A Trail In The Forest

1 - A meeting to remember.

Maybe, it was never the best idea for Kaito to decide that this actual time is a good one for hunting. Knowing –well- it's a full moon? Which means a lot of beasts should be roaming the forests searching for whatever moisture they need, or whatever food they feed on. On the other hand, he's one of these beasts after all, and well, a beast that had learnt –finally- how to control his inner power, or how to just stop howling whenever he sees something warm-blooded walking around.

On the other hand, it was kind of the perfect timing for the villagers to sacrifice whatever they have for the forest, meaning extra food for the smart beast, well; he gave himself a good pat on his back for that. That's why he decided to stealthily walk through the trees, once he caught the smell of what his kind call blood suckers.

Kaito hid behind a large rainforest-like tree, as he watched two men –not humans, that's the only thing he observed after inhaling their un-healthy scent- approaching each other as they were probably planning on some kind of attack or just out hunting some poor human, he truly pity whoever they want to drain, besides, he still thinks that only an idiot would be slacking outside in the forest during that un-holy hour.

And that's when he caught the glance of that idiotic human, Kaito tried goggling at the black haired boy who was hiding behind some tree, thinking he's in some kind of weird show where he would end up putting these two men in jail or whatever, little did he know that he's the prey in this whole scene, as they were wasting time, waiting for the moment they could just taste the poor human, who was playing the detective game with himself.

One of the men smirked to the other, and un-shockingly the other happily returned his smirk back, it was when Kaito knew that he needed to do anything to save the pure human, and since he's a supernatural after all, with an inner beast living in-between his guts, he knew that it was the perfect moment to call him out, or just run toward the boy and pull him away with his overly high speed, and that's exactly what he's done.

However, when he got closer to them, he noticed that one of the men has a silky long silver hair, while the other was just –probably bald- shorter and a little fatter. Kaito pulled the boy by the back of his jumper as he ran off in the trees, knowing that the blood suckers would be chasing him for sure, after he heard one of them cursing him before they sat off to their never-ending chasing, especially when they thought that he's some werewolf who came along to steal their hunt.

"Holly fuck, they're following us." Kaito said, still trying to dodge the punches he was receiving from the human that was lying across his right shoulder. "We need to speed up."

"Actually, you need to put me down, and then we can solve that later."

"Basically, I can't set you-"

Kaito stopped in his trail, when he noticed that the human managed to jump of his shoulders somehow, as he descended then went back to where the human was, to find that the blood suckers have caught up with the amazing progress they were making.

"Stay away from him! I'm warning you." Kaito yelled at the top of his lungs when he saw one of them was stepping closer to where the human was standing.

"And, what are you going to do?" The silver haired man, chuckled humorlessly, as he lunged to where Kaito is, letting his canines appear, before trying to stick them on his body, Kaito managed to block them easily as he moved to his right side, letting the vampire hitting his head with one of the trees that was behind him.

However, that hit didn't even harm him, only made him stronger and filled with rage to kill that damn werewolf, Jen stumbled back as he tried using his full speed and lunged back at Kaito, as he tried to attack him with his claws, causing him to slow down again back to his normal speed. He also managed to wound him using his claws, causing the vampire to moan as he tripped down to his face.

Kaito was about to smirk when he heard a high pitched scream, causing his head to tilt to his left side, cursing intentionally, when he noticed how stupid he was, getting caught up with a needless fight when he was supposed to protect some idiotic human, who was about to get drained by the other vampire who found the good chance to do it, and well, he kind of managed.

Kaito allowed his canes, and claws to come visible again as he launched at the other vampire, smacking him on his back, allowing his claws to dig inside him, throwing him off the poor human, as he took a hold of him again, and sat off to where his friend Aoko was, since she would be quite helpful in a situation like that.

