,” your voice was turning husky, but so was his.

”I knew you’d do it. You have the most clever brain I know.”

He had you on the bed and under his body faster than you were able to process it. But you processed the kiss he gave you and dived in deeper, deeper, always deeper until you heard Sirius’ animalistic groan. You even felt it.

”Slow down, this is supposed to be from me to you, not the other way around.”

”You’re quite slow,” you said.

He had this grin again. The grin. ”I was just getting started.”

[wakandasoldier]

Waters of Chaos [Chapter 1 / ?]

[ Read The Prologue ]

Pairing: Horus!Killmonger x Reader

Warning(s): Explicit Language, Mild Violence, Sexual Reference and Suggestive Themes.

Word Count: 4.4k+

A/N: I have been waiting for this moment for a long time and it has finally come! I hope you enjoy this series to come! x. T

Your name: submit What is this?

Chapter One

Present Day  |  Cincinnati Zoo, Ohio

     “Need one of these?”

     Your bleary eyes blinked slowly at the foam cup thrust in front of you, the gears in your head churning until they clicked into place once you inhaled the steam that told you it was coffee. Gently taking the offering from the younger girl who didn’t seem fazed by your lack of response, you sipped from the scalding liquid to immediately wake yourself up. The girl was appalled as your eyes welled with tears.

     “It helps me focus,” you managed through the pain.

     The zookeeper staff room was filled with people much like you; tired and wishing the park manager standing in front of everyone would stop talking so they could check their schedules. It wasn’t long before you all were released from debriefing and you shuffled behind the girl who offered you coffee towards the bulletin board. As people trickled away to go care for the animals, you scanned for the paper marked with ‘Africa’ and found your name with “no special requirements” typed beside it, which induced a quiet huff before you headed out to just another day on the job.

     You always chose to traverse the empty paths that would be filled with guests in a few hours’ time, taking that elongated moment to let the setting sink into your mind with a slight smile on your lips. The zoo was never more alive than it was at dawn as the creatures awoke to spread their symphony; birds chirping and screeching, the elephants trumpeting distantly, wolves and painted dogs howling, and the monkeys hooting and hollering. You also enjoyed the beauty of the sky over your head as the sun painted a tapestry of lavender and pink that melted into a deepening orange that all dispersed into the tell-tale pale blue.

     The sky was always orange when you stepped out of the small building that you nicknamed the ‘House of Lions’, the scent of raw meat and blood clinging to your uniform from feeding the lazy beasts, but you had become immune after doing it for five years. The next task you had, after relocating the lions into a smaller part of the exhibit, was to clean the main enclosure and that smell was far worse than meat.

     You ran your aching tongue over your teeth as you walked to retrieve a wheelbarrow and shovel, wincing at the pain that blossomed from doing so and cursing to yourself, before stopping in your tracks when you realized you had seen something in your peripheral vision. With a slightly furrowed brow, you turned to only lay eyes on an empty bench that was nothing out of the ordinary and you figured it was the early morning light playing tricks on you.

     The more you kept going the more your skin crawled with the notion that someone was watching you, but every time you glanced back there was nobody but yourself in the vicinity. It was terrifying and strange and frustrating all at once, yet you couldn’t allow yourself to believe that maybe it was something of the paranormal trailing after you which would explain a lot, but this felt real in a way you couldn’t reason.

     Quickening your steps, you repeated the mantra that you would be safe inside your head and zeroed in on the door concealed among a display that conjoined with the Giraffe Exhibit. That was safety and the brush of hot air on your back forced you into a sprint as you snatched up your key card and shoved it into the reader, your heart racing in your chest as the lock flashed green for you to open the door, and you yanked it open far enough for you to slip inside and slam it closed.

     You were gasping for breath and hunched over your knees, attempting to regain composure now that you weren’t in the open and within the safety of a tool shed. Now that you were unreachable from whatever you felt out there, you stood up with a sigh of relief and pivoted to head down the hall to only see a figure blocking your view and with a yelp that was silenced by an arm shooting forward to clamp a warm-calloused hand over your mouth, you met the impossibly golden eyes that burned into your own.

     When you came to, you took a moment to clear the blurriness from your gaze and blink slowly up at the ceiling before what had happened came rushing back like floodwaters after a snow melt. You ignored the muddy feeling between your ears and shot upright, clinging to the leather of your couch as if it would anchor you amid the panic that made the blood in your veins turn to ice. You were in your house, which is definitely not the zoo--where you were supposed to be--and you moved to get up only to freeze at the sound of heavy footfalls descending the stairs.

     You took too long thinking about what you should do and when you reacted, your kidnapper ducked out of the way of the book you swung at his head.

     “Hey! What the fuck!?” He barked out. He raised his hands up and slightly cowered in case you tried to whack him again, but for the most part you attempted to kill him with your eyes since he was too muscular and probably too practiced for you to overcome with a hardcover.

     “Who the fuck are you?!” you snapped.

     He took a step back and carefully lowered his hands to his sides, his gold eyes gleaming with caution, but the corner of his lips curled up into a smug smirk. “I’m Hor--,” he hesitated for a fraction of a second and smoothly recovered, “Erik. I’m Erik and yes, I kidnapped you from the zoo.”

     “Erik,” you echoed tentatively.

     Erik nodded slowly and relaxed further, his broad shoulders losing tension beneath the fabric of his red long-sleeve, and you lowered the copy of the ‘Book of the Dead’ in your hands. The breathtaking gaze of your kidnapper flickered to the book and he snorted, “Nice choice of weapon.”

     You looked at the cover and found why he was amused by it, but you were slightly astounded that this had found its way off the bookshelf in your office seeing as it was a keepsake passed down from the women in your family. Understanding this was the least of your worries at the moment, you looked at Erik who hadn’t moved from his place in the slightest and raised a brow.

     “What kind of kidnapper takes someone to their own house?”

     Erik shrugged, “You fainted the first time you saw me and I didn’t want you to freak out again, which obviously didn’t work too well, so here we are.”

     “Huh,” you retorted, “so you knew where I lived and decided talking to me inside my house would be a lot better than at the zoo… I-I don’t even know what to think, like I don’t know you! How the hell do you know where I live?! How did you even get in here?!”

     Erik’s gaze flashed with frustration and his jaw flexed as he grit his teeth, sending a spike of fear up your spine before you closed your eyes and inhaled deeply. You exhaled slowly and murmured, “I’m dreaming. It’s a really vivid dream but I’m asleep and none of this is real.” You kept repeating the words under your breath to ease your racing heart.

