Lycanthrope

by Evelos

No one ever said having a werewolf girlfriend would be easy. - Continuation of the lycan subplot in Wyrmglow.

10. Chapter 10

The world around them began to approach the final stage of autumn. Gone was the brilliant vibrancy, the last swirls of color up in the trees, and gone was the notion that the open air could be anything else but sheer cold. Fang felt it, even then, even when her skin had been so sheltered beneath a thick double coat of her own fur. Lycans took after their more wild cousins in that way, with a soft undercoat and the coarser topcoat, which carried its own trademark with the curved dorsal cape of a wolf. It was something that she could often stifle in her smaller forms, but never when she felt the blood running so quickly, when the trees were creaking back and forth in the steady wind, echoing with the promise of winter. But the ground itself was still quite dry, not even a hint of snow, and the scent of a late ocean rain loomed deep within the chill of the night, enough that Fang paused to sniff it out.

The woods were almost utterly silent in the dead of night, but she could still hear the hollow leaves rustling along the forest floor. The distant squeal of a rodent made her ears prick right up, and Fang turned towards the sight of a nearby riverbed, though even the bottom was completely dry in such a late season. It was more than likely that the little mice of the forest were hiding down in their holes or out scurrying for food within the darkness, but Fang held little interest in the thrill of chasing them down, at least not for the time being. Though it seemed as if such a sentiment was not shared among everyone...

Lightning appeared without a sound. Her ears were high, as was her tail, the utter image of confidence, for she did have good reason to be. From between those long, deadly teeth, slowly dripping down into the shadows, was the blood of a rather sizable rodent.

Fang lifted her chin to sniff at the scent of it, and she took a moment just to examine how big the creature was, far too fluffy and plump to have put up a challenge, much less an excitable chase. "There aren't many predators out here, are there?"

Lightning slowly began to settle herself down against the oppose edge of the riverbed, and she dropped the slain rodent between her feet. "Hawks, eagles... But nothing can really get into the denser forests besides domestic cats." She used one of her deft paws to hold the little creature in place, while her teeth moved to carefully strip back both the gristle and fur, searching for the tender flesh that awaited beneath it. "Nothing but us."

"Really? No foxes, fisher cats, weasels?" Fang sniffed at the air again, before she turned to peer at the distant lights of the city, the glow that illuminated the clouds above. "Guess they'd be scared away by all of this."

"I've caught fox scents in the other nature preserves before." Lightning soon crunched one of the tiny bones between her hind teeth, a technique that they all often used just to get at the marrow within; extra nutrition was an absolute boon in meager times, and even in a more stable situation, it proved rather useful to seek out. "But not here, not this close... They'd probably rather dig in the garbage than hunt for voles."

"That's a vole?" Fang slowly squinted to try and examine the blooded mass of flesh and fur, but it was indistinguishable from any other rodent at that point. "Looks more like the size of a rat."

One of Lightning's ears flicked off to the side, and then back again, comparable to the gesture of a human shrug or puzzlement. "It didn't have a rat tail."

Fang exhaled into the darkness, before she slowly opened her mouth to yawn. It was a bit later in the day than they'd usually be wandering out through the forest, but Lightning insisted that it was far safer to traverse the land in their more feral forms when it was dark and cold, when the average human wouldn't be brave enough to leave the marked trails of the park. And with both Serah and Vanille safe at home in the apartment, likely watching a movie or chatting into the early hours of the night, Fang had found no objection to venturing into the woods for a while.

"This was basically dinner for a few years... Before we saved up." Lightning chewed a bit of the more gristly flesh between her molars. "We'd catch squirrels and rats whenever we could find them, but the animals that lived closer to the city always made my stomach twist." After a moment of silence, she snuffled softly, and her elegant black nose twitched beneath the pale light of the moon. "Serah nearly got sick from one... And how was she supposed to go back to primary courses and explain why she was about to throw up off of a bad meal of rat flesh? That was when I knew we needed a home again, somewhere we could store up and make our own food."

"She got sick off of a rat?" Fang slowly lowered her ears, and she sat down against the dry riverbank. "Must've been one hell of a rat..." Lycanthropes were rather tolerant to many afflictions of the world, Fang knew that fact better than anyone, for the only natural chemical in existence that could outright kill a lycan originated from within monkshood, the plant aconitum... Wolf's bane.

"A rat." Lightning spoke with just the slightest hint of a snarl. "My own little sister, desperate enough for alley rats..." She lowered her snout down to rip back a long length of the vole flesh. "I don't disapprove of a life like this, Fang... But like you said, we can't have it both ways." Lightning's fur bristled within the darkness. Due to the gathering winter chill, it had grown much thicker and fluffier than before, a far cry from her thin summer coat. "We can't live somewhere without ample prey and hope to live without being human, and we can't be human in the far reaches."

Fang almost thought to protest; she herself had spent plenty of time as a human in her youth, even if it was mostly spent within the solitude of her tiny family, but she knew the deeper meaning implied. Lightning wished for her own childhood as well, for the days of living in a city or the group home, safe from harm, the days when Serah would likely come back home with all of the knowledge she had learned during the school day. It was a time, Serah had once said, a time when their mother spoke of the life that she prayed they could someday lead, a life where they would build their own home and prosper, to keep their wild blood alive, carrying on the secret legacy of so many lycans before them.

"We just can't have the prime benefits of each world." Lightning spoke in a soft whisper, punctuated by the deep snapping of bone, so much that she had to murmur each of her words above it. "Maybe we really are wolves... But it's not for lack of trying."

"It's not like that, Light." Fang took a moment to peer at Lightning's thick white fur, much more akin to an arctic wolf than any true beast of the forest; perhaps her bloodline was more attuned to the north, to the lycans who braved the bitter cold on a daily basis, living their lives within those sprawling, endless tundras. "Listen, it's more like... Like a crossbreed." She rose back up to her feet, shaking out the leaves from her fur. "You know why there's no cure for lycanthropy? Because 'curing' it means we'd die."

Lightning's ears began to flatten against her head. "I already know-"

"It's in our blood, our genetics." Fang stepped down across the dry grass, over the small ledge of dirt that led down to the bottom of the dry river, before she tensed her limbs for a long, vaulting jump up towards the other edge; she could feel the way her dark fur rippled in the air, how the lithe muscles in her legs stretched out just as gracefully as a dancer, before she felt her paws hit and grip the opposite side of the riverbank. "There's no cure for being what we are... Lycanthropy isn't a curse, not really."

Lightning slowly began to lick the blood from her teeth, and her gaze flickered away from Fang, though her stance didn't give the slightest impression of submission. No matter the stories that were often told of wolves, the way that popular interpretation instinctively tried to humanize an animal hierarchy, there was something both inhuman and utterly human there at the very same time. She was resting against the ground, a bit lower than Fang, but her stance spoke of both control and utter poise, a tall neck and a tail slowly drifting back and forth, a face with high ears and a lifted chin. Dominance, in a sense, was simply not the act of wresting submission from another member of a family group, it was knowing that one was in charge. It wasn't to say that fights never occurred, even within certain close packs, for younger family members often had an innate sense of the room that they had yet to grow into, and if one was to act out of place, parental figures would need to instill order once again. But even such behaviors were still quite a far cry from the old lore of human kings and conquerors, those who rose up above all others in search of complete dominance.

No, Fang thought, while she watched the utter calm of Lightning's eyes, even when they looked pointedly away from her, it was not in the nature of a wolf to seek dominion, it was to lead. The concept of an 'alpha', while usually outdated and riddled with false reasoning, still held a small core of truth to the matter; a leader was almost always needed within a pack, and the submission of other wolves was more of mere deference to the very strength and wisdom of that leader. If any danger was to arise, Lightning would be the first to snarl and stand against it, but if she was to merely flatten her ears and approach, then lycans like Serah and Vanille would hold back, waiting to see where her judgment would bring them.

But Fang was different. Where that same sense of dominance usually manifested into the two leaders of a pack, Fang knew that she was more of a counterweight, she was the one who took control upon the chance that Lightning was unfamiliar with any given situation, in which case the hierarchy shifted. The two of them hardly ever began to lead at the same time, only if there was a true need for them to do so; it was more often that Lightning led whenever she was capable, and when that capability waned, Fang would step in to take charge. There were exceptions, of course, times when Fang would lead them when there was no danger, perhaps to teach Serah how to fish for minnows or show all of them something interesting that she had found. And Lightning, despite how rigid she might have first appeared, over the years, she became rather flexible to the flux of power. She would follow Fang without question, trusting in the strength of her leadership, and she would fight relentlessly if Fang didn't chose to retreat from a skirmish. And the memory of such things, Fang recalled them all too well. As she watched those long, curved teeth rip and tug at the flesh of Lightning's quarry, Fang thought back to the very image of a massive lycan on the prowl, a mere blur of white in the trees, before those deadly teeth would strike down upon their mark in a flash of blood and sharp, snarling roars.

Lightning cracked another bone with the strength of her jaws, yet Fang knew that a mere rodent bone was less than a twig to that mighty bite force. She had seen limbs torn clean off with that mouth, the leg of an elk severed by so many small bites and then a swift rip of flesh and sinew, the low pop of bone and cartilage, utter music to the ears of a wolf.

