Canine Instincts

By AlantisB

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In the Dog House

Chapter Four

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"MAXWELL!"

His eyes snapped open and before the person shaking him could blink, he slammed them up against the dryers and gripped tightly on the throat. His lips were curling in a snarl and his claws were digging slightly the soft flesh of the neck causing blood to drip from the wound.

Silk, white cloth coat, oriental appearance, slim figure with the musky scent of male sweat clinging to the air around him—Duo looked up into the shocked eyes of Wufei Chang and he blinked and smiled sheepishly as he relaxed the grip on his fellow pilot's throat. "Er-sorry about that Wu-man! You startled me man." He let go of the Chinese boy and backed up.

Wufei coughed to clear his throat and nodded slowly. "Quite understandable Maxwell, we all have nightmares sometimes."

When Duo had snapped awake suddenly and almost literally thrown him into the dryers, he had be surprised. The American pilot did not look strong with his thin, lean form and feminine figure and facial structure, he looked more of one of the weak, easily picked on boys. However, having been thrown into the dryers made him reassess the 02 pilot's strength capabilities although he could swear Duo was never that strong before. In fact for his height and weight, he shouldn't have been able to throw the Chinese pilot starting in a sitting position. It wasn't physically possible.

As the Chinese boy was lost in thought, he stared at the floor in deep concentration. His eyes traveled up Duo's legs to his chest where prominent muscles stood out with a delicious six pack that wasn't overly bulky or barely seen type. His eyes continued their journey down the other's shoulders and arms before he backtracked up the arm and back to the face. During all of this, Duo continued to babble on apologies. He soon tuned back in the American's voice as he finished up, " . . don't sneak up on me again Wu-man. You really could get hurt!"

Wufei nodded. "I won't do it again, Maxwell. I promise."

The pilot grinned cheerfully, his amethyst eyes hidden behind a strange pair of yellow sunglasses. "Great!" The washer chimed the alarm that the clothes were finished and ready to be dried. The energetic boy bounded over to the washer opening the door taking out all of his clothes and stuffing them into the dryer. "I'll see you later man, I've gotta clean." With that, Duo swept past him and left the room.

The Chinese boy blinked at the sudden departure. The memory of Duo's body was called up in his mind as he flushed in his realization. He was checking the other pilot out!

Heero was the very jealous type of boyfriend. He didn't like Wufei ever checking out any men but at the same time, when he glanced at Heero during a mission briefing, the Chinese boy saw that the Wing pilot would check out Duo too. Perhaps he was also attracted to the braided idiot? *Maybe.* he thought. *I don't mind, not really. I should be jealous but for some reason I can't be. For all reasons I should want to chew Heero out but I get the feeling that he has seen me check out Maxwell and he hasn't told me off yet.*

While he was lost in thought, his body ran on automatic as he took out his washed clothes and stuffed them into the other dryer. Shutting the door and pressing the black button for 'Start', Wufei's mind kept going back towards the image of a shirtless Duo. For some reason, he thought something was wrong with the image.

Retracing his steps, Wufei remembered he had walked in to put his washed clothes into the dryer and found Duo sleeping on the fluffy chair. Not wanting to disturb the sleeping pilot, he padded softly over to the washer and opened the door. A low growling echoed in the room and he turned around to see the American snarling, his lip curled and his fingers flexing. His fingers had white, fake nails on from what he could see although they looked amazingly realistic. *I didn't know Maxwell dressed in drag.* He smirked in amusement.

The growls became louder as Duo tossed and turned in his sleep like he was having a nightmare. Becoming worried, the Chinese pilot strolled over and attempted to wake him up.

"Maxwell, wake up. You're having a bad dream."

"Maxwell, wake up!"

"Maxwell!"

"MAXWELL!"

Next thing he knew, he felt himself slam into the dryers with the fake nails digging into his neck, choking him. He was being held up by the throat and his eyes were wide as he gazed into the face of the half-aware American. Golden lens from weird sunglasses were glinting in the artificial lighting from the lights and almost cat slit pupils gazed at him in anger. Dawning awareness crept into his fellow pilot's eyes as he realized who he was holding up and choking. Duo dropped him and started babbling apologies that he didn't remember.

The image of Duo's body came to his mind again and he wondered why did he feel as if he wasn't looking at the whole picture? Now that he thought about, he had never seen Maxwell without a shirt on, he was always dressed. But the picture of half-naked Duo made him think that it was really missing something-something important, something to make the image complete, he shook his head. *You're loosing it, Chang.*

Suddenly what image was missing was pieced together in his mind. *Where is that huge gash Duo had last night? It's gone!*

*****

Duo shivered, wrapping his arms around him self as he tried to clear away the scent of fresh blood from his senses. The lust was powerful, he didn't realize just how long it has been since he went out and killed something, reveling in the smell of fear and blood. He had almost lost it back there in the washroom, the smell was intoxicating and he couldn't handle it much longer. He licked his lips, running his tongue over his canines.

*A run, I need to run, to hunt. We live in a forest, it shouldn't be too difficult to find a deer.* He mused. *I'll use my old clothes for that. This way I don't have to wash another set of clothes to get the blood stains out.*

The thought of a hunt brought a dangerous gleam to his golden eyes. His body shivered in anticipation, he couldn't wait. He didn't even have to worry about cooking it, raw meat didn't bother him. It's been so long since the last time he had a hunt, the last one was just before he had been killed by the priestess. The last kill was a deer, its blood tasted so sweet on his tongue, his mouth watered at the thought.

