Chapter One

The ride home was relatively uneventful. I pondered what to do with my new and troublesome Pet - who was suspiciously silent in his cage, other than the occasional growl of anger brought on by a bump in the road - and whether I was being smart to keep him, or incredibly stupid.

Once parked in the driveway beside my house – a one story ranch-type with a large porch and an even larger yard - I took some time pondering the best way to move my Pet to his new home.

"Well taking you out of there isn't an option." I said as I lowered the tailgate. "I don't want to lose my new Pet on the first day. And I can't carry your cage all by myself…" A growl answered my musings, and I shook my head. "I suppose I have no choice then…..Roland!"

"Master!" A soft voice answered my call. A slim body, finely muscled, appeared in the garage doorway. Black hair tousled into soft spikes, and bright green eyes full of love and devotion made me smile.

"Roland, I need you here." Roland's eyes lit up, his fuzzy black ears perked and his thick tail swished happily as he made his way over to me. There was silence from inside the cage and I expected my Pet to be sniffling at the air, trying to determine what the new scent was.

"How can I help you Master?"

"I need your help moving him." I said, motioning to the cage. Roland tilted his head at the metal box in curiosity. "He's going to be a bit of a handful and I don't want to risk him running away if I open that out here."

"Oh." Roland perched on the balls of his feet then gracefully leapt up to land next to the cage. He stuck his nose next to one of the air holes and began sniffling in curiosity. I heard and answering sniffle from inside before the cage rattled violently and Roland fell backwards with a yelp.

"Roland! Are you okay?" I asked, chuckling despite myself. He shot me a pouty look.

"You didn't tell me he was phobic." I blinked as Roland crouched back beside the cage. "Did you even know?" I shook my head. It was times like these I felt stupid for forgetting that Roland was a retired Medic Pet, and that the original purpose of those Pets were medical companions for those in need.

"Well that certainly explains his behavior." I said lightly. "You're sure?" I asked Roland, willing to believe my Pet over anything else. Roland nodded certainly. "Then that's certainly treatable. Now let's get him inside before it rains. Or snows."

"Master, it's sunny. And it isn't even October yet, it can't snow." I shrugged and made a show of rubbing my arms as Roland giggled and moved to grasp the back end of the cage. There was a soft growl from inside the cage, but we both ignored it. Taking my end, which just happened to be the one with the viewing square, I hefted it and slowly began to walk backwards with it. I heard Roland thump down, and the cage dipped.

"You okay there Roland?" I asked. I heard an affirmative grunt. "We'll be putting him in the room next to yours."

"I thought he was going to room with me?" I heard Roland ask hesitantly.

"He was." I answered as we moved. A peek into the rectangle confirmed to me that my new Pet was plastered to the bottom of the cage. "But now that I have him, his behavior worries me."

"I can take care of myself." I heard Roland pout. I chuckled as I bumped the door open with my hip and stepped inside the house. A quick glance confirmed the living room was spotless, as was the kitchen and dining room.

"You did a good job." I said as we made it to the empty bedroom and were finally able to put the cage down. Roland beamed. "Now be a doll and get me the catch pole and some ropes." Ears fattened but Roland rushed to do as I asked. I turned my attention to the Pet in the cage. "Before I let you out of there, we need to think of a name for you." I paced in front of the rectangular opening and caught a brief flash of blue eyes. "I can't keep calling you Pet, or Zero-One." I kept my voice soft as I spoke. "How about something foreign? After your Dad? No." I dismissed the idea. "Something Japanese then."

"May I suggest Hiiro, Master?" I glanced up at Roland, who was holding the catch pole and ropes as far away from his body as possible. "After the wild Pet found four years ago?"

"Hiiro I.E. Yui." I said to myself. I nodded and retrieved the pole and ropes from Roland. "I like it." I finally said. "You may come in or stay out Roland. Whichever, just close and lock the door."

"Yes Master." I returned to standing in front of the cage as Roland closed the door behind him. He kept close to it however, ready to bolt if need be. I returned to the front of the cage and leaned the pole against on wall, within reach. All but one coil of rope followed it, and that one coil was deftly made into a slip noose. I sincerely hoped I didn't have to use it.

"All right Hiiro. I'm going to open the door for you. Roland and I are the only ones here and we won't hurt you." With one hand I twisted the lock off the cage and let the door swing open. I stepped back immediately and waited.

A minute passed. And then another. After ten minutes of waiting for something, anything, I finally detected movement inside the cage. I smiled as a small form inched foreword. Hands appeared first. They were dark with dirt and what appeared to be dried blood. His claws were in full view, attesting to his tense fear, and I could see that they needed clipped and filed.

Slowly he inched his way out into the light and I suppressed a groan at the sight of his filthy, malnourished, and beaten body. He crouched at the mouth of the cage and stared at me. "I see that one of our first orders of business is a bath." I said lightly. What happened next was something I was not quite prepared for.

Hiiro coiled his legs under him and, with a silent snarl complete with bared fangs, launched himself straight at me. I managed to duck to the side before his jagged claws could do more than rip my shirt, and watched as he slammed into the wall behind me with a pained yelp.

"Master! Are you all right?" I motioned for Roland to be quiet as Hiiro struggled to balance on his fours. Chocolate-colored hair covered a pale face lined with smudges of dirt and dried blood. Torn cat-like ears pressed flat against the sides of his head, and a tail with bare patches swung madly behind him as he thought out his escape. It's unfortunate for him that there will be none.