A certain swell of pride suddenly thrummed so brightly within Fang's chest; while most might only see macabre, the primal senses of a wolf called out for such power and prowess, and to have caught prey so skillfully, devouring it to strengthen their pack... It was only a sense of love that crossed between the two of them, looking gaze to gaze again, enough so that Fang dared approach her. The usual etiquette would advise the very opposite stance, to keep a good distance away from one who was eating her share of a kill, but the look in Lightning's eyes had grown warm and somewhat gentle, so Fang quickly walked over to settle right down beside her.

"Hm... You're warm." Lightning lifted her head away from her quarry, sniffing at one of Fang's ears. "You've almost got your winter pelt in already."

"So do you." Fang looked down at the thick scruff of white fur on the back of Lightning's neck. "Yours always grows in so much quicker... Lasts a lot longer, too." She leaned in to rest her head against Lightning's back, cuddling up against her soft fur. "Such a nice coat."

Lightning snorted softly. "Mom once claimed to be a genetic freak... Lycans aren't supposed to look like us. Pink hair, white fur? We're not normal in either case."

"Yes you are." Fang rumbled a bit, not quite a growl, though the sound was much less than contented with that statement. "I've seen weirder hair colors than pink... And white fur is a damn blessing in the winter." She rumbled again, though it was more akin to a low, humming purr. "You've probably just got northern blood."

Lightning nibbled at one of the last bits of rodent flesh. "Northern blood?"

"Yeah." Fang turned to nudge at the back of Lightning's neck, pressing her nose down against that coarse ruff of white fur. "I'd bet quite a few people in Cocoon have it... They say the northerners sailed here long ago, and that they were just as pale as the place they came from." She moved up to rub her cheek against the back of Lightning's head; much like wolves, lycans were host to several scent glands, some of which were utterly ignored due to their more human sensibilities. Sniffing at someone's hindquarters was simply an unacceptable act, and it was considered incredibly offensive between lycans, but the glands behind their ears, as well as those upon the corners of their cheeks, they were often used for olfactory recognition. And in even more familiar cases, the stimulation of such scent glands could be used for the sake of mutual comfort, in the 'marking' of one's close friend, considered a deep, definite display of affection.

Fang took a long breath of the frigid air, before she moved to nuzzle Lightning's neck again, taking refuge in her warmth. "But as for the pink hair... Who knows? Maybe you've got the blood of a fae spirit."

Lightning snorted softly again. "Are there even any fae stories from the north?"

"Plenty." Fang closed her eyes for a moment or two, listening to the way that Lightning picked at the scraps of the vole. "Creatures from the otherworld, beasts with magic... Elves and giants, all sorts of stuff."

Lightning suddenly yawned with a low, soft sound in her throat, before she slowly rolled away to rest upon her side, nudging at Fang's cheek with her nose. "Just fairy tales."

"Yeah, probably." Fang's tail wagged back and forth, and she moved back over to rest right beside Lightning. "But you never know... We exist, and that almost sounds like a fairy tale."

One of Lightning's ears flicked off to the side again. "But we're not magic, are we?"

"Dunno." Fang yawned as well, before she quickly reached out to lick away some of the vole blood from Lightning's mouth, even when she tried to squirm back from it. "It's something supernatural, that's for sure."

"You're-!" Lightning fought back a giddy little yelp from her throat, and she suddenly whacked at Fang's face with her paws, trying to wriggle out of reach. "...You're so gross."

Fang started to smile, though the gesture was more the natural effect of opening her mouth and perking up her ears, for she couldn't quite move her lips in that way. "Gross? I'm just making sure you don't have any blood stains on you..." She licked at her own muzzle as if to demonstrate. "What, do I have wolf breath or something?"

Lightning gently kicked at Fang's belly, before she rolled even further away. "Gross." She rose back up to shake out the leaves from her fur, before she moved to scratch at the ground, digging up a small hole in which to hide the vole remains. "And that's stealing."

"Stealing?" Fang stood up as well, still wagging her tail. "You got to eat that whole damn thing, missy, I'm just cleaning up after you."

Lightning rolled her eyes, something that Fang thought looked utterly strange on a wolf, though it was endearing all the same.

"But really... It's good to know how much prey is actually out here." Fang licked at her own teeth, sensing the sheer strength of her jaw. "About how much have we cut costs from hunting our own dinners? Probably enough for a few extra Yuletide presents."

"Yuletide..." When Lightning had finished burying the scraps of fur and bone, she slowly looked up at the sky, gazing at those faint few pinpricks of starlight, though she couldn't see the slightest hint of snowfall. "Still feels like autumn, doesn't it?"

"Way too cold for autumn." Fang began to shake out her long fur again, so very coarse and dark. "You've still got a spot, there."

Lightning wrinkled up her nose when Fang leaned in to lick at her mouth again. "Weirdo..." She tipped her head back, though she nearly laughed when Fang still kept up her pursuit, trying to lick more of the blood away. "Fang!"

Fang chuckled as she gave chase; she rose up momentarily upon her hind limbs while Lightning tried to whack at her face with those strong white paws, and they suddenly grappled, leaping and dancing about in the leaves. Lightning jumped back, before she rolled off to the side to nip at one at Fang's legs, but it was only mere moments before they were both tumbling all around, biting and yelping at each other as quietly as they could.

Perhaps to an outside gaze it would seem as if they were fighting, but such rough play was merely the nature of lycans. Even the longest of teeth did little harm to such a thick coat of fur, and blunt claws would only serve to help their paws grip against each other, pushing back and wrestling all around in the fallen leaves.

"What's gotten into you?" Lightning tried to sound cross or at least a little bit annoyed, but her heart was beating so swiftly from the playful look in Fang's eyes, and she couldn't help but bite down at her whole snout, gently pinning it to the ground. Though when she tried to speak again, her voice was muffled against Fang's muzzle, so Lightning quickly leaned back to sit upright once again, resting within a patch of the upturned leaves. "I didn't think vole blood was that desirable..."

Fang smiled widely, panting into the crisp air of the night; her breath fogged up into a dense mist around her mouth, and her teeth almost seemed to gleam beneath the light of the moon. "Maybe it's not the blood I'm really after."

Lightning rolled her eyes again. "Gross." She shook away even more of the leaves from her fur, before she looked back down at Fang, who was still resting flat on her back. "It's not... Not a thing, is it?"

Fang slowly quirked her head to the side. "What is?"

"Lycans." Lightning reached up with one of her paws to try and clean off her own snout, which she soon began to lick at just to help wash the blood away. "Lycans... You don't think anyone really looks at each other like that, or... Takes it further? They don't-"

"Oh... Nah, I don't think it happens, probably wouldn't feel like much anyway." Fang seemed to sober slightly, and she rolled over to rest on her belly again. "You know, they always use 'beastlike' qualities with that kind of stuff... Cheesy romance novels, old cartoons, all that junk." She suddenly yawned with a slight whining sound in the back of her throat, before she started to shake out her long fur once more. "You think any of them realize that only a few animal species on the entire planet ever get intimate for fun?"

Lightning would have frowned if she could. "I've got a weird feeling that at least a few bored lycans out there..."

"Eh." Fang yawned again. "Nothing would've happened from it."

Lightning paused. She could still feel the chill of the wind in her fur, and she slowly tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"Well... I once asked my mom if I was born as a kid or a puppy." Fang sat up as well. "Over there, they're not so shy about telling kids this sort of stuff; she said that before I was born, she could change into her full lycan form and I'd still been there, but she couldn't change into her smaller forms without it hurting like crazy." She looked down at herself. "Makes sense, an unborn human is bigger than a wolf pup... So I asked her if lycans could be born as pups instead, and she said that everything she knew about our physiology said no." Fang turned to look at Lightning again. "The change is... It's not like we get much out of those parts, anyway; whatever sort of original design went into it, spirits, gods, nature, whatever... We just weren't meant to have children unless they were human like us."

"I see." Lightning looked at the dry riverbed again, and she slowly rose up to her feet. "When I was little, I remember learning that I could turn into something else... But I don't think I ever thought about what form I was born in." She began to walk off down the winding path of dirt and leaves, before she looked back to check if Fang had followed. "...My parents hardly ever just walked around in their full forms, or even the smaller ones."

"Makes sense, living in a city." Fang's ears perked up the distant call of an owl. "But I'd bet you were an adorable puppy."

Lightning huffed ever so quietly, still trotting on down the river path. "Puppies are mostly all the same."

"Not true..." Fang followed on after her, keeping to a rather quick pace. "A little Lightning puppy, that'd be the cutest damn thing."

Lightning's ears went somewhat flat against her head. "What, like... Me when I was a puppy, or..?"

Fang flicked her tail from side to side, not quite a wag, but close. "Nah, I can't see you with kids, not unless you really wanted them."

Lightning almost seemed to pause, though she quickly went right back to the path ahead. "Bringing a child into a life like that... Running, fighting, always watching your back..."

"I get what you mean." Fang's fur drifted in the wind, just a soft shadow in the dark. "But I think the four of us turned out okay."

"I suppose so." Lightning moved to leap up the riverbank, before she tensed her hind limbs to jump even higher, moving up along a ridge within the forest floor. "So, where is this place?"

