A/N: I own nothing but a copy of the manga and some clip-ons, for which I'm sure Tsume would be grateful. This WIP is set in the same verse as "Shots in Paradise" and a long, ongoing piece called "Paradise Blues." Like "Shots," each chapter in "Tougher Than Leather" can stand mostly on its own, but whereas "Shots" will focus on Quent, Blue, Hige, Hubb, and Cher, this one focuses on Tsume, his gang, and his original wolf pack(1). Toboe, of course, will turn up everywhere.
Warnings: We're dealing with Tsume, so violence, swearing, and slash are pretty much a given. We're also dealing with quintessential Wargfic, so cracky humor and angst are also nearly a guarantee. Don't say I didn't warn you.
"What are you wearing, runt?" The chubby wolf took in his smaller pack mate with amused eyes.
The littler wolf adjusted the belt buckle, hitching the oversized black leather pants higher on his bony hips. The bulky matching jacket did little to check the image of a boy who had raided his elder brother's closet. "What's it look like?" the youngster snapped back. "And don't call me runt."
"You look ridiculous." The heavyset wolf mussed the young one's long, straight hair, earning him more protests. "How many times did you have to roll up the ankles?"
"I do not!" the youngster retorted, smoothing back his hair. "Leather is cool. And I'm still growing, so I bought it a little big." He shrugged the cumbersome coat into a better position as the beta of the pack approached, turning away from the mouth of the alleyway that they had taken temporary shelter in as they waited for the rest of their pack to finish supplying themselves with what little they could buy or steal.
"You're going to have to get to be nearly as tall as I am before that fits you correctly," the pack's second-in-command said with a lazy smirk. "It's not exactly you, runt."
"It will be," the yearling-grown wolf said firmly, happy to let the hated nickname slide as long as it was coming from those lips. "You know some of the dangers we've faced on our way to paradise, and the journey probably won't get any easier. It's time I grew up and became as good a fighter as any of the rest of you."
"So you went and bought yourself some leather clothes for your human projection?" the chubby brown wolf concluded with a laugh. "You'd have better spent your money on obedience training."
"I don't have far to go to be as strong as you," the lean youngster snapped. The heavy brown wolf leaned forward, showing too many teeth in his smile. The pair began to circle each other in the alleyway as if ready to brawl, but the tall, muscularly rangy form of the gray beta stepped between them.
"You do your share of fighting when you have to, runt, but I gotta agree with porky. You look stupid," he summarized baldly.
"I think he looks cute," a feminine voice opined. The she-wolf adjusted her scarf as she ducked into the shelter of the alleyway, a bag of supplies clutched tightly under her right arm.
Although he usually enjoyed spending time with his pack sister, the young wolf sighed irritably at her poor sense of timing. "That wasn't exactly the look I was going for."
"You ought to show Father. He'd like it," she told the youngest wolf as she handed out food and snuggled up with her chosen mate. The half-grown male tried to contain his jealousy at their easy display of affection.
"He'd laugh, if these two clowns are any indication," he compromised miserably, pointing a thumb at the gleefully gorging brown wolf and ripping into his own share of meat as roughly as he could without staining his new clothing.
"No he wouldn't," she reassured him, brushing his hair away from one ear. "He likes you."
"Speaking of clowns and Father, how is our favorite conspiracy nut, anyway?" the heavyset brown asked her.
She wagged a playfully admonitory finger at him. "You shouldn't speak that way about the one who's leading us to paradise. He's all right, though." She turned back to the youngest, noticing that he had pushed his hair back into his face as soon as he had wolfed down his food. "Why do you keep doing that? Don't all those strands in your eyes drive you crazy?" the female asked.
"Obviously," the chubby wolf answered for his smaller pack mate. The beta smirked and took another bite of his food.
"It covers my ears. At least as a wolf I can pin them back," the young one grumbled, avoiding his pack members' eyes.
"You'll grow into those, too," she told him, but the smallest member of the pack just gave her a disbelieving grunt and pawed through the bag, self-consciously keeping one hand cupped around the more visible of his over-proportioned ears. The female paused, giving him a long, considering stare. "You know, we might be able to do that to your human image, too…" she offered at last.
