Wolf Stories: Part I

Title: A Scent of the Future

Author: Apple

Pairing: Wolf x ??

Summary: A ten year old Wolf scents his True Love for the very first time.

Rating: PG for lots of non-descript kissing

Apple's Note: This story could be considered AU from the main plot…or you could stick it into the plot itself. Either way, it works. I just hope that you kiddies enjoy this fic as much as I enjoyed writing it out.

A Scent of the Future

Baker Town was packed.

Just as it always was.

Not that Wolf minded; he actually liked the hustle and bustle of the town known for its refined sweets, baked goods and really great food. He enjoyed the accidental brushes; the bright, cheerful colors of the buildings; the voices of people milling about, asking prices and selling their goods—and the heavenly smell wafting through the air! Gods, he loved it.

His father had always chastised him for sticking his nose everywhere whenever he could. A gentleman just didn't act like some animal, his father would always tell him, to which Wolf would mentally snort. He could be a gentleman all he wanted, but Wolf would revel in what little wolf heritage he possessed.

"One day, you'll get yourself into deep trouble," the older man warned him, "and your nose will be of absolutely no use to you in your time of crisis."

"But not now," Wolf stated.

His father smirked. "Not now, but someday…when you grow out of that nose of yours…"

Wolf was different from other boys his age; that was because he was a quarter-wolf. And because of this peculiar quality, some of his senses were heightened—particularly his sense of smell, a talent deemed useless by his father who had inherited acute hearing from his father (a quality one often cherished as a dreaded Dark Lord with many enemies ready to stab one in the back at any given moment—except, perhaps, on bank holidays and Tuesdays).

This very day Wolf's parents had decided to visit some old friends (or allies in his father's case as he couldn't quite bring himself to admit that such a 'callous bitch' and 'moronic buffoon' were ever his friends and a painful death to anyone who said otherwise) in the aforementioned little Baker Town that Wolf was so fond of engrossing his five senses in.

"I'm sure it's this way…" Wolf's mother said, trying to discern the correct direction of the house they were surely to visit in due time. The boy smiled at her. The woman had a knack for getting lost as well as getting into all sorts of trouble, but she really was sweet and he wouldn't wish for any other person to call 'mom'.

Her husband sighed impatiently. "Give me that," he grumbled, taking the map his wife was going through. The silver haired boy frowned at him before nudging his father in the ribs to signal to him that he was being mean again. The older male gave his son a sidelong glance before grumbling an apology to his wife, which made Wolf beam and his mother give a little kiss to his father.

His parents were an odd pair. As probably mentioned, Wolf's father had tendencies towards a nasty sort of behavior fitting for those who walked the other side. In other words, his father was a Dark Lord…well, to be correct, a former Dark Lord, but it was the fact that he had been one at all that counted. Wolfgang had been one of the most feared men of his time—luckily for everybody it was no longer his time (being trapped inside an enchanted book could do that to a man) and since meeting his wife, the man had calmed down considerably.

As for his mother, one could never really quite grasp that she was the Great Hero just by looking at her. The woman gave off a rather absentminded air and was clumsy and a little dull-witted. And yet…her old hometown had been renamed after Russet Sweetgale, the woman who took down the feared Overlord Aenis down all by herself. Of course, the real story had been that she had been hired by the Evil Overlord to sort out his books after she had a falling out with Wolfgang and they had gone separate ways. After Wolfgang had an epiphany and returned to ask Russet to come back to him, in her joy she had tripped on an ill-placed rock and accidentally killed the Evil Overlord Aenis with a peculiarly large, spiky and extremely hungry monster book she had been handling. But Wolf could suppose that that didn't matter…what mattered was that the Evil Overlord was overthrown and his parents gotten together and had him.

"It was destiny, I suppose," his father had told him, when he asked one day. "I never knew how I felt until she was gone…It's one of the upsides and downsides of being part wolf, you know. You're only ever meant for one person, in the end."

