Property of…
By UltimatePalmTree
Dorchette had started to wear a small black collar around his neck, a little obsidian shard dangling from the front of it. Roa had not noticed it at first, but the collar clearly said something. Literally and figuratively. Engraved on the shiny black collar were the words Property of Greed, almost invisible because of the way they were strategically carved. This deterred him slightly. Dorchette seemed to take pride just from wearing this trinket. He refused to take it off, even when he slept; the collar was beginning to chafe the skin of his neck. He'd play with the thin shard of obsidian subconsciously, hand automatically going to the thing and twisting it around.
But he was doing something slightly different today. He was scratching vigorously at the back of his neck and hissing in pain and agitation as his nails cut through the already red, irritated flesh. "What's wrong?" Roa asked, getting up off the couch and examining the back of the dog chimera's neck.
"I want it off!" Dorchette hissed. "It's cutting into my skin, it's too tight and I want it off!"
"If you stop clawing at my hands, I will!" Roa growled. Dorchette seemed to contemplate this before letting his hands drop lamely to his sides. "Good boy," Roa nodded, and searched for the clasp. When he found it, he ripped the clasp open and gently took it off Dorchette's neck. The area in which the collar covered was rubbed raw and was an angry red. Dorchette rubbed at the back of his neck, wincing as his hand made contact with the sensitive skin.
Roa walked away from the back of the sofa, still holding the collar and reading the words Property of Greed over and over again. Each time he read them, his heart sank a little. "Thanks, Roa," Dorchette said happily. He had now gotten up from the couch and was examining his neck in a grimy mirror. "I've had worse," he finally diagnosed and flopped back onto the couch. "Just put it on one of the tables or something," he yawned. "I'll get it later,"
When Roa was positive Dorchette was asleep, he rummaged through one of his pockets and pulled out a nail. Not the tool he wanted, but perfectly acceptable. He looked back at Dorchette for a second, who was running in his sleep again. Roa still thought this was adorable, no matter how many times said chimera did this. Snapping back into reality, Roa quickly began to scratch out the word 'Greed'. Dorchette would kill him if he found out Roa was doing this, but the dog chimera couldn't be arsed to notice at the moment. Once he finally stopped in his violent scratching-out, he carefully carved 'Roa' at the other side of the now crossed-out 'Greed'.
Property of Roa.
The bull chimera nodded to himself, satisfied. He put the nail back in his pocket, and placed the collar carefully on the table closest to him. He shook his head, sighed, and shut his eyes. "The things one does for love," he muttered.
Yeah, this was a little bit more than a drabble. But I was having fun, so I couldn't stop. Who knew I was gonna start writing shounen-ai one of these days? Boredom really does stuff to you; it's like the emotional crack.
So, where did I get the idea for a collar that said Property of Greed? I was feeling slashy one day, so I drew a picture of Dorchette in a skin-tight black t-shirt and tight pants (initially, he was going to just have pants, but his muscles proved hard to draw). It was lacking a certain something, so I drew said black collar around his neck. Only Greed didn't quite fit, so I just wrote Property of G. I think it conveyed the message quite nicely. Lessee… how many people are there at the Devil's Nest with the initial 'G'? Roa… Martel… Lizard… Kimblee… Hm. That leaves Greed.
So, this chapter's dedicated to my friend Fireheartluvr. She said the first one was absolutely adorable, and wanted me to continue. So, you could technically call this the sequel to A Dog for Roa. Also, I don't own Roa or Dorchette. 'Cause if I did, a few things would be different. They would've lived longer and they probably would've been the main characters. Hm… Full Chimera Alchemists… Hee…