Takes place after Episode 20. Minor spoilers if you don't know who Hige's love interest is or you don't know about the Garden of Eternity.
Disclaimer: I do not own Wolf's Rain and am not making any profit from this writing.
Warnings: pretty short (about 900 words)…that's all.
"Tsume?" Toboe asked. He tried to whisper, but his voice echoed in the small cave. The grey wolf ignored him, curling up more tightly.
"Are you awake?" the puppy breathed. It was quite a bit quieter, as he no longer echoed, though Kiba and Hige had to have heard it anyway. Tsume tried to keep ignoring him, but the puppy tugged on his ear persistently.
"What?" the grey wolf finally demanded, opening his yellow eyes to glare at him.
"I had a bad dream," Toboe admitted quietly. Out of the corner of his eye, Tsume saw his alpha open one eye. Damn, if he didn't deal with this, Kiba would, and the last thing he needed was for the white wolf to lose more sleep. Kiba still looked like shit, and that worried Tsume, though he would never admit it.
Wordlessly, he glanced over at the white wolf and inclined his head very slightly. Kiba understood the gesture and closed his eye, curling back into Hige to go back to sleep. The stocky wolf somehow seemed blissfully ignorant, shifting in his sleep to accommodate Kiba's movement. Perhaps his hearing was weakened from too much reliance on his nose, Tsume thought darkly. He turned back to Toboe.
"Go to sleep, runt," he said calmly, stretching out in what was obviously an invitation. He usually tried not to encourage his clinginess, but he could make an exception this time. (He told himself that it was just to keep the runt quiet.) The puppy's eyes lit up and he moved closer, happily cuddling into the older wolf. Tsume almost thought that that would be all, that it would really be that simple.
But noooooo. It was never that simple with Toboe.
"Tsume?" the puppy murmured, "I don't want to go back to sleep."
Dammit.
"Why not?"
Toboe hesitated. The older wolf got the distinct impression that he thought he would laugh at him. Which he wouldn't, he never laughed at the runt. He just taunted him cruelly. (But it was for the puppy's own good, he thought. It was better for Toboe to get tough now, than to get hurt later.) He waited a moment for the puppy to spill the beans, before loosing his patience.
Kiba would have waited patiently, without a single noise of complaint, and his silence would draw answers. Hige would have rested his head on the puppy's shoulder and made a joke to lighten the mood. Tsume wasn't Kiba or Hige.
"Runt," he growled low in his throat, "Why not?"
Amber eyes peered up at him anxiously. He could see some awful terror reflected in those eyes.
"If I close my eyes," Toboe finally admitted, with a pleading whine, "They'll come and take you all away."
Tsume almost felt bad for snapping at him. Almost.
"Who do you think will take us away?" he asked, not unkindly.
"I don't know. Maybe the nobles. Or maybe Blue will take Hige away, and that Garden will take Kiba back, and," the puppy swallowed, "And you won't want to stay with me."
Alright, now he felt bad.
"One, we're going to win against the nobles. Two, Hige's an idiot and a womanizer, but he won't leave the pack. Three, Kiba is not going back to that damn Garden. He won't make the same mistake twice," he told him adamantly.
Toboe looked a little mystified, but not completely convinced. He still looked anxious. So the older wolf plowed on.
"Four, even if Kiba and Hige did leave, or die, or whatever, I would never leave you."
He bit his tongue, his mind finally catching up to him. Shit, had he really just said that? He searched for words to take it back, but the look in the puppy's eyes stopped him. He was so hopeful.
"Do you mean all that?" he asked softly. Tsume hesitated. He almost denied it, but then he thought better of it. Who the hell was going to criticize him anyway? Kiba certainly wouldn't, if he was even still awake, and Hige was deep in slumber. If Toboe took it the wrong way, he would have plenty of time to set him straight. And what was there for the puppy to misunderstand? He meant it, there was no way in hell he would leave him. He just had to admit it. Which was fine – he could own up to his feelings, right? Right.
"Yes," he answered firmly.
"Y-you promise?" Damn, his eyes were so bright and shiny. It tugged on heartstrings the grey wolf didn't know he had. Every instinct urged him to promise whatever he was asking. But he wasn't Kiba – he wouldn't blindly follow his instincts, no matter how strong they were. His instincts had led him astray before, and he wouldn't let it happen again. Not with Toboe.
"Promise what?" he asked. He couldn't promise that they would beat the nobles, as much as he wanted to. He couldn't even promise that they would all come out of this in one piece, no matter how loudly his instincts were screaming at him.
"That you'll never leave me," Toboe said.
"I promise," Tsume answered, and he was proud when his voice didn't crack with emotion, "I promise."
I won't make the same mistake twice.
The puppy buried his head under the grey wolf's neck, and fell back asleep. It was a long time before Tsume could do the same.
Yeah! I wrote something without Kiba/Hige in it! I feel accomplished. ;-) Been wanting to write something about these two for a while now. So, there it is.
Please review! I hope Tsume wasn't too OOC, but if he is, let me know and I'll try to fix it.