A/N: It's all for the best that I don't own them, probably. As to Zali, I've seen it spelled both ways, but I've chosen to go with the dubs' Zali over the subtitled spelling of Zari, because a.) they were more professional-looking than any subs I've seen, b.) I'm a heathen who prefers the dubs anyway. (As if even onesided Tsume/Zali wasn't a big enough hint... I really do ship Zali/Cole, we swears.)
His ear hurt, his back hurt, his tail felt like it had been broken, but all of this was secondary to the pain in his chest. Had the human soldiers…?
No, Tsume suppressed the thought harshly. If the soldiers had gotten him, he would not be in a position to feel this much pain. Humans hated wolves. If they knew what he was, he would be dead.
"You're dead, runt." He recognized those teeth prickling against his throat. Compared to the poison that still tickled at his lungs and the shallow scrapes of gunshot shrapnel, those teeth were a comfort. Or so they would be, if Tsume had not at last remembered just what had caused the wounds in his chest. He shivered, trying desperately to halt the involuntary motion before it rose above his spine. These rounds of wrestling could be as close as he might ever get to snuggling with the iron-gray beta, but Tsume knew that Zali was in no mood to play today. "You ran like a coward, got yourself shot and poisoned, and then fell off a cliff."
"Father threw me off of it!" Tsume choked out between his pack mate's fangs. They didn't relax.
"He had every right to. You know what you were, Tsume, and you still ran." A paw weighed heavily into his shoulder, the nails digging into the leather jacket.
The leather had come to fit the young white-haired wolf too well in the passing years. Having grown to be nearly as tall, although still twice as skinny as his idol, Tsume had begun to find the shoulders of his coat were too confining for his growing muscles, and a good two inches of dark bare skin showed between the cropped jacket and low-cut pants. He had come to wear all three earrings openly; the fang in his right ear and the two thin hoops side by side on the left lobe. Tsume thought he had earned them. The young gray hunted well, and he was becoming something of a rising star in intra-pack struggles. The young wolf would never likely become alpha, and under their current leader, Tsume would probably never even make beta status; Zali was too strong and canny for the younger silver-gray to challenge him, but Tsume had believed himself a capable warrior. He'd proven himself to his elder pack mates as one to be trusted, one who could be depended upon, one they might follow. Then, they had entered the tunnel.
Tsume had charged right ahead, even when a few of the elder wolves had expressed misgivings about the place. The scent of lunar flower was heady in his nostrils, blinding him to any other scent emanating from the tunnel or its surroundings. Zali had followed just behind him, shouting for the runt to hold back until they could examine it, but Tsume hadn't cared. He was running at the lead, Zali at his side, the pack at his back, and Paradise waiting before him. The alpha had been the next, and the rest of the pack scrambled after, crowding into the dark old tunnel.
A pink mist hissed down from the low ceiling, its sickly sweet scent finally cutting through the smell of lunar flowers. By that point, it was too late. Tsume scrabbled to a halt. They were too far from an exit to push forward, too far from the entrance to turn and run. Wolves bolted in both directions, buffeting the young gray in panic as the poison began to take affect. Then came the black-clad shapes of soldiers, their faces hidden behind smooth black red-visored helmets with built-in gas masks. The humans hid behind the debris littering the floor of the old tunnel, taking aim at the panicked wolves with lasers, sonic guns, and old fashioned but still deadly heavy caliber bullets. Zali leapt away from Tsume's side, tackling the nearest soldier and ripping through his armor. Another human took aim at the iron gray beta, and Tsume lost sight of him behind the smoke and the bodies in the ruins. The young wolf coughed, desperately trying to expel the deadly air of the tunnel.
"Tsume! Over here!" There was Moss, fighting off an opponent of his own. The heavy creamy-brown male dodged a laser beam and flung himself at the soldier's head. Although he did not pack the same muscle mass as his father or Zali, the brown wolf's weight was enough to send the human staggering, dropping its weapon as it clawed desperately at the wolf upon its shoulders. Tsume ran, barely avoiding the high intensity blast of a sonic gun. The weapon left his ears ringing, and his vision was beginning to blur. His nose was long dead to everything but the overpowering sweetness of the poison and the maddening, bitterly beautiful remains of the lunar flower scent. He snorted, shaking his head.
There. The exit. It would mean leaving his friends, but in his current state of senseless, numb panic, Tsume couldn't care less. He wasn't sure if anyone was left alive to leave behind. He needed air, and the swath of bright light ahead seemed to promise the purest he would ever breathe. Stumbling as the rebound from a low bullet struck him in the side, Tsume rushed toward it.
Suddenly, the light was cut off, and all that stood before the young gray were shadows. "Tsume?" The voice was muffled by the ringing in his ears, but those tones were familiar. It was their alpha, and he hardly sounded pleased. Mad with fear, Tsume pinned back his ears and lips, his tail tucked firmly beneath him. "Help us, Tsume!" the grizzled, black and cream-colored alpha demanded. The young wolf ducked, trying to dodge around him. "Tsume…" the elder wolf let out a warning growl, cutting him off. The youngster whined and snapped, trying to go back toward the safety of the open plains beyond the alpha. The alpha snarled and grabbed the gray at the base of his throat, tearing deeply into his chest and flinging him over the edge of the cliff. Tsume hit the ground, and knew no more until he had felt Zali's teeth at his throat.
"The others think you died in the fight. Keep it that way, or you'll be dead to everyone," the iron gray wolf told him, releasing Tsume's neck at last.
Tsume inhaled as deeply as he could with an aching chest, reaching to touch first his neck and then his sternum. It had been bandaged with a familiar-looking wide orange scarf. "Why am I still breathing?"
"Because Cole still loves you, runt," Zali said gruffly. He knocked the dark hand away when Tsume began to toy with the knot in the scarf. "You're not gonna look pretty when that comes off. We didn't have anything that would stop it from scarring."
The younger wolf looked up into the beta's face, his eyes lingering upon the long gash down the left side. "We'll match, then. I always wanted to be like you, Zali."
The darker elder grunted and looked away, pushing something small and metallic into his hand. "I only found two." Tsume opened his hand to reveal a mismatching pair of earrings, his fanglike stud and one of the thin hoops. Although he had never liked the smaller earrings as much as his fang, it saddened him to think that he had lost part of his pack sister's gift. Who knew what else he had lost of his family?
"Is Cole…? Are the others…?" Tsume couldn't bring himself to properly phrase the question. Zali understood him, anyway.
"Cole's just fine. Not a mark on her. Moss'll make it, and even Gramps was too slow to reach the tunnel before the action was over." There was a long list of unspoken names that had been quick enough to enter, but much too slow to exit. "Her father's alive, too, but Tsume…" Zali's voice flattened, and his yellow eyes focused directly into those of the younger wolf. "He wants you dead. I can't say I blame him. You can't come home, runt." The beta made as if to rise back to his feet, but Tsume reached to catch him by the arm. Fighting back the ache in his chest and the tension in the older wolf's muscles, the young wolf stole a kiss from the iron-gray's lips.
"I'll stay right here," Tsume said, leaning back on the ground. "You won't have to hear from me again."
"You heal, runt," Zali ordered him coldly, swiping at his mouth with the back of his wrist. "You heal, and then you get the hell out of this city. Find some other route to Paradise; this one's closed off."
"Just as soon as I can return Cole's scarf," Tsume said, touching the fabric wrapped above his heart. The scarf was warm, but the ground was cold, and the fresh air stung his lungs with its chill. To the north, Tsume thought he caught the faintest whiff of a lunar flower.