Wolf was a precocious child. Already was he looking at those around himself, gauging what type of people they would be…what type of person would be for him…would they be perfect enough for him? Just right? He imagined that he would be with someone like his mother…Then he shuddered at the very thought and tossed it out the window. No, he loved his mother…but not like that. He wanted someone that maybe looked like his mother, possibly…felt as soft and warm as she did when he hugged her. But he could certainly live without her danger and accident prone ways. He didn't think he could get used to rescuing someone all the time without getting annoyed like his dad. No, wait…his father did get annoyed--downright angry sometimes, too.

"Ai…Hero, you have a terrible sense of direction," Wolfgang said to Russet, irritation obvious in his voice, "it's a wonder you could find your way around the house—let alone go out to quest with me."

"And weren't those such lovely days?" Russet asked, her own rust colored eyes sparkling at her husband as she recollected past events. She put a hand on the older man's arm and leaned close to his ear, whispering so softly that his ears twitched and he shivered a bit. "I wouldn't mind going on one last quest with you, my lord…"

"Russet," he growled warningly, a light pink spreading along his cheeks, "not in front of Wolf…"

"Just a thought, my lord," she chirped, plucking the map out of his hands before closing the distance between them so she could give the man a sound kiss.

Now, as precocious and preoccupied with the sights, sounds and smells of Baker Town as he was, Wolf was still a child and no child ever enjoyed seeing his parents kiss (or, in the case of Wolfgang and Russet, make out like bunnies in the middle of the street). So, predictably, the ten year old was very grossed out.

"Ew! Mom!" Wolf cried, shielding his eyes, then doing an about face. "Gross! Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross!" he said loudly, hoping that his sudden bout of immaturity would stop his parents from eating each other's faces. Of course, the two adults kept going at it and the boy had a feeling it wasn't going to end any time soon.

Thoroughly scarred for the next little while, Wolf barely noticed a small girl bump into him, mutter her apologies and then scamper off quickly in some direction. It was only after a few moments when he decided to tell her off was he suddenly hit with the most delicious smell in the entire world. Granted, he only had two handfuls of years on him, but within a small time frame he had probably smelled more things than most people do in their entire lives.

The scent was a combination of cinnamon; peppermint and something warm and sweet…honeyed milk? Yes, just like mom used to make. And apple! None of these smells would normally go together, but for some odd reason, they did right now and that was all that young Wolf cared about as one foot went in front of another in order to follow this delicious aroma.

The boy rounded many corners and bobbed and weaved through the crowded streets as he chased after this special scent. His father would be scolding him if he knew what he was up to—Wolf would have been hitting himself in the face if he knew what was happening to him as well. But he remained innocently oblivious to everything and everyone around himself as he followed his spicy-sweet smell about Baker Town.

The silver haired child had no idea how long he had been on his feet, wandering about like a vagabond non-stop. He wasn't even sure where he was, now that he thought of it. He knew that he had to still be in Baker Town, which was probably why he was able to go about so freely without any worries as to becoming horribly lost to his parents.

A cold dread began to spread through the ten year old as reality suddenly smacked him from out of the blue, the strange and enticing scent forgotten for the moment. He whirled around trying to get his bearings. Where had his parents gone? What part of town was he in? Why didn't he recognize anything? And—worst of all—why wasn't his impeccable sense of smell picking up anything? One of the few reasons why the boy wasn't afraid of being lost was that he could simply sniff his way back to his parents' side just in time for them to stop kissing each other without anyone being wise to the fact that he had just snuck off without them knowing.

"Mom?" he called out uncertainly. "Dad?"

Most children would be worried for themselves at this point in time. After the cold vines of reality wrapped themselves around their little hearts and twisted terribly until they were ill, they would start to panic or even fall to the ground in tears. This was a perfectly normal reaction for most children. Wolf had never been like most children (genetics not withstanding) and though he was worried for his own safety, he was probably twice as worried about his parents.

