Look at this, nearly twenty chapters and I think we've gone over 100k words, really wasn't expecting this story to grow so much in my head.
It's interesting how much a scene can change as you are writing it, I quite enjoy just going with the flow and seeing what little things pop up.
Chapter 19
Duuun Dun.
A flash of red and black against a brown background.
Duuun Dun.
A fluffy tail rose above the surface of a sea of cardboard boxes.
Duuun Dun Dun, Duuun Dun Dun, Duuun Dun Dun, Duuun Dun Dun.
The terrifying monster of the deep stealthily approached its intended victim.
Judy leant over to her right as Nick pounced and the fox ended up missing and rolling across the floor to collide with yet another cardboard box.
"You could play along a bit Carrots" said Nick feigning annoyance as he looked at her upside down from where he was lying.
"Oh no" said Judy in complete monotone as she carried on packing "A shark, whatever will I do"
"What happened to all the 'blood, blood, blood and death'" said Nick with a grin as he righted himself "you're so good at that"
"Too much left to pack Slick" sighed Judy as she looked around the room that was full of packed, partially packed, and empty cardboard boxes.
A part of Judy wondered what might have happened if she'd let Nick catch her but there really was too much left to do.
It had taken a while, first they had to drive back to the precinct from Sahara Square, then Nick and Judy had to make their way home to get changed, but they had finally made it to Lunette's apartment. Only to find that there was quite a job waiting for them.
Lunette had brought, well, pretty much everything she could when she had moved out of Los Antleres. As she explained it, her car was filled to the brim, there had barely been enough space in the vehicle for Lunette herself. This translated to quite a lot of packing for Nick and Judy to help with.
Judy was very helpful to have, she was good at making lists and keeping everything organised, things were certainly proceeding more smoothly with her around. Nick, on the other hand, was of less help. He certainly could be organised but he was having too much fun messing with Judy. At the very least he was an extra pair of hands, could move things Judy couldn't, and did listen to what his partner told him to do… mostly.
Lunette was currently in the kitchen dealing with everything there, she had already cleared the bathroom and bedroom, that just left the living room which was Judy and Nick's responsibility. Occasionally she would stick her head round the corner to see how the other two were doing but mainly Lunette just left them alone and listened to their conversations with a grin on her face.
With Judy's help, and Nick's to a smaller degree, the process was actually going a lot faster than Lunette had anticipated. She just hadn't told the other two this, the slightly stressed Judy was, if anything, only getting faster at packing as time went on. Lunette had to admit that Nick and Judy made a good team for pretty much anything, he kept pace with the accelerating rabbit and helped to reign her in if she got too zealous.
"When is Noct due?" Lunette stuck her head back into the living room at Nick's question.
"Last message I got said that he had been dealing with some things with Asra" said Lunette admiring the amount of packing that had taken place since the last time she checked "He should be here pretty soon, he just needed to go pick up the van"
"He didn't give a time, did he?"
"No, he didn't" said Lunette returning to the kitchen and leaving Nick to grumble to himself about how Noct always took forever if he didn't specify a time.
Thankfully Noct didn't quite leave them waiting for all eternity, there was a knock on the door about an hour later, coincidently just as Nick and Judy was filling up the last cardboard box in the living room.
Lunette, Nick and Judy went to the door after a moment as Noct didn't enter, he was leaning against the wall opposite with a briefcase, waiting for them when they opened it.
"The van is as close as I could get it" he said as he tossed a set of keys to Nick "I have one little thing to take care of then I'll be back to help"
Noct gave Lunette a quick kiss on the cheek before he disappeared up the stairs at the end of the hall. Nick shook his head and went to check out the van while Judy and Lunette went to start carting the boxes outside.
Upstairs Noct made his away along the first floor till he found what he was looking for, the landlord's office. The ground floor apartments were all smaller than the ones in the rest of the building, one of the reasons why Lunette managed to find the place at short notice, but the landlord wanted a bit more room so had put his office on the first floor.
