Canine Instincts
By AlantisB
A/N: Hey everyone! I'm going to try and update this story every month so that I don't fall behind in my stories like I have been lately. My computer, the grin reaper, died a sad and tragic death two weeks ago. With nothing to do and having lost all my stories again, I was forced to wait for my new computer to come in. ::pats her new black DEL computer:: I named him Gunsmoke and he is just the sweetest computer there is. ^.~
Anyway I hope you all enjoy this computer because I worked hard on. Well there you go!
*****
Chapter Two
Doggy Days
*****
"Someone catch that thief!"
He grinned, daring to glance behind him to see the out of shape vender chasing after him. In his arms he held a dozen rotting apples he had just stolen from the market place. He would have gotten away with it if he hadn't bumped into that stupid old man in the priest outfit. The old man had taken him by surprise and he only looked up at his kind, wary face for a moment before the vender noticed the apples around his feet and the few still in his arms. He quickly scooped them up and dashed through the crowded market place before the old priest knew what had happened. The last thing he needed was some stupid ward pulled out on him.
He ducked into a dark alleyway, directly heading to the darkest shadow near him. Bending down behind two garbage cans, he watched through the cracks between the two tin cans and his mouth twisted into a triumphant smirk as the vender ran right past his hiding place. Stupid human! He snorted and shifted his body until he got comfortable. Putting all the apples into a pile in front of him he darted his eyes back up towards the entrance of the alley. Seeing that the coast was clear, he brought up two fingers to his lips and whistled.
Dirty faces peaked out from behind other trash cans, dumpsters, and garbage in the alley way. Several of them looked to be between the ages of four and ten. Dressed in rags, they looked to have seen better days. Ribs could be seen through the thread-barren cloth and many had so much dirt caked in their hair and skin that they melted in the darkness perfectly.
He refrained from wrinkling his sensitive nose at the stench coming off of the human children since he knew he didn't smell spring fresh either. Besides, they might get offended and therefore, kick him out of the pack and make him fend for himself in this crazed technological world.
"Inu!" A little girl squealed and ran over to him and plopped herself in his lap. He sort of smiled down at her and patted her head in an affectionate way. Little Sarah looked up at him with a charming smile and snuggled close to him.
He didn't bother removing her as he pointed to the pile of rotting apples with a claw. "Eat. You'll need your strength." He said to the other children.
As soon as he said eat, the children ran up to the pile and snatched an apple each and nearly swallowed it whole as they choked down the food. None of them had had a meal in a while and this was all they got for at least four or five days.
He watched over them as they licked their fingers and talk quietly to each other. They were his pack, the local gang of war orphans that had taken him in as their leader when they saw how fast and easily killed. Solo had been the leader before him but he had died a month ago when the plague reached the L2 colony. The children not being able to get the medicine in time, the leader died and he rose to the position.
Even though he was young in demon standards, he had formed a pack from these human children. As the alpha it was his responsibility to watch over the pups of the pack and make sure they were all provided the necessities of life. Since almost the entire group was children, he had a hard time doing the things needed. But he found that when he let himself be a little bit more open to them, the children would help him deal with the food and fights over territory. He had only been with them for a few months but he found that they treated him as if he had always been there, the big brother or sometimes a pet.
He nudged Sarah. "Grab your share, brat. Or I'll eat it."
Faster then normal children's hands, the apple was snapped up by the little girl and she quickly ate the rotten fruit. She looked up and scratched that spot behind his ears he liked so much. He couldn't help it, he purred and nuzzled her hair and let out a sigh when she stopped.
He lifted Sarah off his lap and stood up. He folded his arms and glared down at them. "Go back to your positions. Mark," the six year old boy looked up. "Your watch is up. Preston will take up his turn. I'll guard the alley." The two boys nodded in agreement and went to their positions.
"Inu-chan?"
Glancing down he saw little Sarah hugging his leg. "Tell me a story! About the one with the demon boy and his human mommy in the cave! Please?" She gave him the wide-eyed, watery puppy dog look that no one would ever dare to question.