Many questions flew through Wolf's mind. What were they doing? Were they alright? How was his father taking it? Was he upturning houses looking for him? And his mother? Oh, Ironic Overpowers, his mother. How was his poor mother dealing with it? He suddenly felt worse than before, imagine what sort of wreck his mother was in his mind's eyes. He felt like he could puke right then and there.

"Mom?! Dad!!!" he shouted through the streets, voice urgent. He took a good long whiff of the air around him, but he was too frazzled to be able to discern any particular smell. It was as if all the smells in the world had converge upon him and melded as one. The prickle of tears stung at the corner of his amber eyes as his head whipped in every direction in the hopes of finding his lost parents. "Mooooooom! Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!!"

Terror was gripping his heart. What if he never found them? What if they ended up being lost to each other for who knew how long? What would he do? Would he be forced into becoming a hermit living away in some mountains, never to be discovered except by young heroes out to vanquish some horrible, ancient evils so they could ask his advice?

The last one made Wolf stop and think of the possibility for a moment before he moved on and continued panicking like the scared ten year old that he was. This was no time to be thinking about future job prospects!

The boy lost track of the time as he searched and searched Baker Town for any signs of his parents. Everything seemed so peaceful—busy, to be sure, but with nothing seemingly wrong with it. Childishly, he hated the fact that such a great evil had happened to him and the world didn't seem to care about it at all. He was half tempted to stomp his foot and have a temper tantrum at the unfairness of the world, but thought that he should still keep looking.

"Mom! Dad?!" he cried, holding his hands in a circle around his mouth to make a sort of megaphone. "Mooooooooooooooooooooom! Daaaaaaaaaa—"

"Hey."

Wolf stopped and gazed around to find the one who had called out to him. He was very wary, of course, as the voice was one he had not recognized and if he didn't recognize it, then it was a stranger and he wasn't allowed to talk to strangers. And if a stranger got too close to him Wolf's father had given him permission to give the person all sorts of hell.

His paranoia was almost unwarranted as the one who had sought out his attention was nothing more than a little girl in red. She was much smaller than him and stared up at him with almost baleful eyes, as if she should be the one worried about him. Not one to be intimidated by a girl, Wolf glared back with all of his might.

They stared each other down a few moments until she took his hand and began to lead him somewhere, much to his surprise. He stopped abruptly, taking his hand back from her. She looked up at him questioningly, pushing black bangs away from her brown eyes. Like chocolate, he noticed. He visibly twitched as he realized what he had just thought and began to hit his head with his fists. The girl raised an eyebrow at his strange behavior, but waited patiently for him to stop.

"You want to find your parents, don't you?" she asked expectantly. He looked at her. She knew where his parents were? Without another word, she took his hand in hers once again and led him through Baker Town.

Wondering if he was being led into some sort of trap (his father's paranoid way of thinking worming its way into his impressionable mind), he scrutinized his would-be savior.

"Why are you helping me?" he inquired carefully. She looked up at him, pondering over the question as they walked hand in hand, before smiling the sweetest smile he had ever seen. Just as sweet as his mother's, he thought with a pang.

"I was born to help people," she replied proudly. "I'm going to grow up to be a hero!"

Oh, yes, he mused, just like his mother. Impulsively, he hugged her to see if she was as soft and as warm as he hoped she was. He found that she was that and more and nearly found himself crying in something akin to relief. She hugged him back, patting his back a little awkwardly as she couldn't reach anything else with him squishing her so hard.

"Thanks," he told her.

Another darling, sweet smile aimed at him, which he returned with a tiny grin. "You're welcome."

Buildings passed them by and the day was wearing on well into late afternoon when the girl brought him back to the spot where Wolf had last seen his parents. They were nowhere to be found as far as he had seen, but somehow, he felt a little relieved that he could stay with his new friend a little longer. While she led the way they ended up talking about many things like what they wanted to do when they grew up—

"My dream is to help people, especially the ones I care about. And to find True Love," the black haired girl admitted dreamily.