Noct knocked on the door twice before walking straight in carrying his briefcase. The landlord, a bristly looking capybara, looked up from behind his desk rather annoyed at the disturbance.
"Now who are you just barging in-"
Noct interrupted him by slamming his briefcase down on the table.
"I am here on behalf of miss Furle from apartment 4" said Noct with an amiable smile on his face "I am here to let you know that she will be moving out as of today"
"Now hang on just a minute you can't just-"
"I am well aware of the inconvenience this will cause you" interrupted Noct again, still very friendly and polite "especially since her contract has only just begun" Noct clicked open the briefcase and turned it round to face the capybara "I believe 10,000 should be enough to make up for any losses you will make while waiting to find a new tenant"
Noct waited a moment but the capybara was just sat staring at the briefcase full of cash sat in front of him. Smirking slightly Noct left the room before the landlord made any signs of moving and went back downstairs to assist with moving Lunette's belongings.
When Noct finally started to help out everything got a lot quicker. About three or four times faster in fact as the panther could carry three or four of the boxes at once, the only restriction being the size of the door frames he had to get through.
Judy and Lunette decided to stop and leave it to the boys, it was quite the sight for the females watching Nick and Noct doing all that heavy lifting. Lunette would probably have teased Judy religiously if she had seen the rabbit's face as she watched Nick, but Lunette was too busy watching her mate with a similar expression.
Judy was so entranced watching Nick's not normally noticeable muscles bulging through his t-shirt as he lifted boxes into the back of the van, that she didn't notice that he had stopped and was looking at her.
"See anything you like Carrots?" asked Nick with a large smirk.
Judy blinked once as she processed what he just said, unsure how to react she listened to her instincts and fled saying something about 'checking the apartment again'. Nick watched her go amusedly, yep very funny that was, he definitely wasn't trying to distract himself from Judy's reaction, no way he could read her.
"Don't tease her so much if you aren't interested" joked Lunette from the side.
The wolf had been expecting playful banter from the fox, not for Nick to flinch like she had slapped him. Her eyes widened in worry as she saw the pain on Nick's face that he didn't manage to hide. The moment only lasted a few seconds and then Nick leapt a foot into the air as he yelped.
Noct had appeared behind the fox and yanked on his tail. Nick turned on the panther angrily but paused as the two pairs of emerald eyes met. There was silence except for Lunette fidgeting nervously. Eventually Nick's eyes softened and he sighed.
"Yeah, yeah, I know" he said as he waved a paw at Noct dismissively "back in a sec"
Nick slowly wandered back inside after Judy and Noct walked up beside his mate as he watched his brother go.
"What was that?" asked Lunette quietly.
"I told you things were going to be difficult with them" said Noct sadly "some mammals have emotional issues, Nick's is also… physical. Judy is good for him, I just hope it's enough"
Noct put his arm round Lunette and she nuzzled into his shoulder as they waited for Nick and Judy to reappear. It didn't take too long before the two of them came back, it would seem this wasn't the first time Nick had cheered up Judy as, whatever he had done, Judy was smiling just like normal. Perhaps it was all a good thing as Judy had found a couple of books and other knickknacks hidden away in some corner of the apartment.
Noct watched his brother carefully for a second but Nick seemed fine again. Shaking his head Noct gave Lunette one last squeeze before letting go of his mate. After confirming that everything was packed into the van, Noct closed up the back of the vehicle securely and then gestured Nick over to him. He whispered a few things in the fox's ear before he hopped up onto the side of the cabin.
"Okay" Noct said to the other three "You guys follow after me in Lunette's car, I've given Nick directions in case we get separated"
Now Lunette and Judy understood why Nick was standing there looking like he'd just seen a ghost. Noct opened the door and swung into the driver's seat, turning on the van as he waited for the others. Nick blinked a few times before slowly turning his head to look at Lunette and Judy with one of the biggest, smarmiest, shit eating grins that the wolf had ever seen.
"You know where it is" hissed Judy as she narrowed her eyes at him.