"I'll show you..." Fang leapt up as well, landing neatly upon all four of her paws. "It's right next to running water, really easy to hide our scent." She leaned in as she walked, and she gently nuzzled Lightning's neck again. "I've missed this, you know."

Lightning returned the touch, nudging at Fang's chin with her snout. "Missed wandering around in the woods?"

Fang rumbled quietly, a deep, steady laugh. "I've missed being with you... Being wolves again."

Lightning closed her eyes for just a moment, just a sliver of denial, the wish to be anything but what she was, before she briefly touched Fang's cheek with her nose.

"The old stories called them partners of the soul." Fang spoke in just a murmur, and she paused to stand very still again, gazing into those keen yellow eyes. "If you wanted to be with someone forever... If you were absolutely sure, it was said to be the strongest bond ever known."

Lightning stood just there, a pale figure in the darkness, a ghost in the woodlands, and she knew that no matter how cautious she was, that there had never been anyone else to make her heart flutter so swiftly, to make her want to run up and be as close as physically possible. But she held on towards her sense of control, gripping it so very tight, for she knew that such things were not to be taken lightly.

"No matter what happens, no matter if they find us again..." Fang looked so tall and proud in the moonlight, steady and muscular, as if nothing could ever knock her down. "I think you know what I'll do."

And Lightning remembered it, that sudden scent of blood, of Fang's snarling maw being set loose upon those who would threaten them, standing there as a beast of such sheer size and power, so much that Lightning herself had almost felt frozen upon first seeing it. It had been a time when their days were often spent dreaming, when they traveled through the long nights without a sound, trying to put as much distance between themselves and a city that smelled of death as they possibly could. Fang had led their way onward through the forests, and she taught her new companions all of the best ways to track down prey in the very heights of summer, when the wild animals were spry and full of life.

It had been on a night when it finally felt as if they were safe enough to rest, when Lightning had woken up beside her two younger companions, only to realize that Fang wasn't still slumbering there with them. Even in a human form, it had been easy enough to track her down, for their noses were never less than utterly keen. A winding trail led her through the woodlands, and it was within the shallows of a placid, moonlit lake that Lightning found her friend again.

At that age, Fang stood at roughly eight feet in height, likely a bit taller, though a full lycan walked with bent knees, which carried them lower to the ground; lycanthropes were digitigrade, meaning that they walked upon toe digits, much like their animal cousins. Her pelt was a dark, shiny hue with long streaks of subtle red, though it was all the more visible beneath the bright moonlight, and her ears stood longer and taller than any ears that Lightning had ever seen.

And it had been the face of a child who looked up at her then, even in her young teens; the sight of such a beast, no mere wolf, as she had usually seen, but a lycanthrope, a woman who stood within the mightiest of all forms, tall and rippling, strong enough to knock a skull clear off of a human spine, with teeth that looked as if they could crack apart even the strongest boulders in the world...

"Why?" Fang hadn't yet turned to look at her, but Lightning knew that her presence couldn't possibly have been missed by such a keen nose. "Fear scent... Why are you afraid?"

Lightning, at roughly twelve years old, thought that it had been rather glaringly obvious why she might be a intimidated by such a thing, but she didn't voice it aloud.

Even kneeling there within the shallows, Fang stood far taller than Lightning. "You don't have to be scared." Those watchful eyes, such a solid shade of gold, bright and unflinching, as she turned to face her friend, it looked as if she could peer right through anything she saw. "You know I won't hurt you, right?"

"...I know." Lightning remembered how small her voice felt, how she her stood there like a mere blade of grass before a mighty tree, no matter her own inner nature. "You're just... You look stronger than anyone I've ever seen."

"Hm." Fang knelt down even further, resting there beside the edge of the lake. "That's a good thing, yeah? Better to chase off anything nasty..." She flashed a wide smile; while their smaller forms could scarcely move their lips, full lycans were blessed with a much wider range of expression. "Light, we're pack mates, aren't we? You don't have to be afraid."

"I'm not afraid." Lightning had crossed her arms and put on the most stoic look she could muster, before she took a very deep breath, attempting to relax. "Pack mates..?" She remembered sitting down as well, even when the water soaked right through her clothes. "Like a pack of wolves?"

"Exactly." Fang spoke with a sense of bravado that only a young teenage could know, and she slowly held out one of her hands, just to show Lightning that her claws were quite gentle too, no matter how massive they were. "Back when I was little, my mum and dad called us a pack, and that's what we were." She smiled again, and it widened even further when Lightning truly began to relax. "And a pack looks out for each other... They keep each other safe."

Lightning's memory almost seemed to swirl with those passing moments, when Fang had spoken so much about her previous family, telling her about all of those days up in the mountains, but Lightning had scarcely even slept before she'd woken up to find Fang missing. And in that blur, in a haze of time beneath the pale light of the moon, she remembered being lifted up into those arms, and then carried away from the edge of the lake.

"You're safe with me." Fang had whispered her words into the soft summer air, gently holding Lightning against her chest. "You, Serah, Vanille... Nothing's gonna hurt you guys on my watch, not if I can help it." She sniffed at the hazy scents of the grasslands, and a gentle hum began to rumble in her chest. "They were gonna hurt Vanille, you know... They had her all locked up, but I broke a way out of there for her."

Even in the midst of exhaustion, Lightning remembered thinking that those lithe, muscular arms would have had little trouble with tearing apart any barriers.

"She had that fear scent, too." Fang spoke in a low murmur. "But then, after we got away, I told her she didn't have to go with me, not if she didn't want to... But she followed after me until she felt too tired to walk, then I carried her like this." That smile had been so warm, like the sun had strayed right back out into the sky, despite the darkness of the night. "That's what a pack is, isn't is? We help each other, no matter what."

A pack, Lightning thought, as she slowly drifted back into the present, where Fang was standing so much smaller than she had been within that memory, but still at more height than Lightning herself. A pack of wolves, not humans, no matter if it meant the same as a family; she was not a wolf, not a beast without the societal rights of humanity, not a creature to be slain for her mere nature, shot down within the streets like she was worth less than utter refuse. The sting of a bullet spoke louder than any cry of protest, silencing the entire world around it, killing her own sense of injustice until it resembled something far smaller, something dark and shriveled, something more like fear. Pride was all well and good, but even the staunchest sense of dignity might see her family killed, and Lightning knew that she could suffer more than a few blows to her own ego just to keep them safe, even if Fang seemed to disagree.

Fang's eyes seemed to speak in place of her voice, gleaming there in the wild moonlight. You know what I'll do... If they find us, it'll be just like it used to be. No matter how many times she gently nuzzled at Lightning's face, the look in her eyes spoke of the true nature of a pack, the ruthlessness that Fang always gained whenever a threat made itself known.

Flesh would break and rend apart, bones would shatter down beneath her teeth, and it was the only time that Lightning knew Fang to be cruel, though it was given as if on some base level of karmic justice. If Vanille was hurt, for example, perhaps shot in the arm, Fang simply would not rest until the one who had squeezed the trigger was writhing beneath the pain of a severed limb, the object of which was quickly crushed between those massive jaws.

Lightning remembered it as if it was happening right there before her, the words spoken between dark globs of blood and shredded flesh, low and deep and utterly ruthless.

"Missed, didn't you? Aimed right between her eyes, but you're a real crap shot, aren't you? You like shooting at kids, huh?!" Fang's voice had been so feverish and rough, the bark of a rabid animal, and it almost seemed to shake the world around her down to its very roots. "Think you can hurt her, just like that?!" She'd hissed above the sound of a snapping bone, rending away the other arm with the sheer strength of her own limbs. "You don't hurt kids! You don't... You don't hurt 'em, and you sure as hell don't get to shoot her without answering to me!"

Lightning remembered that final, echoing sound, the bitter crunch of a snapped knee, and then another, before Fang slowly tipped her head back to release such a long, baying howl, as if to challenge any others who might dare pursue them further. That darkness in her eyes, so wide and wild and utterly drunk upon the rush of vengeful blood, the instincts that far ran deeper than any other emotion she had ever known, the sheer protectiveness of a pack.

We aren't a pack, Lightning had thought to herself in that moment, not if that's what a pack is... But as they'd retreated, running off to find Serah and Vanille again, that very same thought ground to a complete and absolute halt.

"Shh." Fang had silenced those tears with a soft, nuzzling touch to Vanille's forehead, just as tender as the greenest leaf in springtime. "C'mere, let me look..." She'd leaned both of them back against a fallen tree, holding Vanille close against her chest, while her words sounded so much softer than anything Lightning had ever heard from her before. "Went right through your arm, did it? Least we won't have to pull the bullet out..."

Lightning had already started to rummage through one of their supply bags, careful not to poke at anything delicate with her own claws, and the look on Fang's face when she carried over some bandages and a canteen full of water... How could one who had just held such an all-encompassing darkness, the very cruelest depths of nature, how could there be such love in her eyes? How could she look at Lightning with all the gentleness in the world and still have had the capacity to leave a fellow human dying out there in the woods, crippled and broken from every limb? And that was when she realized, as she knelt down beside Fang to help tend to Vanille's wounds, she realized what a pack truly was.