Even though, it's quite aberration for a werewolf to save a human, normally they hunt or turn them. Kaito tends to find them more amiable. Knowing he wasn't born as a beast, but rather turned to one. He just abhors this forest, knowing he always wound up in a fight with some weird creature-most of them are vampires, not only for the sake of saving somebody, but some of them are always aiming on attacking him as well. To appease his anger, since he let that person get hurt, he tried with all his effort alacrity to reach where Aoko is living, since she's quite good with these kinds of things. Knowing she's the famous village doctor who's secretly helping a werewolf that the whole village fear and always plan to kill thinking he brings them bad-luck, and hoping to give his head to their witch, but overall, he truly trusted her.

However, once he reached where Aoko is, and told her about what happened, she shook her head, and chided about how he shouldn't get involved with these creatures anymore, especially when he knows that they're way stronger on a full moon's night.

"He's lost a large amount of blood." She informed, once he sat the poor man on one of her white neat beds. "And he's in a more dangerous situation."

"Does that mean that he can't survive it?" Kaito asked, slowly taking a seat, as he sighed, knowing he failed to save him.

However, his face lightened up when he saw her shaking her head. "A dangerous situation doesn't mean that he's going to die, he's just going to be quite weak for some days –probably weeks." She informed, as she gave him a look of sympathy before turning back to her work.

It's been two days since the incident, and Kaito had taken the big responsibility of taking care of that human, that Aoko said she would be working on finding his identity, since he's drolly from another village.

Taking care of other person was never an easy task for Kaito, knowing they had to reserve the amount of blood he's lost during the little fight he had with that vampire. It also managed in debasing his need to start a family soon, since he surely wasn't looking forward to taking care of someone else on a daily base. Yet, Kaito has been quite obliged to take care of that person, knowing that he's the one who caused it to himself, and that the werewolf was only helping and if only he had listened to what he wanted to say then it wouldn't have ended up like this.

Kaito's heart beamed up a little when he saw the other one shuffling in his sheets, as he tried to say something, however, he was un-able to form a coherent sentence, probably from the lack of sleep –however, he's been asleep for almost two days – or because , he's just about to wake up.

And again, he made a correct observation, because the man was finally opening his eyes, and trying to sit himself up.

"Hello?" Kaito greeted awkwardly, earning himself a simple nod from the other, who's probably still trying to get used to being awake, the light or just his surroundings. "Good to finally see you awake again."

"Oh, how long have I been sleeping?" Shinichi asked, as he sighed letting himself lay back again, because apparently, this simple move consumes quite a lot of energy from him. "And where am I?"

"Basically, you've been asleep for almost two days?" Kaito said as he studied the tired expression that was painted on the other's face. "And you're in my house- or cottage, whatever would you like to call it."

Shinichi opened one of his eyes, as he stared at the place around him, when he whispered. "This place is so inept for somebody to live in, actually."

Kaito rolled his eyes, as he took another look of the messy surrounding, well, not too messy, considering he only has a bed, and a bathroom, since well, he doesn't need as much food as humans need, however, Aoko has been sending some food daily for their patient. "If it wasn't for this place, you would have been forced to stay with Aoko, and I'm warning you, for the second time now, you would never enjoy your time there."

"Aoko? Who's that?"

"She's the woman who treated you, and let me tell you something, she was grunted with an indolent father, who thinks he's the smartest in the village, but doesn't actually know what his job consists of." Kaito chuckled, as he pictured one of the chases between Aoko's father and him.

"Oh, she seems pretty fun." Shinichi politely commented, not quite interested in the whole father or even the woman, who treated him, subject as he was more interested in finding where he actually is, and examining or observing the place around him.

"So, you're from here?" Kaito asked dumbly, not really liking the quite environment they're sharing, even if he still thinks that the human lying before him, is the dumbest individual to ever exists knowing he's put himself openly in a chase between him and two vampires –one of the most strongest ones actually, but he would rather not remember about the whole fighting thingy for now. "I mean Aoko asked the village here and none of them reported anybody missing or even know you when she described eh, your looks? For them, so I was just wondering…." He rambled, trying to explain the situation in easier words, but too bad he graciously failed in doing it.

"This village?" Shinichi paused for a moment, before answering. "No, I'm not from your village, I only came chasing after those suspicions-"

"The vampires."

Kaito's un-needed comment earned him a long session of eye rolling. "Whatever you call them."