     Then, a pair of warm hands gently grasped your arms and your eyelids shot open to find Erik in a dangerously close proximity with his nearly glowing gaze boring into yours. The dreads of his dark hair having fallen over his brow but you were completely captured by the heat radiating off his chiseled form and the sheer beauty of the gold that swirled around his pupils like a sandstorm illuminated by the sun.

     He took the chance of your enraptured state and whispered, “With the power within me, I send this maiden foretold by the stars into a slumber that will erase her memory of my presence and any of what happened between us in the waking world.” Your eyelids drooped and he added, “May Nephthys guide you, Y/N.”

     You could only muster a soft whimper as your body failed to keep you awake. You fought the urge to give in for as long as you could and Erik caught you when your eyes no longer obeyed your struggle to keep them open, your consciousness quickly slipping away into the unknown as you sagged in his grasp.

     The world around you faded eventually from black to muted colors that bled into a landscape you found magnificent; one you could touch, smell, and likely taste. You were in a savanna of tall grasses, the dark earth cold beneath your bare toes and the soft breeze gliding over your skin to rustle the undergrowth and the nearby acacia trees’ leaves, so when you breathed in, the fresh scent of the wilderness filled your lungs and ignited a foreign feeling of comfort in your soul.

     Everything seemed endless, including the expanse of the inky sky above that appeared as if there was almost every star in the universe collected in the constellations you now gazed at. The sharp curve of the crescent moon shimmered the largest you’ve seen it and if you dared, you may be even to reach up and touch it.

     “This is amazing,” you marveled, stepping forward to finally approach the tall acacia tree to your left and press your hand to its trunk. The rough bark dug into your palm, almost vibrating beneath your touch, but you sprang away when a husky voice split the ambient night.

     “Quite the place you dreamed up here.”

     A dark-skinned man wearing a simple red long-sleeve with black dress pants and matching oxfords weaved through the grasses with his hands in his pockets. He was one of the most attractive men you’ve ever seen, his build toned with muscle with the outline of hundreds of bumps tracing over his torso and shoulders beneath his shirt, and a dazzling smile spread from his full lips when he caught you gawking.

     “Enjoying the view?” The handsome stranger chuckled and paused a few feet away, his glowing eyes not just gleaming with their brilliant color, but mirth as well.

     A squeak was all you could manage and you ducked your head in embarrassment, clearing your throat and managing to say, “I just--I wasn’t really expecting..? Uh.. How do I say it?” You traced your right ear in nervousness as you formulated your jumbled thoughts. “I wasn’t expecting everything to be so real? Even--Even you are like an actual person in my dream. This is--It’s so strange.”

     You gazed around at your beautiful surroundings, clutching your hand close to your neck and feeling your rapid pulse, still in awe at how aware you were of this being a dream. Your dream stranger drew closer, taking slow steps and pulling his hands from his pockets, and as you allowed yourself to take a seat in the dirt, you recognized the extreme caution in his movements and his over-attentiveness towards his own body language.

     The soft vibrations of the acacia tree coming from it before were now absorbed through your spine and ignited that comforting warmth in your veins, the bark biting through the fabric of your white t-shirt. You stayed quiet as your stranger appeared to hesitate, a grimace crossing his face as fast as it appeared, before he sank down next to you into the dirt.

     “Y’know, I don’t normally do this,” he said, staring out across the moonlit savanna with his thin brows furrowed.

     You cocked your head. “Do what?”

     “Take time away from much more important things to visit a mortal woman.”

     You didn’t know if you should be flattered or offended. You now understood why he was so aware of his actions when he first showed up and with the undertone of arrogance in his words, he had begun to rub you the wrong way as well as pique your curiosity.

     “So, what does that make you?” He looked at you, seeming confused by your words, but you couldn’t dare tear your eyes away from him even with the intensity of golden gaze. “If I’m a mortal,” you rephrased, “then what are you?”

     The stranger turned away and his black hair--that had been styled into dreadlocks--fell over his brow, which forced him to flick the strands out of his face with a simple toss of his head. You noted how he was thinking too much on his answer and you couldn’t bring yourself to reach out and touch him, as much as your being yearned to be nearer so you stayed still in anticipation.

     After the silence seemed to reach its two-minute mark, he finally answered, “Immortal.”

    You scoffed.

     “What? Like a god?” Your sarcasm laced your words.

     The “immortal” remained deadpan. “Yeah, like a god.”

     You wouldn’t believe him one bit. “Alright, then show me your godly powers.”

     “Fine,” he said. He rose to his feet with ease and brushed the earth off his pants, walking a few yards away before tilting his head up to the sky, slightly splaying his palms out in front of him.

     Nothing was happening as you sat and watched him just stand there, until a strange heat began to build in the air around you. A blistering breeze then brushed against your cheeks, carrying the whispers of a foreign and ancient language, before it grew more intense as a wind gathered and began to swirl around you and seemingly leave the stranger undisturbed. The whispers had turned into voices that echoed phrases as the whirlwind now whipped at your basic clothing and stung your skin. You were forced to shield your face as you braced against the earth, trying to catch a glimpse of the figure who was enveloped in the harsh layers of the sudden sandstorm. You squeezed your eyes shut as the tornado that carried the chanting overwhelmed your senses and became too much to bear, you anticipated the moment you would be ripped into the air and torn to pieces by the biting sands, but it never came.

     Everything stopped all at once.

     Your ragged breaths were the only thing piercing the gaping silence and you cracked your eyes open, blinking away the sand that clung to your lashes, and wiping the grit off your lips. When you looked to where the stranger had been standing, you gasped when you saw something else.

     A god now stood in his place.

     The tall, gold double-bladed pike in his hand was giving off a dazzling ruby light from a massive gemstone emblazoned to the base of each spear-head. His exposed upper body was laced in rows of tribal scars, appearing as bumps that covered his nearly glowing brown skin, before stopping below his navel. Golden bracers detailed with gems of every color and the head of a falcon clung to his forearms, a Usekh collar of gold and turquoise beads extended around his neck and the base of his shoulders, a white wrapped-linen skirt fashioned his toned thighs, a triple crown of gold designed to be the gaping beak of a falcon with glaring ruby eyes framed his smirking face and bearded jaw with the outline of jagged feathers, and with the man who you had spoken with dripping in gold and Egyptian garb, he looked nothing less of divine.