"I know where it is" sniggered Nick "now let's go, I can't wait to see the looks on your faces when we arrive"
Judy didn't stop glaring at him but still climbed into the back of Lunette's car. Nick took the passenger seat once again as Lunette took one last moment to look back at her apartment. She hadn't been there very long, and the landlord was a bit of an arse, but it was the first place she had lived outside of Los Antleres. Just the simple fact that Lunette had escaped from that city made her apartment better than a 5-star hotel in her mind.
But being able to live with her mate once more was a far more attractive idea than her apartment would ever be. Shaking her head Lunette climbed into the driver's seat and turned on the car, Noct was checking his mirrors waiting for the others to start and he began to pull away in the van.
"Is Noct allowed to drive that thing?" asked Judy to no one in particular as Lunette started to follow Noct, the thought had just popped into her head "don't you need a different license?"
"Oh I wouldn't worry about that Carrots" said Nick twisting in his seat to look back at her "unlike myself, who was rather rusty with my driving since I never needed it before this job, Noct is fully trained and licensed to drive just about any vehicle you can name"
"Bikes?"
"Busses?" asked Lunette interestedly.
"Yup to both"
"Diggers or heavy machinery?" added Judy.
"Any kind you might need"
"Trains?" chimed in Lunette.
Nick just turned to look at Judy with a grin and mimed pulling something as he went "Toot Toot".
"Boats?" asked Judy running out of ideas.
"Bit vague there, Fluff" chuckled Nick "but yes, many kinds of boat"
"Planes?" asked Lunette, partly proud of her mate and partly trying to find something that Noct couldn't operate.
"And helicopters" answered Nick with another smirk.
"TANKS!" shouted Judy almost angrily.
There was silence and Lunette chuckled.
"Nice one Judy" she said focussing her attention back on the road and the van they were supposed to be following.
"No, it wasn't" said the doe staring at Nick with narrowed eyes "I know you Nicholas Wilde, out with it"
"You, uh, you can't get a license for driving tanks you know" said the fox rather sheepishly as he looked out the passenger window "it's just that one time we did a job at some big shot's private villa right on the outskirts of Zootopia and our planned method of leaving the premises was… no longer viable. So Noct may have commandeered a tank to get us out of there, just a small one, but he seemed perfectly at home driving it"
"Commandeered!?" blurted Lunette her paws tightening on the steering wheel "That implies there was already someone driving it!"
"Well yeah" said Nick rather nonchalantly "not like a tank could stop Noct anyway"
"Who the hell has a tank in Zootopia!?" shouted Judy, eyes wide.
"Oh, you'd be surprised" said Nick seriously as he sat back in his chair "Mr. Big for one. Don't underestimate what the rich and powerful have at their fingertips here in Zootopia, Carrots. Thankfully there is an 'arrangement', nothing crazy is allowed within the city, it's all stored in private mansions and places on the outskirts"
Judy and Lunette were silent for a while as they tried to digest this, it was like a window to a completely different world had been opened in front of them, Judy looked at Nick realising that there was still far too much that he knew about Zootopia that she didn't.
They were somewhere in Downtown now, Nick knew where they were going, Lunette didn't know the city enough to recognise where they were, and Judy had been completely distracted by the conversation. So the fact that Noct turned the van off the main road and then they started to go down underground didn't mean much to the girls. To be honest, with the amount of skyscrapers in Downtown, Lunette had figured that there was a fairly high chance Noct lived in one of them.
All three occupants did raise an eyebrow when they passed by the normal parking area and saw a sign saying 'PRIVATE' that Noct went straight past. Noct pulled the van up to one side and waved an arm out of the window gesturing for Lunette to pull round him. Following this Lunette drove round the van and Noct's Jaguar Z-type appeared in view. The private parking area was large enough to contain at least another five or so cars with plenty of space around them, so there was more than enough room for Lunette to pull up.
"Come on up" said Noct who had made his way to stand by the private lift as the others got out of Lunette's car "I'll give you guys the tour first, I'll get someone to come down and deal with the boxes later"
"You got servants or something?" asked Nick suspiciously as the lift doors opened.