He didn't make it a habit to eat raw meat, only when he had to. But having lived off cooked meat for the last five or so years, the thought of something totally fresh, without store butchering or chemicals, an organic meal, it made his blood boil with the thought.

Meat tasted so bland now-a-days, all the animals used for meat were grown in meat farms and fed tasteless nutritious crap that made the meet tasteless. He hated it. He remembered when ham tasted so juicy, the smell of pork so strong that you could never mistaken it for chicken. But he had pork chops the other day, it tasted like chicken. It had no taste at all, no flavor. It didn't taste like pork.

Now he was going to go kill a deer, one that wasn't grown but was born. He licked his canine again to stop himself from drooling. The hunt was going to be quick but it should satisfy him and if he hurried, he'll be able to get back and take another shower before Quatre and Trowa came back from their mission.

Shaking his head, he turned down the hallway and reached his room. Shutting the door behind him, Duo walked over to his duffle bag and grabbed his old clothes. Taking off his glasses and his hat, he sat them down on the bed. After stripping himself, his hands made quick work of putting the clothes on and he smiled as he slipped the last sleeve onto his shoulder.

"You know, I really did miss this old thing." He smirked. "Still smells like fire rat too."

With that said, he walked over to the only window in his room. He opened it easily, frowning when he noticed that the rusted screws that held it shut broke and then shrugged, he didn't care. He jumped out of the window, landing on the ground for just a moment before his form blurred as he sprinted to the forest. He form was moving so swiftly that the whiplash of the wind broke his hair tie causing his braid to unravel.

He breathed in deep, letting the scent of the forest wash over him. All the tension and stress that had been building up over the course of five years melted away as he let loose, running as fast as he could through the forest. The thick smell of pine sap assaulted his nose as he dashed up into the trees and bounced from one branch to the others. He stopped at the very top of one old pine tree and poked his head out of the green. Thousands of trees were beneath his sight, all different kinds of trees; oaks, pines, sequoia, and many more he couldn't remember all of their names.

A breeze brushed against his face and it carried the scent of deer with it. He grinned. *Time to hunt.*

******

Heero was tweaking his gundam at the edge of the forest. Although they didn't have a 'hanger' since this was a get-a-way house, Duo liked to call it a hanger. He didn't have any idea why that braided idiot liked to call it that and he didn't care. What ever he did was his business.

In the middle of tightening a nut with a wrench, he spotted a red blurred figure dashing into the forest. He narrowed his eyes. Red blur; possible endangerment to mission, must tell other pilots.

He stood up and jumped off Wing's knee and landed on the ground softly. He stalked towards the house and looked for his fellow pilots.

Inside the laundry room, he saw the Shenlong pilot. "Wufei."

The Chinese boy blinked and shook himself out of his thoughts. "What?"

"There was someone going into the woods from the direction of the house. The mission is endangered," the Wing pilot said. Heero spotted a dash of red on his companion's collar and he moved so quickly that the Chinese pilot didn't even see him move. "Turn your neck away from me."

Wufei bent his neck. "What is it?"

Heero snarled. His face seemed to transform from the normal, calm pilot, to a raging beast. "You're bleeding."

Understanding lit up the Chinese boy's eyes. "Ah. Maxwell's stronger than I thought."

"Duo did this?"

"I startled him from a rough dream. He threw me up against the wall and held me by the neck before I even knew it. I don't think he realized it was me until a few minutes later. After he realized it was me, he let me go and started to babble on apologies."

Heero nodded, it still didn't explain why he was bleeding. The cuts didn't look like finger marks, more like slashed skin with something sharp. He returned his attention to his boy friend when he spoke again.

"I noticed something strange," Wufei said thoughtfully. "I realized we never see Maxwell without a shirt on and today he was in here without one. Since he didn't have a shirt on, I noticed the arm we had bandaged last night had no cut on it. I don't mean that it there was just a scar or something but there was absolutely no cut. It was like he healed it over night. But that's impossible!"

*For humans maybe,* Heero thought, his eyes narrowing at the implications.

"Where is he now?"

"He left a few minutes ago. I assume you want to tell him about the person running into the woods-or-" Wufei frowned. "You think that was Maxwell dashing into the woods?"

"Hn. We'll wait for him to come back. Then we'll corner him and find out just what's going on."

******

"Did you tell him?"

"Yes."

"Did that immature pup understand the message?"

"I believe so."

"Good. I thank you for doing this for me."

"You were granted a boon in return for doing the task for me. I did not do it for you as a favor but to pay back the boon you called on me."

"Yes, yes. You keep reminding me of that fact." The voice paused. "Do you think he will listen?"

"I have matters to attend to. I must leave."

"Of course, my lord, but really, do you think he will listen?"

The Sandman looked thoughtful. "The spells are deteriorating rapidly, too quickly for him to make adjustments. He will either tell the mortals, or disappear with out a trace. But those four have snagged his canine youkai instincts. He accepted them as his pack. This leads me to conclude he will tell the others."

"I see. Thank you my lord."

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That's it for Chapter Four of Canine Instincts! I hope you all enjoyed it. I'll try and get out Chapter five in two days. How does that sound? Since FFN was down, I couldn't post this chapter when I wanted to. So Chapter five will be delayed by two days.

Anyway, I bet you're all dying to know just how Inuyasha-er Duo going to get out of this mess! Bwahahahaa!

-AlantisB

LOVE & PEACE!!!