Fang didn't care. And she certainly didn't care about not caring. She only ever cared for those who she truly loved, damn all the rest, for she'd grown up in a place where her family was the only thing that truly mattered in the world. And those who sought to harm the ones she loved... They were left to the mercy of a savage beast, torn apart by that veritable force of nature, the very force of love, for the natural opposite of such love was in fact, hate, and Fang's eyes simply burned with it whenever any of her loved ones were harmed.

It had been in that distant moment when Lightning realized it was foolish to have ever been afraid of Fang, for a lycan was never truly a threat to one of its own pack. That loyalty, only that amount of strength could ever bring on such utter cruelty, fueled on by the fire in Fang's heart, the same love that peered right back at her beneath the pale, glowing moonlight, between kindred spirits in the dark. Deadly, like a knife, but that very same blade stood against their enemies and fought to keep them alive, and when it was sheathed away once more, she was more gentle than Lightning once imagined possible.

We're not a pack, Lightning thought, you're my family, and I love you, but we're not wolves... They kill wolves. She realized that Fang had started licking the blood away from her muzzle again. They kill wolves like us... They kill lycans without even thinking. We can't be wolves.

"Hey... Let me show you what I've made out here." Fang leaned in to nudge Lightning's cheek, almost akin to a chaste little kiss. "Follow me? It's not too far."

So Lightning followed, moving on throughout the forest, running as a wolf again, no matter how much her heart sang for her to be otherwise; there were some inner natures that could never be suppressed, and the call to race beneath the trees and travel as a pack was one of them. Fang led the way over the tall ridges and forested hills, between the hollow birch trees, devoid of their leaves for the rest of the frigid year. The sounds of water trickled on through the rustle of dry foliage, and Lightning's ears soon perked at the soft, burbling sounds.

"Nice little stream." Fang trotted down beside it, and she lowered her head to take a quick drink. "Tastes good, too... Not like puddles on asphalt."

Lightning walked over for a taste as well, and she almost sighed in contentment at how fresh the water tasted. The chill of it sent a wave of tingles all throughout her mouth and throat, and then deep into her stomach, helping to ease away the effort that it took to run so quickly through the forest.

"I've been thinking about what you said." Fang took one more drink from the dark, icy water, before she leaned back to sit upon the riverbed. "About not living in a shoebox forever."

Lightning kept drinking from the stream, but she turned her ears towards Fang to show her that she was still listening.

"We had a little house in the lowlands, back home." Fang peered up at the glow of the city sky, at those last few hints of fading starlight. "A cabin in the forest, you could say... You think there's anywhere like that we could find? Somewhere close enough for Serah to work with whatever career she chooses, but just rural enough to keep a sharp lookout on any unwanted visitors."

Lightning slowly lifted her head away from the surface of the river, and she leaned back, sitting right beside the water's edge. "You've given up on Gran Pulse?"

Fang closed her eyes. She slowly exhaled, and her breath misted into the frigid air. "The situation's a whole lot different than I thought it'd be... So I'm trying my best to compromise." She opened her eyes when something suddenly touched her cheek, but she relaxed when she realized that it was only Lightning's nose. "I don't want to drag either of you away from where you want be, Light."

"Thank you." Lightning sat down again, leaning in against Fang, savoring the warmth of her thick, fluffy fur. "That means a lot."

Fang snuffled softly, before she began to hum in the back of her throat. "You know, if I'd said anything different, you'd be well within your rights to dump me."

Lightning rolled her eyes again. "You'd want me to dump you for trying to bring us somewhere safe?"

"No, for trying to convince you into something you're not sure about." Fang peered down at the whispering stream, and she leaned in to rest against Lightning as well. "I already said what I had to say about it, and the answer was still no... There's a point where it'd start to feel like I was pressuring you." She yawned quietly, and she closed her eyes halfway. "You're got as much good judgment as I have, Light, even if you can be more than a little bit stubborn."

Lightning gently nipped one of Fang's ears. "And hasn't my stubborn streak saved us more than once?"

Fang laughed under her breath, and she leaned back out of Lightning's reach. "It has... There's no one else I'd rather have protecting us." She rose up to her feet, standing so tall again, and the way her fur drifted in the chilly wind made something inside Lightning's heart twinge, a feeling from what felt like so very long ago. "I remember how I used to think about you... How we'd sneak off together like this."

"Only when it felt safe." Lightning looked down at their pawprints in the dirt, so much larger than they had once been. "Just a bunch of dumb puppies..."

Fang slowly wagged her tail, and she took another step along the riverbank. "Dumb puppies who had to grow up way too quick." She waited for Lightning to follow her, before she wandered even further across the path of silt and stone. "I like being like this again... Rolling around in the leaves, playing with you just like we used to." Fang's tail wagged a bit faster than before. "Making up for lost time, I guess."

"We'll have time." Lightning looked down at her paws, and she wondered why her words felt so much more like an ending than anything else; for such a small scope upon the full width of a lifespan, she already felt old beyond her years, as if every step she took was increasingly, achingly slow. "I'm just... I've been very tired, Fang."

"Hard work, no play." Fang paused to nudge Lightning's cheek again. "We'll liven you up, don't you worry... You just need to start resting it off."

"How long will that take?" After a moment of silence, Lightning sniffed at the air, and she felt as if the inside of her nose was already frosting up from the cold. "I'll ask about that transfer on Monday, maybe I can get more downtime with it."

"Sounds good to me." Fang's ears perked up, and she lifted her nose to the wind. "We're nearly there."

"Thank you, Fang." Lightning followed on along the riverbank, walking against the frigid earth, between the leaves that crackled with an early frost, hardened by the chill. "You know how it is whenever you have to keep up with something like this... When you have to be invincible."

"You don't have to be." Fang spoke in just a whisper. "You don't have to push yourself so much... You said we've got a good amount saved up, right?"

"Emergency savings, mostly." Lightning stopped at the sudden sight of a small blotch of darkness in the earth, within the tall embankment that rose up beside the riverbed. "We'll have enough for a really nice Yuletide, but then we'll have to be more strict on ourselves after that."

Fang lowered her head down without hesitation, and she suddenly disappeared into the gap like a mere shadow, without much more than a sound. Lightning waited there, gazing down into the darkness, and a long moment passed before she caught sight of those bright golden eyes again, peering back at her from within.

"Just a few old scents." Fang whispered her words from the depths of the tunnel. "Squirrels, maybe a badger, but they haven't done anything to it." She walked up a bit higher, gazing back at Lightning. "Come on in, then... I'll show you."

Lightning took a very slow, wary step into the tunnel, yet she nearly felt a glimmer of shock at how solid the ground felt beneath her paws, almost like dry, solid clay, though it was still rather soft from the dampness of the earth.

"I dug a separate one off to the side, here..." Fang hummed as she made her way down the steady incline, moving deeper and deeper beneath the earth. "Good to have a different way out in case the worst happens."

Lightning peered around in the dark, and she could indeed see the path that Fang spoke of, but she also glimpsed a few shorter tunnels, places that opened up into the earth like little underground rooms. "I always knew you were a good digger, but this..." She slowly approached one of the deeper alcoves, and she ducked inside to see if it was really as roomy as it looked. "How long have you been working on this?"

"You know I don't keep track of time." Fang entered the little room as well, and she moved to lay down against the flat, smooth surface of the ground. "But I started this in the early autumn, and now it's early winter... So, a while." She yawned almost silently, before she settled her head down against the claylike dirt. "It's always real nice down here... Not too cold, not too hot."

"We could definitely store canned food in a place like this." Lightning sniffed at the air, inhaling the rich, earthy scents of the burrow. "Maybe even a locked trunk with preserved food, medical supplies..."

Fang yawned again. "We can work on that after tomorrow." She always made it a rule for both of them to relax on Saturdays, no matter how many times Lightning inevitably found something that needed to be done. "Come rest for a minute, Light... You worked real hard today."

Lightning slowly padded over to settle down beside Fang, resting her chin against one of those strong front limbs, though it was nowhere near as powerful as an arm of her full lycan form.

"And yeah, I think we should have a word with that boss of ours about that transfer..." Fang moved to set her head down against Lightning's neck, savoring the warmth of her thick winter fur. "You know, I could start trying to earn us a little extra cash with whatever I can catch on the weekends; I've already got a decent stockpile going."

"The pelts?" Lightning listened to the way that her own voice echoed so softly against the walls of the burrow. "I'd rather keep the meat for us, it keeps the grocery costs down."

"Yeah, we'll keep that." Fang hummed into the darkness. "But it might be less than inconspicuous to try and sell off a whole bunch of wild furs without a hunting permit... Maybe we could make something out of them first?"

"I'm sure you can find somewhere that won't mind whoever they buy it from." Lightning thought back to a certain marten pelt that Fang had once sold 'under the table', fetching a far better price than what she would have gotten from any local tannery. "Be creative."

Fang snorted quietly, before she flicked both of her ears back and forth. "Sure, if you want me to get nabbed by an undercover cop for illegal poaching." She spoke with a slight chuckle to her tone. "Poaching, like they'd have any proof that I was the one who killed it... 'No sir, my cousin down on the farm shot these little buggers for nibbling at his cabbages just last Tuesday; I'm only trying to pawn them off for him... Yes sir, we're just good old country folk just trying to scrape by out here, didn't mean to break any laws at all; yes, he's still trying to grow cabbages in the winter, sir, never said he was the sharpest tool in the shed'."