Noct just grinned toothily as he wrapped his arms round Lunette and, once everyone was inside, double pressed the 'up' button. Noct could feel that Lunette was a little tense and took one of her paws in his. The lift started moving rapidly like it always did, Noct was used to it but the sudden acceleration nearly knocked Judy off her feet. Nick reached out and steadied her without even noticing.
Judy noticed.
She felt a little warm inside that Nick had her back no matter what was happening. She looked up at Lunette and Noct stood opposite her and the little warm feeling disappeared instantly. Lunette was watching her with that horrifying twinkle in her eyes and, even worse, Noct was grinning at her as well with a very similar expression.
Dear God in heaven let this elevator stop soon Judy thought feeling a blush work its way up her ears.
Almost as if some deity had indeed heard her pleas, there was a ding and the elevator stopped moving. Judy was first out of the gate to Noct and Lunette's amusement, Nick seemed a little lost at the whole thing. Judy quickly forgot, or at least pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind, about how Lunette and Noct had looked at her. She was much more interested in what was here, or rather, what wasn't.
The hall directly outside the elevator was completely bare except for the lift on one side and a single doorway opposite on the other. Noct took the lead and fished out his keys, Lunette noted happily that this lock did not stick like her apartment had had a habit of doing.
Noct opened the door and walked inside grinning to himself. After a brief hesitation Lunette followed after him, Judy and Nick had both noiselessly agreed that she should be the first one in after Noct.
Currently the apartment was dark, some small mood lights dotted around the place gave a little soft illumination but not enough to get a good view of everything. Directly to their right was a large alcove, there were plenty of hooks for coats and jackets, a few of which were used. There was a door to their left which, when Nick stuck his head in curiously, led to a fancy looking toilet.
The three officers proceeded further into the apartment, almost immediately the room opened up massively, though everything was still very dark with black walls surrounding them on three sides. They could just about make out Noct stood in the middle of the room, his green eyes shining in the dimness.
"Welcome home" he said simply as he pushed a button on a little remote held in his right paw.
Starting from the bottom left most corner, like a veil being lifted, the 'black walls' began to turn transparent. Gentle, orange, evening sunlight began to fill the room and, other than Noct who was facing away from it, everyone had to cover their eyes and adjust.
"Sweet Cheese and Crackers…"
Judy was the first to recover and that was about all she could say to the view that greeted her. There was a quiet gasp from Lunette and Nick was just standing there with his muzzle hanging open. The setting sun painted beautiful oranges and reds across the cityscape of Zootopia. Judy wandered up to the window and leant her head up against it as she tried to take in more of the incredible view of the city she loved. Nick moved to stand next to her as he looked around, mumbling under his breath as he recognised the many parts of the city on display. Lunette just turned to look at Noct in shock, the panther had a warm, loving smile on his face as he gazed back at her.
"How high up are we?" asked Nick when he found his voice properly though he didn't take his eyes off the view.
"Well you can go up again" smirked Noct as he watched Nick and Judy by the window "but you might want a jacket, it gets a bit breezy out there"
"You live at the top of Chrysalis Tower?!" this time Nick did tear his attention away from the window to stare at his brother incredulously.
"This is Chrysalis Tower?" Judy's head snapped round to stare at Noct as well.
"...Shall we sit?" asked Noct as he flopped onto one of the many sofas and cushions.
Lunette sat next to him and seemed rather out of place perched on the edge, Judy recognised how the wolf had been reacting when she had first met Fru Fru, but Noct reached out and pulled Lunette down next to him. She froze for a second before cuddling into his side happily. Nick took a flying leap to land on one of the extra-large cushions and Judy opted to sit on one of the beanbags she had spotted dotted around.
"Yes" said Noct before anyone could start asking questions "I own the penthouse suite at the top of Chrysalis Tower"
"Not renting?" asked Nick almost hopefully.