"I call them? One of them actually bit you." Kaito remarked, folding his arms on his chest, as he raised an eyebrow.

"Well, it would have gone smoothly if you hadn't got yourself involved."

"Myself? I actually saved you."

"Who said I needed you? Even if they were vampires, I would have found a way to get myself safely out of the whole situation."

"I bet you couldn't even do it." Kaito chuckled, as he leaned back in his seat.

Shinichi huffed, as he rolled his eyes, collecting his whole energy, as he held himself upward, in a semi-sitting position, in attempting to stand up.

"Stop." Kaito cooed, as he watched the other's nearly failure. "Aoko said you've lost plenty of blood, so it's the best for you to rest."

"Shut up.'' Shinichi mumbled, as he bit his bottom lip, pushing the blanket away, as he put his legs down, reaching the floor, holding on the other side of the bed, as he tried standing back on his feet. Luckily, his body wasn't as weak as he imagined, as he winced when he was fully stood up, with his stomach growling, he took a deep breath, before turning his attention to the other man, who was quite amazed by how determined he was.

"Nice." Kaito grinned, as he stood up, wrapping an arm around Shinichi's shoulder. "Thought I would need to carry you around during your whole stay here."

Shinichi wiggled under his grip. "I can walk." He argued, trying to push Kaito's arm away.

"I know you can, I'm just leading the way since you're not familiar with the place here."

Aoko rolled her eyes once she saw her friend knocking on the door. "What do you want?" She had asked, as he entered the room, not noticing the other one entering with him. "Oh, I'm happy that you're better now." She said, as she flashed a welcomed smile at Shinichi, ignoring Kaito's eye roll, since he was quite used with her ignoring more than fifty percent of his daily moves, so he didn't really comment on her hypocrite ways.

"Thank you," Shinichi replied, politely nodding at her direction.

"So, you're not from here right?" She asked, as she mentioned for him to take a seat next to Kuroba who invited himself in.

"Yeah, I'm not from this village." He remarked, as he took a look at the perfectly designed semi-doctor office that they were in.

"And what's your name, may I ask?" Aoko wondered again, as she casted a look on her friend, quite astonished that he hasn't asked the fellow about his name yet, knowing he would normally be more than just protective when it comes to a matter like that (since, he doesn't really like it when strangers visit or roam around their village, even if he isn't an official citizen and occasionally aware by the fact that more than half of the village hates on him, because he's more like a beast, he still doesn't like strangers, especially a certain blond, but that's a story for another time.) which only earned her a small shrug from the messy haired werewolf.

"Kudou Shinichi." The other replied, easily, as he waited for Aoko's reaction.

"Oh, Kudou-san, it utter pleasure to meet you." Aoko muttered, politely, offering him a welcoming smile. "I'm Nakamouri Aoko."

It was surprisingly enough for Kaito when he found that his friend actually heard of his little patient before. As they sat together –since Aoko has invited them for breakfast- nursing their food, he was more shocked when he knew the real occupation of the new-comer, since he would have never guessed that he's actually a hunter –a famous one to be exact, as well. He has heard rumors about the man, but since he never had a direct encounter with him, except for the last couple of days, he would have never known that the hunter even exists for sure, He had also learnt, that Shinichi came along for chasing after those vampires, as they were disturbing the peace in his own village. Overall, Kaito has noted that Kudou-san has no intention of going back to his village for the meantime (One of the reasons would be because he was still recovering, but probably the careless kid was too proud to admit it, not like Kaito would let it pass though, he was plotting future plans about the best ways to torture the poor fellow about them soon.) that's why, knowing Aoko really cares about the whole hunting idea, even that she was actually one of the closest friend for a werewolf, however, she knew –quite well-that Kaito was holding another story, but it wasn't valid for the meantime, to mention it, knowing that probably the new fellow hasn't discovered that the person who saved him, was actually one of the beasts he was trying to catch, she decided to keep her mouth shut, but still, she had offered for Kudou-member to stay for them, for a little while.

And he graciously accepted the offer, since he still had some business he needed to take care of.