     “Do you believe me now?” He called out to you.

     You could only nod as you drank in the sight of him. Convincing yourself to stand up, you approached him in sheer wonder using your feet sluggishly to cross the distance. His mouth was curled into a smug smile when you halted just out of reach and asked, “Who--Who are you?”

     “I am Horus,” his chin lifted in pride, “son of Osiris, Beholder of the All-Seeing Eye, Protector of Egypt, and the God of War,” he listed, his husky voice taking on the assurance of power as he peered at you. He then added, “There’s a few more but I’ll save you the time.”

     You cracked a smile and marveled at how you read and learned about the Egyptian Gods throughout your life, but you never thought to be standing and talking with one in your dreams. Horus radiated a natural warmth that just begged to draw you in and encapsulate you in promises of safety and escape, a quality that came with being immortal, apparently. You tried to focus on the fact he had to summon a massive sandstorm to put on fancy clothing in a feeble attempt to resist the allure of his form, which could be deemed a little dramatic when you thought on it.

     “Was it necessary to have all the sand and weird voices?”

     Horus shrugged. “I was just feelin’ it.” He retracted his hand from the illuminating pike and folded his arms over his scarred chest, gesturing at your disheveled self. “Do you not like sand getting everywhere?”

     You glanced at the pike that was just hovering in the air and brushed at your encrusted arms. “I don’t, in fact, like sand getting in every crevice of my body. Especially in places it isn’t supposed to,” you retorted.

     His golden eyes flickered down and you gaped at the god, “I wasn’t talking about that! I meant my mouth, you imbecile.”

     Horus’s brows shot up and he chuckled, “Already insulting a god? I could have your eyes gouged for that.”

     A chill ran up your spine at the realization he had the power to do anything to you if you wronged him and you muttered an apology, knowing he wouldn’t actually do harm to you. The fear remained, though.

     “Don’t worry, you have yet to feel my wrath,” Horus reassured darkly, before picking up his pike and moving past you to where you both had once been sitting. His movements weren’t stiff anymore and he seemed more sure of himself, something apparently only gold and jewels can do to a god.

     “You trying to reassure me is terrifying,” you said, trailing after him. “When is the last time you talked to a… mortal?”

     Horus tread beyond the acacia tree and kept walking across the night-lit earth, his pike haloing him in a red glow and leaving you in near darkness. You picked up your pace just as he replied, “There’s a first for everybody.”

     Surprise splayed over your face, but only the reflection of yourself in his helmet was there to see. With a slight smile pulling at your lips, you impishly remarked, “So, I took your mortal virginity.”

     The scarred muscles in his back visibly pulled taut and he waved his free-hand dismissively, his tone of voice being betrayed by his own body language, “If you wanna call it that, then sure.”

     You chewed on the inside of your lip to refrain from grinning and shoved down the laughter that left your chest tight, but you didn’t make a peep. The air was instead filled with the collective noises of you both trekking on an unseen path, the chatter of crickets, and the rustle of the long grasses in the stifling breeze. Horus was not one to talk to just make conversation, you concluded after a few failed attempts of trying to speak with the Egyptian God, and so you dropped further back and ran your fingertips over the tops of the brush.

     Something glittered in your periphery and you halted, sweeping the landscape to find where you had seen it. Once you were about to give up, a flash of silver came from a pair of boulders that jutted from the black dirt and you glanced at Horus’s ever-distancing form then back toward the rocks-- you reasoned that you could only experience this situation once in your life, so you ventured off the invisible trail and to whatever awaited.

     Just as you were close enough to touch the stone, a gust of sweltering heat blasted you from your left and a golden gleam sliced before your face; halting you in your tracks. A wave of panic washed over you to only recede back once Horus’s glaring eyes were met by your own startled ones.

     “What do you think you’re doing?!” he snarled, bringing the blade of his pike closer to your throat.

     You swallowed thickly and stared at the weapon that threatened your life, simply unable to find the courage to speak as every muscle in your body was tense in terror. Horus did a double-take at what he was doing and swung the pike away from you before plunging it into the shadowed ground with a flick of his arm, exhaling loudly in vexation as the anger drained from his expression.

     “You can’t just--,” he sighed and spoke gentler, “Look, this place is dangerous for someone like you and I’m your best shot for keepin’ you safe, so unless you have a death wish, I suggest you stick with me--the god, okay?”

     “Y-You were about to kill me, though!” you stammered, clutching yourself.

     Horus pulled a face. “I had to get you to stop.”

     “By almost cutting open my throat?” Your voice began to rise, “I think I’d prefer it if-if Osiris--” You were cut off by his finger being pressed against your lips and his gold eyes narrowing.

     “You can’t just throw around the names of the Gods,” he hissed, obviously you saying the name of his father having struck a chord.

     You grabbed his hand and pushed it away from your face, the craving in the back of your mind igniting again at the exchange and it left your skin tingling after you were no longer in contact with him. You searched his expression, but Horus displayed no sign he had experienced the same and your emotions simmered down when he remained quiet, the tension in the air thinning.

     “Sorry,” you retorted, “I’m not exactly from around wherever this is and somebody hasn’t bothered to hop off their high horse and explain anything.”

     Horus’s fingers curled around the shaft of his pike and his gaze drifted away from you, his nostrils flaring as he huffed and gave in to the meaning behind your accusation. “Alright, I’ll start talking if you stay beside me this time,” he bargained.

     “And no more waving around your deadly stick.”

     Horus tugged the weapon out of the dirt and dropped it, but before it hit the ground the whole thing vanished into sand which simultaneously amazed you and also reminded you of how much actually still clung to your clothing and skin. You were satisfied the god complied to your demands, for the most part, and you said, “Looks like we have a deal, Horus.”

     He nodded and you started on the way back to the path he had been blazing, managing to hear him say, “Mortals are insulting.”

     You never looked behind you to witness how he swept over the boulders with his gaze, his hand extending to disappear inside the rock and retract to unveil a silver fang that shone in his palm, and with a glance back at where you were working your way through the grass, he created it into a thin necklace.

     Sand fell out of his clenched fist and his fingers unfurled to have a delicate gold chain fashioned to the tooth; he looped it around the exposed part of his wrist and caught up to where you waited for the god.