"Nope, it's mine. As, technically, is most of the tower itself. Having majority ownership was the only way to do whatever I wanted with the place"
"Your brother owns Chrysalis Tower" said Judy to Nick a little dazedly.
"Hey, it's not that impressive" said Noct "Nick could have easily lived somewhere similar… if he'd pulled any of Broken Clockwork's assets out"
Nick avoided Judy's sudden glare like the plague, he paused to frown at Noct slightly, Judy had just about forgotten all that, distracted by the work he was doing on his apartment.
"Come on Nick, it's not that surprising" said Noct gently stroking the back of Lunette's neck "you know the sort of world that we operated in"
"I know, I know" said Nick with a sigh "it's just been a very long time since I've dealt with this sort of thing"
"You can go explore JJ" chuckled Noct as he watched Judy bouncing around on her beanbag as she tried to take everything in "And you Bruma, you live here now anyway, should probably see what you're in for" Noct looked down at Lunette and grinned.
The two females jumped to their feet, they looked around a little confused, obviously they weren't sure where to start.
"Tell you what" said Noct from where he was sat "I'll walk you through it" the girls looked at him in anticipation "That room over there under the overhang" Noct pointed to the first door you would come to on the right when you entered "is the kitchen" Nick and Noct chuckled as the girls dashed across the room.
Judy couldn't help but notice, when they stepped inside, that the kitchen was at least four times the size of her own apartment. Shining chrome appliances mixed with a beige-ish work surface wrapping round the edge of the room, upon closer inspection Lunette let out a little gasp, the whole thing was polished limestone containing thousands and thousands of tiny shells. A dining table took up the centre of the room that could easily seat six moderately sized mammals, and even with that there was still plenty of space to move around in.
"You know" said Nick back out in the living room "I don't see a TV anywhere, you can't have forgotten that, right?"
Noct just grinned and picked up the remote he used to control the windows, with a button press the window Nick was facing faded back to black. The fox's face dropped as he had a sudden premonition of what was about to happen, glancing round the room quickly he saw the speakers dotted around the corners, just in time for Noct to push another button on the remote. With a small bleep the now blackened window flashed and suddenly some sort of cooking programme was being shown as if Nick was now at the cinema.
"You know what" said Nick slowly as he glanced at his brother "I'll give you that one, that is pretty damn cool"
Noct was going to reply but at that point Judy and Lunette returned from the kitchen.
"Next room along is the wardrobe" he said giving some more directions.
Lunette and Judy set off again but only got about three steps before they turned to stare at Noct.
"The next room is the wardrobe?" asked Judy slowly.
Noct just waved them on, Judy and Lunette glanced at each other before entering. There was a brief pause before…
"Niiiick!"
Nick's head snapped round at Judy's voice, he was tensed lying on his cushion, partly ready to rush over to his partner, partly completely aware that Noct's place was safe.
"What is it Carrots?" he shouted back in concern.
"There are clothes other than that shirt and tie Noct always wears!"
Nick's eye twitched for a second, partly annoyed at the bunny, partly glad nothing was wrong, partly amused to hear that.
"Those are work clothes" chuckled Noct "but you can use as much of the space as you like Bruma, now the last room downstairs is an office but I literally haven't used it so it's all yours, you can make it all police-y or something"
Since there weren't any of Lunette's clothes in the house yet they didn't spend too long in the wardrobe and quickly moved on to the office when Noct mentioned it. It was reasonably small, still larger than Judy's entire apartment, and had a desk, a computer, various storage and filing cabinets. Lunette loved it, she'd never had a place with her own work space before and Noct had just said it was all hers.
Nick and Noct got up once the girls were done exploring the downstairs, Noct felt he should make some effort as the host, he pressed another button on the remote to make the window TV see through once more. He led the way upstairs, this floor was split into two parts, a bar lounge outside, and the bedroom and bathroom inside. It was, as Nick quickly went to find out, a fully stocked bar that Albert would feel right at home in. He reached into one of the fridges and snagged a beer for himself and one that he tossed across to his brother. Nick used the bottle opener attached to the bar but Noct just sliced the top off the bottle with a claw and took a swig.