Lightning snorted to conceal a quiet laugh. "I doubt the police force is that worried about poaching these days."

Fang went very still for a moment, for the memories of so many countless news programs of the 'imminent' lycan threat were all quite fresh on her mind, not to mention the uprising of a certain alternative faction... A group she didn't have the slightest clue what to think of.

"It'll all settle back down before long." Lightning moved to nuzzle her cheek against Fang's lower throat. "It was probably just an accident, some stray animal that got too aggressive with one of us-"

"What do think about that one bunch of weirdos?" Fang tried not to make her voice sound sly, but she held more than a slight bit of curiosity towards such strange people. "...What does the damn acronym stand for again?"

"The CLR." Lightning moved to rest her chin against the ground between Fang's front limbs. "'Citizens for Lycan Rights'? Something like that... If they really think they're going to keep their identities secret for long like that, then they have a whole other thing coming to them."

Fang slowly shook her head. "I don't think they're lycans, at least not all of them... Who'd be that suicidal?"

"People without much left to lose? Bored teenagers rallying for a lost cause?" Lightning thought back to the television footage, the news programs that showed the assembled marches, those who stood up in protest against the proposal of a mandatory, city-wide blood test, and she remembered seeing the clash between those who were actually standing up for lycanthropes and those who simply wanted to enforce their right not to be tested. "I just hope it's a flash in the pan sort of thing... They'll lose interest once they realize nobody else cares."

"Yeah, but what about that one fancy guy on the news?" Fang stretched her paws out against the floor of the burrow. "Politician, looked like he might actually have a say in the bunch."

Lightning stretched her paws as well. "I don't know, Fang, it's a whole bunch of politics..."

"I know." Fang slowly rolled over to rest on her side, and she leaned in to press her nose against Lightning's forehead. " It just seems like it could be important."

"Only if it gains any traction." Lightning closed her eyes, before she stretched out each of her legs, still feeling the deep aches from her human form. "I've seen these people online, you know... They get into fights almost everywhere you look." She yawned as well, before she tried to shake out the drowsy feeling from herself. "We should get back home before midnight."

"It's not nearly that late." Fang reached out with one of her front limbs to try and pat Lightning's shoulder, which was more than a bit difficult with only a paw and a limb meant for walking and running, not touching. "We could nap a while if you wanted."

Lightning opened her eyes to peer at the smooth surface of the ground, and she sniffed at the scents of the dusty earth. "This place could use some dry leaves or blankets..."

Fang's gaze spoke of a smile. "I'll fix it up later, get it in better living condition."

"The only real problem is that we're surrounded on all sides by the city." Lightning rolled over to rest on her back, stretching out her limbs again with a soft sigh of exhaustion. "We can't exactly 'live' here in a real emergency, at least not for long."

"Yeah, it's more of a backup site, not a safe-house." Fang closed her eyes with a soft sigh of her own. "I'm glad you understand this, Light."

Lightning kept silent for a brief while, though the moment almost felt like a small eternity. "What wouldn't I understand?"

"That even the safest plan can go wrong? That we need backup in any situation..." Fang began to doze off within the darkness, laying on her side, though she opened her eyes again when she felt a soft touch upon her cheek. "I love you, you know that?"

Lightning merely waited there in the form of a human, bare of skin, and though she seemed rather prickled with the chill of winter, her face held only a sense of practiced calm. "I know... I'm glad you came back for us."

Fang slowly sat up again. "You've gotta feel freezing like this..." She nudged at Lightning's cheek with her snout. "Change back."

Lightning shook her head. "It's fine."

"It's way too cold down here for a human." Fang kept nudging at Lightning's face, speaking in that low, lupine tone. "Especially a naked one."

"You've seen me like this a thousand times." Lightning crossed her arms against her chest, though she did shiver at least once from the chilly air. "I just want to be human right now."

"Light..." Fang sighed, and she pressed her forehead against one of Lightning's shoulders. "Tell me why?"

"Because we're born as humans, we live as humans-" Lightning suddenly smiled as she twined her fingers against the dark fur of Fang's neck, holding it just tight enough not to pinch. "And I want to be human when I tell you that I love you."

Fang exhaled heavily, before she leaned in even further, as if to savor the gentle feeling on her neck. "We can be both, Light." She closed her eyes when Lightning stroked her hands through that long fur, massaging it with each fingertip. "We can be both..."

"Jack of all trades, master of none?" Lightning closed her eyes as well, and she hugged her arms around Fang's fluffy neck. "Is it really so wrong to want this..?"

"You don't have to choose." Fang felt her jaw tighten and clench, grinding her teeth as she spoke. "You're both, Light... It's like trying to pick between your heart and your lungs, you just can't live without both of them." She leaned back, standing so tall again, and she looked Lightning straight in the eye, deep into that soft blue hue, almost lost of the sharpness it once held. "What are you so afraid of?"

Lightning still kept herself steadfast, but her voice was truly a blunted edge. "...That I'll slip."

"Slip..." Fang slowly sat back down. "You haven't slipped since you caught that scent in the apartment."

"And when I woke up the other night... And when you first got here." Lightning stared in the general direction her hands, almost as if she expected a set of claws to appear there in the utter darkness. "It was like everything all rushed back at once... The fighting, the running." She reached out into the shadows, rather blind without her wild eyes, yet she soon slowly brushed her palm against Fang's cheek. "They'll try to take our blood soon, won't they?"

"No... No, screw that." Fang spoke in a low snarl, though she still nuzzled at Lightning's hand. "I'll kick them all down before they can even knock on the door." Her eyes glinted within the darkness, so dark and feral once more. "Anyone tries to prick her again, they're getting pricked instead."

Lightning almost sighed at the memory of that fateful moment in Euride. "She didn't even flinch."

"Yeah, no one else can hold themselves together like Vanille." Fang opened her mouth again in a wide, daring smile. "Except maybe you... Serah's gotten good at not panicking, but she does get a little jittery whenever you aren't there." She moved to nudge Lightning's wrist with her nose. "Listen, even if the worst happens... We'll make it through, just like we did before."

Lightning thought back to those long hours of hiding, of waiting there beneath the sounds that made the ground shake all around them, when it felt as if the very world was rising up to try and snuff them out. Her breath almost quickened at the memory, for any opportunity to run had come at a cost; could they all make it through the din of mortar fire and whistling bullets? So many others had fallen when they tried to escape, for the soldiers had practically cornered all of those who'd tried to run away from the blood tests, no matter if they were human or not. And Serah... Serah's eyes had been hidden there behind those clawed, trembling hands, but when Lightning coaxed them away, it almost looked as if they were empty, so utterly blank.

"...I won't make her do it again." Lightning scarcely even realized that she was shivering within the chill. "They won't even try to test anyone unless an actual attack occurs; there's already a precedent against it."

"Light." Fang lifted one of her paws up to touch Lightning's nearest shoulder. "You're gonna freeze to death like this."

Lightning exhaled, murmuring with just a slight shiver to her breath. "Right." She closed her eyes to focus upon the beast she had been before, a wolf of pale white fur, more than warm enough to keep the even harshest chills away. "We should get back home before it gets late."

"We've earned some more time out here." Fang still felt the aches in her limbs, but her tail began to wag back and forth when Lightning settled back down to all fours, standing there as a wolf again. "The night's still young... And I think you deserve a little more freedom."

"Freedom?" Lightning turned to look back at the wide tunnel beside their little alcove, and she slowly began to approach it, before she sniffed at the other room near the opposite track of the burrow. "It's not like I'm enslaved to the apartment."

"Yeah, but it's still good to get out of the shoebox for a while." Fang shook out the dust from her fur, and she wandered off into the main tunnel as well. "We've got a whole day tomorrow to do whatever we want to do... Why not start a little early?"

Lightning's nose twitched at the faint scent of a small animal, likely a squirrel that had recently wandered into the tunnel out of curiosity. "What do you want to do?"

"Whatever you want to do." Fang sat down within the main track of the burrow, watching the way that Lightning examined the largest room; since changing forms, Lightning didn't carry their shared scents anymore, and the mere thought of it almost began to tug at Fang's heart, nagging in sequence with the quiet little voice in the back of her head, a whisper that spoke of something that almost sounded insecure. "We could just stay out here in the woods, or..."

Lightning looked up from the floor of the burrow. "Or..?"

Fang kept silent for a brief moment, trying to put her own concerns to rest. "We could go do something else."

Another long silence passed between them, until a voice spoke just as softly as the cold draft of air from up above. "Fang?" Lightning's nostrils twitched at the unusual scent of apprehension, and she slowly padded over to nudge her nose against Fang's cheek. "What's wrong?"

"I'm just... I'm not all bravado, you know?" Fang closed her eyes when Lightning pressed their cheeks together, resting side by side. "No one really knows if everything they're doing is the right thing."

Lightning sat down beside her, and she moved to rub her cheek against the back of Fang's neck, leaving her own scent there to comfort her.