The elder of the two brown wolves recognized her expression and groaned. "You're not really going to take the runt to get his ears pierced."
"Of course not," she replied smoothly, rising from the comfortable tangle of limbs and food. "I'll do it myself and let him pick out some studs. You're not afraid of needles, are you, tough guy?"
"Of course I'm not! These guys nip me enough that one little prick isn't going to hurt." The young one perked up at his pack sister's nickname for him. She smiled, sharing a knowing glance with the pack beta.
"Just keep it to something simple. We can't afford anything too wild for him," the dark gray wolf told them, slouching back to check for the others at the mouth of the alleyway.
The leather-clad youngster waved away monetary concerns with a thoughtless flick of his wrist, swaggering a bit now that the taciturn beta had given his unspoken approval. "No problem," he said, grinning as he followed his pack sister back into the busy city streets.
The next hour found two cloaked wolves trawling through the marketplace, browsing the various jewelers' displays. "Oooh, those are cool," the smaller of the pair exclaimed, lingering over a rack of golden studs that would curve behind one's ear to drop into a wicked-looking point.
His companion rolled her eyes and picked up something from another rack. "Those are sold individually. If you want a fang, you'll have to earn it. These will be good to start you off with." She placed the earrings in her hand between the small wolf's eyes and the display.
"Thin gold hoops?" he asked hesitantly. "Aren't those a little… girly?"
"They'll bring out your eyes," she told him, smiling. "Besides, you don't want too much weight on them right away."
"I was hoping for something that would make him take me more seriously," he said, touching one ear. She didn't have to ask which "him" the small wolf was referring to. The beta of their pack might pretend not to notice the youngling's fascination with him, but it was clear enough to everyone else.
"He does take you seriously," she said, putting a hand on his leather-clad shoulder. "You're like the brother he never had."
"Yeah," the younger wolf said flatly, sliding out of her grip. "I was hoping to change the way he looked at me."
The female sighed and shook her head. "Oh, T-" A hand over her mouth cut her off.
"Can't you just let me hate you in peace and quiet for once?" the young wolf asked with more sorrow than anger in his voice.
"Nope," she said, pushing his hand away. "We can't change the way others feel, but by the way we act, we can influence our overriding emotions and give an example to others. You love him. That's a good thing; he loves you too, just… not that way. I can't change it if you hate me for claiming him and I'm sorry if you feel that way. But you've been a brother to me, too, and I don't want to lose that to despair or recklessness." She picked up the thin golden hoops and turned towards the merchant's cashier table. Peeking over her shoulder, she let out a sigh of relief when he followed a few halting paces behind.
"So this is an apology present?" he asked as she paid the shopkeeper.
She shook her head. "A help-you-find-your-own-mate-so-you'll-stop-chasing-mine present." The small wolf looked away, trying to keep from blushing. "That's why I'm not going to stop bugging you, kid. I won't let you drive yourself to distraction when you've got a pack to do it for you." Once they'd exited the bustle of the main shopping square, she partially dropped her human façade and nipped his ears. The youngster was too surprised to voice more than a belated yip. "Good thing you're not afraid of needles, tough guy."
"Thanks, I think." The younger wolf grimaced as he reached up to finger the small new holes in his ears and the golden hoops his pack sister had fitted within them.
"You look good, Tsume," she told him. "I know your human image may not exactly be everything you want, but it reflects the wolf within. If you ask me, there's something very beautiful about that."
Tsume, better known to his elders as the runt, smiled half-heartedly and decided not to show his pack sister the golden fang he had pocketed. He would wear it when the time was right. Just because he had stolen it from the human merchant didn't mean he wouldn't try to earn it with the wolves.
(1) Not necessarily the pack he starts with in the anime. It's set in Paradise, and I couldn't resist including a certain set of fallen wolves in Tsume's background. Fans of a certain tall, scarred, dark gray furred, and yellow-eyed wolf, mea culpa. Please just remember to leave a little left for the Tsume fans to chew on. Yes, the T/T is coming, but it'll be a few chapters...