Wolf's Rain is copyright to BONES/ Nobumoto Keiko; Nikki belongs to me.

**side note (so as not to have my readers confused on who's speaking, wolf or human):

'talk' - wolf speech

"talk" - human speech

City of Howls - Part Two

The pug cowered and whimpered quietly behind his mistress' legs.

She smirked a little and flashed a fang, folding her arms leisurely behind her head as she walked alongside her friends.

He caught the mischievous look that briefly crossed her face and smirked as well, hands in the pockets of his worn leather jacket. "Obviously you picked up a lot living with your brother," he commented.

Her ears twitched and she slid open a blue eye. "I have no idea what you're talking about," she quipped serenely.

The third wolf present rolled his eyes, pausing short of a hot dog stand to sniff out the "merchandise"; the couple spared him a brief glance before watching him dive inside an alley, following him at a leisurely pace.

"See, what'd I tell ya? Hardly anyone notices us!" He chirped to the white wolf, hands in his hoodie pockets sliding out to reveal three hotdogs, tossing two of the three fast-food items to the couple as he started eating the third one.

She caught hers expertly, taking a bite out of the dog and feeling her shoulders slump at finally putting some food into her mouth; she paused in taking a second bite to see the third member of their small pack hesitate to eat, sniffing it carefully before he took a bite.

He grimaced slightly. "This tastes awful." He commented.

The pudgy wolf deadpanned around finishing his meal. "S' the best you can get around here. If I see a deer loping nearby, I'll catch it for ya."

"Can't complain when it's free food." The black wolf chimed calmly as she popped the last bit into her mouth and winked at him.

He made a face at her nonchalance, giving in to peer-pressure and eating. "Stealing shouldn't be anything new to you." He muttered around a mouthful of wiener.

She pouted. "Just because my brother does it doesn't mean I do, too. 'Sides, he's the one who brings the food in, and I'm the one that usually nicks the jewelry and stuff from the poor unfortunate bastards." She defended with a sniff.

He smirked at her, looking up at hearing the faint sound of police sirens going off somewhere near them.

"The nobles are at it again; they keep rounding up all the idiots within a friggin' three-mile radius." Hige griped.

Nikki frowned slightly as she thought of her brother, briefly taking a whiff of the air and smiling in relief at not detecting her brother's scent amidst those of the men the cops were arresting. "Pompous-posh-bastard-assholes." She muttered, a term she'd picked up from hanging with her brother and his crew.

"Real ladylike, Nik," Kiba deadpanned.

She kicked the side of his leg with her foot, huffing. "Piss off," she ground out as he rubbed his leg gingerly and made a face at her.

"So where do they take the guys they catch?" He changed subject, blissfully ignoring the death glare she shot him with, looking at the tan wolf.

"Prolly the same place they took you, I guess. I wouldn't try getting in there; it was a pain in the ass for just Nikki and me to sneak you outta there." He informed with a casual scritch of his head.

"That's the place, then," he muttered more to himself, ignoring the ear twitch from the only female present.

She cocked her head to the side. "What're you getting at?" She wondered.

"That's where they're hiding it, the beacon that'll lead us to Paradise. You knew about it too, didn't you?" He replied, looking at her.

"Most of the shit I hear from my brother's crew doesn't really circulate around the nobles' dirtiest secrets. I have heard some stuff about that, but Tsume usually dismissed it as, and I quote 'utter bullshit'." She shrugged.

The second male present folded his arms behind his head. "Either way, it's not something we should stick our noses in; if the nobles have it so well kept then it'd be a real pain to try and steal it from them." He sniffed.

His glacier-green eyes glanced between the two friends before he huffed quietly and started walking. "If you two see it that way, later." He shrugged as he went down the alley.

"H-hey, Kiba!" Hige barked.

Nikki groaned. "For fuck's sake…" She ran a hand through her hair, sprinting after him. "Oi, wait up!"

"I thought you didn't want to deal with this." Kiba wondered blandly as he finished the hot dog and slid his hands into the pockets of his jacket, hearing her boot heels slow their harried pace as he felt her come to walk at his side.

"I only said what my brother thinks of this, not what I decided." She rebutted irritably, crossing her arms over her chest.

He stole a green-eyed glance at her. "And what did you decide?"