He sighed and took his position in the shadows, staring at the entrance of the alley. Sarah climbed into his lap and made herself comfortable in his arms as she snuggled close to his dirtied red robe outfit. She started to suck on her thumb.
Absently he petted her hair as he began. "Once long ago, a little half breed demon dog and his mother who was the local priestess, lived in a cave to hide from their enemies. The local demons and humans would try and hunt them down because they wanted to kill the little demon boy for being a hanyou.
But one day the mother took her little boy into a cave and enchanted the entrance with a ward so that in the back of their enemy's minds, they would hear a little subconscious voice telling them; "Bad person. Bad person! Stay away" . . . . . . .
*****
"How is he doing?"
Wufei looked up from bandaging Duo's arm. He caught sight of the perfect soldier standing in the doorway, giving him an assessing look. Wing's pilot raised an eyebrow in question and the Chinese pilot nodded, tying off the bandage with a metal clip. "He'll be dizzy from blood loss but otherwise he'll be fine."
"Hn."
Heero stared at the pale figure lying in the bed. Not many people can survive that much blood loss without passing out. Somehow the braided pilot managed to get back to the safe house on a motorcycle without crashing into anything or passing out at the wheel. If it was anyone but Duo, he would suspect tricks but he knew that the Deathscythe pilot was one of the most stubborn people on the planet and when he set his mind to something, he would see it through to the end.
However putting all stubbornness aside, he doubted that the skinny, frail-looking pilot could get all the way from the OZ base to the safe house, bleeding all the while and then being able to sneak up on the door without making a sound besides his harsh breathing. When he had heard the door opening, he had been so sure that OZ had found their location somehow but when he saw Duo standing in the doorway, leaning heavily on it and then by some miracle being able to stop himself from falling forward into the Wing pilot's gun barrel, he was surprised.
Wufei studied the Wing pilot as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. Emotions crossed over Heero's eyes too quickly for him to assess but he thought he had seen some surprise in those cold orbs. He smirked slightly and glanced down at the patient lying on the bed. Surprise was unexpected concerning Heero but he couldn't deny he was surprised also. Maxwell was not one to be quiet, especially when he was injured or someone else for that matter.
He remembered hearing a story from Quatre about how Duo had helped Heero escape for the first time. When Heero had set his own leg, the sound of it snapping back in place made Duo shout out in shock and then yelled at the Wing pilot for being an idiot ("Normal people don't set their own leg!") The blonde pilot explained he had gotten the story out of Duo when Heero self-destructed for the first time. It was in the desert and Duo looked a bit depressed so the blonde had gone about exchanging first-meeting stories.
The Chinese pilot ran his eyes up Duo's braid, noting the wind blown look it had and it looked greasy like it hadn't been washed in days. His eyes stopped roaming when he reached the American pilot's head and he scowled when he noted that stupid black baseball cap was still on the idiot's head.
"Hmph. The stupid idiot still has his cap on even after getting so injured. You would think that it's attached to his head the way he never parts with it." He reached up to grab it off of Duo's head.
"Heero! Wufei!"
Both pilots turned to look at the doorway as the blonde Arabian busted in the door as he rushed in. "Is Duo okay?! I saw blood on the doorstep and on the floor!"
"Maxwell is fine, Winner." Wufei sort of smiled at the worried pilot. "He just lost a little blood. When he wakes up he'll just be dizzy."
Quatre sighed in relief. "That's good. I was afraid Duo seriously hurt himself this time."
"If he did, we would have told you." The wing pilot glanced at the blonde. "Or do you think we wouldn't inform you?"
"I'm sorry, it was wrong of me to think that of you two. Now that I know he's okay, I'll go back to repairing Sandrock. I'll see you both at dinner?"
"Hn."
"Of course, Winner."
*****
"Don't! I said quit it!"
The priest walked into the room with a gentle smile that
reached his eyes. He looked at the nun with the pair of scissors in her hands
and was trying to hold down a strange looking teenage boy. "What's going on?"
"This boy. . . He won't let me cut his hair." She explained, frustration creeping into her voice.