     The trek was much more enjoyable this time around and Horus kept true to his word, his answers were direct and mostly confusing at times, but you gained a decent amount of knowledge of the world around you and the Egyptian gods themselves. And history books don’t compare to the truth.

     You were walking in the Kingdoms of the Gods, specifically the outer wilderness of the True Heliopolis that was home to Amun-Ra and Horus, and the god said the city made even the most beautiful thing from the mortal world look ugly.

     Horus even told of his own story; how he was the child of Osiris and Isis, but Isis had gone missing after his birth and Osiris was killed by his uncle Seth so he was raised by Amun-Ra. He fought against Seth for centuries, acquiring the ceremonial and battle scars lacing his brown skin, and it all stopped when Amun-Ra seized the fighting to lay down the Laws of Power. Horus now only wasted his immortal life hunting, drinking, and seducing the women who devoted their souls in his service to repay the deeds that left their hearts heavier than the Feather of Justice.

     You could sense the hunger and anger inside of the god who fought for millennium against the killer of his parents to only be restrained by the King of the Gods as he spoke, but what confused you the most was how you ended up here with Horus. He claimed he had no idea, but you knew he was lying straight to your face. Horus knew everything; every possibility, every path, every action that had and would take place in all of creation. To frankly not know why you now stood beside him was not a mystery, but a secret he knew and that spoke more than the concealed truth could.

     Your journey ended atop the edge of a cliff face that overlooked the Desert of Dreams, the sun just rising from the sands as morning arrived in the heavens, and Horus’s golden eyes rested on you instead of the view.

     You turned to him and smiled warmly, extending your hand out between you for him to catch on and grasp your fingers firmly, the warmth of his dark skin seeping into your body and heating your veins as you briefly shook hands. You both retracted and stared out at the magnificent desert.

     “Thank you, Horus,” you said. “I will never forget how you tried to kill me.”

     The god could only watch as you closed your eyes and faded from his sight, your presence erased from the astral plane and leaving a memory in his mind of the apparent kidnapping he had done and also the eventful night he shared with Bastet’s successor, but most of all it left behind a peculiar tingling feeling in his hand and an amused grin on his face.

     Horus knew everything, that was true, but he did not know everything when it came to the fiery mortal who he did--for the most part--almost kill.

Tags: @pleasecallmecaptain, @sighodinson, @kingcarterprince, @anakin-skywalkers, @steampunkprincess147, @irenelove83, @carioquisse, @doodlemcfly, @somethingwickedthiswaylives, @marvelavengings, @desertrose-saku, @hisaeanzu, @xxdarkdarlingxx, @honestly-how-do-you-art, @aaron-is-a-pan, @royalpersianprince, @jacelynenursalim, @radrouda, @niluith-moonlady, @somethingwitty-somethingsweet, @sinnamonpeaches, @selmasemlan, @rkoleff, @staygoldsquatchling02, @thorodinsvn, @theavengers-trash, @here-for-your-bullshit, @fandamad, @hells-princess, and @lets-imagine-marvel.

[silverfootstepswrites]

Butterfly [34]

summary Bright days

“Where’s Uchiha?” asked Kiba, settling on the sofa. He leaned forward to open up a bag of potato chips. The crinkling drew Akamaru’s attention. He wandered over, tail wagging. 

“Just one,” Kiba warned before he fed Akamaru a chip. LIke he wasn’t going to keep feeding him throughout the night. And Akamaru seemed to know this as he chomped it down. 

“Said he had some family matters, I think,” Sakura replied, checking her phone. She nudged Shikamaru with her foot. He grunted in response. 

“Man, I can’t believe it’s November already. And it’s still so hot,” sighed Sakura. She fanned herself with her hand. Holding a chip in his mouth, Kiba swiped the remote off the coffee table. He reached it back to turn on the air conditioner. Popping open a beer, he handed it off to her. 

“Actually, it’s almost December,” Kiba pointed out once he finished eating his potato chip. 

Shikamaru grunted again, rolling onto his front. A throw pillow hugged to his chest. 

“What’s up with you?” asked Sakura, tapping Shikamaru’s back. He groaned into the floor, ignoring her. 

Sakura glanced up at Kiba who only rolled his eyes. 

“Nara’s bummed that it’s almost Christmas and he has no girlfriend,” Kiba sang the last two words. 

“Die, Inuzuka,” Shikamaru growled. 

Sakura leaned over, resting her arms on Shikamaru’s back. 

“Aw, cheer up, Nara. We’ll celebrate Christmas together this year. American-style. We’ll throw a big party,” Sakura suggested. She patted his back a few times, rocking them back and forth. And then she paused.

“Does that make you feel better?” she asked.

“No,” he replied. 

Scowling, Sakura slapped both her hands down on his back. 

“Was he always like this?” Sakura queried, looking up at Kiba. 

At this, Kiba leered. The way he only did when he was about to embarrass the hell out of somebody. He took a sip of his beer before he pointed at Shikamaru. 

“When we were kids, we were all single. So Christmas was, like, whatever. But then we moved away. And we both had people. While our poor little Nara-kun was all by himself,” Kiba declared. 

Sakura nodded as she considered this. And then she froze. At the same time, Shikamaru sat up. He looked at Kiba’s smug expression. And then looked at Sakura. Something passed between them. 

“Wait,” Sakura said.

“You had someone?” Shikamaru demanded. 

Kiba laughed. He scratched his ear, eyes suddenly shifty. 

“Well, for a little while. We weren’t that serious,” he mumbled. Shikamaru held out his hand, making a grabbing motion. 

“Dude,” sighed Kiba. 

Shikamaru made the grabbing motion again. 

Kiba bent his head over his phone for several seconds. And then he held it out. Shikamaru snatched it out of his hand before he could change his mind. He and Sakura huddled together, studying the photo. 

It was a selfie of Kiba with a very pretty girl with straight brown hair. She wore a fluttery white and pink sundress, a homemade bento held on her lap. One of her arms was linked through Kiba’s. 

Sakura’s eyes narrowed. She questioned, “She broke up with you?”

And then, as she scrutinized his expression, she gasped. “You broke up with her?” 

“Why?” Shikamaru almost interrogated him. As if in disbelief that someone would break up with such an attractive girl. 

Kiba grimaced. When Akamaru nudged his hand, he fished another chip out of the bag and fed it to him. 

“Well... she was obsessed with cats,” Kiba confessed. 

Sakura’s jaw dropped. 