—what sort of music they liked, what type of sweets they ate and everything else children could thought to speak about. They took their time walking, leisurely getting to know one another even though there was a chance they wouldn't see each other again.

"I live on the other side of the forest," Wolf told her. "Well, sort of. Mom and dad like to travel a lot, so we spend a lot of time everywhere…"

He really liked the little girl at his side, he found out. And he slowly suspected that he was experiencing what the older boys would call a 'crush'. The thought both sickened and exhilarated him. What an odd feeling…

Wolf started as he felt the girl let go of his hand and start to walk away. He followed her a few steps until she turned around to look at him in surprise. She demanded why he was still following her.

"But my parents—"

"Will find you," she finished with a smile. "Don't worry. If I know moms and dads…they'll be here in just about…"

"WOLF!"

With a giggle, the girl just watched as the silver haired boy turned to find his parents rushing towards him at top speed. Russet was the first to get to him, pulling his body close to her own in a loving embrace. Wolfgang was not too far behind his wife, though he remained detached and aloof though his disheveled appearance betrayed him otherwise. His mother was blubbering something unintelligible into his neck as he rubbed soothing circles on her back. She sobbed and wailed; so happy was she to have her son back after losing him for several hours.

Wolfgang was less forgiving (though, for the record, he was just as relieved to find Wolf as Russet was).

"Wolf Loosestrife, you are in a lot of trouble, young man. How dare you leave our side?" the man said sternly, staring down at his only child. His eyes narrowed dangerously and Wolf winced. It would seem that his predictions about how his father would react were nearly correct. The older man really did look like he had toppled some houses over and looked ready to smash up some more just to look for him. Thankfully, he probably hadn't if the calm around the town was anything to tell from, but the thought was somewhat scary.

Seeing that he understood, Wolfgang pried his wife off of the boy, then he took the child into his arms in a rare show of affection. "Good, now don't do that again," he breathed. Wolf nodded and wrapped his arms around his father's neck, understanding rather well why his father was hugging him at all. He had heard stories from his mother how his grandparents had both died a gruesome death when his father was still young and how his sister, his sainted aunt Amaranth (Kiwi bless her soul), followed sometime later when Wolfgang had first been sealed up into the book Russet had found him in.

Wolfgang had lost an entire world and now his world revolved around the only thing he still considered dear to him and that was Russet and Wolf. The tears threatened to come back to Wolf's eyes again, so he quickly wiped them away before stepping back from his father. He smiled.

"Mom, dad…I made a friend while I was…gone," he said for the lack of a better word. "She helped me find you and she's—"

Wolf had turned around, ready to introduce his own hero to his parents, but found that she had disappeared, as if she had never really been there. Frowning, he looked around for her face in the streets, a flicker of red or maybe the signs of black hair amidst everything. But she was gone and without even a proper good-bye.

We didn't even tell each other our names, he thought with regret.

"Wolf sweetheart?" Russet called, looking around as her son did. "She who?"

The silver haired boy did not say anything for a moment, his yellow eyes on the spot where his crush had stood not too long ago, giggling at him as she smiled a honey-sweet smile. He shook his head. "It's nothing, mom."

Sighing in a sudden bout of irritation, Wolfgang about faced and stalked off. "Whatever. We've no time for chasing after flights of fancy. It's time to go home." Wolf looked at him incredulously.

"Home?" he repeated. He looked towards his mother who nodded. "But why are we going home? It isn't too late to visit your friends."

"Yes, well…lets just say that we're not the only negligent pair of parents this very day," his father told him with a malicious gleam in his eyes. That gleam wasn't for him however as he was soon to find out as they began walking in the direction of the carriage that had brought them to Baker Town in the morning. "It would seem that the shallow cow lost her son as well today and they couldn't be bothered with anyone until they've found the little brat…"

"Wolfgang! That isn't a very nice thing to say about Jill. She and Jack were very concerned about their boy, oh…What was his name again? Cerise? Carmine? Sangria?" Russet said allowed, a small frown on her lips as she tried to remember the name of her friends' son. Wolfgang gave her a withering look.

