A/N: Not mine. Thanks to Words without for the beta job!
"Hey, fella. How's your leg?" Toboe spoke in a quiet sing-song, slowly approaching the bed.
"I don't know that that's a good idea, runt," Tsume warned him. The wolf on the bed perked up his ears, wagging his tail as Toboe crept towards him, but Tsume was afraid of just what that welcoming posture might lead to.
"He looks like he needs some attention, don't you buddy?" Tsume tried to rein in his jealousy as the small redhead scratched the white wolf behind his ears. That was still his bed that Toboe was climbing into, even if the white wolf had moved from the foot of it. The creature moaned in happiness as those clever little fingers found the perfect spot, kicking his good back leg.
"Missed you, Toboe," the wolf said quietly over the thumping of his tail into the mattress. The hands in his fur stiffened immediately.
"Tsume?" the auburn haired youth asked uncertainly once he found his voice. Slowly, tentatively, the fingers began to shift through the fur, looking for a microphone, surgical scars, any hint of an explanation that would reassure Toboe's rationality, even if it meant facing the darkness that his family did their best to shelter him from seeing. There was nothing to find.
Tsume caught Toboe's wrist before the runt could dig up more questions than he was able to handle. There was no telling exactly how Toboe's imagination would fill in the gaps, but as long as his first concern was the white wolf, the boy wouldn't be asking certain dangerous questions about why Tsume wasn't quite so surprised by Kiba's abilities.
"I warned you." Tsume was looking at Toboe when he spoke, but the bitter words were meant just as much for Kiba. "Just let it lie. It's best if you don't ask."
"Another business thing, then?" Toboe's light brown eyes were cast down at the bed. Tsume hated having to hurt the boy, but it was better for Toboe if he didn't know all of what went on between the gangs and wolves of Freeze City. Tsume trusted his small companion, but the redhead had always been so open and naive, especially with his sister and father…
It was easy for Tsume to dismiss the old man and bright-eyed woman as insignificant threats, but he knew about the high powered rifle Quentin Yaiden often carried under a long trenchcoat and the knife Blue hid up her sleeve. Tsume had carried his own weapons that way for long enough to recognize the careful way his boyfriend's elder sister would hold her arm at her side, hand open and fingers tensing to catch a sliding object. And they had connections to the police, a double-edged sword where the white-blond gangster was concerned. The information could be useful, but he could never, ever allow himself to slip in front of them. Compared to that, Tsume's status as a hidden wolf seemed a minor detail.
"Yeah," Tsume said, deciding to leave it at that.
"I have to ask just one thing." Toboe's large eyes drew Tsume in against his will. He tried to turn away, but the runt always seemed to know how to get the best of him. "Was he like this… before I found him?" The hands in Kiba's fur hadn't moved.
"Always," the wolf said, offering Tsume an ironic gaze.
"Just shut up, Kiba," the pale haired man snapped. "We'll deal with your business later." He walked over to the bed and sat down next to Toboe, his eyes flickering between the two thin closed doors. The wolf's paw nudged at his back, but Tsume didn't relax until he felt a hand on his shoulder as well. They really were the cleverest little hands he had ever encountered, not only able to tell of forgiveness without unnecessary words, but to read his apology as well.