The parking lot was quiet as a dream as Kanae walked through it. The elevator, too. Kanae put one hand out, palm covering the blurry reflection of her face and hiding the tiredness. A good night's sleep, without any naked men or werewolves, would do wonders.
She savored unlocking her door, pulling it open slowly and standing in the frame for a moment. The chaos inside-skewed futon, cocked bathroom door, her brother's shirt on the tiled floor by the drain and her salad fork still on the tiny kitchen counter-evidence that last night had been real.
She didn't even care. Kanae fell face forward onto her futon and immediately fell asleep.
A loud banging on the door jarred her awake. Kanae forced open sleep-bleary eyes and fumbled for her phone. 1:12 AM. She shoved her feet off the futon, bracing herself on her knees for a moment before shoving up to stand.
A peer through the peephole revealed the security guard. Kanae grimaced and unlocked the door. No sooner had she cracked it open then a shaggy beast forced its way through the space and bowled her over.
"Leave him outside again," the security guard said gruffly, "and we'll call the police on you."
Kanae sputtered, speechless on the floor. Sho-the beast-perched on her futon, taking up nearly the entire thing. He barked once, a supersonic sound that made Kanae wince and the guard's frown deepen. He pulled the door shut himself, closing Kanae in with Sho. She rolled over, one finger held in the air between them. "No."
His paws were silent as he padded off the couch and toward her.
"Bad dog!" Kanae fumbled at her feet, grabbing a hiking boot from the rack by the door. She waved it at him, menacingly she hope. "Stay back!"
How much did he understand? How much of Sho Fuwa was left when the change took him? She stared him in the eyes, wondering if the gaze that held hers knew what it was doing. "I'm not strawberries!" she said, angry at the note of begging creeping into her voice. He crept forward again, each step slower. She launched the boot at him, barely missing his skull when he ducked. Kanae grabbed the other and held it out again. "Sho! I'm warning you!"
He sat down at the sound of his name, putting his head on his paws. A low, steady whine escaped from between his jaws.
Kanae straightened, still holding the boot in front of her like a pistol. The two stared at each other, his whine growing more and more pitiful the longer she held him at bay. "I don't care," she said. "And that noise isn't going to make me."
Sho rolled over onto his back, all four paws in the air. His tongue rolled out the side of his mouth and his eyes closed.
"You're not dead." Sho whimpered, then let his jaw fall open. "It's not even convincing," Kanae said. He didn't move. "Get up, or you will be dead, Sho Fuwa."
Sho rolled back over. Even laying down like that his head was at her stomach level. He was huge. Her apartment felt full to the brim. She edged closer, her back to the wall. He moved only his head, tracking her movements, his eyes bright. "Stay," she said, torn over whether to talk to him like a human or a dog.
He barked, just once, like a clap of thunder. Kanae jumped. His mouth widened in something like a smile. "You're a bastard," she muttered. He stood, then, his tail wagging. She had made it past him and was just a few steps away from the kitchen and its assortment of sharp, weaponlike tools. Her fingers itched for a knife, but he was so docile. Just sitting in the middle of her apartment, head cocked, ears crooked, watching her.
She took a deep breath and held onto the counter, her fingers hovering above the knife drawer. "What do you want?" she asked him.
Sho licked his lips, but was otherwise still.
"Nope," Kanae said, crossing her arms. "No more kisses. You smell like dead squirrel."
Sho stood. Kanae's hand dove into the knife drawer. He moved slowly, his eyes only leaving hers when he turned to pad into the bathroom. Kanae waited. Claws fumbled, scratching at tile. He whined, then barked softly as if in celebration as water rushed down from the shower. Kanae hurried over, making it to the door in time to see him bat down her shampoo bottle and step on it, squirting the contents all over the now-soaked bathroom floor. He began to roll, covering his thick fur in streaks of shampoo and bubbles. Then he stood again, wagging his tail and flinging water all over the bathroom walls and mirror. The water barely pierced his thick coat, running over the top and carrying away the bubbles in ineffective bits and pieces.
Kanae rolled up her sleeves. "You're hopeless," she said. She stopped a step inside. "If you shake your fur in my living room, I will neuter you."
Sho's answering growl rumbled from his throat. Kanae put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow at him. He sat, clogging the drain with his butt, glaring at her from under the stream of water.
Kanae tied back her hair and pulled the shower head off its hook, holding it closer to his fur, forcing the stream down into the layers of hair. She forced herself to think of him as just a dog and ignore the way he shivered as she kneaded her fingers down the length of his back, pulling out twigs and moving the water around until the streams ran clear off his haunches. "There," she said, draping her towel over his shoulders. He stretched, opened his eyes, and threw his entire body into a massive, rolling, shake.
Kanae screamed. She threw her hands up, slipping on the wet tile and falling backwards onto her butt. She was soaked and covered in little pieces of hair. She wiped her face off, groaning at the sight of mascara smeared across her palm.
Then everything disappeared behind shaggy dog as the beast shoved his nose in her face and kissed her.
Kanae was ready this time. She closed her eyes, waiting for the weight of the beast's body to fade back away from her and the relaxed sigh of a new-formed human Sho before she wound one arm back and slapped it as hard as she could across his cheek.