"Easy now. That wasn't a nice thing to do Hiiro." I scolded gently. When he didn't move I kept talking. This time I directed my speech to Roland. "Roland, go ahead and read through his files. They're in the folder on the cage. See what you make of him." I could hear Roland moving slowly as he retrieved the folders and began to read. Remembering his earlier comment about phobias, I told him to try to pinpoint what phobias we had to work with.

Hiiro took this moment of distraction on my part to bolt around me and Roland and slam into the door. When the knob wouldn't turn for him, he growled and used his ragged claws to scratch at the hard wood. He managed to scratch deep furrows into the wood by the time Roland was finished, and by the look on his face I figured the news wouldn't be so great.

"I haven't really done this in a while, Master. So I don't know if I'm right or not….I only remember a little of my training from before I lived with you and it didn't really consist of phobias, just generalizations…." I nodded for him to continue. My poor door was now the victim of many deep furrows, but I wouldn't interfere until I had some idea of what was wrong with Hiiro.

"Go on, give me your best."

"I think he has a combination of many phobias. After reading the files I don't really think it's hereditary. I think they're all because of improper training or handling and towards the end, neglect and abuse. I read that they clipped his claws at a young age…and that they tried many ways to control him. I think that made it worse." I nodded. It made sense to me.

"So what do I have to work with?"

"He has agoraphobia for sure. Aptaphobia, or the fear of being touched, and with that probably Chirophobia. The fear of hands." I nodded. "I wouldn't be surprised if he had claustrophobia and cleisiophobia. The fear of enclosed spaces and the fear of being locked in them."

"I haven't heard of the last one." I commented as Hiiro abandoned his scratching post.

"Merinthophobia, the fear of being tied up or bound." I frowned at that. "And I would guess he'll show signs of Onomatophobia – the fear of certain words of names." Roland paused. "He might have inherited the ability to become phobic, but the real culprit is his personality and how he was handled."

"Thank you Roland." Roland nodded and retreated behind the cage as Hiiro stared at us. "Well you certainly are an enigma." I said. His tail swished. I slowly maneuvered him away from the door and back to the other side of the room. "Roland, go make us a light lunch? Then you have the afternoon off." Roland nodded and slipped out, locking the door firmly behind him.

With the ropes and pole within reach I settled myself down on the floor with a sigh. Hiiro watched me with cautious interest until I was settled, and to my surprise he settled on his own haunches. He was far from relaxed however.

"I suppose it's only fair to introduce myself." I said calmly. "My name is Alexi Yui. I was born and raised here. My parents are deceased but my siblings are alive and are scattered around Japan and America. I have no wife or lover, and no children. Let's see. I bought Roland two years ago, from his current owners children. He was a Medic Pet before this. Before that, for a short time, he was to be a Slave-Pet and was rescued. I'm sure you noticed he calls me Master?"

Roland returned with a plate of food, an empty bowl, and a water bottle long after I finished my narrative about myself. Hiiro had hunkered down even more in that time, and I caught him watching me in interest more than once. Roland stole a few bites of food before retreating, leaving me to turn my attention back to Hiiro.

Once Hiiro's attention was on me, I smiled at him and slid a crouton across the floor to bump his hand. He stared at it. "It's food." I said, picking one up and eating it myself. "For you. You must be hungry." He eyed it, but didn't touch it. I slid another one over to him and waited.

Once twenty minutes had passed, he finally lowered his head and sniffled at the square pieces of hard bread. His tongue poked out to lick on piece quickly. When I made no move to reprimand him he gently took one of the pieces between his teeth. It was gone in two bites. The other soon followed.

"Good?" I asked. "Here then, I have more." This time I didn't slide it as hard and it stopped a few inches in front of him. He stared at it, perplexed. Then he stretched his neck out and snatched it up. I fed him a few more little pieces before again, increasing the distance between him and it. His ears twitched when he realized he would have to move, and I settled in for a long wait.

To my surprise it only took ten minutes for Hiiro to make up his mind to shuffle forward and grab his prize. I slid another crouton to him and he snatched it up. His battered tail was swishing across the floor now, but not so much in panic as anxiousness. He wanted the food on my plate but hated coming close for it.

"This whole plate is for you." I said, jiggling the plate in front of me. There were more croutons on it, and some bread and cheese. Hiiro eyed it. I slid him another crouton. "We can do this all night." Twenty-five minutes and two handfuls of croutons later, Hiiro was in reaching distance. He was shaking slightly, and kept watching me, but he wasn't running or attacking.

"You did good for today Hiiro." I said softly. "I'll leave you to finish your dinner." I filled the empty bowl with water and slowly stood up. I picked up the pole and coils of rope, intending to take them with me. Hiiro fled back to the corner he was previously huddled in, but returned to the plate of food and bowl of water once I inched myself out the door.

TBC

I found the phobias on a huge list online. There are some really interesting one's out there….

And as promised, more info!

Appearance:

Both canine and feline Pets look more human than animal - With a human-like body, animal ears, a tail, and in the case of a feline retractable claws. Both species of Pets come in different "breeds" like normal cats and dogs, and as such their ears and tails are different colors, shapes, textures, etc.

Both breeds are naturally small. Newborns are the size of small human babies, at the age of five they are the size of a toddler and tend to grow the most at this age, at ten they are the size of a ten year old child. They are considered full grown at the age of twenty and are roughly the size of a young adult. They stay this size the rest of their life.

Behavior:

Both species have the ability to walk and talk like humans, but they have to be trained to do so. Most prefer to walk in a crouched position on all fours than upright. If they aren't trained, instead of talking like humans they speak like animals – with chirps, barks, yips, meows, growls, etc.