Shikamaru pointed at Akamaru. Kiba followed Shikamaru’s finger. And then started. Kiba rubbed the top of Akamaru’s head. 

“Oh. Dude. C’mon. Akamaru’s awesome,” Kiba protested. Shikamaru rolled his eyes. 

“Well, yeah. We know that Akamaru is great. But you’re obsessed with dogs! So what’s wrong with liking cats?” asked Sakura. 

“They’re all...” Kiba mimed claws with his hands and made a hissing noise. 

“Dude. What do you do when people bring cats to you? You’re a vet,” Shikamaru questioned. Kiba shrugged. 

“I’ll treat them. But I don’t have to like them. It’s like, what do you do when you have an ugly student? You don’t like them, but you still teach them,” Kiba responded.

Sakura gasped, hands flying to her mouth. Shikamaru’s eyes widened. 

“Inuzuka, you can’t say that!” Sakura scolded him.

“Why not? There are good-looking kids. There are ugly kids. Tell me I’m wrong!” retorted Kiba. Shikamaru turned his head to the side, shoulders almost touching his ears. 

“Stop talking,” Sakura said. 

“I’m just saying that you can’t drop-kick the ugly ones, right? You have to deal with them all the same,” he went on. 

“Stop talking. Stop talking,” Sakura said over and over again, clapping her hands over her ears. Shikamaru covered his face with his hands, shoulders shaking as he laughed. 

“What? You’re telling me you’ve never seen an ugly kid before?” Kiba demanded. Sakura began giggling too. She at least attempted to hide it. 

“There are some kids that come in. And they go ‘excuse me’. And when I turn my head it’s like ‘Yes, can I- OH NO!’” Kiba went on, miming jumping. 

Sakura lost it. She began howling with laughter, collapsing against Shikamaru. Shikamaru held his stomach as he cackled. Tears welling up in the corners of their eyes as Kiba kept going on and on. He only stopped when he saw that Akamaru had managed to wedge his entire muzzle into the bag of chips.  

“Good morning, everyone!” Shizune said as she walked into the faculty room. It was a little early, but she saw that the lights were already on. She nearly walked into Orochimaru, who stood with a hand held in front of him. A finger pressed to his lips. 

What’s going on? Shizune mouthed.

Finger still pressed to his lips, Orochimaru turned to gesture toward Sakura.

She sat at her desk, phone held up in a bright blue stand. Her earbuds were plugged in.

They both started as Sakura slapped her hands down on her desk. 

“That’s your problem! Who cares what everyone else is getting?” Sakura exclaimed. She leaned forward, pointing at the front-facing camera. 

“You listen up. It doesn’t matter if everyone else’s technical score is 1,000. You just need to get 1,000.01. You hear me?” she snapped. And then she leaned back in her seat. Arms folded over her chest, she nodded a few times. Her eyes flickered over to the TV. 

“What’s the starting order look like?” demanded Sakura. Her gaze focused back on her phone. She nodded a few more ties.

“Good. Yeah.... uh-huh,” she said. 

Then, her expression softened. She leaned forward to take her phone. 

“I’ll be watching the whole time. Yeah. Okay, give the phone to Coach. I’ll be right here,” Sakura promised. 

It wasn’t like Haku to sound so nervous. Not before something minor like a qualifier for the Grand Prix. 

She could hear the crackling as Haku handed his phone over to Kisame. She turned her gaze to the TV.

“What’s up with him, Coach?” Sakura asked. 

The pairs skaters had finished their short program earlier in the morning. Now that the ice was resurfaced, the first group of men’s singles athletes prepared to perform. The TV cut to the athletes in the second group. Some were listening to music. Others, like Haku, were pacing back and forth. 

“Says his boot is feeling tight. And that his stomach doesn’t feel good. I haven’t seen the kid this wound up since his Junior days,” replied Kisame in her ear. She glimpsed him standing on the side of the rink, arms crossed. The camera moved across the room, showing the people in the audience. Quite a few held up signs and banners with Haku’s name on them.

Sakura was aware of her coworkers moving around the faculty room. And part of her brain reminded her to thank them for being so considerate. Some waved at her as they walked in, but others just nodded. She knew it was partly because Orochimaru used gestures to ask everyone to stay quiet that they only spoke in low voices. He sat beside her, a silent companion as she analyzed each of the programs. 

Haku was one of the last to compete. Which made sense, given his world standing last year. The higher ranking skaters always went last. 

But when it was time for him to perform, Sakura sat on the edge of her seat. 

“Oh. That’s Haruno-sensei’s friend,” Kurenai remarked. She set down her books and sat on the edge of Sakura’s desk. Sakura could sense the other teachers settling in to watch too. There was a little bit of time left before the first classes began. It wasn’t like there was any rush, and they had seen this person walking around in their town. 

Haku’s costume this season was deep blue, fading to white towards his neck and shoulders. The crystals glued on the fabric almost looked like silvery flames burning up his torso. 

Haku lingered at the edge of the rink to blow his nose. She could vaguely hear Kisame’s voice in her earbud. But then the camera moved. And Haku appeared on her phone screen. He looked a little pale. 

“Say something nice,” Haku requested. Sakura smiled.

“Why bother? You’re going to win, right?” she answered. 

He smirked in return. And then he turned to skate off to the center of the rink. 

Haku’s short program was beautiful. But of course it was. She knew every little turn, every gesture. If she closed her eyes, she could tell by the roar of the crowd each time he landed a jump or spin. But she didn’t dare. Her eyes stayed glued to the screen. Heart pounding as she watched him take off in quad. The perfect crack of his skate hitting the ice before he threw himself into a second spin.

“Wow,” breathed Asuma behind her. She hadn’t even noticed him walk into the room. 

As the beat built up, the strings and piano rising in a crescendo, Sakura held her breath. The husky vocals belted out. She leaned forward as his left toe pick hit the ice. Elbows tucking in as he threw himself into the air. Rotating. Rotating. Rotating. Rotatin-

Snow sprayed up as he landed. She watched the blade scrape out the rest of the rotation. Sakura listened to Orochimaru groan. Her hands clasped together. Knuckles going white. 

“Huh? He landed. That was good, right?” Kurenai whispered. 

“He under-rotated. That’s going to affect his score,” answered Orochimaru. 

Haku ended the program, both hands extended above him. Clasped high over his head. His chest heaving as the song finished. And then he dropped his hands, already smiling for the crowd. He waved with both hands as he headed toward the kiss and cry. Sakura’s earbud crackled as Kisame moved. 