Nikki blushed, her cheeks reddening a little and she looked away, huffing. "I want to help… And besides, you're gonna need someone who knows how to deal with those assholes in that place, and I'm your girl." She admitted, lifting her gaze to scowl stubbornly up at him.

Kiba blinked at hearing the confession, his eyes softening a little before he nodded. "Fair enough. I'd imagine living with your brother this long has made you pretty tough, so I doubt I'll need to worry over protecting your tail." He smiled wryly at her.

She smirked softly before her left hip bumped into his right, twisting slightly to shove him against the alley wall, switchblade drawn as she aimed the sharp end of the knife at his adam's apple, easily baffling the stronger male.

His green eyes blinked back surprise at being pinned to the wall, instincts kicking in less than nanoseconds later as a low growl rumbled in his chest and rose to rest in the back of his throat, a fang showing in the disgruntled grimace that made his handsome face twitch and lip curl.

Her blue eyes had changed to silver and she grinned triumphantly up at him, leaning up until her nose touched his. "That enough evidence for you, tough guy?" She purred, drawing back lithely and flicking her wrist to return the switchblade to the pocket of her jacket, walking away with a light bounce in her step. "Come along, lamb, otherwise I'll have to drag ya by your tail," she hummed over her shoulder.

He shook his head, a faint flush coloring his cheeks pink at having come into contact with the opposite sex, before he snorted and grumbled under his breath, skulking after her. "Remind me not to piss you off too much." He growled when he was at her back.

She laughed softly and sent him a teasing look over her shoulder. "I'm not Tsume's kid sister just to be a freeloader. You'd do well to remember that," she winked, folding her arms behind her head leisurely.

He felt his cheeks burn again. "Piss off." He did his best to ignore the smug giggle that passed her lips.

::::::dOb:::::::

He rolled his eyes.

"Come on, baby, just one minute of yer time won't kill ya…" The second "victim" crooned as he drew up to the female.

Dumbass human.

A slightly sickening 'crack' sounded as her left fist uppercut the man's jaw from below, sending him reeling back to the opposite end of the large cell.
"Whoops, clumsy me! I thought that was your nuts I'd cracked." She lamented with a jovial tone, shaking her hand aimlessly.

He smirked to himself and shook his head softly. Perhaps he'd underestimated the female after all.

The other potential "victims" stiffened at seeing the strong she-wolf; she sent them a cold glare before stiff-leggedly retreating to sit down at his side against the wall.

"I'm impressed." He mused quietly at her side, seeing her ears twitch.

She blushed slightly and huffed, scritching the back of her head. "He was a pussy, it wasn't much. And don't patronize me either." She grumbled.

He smirked again, inwardly glad that he was the only male to make the tough she-wolf blush, feeling his pride swell beneath the surface. "Such language." He tsked.

"Piss off, I told ya last night, remember? I do what I please and noone tells me what the hell to do… Not even my brother." She punched him rather hard as she had the other night, cutting her gaze to the side and ignoring the slight wince from the strong male.

He rubbed his arm gingerly. "Then why do you stay with him? You said so yourself that if you didn't stick around, you wouldn't be alive right now." He asked the question that had been riding on his nerves since the night before.

She quieted slightly and looked down at her knees, lowering a hand to rub a smudge of dirt off the toe of her left boot. "Tsume risked his neck for me a lot of times, even before we came to this shithole city. He's the only pack I have in this world: even though he's an ass most of the time and he doesn't trust hardly anyone, he's still my big brother. He practically raised me since our pack was killed when I was a cub and he taught me how to fight and be what I am today. The least I can do is be there to make sure he comes back safely from his gigs and worry about him."

Kiba nodded a little and lowered his gaze, shoulders slumping as he huffed quietly. "You really care about him, then." He didn't question her.

Nikki felt her cheeks burn and she huffed softly, sliding her eyes closed. "Yeah, sorry if I got a bit corny." She apologized.

"Don't be, it's alright." He watched her lift her head and open her eyes partly at him. "It's good to know that even though he's how he is, at least he has someone to worry about him and probably scold him for pulling stunts. Kinda jealous, really." He smiled sheepishly.

She blushed again and looked away. "Fuck, now you're the one getting corny… That's it, I'm not saying anything to you ever again." She grated.