He snorted and sneered at the nun, glaring at her with his wicked yellow eyes. "Bad enough I gotta wear these weird clothes . . I can't let you cut my hair as well!"
The nun frowned down at him. "But it's all scraggly and tangled. It's unhygienic."
"I like it like this!"
"Sister Helen, let Duo have his way," said the gentle old man priest as he looked at him with a smile.
Duo was the name he had given the humans at the church and he had told his pack to call him that as well. He didn't want the holy humans to know his name least they try and banish him with a demon ward or some kind of divine power. He wasn't afraid of them per say, he was just wary of their intentions towards him and his. Ever since that stupid bitch pinned him to the Holy tree with an enchanted arrow, he distrusted the whole holy people on a whole. Generalizing them all as people that wanted to kill him or banish him for being what he didn't have a choice in. The way they stared at his strange features he knew they suspected something but he didn't care. They could go to hell for all he cared!
"But . ."
The nun's protests were silenced when the old man priest just smiled at her and nodded. She sighed and with a tired smile, she braided his hair while he scowled the entire time. "So . . there you go." She looked down at him with a gentle smile. "No complaints, right?"
When she finished, he glanced at his hair and noticed how it wasn't getting in his way as much as it was before. "Feh. Makes it easier to move around and it won't get in my way when I steal stuff."
"Are you still talking like that?" The nun sadly stated.
The priest chuckled in amusement. "Haha! Duo . . There's no need for you to steal as long as you're here."
"Oh, that's right! I'm supposed to be begging now, not stealing." He said sarcastically.
"Begging?"
"Isn't that how it works?" He sneered. "I mean, a church is kept up by the towns-people's donations." He added, seeing the slightly confused looks on the two holy people's faces.
"Oh my, for a child . .!" The nun exclaimed in surprise.
"You're right, it's just as you say." The priest said.
"Yeah! So don't get all high and mighty!" InuYasha snorted and crossed his arms, looking smug.
*****
Blinking away the last remains of the dream, he opened his eyes slowly and shut them quickly as bright sunlight pierced his eyes. He groaned and threw an arm over his eyes only to yelp when he realized his arm was injured then he noticed that there was no pain. He sat up ignoring the protests of his aching muscles and looked around in confusion. The last thing he remembered seeing was the wooden floor coming up to kiss him and then nothing. He guessed he blacked out but what happened after that?
He looked down and saw his arm bandaged and scowled. With a careful slash of his claws, the medical bandage ripped away from his arm and he saw near-perfectly healed flesh underneath. The only evidence that he was hurt at all was the pink color of newly grown flesh covering the spot where his wound was before.
A slow smile spread across his face as he touched the tender flesh gently with a claw, marveling at the speed of his demonic powers ability to heal such wounds when he had been relying on human healing for so long. Being a demon dog has its perks, he mused.
He looked across the room into the full length mirror and his eyes widened when he noticed the glamour spell he had cast on his eyes was gone. Then he shook his head, he was worried over nothing. None of the pilots would see his golden eyes when he was sleeping so he had nothing to worry about. All he had to do was cast the spell again.
Whispering the spell under his breath, he covered his eyes with one hand. After he finished the spell, he took the hand away and looked into the mirror again. His jaw dropped in shock as he stared into his still-golden eyes. Only one word could possibly sum up the amount of bad luck that had struck him for the last few days.
Snarling, he slammed his fists into the mattress and said the first word he thought of.
"FUCK!"
*****
That sums up chapter two of Canine Instincts! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter as much as I liked writing it. I took the dialogue from Episode Zero for Duo's second dream. Basically I wanted everyone to understand a bit of how InuYasha was able to become the 'human' he is today. Heh, I feel bad about being so mean to Duo but I had to add that last scene in. It sort of fit into the situation even though I hadn't planned that originally in the storyline.
Remember to review!
-AlantisB
P.S Has anyone heard of Trigun? God, that anime has become my new obsession! Bwahaahaha! Damn that show rocks! Vash and Wolfwood forever man!
LOVE & PEACE!!!
^.^