“He-” Kisame began.

“Under-rotated. I know,” Sakura finished for him. 

The bell rang for first period. Everyone ignored it as they waited for the judges to announce the score. 

Haku sat beside Kisame. It took him a second before he remembered that his coach was holding onto his phone. He took it, shoving the other earbud into his right ear. He looked down at her, trying to smile. The angle gave him a double-chin, but she wasn’t about to make fun of that now. 

“Remember, you still have the free tomorrow,” Kisame whispered. 

“The short program score for Haku Shimizu from Japan,” the speaker blared. 

Haku’s head snapped back up. 

“97.12. He is currently in first place,” the announcer stated to a roar of applause. The TV showed fans jumping to their feet, waving their signs around. The cheers rose all around the room. 

Haku smiled with his mouth. But his eyes darted to Kisame. Then down to his phone. 

“I broke 100 in China,” he told her. Needlessly. Like she wouldn’t know all his season’s scores by heart. 

“Like Coach said. You still have the free skate tomorrow,” Sakura simply said. 

It was only then that she remembered the other people in the room. The teachers were chatting in regular voices now as they got to their feet. They were already a few minutes late for first period. Holding their folders and books, they began heading for the door.

“Wow. He did a great job,” remarked Asuma. None of them seemed to notice that neither Sakura nor Orochimaru were moving. 

“Huh? C’mon. Let’s go,” Asuma called as he lingered in the doorway. 

“You go ahead, Sensei. There’s still one person left,” Sakura replied, not looking at them. 

There was a pause. And then the door slid shut. 

Sakura heard Haku talking as he and Kisame moved out of the kiss and cry. The last skater was already on the rink. A cheer rose from the audience. 

“That toe loop,” she heard him sigh. 

“You better fix that toe loop or coach’ll be breaking all your toes at the end of the season,” Sakura muttered. She heard Haku chuckle.

Sakura jumped a little when someone sat down to her left. It was Itachi. 

“I don’t teach first period,” he told her, not looking at her. 

The skater from America had a flawless program. Positive grades of execution across the board. Landing a beautiful triple axel towards the end of his routine. Sakura already knew before he was finished. And Haku seemed to sense it too. 

“105.04,” the judges announced.

Sakura let out a long breath. 

“Sakura,” Haku called. She looked down. 

“Men’s free starts at 3:55 pm tomorrow,” he told her. And then ended the call. 

Orochimaru and Itachi looked at her when she got to her feet. Chair scraping across the linoleum. She walked out of the faculty room without looking at either of them. Because Haku was right. As long as he did well during the program tomorrow, he still had a chance of winning gold. 

The time difference between New York and Konoha made it difficult to wake up in time. But Sakura was awake by 5:40 in the morning. She sat in front of the TV in her pajamas, eyes barely open. The warm-up was just ending. The starting order in the bottom of the screen told her that Haku wouldn’t be up for a while. 

Haku didn’t call her this time. Kisame sent her a couple texts, checking to see if she was awake. And she asked him to wish Haku luck for her. 

She left the TV on as she went about her morning. Brushing her teeth and washing her face. She had breakfast standing in front of the TV, crunching through the last of her cereal, which meant that it was more crumbs and powder than pieces. 

When Haku came out, she could tell from his face. He didn’t feel good.

And this was confirmed when he popped his first big jump. A quad Lutz became a single. Her brain started doing calculations right away to see how many points his mistake would cost him. 

It was overall a lukewarm program. Far from what she had seen him manage in China just a month ago. But nothing that would lose him a spot at the Grand Prix Final. At the end of the four minutes, when she got a clear look at his face, she already knew what he was thinking. He didn’t even manage a smile for the audience. The disappointment etched into his tired shoulders. 

Haku placed second overall at Skate America. And he would be advancing to the Grand Prix without a problem. 

But their deal. 

All gold meant that she would come watch him. 

That silver medal around his neck may as well have weighed a million pounds. 

Sakura turned off the TV. She sat on the living room floor, heavy-hearted. She only allowed herself to wallow for a couple minutes. Then she was on her feet. 

Because Akamaru would be waiting for her on her doorstep so they could run. Minato, Naruto, and Kushina would be expecting her at the rink. And the weather outside was so beautiful. 

She had so many things to do, so many people to see. That it seemed a waste to sit there sulking for too long. 

[chendersonfic]

Inhospitable Place, Chapter 1

“I’m looking at you. But you don’t see me. That’s okay.

By the time you notice me watching you, it will be too late.”

The October rain gently tapping on the window and the roof was finally slowing to a drizzle. The rain in Connecticut was different than Pennsylvania rain—it was colder…harsher somehow. That was one of many things on my list of grievances against Hartford, and by default against Hunter, who came up with the idea to move here. It’s not that it was his fault. He thought he was doing the right thing by getting me away from everything that was familiar. He probably imagined he was giving me—us—a brand new start. But no matter how hard I tried, the bile of resentment would creep up my throat, willing me to remind him every now and then that the road to hell was paved with good intentions.  

I didn’t have a personal vendetta against the city. Had I come here under different circumstances, I probably would have appreciated the historic buildings, and bored my family and friends to death with anecdotes about Bushnell park being the oldest park in the country, and how I visited Mark Twain’s House. Instead, I came to Hartford numbed by Xanax, Prozac, and a bottle of wine. Nothing could have impressed me. Everything was a cruel reminder that the world didn’t come to a grinding halt when my mother died. It just kept going. And now I was supposed to keep going with it. 

A part of me felt sorry for Hunter. He met me two months before my mother suddenly passed away from a massive brain aneurysm. The person he met, the person he fell in love with, that person no longer existed. I was a professional ballroom dancer and a choreographer for a popular TV show. I had a life, I had friends, and a bustling career. I had a body that was sculpted by long hours of dancing and a fridge that contained celery juice and oat milk. I was full of energy and couldn't wait to see what every day had to bring. That all changed overnight. A career doesn't wait for you; there's an appropriate grieving window and then it's back to business as usual. But I couldn't bear it. As hard as I would try, I just couldn't find my footing without her. 