He smirked bemusedly. "If that's all it took then I shoulda opened my mouth sooner." He sighed.

"Jackass!" She whacked him over the head, making him wince as a vein pulsed on her temple. "For fuck's sake, you're such a moron." She barked.

Kiba rubbed his head gingerly, chuckling a little. "At last you relax around me. Sheesh, you're as much of a hard-ass as your brother." He complained.

Nikki blinked once before her cheeks flared a rosy red and she stammered out a huff and muttered curse, hugging her knees to her chest as she slid her eyes closed. "D-don't patronize me, Kiba!" She growled.

He smiled calmly, lifting a hand to tousle her hair. "Nice try, princess, but I'm pretty sure that's what I'm here for, to give you hell." He kept the calm smile on his lips when she sent him a death glare he seemed highly impervious to.

She growled between gritted teeth, her fangs threatening to show. "Well whoopdy-fucking-do." She hissed.

Both wolves blinked when the cell doors opened to allow another batch of cellmates in.

"Aww, aren't you two adorable!" A familiar snicker sounded before the couple blinked again and saw a familiar head of wiry brown hair enter the cell, sidling up to Nikki's right side and plopping down with a sigh. "Yo."

Kiba cocked his head to the side. "Hige, what in the world are you doing here?" He wondered.

"And what possessed you to follow us here?" Nikki chimed with a pull of his left cheek.

Hige shrugged innocently, ignoring the cheek-pull he gained from the she-wolf. "C'mon, we're friends, aren't we?" He offered.

Both wolves shared a look before deadpanning. "Coming from you, that sounds kinda fishy." They replied in unison.
He pouted.

A bristle rose up her spine, chilling her bones even though she wasn't freezing, setting her nerves on edge.
Why oh why did she have such a bad feeling about this?

"Wolves."

The trio stiffened on instinct at the man's recognition of their forms they hid beneath human faces.

Her blue eyes lifted to register on his figure cloaked in black, lowering to focus her attention on the pale girl held in his arms; she narrowed her eyes as a growl began brewing in the pit of her throat.

"It is to you that I owe my thanks for awakening her." The stranger drawled.

"What!?"

"Who the hell are you!?"

"What's your deal!?"

The man's eyes looked smug, something she instantly loathed about him. "The Flower Maiden is mine."

"The Maiden…" She whispered in slight surprise.

"Is that Cheza?" He chimed in the same soft tone.

An airship revving up drowned out whatever that man said next, illuminating him from behind, before said man lifted the unconscious girl up, gripping the back of her neck.

Anger raced through her veins as that sharp tugging at her chest surged through her, making her body quiver.
Her fangs flashed in the curled-lip expression marring her pretty face. "Put her down!" She snarled up at the revolting human… the noble.

The pale girl's mouth opened to release an earsplitting scream that could probably break the sound barrier.

Hige cringed.

Nikki stood tall at Kiba's side even though her ears ached sharply when the girl screamed, her anger overpowering the instinctive urge to cover her ears.

"We'll meet in Paradise… if we meet again, that is." The noble hummed smugly after the girl had returned to her unconscious state, staring down the duo as the light that had illuminated him moments ago consumed his form.

Kiba bolted for the bridge at top speed, surprising her.

"Damn it," she hurried after him, tackling him from behind and rolling until she had him on his back, her switchblade's sharp edge aimed at his throat as she pinned him beneath her.

"N-Nikki, let me go!" He barked annoyedly, glaring up at her with his fangs bared and anger swimming in his green eyes.

"You're crazier than I thought if you think I'm letting you be a pelt for that asshole!" She shouted over him, baring her own pair of fangs as she thundered a growl from between clenched teeth, prickling tears stinging at the corners of her eyes as she gripped the handle of her knife tightly.

Kiba glowered up at her for a moment longer before noticing the mistiness in her eyes, quieting slowly.

Surely she must've felt the same surge of anger he'd felt at seeing the girl be treated that way… But why did she stop him from trying to save her? He was nothing to her, just a friend… Wasn't he?

methinks a little romance is budding..

drop a review if y'want, they always help to soothe the soul~. ;D

**answer to reviews (i'm gonna make sure i do my best to keep this up for future chapters, just to let you know):
to Crystal-Wolf-Guardain-967 - thanks, there's more to come! ^^