"You do realize that those are embarrassingly girly names, right, Hero?" he inquired, falling back onto old routines. According to everyone, Wolf's father used to call Russet Servant back when they first met and started to call her Hero after she had earned the status. It was sort of like his nickname for her. Likewise, his mother would call her husband 'my lord' every once in a while. "Well, whatever the name…we shan't be seeing them today."

"Yes, my lord," Russet replied.

"Russet…"

Wolf hung back a bit as they reached the carriage. He looked behind him sadly as his father, being the gentleman that he was helped his mother into the carriage. He was still wondering where his little friend had gone off to without so much as a word to him. Of course, he found a rather good reason as he got inside and sat next to his mother. His father knocked on the roof of the carriage and they were off.

The boy watched as the scenery rushed past, feeling a small sense of regret that he would probably never see that little girl again, whoever she had been. If only she had told him her name! He sighed softly, catching his mother's attention.

"Something the matter, Wolf?" she asked in concern.

Wolf opened his mouth to give a cheerful sort of reply when he caught the scent again…that wonderfully lovely aroma of apples and cinnamon that made his ears twitch pleasantly. Bringing his hand up—the one she held—he took a small sniff. He relaxed in his seat and just nodded at his mother.

"Oh, yeah. Everything's going to be just fine…"

------------

"Red Reaper Muffet-Inlaw! Where have you been?! You knew that we were having company!" Jill screeched, staring down at her little son who had nonchalantly walked back into the kitchen of their house in the Fluffy Forest of Forbidden Fruits. The woman had a legendary temper that matched her flame colored hair. She glared whole-heartedly down at the five year old who looked up at his mother with wide and innocent eyes.

"I was doing chores for Aunt Love!" he defended, playing with the hem of his cheerful little red cape. He looked at the floor guiltily, looking ready to cry. Jill stopped dead in mid rant.

"Chores?" she inquired, shock evident on her face. "Chores?" she repeated, her face going entirely red as her temper flared dangerously. "You're too young to be doing those sorts of chores! Wait till I get my hands on my godmother I'll—"

"What darling?" Jack asked, just coming in after spending an entire afternoon looking for his lost five year old son. He stopped and took in the scene before him. He looked at his little boy, who was using his puppy dog eyes to the best of his ability, then to his wife who was ready to rip a hole in the sky. Laughing nervously, he cautiously went over to his red-headed wife and put a gentle hand on her shoulder—which she promptly tried to bite. "I take it that something dreadful has happened, so I, therefore, must distract you with romance." Before the baker woman could argue Jack-Be-Nimble Inlaw the, arguably, worst pirate in the entire world, swooped down to kiss her.

"That isn't fair," she panted when he pulled away. She was about to say something else, he kissed her again. And when she still had some fight left in her, he smothered her with another distracting kiss. "Stop that!"

Jack grinned impertinently, but simply kissed her again until he finally got her to shut-up. That done, he crouched in front of his son—of whom hadn't blinked an eye during the entire exchange, most peculiar for a boy—to ask him exactly what had happened.

"Aunt Love came to me and said that a boy was lost and that I should help him find his parents," Red explained, giving the impression that he was entirely innocent, which he truly was. The dark haired man nodded, then ruffled his son's longish black hair. He stood up and looked at his wife.

"See? No harm."

"Bullshit."

Bullshit, indeed. Jill knew how her godmother worked and her most favorite type of romances were where one had a chance meeting that would determine what sort of relationship they would have in the future. She knew that the epitome of Love itself had set this whole thing up somehow and she did not like it one bit.

Of course, she thought no more of it when her husband kissed her again.

End Part I