After a while I had no job, and my friends had given up on me. All I had left was my sister, Francesca, my dad, Randy, and my boyfriend, Hunter, who somehow stuck around through it all. When he first suggested the move to Hartford, I was opposed to it. After all, why would I move away from the only close family I had left? But everything at home was a constant reminder of what I no longer had. Her books, her comforter, her perfume—it was unbearable. So after a week of debating, I said yes and—despite the protests from my sister and father—we packed up our stuff and left for Connecticut.

The drive to our new home took 7 1/2 hours from Pittsburgh. Since I no longer had a job it was down to Hunter to find us a place to live on his loan officer salary. We moved into a 2-bedroom loft—exposed brick industrial design. One bedroom was ours, the other was my designated new studio where I was supposed to recapture my love for dancing. I told Hunter I was practicing daily. That was a lie. Nothing changed for me; nothing except my surroundings. 

I stood in the empty studio looking out of the window and watching the rain. I turned my head back when I heard Bruno waddling over. My only source of joy these days. He was a fluffy overweight Corgi whose owners had given him up to the local high kill animal shelter when they moved. One day, while I was struggling to stay sober and fighting dark thoughts of ending it once and for all, I decided to go on a walk. It was another rainy day, just like today. I almost passed by the shelter, but the howling from the inside made me suddenly stop. Something had beckoned me to go inside that day. A gut feeling. I walked from cage to cage, shivering under my wet jacket. The sad looking furry faces staring back at me shivered as well. The place was freezing, and the smell of ammonia and fear wafted through the air.

“Can I help you?” a middle age curly haired woman asked, popping her head out from behind an office door. Her name tag read Tatiana. 

“I’m just looking around,” I replied. She sighed, obviously displeased at my window-shopping approach to animals in need. I felt embarrassed. 

“I’m not supposed to tell you, but the three at the end are getting euthanized this Friday. In case you feel like saving a life,” she said in a harsh, condescending tone, then disappeared behind the door once again.

“Well no wonder you have to euthanize dogs, who’d want to get one from you,” I muttered to myself. I thought about leaving, but it felt disrespectful to not even take a look at the three death row mutts. They deserved my attention, at least. I walked down the dim lit hallway to the end of the chain link fence enclosures. The first one was a Pitbull that launched at the fence with the speed of light, making me stagger back. “I’m DANGEROUS, do not put hands near the fence!” the description tag on his door read. 

“Sorry buddy,” I said in the midst of his barking, “Hope it's better in the next life for you.” I moved to the next cage, where a big Husky mix snarled upon seeing me. His name was “Diamond”. 

“Don't worry, you'll be someone's gem in dog heaven,” I told him, then slowly moved onto the last cage. “Bruno,” the name tag read, along with, “I’m feisty, don’t put hands near the fence!” 

Bruno was the fattest Corgi I've ever seen. He laid there on the concrete slab, behind the chain link fence, looking completely devoid of life. He didn't even bother to bark at me. 

“Bruno,” I said, trying to find the right last words. His eyes slowly moved to meet mine, then he looked back down and gently put his head on his paws. He had given up. Like he knew what was coming next. For a brief moment I wondered if that's what I looked like to people as well. A man who had given up on life. 

After I left the shelter, I cried all the way home. Life seemed so cruel and unfair. A healthy woman with two children drops dead in the middle of the day, out of nowhere and without any warning. A dog who loves snacks gets left at a strange place and locked in a small wet cage where he now awaits his death.  

Hunter was waiting for me at home.

“Where have you been?” he asked. It must have been curious to him, since I almost never left our place anymore. 

“I went on a walk,” I replied, grabbing a towel from the bathroom. I was soaked. 

“Do we not have an umbrella?” he asked, turning the heater on. 

“We do, I just wasn’t thinking,” I replied. Poor Hunter, he had to constantly worry about me.

“Did you see anything good on your walk?” I sighed, then told him my shelter story. 

“Do you think they give them like…a last meal? Like maybe his favorite snack?” I asked concerned, and he raised his eyebrow.

“Uhh, they’re dogs, not death row inmates. I doubt they get a steak for their last meal,” he replied truthfully. “But I’m sure it’s quick and painless. Better than spending the rest of their lives in a small cage. Imagine the horror of that,” he added, his face suddenly stone serious. 

“What day is it today?” I asked.

“Wednesday,” he replied, shaking himself out of his dark thoughts. “Don’t even think about it. Our building has a no-pet policy,” he said, then added, “I’ll probably be home late tomorrow, just so you know. I’m behind on a few things.”

“No worries. And I wasn’t thinking about it,” I lied, thinking of the big Corgi and how he only had one more day to live. I wondered how he’d spend it. Probably cooped up in that cold, wet cage. The thought made me sick to my stomach. 

The next morning I woke up with the sun, which was rare for me. Sleeping until the afternoon was more the norm nowadays. Hunter had already left, and I was feeling restless. I cleaned the kitchen, scrubbed the bathroom, washed the dishes. Finally, I grabbed a load of dirty clothes and went downstairs to the building’s laundry room. 

“Hello,” the warm voice from behind me said as I was pouring my detergent into the washer. I looked back and recognized my next-door neighbor. “I’m Derek,” he said, as if we never met. I suppose he had forgotten me, I rarely ever went out. 

“I know, I remember you. I’m Louis,” I replied. He was wearing grey sweatpants and a fitting blue tee. If I wasn’t in a relationship, and on the brink of suicide, I probably would have felt quite giddy to be speaking to him. 

“That’s right,” he said, putting his laundry basket down. “You guys are from out of state, right?”

“Right, Pennsylvania.”

“How are you liking Hartford?” he asked, taking over the other machine. 

“Well, it’s nice. Lots of rain,” I replied, not knowing what to say. I haven’t really stepped foot out of the apartment since we moved. I didn't have much to say about Hartford. 

“Right, right. I don't mean to sound strange, but your face is so familiar…” he trailed off.

“I was a choreographer for a TV show,” I explained, and everything clicked into place for him.

“Yes, that’s it!” he said snapping his fingers excitedly. And I laughed for the first time in months. “What happened man? You were so great at that.”

“My mother passed away,” I replied bluntly. His brown eyes looked at me with sad warmth. 

“That is tough. How are you doing?” he asked.

“Doing alright,” I lied. “Or I was. But then I saw these dogs at the shelter yesterday, and now I’m all messed up about it. It’s dumb but, there was a Corgi and they’re putting him down tomorrow. And it’s just sad,” I rambled on, then stopped, embarrassed. He raised an eyebrow. 