"It was all so much easier before." Fang listened to the sounds of Lightning's movements, the rustle of that coarse overcoat mixing in with the softer fur beneath, almost like another whisper in her ears. "Just tell me if you'd rather go home, okay?"

"No." Lightning paused for a moment, before she moved to rub their cheeks together again. "You're right, the night's still young... We should go do something."

"Okay." Fang opened her eyes, and when she felt Lightning nosing at her muzzle, she began to chuckle under her breath. "You get so damn cuddly sometimes..."

Lightning nipped at Fang's chin, before she leaned away. "You just smelled sad." She sniffed at the air, and a slight shiver of contentment rolled right down her spine; she truly would be lying if she said that she didn't savor having Fang's scent upon her, especially because of the fact that it wasn't an actual wolf behavior. Lycans, in so many ways, they took the tools that they had been given and expanded upon them, creating the groundwork of their very own culture, building upon the etiquette that had been passed down over each and every passing generation, changing and adapting it to the world that stood around them. Their humanity seeped into every action, from a smile to a nudge on the shoulder, even to the cheery wagging of tails, reminiscent of brightened eyes and the sweet sound of laughter, sapient instincts all mixing in with the very mindset of a wolf.

And even through the darkness, Fang could see those bright yellow eyes, the waving tail, the paws that gripped the earth beneath them. They both stood there without speaking, but the look that slowly flickered out between them, it told Fang of the gentler side that Lightning held, the point of view that came from watching over her family for so many years, warming her heart into a sense of greater compassion.

"Do I make you happy?" Fang looked back into those watchful eyes, the golden shade of a far wilder world. "It's what I want... I want you to be happy because of me."

"I think you already know the answer to that." Lightning spoke in just a murmur, though it echoed quite clearly against the smooth walls of the burrow. "Where should we go tonight?" She pressed their noses together again. "What should we do?"

Fang closed her eyes, and she slowly opened her mouth into a smile. "Oh, I'm sure we can think of something..."

---

Long whiskers twitched in the darkness, sensing the lofty walls that stood beside the front door, beneath a rather wide window. Bright, inquisitive eyes peered up at the glass, but the tiny creature made no attempt to scale the height it would take to get up there.

At least there were other things to play with. His paws pattered against the floor as he darted out into the darkness, searching for the feathery toy that the stranger had once given him. The stranger, he remembered, had somehow brought him so very far away from the cold place outside, carrying him into a warm world of big wooden objects and tall things that stood almost everywhere he looked. One of those objects had felt rather nice beneath his claws, but the stranger gently scolded him for scratching at it.

The little kitten paused at the memory of such a sound, so soft, and yet so stern. The stranger always made those strange varying noises, just like a human would... But why did his scent also smell like some of those mean, mangy creatures that'd always lurked around the outside place? A kitten knew very few words when it came to the things he was unfamiliar with, and those tall, lanky beasts that had snarled and chased his own mother away just for scraps of abandoned food, his heart nearly lurched at the memory of them. But they were definitely gone now, he assured himself, and the stranger never growled or snapped at him, he only scratched right behind the little kitten's ears and gave him bowls of warm food, and there wasn't even the slightest hint of any other cats inside the house.

He purred, though it was much more of a squeaky sound than he might have liked. The stranger would surely be back soon; he always came home around that time of night, and then the kitten could eat another warm meal and then ask for the stranger to move the feather toy back and forth again, for no matter how tired he seemed, he never denied the chance to play.

The tiny house stood among so many others of the same kind. The kitten could see them whenever he climbed up along the arm of one of the chairs; they were thin wooden houses with slanted roofs, and he often saw other animals outside, even a few wandering cats. He saw humans too, but for some reason, the stranger never let anyone else inside, though his clothes often smelled of other people whenever he came back home.

The kitten batted at the feather toy one last time, before he darted away to leap up against the big armchair near the window, perching himself as close to the windowsill as he could. It was pitch black already, and the first few hints of frost were spreading silently against the glass, while dark clouds loomed so far up above, illuminated by the lights of the city.

He mewed softly, before he lifted his paw to tap at the foggy window. Would it rain during the night? He hoped that the stranger wouldn't get caught out there in the cold... And it had become so very cold over the past few weeks that they'd lived together.

Headlights glimmered there in the darkness of the street, and the little kitten watched as a car passed by the front driveway. It was likely a neighbor, for he could see where the road ended near a few of the other houses. He watched the vehicle for a while, gazing at the way that it slowly parked beside a larger house, where another human soon moved out from the doorway. There were two of them, the one from the car and the woman from the door, and the kitten twitched his whiskers when they moved to hug each other. Did his own stranger do that with anyone? Sometimes the kitten would crawl up into one of chairs with him to get his ears scratched, and then the stranger would hold him very close, but it seemed quite different between two humans.

He waited there, watching how they both disappeared into their own house, before the little kitten curled up against the arm of the chair. The window had grown even foggier, and the sheer stillness in the air made his whiskers tingle. Would his own stranger be back soon? Would he walk around the house and chase all of the silence away?

It was only when another set of headlights began to glow in the distance, when that first sudden tap of rainfall echoed against the windowpane, only then did the little kitten stand up to hop back down from the armchair, racing right over to paw at the front door. His tail flicked back and forth, and he stood up on his tiptoes to poke his nose though the mail slot, where he caught a rather crisp breath of the damp, rainy air, before he heard the sound of a car door being pushed shut.

Footsteps echoed against the pavement, before the lock on the door rumbled with a key, and the little kitten took a few steps back from the door mat.

"Hey, buddy..." The stranger soon made his way past the door, stepping on inside from the rain, and he took a brief moment to kneel down and stroke either side of the kitten's face. "Late night, huh? Had a whole lot of work to finish up before the weekend..." He yawned quietly, ignoring the way that the kitten tried to climb up into his arms. "You've gotta be pretty hungry by now."

The kitten mewed softly when the stranger stood up again to hang that big jacket on the coat rack, leaving only his work shirt and oil-stained pants, along with the belt that always carried the pale blue scarf.

"Serah kept texting me today, asking me why I wasn't in class..." He ran a rather weary hand through his hair, before he moved to turn the hallway lights on, wandering off towards the kitchen. "All like, 'Snow, this is one of the only classes we take together, are you feeling sick today, or just working?' ...Hard to tell her I had to be there in the shop, you know?"

Snow, that was what he always called himself. The kitten had no earthly idea what 'snow' was, but it didn't trouble him very much. What did trouble him was the grumbly little growling sound inside his own stomach, and he mewed again to let Snow know just how late it really was.

"Right, right." Snow strolled off into the kitchen to retrieve a small can from one of the cupboards, before he moved open it up and pour the contents out into a plastic bowl. "You can eat your dinner while I cook mine, deal?"

The kitten waited with tensed, baited breaths as Snow pushed the bowl into the device that always lit up with soft lights and made the food slowly spin around. It was easy to ignore the slight clatter of kettles and pans, for Snow often lost track of the right dish for certain meals, though he soon filled up a big pot with water from the sink, before a slight flicker of flame hissed from atop the stove.

"And you, sir..." Snow reached for a rectangular box and a big jar of something from inside the cupboards. "I called the vet again for you, and I'm sorry to say it, but you won't be having any kittens of your own in your future."

Kittens? The kitten himself knew what the word meant; Snow often called him that. But why would there ever be any more cats in the world, anyway? Their house was far too small.

"You probably aren't missing much." Snow sighed quietly, before he reached over to retrieve the heated bowl of cat food. "You know, I... I used to think about what it'd be like having kids of my own someday, but now I just don't know." He slowly knelt down to place the small bowl near the corner of the kitchen, beside a small table with only a single chair. "You're the only one besides Serah who I can even talk to about lycans."

The kitten twitched his whiskers as he hurried over to lap up the soft, warm food, and he flicked his tail back and forth when he felt Snow's fingertips petting behind his ears.

"But her family, wow..." A wide smile crossed Snow's face. "I'm supposed to teach her some stuff next weekend, and we're all going out this Sunday." He slowly stroked the kitten's neck, before he moved away to stand back up again. "And you wouldn't believe how cool Fang is; I swear, she and Lightning have this psychic link or something, lycan stuff, maybe... Like they knew exactly what the other one was thinking all through dinner."

The kitten listened rather closely to Snow's tone of voice, and he nearly purred at the way it sounded. So many nights were spent in silence, but whenever Snow was excited about something, it made the whole room seem so much brighter than before.

"But honestly, I'm kinda surprised Lightning didn't try to chase me off." Snow smirked as he opened up the refrigerator door, removing a package of something that smelled quite richly of spices. "Serah says that the whole aggression thing really only applies to strangers... Sometimes different families get in fights over territory; it's supposed to be a lot safer to live somewhere with less lycans." He soon started to chop up a bit of the sausage meat with a rather sharp knife, though he was careful to cut it very precisely. "Glad Gapra is pretty big, eh?"

The kitten kept on eating his own meal, though he listened to each and every word that Snow spoke.

"I tried my best to behave, you know." Snow watched the surface of the water out of the corner of his gaze, waiting for the first few boiling bubbles. "If it was just a dinner with the guys, it'd be easy... Serah said Lightning's never too happy about meeting strangers, so I had to be pretty careful about what I said."