Judy and Lunette just watched them a little exasperatedly and shook their heads before heading into the bedroom. It was impressive. A huge bed took up most of the space, at least three polar bears would be comfortable on it, but there wasn't much else in the room. There were suitable bed side tables and the wall to their left was another huge bay window. There was no TV or anything like that, though Nick eyed the window with a sneaking suspicion.
The bathroom was the pièce de résistance, Noct had a smirk on his face as he followed the others inside. He found them all standing with open mouths, not that he could blame them, he liked water and had splashed out, so to say, on building this en-suite. There was a standard though stylish sink and toilet, but those were clearly not what had everyone's attention. There was a bath, designed for several hippopotamuses from the looks of things, it would not be surprising if all four of them could go for a swim in it. Along with the bath there was also a hot tub next to it that could easily accommodate eight or so mammals, and from the amount of buttons located on the side it seemed to have a lot of interesting settings. The far end of the room was blocked off by a screen of glass, on closer inspection it turned out that that entire part of the bathroom was in fact one enormous shower.
Watching the others' expressions Noct couldn't help wandering over to it and showing off his pride and joy. The shower functioned perfectly normally but could also be separated into three different streams of water, had a wide setting on the roof that simulated rain, or a waterfall. Then there were all the nozzles built into the walls that could surround you with mist or make it seem like you were in a whirlpool while standing up. And that was just the water, there was mood lighting, ambient sounds or music, and even gentle fragrances to complete the experience.
"I need to get one of those for my place" said Nick in a bit of a daze, he didn't even notice Judy nodding her head in agreement slowly.
"Way ahead of you Nick" smirked Noct as he walked back "since you didn't want a car I had to spend all your birthday presents on something right? I think your bathroom is due to be done on Thursday"
Nick raised an eyebrow in pleasant surprise, he was now very glad in getting his brother involved in the whole situation with his apartment.
"So that is that" said Noct leading the way back out into the main part of the penthouse "There are some other rooms but those are more… personal"
"How so?" asked Judy curiously "and where are they? We explored everywhere"
"They mostly contain medical or scientific equipment" said Noct seriously "I do need to manufacture my Suppressors you know, now I should-"
Noct froze, there was a dull thud, muffled through many layers, but you could tell it was quite the crash if you had been closer. It was accompanied by a slight vibration through the floor. Noct notwithstanding, the other three mammals were all trained police officers with powerful senses, especially Judy with her ears.
She rushed to the edge of the balcony to look down onto the living room. It had definitely come from down there but there was clearly nothing out of the ordinary.
Unless it's further down she thought.
Noct had checked his phone for the time quickly and cursed. Muttering about someone being an early bird he tossed his beer to Nick before vaulting over the railing next to Judy and landing softly on one of the sofas. Rushing to the base of the stairs he waved his wrist over the end of the bannisters one at a time before looking up at Nick, Judy and Lunette who were still upstairs.
"Do not follow me okay?" he said seriously as the floor behind him opened up to reveal the stairs down to the bottom floor of the penthouse "I'll give you the tour another time, too dangerous right now"
With that said Noct disappeared down the steps, the other three came down from the upper level but listened to Noct and didn't set foot down another level no matter how much Judy and Lunette wanted to. Nick trusted his brother completely, if Noct said not to go down right now then the fox would stay right here. So he sat down on one of the sofas and waited.
"Well" he said while stretching out, now with a beer in both hands "I think we found out where these other rooms are"
Noct made his way down the corridor with blank doorways on either side. He didn't head for the one where he had started Asra's treatment, he knew exactly what was going to happen at the end, so had moved the jackal, pod and all, into one of the adjacent rooms that was mostly empty.
Pausing by the door Noct could hear movement from within.