“The local shelter?” I nodded my head. “What's preventing you from getting him?” he asked, starting his load while I was still putting my clothes in.

“Well for one, this place doesn't allow pets,” I said.

“You know what my mother always says?” he asked.

“What’s that?”

“Rules are meant to be broken,” he replied. He grabbed his bin and gave me a smile, then disappeared just as fast as he came.

Strange. I thought about our encounter for the rest of the day. But how could I take care of a dog, when I couldn’t even look after myself anymore. It was months since I ate a vegetable. I went for days without showering. Dogs needed consistency, routine, rules. Plus, Hunter wouldn’t be happy, even if we could somehow convince the landlord to let us have a dog in the first place.

At 10:00 o'clock I popped a Xanax, followed it up with some wine, and went to sleep. I dreamt of Bruno, alone in his kennel. Cold and hungry. 

When I woke up, Hunter was already gone. I looked at the clock. 11:45. Today was his last day. What would they feed him? Would he be scared? Would he yelp in pain when the needle pierced his skin? I felt anger rise up in me. He was a perfectly healthy dog, why should he have to die in that place? Just because someone deemed him “feisty”. Why should he be nice to people when this is what they’ve done to him? The expectation was ridiculous. He had every right to be angry. Disenchanted. “Feisty”. I put on a hoodie, grabbed a bag of leftover rotisserie chicken and ran out the door. Maybe I could at least be there for him. Maybe he liked rotisserie chicken. 

I finally made it to the shelter and almost ran Tatiana into the ground.

“What in the hell!” she grimaced, pushing me back with her bony hands. I tried to catch my breath and realized I was completely out of shape.

“Have the…have the dogs been… been euthanized yet?” I asked. She stared at me in confusion. “The three dogs,” I tried to make her understand.

“Oh, yes, at 11:00 this morning,” she replied, raising an eyebrow at the bag of chicken in my hand.

“How…how did it happen?” I asked. She sighed.

“Well, first we took them out of the kennel on a leash. They thought they were going for a walk. They started wagging their tails. But as soon as we got close to the euthanasia room, they knew something was up. They must have sensed the smell of death in the air. So, they put up a fight,” she said, matter-of-factly, then continued. “They had to be restrained until the vet injected a lethal dose that put them out. Then, they were put into black plastic bags, and placed in the freezer, where they now wait to be picked up, like trash.” I imagined Bruno through every step of that journey, and the tears started involuntarily pouring down.

“Can I…can I maybe take him with me and bury him?” I asked. It’s not like I even had a yard to bury him in, but the thought of leaving him behind destroyed me. She sighed again. 

“You’re talking about Bruno, right, the chunky Corgi?” she asked. I nodded my head and wiped my tears. She pointed to the office door. “He said you’d come, but I didn’t believe it,” she said more to herself than to me. “Guess I owe him that $50.”

“What?” I asked, confused. She pointed to the door again, more impatiently this time. As if I was supposed to understand what she was talking about. 

         “Go, he wants to talk to you,” she said, then walked off towards the kennels, leaving me behind. I approached the door with the name plate that read, “Dr. Derek Robinson, Veterinarian.” I knocked, then opened it before getting a reply. I needed to find out what was going on.

         He was on the phone, but flashed me a bright smile upon seeing me, then raised a finger to indicate he’d be with me in a minute. I waited by the door, confused by whatever was going on. 

         “Hello neighbor,” he said, finally getting off the phone. He looked different in his work clothes, and I was pretty speechless. He checked out the bag of chicken I was holding with a confused face.

         “Lunch?”

          “I uhh, I thought I could give it to Bruno before…you know, but I’m too late. Wait, you work here?” I asked, trying to make sense of it all. He laughed from behind his desk. 

“Yes. And that’s sweet, but dogs don’t eat before euthanasia. Makes them nauseous,” he explained.

“Oh,” I said, feeling stupid. “So, did you have to do it?” I asked.

“Yes, an unfortunate part of my job,” he stated, and got up. He walked past me and opened the door. “Thankfully, only two dogs had to be put down today.” He started walking towards the kennels, and I followed him.

“Really? That’s…that’s great! How did that happen?” I tried to keep up with his long and quick strides.

“Well, I can’t in good conscience put down a dog that has a home waiting for him,” he replied as we got to the end of the kennels. He smiled at me. I looked at him, then at the chain-link fence, and realized we were standing in front of Bruno’s kennel. My heartbeat picked up and I quickly looked inside. He was laying on the concrete slab, miserable as ever, but still very much alive. I felt relief spread through me as I looked back at Derek.

“But…me?” I asked.

“Who else came in here to give an overweight death row Corgi a bag of chicken?” he asked, and I could sense a note of amusement in his tone.

“But I can’t, you know our building has a no-pet policy,” I replied.

“Good thing my brother is the owner. I already spoke to him. I’m paying a monthly pet fee on your behalf. Now say hi to your new friend,” he said. “Give him some of that through the fence first,” he pointed to my chicken bag, “he’s less snappy when he isn’t hungry.” 

         An hour later, I was frantically searching for a pet store to get Bruno a bed, food dishes, and snacks. Back home, he was wary of me at first. Only coming by when he wanted to eat. But over three months he acclimated. And with Derek’s help and guidance, we got him on a healthier diet and he was starting to look trimmer already. And while he still wasn’t a lap dog, and wanted absolutely nothing to do with Hunter, he now slept in his dog bed next to my side of the bed and woke me up by bumping his wet nose into my hand to take him on a morning walk. Bruno had become the biggest reason for my continued existence. 

         I looked at him now, as his eyes impatiently darted from my face to the door and back—a signal that it was time for an evening treat.

“We can’t keep eating like this,” I said, smacking my ever-growing belly. I walked over to the kitchen and he followed me. I reached for the dog treats, and he perked up. I slowly handed over the fragrant pepperoni stick. “Don’t tell Derek,” I said, and he grabbed it with precision, then made his way to the bedroom to enjoy it. I didn’t blame him, it’s not like I wanted to be in my own company either. 

         I poured myself a disproportionately large glass of wine and checked my phone. Three missed voicemails from my sister, Francesca. I'd have to get back to her eventually. She was the persistent type. 

         I made my way to the living room and turned on the TV. I glanced at the morning’s copy of the Hartford Times, splayed open on our living room table. It announced that the body of yet another young man had been found. That would make it 6 in total. One for every two months that we've lived here. It was now very clear: there was a serial killer on the loose.