The rain kept on pattering against the windows, tiny flecks of frosted sleet, but each droplet melted away before it could even start to solidify.

"You're a good listener, you know that?" Snow knelt down to offer the kitten a small tidbit of the sliced sausage meat. "Never thought I'd get a pet of my own... Guess the best things in life are unexpected, right?" He stroked the kitten behind the ears again, before he stood back up to take a much smaller pot out of the cupboard. "Serah's been asking about you, too; we might just have to smuggle you back into class one day."

The kitten closed his eyes for a while, and he listened to the sounds of the kitchen and to the rain that pattered on outside. Snow kept talking as the food cooked over the fire, mostly things that the kitten couldn't understand, but when the boiling water finally gave way to the scent of pasta and tomato sauce, and when Snow sat down with a plate of his own dinner, the kitten wandered over to gently paw at one of his ankles.

"Hm?" Snow looked down over the edge of the table. "You've already had your dinner, buddy."

The kitten peered up at him with such soft dewy eyes, still pawing at the cuff of his pant leg.

"You want to sit here with me?" Snow smiled, and he reached down to pick up the little kitten into one of his hands, before he placed him down against his lap. "Right, just don't climb up on the table."

The kitten purred again, and he slowly curled against himself, listening to the soft sounds of the rain.

"Good thing that other cat hissed at you, isn't it?" Snow used a fork to mix a bit of pasta around on his plate. "You're quiet enough that I wouldn't have even noticed you... So many cats out there, the scents all blend together." He reached down to stroke the kitten's ears as he stirred the pasta around. "You've got that little scar on your nose, still."

The kitten sighed in contentment.

"But I still can't think of the right name..." Snow sighed as well, but he paused when his phone suddenly buzzed from inside his pocket. "Let's just hope Serah thinks of something soon."

---

Raindrops pattered against the roof of the apartment, but Serah stood steadfast in the hallway, crossing her arms against her chest. "Vanille..."

"Come on, it'll only take a moment!" Vanille tried not to skip back over to a certain doorway, one that led to none other than Lightning's room, or more specifically, her computer. "I already signed it for Light and Fang, and me, of course, that just leaves you!"

"Vanille." Serah sighed, before she slowly began to follow after her. "Petitions don't really do anything, not unless the person getting petitioned actually cares enough to listen."

"Hey, don't be a spoilsport." Vanille smiled as she sat down at the computer chair. "I'm telling you, this is the real deal! They've got a website and everything..."

Serah felt a slight prickle run down her spine at the sight of so many digital photographs, scenes of huge protests and rather violent shouting matches. "I don't know about this, Vanille..."

"They're going to give these signatures to the mayor." Vanille rolled the desk chair off to the side, gesturing for Serah to approach the computer screen. "No more blood tests! It's really against the law, anyway, when you get right down to it."

Serah drew in a very deep breath, trying her best to keep herself standing steady. "Vanille... They can bend the law when we're involved." She spoke in just a whisper, and she couldn't help but glance at the window to make sure nobody else was there, no matter if they were on the second floor. "We can't do anything to put ourselves in danger."

Vanille nodded. "That's why I used made-up names!" She gestured at the keyboard. "It still counts, and it's not like I put in more than three... And Lightning said she has that proxy thing, so nobody will ever know where they came from."

Serah fought the urge to cover up her face in her hands. "Fake names..?"

"It's not fake, just made-up!" Vanille tried her best to put on a pout. "We're people, aren't we? Who cares if the names are different?"

Serah took one last look at the window, before she slowly walked over to quickly type in the first generic name she could think of.

Vanille beamed at her. "See? Not so hard at all!"

"It's still dishonest..." Serah fought back another sigh, before she walked away to sit against the edge of Lightning's bed. "Did you ask Fang and Light before you signed for them?"

Vanille actually began to look a little more sheepish than before, yet she merely rolled her chair back over to submit the name into the petition list.

"Promise me that you'll ask next time." Serah stared at the shelves on the walls, gazing at all of Lightning's things, the little trinkets that she had collected over the years. "It's important."

"Okay." Vanille soon swiveled the chair back around to face the bed. "But they'd want to sign something to stop the blood testing, right?"

"I guess they would." Serah idly played with a bit of loose string on the hem of her shirt. "Fang looked pretty angry at the news."

Vanille tried not to frown. "She gets kinda scary whenever she remembers it... Not scary to me, just..."

"I know what you mean." Serah forced herself to put on a brave face. "You can always tell Light's really concerned whenever she tries to keep herself busy, just to stop pacing around." Serah found her thoughts drifting back to that day so long ago, to the sudden sound of shock, to the way Fang's arm had simply lurched out at the sight of distant needles, where Vanille had seemed far too stunned to argue against being led towards a testing pavilion. "It all happened so fast..."

Vanille looked down at the floor, and she slowly moved her arms to rest them against her lap, tightly holding one of her knees against her chest. "I told Fang when we made it out, I told her that she should've just let them take it... Then we could've tried to run while it was being tested."

"She didn't want you to have to do that." Serah looked over at where Fang's new scarf was folded rather neatly against one of the low cabinets. "They would've taken blood from all of us if she hadn't stopped it."

"I know." Vanille's voice seemed much smaller than it had been in years. "This time... We'll just run?"

Serah nodded. "If it happens, we'll run." Something buzzed in her pocket, and she quickly reached for her phone to read whatever message had arrived. "Oh, Light wants to know if we've had dinner already." Serah started to tap out a reply. "Wonder what they're doing tonight..."

"Something fun, I hope." Vanille smiled at the recent memory of how Fang had coaxed Lightning out from the apartment to spend the rest of their Friday evening outdoors. "I know Light doesn't mean to be a stick in the mud... She just needs a little help having a fun time."

"Yeah." Serah smiled at something on her phone, and a moment later, she looked back over at Vanille. "I won't tell her about the petition if you don't want me to."

"Oh... I'll tell them later." Vanille slowly swung her feet back and forth. "We need all the signatures we can get... Hey, what about Snow?"

Serah blinked in slight surprise. "What about him?"

Vanille suddenly grinned, before she turned the chair right back around to type something into the webpage.

"Vanille!" Serah hissed quietly as she stepped up from the bed, and she reached out to tug the chair away from the computer. "You promised."

Vanille tried to pout again. "I promised to tell Fang and Light!"

Serah dragged the chair even further away. "That counts for everyone..." She sat back down on the bed, keeping a firm grip on the back of the chair, even if Vanille could really just stand up to walk over towards the keyboard. "It's not that late, actually... I could ask him if he wouldn't mind."

"Texting?" Vanille leaned over to examine Serah's phone. "Oh, it doesn't even have buttons..."

"It's a touch screen." Serah held up the phone so that Vanille could see the way she tapped a message in. "Not to spoil any surprises, but I think you might be getting one of these for Yuletide."

Vanille thought back to the sets of house keys that Lightning had recently given to both herself and Fang, and the new bus passes that had arrived in the mail. She smiled brightly at the thought of it, for no matter how small the gestures were, it almost felt as if each little gift was a new piece of home. A real home, she thought, all while watching the way that Serah sent a message off to Snow; had they all truly found a place to call their own? Lightning did occasionally speak of moving, one day... But did that really mean they belonged there any less?

"We'll just see if he answers tonight." Serah looked back over at the computer. "You know, this came with a few pre-installed games... Light says she hardly ever plays them, though, only when she can't sleep at night."

While the concept of a game would normally pique Vanille's immediate interest, she felt far too wrapped up in the notion of whether or not they could consider such a place their true home. In the past, in the long ago days of her own childhood, such hazy memories, Fang had always spoken of their chosen resting site as 'home', even if they would always have to leave it behind on a mere moment's notice. Vanille knew that her family always looked at her as the youngest, the little one that Fang had practically adopted from an uprooted life, but she knew just as well as the rest of them did that there was far more to that cheerful demeanor than what simply met the eye. She'd evaded the clutches of death all on her lonesome, after all, a mere three years old and already clever enough not to speak a single word to her captors. They didn't know what she really was, that she'd inherited the bestial blood from her parents, so she kept her tears locked away behind those wary, watchful eyes, only a wolf when she wished to be.

Imagine her surprise when a nearly full-grown lycanthrope suddenly tore back a wooden panel of the hut, revealing the one who'd later become her companion for so many years, even if Fang was only ten years old when they met. Those years, Vanille remembered, three long years of following after her new friend and learning about the wilderness, running about, jumping and playing, hunting for the tiniest mice that scuttled out along the forest floor, all while the sunlight dappled upon her bright orange fur through the verdant leaves.

"You're more of a fox than a wolf." Fang had once said it beneath a wide open sky, all while she watched how Vanille tried to chase down crickets in the grass. "That fur of yours... Did your parents have the same color?"

"Dunno." Vanille remembered being so much more focused on the elusive little insects than whatever Fang was asking. "Um... I think dad had dark gray fur." She leapt up in the air to try and snap her teeth down upon a fleeing cricket. "They weren't wolves very much, though."

Fang sniffed at the air, and she turned to look out at the horizon. "Well, what about your mum?" She always kept a careful watch in the evenings, when they could both still be snuck up upon by those who needed the daylight to see. "My mum had fur like the sky at night, pitch black, all speckled with bits of white on the ends."