Well that's a start, I guess Noct thought as he wondered how to proceed I guess it'll need to be something primitive
Pushing the door open silently Noct slipped inside the room, his mind a blur as he rapidly assessed the situation inside. The straps in the pod were all snapped and Asra was no longer lying within it. This was glaringly obvious as a small jackal was currently on all fours prowling around the room near the machine. If Nick were here he would be shocked, this wasn't the same Asra he saw on all fours in that park nearly a week ago, at that time Asra's movements had been clunky as his rational and irrational sides conflicted. The Asra before Noct, however, was not like that, this was the smooth motions of predator.
Noct started to walk forwards, within two steps however he seemed to flow into walking on all fours, just as Asra noticed his presence since Noct wasn't trying to stay hidden. Both of Asra's eyes were savage slits and they were trained on the panther slowly approaching. The jackal growled menacingly at the Noct and backed away slightly, the pup could tell that the mammal in front of him was dangerous.
Noct paused where he was, he didn't want to push the boy too far, his body language was relaxed and he was purring. Apart from just lying down this was about as non-threatening as he could be but he needed to get closer to Asra so lying down was counter-intuitive.
It took several long minutes but Asra gradually seemed to get used to Noct's presence, the panther's scent seemed to have a calming effect on the pup, something most likely lingering in his subconscious from his memories before the treatment. Noct tested the waters and tried to move again but could see the tension in Asra so stayed where he was. Noct was patient, after another ten minutes he tried again but Asra seemed to be okay with Noct's presence now.
Slowly Noct padded forwards, Asra sniffed at him curiously which Noct took as a good sign, the panther walked past the jackal before stopping and lying down around him. Given how small Asra was due to malnutrition he was still smaller than Noct, who was lying down, while he was sat up.
Still purring Noct leant over and began to lick the top of Asra's head, the jackal growled slightly but Noct ignored it and continued his grooming.
The complete concoction which he had administered to Asra was far more potent than whatever knockoff had first been tested on the jackal. Noct knew for a fact that, unless you grew used to its effects over a long period of time like he had, you would finish each treatment in a fully savage state. It was only afterwards that the changes to your body would allow you to be 'savage but sane'.
For Noct, his childhood was the experiment, various methods were tried to rouse him from this savage state, many of which were painful or cruel. He was very thankful when he grew adjusted to the serum and no longer went savage after each treatment. What he did learn, however, was that actions that stimulate a mammal's base instincts were most effective at ending this temporary savageness.
The best thing Noct could come up with was to try and deal with Asra's instincts as a 'child'. A comforting presence, grooming, so far it seemed to be having a positive result. Asra had, despite some minor growls in protest, stayed put under Noct's actions.
Noct stopped and savage eyes looked up at him in confusion. The panther then began to rub his cheeks all over the jackal, Asra's brain seemed to jerk at the action, like a gear had fallen into place somewhere. Marking was usually reserved for mates or children, this was how it worked aeons ago, and how it still stayed true in society today. The parental action was the straw that broke the camel's back, and intelligence returned to Asra's eyes as his left pupil trembled before returning to its normal round shape.
"Uh, um, Mr Noct?"
Noct hadn't noticed Asra's return to consciousness and was still rubbing his cheek over the pup. Asra almost didn't want to say anything, he'd never had a parent that he could remember and this was the first time anything vaguely family-like had happened to him. Noct smiled as he sat up cross legged and looked down at Asra.
Asra was looking much better, his fur was a lot healthier, and he certainly had the energy to move around. His right eye was still savage, there had been a slim chance the serum might have fixed that, but Noct had had a feeling that it was part of Asra now. The boy's body language was good and, other than his size, he seemed to be a perfectly healthy young pup.
"Good" said Noct getting to his feet "how are you feeling?"
"Fantastic" said Asra beaming as he got to his feet as well "I'd almost forgot what it was like to move around properly"
Noct suddenly smirked as he watched Asra.
"I told you I'd save you" said the panther "now how about we go back to the main apartment, you have some unsuspecting visitors"
Noct just chuckled at the confused expression on Asra's face as he walked for the door. Asra wondered what Noct had meant for a few moments before an excited smile spread across his face and rushed after the panther.