Vanille paused to try and think of what such a pelt would look like. "I think mom had fur like mine." She watched one of the crickets as it paused to chirp upon the height of a tall grass blade, swaying gently in the wind. "They said she had to go away... But I smelled blood, Fang, I know what really happened!"

She still remembered that sudden shift in Fang's expression, for a full lycan could frown just as much as a human could. "...I'm sorry, kiddo."

Vanille shook her head fiercely. "I'll be okay... I have you!" She stood there in a much smaller form, one that couldn't smile very much, but it also couldn't frown; she knew that whenever she cried at night, that Fang almost definitely heard her, but she wasn't about to cry at such an hour, not in nearly full daylight. "We'll stay together, won't we?"

"Yeah, as long as you like." Fang had lifted up one of her arms, and that same smile returned when Vanille moved to cuddle up in the crook of her arm, resting her chin against one of those lithe, broad shoulders. "You're my little buddy now, so we'll stick together."

"I'm not that little!" Vanille tried to nip at one of Fang's ears, but they were a bit too far away for her to reach. "But what about you, Fang? Why aren't you with your mom and dad?"

Fang seemed to pause and think for a moment, perhaps to find the right words. "I wanted to see the rest of the world." She'd turned to face the east, gazing up at the high forests that rose far closer to the border between two countries, back towards where she had found Vanille in the first place. "Mum told me that I was old enough to live off of the land by myself... And they both wished me luck, even if it looked like they didn't really want me to go." Fang had hugged Vanille so tight, speaking against the soft orange fur on the back of her head. "But I just needed to see what else was out there."

Vanille hadn't quite understood it at first, but at least she had Fang there with her, and she counted herself luckier than a cat with a whole nine lives for that. Though she could often be even more crafty than a cat... She almost giggled at the thought of it, all while she watched the way that Serah tried to start up one of the computer games. If there was anyone in their little family who acted more like a cat than a wolf, it was definitely Serah. How very shy she'd once been, hiding behind her big sister at every possible opportunity, at least until she began to warm up towards the pair of strangers they'd met. While Lightning's fur had always been a stark, unyielding white, even back then, Vanille remembered the way that Serah's coat had kept changing with each passing season, from bland, paler hues to a deeper shade of peach, at least until it finally settled upon a soft, creamier color, like pale lily flowers touched by the sun.

"Hey, Serah?" Vanille slowly spun in the rolling desk chair, for Serah had already brought out a folding chair from somewhere in the hallway for herself. "You think Fang and Light are gonna be like they are forever?"

Serah paused, and she turned to look back at Vanille. "...In what way?"

Vanille smiled softly. "Fang always looks like a puppy again whenever Lightning's there... Not that I've ever seen her as a puppy." She moved the chair back to face the desk once more. "We can't split up again, okay? I know it was the only way to make sure at least a few of us got out of there, and it wasn't any of our faults, but we've got to make sure we stay together now!" Vanille tried to look as serious as she possibly could. "I know everyone still thinks I'm the big crybaby, but after we all split apart, Fang was... She seemed so sad, sometimes."

"You're not a crybaby." Serah reached out to pat one of Vanille's shoulders. "It's okay to be sensitive... And I hope they stay like this, too." She motioned for Vanille to roll the chair back beside the computer. "Light listens to Fang, she's the only one who can really get through to her."

"I'm not sure if that's true..." Vanille found herself smiling again, truly, for she remembered the recent times when Serah would offhandedly suggest something, and then, far more often than not, Lightning herself would make doubly sure that it happened. "There's just something about sisters that doesn't happen between anyone else."

"I suppose so." Serah tried to start up one of the other computer games, before she looked down to see her phone buzzing against the desk. "Oh... Snow says it's no problem to sign it for him."

Vanille suddenly grinned, and she didn't even have to wrestle with Serah to type down a fake name into the petition.

---

"Steak and eggs, rare as you can make it." Fang didn't even have to look at the menu upon the table. "And a chocolate milkshake, too... Not quite cold enough to keep me away."

Lightning fought back a small smile, but she only spoke again after the waitress sauntered back towards the front counter. "How long has it been?"

Fang looked up from a small sip of ice water. "Hm?"

Lightning slowly folded her hands against the table, and she glanced around at all of the little oddities and curios tacked upon the walls of the luminous little diner, one which stood upon a ocean street with a full view of the distant sea. "How long has it been since we've had 'breakfast for dinner' in a place like this?"

"Oh..." Fang cracked a warm grin as she pushed the menu aside, clearing enough space for her to rest her forearms against the table. "Well, you know how I am with time."

Lightning bit her bottom lip to keep from smiling again; if there had ever been any doubt that Fang knew her better than anyone, it all faded away after they'd wandered up along the ocean boulevards, when the memories of stopping for meals in such similar places came rushing back like the sea itself. Though their clothes had grown quite speckled with rainwater, having been retrieved from within a fallen log near the edge of the forest, it seemed as if the chill of an early winter storm couldn't quite reach far enough to dampen any part of Fang's spirit.

"I just figured it'd be fun to do this again." Fang twirled a bit of a straw wrapper between her fingertips, folding it up into triangles, and then back again, slowly flattening it out with the nail of her thumb. "I know you're not much for crowds... Neither am I, so here we are."

It was indeed a sleepy little diner, though there was a bit more activity going on in near front of the restaurant, where Fang had requested they not be seated. The sound of a wide, sizzling griddle that held pancakes and breakfast meats filled the ambiance with a sense of docility, and the soft rumblings of a coffee machine kept up with the pace of low chatter and bustling plates.

"Nice and quiet back here." Fang leaned back against the booth, and she turned to peer out at the lights of the city, those that were reflected within the deep, dark seawater, though it was all rather speckled beneath the falling rain. "And I've been thinking... We haven't gone out to a place like this in weeks."

Lightning hid yet another smile behind a brief sip of water. "I thought you didn't keep track of time."

Fang smirked as well. "Cheeky tonight, aren't you? Maybe so, but it's not like I'm oblivious about it; I do keep a mental checklist of these things." She moved to lean forward against the table again, and the sly look that crept into her eyes nearly sent a shiver down Lightning's spine. "Listen, Light, I know we're not the most normal folks out there..."

Lightning spared a quick glance towards the front of the diner, though they seemed to be well out of earshot from even the quietest table.

"And I know money's been a little tight, but I just wanted to-" Fang paused upon her next word, though she didn't look lost, merely hesitant. "People have dates with each other here in Cocoon, don't they? They go out and do fun stuff, go to cool places, right?"

Lightning gave her a rather slight nod. "Is that what this is?"

Fang actually did look a bit lost at the thought of that. "I think so... Yeah, if you'd like it to be." She took a moment to steady herself, strengthening her demeanor once more. "I know it's not fancy."

"I don't need fancy." Lightning glanced up when an electric blender suddenly rumbled from the kitchens, likely mixing up a certain pair of chocolate shakes. "This is... This feels like home." She looked back at Fang, into the depths of those keen, watchful eyes, and she felt only the gathering warmth in her heart. "Remember that little diner back in- Where was it, Bresha? I remember Vanille had never seen one before."

Fang smiled at the memory of that. "She could hardly even pick out what to order..."

"We must've been to more than a hundred of these." Lightning peered around at the walls again, and then at the tiny bottled ship that stood upon a shelf above their own table. "Remember how most of them would always give Serah and Vanille free desserts?"

"Well yeah, they were real good kids..." Fang stirred at her ice water with the end of a straw. "I'm sure it's a real relief to the waitstaff when little kids like that are that so polite."

Lightning felt a flicker of something rather cold run through her heart. "They had to be..." She slowly crossed her arms against the table, gazing down at the checkered designs that stood upon the glossy plastic surface. "Can you imagine it, if they'd drawn any attention to us? They really were good kids."

Fang glanced away for just a moment. "Still feels like they are."

"Serah's almost twenty." Lightning spoke it in just a whisper. "Twenty... I turned twenty before we moved into the apartment." She glanced up at the sight of a nearby waiter, one who was carrying over a full tray of food to a much larger table than theirs. "I was twenty out on the streets."

Fang reached out to place her hand against the center of the table, and a small, gentle smile crossed her lips when Lightning reached out as well. "You're not on the streets anymore... And neither is Serah."

"At first I just wanted to live like we used to, but in a place like this, it was... Degrading." Lightning slowly twined her fingertips with Fang's, brushing her thumb against the softness of her palm. "I couldn't work there at the harbor and find enough food at the same time, and neither could Serah, not with school."

Fang gently squeezed Lightning's hand. "But you still played your cards right, love."

"I can't know that, not yet." Lightning felt her throat tighten, but she just kept speaking as quietly as she could. "Maybe I'll never know for sure, but when you have to make a choice like that, you need to stand by it without ever second-guessing yourself... I put my cards in, no taking them back unless I have no other possible choice."

"I'd help you if it came to that." Fang looked back at her without wavering, without even the slightest hint of flippancy in her gaze. "I've still got your back just like I used to, Light, no matter how long it's been."

"Of course you do..." Lightning almost smiled at the sight of a few distant milkshakes, though she still only spoke in a murmur. "Why else would we be girlfriends?"